Goddess Kaleidoscope

Lude told Trinn that his disciple, whom he had sent to Yanmu City, said the Navarro family had not publicly announced the "death" of their eldest son, but instead claimed that he had been seriously injured during his training in the north and was currently recuperating at home. However, rumors had begun to circulate in Yanmu City that the Navarro family's eldest son had actually been assassinated in the north.

The information that Lude told Trilling was all true; it was indeed all about what happened in Yanmu City. However, what Lude didn't tell him was that he had Hume deliberately spread the rumors in the area to confuse the public and incite suspicion among the various parties.

And I must say, the results are quite good!

The Brotherhood of the Black Hand was never a monolithic entity; several elders each had their own factions, and conflicts between them always existed, just one spark away from breaking out.

And now, Trin is the fuse. The eldest son of the Navarro family was crippled by Dick, a necromancer from the Brotherhood of the Black Hand. This is conclusive evidence, which can be confirmed by the old butler and the surviving family guards. Moreover, the other party is still missing, and no one knows whether he is dead or alive.

Given the Navarro family's status and position in both the legitimate and underworld circles of Yanmu City, how could they possibly swallow such a humiliation and pretend it never happened?

But the truth is... they really did endure it!

To be honest, Ludger was also somewhat surprised when he found out, because according to the intelligence he had gathered before, the patriarch of the Navarro family, who was also Trin's father, Siharo, was a ruthless and vindictive character, shrewd but also cruel. He had also learned this to some extent from some snippets of conversation with Trin.

But this ruthless man, the number one in Yanmu City, chose to let the matter rest after his most beloved son met with misfortune. This unusual behavior is indeed very intriguing.

So Lude instructed Hume to stir up trouble in Yanmu City again, spreading rumors that Trin had been assassinated in the north, and that there might be a traitor among his men. Otherwise, with so many skilled guards protecting the eldest son of the Navarro family, how could the assassin have succeeded so easily?

These messages were then further "analyzed," and a "clever drinker" (played by Hume) deduced the hidden truth: the mole might be a blood relative. With so many sons in the Navarro family, if Trin were to die, they would undoubtedly be the biggest beneficiaries.

The drama of brothers turning against each other over inheritance is a common occurrence in this world. Thinking about it this way, the Navarro family's unusual behavior suddenly becomes quite normal; after all, they don't want their family scandals aired in public!

Similarly, these rumors, which Ludd had instructed to spread, were also treated as intelligence gathered by Ludd and relayed to Trilling in detail. After listening, Trilling slapped his thigh, exclaiming, "Isn't this exactly what I guessed?"

These days, Trin has been hiding in his hideout, with plenty of time on his hands and no idea what to do with it. Lud has brought him a lot of books, mostly novels and the like, which are perfect for passing the time.

The books Lud gave him weren't just randomly given out; they mainly contained plots and assassinations, involving feuds between brothers and falling out between fathers and sons. After reading so many of these books, Trin naturally couldn't help but connect his own experiences to these themes, and as a result, the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt!

Under Lud's earnest guidance, Trilling, who was not exactly a smart person to begin with, was completely unaware that he had been led astray. Instead, he believed that he had successfully discovered the hidden truth through his intelligence and was convinced of this result.

According to Lud's own analysis, the reason why the Navarro family chose to settle things peacefully this time might be related to the fake product that was about to break through. Right now is a critical moment for the other party, and they must try to maintain stability. No matter how much power the Navarro family has, they would not dare to disobey the god they have worshipped for many years.

After their conversation, Trin was now convinced that someone was sabotaging him because he had suffered such a major setback in the maze. Moreover, he believed that the mastermind was most likely one of his brothers, and could not possibly be the kind-faced Master Lud who had saved him more than once.

Lude thought to himself, "If you're convinced that this is the case, then things will be much easier from here on out."

