Inside the card room, Byrne was looking at his hand. This hand wasn't good; he needed to adjust his strategy to avoid a humiliating defeat.
A knock sounded, the waiter opened the door, Byrne looked into the doorway.
Corotty stood in the doorway, his body filling the door frame. His tuxedo accentuated his round belly, and his bow tie hung askew around his neck. He raised his hand, as if to steady the door frame, or perhaps just to lift it up.
" Corotty, come here—" Councilor Ismondton turned around.
Before he could finish speaking, Corotty interrupted, "Mr. Byrne, there's something urgent."
As he spoke, he strode toward Byrne, his steps unsteady, his body swaying as if he might fall at any moment.
Byrne frowned. " Corotty, what's wrong?"
"Mr. Byrne, there is something urgent," he repeated.
Councilor Ismondton swallowed hard, watching Corotty walk past him.
Corotty appeared to be smiling, but the smile didn't even seem forced; it looked more like the result of his facial muscles being forcibly pulled together.
Councilor Ismondton pulled his wife to her feet, instinctively taking a step back towards the door. " Corotty?"
Corotty continued walking, and as he passed Carlo, he suddenly swayed and fell forward.
Carlo casually withdrew his outstretched foot. "Can't you even watch where you're going?"
Corotty fell to the ground without uttering a cry of pain or complaint. Her body writhed abnormally beneath her dress, the fabric bulging and denting as if something were crawling underneath.
Byrne also stood up. "... Corotty?"
"Mr. Byrne, there's something..."
"There's something urgent." Carlo interrupted Corotty's repetition, grabbing Byrne's arm. " Asa, take the men out."
Isaac, who had followed, rushed to the Ismondton' side, grabbing one of their arms. Before Councilor Ismondton could react, he exclaimed, "Wait, what—"
Isaac pulled the two of them toward the door, and Carlo also pulled Byrne out of the room, politely closing the door behind them.
A few seconds later, a nauseatingly loud explosion erupted from inside the card room.
Slurry seeped from the cracks in the door, followed by maggots, which swarmed out from under the cracks and along the edge of the door frame, crawling up the walls, submerging the carpet, wriggling and piling up.
Mrs. Ismondton covered her mouth, and Councilor Ismondton also gagged a few times.
Byrne's face turned ashen. "This is..."
"Maggots," Carlo said succinctly.
" Corotty..."
"Dead, or rather, long dead. Looks like someone gave you a big gift."
Isaac suppressed a wave of nausea. "Boss, what's going on?"
"If I had to guess..." Carlo glanced at the maggots still crawling out from under the door crack, "Someone killed Corotty, turned him into a bomb, and then detonated it remotely after coming up here."
Byrne took a deep breath. "You knew all along?"
"If I had known beforehand, I wouldn't have let him in," Carlo said. "It's already unusual for Corotty to be late and stand you up, and now that he's here, he seems so strange, so I tripped over him. I couldn't just wait until he was right in front of you before yelling at him, that would be so impolite."
The club waiter, noticing a group of people gathered outside the door, approached with a puzzled look. Upon seeing the scene around the door, his expression changed. "What happened?"
Carlo raised his chin. "Don't ask any more questions. Tell your manager that Lord Byrne, the City Police Force chief, is now in charge here. Also, have the Joint Investigation Bureau and the City Police Force send people over."
The waiter nodded tremblingly and stumbled back.
The maggots had already started crawling in all directions. Carlo said, "You guys go find a room to rest first. Asa and I need to deal with these little guys that have escaped. Otherwise, if they spread to every corner of the club, tomorrow's headlines in Vista will be 'Maggot Infestation at Oak Club '."
Byrne didn't ask any more questions and led the Ismondton to the lounge at the other end of the corridor. Isaac turned to Carlo: "Boss, is there any way to control this thing?"
Carlo pulled out a die. "Let's try the simplest method first."
"Before I open this door, no maggots may leave this card room; those that have already escaped must return. Check value 40."
52, Verification failed.
Carlo clicked his tongue. "Alright, you give it a try."
Isaac took the dice, the dice rolled, and then stopped.
68. Verification failed.
"Two losses in a row, bad luck tonight. Luckily, we didn't continue playing this hand." Carlo shook his head.
"What should we do then?" Isaac scanned the corridor. If left unattended, maggots would cover the entire floor in another ten minutes.
"Try another approach. Use your Spirit Mediumship ability to check and see if you can summon a helper from the Wilderness, the kind that specializes in dealing with maggots."
"... Does such a thing really exist?"
"Why don't you try and see?"
"Should we make the testing requirements more precise?" Isaac thought of the turtle he had summoned the first time.
"Let's see what we can summon first. Hmm, can Isaac Lessing summon from the Wilderness a being that can manage maggots, is docile, and willing to obey a temporary contract? Check value 30, Spirit Mediumship bonus 15, final value 45."
Isaac threw the dice, and the two dice landed on the carpet in the corridor. They rolled a few times before stopping, next to a wriggling maggot.
27. Inspection successful.
"Take it away quickly, or it'll need to be disinfected." Carlo was more concerned about the dice not being contaminated by maggots than the test results.
Isaac picked up the dice, looked at Carlo, and paused for a moment.
A human-shaped shadow had appeared beside Carlo, its outline indistinct, hovering half a foot above the ground, swaying slightly...
It looks like it's haunted.
"Boss, who's that next to you...?"
Carlo tilted his head. "Isn't this what you summoned?"
"The helpers I summoned..." Isaac found these things even stranger than a room full of maggots.
"Yes, since the test was successful, it means it meets the requirements. It's specifically for managing maggots, so let it get to work."
Isaac hesitated for a moment, then spoke to the figure, "Uh, hello? Could you manage these maggots running around everywhere?"
The figure swayed slightly, as if in response, before drifting towards the maggots emerging from under the door.
It stopped above the maggots, and the maggots that were crawling around suddenly stopped, then turned around and gathered in the direction of the figure.
Isaac breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed he could indeed control the maggots.
Then he froze, because not only those that had escaped through the crack in the door, but even those inside the room began frantically squeezing out from the crack, forming a writhing river on the carpet.
The maggots piled up in layers, overlapping with the human figure, as if the figure were shaping a new body.
A few minutes later, the figure had transformed into a humanoid form made of maggots, complete with limbs, though still rather rough, with subtle wriggling movements on its surface, as if the inhabitants inside the body were still adjusting their positions.
Looking at this "person" made of maggots, Isaac felt his sanity being assaulted. "Isn't this effect a bit too much...?"
"You summoned them, so you're responsible," Carlo said.