Quade's Madness

Ruined House was not a house, but a place name in Everstar City.

It lay in the Second District of Lower City, bordering the infamous Black Street. Its total area was roughly the size of an entire street.

Tales had heard the Brotherhood elders say that Ruined House had apparently been funded and built by some king more than a century ago. It had once been filled with the kingdom capital's ordinary yet bustling citizens.

It had once possessed a more respectable name too, but no one remembered it anymore.

Yet at some unknown point, it became a place where the underworld gangs met and negotiated—and occasionally went to war with one another.

And so, after many years, the lively residential district, accompanied by blood, blades, and axes, became the abandoned Ruined House it was today, empty of people and left with only stone walls and roof tiles.

It was said that Ruined House had once served as Everstar City's secret dumping ground for corpses. Even today, children growing up happily under the capital's sunlight would be warned:

"If you don't behave, I'll send you to Ruined House."

Thus, Ruined House's reputation was second only to that of the terrifying Black Street.

When the Black Street Brotherhood rose amid the chaos and seized hegemony over the Lower City District's underworld, Ruined House became their headquarters for managing the city's beggar children.

To prevent the beggar children from escaping, in addition to posting thugs to watch them, the Brotherhood dug trenches ten feet wide and fifteen feet deep around all four sides of Ruined House. The trenches were filled with sharpened wooden stakes and rusty nails, with only an iron gate at the front that could be locked from the outside with a large padlock.

It was said that every year, children yearning for freedom tried to cross the Deep Ditch and escape.

Rumor had it that, after countless bodies and attempts, someone had finally dug a secret passage through the Deep Ditch and escaped—but Tales did not know whether it was true, because no one had ever come back.

But at least during the five years Tales had spent there, no Beggar Child had found that legendary secret passage.

Instead, the number of corpses discovered in the Deep Ditch had increased every year alongside the Brotherhood's expanding business.

True to its name, Ruined House consisted of long-abandoned stone dwellings. These forsaken stone houses stood irregularly behind the great stone gate. Some were adjacent to one another, while others stood apart from the rest. There were more than twenty in total, housing dozens of beggar children, and sometimes even over a hundred.

The lucky beggar children were assigned stone houses with wells. The unlucky ones, like those in Tales's Sixth House, could only fetch water from other houses—and that usually came at a price.

In fact, water and food often sparked conflicts among the beggar children. The water jar in Sixth House had been obtained in Tales's second year at Ruined House, after he used every means available to reach an agreement with the neighboring Seventeenth House to fetch water once a week.

Before that—when Nide and Colia had not yet arrived, and there had only been Synti, Lane, Kellit, and two other beggar children who had since vanished without a trace—even drinking water had been a problem.

And now, what Tales and the others heard was the cry of Diego, the "boss" of the neighboring Seventeenth House.

"Carla! No! Somebody, anyone! We didn't! It wasn't us..."

Tales still remembered the fight over water with the neighboring house. He had smashed a stone against Diego's head back then, and Diego's cries had sounded much the same as they did now.

"It wasn't us!"

Painful and terrified.

So much so that most of the beggar children in Sixth House did not react in time.

But even Tales, the calmest among them, instinctively followed the usual rule for beggar children brawls: herd everyone in Sixth House back into their hiding hole, stay out of it, and lie low.

For a long time afterward, Tales regretted that decision bitterly.

Tales glanced at the inconspicuous stone slab in the corner, then rose onto his toes and crept to the wall of Seventeenth House.

He pressed against the wall and listened, staring intently at the dog hole linking Seventeenth House and Sixth House—a symbol of the alliance between the children of the two houses back then—trying to figure out what was happening.

"What happened to Diego and the others? Did they get into another fight?" Nide asked curiously from inside the hiding hole.

Relations between the beggar children were far from harmonious. Houses as united as Sixth House were not the majority in Ruined House.

Many beggar children had been maimed or even killed not by Quade, but by other beggar children.

Children under ten had volatile emotions and no sense of restraint. Before Nide and Colia arrived, one of Tales's former two roommates had died that way.

But Seventeenth House was one of the exceptions in Ruined House. Diego was a brown-skinned, small-eyed, yellow-haired child. He was careless but strong-willed, and at nine and a half, he seemed more of a leader than either Synti or Tales. At the very least, the beggar children of Seventeenth House listened to him, which had made the water war between Sixth House and Seventeenth House so difficult back then.

"It must be Karak from Tenth House! He loves bullying the other houses!" Kellit said hurriedly, as if he had suddenly figured it out.

"Then we have to go help them! We promised Diego!"

The limping Lane started to crawl out of the hiding hole.

But before moonlight could fall on him, Tales shoved Lane back inside.

"It isn't Karak! It's something else!" Tales listened to the screams next door, his expression grim.

The more he listened, the more alarmed he became.

A dull thud rang out, as though a sandbag had been hurled against the wall. But this time, another child's sobbing followed—Ensorra's.

"No, Diego!"

