Lily's Killing Intent

Lily followed the antlers, wandering around the vast architectural space, exploring its spatial structure.

It looks square, but it's like a maze—each room has doors or passageways on all four sides. However, there are almost no rooms that lead to all four directions; they mostly lead to two or three.

According to the antlers, this appears to be a common architectural style during the period of the Giant Dynasty. There are no L-shaped corridor corners; the entire building consists entirely of square and rectangular rooms.

It is said that this is because giants have blind spots in their vision, making them vulnerable to ambushes when passing around corners.

The sturdy walls, combined with the labyrinthine routes, would force large groups to disperse and be compressed into small, narrow clusters. The giants, however, disdained using traps; otherwise, Lily felt that traps alone would have been enough to wipe out a large number of people.

In conclusion, the giants may indeed not be ambushed or attacked.

Because Lily was very aware that the antlers were lost—they had passed the same room three times already, but the antlers were completely unaware that they were lost.

Lily, on the other hand, gradually came to understand the path ahead.

The reason for getting lost is simple. It seems the giants' craftsmanship wasn't very good, resulting in walls of varying thickness. They didn't build the entire structure and then divide it into individual rooms. Instead, they likely built room by room, expanding outwards to form a single building.

This is why the four walls of the same room may not even be of the same thickness. This results in some rooms being misaligned—turn left, turn left, turn left, turn left, and you should have gone around in a circle, but you can't end up back in the original room.

Lily's [Silken Thread Perception] was making the building's outline increasingly clear in her mind. Once she could sense how thick the wall was, she wouldn't get lost here.

While they were taking a detour, Lily struck up a conversation with the antlers, posing as "Mr. Gray."

After Lily expressed her curiosity about the Round Table Hall, she keenly sensed that... the antlers seemed to regard her as a member of the Strangulation Gang.

It's possible that Lily's strangulation techniques looked exceptionally skilled, and given that the Lloyd District gangs had a large number of low-level superhumans on the Path of Love and the Path of Adaptation, they were mistaken for her.

After that, the antlers went to great lengths to imply that he had an inseparable connection with Lily's "organization above her head".

He could only be referring to Lloyd's, Lily thought.

Although Lily didn't understand how to complete the mission, she was able to keenly sense the antlers' intentions.

Besides trying to get closer and build rapport, he was also testing Lily's identity... If "Mr. Gray" really was a member of the Strangulation Gang, then he would definitely know that the people in charge of the Strangulation Gang were Lloyd's.

Lily, of course, had no contact with these forces. But fortunately, when Iver Lloyd's's, Lily accompanied him as his personal maid throughout the process.

On the way back, Iver had already told her about the relationship between the various gangs in Lloyd District and Lloyd's's of London.

Therefore, Lily did not admit to being a member of the Strangulation Gang, but instead boldly went a step further—she declared herself a member of Lloyd's and gave the name of a high-ranking official whose code name was very similar to hers. To avoid exposing Iver, she specifically chose someone else whom Iver did not know.

"... Ms. Gray-Green?"

Antlers clearly recognized the person, and he replied naturally, "I'm not very familiar with her, after all, she mainly manages the private lending business, and is also responsible for managing the small gangs in Lloyd District, and running her own casinos and nightclubs—am I right? "However, I have a very good relationship with your Vice President Boca... you could even call them close friends."

"Then I guess you must be a minister."

Mr. Gray's deep voice came from the void. "Vice President Boca has hinted multiple times that he has a close relationship with a certain minister. And you are so familiar with the Round Table Hall..."

"No need to test me," Antlers laughed heartily. "I am the Drost."

—Since they're from Lloyd's of Lloyd's, they're one of us.

He dared to participate in the New Moon Ritual, and doesn't seem like a fool who can't see his own limitations... He even knows Ms. Gray-Green. Judging from his codename, he seems to have a good relationship with Ms. Gray-Green. He's very likely one of her protégés.

"Gray-Green" is no pushover.

As a transcendent being at the peak of the Fourth Level, she is essentially Avalon's strongest assassin. Although she is now middle-aged and her physical abilities have declined slightly, her experience has become richer, and she has become more cunning. This makes her even more difficult to deal with.

She also possesses considerable dirt on the ministers of the Round Table Hall, so when she encounters trouble, she doesn't need to take matters into her own hands; she can simply use their influence to solve the problem.

No wonder "Mr. Gray" wanted to ask me about these things. He probably wanted to take the information back to curry favor with Gray-Green.

This "Mr. Gray" should at least be a mid-level manager at Lloyd's's, and his First Path strength is probably around the Third Level. Although this is his first Promotion Ritual in Path of Adaptation, his skill in Path of Adaptation is clearly more refined than that of a normal newcomer.

He is very likely a disciple personally trained by Gray-Green, who inherited the mysterious skills she possessed.

Gray-Green's strengths lie in her unparalleled stealth abilities and her exquisite poisoning skills.

Originally, Deer Antlers had planned to have Gray-Green kill his secretary to silence her. However, Ms. Gray-Green was busy with other matters recently and therefore did not accept the order.

