CHAPTER 198: THE MCMILAN FAMILY CODE

Rock Sand City, Fourth District, in some run-down residential courtyard.

Flames shot up to the sky with nonstop psychic explosions going off. Over ten Black Sinner auras were clear as day.

This was exactly the secret hideout mentioned in the second tip-off letter.

There really were quite a few Black Sinners.

This time Carlos didn’t go himself, just sent Purple Vortex and Red Spirit to help out while watching through Purple Vortex’s eyes.

The fight wrapped up fast. The low-level Black Sinners didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell against the high-level captains, much less getting away.

The backup didn’t even need to lift a finger before it was all over.

"How come they’re all small-time? Where are the mid-level and higher Black Sinners?"

Carlos sensed something fishy.

There were plenty of Black Sinners—it really was a secret hideout—but their bosses were nowhere to be seen.

Was this just dumb luck?

"The second tip-off letter checked out again. The leadership’s gonna trust whoever’s behind these letters way more now, while their guard’s gonna drop big time. That’s bad news."

Carlos was still worried this might be Black Sinner mind games.

"Better wait a bit more. By my count, sis should show up any time now."

...

"Where the hell is Carlos crashing?"

The three girls sat taking a breather in some little tavern on the street.

"We’ve been asking around for two whole days. How does nobody know?"

Heidi was about to lose her mind.

News about Carlos was all over the city with practically everyone yakking about him, but nobody knew where Carlos was staying.

This feeling of being so close but not being able to reach him was driving Heidi up the wall.

Meanwhile her buddies seemed pretty chill.

Grace didn’t need babysitting—carefree and showing no signs of being worn out despite all the walking.

Kathy was surprisingly calm too, not showing any signs of being antsy.

"Kathy, aren’t you going crazy?"

This made Heidi pretty curious.

Kathy took her sweet time sipping ice water:

"Would going crazy help?"

"Uh... no..."

Heidi flopped on the table.

She had a point.

If Kathy wasn’t freaking out, what good would her own panic do?

She grabbed some ice water and slowly drank.

"Heidi, you seem like you really wanna see Carlos."

Kathy, still drinking ice water, suddenly dropped this bomb.

"Cough cough!"

Caught totally off guard, Heidi spat out ice water:

"No no... I’m out of water, I’ll go get more!"

Heidi bolted in a panic, face getting red and looking guilty as she went to get water.

Kathy let out a tired sigh:

"Ugh, so exhausting."

Such obvious feelings—only a total moron wouldn’t see them.

Grace was way better—she wouldn’t fight her for Carlos.

Kathy looked at Grace drinking with her head down, her expression getting way softer.

"Gulp! Gulp!"

Grace felt someone staring and immediately stopped.

"Something on my face?"

Kathy shook her head:

"Nope, totally clean."

"..."

Grace kept drinking. Ice water in desert cities was different from Ember City’s—way sweeter.

Heidi came back from getting water, her slightly red face back to normal as she got serious with her two friends:

"I just remembered something super important."

"?"

Kathy and Grace looked at Heidi like she’d grown a second head.

They didn’t remember anything important. What had Heidi thought of?

"It’s the sweet reward Kiri promised!"

Heidi felt a wave of panic—she’d almost forgotten something so crucial!

"Oh yeah."

Kathy remembered—there was definitely something like that.

"I think there was something like that."

Grace kept chugging ice water.

Way too bland a reaction—the response was way too bland. Heidi couldn’t deal with it:

"That was serious compensation!"

She tried to fire up everyone’s greed!

Kathy propped her face on her hands:

"Heidi, Kiri’s family isn’t loaded. I think you shouldn’t get your hopes up too high."

"Gulp gulp!"

Grace nodded while drinking—she was on board with Kathy.

"No way! Even though her clothes aren’t fancy noble stuff and I’m not sure about the style, the material is top-notch. I felt it—the texture is soft and light, definitely not something regular folks could afford!"

Heidi argued loud and proud. She absolutely wouldn’t be wrong.

"Well... that shop where Kiri got out—when we were asking about Carlos, we heard tons of stuff about it."

"Did... did we?"

Heidi’s face went stiff.

Kathy reminded her:

"Opens maybe a few times a year. The shop owner is so broke she’s about to eat sand."

"That’s impossible!"

Heidi couldn’t believe it.

How could her judgment be off! Absolutely no way!

"Gulp, gulp!"

Grace nodded again, totally backing up Kathy.

"Even so, no matter how little it is, it’s still compensation! Nobody can take away money that’s rightfully mine!"

Heidi’s fantasy got crushed, but no matter how small the reward was, she had to get it!

This was the McMilan family code!

"Why don’t we go find Kiri to collect the reward right now? We can also ask her family if they’ve got any news."

No point putting it off—they couldn’t find Carlos’s place anyway.

"Mm... sounds good!"

"Gulp, gulp!"

The three finished their break and headed to Pergina’s Alchemical Treasures.

....

Rock Sand City, Eastern District corner, in some gloomy fortune-telling shop.

"Weird, where has Diliya been these past few days?"

Becky was restless, her hands building card towers with tarot cards.

She suddenly spotted the date on the table.

"It’s December already..."

"Could it be... Black Mandolin Withering!"

’Black Mandolin Withering’ was the first line of the prophecy poem.

Black Mandolin stood for December, withering meant disaster.

"Black Mandolin withering,

The overlapping selves finally begin to separate,

One returns to darkness, one chases light.

A familiar traveler arrives, taking away half of you.

A strange traveler visits, taking away half of you.

Don’t be sad, everything is written in the stars,

Don’t fight it, everything is fate’s call."

Becky kept repeating the prophecy poem for her close friend, trying to figure it out more to help her.

"But mom once told me that fate is set in stone. Whether you know the future or not, fate won’t budge one bit. This is every being’s destiny."

Becky felt like crap. Even if she totally cracked the prophecy poem’s future, nothing would change.

It might even happen because she interpreted it.

"My head’s killing me!"

Becky pushed with both hands, knocking over the card tower as tarot cards went flying everywhere.

Right then, someone walked in. A card happened to fly over, and she instinctively reached out with slender fingers to catch it.

This was a Major Arcana card. On its face was some tough-as-nails warrior driving an awesome chariot, charging full speed toward victory!