A few days later, the assassins secretly hired by the Black Mandolin Merchant Guild arrived in Pine Town. The guild manager used a messenger to summon a group of acquaintances from the neighboring town of Unos, but all of this was observed by two undead ladies who were monitoring the guild around the clock.

Therefore, Lud immediately learned of the arrival of these assassins in Pine Town.

It's worth mentioning that a major event occurred in Unos Town in the first half of this year. The town lord and his wife both died overnight, and rumors circulated that they were poisoned.

Over the past few years, the couple squandered the promising situation left to them by the old city lord. Their own problems, coupled with the sudden rise of Pine Town, further accelerated their decline.

According to some rumors, the couple died under suspicious circumstances. They had a history of discord and both had new lovers outside the marriage, wanting to replace their old flames with new ones. So they poisoned each other, ultimately resulting in their mutual destruction.

End of this chapter

With the death of the city lord and his wife, Unos Town descended into complete chaos. The once prosperous town rapidly declined, and most of the original residents who could leave left. Instead, many villains and thugs flocked in, turning it into a veritable "underworld talent market" where filth and corruption were rampant. A letter from the manager quickly attracted a whole team of professional assassins.

Several assassins traveled overnight from Unos Town to Pine Town, disguised as adventurers from out of town. They entered the town without much trouble and stayed temporarily in a small inn, awaiting their employer's next instructions.

Dorn immediately sent a signal to Jotlin to meet at the place where they had met last time. The alley was quite secluded, making it a perfect spot to strike.

Dorn told the hired assassins that upon seeing the target, they shouldn't rush to kill him; it would be best to capture him alive and bring him to the trading post. If several people could accomplish this, the agreed-upon commission would double.

Dorn's reason for wanting to capture him alive wasn't out of pity or brotherly affection, but rather because he feared the person he'd contacted wasn't actually Trilling. Leaving him alive would allow him to follow the trail. If it really was Trilling, then he could be captured and severely tortured. Dorn was very curious: just how much more did the eldest son know than his younger brothers?

Everything was ready, and Dorn was just waiting two days for the fish to bite so he could set the hook. Little did he know that Ludwig was also making preparations.

That very night, when they were to meet, Trinn secretly left his hideout, wearing the cloak he had made himself from a bedsheet. It wasn't so much to conceal his identity, but rather to prevent passersby from seeing his horribly disfigured face.

Although Trin was a spoiled brat, at least his parents gave him a decent appearance. But now, with the body of the necromancer Dick, this deformed child is so ugly that he gets scared by his reflection in the basin every morning when he washes his face.

Under the cover of night, Terlin deliberately took secluded and dark paths on his way to the meeting place, afraid of running into anyone along the way.

To Trin's slight surprise, the streets of Pine Town were unusually quiet tonight. There were hardly any pedestrians in sight, and even the town guards who were supposed to patrol all night were nowhere to be seen, as if they had been reassigned elsewhere.

This saved Terlin a lot of trouble, and he quickly arrived at the alley where they were supposed to meet. Seeing that the person he was supposed to meet hadn't arrived yet, he carefully hid behind the familiar pile of junk again.

In late November, Songshu Town had already entered winter, with several snowfalls already underway. The temperature after nightfall would usually drop below freezing within just one hour.

The chilly wind made Trilling shiver, and he could only try to hide behind the pile of junk. This scene made Trilling feel sad. The once glorious young master of the Navarro family was now as miserable as a homeless man.

After waiting for an unknown amount of time, Terlin suddenly heard faint footsteps coming from the entrance of the alley. He peeked out and could vaguely see a figure, but in the dark, he couldn't make out the face at all.

At that moment, the figure opposite spoke in a familiar tone.

"I will paint my hands black."

"Just to blend into the night... You've finally come!"

Upon hearing the code word, Terlin staggered out from behind the pile of junk. After being exposed to the cold wind for so long, his hands and feet were freezing cold, and his voice trembled.

At this moment, the contact lit an oil lamp. Trillin glanced at the other person, who was the same man he had met that day, Chris, the head of the guards at the Black Mandolin Trading Company. Chris was also looking Trillin up and down. Seeing that he still had his face covered up, Chris hesitated for a moment and then spoke.

