Chapter 73: Patience

Chapter 73: Patience

“How was it? Did you get a clear look?” Fors had only just left the street where Viscount Stratford’s residence was located when she saw Xio walking back with a gloomy expression, looking somewhat lost.

Xio hesitantly nodded.

“I got a clear look…”

After saying that, she seemed to finally come back to herself. Rather shocked, she said,

“I know her. No, him!”

“Him?” Fors was completely puzzled.

Xio habitually observed her surroundings before saying,

“He is Sherman! The Sherman I told you about!

“He, he actually turned into a woman!”

Fors stared blankly for a moment, then subconsciously asked back,

“Could you have mistaken her?

“Could it actually be Sherman’s sister?”

Xio firmly shook her head.

“No. She admitted it herself. She even asked me not to disturb her and said she wanted to completely say farewell to the past!

“But… how did he just become female…”

Fors’s eyes moved slightly as she suddenly remembered something. Thoughtfully, she said,

“It isn’t impossible… There is a Beyonder pathway that can make a man turn into a woman at a certain stage.”

She remembered that Miss Justice had once mentioned something similar during a free exchange.

“Ah? Truly?” Xio’s eyes widened at once as she asked back in disbelief.

“Certain!” Fors had already recalled the specific details and answered with considerable certainty.

“This…” Xio found it somewhat difficult to accept for a moment, but she could not find words to refute it. She could only ask, “Which pathway is it?”

Fors answered,

“Demoness!

“Uh, the Assassin pathway.”

“Demoness… Sherman actually became a Demoness…” Xio repeated as if talking to herself.

Suddenly, her voice grew a little louder.

“Could she be being used by someone?

“No. I have to warn her!”

No sooner had she spoken than Xio had already turned around and begun running in long strides, trying to catch up to that hired carriage again.

However, even after chasing through several streets, she still could not find the target. Shermane and that carriage seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Xio gradually slowed, then finally stopped, looking with a complicated expression at the empty street ahead.

Behind her, Fors passed through several walls in succession and finally caught up.

“She’s gone…” Xio said in a low voice.

Fors likewise cast her gaze forward and responded thoughtfully,

“We were discovered…”

Without waiting for Xio to speak, she turned around and sighed.

“Let’s go back. We can look for another chance.”

Xio did not move. She still stood there.

Several seconds passed before, under Fors’s puzzled gaze, she said,

“Since they have discovered there is a problem, could they act early?”

“It’s possible! If they don’t want their plan to fail here, tonight they may very likely try a final gamble and act before we have time to prepare!” Fors immediately agreed with Xio’s judgment. “We’ll return to Viscount Stratford’s place, hide somewhere more concealed, and continue watching!”

Xio nodded at once, answering without the slightest hesitation.

“All right.”

…

In the dock area, inside a warehouse stacked with many goods.

Shermane sat on a filthy wooden crate with both hands bound behind her back. Fine yet resilient spider silk wrapped around her body, strand after strand.

She looked as though she had been placed inside a transparent cocoon. Even her voice could not escape.

“This is not necessarily a bad thing for you.” Trissy stood in front of Shermane, holding a cluster of flames as black as ink. “At least you will be able to confirm because of this whether he truly loves you, or whether he is deceiving you.”

Shermane was both furious and terrified. She desperately used muffled whimpers to express her pleading, but Trissy was not moved in the slightest. She flipped the hand holding the pitch-black flame and pressed it against Shermane’s stomach.

The flame seemed to possess a will of its own. First, it scattered like flowing water. Then, as though it had no…