Chapter 21: The Crow's Prophecy

Reckton and Pas stayed in the bedroom until the butler came upstairs to announce that dinner was ready, then he went downstairs gripping Pas by the scruff of the neck. Pas raised its cat paw in resistance, and was suppressed.

This black cat, every time a key question was asked it dropped the ball, and pressing further only got "I'm just a cat."

Today's dinner included a portion of dried fish, which looked like it had been added at the last minute—probably the butler had told Aunt Sally that there was an extra freeloading black cat in the house, so a portion of dried fish was added on the spot.

"Sorry for the trouble, Aunt Sally, adding a dish at the last minute like this." Reckton picked up a dried fish and placed it in Pas's dish. Pas's spot was right to Reckton's left, and its dish was a large white porcelain plate, probably a fruit plate that had been temporarily repurposed as Pas's tableware.

"These are some dried sea fish we stocked up on earlier. Sally just did a little preparation—it wasn't any trouble. They were originally bought in bulk to keep for the winter, so setting aside some for this black cat won't make a difference." The butler's words were always perfectly explanatory.

"Mm, it probably won't stay too long." Reckton nodded.

If what Pas had said earlier was correct, then the matter at the hospital was absolutely not as simple as it appeared on the surface. The Knowledge Church's strength in Ma Dan was insufficient to handle this matter; they had to notify the Church of the Earth Mother to deal with this problem as soon as possible. That clown had gone from an ordinary person to a Sequence Five powerhouse in just one month—in a few more days he might well become a demigod.

Eating dinner absent-mindedly, Reckton casually found an excuse, saying he hadn't slept well the night before and wanted to rest early today, and told the butler not to come disturb him afterward. Then he took Pas up to the second floor and tossed Pas onto the floor to stay on its own.

The master bedroom on the second floor had a large balcony, but that bedroom was Reckton's parents' room, even though they only stayed there a handful of times throughout the year. Reckton opened the master bedroom door and stepped onto the balcony. He wanted to see if he could find that crow that liked to perch on the streetlamp. Today, when Reckton returned from the Enforcer squad, he hadn't seen that crow appear, and wasn't sure whether the other party had come over now.

From the second-floor balcony, Reckton gazed around several times before disappointedly withdrawing his eyes.

"What are you looking for?" A low, hoarse, genderless voice sounded from the hanging chair behind Reckton.

Reckton didn't turn around. He bolted two steps forward before spinning around, one hand reaching for the pistol at his waist, the other hand tightly gripping the small metal box containing bronze phosphorus in his pocket.

The scene Reckton had imagined—a person wearing a red tailcoat and a tall red top hat, with an exaggerated, comical clown smile painted on his face, sitting in the hanging chair quietly watching Reckton—did not appear.

Only a crow with red feathers on one wing, both legs, and its head stood on the back of the hanging chair, a pair of gilded eyes quietly watching him.

"Phew—" Reckton breathed a sigh of relief. But he didn't fully relax. Though he knew firearms would have no effect on the other party, he still kept the gun in hand. As long as the other party made any suspicious move, he would immediately draw and fire—he didn't need the bullet to hit the target, just needed the gunshot to carry out.

"When did you get here?" Reckton asked tentatively.

"I've been here all along, you just didn't notice." The crow merely opened its beak without speaking, but the voice sounded directly in Reckton's mind.

Only then did Reckton notice that he hadn't heard any sound earlier either—the voice had sounded directly in his mind. He had simply been too shocked and panicked to notice these details.

"I remember there was clearly nothing here just now. Psychological invisibility?" Reckton asked tentatively.

"That's not important. You were looking for me?" The crow before him shook its head, and the other party's voice continued to sound in Reckton's mind, its tone becoming very certain.

"Yes." Reckton nodded honestly, then recounted everything he had just learned from Pas.

The expression on the crow opposite gradually turned grave, though Reckton had no idea how he could read an expression from a crow's face.

"I can't handle this matter. I'm just a crow," the crow opposite said.

Reckton's face turned strange, feeling that this had already become the catchphrase of their magical animals.

"Then go notify the Church of the Earth Mother?" Reckton asked tentatively.

"No, that won't do, meow!" Pas had noticed the situation over here at some point and come running over.

"Why not?" Reckton stared at Pas's cat face and asked in return. This cat still hadn't told him everything earlier.

Reckton's gaze at Pas turned dangerous. The crow beside them also watched with great interest this little cat that had come darting out. It had seen this cat last night—the other party had been leading a gang of cat underlings, caught in an illusion, chasing stray dogs around everywhere. Being stared at by Reckton and the crow, Pas felt its fur stand on end, its tail sticking straight up.

"Meow~ I don't know either, it's just that when Eliza and Zorn were chatting, they mentioned there was something that must not be discovered by the Church of the Earth Mother, so we can't notify the Church of the Earth Mother." After struggling for quite a while, Pas finally compromised. If he told Reckton, Reckton might really not tell the Church of the Earth Mother about this matter; if he didn't, he himself would very likely be tossed to that clown by the terrifying human before him and made into a cat pie.