Tales remembered the eight-year-old. During the fight over water, Ensorra had pressed his lips tightly together and stood steadfastly beside Diego.

When the two sides fought, he had clung desperately to Synti's leg, stopping him from approaching the fight between Diego and Tales. If Tales had not quickly grabbed a stone, Sixth House might never have secured a regular water supply.

"Something's wrong."

As the oldest child in the house, Synti's puzzled expression gradually turned grave.

Synti was the Beggar Child who worked with Tales most smoothly and in the greatest tacit understanding. He was silent most of the time, but whenever he spoke, his words carried weight.

"Beg for mercy! Beg! Keep going!"

A deep yet crazed voice came from next door.

In that instant, the children's puzzled solemnity turned wholly into terror.

"I love hearing you little brats beg for mercy!"

Every Beggar Child in Ruined House would recognize that voice. To them, it was as terrifying as a demon from hell.

At least demons would not break a Beggar Child's bones inch by inch, slice open their faces cut by cut, or dunk them upside down into a water jar under the pretense of "quenching your thirst." Would demons really not do that? At least, the beggar children did not know.

It was Quade.

Quade Luoda, the Black Street Brotherhood's beggar children overseer.

The beggar children's nightmare and harbinger of disaster.

"No! Boss Quade! We were wrong! We, aaah..."

"Think you'll dare curse me behind my back again! Dare spread rumors about me again! Damn it! That red-haired woman! Damn it! Baldy! Damn it! Yala Saredon! You all deserve to die!"

As Quade's increasingly incoherent curses continued, blows rained out from next door.

"Help! Help! Diego! Carla! Marita! Get up! Save me!"

"Run! Run toward, ugh..."

Tales's nerves instinctively tightened, and his muscles began to tremble uncontrollably.

Under the moonlight, Ruined House looked horrifying and sinister.

"God! Where are the guards? Mr. Rick? God! He's going to kill us, he's going to kill us all..."

"No! Don't!"

Heart-rending cries came from more than one person.

It took Tales one second to realize exactly what Quade was doing.

He abruptly turned and looked at everyone in Sixth House.

Nide and Colia were shivering inside the hole in the wall. Lane, who had just wanted to rush out and help, was frozen in terror.

Kellit and Synti looked no better. The former's anxious, frightened gaze darted among the others, his mouth opening without a word emerging. The latter was pale, staring fixedly at Tales.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Crack!

"You damned scum! Even you dare laugh at me! Laugh at 'Bloodaxe' Quade Luoda! Even you dare..."

"Ha ha, scream! Why aren't you screaming? Scream for me!"

The crazed roars and agonized wails beside them mingled with the sounds of breaking things—sounds no one wanted to think too deeply about.

Tales knew that panic had spread through Sixth House.

His mind raced as he considered their situation.

Quade was drunk again, beating beggar children again.

No, judging by next door, he was far more than just a little drunk tonight.

No, Quade was a bastard, but he would not be insane enough to kill every Beggar Child in an entire house at once...

Right. Where was Rick?

Where were the guards and patrolling thugs of Ruined House?

Where was the Brotherhood's force stationed at Ruined House?

"Tales, wh-what do we do?" Listening to the tragedy next door, Synti instinctively sensed that something was wrong.

Fine beads of sweat had appeared on his pale face as he kept asking Tales.

"Stay calm. No one makes a sound! We..." Tales frowned, desperately trying to think of a solution.

But before he could finish, a small figure suddenly crawled through the dog hole between Sixth House and Seventeenth House.

Colia let out a soft cry of fright.

Tales's sharp eyes immediately recognized the Beggar Child crawling in from next door: Ensorra, his head covered in blood.

But before Tales could help him up, Ensorra struggled to rise, staggered, and fell hard to the ground again.

"Run! Escape! We have to..."

Ensorra seemed on the verge of collapse, too distraught even to care about the blood covering his face.

Tales and Synti nervously helped him up. The screams and roars still rang in their ears, but Ensorra seemed to have lost his mind, only muttering "Run" with a horrified expression.

Until Tales slapped him awake.

"What happened? Did you offend Quade?"

Ensorra's tears suddenly began to stream down his face.

"Qu-Quade, he's gone mad! He wants to... We're not the only ones. He, he wants all of them... He's going from house to house, one after another, and... and beating anyone he sees, hitting... anyone he sees until they stop breathing..."

Ensorra was incoherent, but it was enough for the beggar children of Sixth House to understand what had happened.

The six little faces turned deathly pale, and even Tales could not stop himself from trembling slightly.

"I heard crying, so I went out to peek. Quade was dragging Larry from Third House. Blood, b-blood, it was all blood... Then he saw me..."

"He grabbed Carla, Carla, and smashed her into the ground. Diego, Diego tried to stop him... Then, he punched him several times. Diego stopped moving... And, and Marita, sob..."

Tales's scalp went numb.

It was not as though he had never seen Quade beat someone. In fact, his back still ached faintly from it.

But most of the time, before someone died, Quade would be stopped by thugs who came running at the noise—though no one in the Brotherhood cared whether those beaten children were left permanently crippled.

