When Ethan and Rattlesnake arrived at the temple, Flor was kneeling devoutly before a brazier, turned away from them. Black flames burned in the brazier, and a strange incense scent spread throughout the hall. The statues here looked somewhat peculiar, with two long black streaks beneath each statue’s eye sockets.
Compared to their last meeting in Ophira, Flor had changed a lot.
From a passionate orator, he had turned into a mystic, reminiscent of a CEO of a publicly listed company who, having been impeached by the board and cast out, found a place to retreat from worldly affairs.
Flor opened his eyes and spoke without turning his head, "Welcome, Mr. Ethan."
The name Heisenberg might deceive the consortium’s higher-ups, but not Flor, who had crossed paths with Ethan a few times. However, this time, they were no longer adversaries, allowing Flor to calmly and from a different perspective assess this formidable yet respectable opponent. He introduced himself to Ethan, "This is the mark our Master left in this world, always bringing me enlightenment."
For many years, whenever he needed to make major decisions, he would lock himself in the temple.
Occasionally, he could hear echoes from unknown origins here.
Sometimes it was the Master, sometimes the high-ranked demons He had created. He had also heard the teachings of previous chosen ones.
Ironically, the relationships between Sincaro followers were always subtle. Each was a potential enemy. There was no love or friendship here; once you showed a vulnerability, those you considered your right-hand aids would become greedy hounds, extracting every last bit of value from you as you fell.
Flor glanced at Rattlesnake.
His secretary was the perfect example.
Rattlesnake was the person he trusted most, yet also the one who delivered a fatal blow to him after the Ophira incident.
However, now is not the time to discuss these matters. Flor still appeared very young, with no obvious marks of age on his face, but his tone was that of an old man, "Rattlesnake, I would like to speak with Ethan alone."
Rattlesnake had a hesitant look.
She instinctively wanted to refuse and remind Ethan that he was facing one of the most dangerously cunning people in this world. Many had accepted Flor’s ideology during a "talk" and were even brainwashed, led step by step into the abyss.
But she quickly realized she was crossing a line.
Since Ethan agreed to come to the temple, he certainly knew Flor’s nature and also knew that this place was as close to the Master of Demons as the abyss could get. The black flames in the brazier were a symbol of Sincaro’s power.
Realizing this, she could only nod and walked silently towards the temple exit.
Once the footsteps had completely faded, Flor spoke, "She hasn’t changed one bit, just as when I discovered her in Thunder City." Follow current novᴇls on noᴠelfire.net
Flor’s brows relaxed, his demeanor clearly at peace.
Ethan followed up on his words, "Is she also from the Empire?"
Thunder City is one of the Empire’s central cities and is particularly famous for its wine.
"It is also my hometown. The first time I saw her, she was trying to sell me an overpriced oat beer."
Flor seemed to remember some amusing happenings. By then, he had already become the festival’s champion and the de facto leader of the Lofic Consortium. Even the great nobles of Thunder City were cautious before him. Yet, after a banquet, this fearless little girl appeared from nowhere, selling him a cup of oat beer for 5 gold lions.
For someone like him, 5 gold lions were nothing, but it could sustain someone living at the Empire’s bottom for quite a long time.
"The story is somewhat cliché. Her father was a brewer who lost his ability to work due to an accident. The family was then cared for by her mother, who recently collapsed from overwork. She desperately needed money to treat her mother, so she self-taught with her father’s brewing notes and brewed oat beer no less than his."
Flor recounted these details as if cherishing treasures. Over the years he had forgotten many things, but he always remembered encountering Rattlesnake in Thunder City, especially lately, filling him with mixed emotions.
His vision had always been sharp, and Rattlesnake indeed grew to meet his expectations.
"Cliché, isn’t it? But when she said to me, ’Would you like to invest in me, the future genius brewer?’ I didn’t hesitate at all and bought her oat beer with 5 gold lions."
The taste of the beer was rather unremarkable, no different from what you might find in any tavern in Thunder City, completely unrelated to the title of "genius."
Yet he felt subtly that the money was well-spent, as if it transcended the oat beer itself and turned into an investment in a genius’s future.
"Such things were quite common in the past Empire."
Ethan responded, "According to the cabinet’s statistics, orphans in the Empire’s major cities made up 22.1%. If you take a stroll around the slums, most of the groups of children are like that. This is closely related to the Empire’s old system. During Pope Julius’s rule, you could vanish for a misinterpreted statement. Combined with overwork-related deaths, murder cases, and other issues, a newborn child could easily become an orphan."