Who exactly betrayed and revealed my whereabouts? Was it Lil, Rovete, the tracker inside the newly bought curling iron, or that cup of strawberry smoothie?
The only betrayer Felix could be sure of was the strawberry smoothie as her stomach began to ache. As expected, she shouldn’t have eaten sothing cold these past days.
She wasn’t too anxious. Although this assassination attempt was unexpected, when you’ve been facing assassination at least once a month from childhood, able to dive under the bed or into a wardrobe within three seconds while sleeping, you’d probably also beco numb to danger.
However, this ti was a bit troubleso. She never expected that Beverly would actually hire the notorious Van Dael gang. In the entire Kingdom of Stars, the Van Dael gang is one of the three great gangs, backed by nurous Guard Palace nobles. The ugly and stupid six-lamp masks on their faces were clearly modified from the Abyss Surveillance Helt III model of the ’Barrier Corps,’ equipped with multiple monitoring functions like air, heat, dust, and bloodstains.
There are no gangs in Jiale City, or rather, where nobles are more prevalent, forming a gang becos nearly impossible. The bases of the three great gangs are resource-heavy cities that are large but have fewer nobles. However, the average person knows very little about them, and even in cities where gangs are most rampant, it’s difficult for ordinary people to co into contact with gang mbers, as harming the populace would an declaring war on the nobles.
Nobles must protect the populace, and the populace accepts noble governance; this is the Law of the Star Cluster.
So from the inception of gangs, their clients and targets have always been the sa group: the nobles.
A gang is a tool for nobles to exclude outsiders. Here lies an interesting fact — the safety of ordinary people’s lives is handled by the police departnt, which is present in every town; but the safety of noble offspring is managed by the Noble House, which only exists in Jiale City.
The enormous security vacuum exposed here is the business scope of the gangs. Due to the Stars Blessing, Star nobles are completely unable to commit cris, nor can they ’instruct’ others to commit cris, but the families, children, and friends of nobles are not bound by the Stars Blessing.
Where there are people, there is competition; where there are people, there are factions. Although all behaviors of Star nobles are bounded by legal limits, they still engage in factional struggles and naturally have direct conflicts of interest. After all, power is limited — if you gain more, I will undoubtedly have less, and suppression targeted at others is inevitable.
The fact that you cannot commit a cri doesn’t an you can’t send soone you dislike to spend a lifeti in the countryside. If the other party is incompetent, it’s ’you should be where you can best apply your talents’; if the other party is competent, it’s ’use your ability to create a better society.’
Seeing one’s family about to lose in a power struggle, with the entire family’s status set to dramatically decline, and if you are a mage possessing power, who would be willing to accept it willingly? But it’s worth ntioning that even if you commit a cri for your noble family, you absolutely cannot let the nobles detect even a hint — as a noble, he is obliged to report all criminal activities, and even family cannot overshadow this duty.
The outco for all gangs is to be detected and reported by noble kin, thus being annihilated without exception.
Therefore, gangs are a parasitic special organization within the nobility, lurking in society’s shadows. They neither interfere with social production nor are they known to the nobles; they are transparent, mobilized solely for power, like darkness behind the Star Cluster, unseen by anyone.
In border cities, the struggle between gangs can even decide a city’s power succession. The gang supported by whichever faction wins, that faction controls the city, while the losers end up dead in successive ho invasions, with police sealing off the cri scene, awaiting the Noble House’s lengthy investigation.
Initially, the main mbers of gangs were noble relatives, but as ti passed, the composition of gangs grew more complex. Many mages who didn’t obtain noble peerage joined them, with opportunists trying to establish a second governance system, the weak seeking protection, and naturally cruel individuals venting desires prohibited by orderly society.
Sotis Felix wonders if the Royal Church deliberately leaves a gap for nobles to self-destruct, intentionally attracting inherently evil and impulsive mages into them. After all, there are limited noble titles, and so mages refuse to accept the Stars Blessing, fail to succeed, and are unwilling to work for private enterprises; for society, they beco pure negative assets, difficult-to-control dangerous elents.
Hopeless failures are frightening, whether they are ordinary people or mages.
The existence of gangs serves to give these Evil Mages a sense of belonging, encouraging them to squander their lives in countless aningless death-matches, thereby minimizing the negative impact of Evil Mages on society.
Such is the Evil Mage group known as the Van Dael gang. In their stronghold cities, the Van Dael gang holds overwhelming influence, with every noble family intricately involved and silently interconnected. Nobles wouldn’t realize that their stability is significantly owed to their wives.
But that is the limit of gangs; they possess a strong regional exclusivity, incapable of dominating multiple cities.
