13 Mink Street

Chapter 134: Awakening

It was already very late, but Karon was still leaning against the headboard of his bed while reading the newspaper. Despite telling Alfred that they should rest first and that Pu’er and Kevin would return on their own, Karon still could not fall asleep before they returned.

If a normal household lost a cat or a dog, they would feel anxious and upset, not to mention the fact that the cat and dog in Karon’s home had long since stopped being mere pets.

He looked up at the wall clock. It was already past three in the morning. He lowered his head, sighed, and turned to another page of the newspaper.

Finally, he heard movement from the rooftop stairwell. Karon threw back his blankets and got out of bed. He saw that Pu’er had returned. She was completely soaked. As she stood on the floor, she shook her body, spraying water droplets everywhere.

“Where’s Kevin?”

“Watching something.”

Karon went into the bathroom and grabbed a dry towel. He crouched down and helped Pu’er dry off. “Watching what?”

“Corpses, two corpses.”

“Whose corpses?”

“Inquisitor Pavaro and some female believer of the Mios faith. If nothing there’s no surprises, she should be Annie from the notes.”

Karon’s hands froze. Pu’er had to press her body against him to continue rub up and down, drying herself off.

“They’re dead?”

“Yes, dead, killed by people from the Church of Order. Mr. Pavaro was intercepted and first hunted down by a Whip of Order squad. Annie appeared and rescued him, but the two of them didn’t get far before they ran into an Adjudicator who used a Sword of Judgment to pierce them into honeycomb briquettes.”

Karon resumed his movements and continued drying Pu’er.

At this time, Alfred, who had heard the commotion, also came up the stairs.

“Radio demon, I need a cup of hot coffee right now.”

“Alright.” Alfred went back downstairs to pour coffee.

Pu’er continued, “Both corpses were swept down a channel. The stupid dog and I took the chance to get into the water and drag their bodies into a nearby drainage ditch to hide them, but the Whip of Order should still be searching for the bodies. We to go collect them now. If there’s danger or if the hiding place is discovered, the stupid dog will give us a warning.

“Running back and forth is really exhausting! If that stupid dog could talk, I’d be the one watching the bodies. I was afraid it’d come back and bark at you for half the night, leaving you to guess what it was trying to say.”

“Kevin can write.”

“Reading that dog scratch is even worse than trying to guess what it’s barking.”

“Then we’ll go now.” Karon tossed the towel aside and stood up just as Alfred brought the coffee up.

“Can’t we wait for me to finish a cup of coffee first? You know coffee is very hot and has to be sipped slowly.”

Alfred smiled. “No need. I put a lot of ice cubes into your hot coffee, so drink it now while it’s cool.”

***

Alfred drove. Karon held Pu’er in the front passenger seat. Pu’er first gave a rough location, and as they got close, offered more precise directions.

“The car can’t go too slowly,” Karon reminded him. “We can’t let people see that we’re looking for something.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

“There! Under that slope,” Pu’er said.

“Alright. I’ll pull the car over by the slope.”

As soon as the car stopped, a golden retriever ran over from the bottom of the slope. Karon opened the door and got out. “Is it safe?”

Kevin nodded hard. Karon’s gaze swept the area. “Then we need to move quickly.”

“Stay in the car, Young Master. I’ll go down and carry the bodies up. As soon as they’re loaded, we’ll drive off. That will be the fastest.”

“Alright.” Karon agreed. As Alfred and Kevin went down the slope, Karon got in the driver’s seat, Pu’er back on his lap.

Karon turned on the car radio. A sad love song was playing. The lyrics were nothing special, and the melody was ordinary. There was nothing distinctive to the song at all.

He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and held it between his fingers. He reclined the seat and bent his right leg, rolling the window down halfway to let the rain blow in. It quickly dampened his face and upper body, though the cigarette ember did not go out due to being sheltered near the lower part of the door.

“What are you doing?” Pu’er asked.

“Cover,” Karon answered.

“You really are cautious.”

“It’s a good habit.” From time to time, Karon waved the burning cigarette in his hand, acting like a man with a broken heart, parked alone by the side of the road during a rainy night to vent his sorrow.

When the cigarette was almost finished, he flicked it out, lit another one, and held it the same way. Pu’er was about to tease Karon again, but then seemed to sense something. Lying on Karon’s leg, she pretended to sleep with her face down, but she opened her mouth and bit Karon’s thigh to give him a warning.

Karon tilted his head back and began singing along with the radio. He was a bit off key, but his voice was loud.

A shadow flashed by in the rearview mirror. Karon noticed it was a man carrying an umbrella and wearing a black robe. He walked straight past the car, moving very fast.

