13 Minke Street - Chapter 23: My Mistake Ends With Me

“I must return now.” Karen tried his best to keep his voice even. With Diss’ presence, he did feel a bit more confident. Although Diss held his life in his hands, it was still better than drifting around like a dandelion in the wind. However, he was ultimately just a “fake” psychic, and a fake was still a fake. So, after saying this, he quickly added, “Do you have anything else you want to say?”

Alfred took out a business card and handed it to him respectfully. Karen reached out and took the card, which had the title ‘Roja Radio Host’ and a string of phone numbers on it.

“I look forward to hearing your summons again.” Alfred took two steps back, clearing the way, and continued, “You can choose to call this number, or you can come directly to the door of this room. Your summons, for me, is like the rising and setting of the sun, an inviolable rule.”

Karen put the business card away, feeling a long sigh of relief in his heart. No demands were the best, because he really didn’t know what he could give; his 20,000-plus lubi private savings? Plus a Miffet gold watch? Or maybe a 50% discount coupon for Inmerales Funeral Home when you die someday? Thankfully, they were understanding and didn’t ask for anything.

But then, Ms. Molly knelt directly in front of Karen. She was kneeling, but her head was held high. If it were anyone else being knelt to, they would inevitably feel a sense of control that belonged to a superior, but this feeling didn’t apply to Ms. Molly. When she knelt, it was as if she was staring at your soul.

“Please forgive my irrationality, but I hope the great one will grant me a purified body.”

A body?

A corpse?

As for corpses, there was no shortage at home – there were three lying in the basement right now. He could find a way to steal one. 

But what did ‘purified body’ mean? This specific term was definitely not ordinary. Otherwise, Jeff’s body and Mrs. Hughes’ body, both intact, would have been used by Ms. Molly earlier. But if he were to ask now, “So, what is a purified body?” his previously feigned inscrutability would likely be exposed, like a physics professor pointing to a capital ‘E’ and asking what it meant.

However, what he needed to do now was leave this place, so Karen gave his answer: “Wait.”

“I am grateful to the great one. I will forever grovel at your feet and offer you all my loyalty.”

Karen didn’t respond again, just nodded slightly. He first methodically put Mrs. Hughes’ belongings into his backpack, then picked up the backpack and walked towards the door.

As he walked out of the master bedroom, Karen noticed that the other two didn’t follow. He went down the stairs, one floor at a time, walking with leisure, calmness, and ease. Perhaps he was walking too intently, as Karen actually tripped, forgetting whether to step with his left or right leg next. He accidentally stepped down two stairs at once, and with the backpack in his hand, he lost his balance and had to walk forward quickly.

Thud thud thud…

Finally, with his right hand braced against the railing, he turned his body, and – Thump! – landed with a jump.

To cover up his awkwardness, Karen even let out a loud laugh: “Haha.” He tried his best to disguise his gaffe as childlike innocence.

He opened the front door and walked out.

As he passed through the yard, he did not look back at the upstairs windows, but went straight to open the yard gate, walking forward, forward, and forward again until finally standing in front of Diss.

He opened his mouth, exhaled heavily, and then took a deep breath. The strong sense of security made his brain feel a little oxygen-drunk.

Diss looked at Karen but did not speak, instead walking a few steps forward to the gate.

“Mr. Alfred.”

From the second floor window, Alfred smiled faintly and responded, “Lord Judge.”

“Please remember our agreement.”

Alfred answered, “I have never broken our agreement. Ms. Molly has not left this house either. Although another person died today, I assure you she too died guilty.”

Diss turned and looked at Karen. Karen pointed to Mrs. Hughes’ red ‘Cayman’ sedan and said, “I can explain.” Seeing that Diss didn’t object, Karen opened the car door, put his backpack in first, and then got in himself. Diss sat in the passenger seat, while Pu’er jumped in through the window and landed on the back seat. Karen started the car.

From the second-floor balcony, watching the car gradually disappear at the end of the street, Alfred let out a light cough and looked down at the three cigarette butts on the ground. “To this day, I still don’t understand why humans invented this slow-acting poison to kill themselves.”