"We received your letter back home, but they replied that we must first verify your identity. Who exactly are you?"

"I...I am..."

After stammering for a while, Terlin was unsure whether he should reveal his identity to this nobody in front of him. Besides, given his current state, even if he did tell him, it was uncertain whether the person would believe him.

So after hesitating for a long time, Trilling decided to postpone it for now.

"I want to see your person in charge here. As long as they come from my hometown Yanmu City, I can prove themselves in person."

"You want to see our manager?"

Yes, yes.

Hearing Trin's words, Chris pondered for a moment. The hired assassins were waiting not far behind him. He only needed to whistle, and they would rush up. He himself was trained and had an iron-tipped club hidden behind him. Just by looking at the masked man's posture, he knew that the guy had never practiced martial arts.

Since the young master instructed that we should try to bring the prisoners back alive, and this guy has taken the initiative to ask to meet the local person in charge of their Black Mandolin Chamber of Commerce, we might as well just trick him into going back, which would save us a lot of effort and trouble.

Chris nodded, indicating his willingness to take Trillin to see their leader. Then, he turned around, waved to the wall behind him with his back to Trillin, and the two figures dressed in black, hidden in the night, immediately disappeared.

Following behind their contact, Terlin quickly arrived at the Trading Post Street, but instead of going directly into the Black Mandolin Trading Company's gate, the two went around to the back alley of the Trading Post and crawled into the sewers.

Trilling was initially puzzled, but Chris explained to him that there was a hidden door in the sewers that led directly into the trading house, avoiding the risk of being discovered by someone if they went through the main entrance. This was also a precautionary measure.

Trilling nodded as if he understood, completely unaware that he was walking step by step into a trap.

After passing through a tunnel hidden behind a secret door, Trillin followed Chris into a storage room that should be located underground. By the light from Chris's hand, they could see that the surrounding shelves were piled high with goods. Directly in front of them, a soft glow emanated from a slightly ajar door. Chris, who had reached the door, turned around and gestured for Trillin to enter.

"We've arrived, please come in."

Staring at the door so close at hand, Trilling suddenly hesitated. He didn't know why, even though everything seemed to be going smoothly, he suddenly felt a sense of panic. Seeing this, Chris couldn't help but smirk, pushed open the door, grabbed Trilling by the collar, and yanked him inside. Trilling stumbled and almost fell to the ground, and the sudden light blinded him temporarily, taking a while to recover.

Once he regained his sight, he looked around and was astonished to find that although the room was brightly lit and softly lit, it was a dungeon filled with various torture instruments. Not far away, a young man who was not unfamiliar to Terlin was surrounded by a group of fierce-looking men, looking at him with great interest.

The moment their eyes met, Terlin instinctively made the most serious mistake he had made so far.

"Dorn!?"

End of this chapter

The moment he uttered the name "Dorn," even the slow-witted Trinn realized he'd slipped up. He wasn't exactly smart, but he wasn't a complete idiot either.

When he called out Dorn's real name, Dorn was slightly taken aback, and then a playful smile appeared on his face.

"You know me?"

Because he traveled extensively, Dorn usually used various aliases, and it could be said that apart from a few close confidants and family members, even his lovers didn't know who he was. But this strange masked man could call him by his real name as soon as they met, and combined with the contents of the secret letter from before, Dorn had a vague idea of ​​the other party's identity.

At Dorn's signal, several burly, menacing-looking men stepped forward, pinned Trillin down, and forcibly removed the sheet covering his face. When a hideously deformed face was revealed, the men burst into laughter, a sound that was particularly jarring to Trillin.

Dorn was startled by Trin's face, but then a thought flashed through his mind, as if he had realized something.

