You Were the Executioner After All

The fog still had not lifted, and he could not see his hand in front of his face.

Cheng Shi had only taken two steps while carrying someone when he heard A'ming shouting anxiously ahead:

"Miss Fang, Brother Cheng, where are you?"

Cheng Shi pricked up his ears and listened carefully for a while. He found that the noisy voices around them seemed to have disappeared. Somewhat surprised, he looked toward where A'ming's voice had come from and felt that this little Assassin's methods were truly clean.

In just this short time, he had killed them all.

Fortunately, the few poor souls who had died without ever meeting them were not the true bodies of the Memory.

"Over here."

Cheng Shi shouted, then lowered himself and quietly slipped away from where he had been.

A'ming groped his way over by following the sound. When he saw no one, the alarm bells in his mind rang loudly. Just as he was about to leave, Cheng Shi grabbed him by the arm.

"Who is it!? Huh? Brother Cheng?"

"Yeah. I was afraid you had been replaced, so I specifically tested you. I didn't expect this, Comrade Assassin. You're pretty nimble."

A'ming rubbed his head awkwardly and asked while looking at the unconscious Fang Shiqing:

"What happened to Miss Fang?"

"Nothing serious. Just a minor problem. I brought her back. Where are the others?"

"They might be behind us. The moment I woke up, I found several berserk dwarves. Every time they attacked, they went straight for the kill. I couldn't react in time, and there was no room to retreat, so I could only... fight back with my life on the line.

"Fortunately, they weren't very tough. They only had some divine power of Filth and Decay on them."

The dwarves had died, but the Memory had not shattered. The players were lucky. These dwarves were not the true bodies of the Memory.

Cheng Shi looked at A'ming thoughtfully.

"You weren't injured?"

"Just lucky. I wasn't."

"Good. Then wait for the fog to clear. War Fog can't last very long."

"Oh, all right. Do you need my help?" A'ming reached out, wanting to help Cheng Shi support Fang Shiqing.

Cheng Shi smiled and refused him.

The two of them sat in a corner and began chatting intermittently.

"How many people were there?"

"Six."

"You dealt with six people in such a short time? Impressive." Cheng Shi did not hold back with his praise, complimenting A'ming so lavishly that A'ming was left dumbfounded.

"After all... I'm an Assassin too. The fog benefits me."

"Since you could deal with them so quickly, why did you arrive so late when we went to the circus in the second act?"

Cheng Shi asked casually while holding the unconscious Fang Shiqing.

That question left A'ming at a loss for words.

A'ming's expression suddenly froze. Before he could speak, Cheng Shi casually added:

"Why do you think Uncle Huang still hasn't arrived?"

A'ming's face worsened. He stammered:

"We don't need him anyway. Isn't it better that he didn't come?"

"You're afraid he'll cause trouble too?"

"Yeah."

Cheng Shi raised his eyebrows and smiled.

"You know he's the Maestro of Lost Rhythms too? Oh~ I get it now. You're the executioner."

The Maestro of Lost Rhythms, the Singer of chaos.

The executioner, the Assassin of Order.

Order and chaos were mortal enemies with opposing faiths.

A'ming's movements froze for an instant. His gaze swept rapidly over Cheng Shi, sharp and irritated, but after only a moment, he returned to his awkward, stammering manner and rubbed his head, not knowing what to say.

The fog was still there, and Cheng Shi had not caught his facial expression, but he already knew the answer in his heart.

"All right, opposing faiths are opposing faiths. What's the big deal? An ancient sage once said that Faith Opposition wasn't caused by us, so there was no need to take on too much of a burden."

Cheng Shi smiled indifferently as he spoke, but his hand reached toward Fang Shiqing in his arms.

A'ming's perception in the fog was clearly stronger than Cheng Shi's. He saw Cheng Shi's hand reaching toward Fang Shiqing's bulging chest, but merely frowned and said nothing.

Before long, new sounds came from within the fog.

"Miss Fa... Fang?"

"Ah~ Boss, save me!"

One voice trembled, while the other was coquettish.

Clearly, nothing had happened to them.

As soon as those two female voices came over, the awkward atmosphere between Cheng Shi and A'ming was shattered. Cheng Shi stood up, dusted off his backside, and said with a smile:

"Everyone's here. Let's regroup."

Just then, the fog slowly began to dissipate.

A'ming stood up as well and turned to look, only to see that Fang Shiqing in Cheng Shi's arms had opened her eyes at some point.

"Miss Fang, you're better?"

"..."

A trace of anger flashed through Fang Shiqing's eyes, but she immediately smiled and nodded.

"I'm fine. Thanks to Cheng Shi, he saved me in time."

The words were pleasant enough, but they sounded faintly gritted through her teeth.

The Fire Keeper matter could not be discussed in front of the others. So even though Fang Shiqing had plenty of complaints about Cheng Shi's way of refusing her, she could not lose her temper now.

The fighters crawling through the darkness were cautious to the extreme. Even the slightest unexpected spark could illuminate their tracks and cause all their efforts to go to waste.