Ms. Molly replied, “From the moment humans are born, it’s as if they are on the road to death.”

“Ms. Molly, your answers are becoming more and more philosophical. Perhaps in the future I can invite you as a special guest on my show. Well, the audience can’t see you anyway.”

Ms. Molly looked at Alfred and asked, “Aren’t you going to put away your succubus eyes?”

“Oh? Ah, haha.” Alfred’s bloody eyes began to fade, returning to normal pupils, though they appeared slightly gray and hazy compared to ordinary people.

“Alfred, I really don’t understand you. You were the first to discover the existence of that great being, and today you were the first to take the most humble posture. But why have you been keeping your Succubus Eyes on that great being the whole time?”

Succubus eyes have the ability to see through falsehoods and capture people’s hearts. Therefore, succubi are among the more intelligent beings in the sequence of alien demons, no, in the entire social sequence, because they are not easily deceived. In many cases, not being deceived is already a sign of intelligence.

When Karen faced Alfred earlier, he had a similar feeling – he absolutely could not lie in front of him.

Therefore, in their previous exchange, no matter how humble Alfred was, Karen answered everything with hard truths.

“I only did it to express respect, to let that great being see my true self. It’s a symbol of loyalty.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Alfred shrugged and said, “Actually, the more you believe in something, the more doubtful of it you become at the same time. That’s why some great scientists turn to theology late in life.”

“You…are still doubtful of him? I thought you were already devoted to that great being.”

“Do you know what my biggest doubt is?” Alfred said self-deprecatingly, “It’s that he has no doubts.”

“I know, you’ve told me before – the holy song, the scripture.”

“Not only that, but remember a month ago when I left Roja and went to Belwin City?”

“I remember.”

“Many churches sent people there, even the Ruland government’s military was deployed to seal off that area. Do you know what happened there?”

“What happened?”

“Someone held a divine descent ritual on the outskirts of Belwin City.”

“Divine descent ritual?” Ms. Molly’s face remained calm. “I thought it was something else.”

Divine descent rituals are used by many churches to pray for their gods to descend with their brilliance and will to guide lost believers.

“Oh?” Alfred lowered his voice, “But the divine descent ritual that time summoned an evil god, an unknown evil god!”

Evil god does not refer to a single entity; it is a general term. The gods of large, orthodox churches with long lineages are revered as ‘true gods’; their gods have nothing to do with evil gods, because anyone who dares to call the deities they worship evil gods will be eradicated by them.

In addition to the major orthodox churches, there are also many smaller churches whose followers and influence are not as great, but the gods they serve can be respected and recognized as long as they ‘survive.’

Furthermore, there are branch ‘gods,’ that is, divine systems that have branched off from orthodox churches. These gods may be disciples of true gods or their creators may have served large churches, gradually evolving into new branches. In terms of narrative structure, they can be integrated.

Even some evil gods, whose doctrines are extreme and whose followers act ruthlessly, who have been besieged and even eradicated, their beliefs, the gods they serve, cannot be considered evil gods.

Evil gods… have no faith. They don’t exist by relying on faith. Their definition, to put it simply and crudely, is probably a single existence. They wander between heaven and earth, or are sealed in some corner of myths and legends, but they can be ‘channeled’ through ‘divine descent.’

This is an act that disrupts order, as it is likely to bring about great disaster. Heaven knows what kind of thing will be summoned in the end. However, in many years, although such great disasters did occur, they did not happen very often and were rarely recorded in ancient texts.

The reason was the limitation of ritual specifications.

The specifications of the divine descent ritual need to be prepared. The level of the specifications directly determines what kind of existence the ‘god’ you summoned will be. This refers not only to material preparations, which are actually relatively simple, and most materials can be bought directly with money, even ‘sacred artifacts.’ The level of the specifications is linked to the ability of the ritual’s officiant.

The stronger the officiant’s ability, the higher the specifications of the divine descent ritual. And those who have the ability to hold high-specification rituals basically only exist in the major orthodox churches, because only the major orthodox churches can obtain development in this area.