More than four months ago, Trin got into trouble in the north of the kingdom. The old steward, Sajin, and the surviving guards brought Trin, who seemed to be unconscious, back to Flamewood City. In order to save his most beloved eldest son, his father invited priests from almost all the major sects in Flamewood City, and even used the most advanced high-level divine spell, the Great Resurrection, but still to no avail.

Overjoyed at the outcome, Dorn and his brothers, though their faces showed tears, were secretly delighted. They raised a toast to the necromancer who had done such a good deed, to express their gratitude.

The problem was that several months passed, and although the "Trin" back home remained unconscious, he also didn't die, as if he were in a state of hibernation. Therefore, their biased father never gave up, and never, as Dorn and the others had hoped, was able to appoint a successor.

Seeing his father's stubbornness, Dorn finally gave up and stopped wasting time in Flamewood City. He went out to continue his business, but unexpectedly, he made a "reward" in Pine Town in the north, the place where Trin had his accident!

Based on the information he had, Dorn realized that something seemed amiss.

When Dorn first saw the secret letter written in the family code, he was actually skeptical of its contents because it sounded too bizarre. The writer claimed to be the real Trin, whose soul had been separated from his body by a necromancer using evil magic. He had been asleep in a new body for several months before waking up and hoped that his family could take him back.

At first, Dorn didn't quite believe it because he had seen so-called "resurrection scams." Scammers would go to the door of wealthy people's homes and say that they were the deceased so-and-so of the family, whose soul had not perished after death, but had come to the door of this body to ask the family for some money.

Most of these scammers don't succeed, but some have done their research beforehand and are excellent actors who can really fool people.

The most outrageous one I've ever seen was a conman who dared to impersonate a deceased viscount and even slept with several of his wives. It sounds incredibly absurd, but it's true.

It's safe to say that if this letter hadn't been written in the family code, Dorn wouldn't have taken its contents seriously at all.

"Damn it! That necromancer actually knows such evil magic!"

At this point, Dorn was almost convinced that the freak in front of him was Trin... or at least that his inner soul was.

According to Dorn's original plan, if this person was a fraudster, he would throw him to the dogs; if he was a henchman acting on someone's orders, he would torture him to extract information about who was behind it all before throwing him to the dogs. But he never expected that it would be Trin himself who arrived—a truly unexpected delight!

After all, he was the eldest son and elder brother of the family, and his own half-brother. Dorn wouldn't "deal with" Trin immediately, but would use every means to make him spill everything he knew! He would also enjoy this rare process.

"We'll be spending some time together from now on."

"..."

While Trin was imprisoned and genuinely regretted his rash actions, Lud was watching everyone's every move in the dungeon through his Peeping Eye.

If things go as expected, Dorn won't kill Trin anytime soon, but don't expect him to be treated well either. Trin will inevitably suffer at the hands of his own brother, and Lud is happy to see that happen.

In Ludd's plan to deal with the Brotherhood of the Black Hand, Trin is an important pawn. Letting him suffer a painful lesson at the hands of his own people will help him completely side with Ludd. Therefore, Ludd is only monitoring him for now and will not interfere until the time is right before he steps in to save him.

"Have Elizabeth and the others keep a close eye on him. Don't rush to save him."

Having severed the connection with the Eye of Sight, Lud stretched and turned to look at Shanis, who was staring intently at a blank sheet of paper in front of her. The paper contained three words: "Vow," "Marriage," and "Child."

To deal with the Black Hand Brotherhood, they couldn't neglect their own development. These were all the second divine positions that Ludwig had come up with to consider for Shanis, each with its own advantages and characteristics, and all connected to Shanis's original "love ×", developing a conceptual framework around marriage.

Because Lude couldn't make up his mind, he simply called Shanis over and let her choose the one she liked best as the second god. As it turned out, Shanis, like him, had difficulty making decisions and sat there pondering for a long time, still undecided.

"Haven't you decided yet?"

"Master, can I have them all? These are all quite good."

"You have to eat one bite at a time, and walk one step at a time. Aren't you afraid of taking too big a step and tearing your balls?"