Rivers of the Night - Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Soul Tie [Golden Ticket Bonus]

Theron walked through the halls of Daggers of the Night. Soon, he had made it to a familiar desk and placed a brown linen sack down.

The old man looked up, raising an eyebrow.

“What’s this?”

“Just a warm up.”

“… Mm.”

The old man nodded and gave Theron his reward. He watched quietly as Theron left, an eyebrow raised in his heart.

…

‘The old man is sharp. Maybe too sharp.’

Theron exhaled a breath, but this was a risk he had to take. While he was surprised by the old man’s skepticism, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

The day was Friday, the last day of the weekday. Tonight would be the banquet. It was odd for Theron to go out and complete another mission.

But Theron also knew that the old man would never guess why he would do this.

To the old man, he was probably unconfident in success. However, Theron just needed a reason to return to the Guild.

He rounded a corner and made a subtle movement with his palms and fingers. If one looked into the depths of his eyes, it would be possible to see just how dim and lifeless they were.

Veinsong.

A beam of red entered his sleeve and he seamlessly slipped back into his accommodations.

**

‘Interesting…’

Theron had been waiting all week for this.

After he killed Manson, he had sensed something odd on his body, but he also didn’t want to take it outright and in the open. So, he instead used his own blood to activate [Water Wrap] and bury it.

They were an assassin’s Guild. The platform used for the Dagger Call wasn’t cleaned; it was allowed to dry naturally. In fact, all of the blood from every Dagger Call triggered was still etched into the platform. It was part of the reason for its rusted, gritty look.

As such, Theron knew that he would be able to bury the item in his bowl of blood.

Because Raiden’s lightning had been such a draw—not to mention the fact it was incredibly easy to hide movement of well-controlled Bronze Resonance Water Mana in the presence of wild Silver Resonance Lightning Mana—Theron’s attempt had gone seamlessly.

All he had to do was wait for the arena that was almost always ignored to be forgotten again.

Finally, after nearly a week, he had gotten his chance.

He actually picked this day on purpose because he knew that in the case the old man was suspicious, it would be for the wrong reasons.

Would it have been better for him to just wait and turn in the Ironhart’s head instead?

Yes.

But Theron knew that he was on a tight timeline, and killing the Ironhart wasn’t exactly going to be easy either. It could be said that his margin for error was incredibly small.

Luckily… there would be rain tonight.

A bead rolled across Theron’s palm.

He didn’t expect that he would get so lucky.

It seemed that the Nightingale Clan wasn’t so simple to use. At the very least, that was what he hoped. Because if this was the plan of that little girl alone, he just might need to re-evaluate her once again.

‘So Manson wasn’t just a henchman of Raiden after all. He was a mole the whole time…’

The bead in Theron’s palm was formed from Soul Tie Jade. It had one use, and that was to relay all sensory information captured by the soul of the child-holder to the Soul Tie Jade of the parent-holder.

One would think that meant that Theron would be exposed now, but that wasn’t the case.

As the name Soul Tie suggested, it was powered by the soul. Meaning, the moment Manson died, it shut down and was no longer functioning. It also wouldn’t trigger again.

One needed the parent Soul Tie Jade here in order to form a new tie.

That meant the bead in his palm right now couldn’t read or send any information.

Still, this information seemed worthless. Manson was dead now, so he couldn’t continue being a mole. In fact, it was possible that Theron should feel bad for killing someone who was likely just playing a character.

But not only did he not even feel the slightest twinge in his heart, this bead also wasn’t useless.

The Soul Tie Jade didn’t have an infinite range. It was more than likely that Manson had to return to a specific location to allow it to relay properly.

Since the parent Jade also had to be in range, whoever held it also had to make time to approach.

It was still quite convenient because even if they were at opposite ends of a city, it would work well. So you never had to risk meeting face to face and blowing your cover.

But it had its limitations.

Considering all the chaos in the past few weeks, the odds that Manson had had a chance to dump the information on this Soul Tie Jade were low.

Of course, it wasn’t impossible that it had been emptied recently. There had been quite a lot of time since the culling. But that would depend on Theron’s luck.

There was only one question left to answer, then. How could he access it?

That was actually quite easy.

Any child Jade holder should destroy it before they were killed by detonating their souls. Unfortunately for Manson, he had not only been caught off guard, but Raiden’s lightning had frozen him in mind and spirit.

Without a soul overseeing it, a child Soul Tie Jade was incredibly vulnerable. All you needed was the prerequisite Mana control.

Theron left his underground space and returned with a bowl of water, allowing the transparent white marble, fluttering with clouds within, to sink.

He took a breath, exhaled, and then put his fingers into it.

Slowly, one image and one memory after another began to pool into him.

‘Only two weeks of information… it seems he has dumped it recently.’

It was unlucky, but still manageable. Half a month was a lot.

This was also a crucial time, so there were still good odds that there was something important.

Theron was patient, rushing through one sensory memory after another. Even if it took all night, he wouldn’t care in the slightest. Luckily, he was running through the memories much faster than they had been lived.

And then he suddenly stopped.

A sharp glow radiated in his eyes.

That right there. That was it.

His odds of successfully completing Plan A had just gone from 60% to over 70%.