At the very moment of imminent peril, a crisp and violent sound of metallic impact rang through the night sky—
"Clang—!"
A pitch-black figure, fast as lightning, broke into the battlefield without warning. An unassuming yet heavily weighted rusty iron staff accurately and precisely struck the spine of the longsword, brutally deflecting that fatal blow!
Sirius felt his tiger's mouth go numb as an overwhelming torrent of immense force transmitted through the sword hilt. His sword violently veered off course, scraping a harsh, dazzling string of sparks across the rough stone pavement.
His expression changed drastically, his brow furrowed as he abruptly looked up at the uninvited guest who had crashed the scene.
Under the dim, yellowish gaslight, an old man stood calmly a few paces away.
He was slightly hunchbacked, his hands steadily leaning on that rusty yet quaintly majestic iron staff. Within those weathered yet unfathomable eyes, there was not a trace of fear toward the Exorcism Public Security.
"As a dignified public security captain, drawing a weapon on a heavily wounded, dying lady in the middle of the night on the street... If this scene gets out, wouldn't it be a bit ungentlemanly?"
The old man spoke slowly, his tone as flat as if he were discussing the weather, yet carrying a terrifying coercion that made one tremble from the depths of their soul.
However, when Sirius's gaze inadvertently swept over the iron staff in the old man's hand, the signature squinting smile on his face instantly froze. His eyes, previously narrowed to a slit, suddenly widened, his pupils contracting violently as his entire body felt plunged into an ice cellar.
The hand gripping the sword hilt began to tremble violently and uncontrollably, reflecting in his pupils an extreme terror that had nearly been buried by the ravages of time yet was deeply embedded in the recesses of his soul.
"Ouroboros..."
Sirius whispered involuntarily, his voice even carrying a fragility he couldn't believe himself. "You've been missing for a full three years... How is it possible... How could you appear here..."
The old man known as "Ouroboros" merely smiled contemptuously, casually slamming the iron staff against the stone pavement, producing a muffled, heavy echo.
He raised his eyelids slightly, his gaze piercing like a torch, yet carrying a laziness and casualness utterly out of place on a tense battlefield:
"I've just been rather sick of London's utterly terrible air these past few years."
The old man said leisurely, his expression turning sharp as a knife and the surrounding temperature dropping plummetingly the moment he mentioned a certain matter:
"Just going out for a casual walk to get some fresh air. And by the way..."
He tapped the iron staff lightly twice on the ground, the muffled impact sounding as though it struck every person's heartbeat:
"By the way, to investigate the truth behind the unjust death of an old friend of mine back then."
The old man remained calm and composed, acting as though the murderous, heavily empowered public security captain before him was merely a stumbling block on the side of the road. He spoke in an easygoing tone:
"If Captain Sirius has nothing else to do, I'll be taking this poor little stray cat away first."
The muscles on Sirius's face twisted and spasmed from extreme anger and terror, his newly opened, bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at the old man.
His hands gripped the sword hilt tightly, his knuckles turning pale white from excessive force, and a hoarse, unwilling roar squeezed out from his throat:
"You... how dare you openly obstruct public security officers in the line of duty..."
Hearing this, the last trace of a smile vanished from the corners of the old man's eyes. He took a deep breath, and the terrifying aura that had lain dormant for a long time erupted like a sleeping volcano. The invisible coercion turned into a tangible gale, forcefully scattering the surrounding thick fog outward by several meters!
"What?" The old man took a step forward, his gaze locked coldly onto Sirius as a domineering and icy voice exploded in the night sky:
"If you haven't had enough fun yet, this old man doesn't mind breaking routine to warm up my joints today and trade places to play with you properly?"
At this moment, Amber's consciousness had already reached the brink of darkness due to her abdominal magic core being nearly shattered and excessive blood loss.
She vaguely heard that aged yet reassuring voice, but lacked even the strength to open her eyes to confirm whether the speaker was friend or foe, ultimately losing consciousness entirely within a chilling, suffocating darkness.
Raven—the legendary "Ouroboros"—walked forward with a calm expression. With gentle yet irresistible movements, he bent down and steadily scooped up the unconscious Amber into a bridal carry.
Then, he turned around, allowing that rusty iron staff to tap out a rhythmic and crisp sound against the bluestone pavement, every step feeling as though it heavily trod upon Sirius's taut-to-the-limit nerves.
Sirius stood rigidly frozen in place, the longsword in his hand that had just been stained with murderous intent now heavy as ten thousand boulders.
He could only watch helplessly as the old man's back, carrying the prey that should have died by his sword, stepped foot by foot into London's unfathomably deep fog. From beginning to end, his legs felt as heavy as lead, unable to take another forward step.
That Public Security Special Operations captain who had once made countless high-tier monsters tremble in fear was now reduced, by the chasm of absolute power and long-accumulated psychological trauma, to standing like a soul-extracted stone statue, pathetically rooted in the biting cold night wind.
I don't know how much time had passed when Amber felt a cool trickle flow back into her parched throat, her consciousness peeling away and returning drop by drop from the bottomless darkness.
Subconsciously, she wanted to roll over and take a defensive stance, only to be surprised to find that her abdomen, which had previously burned with the excruciating pain of a raging fire, had miraculously calmed down, leaving only a faint, warm tugging sensation.
