Mystery: Chaos Path

The next day, morning—

Today, Backlund was blessed with rare good weather. The golden sunlight, unhindered by clouds, freely洒 (sǎ - sprinkled/scattered) across every corner of Backlund. Yet, due to the season, it wasn't intense, making people feel comfortably warm.

Klein had no pressing commissions today and was also concerned about Azik's memory integration, so he stayed at home.

“I understand the logic, but how is it that you can't even beat Little Amon at Go-Moku?”

Rowan, disguised as Jack, glanced at the Go-Moku board in front of Klein, raised his eyebrows, and said.

Yes, Klein was playing Go-Moku with Little Amon, and judging from the board's current state, Little Amon was about to get five in a row.

Holding a Go-Moku piece, Klein coughed softly. He looked at the board but didn't deny anything. Instead, he generously looked at Little Amon and said:

“Little Amon is really smart. I only taught Him Go-Moku yesterday, and today His skill has already surpassed mine.”

Hearing Klein's praise, Little Amon looked much more spirited. If He had a tail, it would probably be wagging. He coughed affectedly and said, “No, it's not that great.”

“No wonder you two get along so well; children need to be praised.” Seeing this, Rowan smiled, casually ruffled Little Amon's head, poured a glass of iced sweet tea for each of them, and brought over a fruit platter, continuing to watch Klein and Little Amon play Go-Moku while drinking tea.

“Dong, dong, dong—”

Footsteps came from upstairs, the undisguised style undoubtedly belonging to a certain Red Angel.

Having finally finished his recent tasks and having a bit of free time, Medici walked down from the second floor, a cigarette still held between his right fingertips.

He looked at the three little ones gathered together, lightly rubbed his left hand in front of the cigarette, and with an inconspicuous flash of light, the cigarette was lit. Medici casually took a puff and then paused slightly.

Because the flavor of this cigarette wasn't quite right, it didn't taste like tobacco, but more like… mint?

Medici narrowed his eyes, realized something, and looked at Rowan, who had already put down his teacup and was peeling an orange.

“Don't look at me, I replaced all your cigarettes with mint ones. Smoking at home with children, do you have any sense of responsibility? What if you set a bad example for the children?” Rowan glanced at Medici and said righteously.

“Tch!” Medici curled his lips but didn't extinguish the cigarette in his hand. He let the mint cigarette burn, walked closer to the others, and understood what Klein and Little Amon were doing at a glance. He immediately scoffed, saying, “Playing Go-Moku together first thing in the morning?”

“That's still better than you smoking first thing in the morning.” Rowan glanced at him, retorting unhappily. He then picked around in the fruit platter for a while, tossing a large, round apple to the other, saying, “Go eat your apple!”

Medici caught the apple, finally extinguished the mint cigarette in his hand, casually tossed it into the ashtray on the coffee table, then found a place to sit next to Rowan while “crunching” on the apple, watching the board and occasionally making a comment, mainly being sarcastic.

Then Rowan noticed that Klein, who had just been suppressed by Little Amon, suddenly started to gain the upper hand, reversing the one-sided situation.

Obviously, if this wasn't Klein's potential being unleashed, then he hadn't been serious when playing with Little Amon, just teasing the child. Now, unable to stand Medici's mockery, he began to display his true strength.

Little Amon naturally saw this as well, but wasn't upset or angry. Instead, his expression became more serious, and his playing angles became increasingly tricky.

It was clearly just a game of Go-Moku, but now it looked a bit like the intense game of Go.

“This damned competitive spirit…” Rowan shook his head, picked up the sweet iced tea, took a sip, and was nudged by Medici's elbow.

“What?” Rowan looked at him in confusion.

“Where's my teacup?” Medici looked at him and asked.

“How would I know…” Rowan looked at him inexplicably.

“All the tea sets were cleaned and placed in the kitchen yesterday, but when I went to the kitchen just now, I couldn't find my cup. Has anyone else touched these today besides you?”

Medici said this, taking another “crunching” bite of the apple, looking at Rowan with sharp eyes, saying, “Confess and be lenient, resist and be severely punished.”

“Uh…” Rowan blinked, finally remembering something, and smiled somewhat guiltily, saying, “Is it possible that your cup is in the trash can?”

“What happened?” Medici looked at him askance, asking.

“I was a little hungry in the middle of the night yesterday, so I went to the kitchen to forage for food, and accidentally… it broke.” Rowan spread his hands at this point, becoming righteous again, saying:

“It wasn't intentional, and it's clearly because the quality of this cup was too poor, it just accidentally bumped it… Why don't you buy a sturdier one next time?”

The last sentence was even a very sincere suggestion.

Medici: 6

“What are you all gathered around there for?”

The newest novels are first published on Liǔ 9 Shūbā!

While Rowan and Medici were arguing about whether there was a problem with the cup's quality or Rowan's behavior, footsteps came again.

Will skipped down the stairs nimbly, approached the others with curiosity, then naturally found a corner to sit in across from Rowan, reached into the fruit platter, grabbed an orange, and focused his gaze on the Go-Moku board in front of Klein, saying after watching for a long time, “This is… a game invented by Rosell?”

“Yeah, why not…” Rowan smiled, then briefly explained the rules of Go-Moku to Will.

“Sounds simple… Ugh, so sour.” Will was about to comment when he suddenly frowned, realizing that the segment of orange he had just eaten was terribly sour.

“You just prefer to eat sweet things, I think it's okay.” As soon as Rowan said this, Will stuffed another segment of orange into Rowan's mouth with lightning speed.

The latter paused, then frowned as well, and couldn't help but pick up the sweet iced tea and take a sip.

“Sour, right!” Will said, revealing a triumphant smile.

As the Mercury Snake, Will always adhered to doing things appropriate for his age, so he didn't think he was being childish.

“Haha…” Medici on the side laughed unkindly at this time, with full of sarcasm.

Rowan immediately looked at him with unkind eyes, but just when everyone thought he would use a sour orange to teach Medici a lesson, Rowan suddenly picked up a segment of orange and stuffed it into Klein's mouth.

“Hiss, why me?” Klein frowned from the sourness, asking puzzledly, like a cat that was suddenly beaten while watching a show.