Chapter 240: The Plan with the Nightmare
Chapter 240: The Plan with the Nightmare
"Your invitation just now was so stupid!"
After the female journalist bluntly rejected Lyon's exclusive interview request, he could only leave with a disappointed expression and board the public carriage back to the Purification Bureau. Black Sheep immediately squeezed out from the carriage window, chirping a few words before regretfully commenting:
"If you wanted to set a trap to catch her, you could have directly invited her to your home for an interview or even to the Lane family. At that time, whether it was Emma or Red-Haired Director, they would have fallen right into your trap, intentionally or not.
But you specifically invited her to the Purification Bureau for an interview. She's a member of the rebels and a subordinate of Director Water Bottle, and she's still recovering from serious injuries. She's already avoiding you, so why would she dare to go to the Purification Bureau to interview you?"
"Let me tell you, I was watching from inside the glass of the chandelier. As soon as I heard you invite her to the Purification Bureau, her face turned pale with fear. As soon as you averted your gaze, she started eyeing you suspiciously, clearly already doubting you!"
After chattering for a while and giving Lyon's initiative a thoroughly stupid evaluation, Black Sheep clicked his tongue, feeling that there was more to say.
"Now you see how important I am. If I had been there, I could have secretly reminded you, and you wouldn't have alerted her. Now that this has happened, it will be difficult to set a trap for her in the future."
"Yes, yes, yes, you're absolutely right!"
After giving Black Sheep a sidelong glance, Lyon calmly asked while jotting down the intelligence he had just obtained in his notebook:
"What if I never intended to catch her in the first place?"
"???"
"A live spy whose identity has been exposed is far more useful than a dead spy."
Lyon continued writing in his notebook without lifting his head, "If she's still in contact with Director Water Bottle, we can pass on some false information through her, and there's even a chance we can find Director Water Bottle's whereabouts through her. Isn't that more useful than capturing her?"
That's also true...
After pondering for a moment, Black Sheep nodded slightly, but still felt a bit unconvinced.
"Since you don't plan to catch her, there's even less reason to mention the Purification Bureau. When you invited her there, she suspected that you wanted to trap her. It's obvious that she's already on her guard."
"Her being on guard is a good thing."
After considering the intelligence he had just seen, Lyon couldn't help but furrow his brows slightly. He paused his writing, put down the charcoal pencil in his hand, and said with a sense of pressure:
"She's a Tier 1 Purifier. According to the Director's statement, in a situation where no cost is spared, an elite Tier 1 Purifier like Senior Emma has the ability to destroy half of the royal capital in a single day. I estimate that she could kill me with just one encounter.
Someone with such astonishing destructive power and unknown methods is incredibly dangerous. Senior Jerry's friends can keep track of her movements, but they can't stop her from causing destruction. The only person in the Bureau who can confidently subdue her is the Director.
You know the Director's situation; it's absolutely impossible for him to put aside all other work and focus solely on her. So, the most secure approach is to make her cautious and unwilling to act rashly due to a sense of luck, while also ensuring she doesn't voluntarily retreat."
"..."
In just a short while, you've thought of all this?
After hearing Lyon's plan, Black Sheep couldn't help but click his tongue, suddenly feeling a bit of strangeness in Lyon.
With the gradual acquisition of power and after being "corrupted" by Emma and the Red-Haired Director's group for a period, Lyon has undergone a significant transformation. He is no longer the foolish young man consumed by anger.
This dog's heart has become much darker than before. Not only has he become accustomed to setting traps for others, but he also handles matters more and more like the schemers of the Purification Bureau, his mind filled with convoluted and devious plans. It seems that the influence of that woman and her group has rubbed off on him.
"Alright then."
With a heart full of malice, Black Sheep glanced at Lyon's buttocks and asked curiously:
"What do you plan to do next? Are you going back to the Purification Bureau to wait for Emma and the Red-Haired Director's group to return?"
"As for the next step..."
Upon hearing this, Lyon pondered for a moment. Then, holding the self-made charcoal pencil, he circled something in his notebook and hesitated to say:
"I'll go back to the Bureau first and inform Senior Jerry about the situation. Then, I'll go to the Princess to call off the engagement."
...
The sun set.
As the sunlight faded, the remnants and smoke from the raging battles seemed like smears of deep gray paint, casting a dark shadow over the large and small alleys.
After several exceptionally fierce battles, the once prosperous city had been reduced to ruins. On the cracked streets, broken mechanical parts could be seen every now and then, and within the collapsed buildings, numerous fractured steam pipes weakly spewed out pungent, grayish-white smoke.
