Money in hand, task at hand; transactions are always pleasant. Considering the sinister nature of today’s business, Malin uncharacteristically lowered his price to a flat rate of 3500 to seal the deal.
Although Shelton of the House of Brice was somewhat puzzled, he was at least not the kind of bastard to pass up a good deal, and he gladly accepted Malin’s reduction in fee.
Logan was a bit confused, but considering that Malin had essentially pulled him back from hell this time, he said nothing—of course, Logan also thought that lowering the price was a business strategy, after all, 3500 and 5000 are fundamentally different concepts.
The assistant priest of the Church of Justice had already sent people to deal with the summoning site before the healing was complete. They had it locked down tight, wanting to confirm just what it was that had breached the dimension—the horned Chaos that appeared had exceeded any known Chaotic Evil Gods, and none of the princes or champions within the small traders bore such scars.
It might be a minion of a newly emerged Evil God, considering it mentioned a name—’Lord of the End’.
There was no such title amongst the known Evil Gods, so it was almost certain to be a new one. The only question was—this Evil God that had broken through the dimensions, coming from another parallel world, was it a native or an invader?
If it was native, how had it come to be? The Church of Justice would never allow a native Evil God to incubate.
If it was an invader, why hasn’t it surfaced in this timeline? The Church of Justice would exert all its efforts to seal off its existence.
As for timelines, according to the mages’ study, this world has many parallel micro-worlds. Since the first great destruction, a vast number of worlds with completely different trajectories from this world have emerged. Mages call these different timeline worlds parallel universes, just like in the world Malin once belonged to.
Normally, parallel worlds cannot interfere with each other, not even having a window to observe one another. In some timelines, parallel worlds have already been completely destroyed in one of the catastrophes; all life has been extinguished, and such worlds will inevitably slide toward utter destruction, beyond the observation of any being.
Of course, these are matters for the people of the Church of Justice to worry about. Malin’s task was to send the girls home.
Without any intel, guessing was just a waste of his own time. The only clue Malin held was that copper button.
The Spiritual Body kept the button, and it was clear it wasn’t for the purpose of one day sewing it back on.
In front of the manor gate, Faye and Malin embraced and then kissed each other’s cheeks. Seeing the hint of melancholy on her face, Malin was puzzled. Faye did not know the situation at the scene; what was this all about?
Before she entered the gate, the girl noticed the box the Head Maid had taken out: "Great, Malin, look, the custom overcoat I ordered for you."
Being led by Faye into the manor, standing in front of a floor-length mirror on the first floor, Malin watched as Faye took out a tan overcoat from the box, made of calf leather. To Malin’s eye, the lining of the upper part was made of a material he couldn’t identify, likely produced by Spirits and blessed.
It was light to wear, perhaps because Malin’s body was more robust, but it looked good on him, the sleeves sewn with in-tack lining, even featuring a hood suitable for both Bishop and Milani.
"I had it made especially for you, do you like it?"
"I like it very much." Malin hugged the girl, "Thank you, Faye, I’ll see you tomorrow."
"Mhm, be careful on your way. I heard that the serial killer has started again," she said.
"I know." Malin certainly knew; three days ago, that killer had just murdered a cousin from Logan’s family, who was also a member of the Thirty Braves. Malin was also puzzled—compared to his cousin, Logan would have been an easier target. To put it bluntly, why hasn’t Logan been assassinated?
Because he’s too weak, easy to take down any time, so no one thought to kill Logan?
With these thoughts in mind, Malin left the manor, boarded the carriage prepared by the Head Maid, and glanced at the new overcoat. His gaze finally came to rest on the double row of copper buttons on the overcoat.
He took out his dagger, cut the stitches off one button at a time, and finally confirmed that the one the Spiritual Body possessed was the third button from the outer edge on the left.
Both copper buttons had the same embossed pattern and the same thread through the holes; the only difference was that the new button had a beautiful design, while the old one had its surface design completely worn smooth.
Having cut off the remaining copper buckle cords, Malin collected the buckles in silence and finally, still in silence, he patted the carriage window.
"Mr. Malin, where would you like to go?"
"To...," Malin wanted to find Lillim, but instinct told him that, as a man, he shouldn’t discuss this matter with the girls.
Would he really tell the girls that in another world, you all died horribly?
Malin couldn’t bring himself to say it, he didn’t even know how to explain, and in the end, he could only smile and say, "Please hurry, maybe my sister is already starving."
Lillim felt uneasy, the words Clovis had said earlier made the little lamb instinctively think of that Spiritual Body—indeed, Lillim instinctively felt that the Spiritual Body seemed just like her, she had an innate closeness... and revulsion towards it.
The only thing that comforted her was that the Spiritual Body called itself Margen, as long as it wasn’t named Lillim, it was fine.
Although she had read about parallel worlds, those were the theories of Mages, which Lillim didn’t fully understand.
"I’m back," pushing open the door, the little lamb of the Sheringham family saw her eldest brother, "Brother."
"Welcome back, my dear sister," the eldest brother pressed his face to hers as usual, "Did you have fun?"
"Very fun, and very thrilling," Lillim felt a bit guilty just thinking about what happened at noon—in the moment she fell into the rift, Lillim’s only thought was that she was doomed; later, when she fell out, in her desperation to survive, she paid no attention to her surroundings and immediately cast Protection Spells on herself and Clovis.
"That’s good," the eldest brother said as he gently patted Lillim’s head, "Hmm... Lillim, it seems your horns have grown again recently." As he spoke, he laughed and rubbed Lillim’s head, "Everyone says they look better a bit bigger, do you need your brother to find you a master to polish them?"
"No need for that, Brother," Lillim shook her head.
At that moment, she saw her mother, her belly swollen, "Mother."
"My lovely daughter, are you back?" As her birth mother, she reached out and hugged Lillim, "What’s wrong? You seem a bit tired, do you want to take a short nap before dinner?"
"No need, Mother, I’ll go change my clothes first."
After kissing her birth mother goodbye, Lillim climbed to the second floor, and just as she was about to turn the corner, she saw her father coming in from the front door: "I’m back."
"Welcome back," Lillim paused in her steps and, along with her brother and mother, smiled in greeting to the head of the family.
"Alright, you little ones, go about your business, I have something to discuss with your mother about the name of your brother or sister," said the father, the head of the family, as he hugged his wife, "If it’s a daughter, we’ll name her Cassa; if it’s a son, we’ll name him Margen."
"Quite nice," the eldest brother said with a smile.
"Lillim, do you know, if you had been a boy, Margen would’ve been your name," the father said, smiling up to his daughter on the second floor.
"That’s because Mum stopped your father, Lillim; otherwise, he would have named you Margen," the mother added with a smile, while playfully twisting her husband’s cheek, "You silly, what were you thinking, using that name for Lillim, she’s our daughter after all."
"Margen is a nice name; I think so," the father remarked.
Engulfed in joy, both he and she completely failed to notice their daughter standing on the second floor, smiling... trembling.