However, power itself is a resource, and such a vast dark force as the gang naturally becos a tool for other noble families to utilize. The transactions between gangs are not in gold and silver assets, as obscenely obtained wealth would also raise noble suspicions, but rather in ’pillow talk’ and ’recomndation letters.’
Felix does not know what exactly Beverly promised to convince the Van Dael gang to dispatch more than a dozen Two-winged Mages to hunt her down. However, even just the aim to woo the wife of the ’Star Cast Duke’ would be enough to drive the Van Dael gang to exert their utmost efforts.
Seeing Van Dael’s n start checking under passengers’ seats, Felix silently calculated the disparity: five Gun Masters, two Sword Masters, two Fist Claw Mages, and two unknown mages guarding each of the side train carriage doors... I’m on a speeding train, can’t expect rescue from the sect... my stomach aches so much...
I can win.
Although Felix is also just a Two-winged Mage, she left Jiale City this ti precisely to receive another extrely precious heritage from her mother. She just didn’t expect Beverly to seize the opportunity and lay a trap for her on the return train, using the Van Dael gang.
Since the age of five, this woman has tried to eradicate herself as a cursed child. No one understands better than Felix how she ought not to exist, her birth itself was a mistake, she is the sha of the Vosloda family. Everyone in the family, aside from her heartless father and foolish elder brother, curses her to die as soon as possible.
But from the age of five when she gripped a pair of scissors and counterattacked the maid who attempted to strangle her, getting splattered with blood, and calmly changed her own underwear afterward, she knew that if she wished for peace, she must fight those who also wish for peace.
Her life is not built of love, candy, and spices; a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood is the only scenery she is familiar with.
At this mont, Van Dael’s bandits had already approached this row of seats, Felix’s mind raced, glancing at the two n on her left and right.
On the left was a sickly-looking blonde man with a hint of perfu, on the right was an unremarkable black-haired man with a mask, and she needed a shield, so the answer was obvious: choose the right.
It’s not that Felix prioritized looks, but the one on the right seed more resilient. She pinched the thighs, waist, arms, and chest muscles on both sides; the right side was superior, and she preferred soone a bit stronger.
Moreover, for so reason, when she touched the one on the right, her stomach didn’t hurt as much.
Curiously, Felix had only heard of a Legendary Mage unintentionally emitting a magic power aura; so auras inspire fear, so inspire submission, so it wasn’t surprising if there was a legendary aura that could heal.
But compared to the probability of randomly finding a Legendary Mage on a train, Felix more strongly believed the person next to her was a painkiller addict, hence touching him might allow her to absorb so of that power.
Seeing Van Dael’s n approaching, Felix suddenly spat out a silver needle, shooting it towards the six-light mask, which imdiately triggered a defense miracle, exploding into a cloud of blue mist that enveloped the bandit’s head!
Miracle: Blue Poison Mist!
In the mont when the bandit’s face was corroded and penetrated by the poison mist, shrieking, Felix grabbed the black-haired man’s nape, held him in front as a shield, not only knocking the bandit in front flying but also rushing straight at the other bandits!
"In the back!"
"Don’t act recklessly! Be careful!"
"Only kill Felix!"
The bandits roared continuously and gunshots rang out chaotically, but the attacks almost always grazed past the black-haired man, failing to harm Felix at all.
It’s funny to say, though this was called a gang, these bandits dared not harm ordinary citizens, while Felix was the one who could recklessly use ordinary people as shields.
If only Felix died, then it was an internal affair of the Noble House, who knows how long the investigation would last; but if a normal person died, and died on a train, then it would be the police departnt’s business, and Van Dael would be in real trouble without giving an explanation.
A Sword Master and a Fist Claw Mage tried to flank Felix and attack, only to see her sneer, as another two-winged Technique Spirit erged on her shoulder.
Its appearance was of a female dressed in a black gown, its wings composed of withered black roses, and when it appeared, the temperature in the entire train car dropped by several degrees.
As she waved her wings, large patches of dark spots suddenly erupted on the skin of the bandits nearing Felix, who fell to the ground wailing and scratching in agony, wounds rapidly ulcerating and oozing pus!
"Defense Miracle... didn’t trigger!"
"Be careful, Vosloda still has... cards to play..."
Watching the terrified expressions of Van Dael’s gang, Felix felt a surge of pleasure.
This was the inheritance she had just acquired—an Evil Spirit!
As long as it could generate ’malice towards a specific target,’ the Evil Spirit could bypass all defense miracles and directly affect the opponent, the only issue being the very short casting distance. With this spirit, Felix is almost invincible in close-quarter combat below the Holy Domain!
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