Chương 54: Shut Up Boy [Important Announcement]

Lio had gotten dinner—an assortment of sandwiches and soup—from the same tavern where they'd eaten breakfast, carrying it back to the lodge in a cloth-wrapped bundle. Ophila had helped by spreading out the cloth across the low table in the lobby, and they'd begun eating in silence, the only sound being the elderly man behind the desk snoring quietly in his chair. Lio bit into the bread, tasting the explosion of savory cheeses and salty meat in his mouth. He nodded approvingly. Not bad.

Ophila was pulling apart a piece of bread and dunking it into the soup when the front door burst open. William walked in, a triumphant expression plastered on his face. He was sweaty, his clothes—for some reason—covered in grass stains, but his chin was high with pride.

"Erygn is letting us go tomorrow," he announced. Lio looked up from his food. Then shaking his head, he looked back down.

"Really?" Ophila ate the soggy soup-dunked bread.

"We can go in the morning," William pulled out a chair and dropped into it, clearly tired.

"I found him and he agreed." He reached over and tore off a piece of bread with a satisfied grin.

"You're welcome, by the way." Lio looked back up, cocking his head.

"Hm…" William looked at him.

"What?" Lio shook his head again.

"Nothing." William frowned, his satisfied expression turning defensive.

"I'm not making it up. He'll really let us go."

"I didn't say you were making it up." Lio reached for another sandwich.

"You sounded really doubtful," William accused. Lio shrugged.

"Must have been your imagination." Ophila pursed her lips, staring at her bowl. William looked pointedly.

"You believe me, right?"

"Of course," Ophila said warmly. William relaxed.

"But I'm surprised that you had time to talk to the guard captain," she added pleasantly.

"Given that you spent the afternoon playing ball games with children." William looked aghast.

"How do you even know about that?"

"Senna told me," Ophila chewed thoughtfully.

"She saw you from her window. She said you were having a wonderful time." William grimaced.

"Even—even then, I still found him and secured our departure! So the method isn't very relevant…"

"What about the grass stains on your knees?" Lio asked, gesturing briefly at William's legs.

"Those are also very irrelevant," William said loudly. He huffed with annoyance, reaching for another sandwich and eating in silence. Then William seemed to remember something, as cleared his throat, and said in a noticeably more careful tone, "There is one condition though." Lio raised an eyebrow.

"We all have to stay in the lodge tonight," William said.

"And don't cause any trouble." He pointedly looked at Lio.

"All of us." Lio shrugged.

"I don't wanna." He dunked his sandwich carefully into the soup. William's left eye twitched.

"Lio," he said through gritted teeth.

"Hm?"

"I just spent my entire afternoon running around this settlement." William massaged his temples.

"And I finally secured our departure! All I am asking—" he pressed both palms flat on the table, leaning forward, "—is that you sit in this lodge for one single night and do absolutely nothing."

"I understand." Lio nodded sagely.

"You must've worked hard. Good job."

"So you'll stay put?" William asked, relief filling his features.

"Nope," Lio said. William made a strangled sound. Ophila stared serenely at the distance, sipping her cup of tea.

"Ophila," William demanded, turning to her desperately.

"Back me up here!"

"Hm." Ophila hummed, not looking at him. William groaned.

"No, no, no! You can't ignore me! That's his thing!" He pointed accusingly at Lio.

"You can't do his thing!"

"I'm just eating," Ophila protested mildly.

"No, he's going to get us kept here for another week!" William said.

"Or arrested! Or both!" He turned back to Lio, his voice cracking with desperation.

"Please. I am begging you. Whatever you're planning, just leave it until Floor 4. Just this once. Just tonight. Please!" Lio cocked his head, looking thoughtful as if he was really considering the idea. William's expression turned cautiously hopeful. Then Lio stood up and said, "Finish my dinner if you want it."

"No—wait—Lio—" William scrambled up, nearly upending his bowl of soup.

"No, I will physically stop you, I swear, I don't care how terrifying you are—" He reached out and grabbed Lio's sleeve in a tight grip. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Lio raised an eyebrow. Wow. Such bravery. Then he lifted his hand and chopped William cleanly on the side of the neck, like he'd done with Ophila. William's eyes widened, then went blank, collapsing towards the floor.

Lio caught him before he hit the ground, and turned to Ophila, holding William out toward her. Ophila looked up from the food, nibbling on a piece of cheese. Then she sighed and stood up, accepting William's dead weight with both arms, staggering at the weight.

"You owe him an apology," she remarked, groaning as she carefully placed him on the ground.

"I'll consider it," Lio said, heading for the door.

"And me a favor," she added.

"Add it to the tab." Lio reached for his coat. Ophila watched him shrug it on.

"But where are you going anyway?" she asked.

"Out," Lio said. She gave him a look.

"That's not an answer."

"It's a partial one," Lio said pleasantly, doing the top button. Ophila rolled her eyes, though her lips curved into a wry smirk.

"Are you going to do something dangerous again?" she asked.

"Probably not," Lio said.

"Something illegal then?" Lio tilted his head.

"That's a bit more debatable," he said. Ophila gave a resigned shake of her head.

"Just give me something to work with." Lio waved a hand vaguely.

"There's a person who needs to pay for some stuff they did." Ophila looked unamused.

"Is that supposed to make sense to me?

"I thought it was rather poetic," Lio protested.

