"Your Excellency Medici, I'm back."
After a brief silence, words formed in the dust on the ground:
"Have you collected all the blood?"
Edward took out the test tube containing Helene's blood. "I'm only missing the blood of a direct descendant of Einhorn."
The dust on the ground suddenly twisted, and the handwriting grew ugly:
"You collected blood from my descendants by wiping them out, but you only took this little from Sauron's descendants?"
Edward was speechless for a moment. "Probably because... there aren't many descendants of the Sauron Family left alive. It took me tremendous effort to find this."
"Hahahahaha! Good! Good riddance!"
"Medici, what the hell are you so happy about? This brat killed off all your descendants."
Edward hurriedly said, "I didn't! That wasn't me! Don't make things up."
The two styles of handwriting traded barbs in the dust for quite some time before finally settling down again. "Leave the blood of Sauron's descendant. Once you find the last kind, you can have the Card of Blasphemy."
"But, Your Excellency Medici, will you really give me the Card of Blasphemy?"
"Of course! I have no use for the thing."
Edward shrugged. "But that wasn't what you said last time, after you thought I'd left."
"Tch, crafty brat. What do you plan to do, then? Sign a contract with me?"
"Hmm, I imagine it would be hard to find a contract capable of binding you."
"Then stop wasting words."
The words on the ground seemed to gloat. "I heard a term from someone who broke in before: sunk cost. You've already gone to so much trouble, and you're only one step away. Wouldn't giving up now be too much of a waste?"
"True."
Edward sighed and set down the test tube. "All right! I'll get the blood of