Chapter 211: The Funeral

Chapter Two Hundred ElevenThe Funeral

Beneath Saint Selena Cathedral, inside the guard room outside Chanis Gate.

Leonard Mitchell leaned back against his chair. Both legs were raised and resting on the edge of the desk. His eyes were empty and unfocused.

Even after treatment through ritual magic, his complexion remained extremely poor, like someone whose serious illness had only just eased and had not yet begun to recover.

At that very moment, the powerhouses sent by the Sanctuary were rearranging the seals behind Chanis Gate. Because Saint Selena’s ashes had been lost, their opinions had diverged. Some hoped to use a new sacred relic to compensate for the missing power. Others believed there was no need to go to such trouble. After all, to the entire Church of the Evernight Goddess, sacred relics were extremely rare and precious. Their proposal was to lower the position of Tingen City’s Nighthawk team, transferring items with living characteristics or difficult sealing conditions either to the headquarters, the Cathedral of Serenity, or to the Backlund Diocese, while leaving behind only the portion easy to watch over.

They planned to send a telegram requesting that the Pope call a meeting, with the archbishops and high-ranking deacons voting on the decision.

Leonard felt nothing at all toward those arguments. He felt as if he had become a living corpse. No pain. No sorrow. No agitation. No excitement. He was numb to an abnormal degree, unwilling even to face other people, wanting only to stay alone in a corner.

Occasionally, a few doubts flashed through his mind. One of them was why the “murderer” had taken only Klein’s Beyonder characteristics, yet left behind Captain Dunn Smith’s.

Tak, tak, tak.

Footsteps echoed in the corridor. Siga Teon, her right arm wrapped in white bandages, appeared at the doorway of the guard room.

While Dunn and the others had besieged Megose and tried to save Tingen City, she and the internal guards of Chanis Gate had also been resisting several Sealed Artifacts. If the Mandated Punishers and members of the Machinery Hivemind had not arrived in time, and if the Sanctuary’s reinforcements had not finally reached them, she might have suffered a miserable death as well.

Even so, that aged internal guard had failed to endure until the end. He had died in battle at his post.

“Leonard, I found a telegram in the Captain’s office—one that had not yet been decoded. It should have been sent by the Sanctuary earlier,” Siga Teon, the part-time author, said.

Leonard’s emerald-green eyes moved. His whole person finally seemed to return to life. He vaguely remembered that he had indeed heard the sound of a new telegram arriving earlier, but the battle had been about to erupt at the time. Neither he nor Klein had had any attention to spare.

“What does it say?” Leonard discovered that his voice was exceptionally dry.

Siga Teon, white-haired and black-eyed, answered without hesitation.

“Beware Ince Zangwill. Beware Sealed Artifact 0-08.”

“Ince Zangwill, a runaway archbishop, a Gatekeeper who failed to advance… Sealed Artifact 0-08, a quill pen that looks very ordinary…”

Leonard first murmured blankly what memories he could dig up. Then he tilted an ear to the side.

Suddenly, his eyes narrowed. All the dejection and despair over him vanished at the same time.

“So that was it…”

Leonard abruptly pulled his legs back and stood. Within his green eyes, flames seemed to burn.

He looked at Siga Teon and said, “I plan to apply to join the Red Gloves.”

The “Red Gloves” were the elite force within the Nighthawks.

Generally speaking, each Nighthawk team was stationed locally and had its own jurisdiction. Without permission, they could not pursue criminals outside their assigned area. Yet some evil people always fired one shot and moved elsewhere, creating great inconvenience.

For this reason, the Church of the Evernight Goddess had specially established the Red Gloves within the Nighthawks. They were…