Pulling his fingers free from the two manhole covers, Leo reflected that manhole covers were excellent things. They could hide a head crushed flat like a shriveled leather bag, along with all the red and white matter, beneath solid metal... What surprised Leo was that although Koliver had died, the roar he heard belonged to Kozmo!
Within the Soul Sea, the black clouds that had tormented Leo for several days gathered together and formed Kozmo's face. His eyes and mouth became black holes with no visible bottom.
Those black clouds were all the soul energy that the Intimidation Scroll had brought Leo when he killed Kozmo, energy he had been unable to absorb. Their presence had constantly left Leo groggy, and the symptoms had only been growing worse.
The Calamity Bell was clearly far more powerful than the black clouds. Death tolls the bell that brings calamity. Ten peals ring out, and the soul of a dead mage becomes a gluttonous feast! The Calamity Bell ignored Kozmo's final roar. As its peals reverberated, Koliver's death granted Leo ten points of soul power! Without hesitation, Leo poured the soul power into his Cipher Soul String. With a total of thirty-one points of soul power, Leo became a D-grade Tier 3 Cipher Mage.
The vibrations of the bell shattered Kozmo's face. Within the Soul Sea, the black clouds churned once more.
...
The Third Principle of Fallen Superstring Mages: the Principle of Intimidating People.
The Disciples of Desire possess methods for intimidating souls. Through an Intimidation ritual, destroy the person or object the deceased treasured most, shatter the deceased's soul, and thereby obtain the power of that dead soul. No mage can resist the taste of a soul!
...
By killing Kozmo's older brother, Leo had fulfilled the conditions necessary to complete the Intimidation ritual. Koliver was the person Kozmo had treasured most. Killing Koliver had shattered Kozmo's remnant soul. The black clouds were already a spent force. After tormenting Leo for several days, they were finally about to be purged. Amid the pealing of the Calamity Bell, the black clouds vibrated and transformed into transparent energy, which surged toward Leo's main Soul String.
The main string? Leo was surprised. Why was it flowing toward the main string rather than the Cipher Soul String? Under the torrent of energy, the main Soul String spread apart like a vine once more!
Just as when he had first awakened as a Cipher Mage, Leo felt as though something inside his mind was being peeled away. The sensation made his scalp prickle, and the skin between his ears suddenly drew taut. The main Soul String separated into four strands. One of the slender strings began vibrating at superfrequency. The remaining three slender strings twisted together and tightened, forming a new main string. Outside the main string, two slender strings wound around each other in a graceful double helix, like a pair of lively coiling dragons.
Amid the pealing of the Calamity Bell, Leo awakened a talent for the Haste school! This was a school ability gained by seizing the power of Kozmo's soul. This was power gained by destroying Kozmo's soul.
Leo surveyed the Soul Sea and discovered that the black clouds had not been completely purged. Several wisps still drifted beneath the distant vault of the heavens. Was this some kind of lingering side effect?
...
Leo East, Superstring Mage:
D-grade Tier 3 Cipher Mage, thirty-one points of soul power.
E-grade Tier 1 Haste Mage, one point of soul power.
Leo recited inwardly: I am an Order Mage! I truly want to be an ordinary, unremarkable Order Mage!
With Koliver dealt with, Leo hurried toward the apartment building. But halfway there, an explosion made him even more worried. A deflagration suddenly erupted on the third floor. When the incendiary in the air reached a certain concentration, it produced an effect like an explosion. The pressure from the intense heat shattered every window on the third floor.
The broken glass did not slow Leo. He sprinted toward the first floor of the apartment building, and even when a shard of glass struck him, he did not feel it. He picked up the dagger he had thrown earlier, cut through the rope binding the door handles with one slash, and wrenched the doors open.
A wave of heat struck him head-on. Along with it came all three families who lived in the building. Leo breathed a sigh of relief. His mother and younger sister had some soot on their faces, but they were unharmed. The landlord's family and the tenants from the first floor had escaped as well. None of them were in mortal danger, which eased Leo's heart. His younger sister, Olina, rushed toward him in panic and grabbed his arm. Leo quickly comforted her.
After retreating to a safe distance, Leo could not help lecturing his sister.
“Olina, whenever you encounter a fire, the first thing you should do is soak a towel in water. Then cover your mouth and nose with it while you escape.”
Olina's tears and snot soaked Leo's clothes. “I understand, Brother.” At the same time, Leo patted his mother's back, helping her cough out the choking smoke she had inhaled.
After Mr. Landord escaped, he collapsed onto the ground and stared in despair as his house burned like a gigantic bonfire. Leo saw the agonized expression on Mr. Landord's face and did not dare tell him the truth. Mr. Landord, who was in his forties, wiped his eyes. It was impossible to tell whether the heat had dried and irritated them or whether the pain in his heart had brought him to tears.
Mr. Landord looked toward the neighboring districts, intending to call for help putting out the fire. Everywhere he could see, however, numerous houses were already burning fiercely. Some people were fleeing in every direction. Others were making futile attempts to fight the fires. In the end, Mr. Landord could not even bring himself to call for help.
Feeling somewhat guilty, Leo said, “Mr. Landord, if you need help rebuilding the house, call for me. I will help.”
