Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1283: Chapter 10: A Busy Night

The yellow Ford Focus was racing along the highway, and Will’s eyes were still full of panic. His lips were a bit dry. In the rearview mirror, he could clearly see two black Audi A3s.

The guys in black were still hot on their tail… But once they passed the next street, they’d see the entrance of the police station… Once they got there, they’d be safe, right?

He actually wanted to ask this kid what those people’s background was—plus that girl who’d shown up later and seemed really close to the boy, but for now, he and these two were stuck in a communication breakdown.

The girl and the boy were sitting in the back seat at this moment.

“He doesn’t seem to understand what we’re saying, right, Oga?” Lale frowned. “What’s with this guy?”

“Yeah, he doesn’t understand. Don’t worry, Sis.” The boy… Oga nodded, then recounted everything that had happened from afternoon to evening. “Sis, this Brother saved us. If he hadn’t caused that chaos…”

Lale hugged Oga and comforted him softly, “I know, there are good people among humans too… Just like the town we lived in when we were little, the uncles and aunties in town were all good people. But… but have you forgotten how scared they looked after they found out what we are?”

“Sis…”

Lale gently stroked Oga’s back. “They’re all good people… Our identity will only bring them trouble. Look, even the guy driving up front, isn’t he also dragged into trouble because of us?”

Oga fell silent.

Lale looked back and saw Simpton’s group still biting down on them from behind, and she grew more and more anxious—then she looked ahead and realized they were getting farther and farther from that hotel—she finally came back to her senses: the man driving had had his own destination from the very beginning.

“Don’t go this way, go there!! There!!” Lale leaned over the seatback, her hand shooting out next to Will as she pointed at a tall building in the distance.

“That’s… the Song Dynasty Hotel?” Will froze. “You want to go there? No, we should go to the police. The police!!! Police, COP! O-K??”

But Lale shook her head, her expression growing more anxious as she kept babbling something.

Bang—!!!

Right in the middle of this cross-language chat, the yellow Ford Focus suddenly jolted—the Audi A3 behind had already caught up and slammed straight into the rear of the Focus.

“Don’t crash my car!! I still have two years of payments!!” Will stuck his head out the window and shouted angrily at the cars behind.

Lale was still chattering rapidly beside him.

Will felt like his head was a balloon about to burst—but right then, he suddenly stomped on the brakes, and the inertia sent Lale flying forward from the back seat.

But at the same time, the two Audi A3s behind them had no way to stop in time.

Bang—bang—!

Right before the intersection, the Ford Focus was shoved hard across the pedestrian line.

Lale twisted around and scrambled up, glaring angrily at Will. “What are you doing!!!” she shouted.

Even with the language barrier, Will understood exactly what the girl’s roar was about. “Red light…”

Lale shuddered, then suddenly reached out and grabbed Will by the back of his collar, yanking him straight into the back seat—in a full-on dog-crawl posture.

Without thinking, the girl seized the driver’s seat, stomped hard on the gas, and charged straight into the oncoming traffic!

“!!!!”

Will’s eyes went wide—he felt the world spinning. He could practically already see the traffic cops knocking on his door in his mind.

But the two Audi A3s behind them didn’t seem to be catching up… Did they really shake them off?

He scrambled up and looked out the rear window, only to see the two Audi A3s making a U-turn right at the intersection and speeding off in the opposite direction.

…

“A forced emergency assembly at a time like this?”

In the Audi A3, Simpton frowned—right when he was about to catch those two Little Beastmen, the highest assembly order from the Fog Capital Knight Agency had popped up on his phone.

Simpton could only give up the pursuit and head back… In his entire career, including this time, there had only been two of these top-level assembly orders.

And the last one was ten years ago… when they set out to hunt down that great sinner.

…

The yellow Ford Focus finally rolled to a slow stop. Listening to his new car ticking and clattering, Will’s legs felt weak as he pushed the door open and got out.

It’s over… With a serious traffic violation like this, the insurance won’t pay out at all…

Will let out a heavy sigh.

Lale walked over with Oga’s hand in hers and stopped in front of Will. “You don’t understand me, but I still have to thank you for taking care of my brother… We don’t want to drag you into this any further. Let’s leave it at that.”

