Chapter 471: Vol7 Ch9: Confrontation

“Sir, this was delivered by a beggar, he didn’t even see who was the one that sent this message”

“I know, you’re dismissed” Dolan was exceptionally regretful about not keeping a close eye on Parry. As he read the ransom paper, he was seething with rage.

He had to spend all that effort collaborating with the military through their wicked deeds in order to retrieve the Bone of God from the Eskin family, but now the other party was asking him to just hand it over.

His rage cannot be described by words alone.

Their search had eventually discovered that the culprit carried his son off using the cathedral’s sewers, but it was already too late when they tried to search for the boy, and they still had no idea who the culprit was.

“Those damn pastors, I can’t believe there was such a huge opening in the cathedral!” Dolan just wanted to shout into those pastors’ faces right now. Not only did they open a sewage system in their backyard without consultations, but they also didn’t even station anyone to watch it.

Furthermore, the pastors’ mouths weren’t very tight. The investigation later found that the information about there being someone near the sewers was first casually mentioned by a pastor responsible for garbage disposal. There were simply too many people who knew about this for it to be a usable clue for screening members.

The arrogance of those people had already reached their core.

The ransom letter demanded him to hand over the artifact that produces the Spring of Life, otherwise, they would kill Parry Ashius. As for how the trade would be conducted, they will go into details in another letter to be sent three days later, and that he had better get the trade item ready within those three days.

“Master, that Aureum hasn’t left his manor for the past few days”

Someone naturally suspected the survivor of the massacre, but since Aureum was focused on nothing but knowledge, he hadn’t left his manor at all for the past few days, putting him out of suspicion.

“Is this karma?” the corpse of the small boy in the Eskin manor flashed before Dolan’s eyes once again.

He was now in extreme panic, he was scared that his little Parry would also end up as a corpse in a place like that as well.

“Send someone to tail that beggar closely. And also, station our eyes in every possible location, we need to find the culprit” thinking of another possibility, Dolan’s expression became ferocious and continued: “Continue monitoring the Eskin manor, find an opportunity to get rid of that remnant”

“Understood” the butler accepted his orders and dismissed himself.

…

“What does this word mean?” Aureum asked Parry who was eating right next to him.

The original owner of this body didn’t have a particular liking to knowledge, otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone out of his house in the middle of the night to meet with a married woman.

The amount of knowledge that the dust inherited wasn’t a lot, so even after reading the same book for a long while, he still had a lot of things he didn’t clearly understand.

On the other hand, while Parry was still young, Dolan had expected a lot of him and hired many tutors for him ever since he was young. Although Parry’s bone talents weren’t particularly great, he was a genius when it came to scholarly matters, as well as being highly perceptive. This was the reason why Dolan loved him so much.

“Let me take a look. This word is from the Cauchy language, it’s pronounced ne-ga-ry. It means another ‘self’ within oneself, this ‘other self’ is a more… powerful and unrestrained version of oneself. Although, in an earlier era, it used to refer to the God of Omens and Diseases” Parry swallowed his food and looked at the word in the book, swiftly explaining it. For some reason, a certain piece of memory resurfaced in his mind.

So I can only find my past self if I’m capable enough to find that person again?

“Ne-ga-ry” Aureum softly muttered this word and also felt a strange sensation in his mind, it was as if he had just received some information from the name itself: “A more powerful self?”

“Yeah, the Cauchy people believed that there was a God called Negary who existed in everyone’s body, like how everyone would eventually get sick”

“Get sick?” Aureum felt a bit puzzled: “Why is a stronger self equal to getting sick?”

“I don’t know either. The teacher who taught me before only explained that many people thought about it that way” in the end, Parry was still just a 10-odd-year-old young boy, he had learned a lot of things, but he wasn’t very clear about more complicated subjects.

…

〖 At the time, the will of Negary was the strengthening of one self through any method, regardless of means and unrestrained by the rules of society 〗apparently noticing their conversation, Negary smiled and explained: 〖 The ideal was still in its infancy at the time 〗

〖 This kind of ideal would naturally be considered a kind of sickness by those in power, especially a feudal society that hopes to keep its populace dumb and clueless 〗Negary commented.

It was necessary for Negary’s will to be at an infant level at the time, a weaker individual can only improve themselves through this manner, while a stronger individual would have better methods to achieve the same results.

“Then what about now?” hearing Negary telling her about his past, Lan Shan felt exceptionally delighted. After all, there was nothing more intimate than your most important person being willing to share their past with you.

〖 I am the rules 〗Negary gently replied.

…

“Dolan, your request is over the line” the black-robed man coldly said to Dolan: “I’ve already accomplished your previous request, you losing your child is your own problem”

“I understand that, Bastin Faye, I understand” Dolan lightly nodded. While these words were very polite, the forcefulness within it could clearly be heard by anyone: “My Parry is my everything, he is the motivation for my struggles, as well as the biggest reason why I had taken the risk to collaborate with you people. If he isn’t here anymore, nothing good would come out of this collaboration for both of us”

“I will send my men to help you” the black-robed man called Bastin Faye glared at Dolan for a while before standing up to leave the city lord’s manor: “But only this once. You must understand, the city lord doesn’t necessarily have to be you”

Watching as Bastin Faye left his office, Dolan slightly sighed. If necessary, he didn’t want to have to meet that guy face to face. Dolan finds his inhuman sense of pressure incredibly uncomfortable, but to ensure that nothing goes wrong, the only one Dolan could rely on was him.

Dolan sighed heavily. He understood that it definitely wasn’t a good thing to collaborate with such a person, but for the glory and continuation of the Ashius family, he had no other choice.

Time continued to pass day by day, the 3-day time limit had caused Dolan to feel nothing but anxiety, this was the first time Parry had been away from him for so long, living in an unknown environment not under his control.

“The Bone Swap ritual has already been prepared, Parry, as soon as you return, you’d be able to practice [Bone Forge Art] and become a great Pugilist, so you have to return safely” Dolan continuously prayed to the great Emperor Eldridge, praying that he could allow Parry to return.

“Sir, a message has arrived!”

The report caused Dolan to stop his prayers. Once again, he saw the same kind of paper and envelope, which the butler had already opened and was reading for him.

“They told us to leave the object in a certain part of the sewers. If they notice anyone around or that the object was fake, they threaten to break off the deal and kill the young master at any moment”

“Who delivered it?” Dolan asked.

“A blind person from the slums. The other party had given the letter to him and instructed him exactly what to do, we couldn’t see how they did it”

“I understand, prepare the object”

The letter had purposely used the word ‘us’, so it was very possible for the culprit to have an accomplice, with one side killing the hostage if the other was captured. This made it so that Dolan couldn’t take a risk and had no choice but to properly prepare what they demanded, but if those damned kidnappers believed that they could simply escape after obtaining the item, then they’re too naïve.