Dust, smoke, ashes, rust, blood, and cries! The desolate yet intense wind roared through the alleys, carrying the chaotic atmosphere filled with the scent of smoke and scorched earth, fiercely stimulating the survivors' tear-filled eyes. It was as if the city, devastated by war, was mourning its own demise.
This is…
Recognizing the broken city before her, a place she had only visited once but felt intimately familiar with, Veronica, looking six or seven years younger, gave a slight start. She instinctively bit her lip hard.
This was her dream… The shattered city before her was the former county town of Lane County, Cornwall City, which had been completely destroyed by war.
During the six-year-old Patriotic War, the Kingdom and the mechanical forces of the Icesito Ice Plains had fought eleven rounds of battles in Cornwall City, turning the once-prosperous city into a wasteland. Even with those who had fled in advance included, more than half of Cornwall City's residents were still killed or injured.
At this moment in her dream, it was the day after the sixth round of the tug-of-war, and the Icesito Kingdom was about to counterattack, just before the start of the seventh round of fierce fighting. What would happen in the next two hours would become the deepest nightmare of her life.
Even though she was extremely reluctant to move forward, the princess, trapped in her dream, couldn't control her actions at all. She could only follow her past self, accompanied by numerous guards and ten battlefield medics, as they hurried towards the dilapidated factory at the end of the street.
It was a candy factory that had endured repeated bombings. Cornwall's rainbow candy, once famous throughout the kingdom, was every child's dream of a rainbow.
However, after six rounds of battles, this factory, which once held countless sweet memories, had been half-destroyed. The walls, riddled with bullet holes, still emitted hissing steam from the pipes, and the ground was littered with shattered machine remnants.
In stark contrast to this desolate scene, the factory floor was covered in brightly colored syrup, and in the warehouse where these syrups were once stored, dozens of citizens who hadn't had time to evacuate were hiding, waiting for a rescue that was almost impossible.
The princess in her dream heard weak cries for help and anxiously directed the guards to pry open the door. She even personally forced the deformed door frame open and rushed in first.
The setting sun's rays shone through the broken windows into the room, casting mottled shadows in the half-destroyed house. A child covered in sticky syrup clutched their doll, looking at her timidly, and beside the child were over thirty survivors.
Seeing the target of her journey, the princess in her dream couldn't help but smile with relief. But the princess, aware that she was in a dream, stared at the doll in the girl's hand, its face shattered, with a bitter smile, and bit her lip tightly.
"Boom!"
Accompanied by the tearing sound of the air being ripped apart, hundreds of bombs filled with alchemical fuel tore through the dark red dusk with pale tails of flame, landing in the streets of Cornwall City. The half-destroyed candy factory completely crumbled, and the bright syrup on the ground turned into a surging sea of orange flames.
"Nooooo!"
At the moment when the brilliant flames were about to explode, the princess in her sleep suddenly opened her eyes and sat up in bed.
Even though she had successfully escaped the dream, just before the most painful moment arrived, and she had broken free from the nightmare that had tormented her for six years, the princess's thin nightgown was still soaked with cold sweat, clinging tightly to her skin, causing her entire body to shiver.
"Huff..."
Leaning weakly against the headboard, the princess took a few deep breaths. After her heartbeat slowly calmed down, she didn't try to go back to sleep. Instead, she got out of bed, drank a glass of cold water that had turned lukewarm, walked to the desk, and sat down. She opened the unfinished documents on the table and silently picked up her quill pen.
The Curse of the King of Nightmares.
Every direct blood descendant of the royal family, upon reaching adulthood, would be haunted by nightmares for life, repeatedly experiencing their deepest regrets and pains in incredibly realistic dreams.
But this was also for the best.
After finishing the document in her hand, the princess turned around and looked at the smiling Tin Doll on the shelf behind her. After a moment of silent contemplation, she picked up another new document.
The Curse of the King of Nightmares was painful, but it also constantly reminded her, preventing her from forgetting the past and always remembering what she needed to do.
...
As the princess wrote with fervor, the mountain of documents on the desk gradually decreased, and the oil in the lamp began to slowly disappear.
When a soft "patter" sound echoed, the light in the lamp flickered slightly, and a soft voice seemed to call out from the doorway.
"Your Highness? Are you asleep?"
"Not yet."
The princess picked up the tweezers and rolled the wick, relighting the dimmed lamp. As she continued to approve the documents, she asked in a gentle voice, "What is it?"
"Your Highness Veronica... It's your... um... that Mr. Lyon is here. Do you want to see him now?"
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
Report