When priests of small churches hold the same divine descent ritual, summoning a ray of light is already considered the limit, and they even have to be grateful for it. But for priests of large churches, summoning miracles is a normal occurrence. Even higher-ranking priests or grand officiants have summoned ‘divine artifacts,’ as recorded in ancient texts.

For ordinary ‘evil god’ summoning rituals, the lowest level could summon nearby wandering weak demons like ‘Pencil Spirits’. While lacking the ability to kill, they could still scare ordinary people half to death.

Going further up, as the specifications continue to increase, the strength and variety of the summoned demons will also increase. But these are all tolerable. In this world, having one more demon with decent strength, or rather, strong strength, is not a big deal. The major orthodox churches have deep reserves and can easily annihilate it with a wave of their hands. Therefore, demons either live in seclusion in remote corners or are very cautious in human society, not daring to cause too much trouble. It is often the brainless low-end goods like the one that possessed Mrs. Hughes that get dealt with.

What the major churches really cannot tolerate are the evil god summoning rituals with even higher specifications. Because the major churches have a monopoly on such high-specification rituals, all the summonings recorded in ancient books that can be called ‘evil gods’ were done by high-ranking personnel within these orthodox churches, without exception.

Such people are also known as ‘rebels,’ rebelling not only against their own church but also attempting to subvert the entire framework of order.

During the day, they possessed the ability to channel divine miracles through rituals of divine descent. At night, however, they held the same power to summon and channel overwhelmingly powerful demons beyond the realm of tolerance… also known as ‘evil gods.’

Each arrival of an ‘evil god’ was a catastrophe, causing terrifying turmoil, even capable of leading to the demise of an entire orthodox church. This was because the summoned evil god might have battled or been suppressed and sealed by a true god in the previous epoch or within myths and legends. Upon their return, even if their power had been significantly weakened, the hatred they harbored towards the sects left behind by their former enemies was indescribable.

Even more bizarre was the fact that throughout an entire epoch, no matter how powerful an orthodox church was, they could only summon ‘divine artifacts’ or ‘illusory shadows of gods’ at most. No church possessed the ability to summon a true god again. Under the premise that true gods could not descend, suppressing an evil god once more would require a terrible price.

A look of shock finally appeared on Ms. Molly’s face: “Evil god!” Immediately after, Ms. Molly’s eyes darted around as she pressed, “Did they succeed?”

Alfred seemed quite satisfied with Ms. Molly’s shift in emotions and said, “If they hadn’t succeeded, why would it attract so much attention? By the same logic, the scale of this divine descent ritual must have been extremely high. Otherwise, even if they summoned another you or another me, what… difference would it make?”

“No, Alfred, what I mean is, are you saying…”

Alfred nodded and said, “An outrageously powerful Judge, hehe. After that duel, do you know what I feared the most? It seemed like we fought to a draw, both sides suffering heavy losses, right?

“But after careful consideration, I realized that the divine incantations he used were all exclusive to Inquisitors within the Order Church. A member of the Order Church with strength clearly exceeding that of a Inquisitor deliberately used Inquisitor-level incantations to fight me. This could only mean one thing: he was concealing his true power.”

“So you couldn’t actually defeat him?”

“Ms. Molly, that’s not the point!”

“Okay, sorry.”

“Besides, I didn’t use my full strength either, as I was afraid of being completely exterminated by the Order Church.”

“Okay, please continue.”

“Today, tonight, I understood.”

“Is it him?” Ms. Molly inquired, “The blood-related grandfather of the Great Being? But that divine descent ritual took place in Belwin…” At this point, Ms. Molly fell silent; for how foolish would one have to be to hold such a forbidden ritual, destined to attract universal attention, in the city they resided in? Surely, they would choose a different location.

“Therefore, Ms. Molly, what I suspect is not his greatness. He is undoubtedly a great being, there’s no doubt about that! What I suspect and fear is, what if beneath his facade of a true god lies the essence of an evil god? Evil gods, those are beings that even the two of us, demons, dread and shudder at the thought of.” Alfred glanced at the area where Mrs. Hughes had been devoured earlier and murmured, “Light of Order. Perhaps, he is a terrifying entity that was once suppressed by the God of Order.”