Cheng Shi clearly knew this, so he immediately turned back and smiled.

"Don't you still owe me a word of thanks?"

"You..."

Fang Shiqing almost lost control. She gritted her teeth hard, quickly arranged her facial expression, and then forced out an extremely reluctant smile.

"Thank you. I'll remember this."

"It's nothing. It was just a small effort."

It really had been a small effort. All he needed to do was raise his hand and strike with the edge of it.

The fog gradually dispersed, and the two groups, not far apart, immediately spotted each other.

Everyone walked together. Halfway there, they saw the brutally slaughtered scene all around them.

Six dwarves. Every one of their heads had been chopped off on the spot. Blood covered the ground, gathering into a blurry drawing of a guillotine.

If Cheng Shi had not known that A'ming was the executioner, he truly would not have recognized what the drawing represented.

This was the usual dark amusement of the Grand Inquisition's executioners: using the blood of death-row prisoners to draw the tools that had killed them.

The blood guillotine on the ground was crooked and wobbly, however, clearly showing that its artist was not very practiced.

"Tsk, what ruthless methods."

Xu Lu and Bailing shuddered when they saw the scene. Only Fang Shiqing looked at A'ming thoughtfully and said nothing more.

"Where are we?"

The place where everyone had ended up was a very large room. On the left were more than a dozen beds lined up side by side. On the right were all kinds of worktables. Different sizes of clothing hung from a long rack in front, while several separate small rooms stood behind them.

The place where Cheng Shi and Fang Shiqing had met was clearly one of those rooms.

Fang Shiqing glanced at Cheng Shi several times. Seeing that he was still pretending not to understand anything, she simply let the matter go and frowned in thought.

"It looks like servants' quarters, but it's far too large. It could house more than a dozen servants. I've never seen such large servants' quarters before. To ensure our safety, we'd better change clothes first and then go out to investigate, so we don't clash with anyone outside."

No one objected. They each chose a set of clothes, changed, and followed their lead out of the room.

After confirming that the surroundings were safe and encountering several genuine servants, they established that this really was the servants' quarters.

And there was more than one set of servants' quarters this large.

Because this was Duke Brooks's estate, and the duke was currently holding a grand banquet.

"A banquet?"

The hypnotized servant answered excitedly:

"Yes. The duke invited all the nobles in town and plans to announce a new refugee bill at the banquet. All refugees from Gasmella will be driven out. Our food won't be scarce anymore, and there won't be any fewer jobs!"

"So the true body of the Memory in the previous act was a servant from the duke's estate?"

"Huh? You didn't know? Yorke is the duke's horseman." Cheng Shi helpfully added.

Xu Lu frowned and complained when she heard this:

"Why are you only saying useful information now?"

Cheng Shi was stunned and retorted, "Did you ask?"

"I..."

Xu Lu was furious, but she did not say anything. She merely took a few light steps closer to Fang Shiqing.

"Then why did the dwarves, as refugees, appear at the duke's estate?" A'ming promptly interrupted their confrontation and asked.

"The duke wants to expel the refugees, and the refugees naturally don't want to be driven away. So isn't it obvious why they came here, Boss?"

As he spoke, Cheng Shi looked toward Fang Shiqing, but Fang Shiqing now had no desire to pay him any attention at all.

She had a feeling that Cheng Shi definitely would not reveal anything about the Fire Keeper. Yet she still did not understand why he had refused so decisively.

Moving Heartstrings was not merely a talent for hearing the melodies of people's inner thoughts. It could even vaguely sense another person's wishes and inclinations.

The voice in Cheng Shi's heart had clearly leaned toward accepting, yet he had still refused.

What exactly was this person thinking? How could he go against his own instincts?

She did not understand, and she had no time to figure it out.

Nearly five hours had passed by now, and the countdown showed 7:14 remaining. They had to hurry, because there were still several acts of the later Memory that they knew nothing about.

"A personal domain is different from a public place. Causing trouble will quickly lead to a disturbance, especially when this is a duke's estate.

"We need an appropriate identity. Being servants is convenient, but there are still many places we can't access in that role.

"From here on, we'll split up. Hide yourselves and see if you can obtain a new identity. We'll meet over there in at most an hour."

As she spoke, Fang Shiqing raised her hand and pointed toward a small corridor.

"Remember, stay away from the servants' quarters. We haven't dealt with the bodies inside, and they could easily trigger a chain reaction. The closer we are, the easier it will be for people to notice something abnormal. Now, move out, and good luck."

Everyone dispersed. Before leaving, Fang Shiqing gave Cheng Shi one more look.

Unfortunately, Cheng Shi was not looking at her. He was looking at A'ming.

He watched A'ming walk away in the direction farthest from the servants' quarters.

After quite some time, when none of his companions remained in sight, a playful smile curved across Cheng Shi's face. He then strolled back to the place where they had just been transported.

The place everyone had avoided...

The servants' quarters.