Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 98
Joshua was in a deep sleep, exhausted from too much exercise the previous day. He felt so tired that he couldn’t even lift a finger. He had many disjointed dreams and vaguely heard the doorbell ring. When he finally woke up slightly from his slumber, nearly an hour had passed since he last opened his eyes. He felt extremely hungry, waiting for Alois to call him for breakfast, so he could get up slowly to dress and wash. Maybe Alois would even bring breakfast upstairs? Having someone make breakfast for him was such a blissful life.
The assassin lay there with beautiful and fantastical thoughts, waiting for the familiar sound of footsteps. But after staring at the ceiling for ten minutes, he didn’t hear a thing. Making breakfast wasn’t like training. Did it really need to take this long? What was Alois doing? Had he fallen asleep while cooking?
Instinctively, he dismissed the possibility of Alois being in danger. Although Olympus’s public security wasn’t that good, this was Avalon, one of the most peaceful areas on the planet. With security guards patrolling the roads day and night, unless Alois had a death wish, who could harm him?
When Joshua slowly went downstairs and saw the still-on stove and the pot of soup about to boil dry, he realized he was gravely mistaken. The large house was empty, with no one there but him. Alois wasn’t here. He seemed to have vanished from the world, as if he had never existed, with no trace of him except the boiling pot on the stove.
The assassin began to wonder if he was having a nightmare. In this terrifying dream, Alois disappeared, leaving him alone here. He pinched his thigh hard, hoping to wake up, but the pain didn’t take him away from the nightmare. Instead, it revealed a brutal fact: everything he saw was fucking real.
Joshua returned to his bedroom, grabbed his gun, filled the energy cartridge, and took off the safety. He looked around. The house was still clean and tidy, with no signs of forced entry. However, the door hinges were lowered. He clearly remembered that the hinges were latched when he entered the house yesterday. The windows in the living room and kitchen were locked from the inside, the locks intact, and the alarm system was still diligently working with no signs of tampering. This left only two possibilities: Alois opened the door himself and left, never to return, or he opened the door for a visitor (maybe even invited them in for a chat), and this visitor wasn’t as kind as he thought. They kidnapped him.
Joshua leaned towards the latter since he seemed to hear the doorbell in his half-awake state, but he didn’t pay attention, unable to distinguish if it was real or a dream. Subconsciously, he even thought, Alois will answer the door, so what if it’s real?
The assassin cursed his negligence. How long had peaceful days passed for him to become so unalert, losing Alois in his own home! He lost him! If he could, he would shoot himself twice in the head to punish his negligence!
Suddenly, the doorbell rang loudly. Joshua, holding his gun, walked to the door, latched the hinges, ready to shoot outside at any time, then opened the monitor. A middle-aged man’s face appeared on the screen, meticulously dressed, like a well-groomed business elite.
“What can I do for you?” Joshua asked.
“Hello, my name is Erwin Kepler, here to visit Mr. Jacques Turing. Is he in?”
Joshua’s hand twitched slightly. “What do you want with him?”
“That’s a long story. It goes back to…” Kepler was pushed aside before he could explain, and a woman with exquisite makeup appeared on the screen.
“Sorry to bother you,” the woman said quickly. “I’m Jolene Cavendish, running a casino in Neo Venice. I knew Mr. Jacques Turing’s father, so I’m here to visit him. Ah, but he surely doesn’t remember me. I knew his father before he was born.”
Joshua frowned. He had heard the name Jolene Cavendish and met her in person, but the woman on the screen…he wasn’t sure, but she did look like the Jolene Cavendish in his memory. He didn’t rule out the possibility of an imposter, but what good would it do to impersonate a casino owner?
“Jolene Cavendish of the Portia Casino?”
“That’s me!” The woman seemed pleased to hear her casino mentioned.
The owner of the Portia Casino knew Alois’s father? Joshua had never heard him mention it. When in Neo Venice, Alois never said a word about having such an elder. Did he deliberately hide it? Or did he not know himself? After all, Jolene said she knew Alois’s father before he was born.
Why had she come to Olympus? Was she related to Alois’s sudden disappearance?
Joshua switched the gun to his other hand, freed his other hand to lower the latch, and opened the door.
Jolene Cavendish, though aged, perhaps due to being unmarried, still retained some very girlish habits. Seeing a young silver-haired man opening the door, she placed a hand on her chest, showing a bit of disappointment, but then asked in a more expectant tone. “Where is he?”
“He’s not here.” Joshua hid the gun behind him to avoid scaring the uninvited guests.
“Not here?” Jolene turned to her companion, as if questioning his incompetence.
“This is the right place,” Kepler whispered.
Jolene turned back to Joshua. “When will he be back? Can we wait for him?”
“He disappeared.” The assassin tried to keep his tone calm. “Just now.”
As the flying car entered Avalon Mountain, it was stopped by security.
“Guests need to check IDs and register,” the guard was diligent.
The driver, Epolyne, expressionless, took out her ID. “We are investigators sent by the Lancaster Company, here to survey the terrain for planning.” She glanced at the doctor in the back seat. “This is Dr. Frank Shelley.”
The guard looked at the doctor with admiration. “Your company is busy, always sending people to persuade residents to relocate, changing groups frequently. Not long ago, another one came.”
“There’s never enough good speakers,” the young doctor smiled.
After registration, Epolyne drove up Avalon Mountain. The doctor leaned out the window, marveling at the red land below.
“Please be careful, Doctor. Don’t stick your head out while driving. It might cause an accident.”
“Oh, what could happen, dear Epolyne?” The doctor didn’t heed her advice. “This is such a great place. Avalon, the realm of heroes and gods.”
“You like it here?”
“Of course, love it.”
Epolyne inwardly sneered but kept a straight face. “If you want to buy this land for a research lab, you can simply order the residents to move using military authority. Why bother with an entertainment company building an amusement park?”
“A military research lab sounds terrifying,” the doctor said. “Are we going to tell everyone ‘this is a military zone, no trespassing’ and wait for people to get curious? No. An amusement park is more discreet and easier for the public to accept.” The doctor paused. “Besides, to me, a research lab is an amusement park. No mistake about it!”
Epolyne was glad she wore long sleeves. Otherwise, the doctor would have asked why she had goosebumps.
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