Working with Miss Susie

Two days later, at dusk.

Cartel Avenue, Factory District.

Raphael arrived by carriage and got out in front of an abandoned factory.

With a long, narrow bag slung over his back, he glanced down both sides of the long street. The place was utterly secluded, without a soul in sight.

Raphael spoke, though even he did not know whether he was talking to himself or the air around him. "Here we go."

As he spoke, he nimbly vaulted over the courtyard wall and hurried toward the factory building.

This was where Raphael met Bevin, and he had been here several times already. He found a broken window and jumped inside the factory.

After glancing around the dilapidated building, Raphael hurried to the second floor, stopped outside a room, and pushed open a somewhat rotten wooden door.

Bevin was not in the room!

Raphael's gaze sharpened. Had Bevin noticed something and decided not to come?

Just then, Bevin's cold voice suddenly rang out from the end of the corridor. "What are you carrying on your back?"

It was indeed Bevin, the Indulgence Faction member in his thirties, with a pale face and dark circles under his eyes, looking as though he had not rested properly in a long time.

Raphael silently breathed a sigh of relief. Bevin was merely wary of the weapon on his back, not suspicious of him.

Raphael took off the long, narrow bag and patted it, wearing a slightly crazed smile. "This is a new-model Submachine Gun I acquired recently. It can fire continuously, and it isn't as cumbersome as a machine gun. Very handy on the Southern Continent."

Bevin remained at the end of the corridor, quietly watching rather than approaching.

As Raphael spoke, he took out the metal gun. "It's a little heavy for ordinary people. They need a shoulder strap to support it, but a Beyonder can handle this weight easily.

"This is the magazine. It goes in here."

Raphael smiled. "It can fire forty rounds in a row. I tested it yesterday. It isn't as powerful as a rifle, but it packs a much bigger punch than a revolver.

"No one would dare use something like this in Backlund, but on the Southern Continent, you could spray your enemies with bullets... heh heh heh..."

Seeing that the magazine had not even been loaded, Bevin finally lowered his guard and strode over, chuckling as well. "I can practically see the blood bursting from their bodies."

Then he asked, "Did you really find a lead on Maric?"

After establishing contact with Raphael, Bevin had given him a long-term assignment: find Maric.

In fact, Bevin's own assignment was to find both Maric and Sharron. But since ordinary people had no way of coming into contact with Sharron, he had only tasked Raphael with finding Maric.

"Of course," Raphael said. "My main reason for coming is to report on Maric. Didn't I also mention in my letter that I had a gift for you?"

As he spoke, he handed the bag to Bevin.

This dispelled Bevin's doubts completely. A hint of cruelty entered his eyes as he smiled. "I like this weapon very much. And I think it could actually be used in Backlund, too."

As he spoke, Bevin picked up the Submachine Gun in one hand and examined it. Then he took out the magazine and rather clumsily tried to fit it into the slot.

Beyonders of the Prisoner Pathway were not like those of the Criminal Pathway, who were proficient with all manner of killing weapons, whether they had seen them before or not.

"It goes in like this," Raphael prompted. "Let me show you."

With the two of them standing so close, Bevin was confident that even if Raphael held a firearm, he could twist his head off before he pulled the trigger.

So Bevin readily handed the gun back. Raphael deftly locked the magazine into place. "Then pull here, release the safety, and you're ready!"

On the word "ready," Raphael suddenly raised his voice.

Bevin's spirituality immediately sensed an intense warning of danger. But in the next instant, his eyes went blank, and he froze in place.

Naturally, Raphael had not come alone. Audrey had said in her earlier letter that "Miss Susie" would help him hypnotize Bevin, but as a test, Raphael had to kill Bevin himself.

"Miss Susie" had arrived at the Mafia's headquarters at noon to meet Raphael.

Although the lady remained "invisible" throughout, Raphael had discussed his plan with her and knew very well that "Miss Susie" was following right behind him.

The instant Bevin was hypnotized and his eyes went blank, Raphael raised the gun, aimed at Bevin's left eye, and pulled the trigger.

Rat-tat-tat!

The rapid gunfire startled the birds that had made their homes in the factory. They immediately flapped their wings and scattered, screeching.

Expressionless, Raphael emptied all forty rounds, blasting Bevin's head apart, before calmly changing the magazine.

Although Werewolves possessed exceptional regenerative abilities, their brains and hearts remained weak points.

Still, the tenacity of a Werewolf's life force surprised Raphael somewhat. Even with his head blasted apart and his body falling backward onto the floor, Bevin did not die immediately. His nails suddenly lengthened, and he actually tried to transform.

Raphael immediately stepped forward and fired another forty rounds into him.

Rat-tat-tat!

This time, Bevin was as dead as could be. Everything above his teeth had been shot away, and more than a dozen bullets had embedded themselves in the floor. Blood, brain matter, and fragments of flesh and bone were everywhere.

A few drops of blood had splashed onto Raphael's face as well, lending a savage look to his already somewhat crazed expression.

He calmly loaded another fresh magazine and scrutinized Bevin's twitching body.

Susie found the bloody scene rather difficult to stomach. She took a deep breath and said, "Actually, Bevin was already dead when he fell. His attempt to transform was only a stress response. It would have stopped soon enough. There was no need to shoot him again."

Raphael smiled instead. "The first magazine was my thanks for his threats and for using me. The second was genuine gratitude. I was thanking him for the characteristic he provided me."

Susie was taken aback. I may be a dog, but even I can tell that those two instances of 'thanks' meant completely different things! So why express both kinds of 'gratitude' in exactly the same way?

Then she thought somewhat helplessly, Why did I bother pointing that out to this lunatic? Why am I trying to make sense of a lunatic's thoughts?

Only after the Beyonder Characteristic in Bevin's body began to coalesce did Raphael unhurriedly put away his gun and check the scene for any clues that might lead back to him. By the time he finished, the Werewolf Beyonder Characteristic had already separated from the body.

Raphael collected the characteristic and calmly left the scene with Susie.

Inside the carriage, Raphael wiped the blood from his face as he told Susie, "Please tell Miss Audrey that I expect the Indulgence Faction to track me down in two or three days. You'll need to make preparations in advance."

"Don't worry about that," Susie replied. "Miss Sharron will come to meet you tomorrow."