With that, Lale bowed deeply to Will, then bit her lip, yanked a necklace off her neck, shoved it into Will’s hand, and turned away with Oga in tow.

Will stared, looking down at the necklace in his hand… just some cord strung together, with a pendant polished very smooth—looked like some kind of bone, yet also like some kind of stone ore.

Was this supposed to be compensation?

Will felt like he’d more or less understood what Lale meant. Watching the two kids walk off with those slightly lost steps, he opened his mouth… then in the end, chose to stride quickly after them and block their path.

“?” Lale frowned.

Will could only gesture with his hands. “It’s so late, where are you even going? You don’t want to go to the police station, right… You want to go to that hotel? Do you have someone you know there? I don’t know if the people chasing you will show up again. How about this, I’ll drive you there, okay?”

Lale and Oga exchanged a look. In the end, Lale chose to ignore Will’s gesturing. She grabbed Oga’s hand and simply ran off.

Will hurried after them, but in the blink of an eye, the two kids had vanished. He stood there dazed, then after a long moment gave a wry smile and walked back to his wrecked car, his face twisted like a bitter melon.

…

…

Simpton strode down the corridor, the sound of his leather boots striking the floor echoing crisply—he pushed the door open.

The Knight Agency’s operations conference room… Simpton swept a glance around and saw that before he’d arrived, all the Great Knights of the Fog Capital Headquarters Knight Agency and even the Town-Defending Twelve Knights were already present.

Everyone’s gaze fell on Simpton.

He stepped forward, facing Mr. Pukins. “Sorry I’m late, I was in the middle of pursuing Beastmen…”

But Mr. Pukins waved his hand, cutting off Simpton’s explanation. “It’s fine, sit down, Simpton. You’ve already retrieved most of the Beastmen that went missing. As for the rest, we’ll deal with them later.”

Simpton nodded, then walked to his seat and sat down—there was already a file laid out in front of him—everyone had one in front of them. He hurriedly opened it and started reading.

Perkins cleared his throat. “Simpton, watch and listen at the same time… At present, we’ve already pried out from Red, a high-ranking cadre of ‘Doomsday Myth’, the identities of most of the ‘Doomsday Myth’ members currently active in our country, and we also know the target of their next attack. Everyone, if we fail to stop ‘Doomsday Myth”s operation, our country will face a horrifying catastrophe… So this time, every Knight Agency in the nation will be mobilized! We must wipe out this gang of thugs in one fell swoop before ‘Doomsday Myth”s next assault!”

“Now, I’ll assign tasks to each of you!”

The operation deployment meeting went on for another hour. After receiving their orders, the staff of the Fog Capital Headquarters Knight Agency all left in succession to prepare equipment and supplies for the upcoming mission.

Outside the war room, Gareth walked out, the meeting minutes clipped under his arm, his mind clearly weighed down. Just then, a figure hurried up to him.

“Klein?” Gareth was taken aback. “Didn’t I already approve your leave and tell you to go back and rest?”

“I also received the assembly order…” Klein said quickly. “Mr. Gareth, what exactly happened? Is it related to the attacks tonight? Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Probationary Knight Klein!” Gareth said sternly.

“Sir!” Klein immediately snapped to attention, chest out, head held high.

Gareth said calmly, “My order to you now is… go straight back to your shoe shop and continue your vacation.”

“Sir, my injuries don’t affect my mobility!”

Gareth merely patted Klein on the shoulder, then said nothing more. He turned and left… Klein stood there dazed, his mood rather low.

“Little dog, you’re blocking my way.”

All of a sudden, a shadow appeared right in front of Klein… He looked up to see Simpton, expression indifferent. Klein hurriedly stood at attention again, stepped aside and said respectfully, “Mr. Simpton, my apologies!”

“Mm.” Simpton replied carelessly and walked past Klein… He suddenly stopped, turned back and said, “Oh right… here’s a piece of advice for you, little dog.”

Klein remained in a strict attention posture, chest out, eyes straight ahead. “I’d be glad to hear it!”

“Anyone who can’t guarantee that they’re in their best state on the battlefield… is simply not worthy of having their comrades entrust their backs to them.”

Klein opened his mouth, but Simpton had already walked away… Klein took a deep breath, then bowed deeply toward Simpton’s back. “I’m very grateful for your teaching, Mr. Simpton. I’ll remember it always!”