Reckton turned his head to gauge the reaction of the big shot disguised as a crow beside him, but unfortunately Reckton couldn't read a bird's expression.

"Alright then!" Reckton nodded to pacify Pas. The captain had surely already notified the Church of the Earth Mother anyway; notifying them again would only make them take the matter more seriously. The people of the Church of the Earth Mother weren't stupid—they might have already noticed the problem long ago.

Reckton shifted his gaze back to the crow perched on the back of the hanging chair and carefully asked, "Are you the one the Knowledge Church has secretly assigned to protect me?"

This was Reckton's guess. This crow seemed to have been following him since yesterday afternoon when he received the bronze phosphorus from the captain. For now it appeared to have no ill intent toward him, and based on what Pas had said earlier, it was most likely the one that had scared away that clown last night.

"No. I simply sensed a familiar aura on you, and made some prophecies, which is why I've been observing you from nearby." The crow's words were completely different from what Reckton had expected.

Just as he was about to ask what familiar aura the other party meant, Reckton saw the crow's originally gilded eyes turn pure white, with faint blue fluorescence swirling around the eyes. Reckton stood where he was, not knowing what had happened, and could only quietly wait for the crow's next reaction.

After a while, the white in the crow's eyes faded, and the swirling fluorescence gradually dissipated. The crow looked at Reckton; on its expressionless face there seemed to be a heaviness, its gaze rather grave.

"I saw a prophecy!" The crow's low, hoarse, genderless voice sounded in Reckton's mind.

"What prophecy?" Reckton's eyes lit up, feeling a sense of a sudden breakthrough after hitting a dead end.

"Take this cat and rush to that hospital now. There will be additional developments, and the story may have a better ending." The crow's voice echoed continuously in Reckton's mind.

"Meow! Why do you keep staring at that crow? And talking to yourself in front of it—it can't even talk, meow~" Pas looked at Reckton oddly, as if looking at a fool.

Reckton simply reached out and scooped Pas from beside him into his arms.

"What are you doing, meow! I already have an owner, you can't just pet me." Pas thought Reckton wanted to cuddle a cat and kept struggling in his arms.

"Do me a favor and get me downstairs." Reckton, holding Pas, said to the crow perched on the back of the hanging chair.

The crow flapped its wings and flew up from the chair back, then flew straight into the night sky. Reckton stood stunned. Just as he was about to say something, his vision blurred, and when his sight recovered, he saw that the scene around him had changed from the second-floor balcony to the street below.

After a moment of shock, Reckton ran with the black cat Pas in his arms toward the other side of White Maple Street where he could catch a carriage.

"Meow~ Meow! What are you doing? Where are you going? You can't take me back to the hospital, I'll be eaten by that clown!" Pas struggled hard in his arms, trying to escape.

"Shut up and listen to me. Do you still want to save your owner Eliza? She's very likely in danger right now. The Church of the Earth Mother already knows about the hospital." Reckton made up a reason off the top of his head.

"What? How is that possible? If they knew, they would have rushed into the hospital long ago. Impossible, meow~" Pas didn't believe Reckton's words.

"Why impossible? Think about how many things have happened at the hospital recently. This is Feneport, the Church of the Earth Mother's territory—how could they not know? They've just been observing in secret and waiting for the right moment." Reckton voiced his speculation about why the Church of the Earth Mother had never shown up during this incident.

"How could this be? Humans are so cunning! Meow! I'm going to notify Eliza right now, we need to leave Feneport." Pas accepted Reckton's words, but struggled even harder. Reckton's attention slipped for just a moment and Pas broke free. After landing, Pas immediately prepared to bolt.

"Don't run yet. Did you forget the clown is also at the hospital? Stupid cat! Your most important task right now is to follow me and be my assistant. We'll sneak into the hospital together in the chaos, instead of going in one by one to feed ourselves to them—human heads and cat heads alike." Reckton had finally managed to hoodwink this cat. Though this cat was most likely only Sequence Nine, its combat ability was certainly stronger than his own as a Sequence Eight who wasn't good at fighting. How could Reckton let it slip away? It had to stay by his side as his bodyguard.

"Then hurry up, meow." Pas said anxiously.

"Once I hail a carriage. The city's carriages are scarce at this hour—what a hassle. If only you could turn into a big cat," Reckton looked at Pas's ordinary adult blue cat build and shook his head with slight regret.

"You're thinking of something terrible, meow!" Pas's fur puffed up on the spot as if sensing something, watching Reckton warily.

"I was thinking about whether you could contact your kitty agent squad and have them go scout for intel first." Reckton spouted nonsense without changing his expression.

"No, that clown is too terrifying. Several cats from my kitty agent squad have already been brutally killed by him. I can't let the cats in my kitty agent squad take that risk." Pas shook its head and rejected Reckton's proposal.

"But I can ask the cats and big dogs nearby once we get there—they should know some news." Thinking of his owner still waiting for him to come back and save her, Pas added after some thought.

Reckton didn't respond. He picked up the black cat following beside him, then quickly ran to a parked carriage at the intersection ahead.

(End of this chapter)