Mr. Landord looked at Leo. “Leo, my dear boy, if it weren't for you, all of us would have burned to death inside the house.”
Leo sighed. “It was nothing, Mr. Landord. I was also saving my mother and sister.”
If not for Koliver, Mr. Landord would never have suffered such a terrible loss tonight. The landlord grieved over his house, while Leo grieved over the furniture his family had acquired during the two years they had rented the apartment. All of it had cost money... Thinking of money, Leo looked toward his mother.
Instead, Olina leaned close to Leo's ear and whispered, “Brother, I brought out everything left from your wages over the past two years... Eleven silver shillings in total.”
Leo nodded in satisfaction. He was paid three hundred copper pennies each month, while his mother and sister spent two hundred copper pennies each month. Over two years, they had saved more than two thousand copper pennies. Since large quantities of copper pennies were inconvenient to store, the family had exchanged them for silver shillings. One silver shilling could be exchanged for two hundred copper pennies. The family now had eleven silver shillings and a small number of copper pennies remaining. Those silver pennies were enough to support them for some time.
By then, Mr. Landord had recovered enough to notice a person lying in the street.
He patted Leo's calf. “There's someone over there! Let's go save him!”
Leo looked at Koliver's corpse. “He can't be saved. His brains are already splattered everywhere.” With that, Leo walked toward Koliver's body.
Mr. Landord struggled to rise from the ground. “I'll help you!”
Looking at Koliver's corpse beneath the two manhole covers, Leo said, “Mr. Landord, you had better go and comfort your wife and the others. I can handle this.”
Mr. Landord shook his head and insisted, “No! It was my fault that I couldn't lead everyone out of the fire. I should do something now. After all, I am the owner of this building. You know... I felt unbearably guilty while I was trapped behind that door... For some reason, the door simply wouldn't open. No matter how hard I pushed, it wouldn't move... At the time, I thought...”
Leo did not particularly want to hear Mr. Landord's innermost thoughts. Without saying anything, he removed the manhole cover from Koliver's head. The red matter, the white matter, and the head deformed like a shriveled leather bag were the best possible way to keep Mr. Landord quiet. Sure enough, Mr. Landord stopped halfway through his sentence.
“At the time, I thought... Yue... Yue... Yue...”
{ Translators note: The author included this part, i dont know whether he intended for it to be a note or in the chapter but here it is:
“Yue” (哕, third tone) is an extraordinarily vivid piece of onomatopoeia. When you have drunk too much and feel the urge to vomit but cannot, try drawing out the sound of this character and pronouncing it loudly. It must be loud, and you must pay attention to the falling-rising contour of the third tone.
Let the point of articulation dip and then rise in a smooth curve. Feel the sound emerge from deep within your throat, then open your mouth wide in satisfaction. When you actually try this, you will discover how miraculous this character is. It can even draw your throat upward.
}
Mr. Landord was doing exactly that. Though he spoke a different language and stood tens of thousands of miles away, he had accurately produced the Chinese pronunciation of this character.
Poor Mr. Landord... On this sorrowful night, he had lost not only his house, but also his dinner. Still retching, Mr. Landord backed away and hurriedly waved Leo off before returning to the others. He also stopped anyone else from coming over to disturb Leo. Leo looked around. No one was paying attention to him.
He lifted the two manhole covers and searched for anything valuable, an activity commonly known as corpse looting. The first thing that caught Leo's attention was the wheellock pistol, its body engraved with decorative patterns. Bright yellow metal wire had been inlaid into the body of the pistol. Leo could not tell whether it was gold or copper. The Silesian wheellock pistol now became part of Leo's collection. He tucked it inside his coat.
Leo also found a peculiar belt beneath Koliver's robe. A collection of objects hung from it. One was a leather pouch containing several round lead balls. The rest were eight short, tube-shaped powder flasks carved from wood, each holding exactly enough gunpowder for one shot. Koliver had just used one charge, which meant Leo now had enough ammunition to fire the wheellock pistol seven times. These were all excellent things...
There was also a copy of the Church of Radiant Prayer's Passion Scriptures. Koliver had already become one of the Disciples of Desire. Why had he kept this scripture? Thinking of Bishop Notte Bonet, Leo felt that Koliver was also rather pitiful. The Church of Radiant Prayer had brought Koliver Enwey no peace, only calamity.
Leo then found ten gold pounds on Koliver's body. One gold pound could be exchanged for twenty silver shillings, while one silver shilling could be exchanged for two hundred copper pennies. Ten gold pounds were worth forty thousand copper pennies. After a simple calculation, Leo determined that this was equivalent to one hundred and thirty months of his current salary.
For an instant, Leo wondered whether he should compensate poor Mr. Landord with one gold pound. He immediately decided that he was being foolish. Why should he sympathize with a wealthy man?
Mr. Landord owned several properties. This was not his only one. When Leo's family rented another home, Mr. Landord might well become their landlord again. Would such sympathy from a poor man not be an insult to Mr. Landord? Mr. Landord had already suffered enough tonight. He should not be subjected to any further humiliation.
Leo slipped the ten gold pounds into his coat and reflected that the methods of earning money listed in the criminal code, murder and robbery, were indeed astonishingly efficient.
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