EnCoffin Me Chapter 35
Translated by Q the Panda (ko-fi)
Chapter 35
Alexio coughed so hard he almost couldn't stop. Finally, holding half a fruit, he exclaimed in shock, “Why would the Holy Temple reach out to you… No! how did they find you so quickly?!”
He still had to go find information about the Association of Dark Creatures himself, yet this lunatic had people showing up at his door directly. The gap between them was just too much.
Although Lucius' face remained expressionless, Alexio could still see a hint of smugness in it. Alexio tightened his grip on the fruit, telling himself to figure out the full story first before throwing a punch.
“I think it was Zhu Heng who played a part in it,” Lucius said. “All along, he was the only one I let slip… that I wasn't quite adjusting well to the current situation.”
This was his second move. He had always maintained the appearance of someone who couldn't adapt to the current protected status of dark creatures. It was a way to test Zhu Heng and the Holy Temple behind him. If the Holy Temple of this era had inherited even a trace of the attitude from ten thousand years ago, someone would reach out to him before long. He had estimated it would take one or two months, but it had happened much sooner than expected.
There was another thing. Zhu Heng had been trying his best to provide psychological counseling, hoping he could adapt to this world quickly and develop some affection toward dark creatures. That part had deviated from Lucius' expectations as well.
Lucius glanced at Alexio beside him. Zhu Heng's attitude toward Alexio was also extremely kind, showing concern at every turn. If that was all just an act, then this man was far too terrifying.
After Lucius finished speaking, Alexio stayed quiet for a while. Truthfully, even now, he hadn't sensed a trace of malice from Zhu Heng. Zhu Heng was gentle and interesting, liked being around dark creatures, and was dedicated to his duties as a doctor. Alexio had already tried to rely less on his emotional-sensing abilities and instead judge Zhu Heng purely based on years of experience. The result he arrived at was still the same as it had been at the start—
Zhu Heng was a good person.
“I actually think that if you had deliberately shown that kind of attitude, Zhu Heng would have stopped you from contacting the Holy Temple,” Alexio said.
“But in reality, the Holy Temple contacted me more than a month earlier than I expected.”
“That makes this guy even scarier… No!” Alexio, who had been murmuring in a mix of lament and admiration, suddenly sat up straight. He caught a fleeting inspiration in his mind.
“Maybe… Zhu Heng has already tried to stop it.” The more he said it, the more certain he felt. He turned to Lucius. “Zhu Heng must really care about dark creatures. So when he found out your stance, even as a member of the Holy Temple, he did his best to prevent you from contacting them. But ironically, that only provoked the Holy Temple.”
“So the Holy Temple bypassed Zhu Heng and contacted me first,” Lucius finished the sentence.
“Exactly. I think that theory holds. Otherwise, why wouldn't the Holy Temple play it safe and try to win you over through Zhu Heng?”
Lucius thought quietly for a moment, then nodded in agreement. He even handed Alexio an apple and took one for himself.
The vampire and the saint sat on the sofa, munching on apples, deciding to cooperate tonight and uncover the Holy Temple's entire line of thinking!
By the time Zhu Heng finished his day's work, it was already late into the night, much later than the center's stipulated closing time.
But there was no other way. The siren's cough and asthma wouldn't improve anytime soon, and it couldn't tolerate strong medication. The medical department could only follow conventional treatment, adding whatever medicine possible to the shallow water where the siren rested. Thinking back now, Zhu Heng still felt uneasy, but his working hours had long been exceeded. He had no choice but to carefully instruct the night shift staff before sighing and preparing to leave.
He passed through the corridor lined with floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside, flames breathed out by sea serpents illuminated the scene. The fire spread across the surface of the sea without ever dying out, brilliant and dazzling, breathtaking to behold.
Beautiful… dark creatures…
Zhu Heng still remembered the first time he encountered a dark creature. At that time, his body was flawed. He couldn't properly regulate his internal balance and suffered from photopathy. During that period, he lived in agonizing, relentless brightness, each breath burning fiercely. The cries of his loved ones came intermittently from beyond the light, sometimes turning into shouts of alarm. He knew then that his illness had attracted mutated light creatures again, harming those around him.
He was a shen, meant to take away the suffering of others and burn it away under the sun, yet he had become a source of suffering for others.
He felt pained by this.
Then that dark creature came to his side, a fallen angel with elegant, pitch-black wings. His scorching hand touched the tip of the fallen angel's wing, and the searing light slowly faded from his body. When he opened his eyes, the black-haired fallen angel smiled at him.
So beautiful… dark creatures… how beautiful…
He wanted to spend the rest of his life repaying this grace of salvation.
But—
His backup lightbrain beeped twice softly. Zhu Heng lowered his head, saw the caller's identity, and immediately rejected the call. Only after returning to his own house did he replace it with a special communicator and redial.
