Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 444 - Three Hundred: Parting Ways to Meet Again (7)

Chapter 444: Chapter Three Hundred: Parting Ways to Meet Again (7)

Having returned Margaret to Colin, Malin stood outside the Church’s grand gates, where the cold breeze woke his overworked mind—instead of continuing to speculate where that damn Chaos attribute of Mischael’s came from, it’d be wiser to ponder why he and Mischael had not come to blows inside Benevolent Hospital.

For starters, Benevolent Hospital may have a large Array, much like the Harvest Church of Carterburg possessed a grand defensive array that could transport all ill-intentioned folks into Subspace; the hospital’s Array probably could influence the subconscious of both parties, preventing them from fighting within its bounds.

This was a guess, since he felt that whether it was Mr. Mischael or himself, whether they would be affected was indeed a question.

Another thought was—they indeed considered taking action, but ultimately chose to keep the peace under the influence of the Array and the responsibilities they bore.

This should be the most reliable conjecture, as Marlin would never put Margaret in danger, no matter what.

And Mischael... as long as he retained a shred of humanity, he too would not stand by while his sister was in danger.

Malin swore that if Mischael hurt or killed Margaret, he would absolutely kill Shela·Mischael.

Because an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth... that wasn’t Malin’s life philosophy at all.

This, everyone in Carterburg should know, so... under the terrifying threat of mutual slaughter, the two men unexpectedly found a peaceful equilibrium.

But such an outcome only made Malin even more perplexed—Chaos was rarely rational, often either killing or on the path to being killed; so, Mr. Mischael couldn’t possibly be a devout follower of the Evil God.

Then there was the Benevolent Father, and Mr. Mischael didn’t seem to be a follower of his either; after all, as the child of the Benevolent Father, it wouldn’t be loyal of Mr. Mischael not to have several more lumps on his body.

As for the Sinspawn... indeed possible, for Sinspawn sought more than just vigorous health exercises through hip shaking.

Art, beauty, and even love, the followers of this being pursued the ultimate pleasure, both the inner joy of the mind and the sensual or physical pleasure, but precisely because of this, there was seemingly no such joy known as the ascetic amidst the ultimate pleasures.

While self-torture was indeed one form of it, Malin could be certain, he would definitely not be a follower of the Sinspawn.

Because Mr. Mischael certainly didn’t look like a creature born for pleasure.

He lived like a commoner, shopping by himself, like a carpenter in some respects—in short, this was the Church’s evaluation of him, Mischael’s last master didn’t at all seem like a pleasure offender.

So the only answer, perhaps, was the Mimicking Bird.

But that didn’t fit either, everyone said, Mr. Mischael didn’t seem like a young man harboring secrets; though tight-lipped, his conduct never resembled that of an information peddler—he couldn’t keep secrets.

Everybody said so.

But when Malin saw these testimonies, his heart told him—this was a true follower of the Mimicking Bird.

The city gate guards spoke well of him, the elderly street-sweepers spoke well of him, the Apprentices spoke well of him, a man who could have Nobles and commoners alike sing his praises... in this world, that just didn’t seem like the behavior of a normal person, no matter how you sliced it.

Malin sighed—this was a bastard skilled at role-playing, who had even deceived himself; it was better not to let the children set their sights on him.

With this thought, Malin wrote a note; he wanted the children to stay away from the Mischael family estate and from him personally, the farther the better.

...And then he still needed to screen those children, because being brainwashed by Mr. Mischael would be all too normal; for he was a faithful of the Chaos Evil God known as Jianqi, whereas those Apprentices were just kids.

He had to be responsible for the safety of the children.

Upon inserting the note into the messenger’s mailbox, Malin thought for a moment, pulled out the note, and replaced it with an order for the children to assemble—he needed to have the children screened immediately, otherwise, his initial order might be sitting on Mischael’s desk within an hour.

.........

The laundress tasked with surveilling Mischael’s estate had just turned the corner and saw several Harvest Church Apprentices packing up their stall in front of her place of work—they often came out to sell weaker Healing Potions.

This is normal, but too normal, as proxies, they all noticed a familiar aura on these children—they were also surveilling Mischael’s residence.

Perhaps their reasons differed, but the outcome was the same, so when it was time for them to leave today, out of curiosity, the laundress and the children exchanged a greeting, "You’re leaving early today, are you done working?"

"Yes, this batch of healing potions is about to expire soon, and we cannot sell expired potions to anyone," said the leader among the children.

It was a convincing performance, and if one weren’t in the business, they’d certainly be fooled by them.

However, the laundress couldn’t possibly expose the children’s word games, and she watched them leave.

Then, out of professional instinct, she wrote a note and handed it to her messenger.

Being suspicious is a means of survival.

Thinking this, she also took out a piece of paper and a pen and began repeating her earlier task. She wrote another note and, ensuring there were no acquaintances around, slipped the note into Mischael’s mailbox.

After that, she returned to her own workplace.

Hoping that the higher-ups would learn about everything that was happening here sooner.

The only ones who could command these apprentices were their leader, and the only ones who could command them under the Harvest Church were likely only a few individuals.

And most likely, it was Malin Gaiate.

Right... had he returned?

.........

After calling the children back, Malin had the Church’s physicians examine the children, eventually finding traces of memory modification and suggestion on both groups.

This was good news, but the bad news was... the methods of modification and suggestion were completely different.

This meant that two different organizations or individuals had harmed the two groups of children.

Therefore, Malin had no choice but to decide to let the children start an indefinite period of rest immediately. As compensation, each child would receive a guaranteed monthly salary of fifteen pieces, six cans of meat, and a two-liter alcohol voucher.

Families with injured children would receive a subsidy of forty pieces, and would be given priority for job positions in the factories.

Every child willing to work for Malin would be rewarded for their loyalty.

Unraveling the children’s modified memories would take time, but by comparing the responsible areas of the two groups, Malin discovered a problem—neither group of children was responsible for gathering intelligence on Mischael’s residence.

They had three things in common.

The first was the seaport in the South City, where they worked together on the 11th, 12th, and 13th.

The second was the main gate in the West City District, where they sold three batches of potions on the 14th because of a local gang fight. Although these potions weren’t very effective, they were a decent healing option considering the cost-performance ratio.

The third was the day before yesterday when they returned from the North City District, currently the territory of the Sanchez family, an up-and-coming Noble family and a very standard answer in the Carterburg nobility scene.

It seemed like the trouble was growing.

With this in mind, Malin decided to take a look at the commotion,

and then turn the bastard who dared to tamper with the children’s memories into ashes.

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