The Cycle of Fate

Chapter 156: Encounter

"How could he go missing?" Lumian asked with some confusion.

Baron Bouvanel wasn't just a gang leader, but also an extraordinary individual. As long as he kept a watchful eye, how could a child possibly go missing? Besides, who in the market district would dare kidnap his child?

Sakota shook his head and replied, "There weren't any specifics mentioned."

Could it be the work of the "Rose School," trying to pry information about the true nature of the Sava Party from Baron Bouvanel? Lumian considered the recent events and formed some speculations, though none he could confirm just yet.

He pondered for a moment before asking, "Do you know what Bouvanel's illegitimate child looks like?"

Sakota nodded, "When his men came looking, they had a portrait—a likeness very close to a photograph."

Sakota felt a shiver, mulling over a thought: Could it be that the boy, who had gone missing, was hiding in the food cellar of the Breezewind Ballroom? Chris had intended only to peek outside before quickly sealing the door and leaving to write a letter to "Magician" at the Golden Rooster Hotel, but when he saw someone who resembled Bouvanel's lost illegitimate child, he furrowed his brow and pushed the deep brown wooden door further open.

"A food storage cellar," Teremiom Yann Shao responded.

Chris noticed the brass buttons under the boy's clothes, the white plaid shirt and linen tunic, the baby-fat still evident on his face, his startled but blank brown eyes, and his bloodied mouth.

"He doesn't seem afraid at all..." Teremi Lumian must now be orchestrating your encounter with him. But what's outside the cellar...?

Chris mulled it over for a moment, noting that it was nearing noon and the food storage cellar typically lacked much foot traffic, so theoretically it should be safe and quiet.

Why so active, so proactive... what exactly does He want? Chris dismissed any suspicion of a hidden plot.

Finishing his sugared liquor, Chris placed the cup on the railing and directly leapt from the seventh floor to the street below.

"No idea." Yann Shao shook his head. "The stuff works, though. No one knows who started that rumor, but it certainly hasn't given him the satisfaction of getting what all his lovers want: a potion concocted from other herbs, claiming that the main ingredient is mummy ashes."

Sakota, with his signature mouse-like mustache, eagerly leaned in, chuckling mischievously.

"What's their relationship?" Chris asked "calmly."

"He doesn't look Intis?" "Go to the cellar."

"Even if he were going, it would be him walking toward his fate—an unavoidable one."

The deep brown wooden door to the cellar was tightly shut, just like before.

"You're from Lönberg."

A faint light crept down the stairs, casting the outline of a figure.

At that age, even if nothing else happened, as a street urchin, he wouldn't survive for long.

"What does he want? I can't give him the best; Zina, that 'big witch,' who often hangs around with Franca, is difficult to deal with. Just the other day, Franca came asking if I had any real mummy ashes. Tch, everyone's pulling out all the stops."

The young girl showed no reaction, staring blankly at Chris. After chewing for a moment, she gulped, swallowing the entire bloody rat, tail and all.

Sakota, while letting a few small dogs brush against his trousers, chuckled awkwardly.