“Theo.” The voice on the other end said something. “Do you really have to contact him now, when his stance is still unclear?
“It was a decision made based on my own judgment. Now is not the best time.”
He argued with the person named Theo on the other side. Neither gave in at first, but eventually Theo relented, saying he wouldn't attempt to contact the resurrected saint anytime soon.
Sensing the tension, Theo shifted the conversation to another topic.
“Really? She's fully recovered and can be sent to the conservation center soon?” Zhu Heng couldn't help but smile, genuinely pleased by the news.
He ended the call and deleted the related records one by one. Then a video came through. Zhu Heng opened it to see a water nymph floating in a pool, playfully blowing a stream of bubbles toward him. He watched the video several times with a smile before reluctantly deleting it.
Zerita's recovery comforted Zhu Heng and strengthened his resolve.
For now, the Holy Temple must not get close to the resurrected saint. The latter's views hadn't fully changed yet. It was too dangerous.
With the anticipation of seeing the water nymph in a few days and the exhaustion from a long day's work, he fell asleep. In his dream, the water nymph happily swung a ring made of star-shaped shells, smiling at him without a care in the world.
A night of sweet dreams.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Theo, who had hung up the communication, leaned back in his chair. Not far away, the pool's surface glittered softly. His subordinate signaled that the video had been taken. Theo raised his hand to lift the mental control, and the water nymph immediately darted to the far side of the pool, curling up in a trembling ball at the bottom.
“Zhu Heng isn't as useful anymore. Perhaps he discovered the incident last time where we used him to create a disturbance in the military base,” Theo said slowly, his heterochromatic eyes, one purple, one black, showing a faint, lazy smile at the corner. “It doesn't matter. Once Zerita is brought into the conservation center under his care, whether he lives or dies is of irrelevant.”
“Besides…” His expression shifted to one of displeasure, making the subordinate standing before him tremble slightly.
“Have we gotten the footage from the griffin training ground yet?”
The subordinate immediately dropped to his knees.
“Sir, Pupil is guarding it with utmost vigilance. We have been unable to obtain any relevant materials.”
Pupil. It was Pupil again. Damn that alchemical lifeform. Theo waved his hand irritably. The subordinate, feeling as if granted a pardon, respectfully stepped back several paces. But as he turned, he suddenly felt the world spin wildly, then everything went black. The headless corpse fell heavily, blood splattering into the pool. The water nymph beneath let out a silent scream and curled even tighter.
“Don't be afraid, little thing,” Theo soothed gently. “He's useless. I won't kill you. You still have great use.”
Tears mixed with the blood in the water. Large bright patches of light flickered on and off on the water nymph's slender arms wrapped around her head.
After teasing the little creature in the pool a moment longer, Theo heard his lightbrain beep. Looking down, he saw it was the contact number for the resurrected saint. He raised an eyebrow, his interest piqued immensely. He picked up a book and began decoding the agreed-upon cipher.
【Lucius: I've just sent the vampire away so we can be alone. Let's continue our earlier conversation.】
Theo's interest grew stronger as his fingers lightly tapped the screen, clearly enjoying himself.
A resurrected hunter, one whose ultimate goal was to hunt dark creatures—
Would bring him tremendous advantage!
“You got the punctuation wrong,” Alexio pointed at the screen. “There should be a comma before ‘so we can be alone.’”
“This works too,” Lucius said, unwilling to change it.
“A comma there would add emphasis,” Alexio argued confidently. “It emphasizes your situation, making the other party completely lower their guard, like… ‘The vampire's not here anymore, so tell me anything directly. It's super safe!’”
“Then by your logic, I should add a comma after ‘I've just’ too, to stress that it's now, not past or future.”
“That's a bit wordy…”
“……”
Was it not wordy to add a comma before ‘so we can be alone’?!
“Anyway, I think it should have one. Better to be precise than lazy.”
“I don't think it needs one.”
“Adding one more won’t make you lose a bite of your meal. At worst, I promise I won’t secretly dig up your carrots anymore, alright?”
This time, Lucius seriously considered it. But his pride was at stake. How could he let the vampire dictate things just for some carrots!
He fell into deep thought.
Meanwhile, Theo, having enjoyed himself, was about to reply when he suddenly noticed the other party had recalled the previously sent message.
【Lucius retracted a message.】
【Lucius: I've just, sent the vampire away, so we can be, alone. Let's continue, our earlier, conversation.】
Theo: …?
Little friend, do you really like commas?
Alexio looked at the final message sent and fell silent. The sentence was so full of commas, it was downright ridiculous. He wasn't sure what the other side would think.
“Maybe you should… explain it a little?”
Lucius shot him a glance that said, Why are you making such a fuss? Then he went back to typing his explanation.
【Lucius: I'm not good, at typing, so it's, like, this.】
【Theo: ……】
Don’t separate every word with commas!