The Devil's Cage

Kieran looked at Mary.

Her withered blonde hair and bleached blue eyes were hanging over her skull.

The grudge within her was so dense that it felt real.

The scene was exactly what Kieran had pictured a moment ago.

"Why didn’t you save me?" Mary asked again.

Her rough voice made her half skeleton, half-withered body shake intensely, as though she was voicing out her rage.

Kieran kept quiet.

"Are you repenting for your sins?" The dead Mary asked. Her voice was hard to listen but it couldn’t cover the mocking intentions behind it.

"No. I was thinking about why do you look exactly like my thoughts now. Being grudgeful, persistent, ugly and mocking me. After a look at the campsite, all these thoughts were the first thing that came into my mind. When I thought about you, all of a sudden, you appeared before me. Then..."

Kieran was staring at the dead Mary as he spoke.

He started to alter the image of Mary in his mind. Just at the thought bloom, flesh started to fill Mary’s skeletons and filled her withered body once more. Her blonde hair was back to its radiating glory and her blue eyes looked energetic as ever.

A smile was hanging over her face as she floated up as though her body was filled with air.

At the same time, she pointed back at Warren defense campsite.

A big vortex formed and rapidly swept across the place, bringing away all the dead bodies with it.

The campsite returned to its normal state and the patrolling soldiers were still doing their duties.

While at a farther spot where the Prairies invaders were located, a sharp, agonizing cry of pain sounded.

None of the soldiers heard it except for Kieran.

Mary then disintegrated into light particles as she floated higher, as though she was a wrathful specter being released from her grudge.

Kieran looked at the sparkles before looking at his system notification tab again which still remained silent. He frowned slightly.

He had limited knowledge about soul related secret techniques but with the scene that happened, wasn’t that hard for him to guess what had occurred.

Given that he witnessed the fall of the Warren defense campsite, it triggered the guilt and responsibility in his heart and even though he knew it wasn’t real, the first impression that went into his mind allowed him to imagine the death of Mary.

Based on his guesses, if he pictured the dead Mary attacking him, the illusion would really attack him and because it was his own imagination, he wouldn’t have been able to dodge it. Once he thought of himself being hit or attacked, he would really suffer the damage in real time, it might even trigger some unknown changes as far as his imagination was concerned.

Kieran was certain about his guesses after recalling the strangeness of the soul secret techniques.

"It’s because I didn’t imagine myself being attacked, so there are no battlelog notifications?" Kieran pondered at the question as he resumed his walk towards the campsite.

While the questions lingered in his mind, he didn’t forget to give the real Mary a smile who was waiting for him in front of his tent.

"I’ve prepared some food. Although I don’t have your cooking skills, I hope you will give it a try." Mary then went into the tent.

The aromatic scent flew out as she opened the tent.

It smelled like roasted biscuits, meat, and milk. All of them were pre-prepared food with extra process added but when Mary heated them up, she deliberately added in some spices.

The temporary Musou level [Cooking] painted a clear picture in Kieran’s mind of that particular process.

He took up one of the roasted biscuits with Mary staring at him full of anticipation but just as he wanted to take a bite, footsteps sounded outside the tent.

"Sir 2567, his Majesty wishes for a meeting!" The sonorous voice was filled with respect.

"Got it." Kieran placed the biscuit down and stood up.

Kieran didn’t spend a lot of time with the king but he had quite the understanding of him. King James VIII wasn’t a qualified father nor a king that had decisive judgment but he could be considered as a serious and responsible man, therefore it wouldn’t be a small case if the king wanted to meet him in the middle of the night.

"What’s wrong?" Kieran thought in his mind. He turned to Mary and smiled apologetically.

Mary was upset about what the king did but he didn’t stop Kieran.

"I’ll wait then." Mary then sat back on the mattress after saying that.

The king’s tent wasn’t that far away from Mary’s so after the guard delivered the message, Kieran went straight into.

However, when Kieran really entered the king’s tent and saw the people inside, his body froze.

There were two people in the tent: one was King James VIII who summoned him and the other was...

Mary!

Mary said she would be waiting for him in her tent but now she appeared in the king’s tent?

"What’s wrong?" Mary looked at Kieran with surprise at the side.

"Nothing." Kieran shook his head and decided to observe before taking action.

Mary beside the king wasn’t any different than the Many he knew and it seemed to be similar to the Mary that he just met.

Fuuu!

Kieran took in a deep breath. He knew he was in trouble.

It seemed like he didn’t escape the soul secret technique that was cast on him but instead he was dragged deeper.

Or another possibility was, he escaped the first one and entered the second one.

If it was the former, everything before Kieran’s eyes were purely illusions but if it was the latter, which Mary was the real one?

Of course there was another possibility of which everything before his eyes was something that the mastermind wanted him to believe what he saw but actually had a different story behind.

Then, Kieran would plunge to his death step by step because of the illusory tricks.

The death of Kieran, regardless of what the mastermind had set up for him, it all led to a single outcome and in order to plot the course of the mastermind’s desired outcome, the person wouldn’t even need to make a move because Kieran will be the one who led himself to his demise.

For example, if Kieran wanted to differentiate which Mary was the real one, he would make both of them confront each other or he would investigate himself but despite his choices, it would trigger a series of chain reactions.

The course had been plotted long ago targeting at him in an exceptionally reasonable way. Whether it was the second attack from the Prairies invaders or accidents happening to the king or the Warren defense troops, the series of chain reactions would surely force him around the place, draining his energy until he died.

Kieran was ever grateful that he had Pro level [Mystical Knowledge], it granted him a glimpse of knowledge of what soul secret techniques could do. Even though all he could grasp was bits and fragments, he understood that his priority at hand wasn’t to verify which was the real Mary, instead, he should focus on finding the flaws!

The flaws of the whole plot! Where would the mastermind make flaws?

Kieran went on to sit down without extra emotions on his face. He pretended to listen to the king’s words but actually was contacting Fire Raven with his mind.

Soon after, he was disappointed. He couldn’t make any contact with Fire Raven all but the link was still intact. He could feel it clearly but he couldn’t send his thoughts to the raven, let alone using the raven’s eyes to see what was going on outside.

The blockage denied Kieran to locate flaws from the outside with the Fire Raven.

"So it isn’t completely isolated from reality?" Kieran muttered in his heart.

Then, the king continued, "I think 2567 you should marry Mary as she will ascend to become Queen and you will become the new regent King. What do you think?"