"Yeah, no." Lio shrugged, unbothered. He crossed the lobby toward the door, and slid open the door. Then he glanced back.

"One more thing." Ophila looked up from her tea, sensing something different in his tone.

"Don't leave the lodge tonight," he instructed.

"No matter what happens. And if something does force you out, don't look for me. Go straight to the Floor 4 descent tunnel and wait." Ophila pursed her lips, her gold-ringed eyes searching his face. She looked ready to argue, but something stopped her.

"Fine," she muttered quietly.

"Good." Then he stepped out into the night. But before heading toward the fields, Lio made a brief detour. He slipped into a side alley behind a local refinery, and stepped out moments later carrying a heavy, rusted canister of industrial lantern oil and a simple brass lighter. He would have to tweak his plans a little bit, since William had managed to convince Ergyn to let them delve down tomorrow. Lio shook his head. Seriously, tomorrow? No, that wasn't possible. Out of the question.

He still had too many things to do on this Floor. Looking up, Lio activated [Mach Heart] and leaped onto the roof of a nearby fungal house. landing lightly. Then he reached into his coat pocket and withdrew the small cloth packet of Angel's Cornel spores that he'd purchased from the apothecary. He held it up, turning it over in his fingers. He had been initially planning on using them for something else in the deeper floors, but to be honest, he had more than enough. It would be fine to use just a bit of it.

The packet was the size of his palm, the spores inside dry and fine as dust. Just the way he'd asked for it. See, most people who bought Angel's Cornel in dried form were processing it for its medical usage as a topical paste for treating nerve damage. Nobody inhaled it raw. It wasn't that it was harmful if done so, just that there was no reason. Well, unless you wanted to freeze your current emotional state in place for the next six to eight hours. Lio unfolded the cloth and looked at the fine pale powder within.

If breathed in raw, a chemical compound in the spores would bind itself to the neural pathways responsible for emotional modulation. Once it entered the bloodstream through the lungs, whatever emotional state you were experiencing at the moment of inhalation became the only emotional state available to you. So basically, if one inhaled it when they were happy, they would only be happy. However, the dosage mattered enormously. Too little and the effect barely lasted an hour.

Too much and the effect became permanent, which was how the compound had earned its more sinister reputation in the darkest corners of Ghenna's underground drug trading. But the general public didn't know that yet, hence why the apothecary was selling it. He carefully poured a small sprinkle into his hand, then quickly pressed it right to his nose, and took a deep breath. The spores hit him immediately, making his throat itch, smelling earthy and antiseptic.

After checking the amount left, he carefully sealed the packet and shoved it back into his pocket. Then he waited, until after around twenty seconds, the compound took hold. Lio was already a man of shallow emotions, but whatever faint undercurrent of feeling he did still possessed simply vanished, leaving his mind cold. Just cold. He nodded approvingly. Good. This would do nicely. He turned around, and activated [Mach Heart] again.

To avoid getting seen, he took to the rooftops, leaping from one rubbery fungal dome to the next, headed for the Amberpulp fields. When he did arrive, after a few minutes, the fields were entirely silent. He settled into a relaxed pace, shoving one of his hands into his pockets to project the visage of a man out for a midnight stroll. With the other hand, he uncapped the canister. And as he strode between the vine rows, he tilted the container.

Soon, a thick, dark stream of lamp oil began to coat the path behind him, soaking into the soil and dry husks of the Amberpulp plants. He kept strictly to the path between the vine rows, where heavy clusters of hanging fruit formed a dense, organic curtain that shielded him from prying eyes. As the oil bled into the soil, his thoughts turned to Lamb. Lamb had been a street child, just like Lio. Then Job had found him and shaped him into a deadly weapon capable of sabotage, assassination, and seamless infiltration.

But even then, Job couldn't have predicted what kind of overpowered rune Lamb would get. It was called [Absolute Slaughter] And true to its name, its ability was absolutely revolting. Anyone who saw Lamb would find it neurologically impossible to perceive him as a threat. To them, Lamb would appear pitiable and helpless. A true lamb that required protection from the big bad wolf. And then Lamb would strike.

And it would certainly always be a fatal hit, thanks to the ability's secondary effect: a staggering 500% damage increase for a single blow. And to make it worse, the conventional approach was pointless. Knowing about the rune intellectually didn't protect you from it. You could tell yourself a thousand times that the small, sad figure in front of you was dangerous. But the moment you saw him, the rune would change your perspective. Of course, unless your emotional state was locked.

Lio patted the packet of Angel's Cornel spores affectionately. He kept walking, his heightened perception scanning the periphery. He heard it then—not a footstep, as Job had trained Lamb to not not make those sounds, but the soft disturbance of Amberpulp leaves being brushed aside. Lio kept his eyes forward, pretending to not have noticed. Then, a figure stepped into the narrow clearing at the very end of the path. The most noticeable characteristic of Lamb was that he was small.

His figure was truly dwarfish, barely five-foot-one, with a hunched posture that made him look even smaller. Though his tattered, oversized clothes and the thick fog obscured the finer details, his face bore the unmistakable features of a man in his early twenties. Lio internally smiled. Took you long enough to show. Externally, he plastered a look of shock and concern on his face without missing a beat.

"Are you okay?" he called out, his voice perfectly tainted with worry. Lamb took a tentative step forward. He reached out a trembling small hand, his voice coming out in a strangled, rough rasp.

"Please..." he choked out.

"Help me…"