“Get lost.” Simpton waved his hand casually in response.

…

…

Da-da-da, da-da-da.

The yellow Ford Focus finally pulled up in front of the social work center… Smoke was already pouring out from under the hood.

Will got out of the car, looked at the smoking hood, and gave a wry smile. “OK, I get it, you’ve done your best.”

“Will!”

A man hurried out of the social work center just then, jogging up to Will, worry written all over his face.

“Cheng?” Will was stunned, recognizing who it was. “You… what are you doing here?”

The man—Cheng Yiran—said irritably, “Didn’t you call me, say a bunch of weird stuff and then suddenly hang up? I was a bit worried, so I came to check on you. What happened here… did you get robbed or something? I’ve already called the police, they’re still inside.”

“So I really did call you, huh. I thought no one had picked up.” Will let out a breath and said, “Let’s go inside and talk to the police first… My experience tonight feels like it could be made into a movie. Hey, buddy, have you ever tried doing a movie-style car chase in the streets of the Fog Capital?”

…

In the presidential suite on the seventeenth floor of the hotel.

Boss Luo was sitting obediently, a whiteboard set up in front of him.

As for the Maid, she was now wearing round-framed glasses and had changed into a black suit dress, her legs wrapped nicely in stockings… Since the floor was covered in carpet, she’d skipped the high heels she would normally wear.

The Maid held a marker and a pointer in her hands—the pointer was tapping on the whiteboard. “…In short, that’s how the Celtic Pantheon came to an end. Master, is there anything you still don’t understand?”

Boss Luo smiled faintly, tapped his temple with a finger and chuckled. “Got it, teacher.”

At that moment, the TV to the side cut to breaking news… The Prime Minister appeared on the screen, giving a speech about the terrorist attacks that had occurred at several locations in Great Britain a few hours earlier.

“We will severely punish these thugs…”

Luo Qiu turned the volume down a bit and said casually, “Looks like it’s not over yet…”

“After all, the casualty numbers are painful for both the government and the public.” the Maid said softly. “I’d guess by tomorrow people all over the mainland will be buzzing about it… Hm, the security in this hotel really isn’t up to scratch. Looks like all their effort went into those strange arrangements instead.”

She glanced toward the terrace.

Outside the glass door, two small figures were hanging in the wind… It was that Beastman girl and her younger brother, Oga.

The Beastman girl simply pushed the glass door open and walked in… Oga followed behind her, clutching at his sister’s clothes, looking very uneasy.

“This guest really does like entering rooms this way, doesn’t she.” The Maid stepped back behind her master and stood quietly.

“If I came in the normal way, it wouldn’t be easy to come in at all, would it?” The Beastman girl met the Maid’s gaze without the slightest fear… Why is she in a different outfit again?

So this magician really does have some peculiar hobbies?

“Ms. Lale, congratulations on finding your brother.” Luo Qiu smiled slightly, looking over the boy behind the Beastman girl… A delicate face, features as pretty as a girl’s, made Luo Qiu look twice.

Whether it was Lale or this boy… so these are Beastmen.

Weren’t Beastmen supposed to look like the ones in Blizzard’s games?

As he encountered more and more Non-Humans, Luo Qiu found himself increasingly interested in the forms these Non-Human creatures took. “What a beautiful boy.”

Lale suddenly stepped in front of Oga, eyes full of vigilance.

Luo Qiu didn’t mind and just said casually, “Ms. Lale, now that you’ve already found your brother, what else did you come for?”

Lale frowned. “Aren’t you going to take your payment? I did find my brother thanks to your help, and you also helped him avoid a danger… All in all, I’m very grateful. But since I promised to give you a reward, I won’t go back on my word… Come on, what do you want me to do?”

“Well…” Luo Qiu smiled. “Actually, the moment you found your brother, you’d already paid me. Ms. Lale, you didn’t have to make a special trip back.”

“Already paid? When…”

Lale was stunned. She hadn’t felt anything, but she believed there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world, so after hesitating for a moment, she tentatively asked, “You… you really don’t need me to ac… accompany you for a month?”

“Such a straightforward personality…” Boss Luo couldn’t help laughing and crying.

Looks like all that explanation earlier really was for nothing.