He just hadn't expected the Iris's spies to be so quick. Before he could even issue the mission, they had already killed Secretary Raff and, incidentally, exposed his involvement in smuggling dangerous goods.

Fortunately, he usually had a decent image, and he also had dirt on many people in the Round Table Hall. This allowed him to barely stabilize the situation. But even so, he had to stop.

If he causes any more trouble, he might really be in real trouble.

With this in mind, he decided to befriend Mr. Gray and then use that connection to get in touch with Ms. Gray-Green. Next time something like this happened, he would immediately notify Ms. Gray-Green to clean up the mess.

As the kingdom's Minister of Trade, he was exceptionally skilled at leveraging other people's networks. A seemingly insignificant person could, after only two or three intermediaries, potentially connect with useful individuals he would normally find difficult to reach.

That's why it's best not to offend anyone if possible. That's the art of multi-pronged betting.

But upon hearing what the antlers said, Mr. Gray fell silent.

After a long pause, he cautiously inquired, "What is your full name? What is your secretary's name? What is the name of your illegitimate child?"

This is to confirm one's identity.

Upon hearing these words, the deer antlers smiled.

Upon hearing the question, he immediately understood Mr. Gray's intentions. He was also certain that Mr. Gray must be from Lloyd's, and was working for Ms. Gray-Green! "I am Charles Drost, and my chief private secretary is John Laf, who was recently assassinated by Iris's spies... the same person I contacted Ms. Gray-Green to assassinate through Vice President Boca. It's just that Ms. Grey has been too busy lately, which caused the slight delay."

"As for illegitimate children... in fact, I don't have any illegitimate children. I only have one illegitimate daughter, the child of a prostitute. That was one of the few times I was deceived, and it's a disgrace to me."

"I've forgotten her name; that prostitute gave it to her. She should be working as a servant in Moriarty's household now."

Deer Antlers said seriously, "That prostitute is a madwoman, and she even wanted me to marry her... It took me quite a bit of effort to get rid of her before. That was also the first business deal I did with Ms. Gray-Green."

This is the secret hidden behind the three questions mentioned by "Mr. Gray".

Whether it was the "secretary" or the "illegitimate child," both were targets he had commissioned Ms. Gray-Green to assassinate.

There are two possibilities that Mr. Gray didn't know that it was actually an illegitimate daughter, not a son—one is that Ms. Gray-Green didn't mention the details to them, and the other is that he deliberately made a mistake to confirm whether he was the real Drost.

The antlers continued, "That girl has now been taken by her master to the Royal Law University as an auditor. She may now have contact with my granddaughter... Just in case, I would like to ask Ms. Gray-Green to kill her as well."

"Last time I softened a little and didn't accept the 'package' that Ms. Gray-Green offered. But I have to say, I regret it now. It's best to let her die quietly, without anyone finding out that she was murdered. Let the Moriarty Family give her a proper burial."

"After you leave, report this to Ms. Gray-Green. I need to see news of her death within a month, after which I will transfer the money to the agreed account."

The deer antlers were not worried at all about being deceived and having their information revealed in a dream.

There are barriers to using intelligence. Not just anyone can use it.

Upon waking from a dream, one inevitably forgets many things... Knowledge gained in dreams cannot be verified using lie detectors, and therefore is insufficient as credible evidence.

Even searching through memories, it's impossible to find anything related to the Dream Realm.

On the black market for the supernatural, pamphlets are often sold. These contain accounts of what they have seen and heard in the Dream Realm. Some of these may indeed contain lost secrets, but most are just wild claims.

Most people's writing is not very good; it's incoherent and some even sound like rambling. The content is also mixed with a lot of details that were missed due to blindness or forgetfulness, people who make unfounded inferences despite poor thinking, exaggeration and artistic embellishment of details, filling in things they clearly didn't see, and some people even deliberately make mistakes to cover up secrets.

This kind of thing won't fetch a high price. It certainly doesn't qualify as evidence or leverage.

Let alone Mr. Gray of Lloyd's's, he wouldn't be afraid even in front of Red Lady and Inspector Gordon.

At the level of Minister Drost, there's nothing that can be done about suspicion without solid evidence. Even if solid evidence is obtained, it might not be useful—as long as he's still useful to Queen Sophia, and as long as the Round Table Hall doesn't want him dismissed, he'll at most receive a reprimand from Her Majesty the Queen.

Therefore, placing an order in a dream is the safest option. And the Promotion Ritual is the simplest way to enter the Dream Realm.

Whether it's a smuggling order to the King or a murder order to Mr. Gray, without evidence, there is no evidence. No evidence will be left behind from these conversations, and the credibility of any retelling by those who overheard them cannot be guaranteed.

"I will report to Ms. Gray-Green."

Mr. Gray's voice became lower and colder.

Just then, a heart-wrenching howl suddenly came from afar.

That wasn't a scream of pain from being attacked... it was more like the scream of a heartbroken man, or a gambler who had lost everything.

—That was the sound of "Thunder"!

"Let's go take a look."

The deer antlers immediately became serious and gave a low command.