"Third House is already f-finished. We too... He was beating Midland just now. I don't know how many more..."

Before the weeping Ensorra could finish, Tales clapped a hand over his mouth!

Everyone's expressions changed as they instinctively looked next door.

They suddenly realized that, at some point, the cries and roars next door had vanished.

Seventeenth House had fallen silent.

As though all the beggar children had fallen into a deep sleep.

Only one harsh sound of breathing remained, slowly moving.

No one failed to understand what that meant.

In Sixth House, nearly every child began to shake.

At that very moment, Tales abruptly turned his head and lowered his voice as much as possible. "Listen, we need to..."

Bang!

With a tremendous crash, Tales instinctively dragged Ensorra behind him.

The door to Sixth House was kicked open.

At the doorway, Quade's swaying figure slowly approached.

That fierce face, twisted with a savage grin, stared at the seven trembling children.

"Run? Where were you running to?"

Everyone in Sixth House was terrified, Tales included.

"Huh? You, you look... look familiar..."

Quade stared at Tales, who stood in front, inspecting him blankly for a while.

"I, I remember you!"

The expression on his face kept changing—from confusion to realization, then savagery, and finally a vicious, gritted-teeth hatred.

"Ah, you're that, that kid Dead Bald caught..."

"It was you! You were the one who talked too much! Because I beat you, right?"

"It had to be you..."

"It had to be!"

At that moment, Tales's heart turned ice-cold.

Rick carefully guided the carriage along the road.

He forced himself to stay calm as he felt the warmth at the back of his neck.

Fortunately, everything was normal.

That Ghost had not appeared.

It was probably busy worrying about Quade.

Ahead, the large Black Street Brotherhood Headquarters building gradually drew closer.

Rick let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"Accountant?"

A familiar voice called out.

Under the torchlight, Layok's face appeared some distance ahead.

The Brotherhood assassin wore a strange expression as he called to Rick.

"Why are you here? This is blade work! With those hands made for counting accounts, you want to join in too?"

Rick froze for a moment.

But as the carriage moved forward, he saw countless flickering torches spread out before the headquarters building.

They belonged to silent figures standing there, each with black cloth—the symbol of the Brotherhood—bound around their bodies.

There were at least several hundred of them.

Rick suddenly realized that almost all the manpower at Black Street Headquarters was here.

By moonlight, he saw his superior, the fat Morris—also one of Everstar City's major bosses in the human trafficking trade—discussing something with several other distinctly outlined figures: a blond giant more than two meters tall, a mysterious figure in a dark red robe, and a large, simple-looking man.

Rick was startled.

He recognized them.

They were several other big shots from the guild.

There were even a few major bosses who normally did not live in Everstar City.

After getting out of the carriage and passing rows of black-clad thugs armed to the teeth, checking everything from axes, short swords, and daggers to spiked clubs, Rick walked straight toward Layok.

"Layok, glad to see—forget it, no more nonsense. What are we doing tonight?"

Rick disliked Layok, just as Layok disliked him. They had to meet often because of work, and both of them silently understood that.

But Layok was the person here who knew the most inside information and could be questioned the fastest.

"The boss didn't tell you?"

Layok glanced at him, curling his lips in disdain.

"The usual rules. Against the Blood Bottle Gang, anything goes except Magic Energy Guns and heavy infantry crossbows..."

The assassin, renowned for his efficiency and ruthlessness, adjusted the curved blade at his waist as if feeling the sharpness within its sheath.

Rick's heart jolted.

The Blood Bottle Gang?

The assassin drew a deep breath and licked his lips with a grin.

"Tonight, we're taking the Red Quarter!"

"Still no news from Yordel?"

Before the fireplace, the gray-haired middle-aged noble asked solemnly. Before him stood an ornate chair.

"Patience, my friend."

"We've waited twelve years. A little longer makes no difference."

The burly figure rose from the chair and picked up a scepter set with a bright blue crystal.

Upon closer inspection, the crystal on the scepter was slowly but steadily flashing with specks of Starlight.

"Our baseless guesses would only mean doubting Yordel's abilities."

"He has the Subflame of the Lamp with him, doesn't he? I believe he'll find it," the burly figure said slowly.

Firelight reflected in his eyes.

"He will succeed, too."

The middle-aged noble bowed deeply.

"I do not doubt Yordel's abilities, but..." He paused and sighed.

"Yordel is calm enough, ruthless enough, and his loyalty to you is unwavering. But what worries me is that he cares about nothing else, just like twelve years ago..."

The middle-aged noble did not continue, and the burly figure did not answer at once.

Holding the scepter, the burly figure walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and gazed at the Great Temple outside, ablaze with lights and radiant splendor.

Even the moonlight could not contend with such brilliance.

"Then go make preparations. Secretly head to the temple at once... Once there is news, depart immediately. There is no need to wait for Yordel's report."

The burly figure spoke slowly.

"I have no reason to doubt Yordel."

"But having another preparation in place is also a good thing."