Ms. Molly expressed her doubts, “Then what about my… purified body?”

Alfred pressed the brim of his hat down and advised, “Relax, whether he’s a true god or an evil god, in his presence, we only need to play our roles well. No noise, no disturbance, no prying. And when he needs us, we’ll be there at his beck and call, giving our all.”

“Alfred, could you describe this role more clearly? I’m afraid I can’t perform it well.”

“Sure, listen carefully.” Alfred spread his arms and said, “Woof! Woof! Woof!”

…

“That’s how it is.” While driving, Karen recounted the events of the evening to Diss without reservation. He didn’t know why, but every time he glanced at Pu’er sitting in the back seat through the rearview mirror while speaking, a surge of irritability would rise within him. However, he believed himself to be far from the kind of pervert who would abuse cats.

“Grandpa, don’t you think those two were quite foolish? I was truly scared to death at the time. Fortunately, I managed to fool them and save my own life.”

Diss, sitting in the passenger seat, remained silent. And Pu’er, in the back seat, clearly had an anthropomorphic smile on it’s face.

Finally, the car stopped, right in front of the Hughes Crematorium. Since Old Darcy’s death, this crematorium had been closed for business, and even if it hadn’t been, it would have been shut at this late hour.

“Why are we here?” Diss finally spoke.

Karen explained, “Chief Duke should be able to find clues soon and discover that Mrs. Hughes was the real murderer.” Unless Chief Duke was a complete dunce, no, even if a dunce were Chief Duke, he would still crack the case. “Therefore, I plan to return Mrs. Hughes’ clothes and car to the funeral home, creating the illusion that she knew things were exposed and had fled. After all, we can’t find Mrs. Hughes again.” She was completely gone. Diss nodded upon hearing this.

Karen carried Mrs. Hughes’ clothes out of the car; the vehicle also belonged to her. Among her belongings was a set of keys. Karen unlocked the door, carried the hiking bag inside, and Diss followed behind. Pu’er, with its elegant feline gait, trailed closely, its silhouette elongated by the moonlight.

Karen went to the office, separated by just one wall from the cremation chamber. The crematorium in the middle of the night exuded an oppressive stillness.

Karen placed Mrs. Hughes’ clothes on the floor and desk, then opened the hiking bag and laid out the tools inside. Well, they were indeed quite abundant. Although Mrs. Hughes’ artistic skills were mediocre, her art supplies were well-prepared, like a poor student who always liked to get new stationery before studying hard.

Karen pulled over a chair and sat down. “Grandpa, I estimate the police will be able to figure out who the killer is by tonight. They’ll definitely dispatch forces here first thing. Of course, if they don’t come, you can call the police after going home and report that your grandson went missing after dropping Mrs. Hughes off at night.

“Also, please tie me to this chair to make it look like I’m the next victim. As for Mrs. Hughes, we can say she sensed something was up when the police arrived and fled. The main thing is, the police won’t be fooled about Aunt Mary’s and Mrs. Hughes’ activities tonight, so we have to wrap things up like this.”

Diss nodded, walked around behind Karen, silently took out a dagger from the pile of tools in the hiking bag, and played with it in his hand. Karen, sitting in the chair, was still waiting for his grandfather to tie him up, unaware of what was happening behind him. He only saw the black cat Pu’er squatting in front of him, its smile making him increasingly uncomfortable.

“Grandpa, there’s another way. You could use some tools to knock me unconscious. That way, when the police arrive, the effect will be even better, and it’ll be easier for me to fool them. Or we could look around here for sleeping pills or other psychotropic drugs. The main thing is that it would make it much easier for me to explain to the police afterward.”

“No need for such trouble,” Diss said as he walked in front of Karen.

Karen smiled and said, “Of course, everything is up to you, Grandpa. Whatever you choose is fine. I trust you…”

Tsukk!

A sharp pain struck. Karen looked down in disbelief and saw a dagger plunged into his chest. In his ears, he heard his grandfather’s voice: “The mistake that began with me shall end with me.”