She opened her eyes wide, greeted by the view of a dim, quaint, old wooden bedroom.
The air was filled with the rich, refreshing fragrance of herbal medicine and the distinct scent of cooled metal.
Tremblingly, she placed her palm over her abdomen, clearly feeling a warm, surging, powerful magic core flowing deep within her body—it was a magic core precisely recast and repaired by exceptionally superb alchemy, steady to an unbelievable degree.
She stared blankly at her own hands, taking a long time to convince herself that she had truly been pulled back from the jaws of death.
"Awake?"
That familiar, lazy voice came from the dim corner of the room. Raven was quietly sitting at a workbench piled high with blueprints, meticulously tinkering with a precision magic-energy component without even turning his head.
"Little stray cat, your life is really something else."
Raven put down the tool in his hand and turned around, his deep, abyss-like eyes carrying a hint of playful amusement: "Your magic core was nearly completely shattered; that's practically leaving half your life on the streets of London.
If it weren't for this old man's hands still having a bit of skill, you mischievous little wildcat would have long since turned into a cold corpse floating in the Thames."
Amber bit her lip, forcing her weakened body to sit up from the wooden bed. A flash of intensely complex emotion quickly crossed her golden cat-like eyes—a mixture of the dazed feeling of surviving a disaster and the lingering vigilance ingrained in a top-tier assassin.
She stared intently at the legendary figure before her, her voice low and raspy:
"Why... Why did you save me? The former Exorcism Public Security Commander, Ouroboros... No, Mr. Raven of the Monster Detective Agency."
Taking a deep breath, she couldn't help but recall the scene of her life-or-death battle with Corvus not long ago, her tone growing increasingly somber: "I almost killed your apprentice."
Hearing this, Raven let out a helpless, bitter smile. He sat back down on the heavily worn wooden chair, resting his hands lightly on the top of the iron staff, his gaze passing through the dim room as if landing on a place extremely far away.
"Yet, didn't he survive as well?"
Raven paused, shifting his gaze back to Amber, his eyes holding a rare, profound warmth and worldly weariness: "Actually, I also have a daughter about your age.
At the time, thinking that if I stood by idly, you would die at the hands of a cold-blooded monster like Sirius... I simply couldn't harden my heart. My body moved faster than my brain, and so I acted."
He said it so casually, as if he had merely saved a stray animal on the side of the road, yet it carried a sincerity impossible to refuse.
Afterward, Raven stood up, slowly walked over to the window, and pulled open the heavy dark blackout curtains, revealing London's grey, oppressive sky outside.
"However, speaking of which, I actually still have to thank you regarding my apprentice."
Raven turned his head, fixing his aged yet piercingly sharp eyes directly on Amber, his tone filled with unstinting praise: "Thank you for not leaking a single clue about him to public security that night. This little cat has much more backbone than I imagined."
Amber was slightly stunned, then lowered her eyelids, perfectly masking the surging, unusual emotions swirling in her pupils.
She recalled Corvus's battered appearance that night as he fought to the death without retreating, followed by the arrival of Sirius—she truly had guarded every secret regarding Corvus, even though that stubborn perseverance had nearly cost her her life in that bloody night.
She had never known that her own near-foolish persistence would earn a sincere word of thanks in the eyes of others.
Raven turned back toward the desk, the yellowish light casting his tall, hunchbacked shadow extremely long, projecting it right beside Amber's bed and bringing an undeniable, steady pressure. Narrowing his eyes, his tone abruptly shifted to become completely cold and realistic:
"Alright, enough sentimental talk; now for the main point."
He tapped the ground twice lightly with his iron staff: "If you dare to rashly walk out the door of this wooden house right now, you will not only be immediately listed as the top elimination target by Exorcism Public Security, but you will also face a frantic manhunt from the mysterious organization behind you.
Under this double squeeze, how many lives do you think you have left to spare?"
Meeting his gaze, despite the lingering pain deep within her body, the coldness and decisiveness belonging to an assassin returned to Amber's eyes.
Calmly locking eyes with Raven, her tone was like discussing a cold transaction:
"I was always an assassin hiding in the dark, with a cheap life to spare. Where I go and where I die are my own business."
Her tone shifted as a mocking yet brilliant smile played at the corner of her lips: "But if I drop dead on the street tomorrow, wouldn't that mean I wasted your kind intentions in saving me today? The thing Amber hates most in this lifetime is owing someone a heavy debt of gratitude."
As her voice fell, Amber's gaze inadvertently swept over the mountain of public security human experimentation classified documents piled on the desk, a sharp glint flashing in the depths of her eyes:
"Mr. Raven, since you chose to reappear at this time, you must still be investigating some unseen truths in your hands, right? About the cause of your friend's death, about just how rotten this city has truly become..."
She raised her head, a resolute flame burning within her golden cat-like eyes, and proactively tossed out a trump card capable of overturning everything to the legendary figure before her:
"Since I have nowhere left to go and must repay this 'life-saving grace' of yours... then, old man Raven, how about you let me join the upcoming investigation?"
Let me know if you would like any adjustments to the tone, style, or specific terminology used in the translation!10Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡs1y9NqlBkS
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