After a while, Pu’er rolled over and said in disbelief, “We actually ran into one.”

“Someone from the Church of Order?” Karon asked.

“I’m not sure, but that was definitely a priest. There’s also a Church of Abyss chapel nearby.”

At this time, the golden retriever ran onto the road. He looked left and right, and then turned around and went back down the slope. Not long after, Alfred came up, carrying two corpses. Karon, still sitting in the car, reached over to open the back door before Alfred arrived.

Alfred placed both of the corpses on the back seat. He did not bother to arrange them, and instead immediately went over the roof. He dropped down and took his seat in the passenger side. Kevin took a running start, and leaped through the window, and was caught by Alfred.

Karon immediately started the car and drove away. On the way back, he drove fast and frequently checked his mirrors. Alfred kept adjusting the radio, his eyes glowing red the entire time. The golden retriever rested his head outside the window, scanning their surroundings.

It was quiet in the car. Everyone was alert, watching to see if they were being followed.

After they drove into the apartment complex, Alfred again carried the two corpses on his own up the side staircase. Karon grabbed a towel and cleaned the back seat, smearing away all of the blood that had been left behind.

After cleaning up, Karon went upstairs and entered his home. He went to the second floor. Alfred had placed Mr. Pavaro and Annie’s corpses in the bathroom.

Only at this moment did Karon have a chance to carefully examine the two bodies.

Mr. Pavaro’s death had been the most miserable. His body was covered with all kinds of wounds, probably left from the initial fight.

Annie had only one kind of wound. She had been pierced through by the Sword of Judgment, which had created a series of round holes. Right on her forehead there was another hole, right between her brows. As she lay on the bathroom floor, it was even possible to see the white tiles of the floor through the hole in her forehead.

Mr. Pavaro also had many holes covering his body, but there were none in his head.

The golden retriever tugged a bath towel down by himself and spread it on the floor. He then lay on his side to dry himself off.

Alfred asked, “Young Master, can they be awakened?”

Karon shook his head. “The damage to the corpses is too great. It’s very unlikely for the awakening to succeed.”

“Woof!” (These two bodies are materials worth processing and keeping.)

Pu’er glared at the golden retriever and translated, “It says, what a pity.”

Karon nodded. “But I want to try.”

Alfred retreated to the doorway of the bathroom, as did Pu’er. The dog picked his towel up from the floor and moved back as well.

Karon decided to try awakening Annie first, because aside from the wound on her head, her body was less damaged than Mr. Pavaro’s. The principle of awakening was to rouse the residual spirituality within a corpse. Memory was stored within spirituality, and did not actually have much of a relationship with the brain.

Karon closed his eyes and silently recited in his heart, searching for the feeling he had each time he had performed an awakening before.

Very quickly, a cluster of black chains appeared beneath his feet. They began to rotate around Karon. Unlike the last time he awakened Earl Rekar, these chains were clearly more lively. They no longer felt rigid, and they could even adjust themselves to the bathroom’s layout.

Karon opened his eyes, looked at Annie, raised a hand to point at her, and spoke in a heavy voice, “O’ Supreme God of Order, grant me your powers. By the rules of Order, I awaken the existence before me.”

The chains extended outward and sank into Annie’s corpse.

Yet even after a long time, Annie’s body remained motionless, without any sign of awakening. The chains slowly withdrew and returned beneath Karon’s feet. He commented, “The residual spirituality within her is far, far less than I expected.”

Pu’er said, “That should be because of the Sword of Judgment. When it kills, it also erases remnants within a body, essentially completing a certain degree of purification.”

Alfred said, “So this is a higher quality purified flesh body?”

This mattered greatly to demonkin. It could help them to piece together their bodies, much as Ms. Molly had before.

Alfred continued, “Then Mr. Pavaro has even less of a chance. His corpse is more severely damaged, and he was also pierced by the Sword of Judgment.”

Karon nodded, acknowledging Alfred’s inference, yet still chanted toward Mr. Pavaro’s corpse, “Great and supreme God of Order, here I will borrow your power. By the rules of Order, I awaken the existence before me.”

The chains stretched from his feet for Mr. Pavaro. This was Karon’s way of seeing things through, even if he already knew his efforts would amount to nothing.

But who would have thought that when the black chains sank into Mr. Pavaro’s corpse, his body would actually begin to tremble slightly, demonstrating an extremely obvious tendency to awaken.

Pu’er asked in confusion, “This shouldn’t be... Why wasn’t the spirituality within him erased by the Sword of Judgment?”

Karon looked at what was happening and answered, “Because he truly had faith in Order.”