Endless Debt

After the rescue incident, life became calm and peaceful, with no sudden events at all. Even extraordinary crimes were pathetically few, as if the outlaws fled the Great Rift overnight, leaving behind only the Hunter to patrol his territory.

Bologue has been quite idle lately, so much so that he feels uncomfortable. He's been trying to calm himself by doing other things. For instance, he is currently sitting in the small outpost house, flipping through the "Golden Thesis," trying to understand the details of the Triple Law.

Humans, Demons, and Debtors are distinguished by the integrity of their souls. Humans possess intact souls, Demons have lost their entire souls, and Debtors have broken souls.

The Alchemy Matrix is implanted in the soul, allowing humans to normally undergo the trials of the Triple Law and ascend. Demons, having lost their entire souls, lack the foundational cornerstone for the Alchemy Matrix to extend, thus cannot ascend.

Debtors are between the two; their broken souls can serve as a cornerstone for the growth of the Alchemy Matrix, but due to the fragility of their soul, this cornerstone is unstable, making the ascent for Debtors extremely difficult and perilous.

Fortunately, such defects don't affect Bologue. As an Undead, no matter how dangerous something might be, he only needs to resurrect.

Suddenly, Bologue's train of thought was interrupted by the sound of snoring. He turned his head to see the napping Palmer.

As expected, Palmer's personal belongings have increasingly filled the small outpost house over time. First, it was novels piling up under the bed, then boxes of snacks and beer. He even brought a tape recorder to play songs occasionally in the outpost house.

Hmm... Bologue quite enjoys this aspect. As partners, the two of them surprisingly share a similar taste in music.

Bologue isn't that rigid. Aside from occasionally nagging Palmer, he doesn't interfere much and sometimes even actively tries to get into these things.

For example, some novels.

Bologue rarely reads novels. He spends his spare time learning various extraordinary knowledge to quickly catch up with the understanding of this era. Thus, his entertainment is limited to watching movies and listening to music... if demon slaying counts.

Recently, whenever Bologue has some free time, he flips through the pile of novels Palmer brought. One novel that caught his attention is titled "Night Hunter."

Aimou mentioned this book. During a ride on the subway with Marion and among the supplies transported to the Desperate Outpost, this book was also included.

Amidst such curiosity, Bologue started to read this story, though due to time constraints, he has only read the beginning.

"Ah..."

Palmer let out a loud crow-like cry before groggily sitting up from the bed, indicating he had woken up.

Their work has truly been leisurely lately, with only two patrols a day and hardly any special occurrences. Bologue has been tracking the whereabouts of the Gray Trade Association, but it seems as if these guys never existed, leaving no traces at all.

Bologue even asked Yas about their progress, but their situation was similar to his, as if the Gray Trade Association vanished, leaving the investigation at a stalemate.

Palmer is the only one benefiting from this impasse, ecstatic and claiming it's his lucky day.

"Speaking of which, Bologue, the Vow Festival is coming up soon. Do you have any plans?" Palmer asked, glancing at the calendar.

"Not really... I'll probably be here on duty. What about you?" Bologue didn't have any particular feelings about the festival.

The day after tomorrow is the Vow Festival, a day when Oubos rose from the ravaged land. After a month's preparation, the entire city is ready for the celebration.

"On duty? That's too boring!" Palmer's voice rose.

"There's nothing much to do anyway, so being on duty here is fine. Why, are you going to join me?"

Bologue looked lightly at Palmer, knowing he was a lazy dog who would never work on duty during the Vow Festival. That's why Bologue had taken up the task right from the start.

"No, I'll pass. I have things to do during the Vow Festival," Palmer said.

"What kind of things? Celebrating with Serey and the others, or racing down the streets?" Bologue could easily guess Palmer's private life.

"How could it be? It's the Vow Festival, after all." Palmer protested loudly.

Seeing this, Bologue smiled slight and pressed, "So what are you going to do? Better come up with a decent lie."

Bologue knew his partner too well. Palmer was cunning and nimble, slackening at work but becoming reliable in dangerous situations.

That's why Palmer often spouted nonsense, supplemented by his peculiar childhood experiences. It seemed that the Clarks family had a touch of comedic talent.

After a moment of silence, Palmer said.

"I'm going to call my fiancée. She's a chatterbox, but fortunately, her family requires her to sleep by ten, so I can catch Serey's party after ten... It seems you guessed right, since the final stop is always the Undying Club."

Before Palmer could finish his sentence, Bologue burst into laughter. He couldn't have predicted that Palmer would tell such a lie; his partner indeed had an irresistible comedic charm.

Bologue's laughter gradually stopped, while Palmer remained serious and grew more solemn, Bologue's smile also gradually stiffened.

After a long silence, Bologue slowly spoke.

"Are you... serious?"

"What do you think?"

Palmer looked at the awkward Bologue, a smile beaming on his face, as if he had won over Bologue in some way.

"No no no, how could someone like you possibly have a fiancée?" Bologue didn't understand.

"What do you mean by someone like me? I'm a rightful heir of the Clarks family! Becoming an unfortunate debtor is just something that happened later, but before that, I was really shining brightly!"

Palmer rarely sounded assertive, shouting repeatedly.

"Don't you understand what it means to be from a big family? It's quite normal to have a fiancée!"

Bologue fell silent again, while Palmer came over, patted Bologue's shoulder, with a look of deep-seated concern.

"Partner, I know your mental state has issues, but ah, you can't just give up on yourself like that."

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

"You're too idle, find yourself a girlfriend, stop thinking about Demons, cutting through those things every day won't lead anywhere." Palmer spoke with the tone of someone with experience.

Bologue raised his hand intending to hit Palmer, but this guy reacted faster, moved sideways to dodge, with a mischievous smile.

"Then I'll rely on you for the Vow Festival, partner!"

Palmer laid back in bed, reached for a book, and didn't forget to give Bologue a thumbs up.

"Sigh..."

Bologue sighed helplessly, another reason for his duty was that he truly didn't have much to do during the Vow Festival.

He didn't have family to meet, nor friends to celebrate with... Actually, he did have some friends, like Palmer, Geoffrey, Serey, etc., but everyone had their own plans for the Vow Festival.

Thinking about this made Bologue feel much lonelier, ever since coming out from the Black Prison, the whole world had changed, Bologue was like a ghost traveling through time.

Bologue shook his head, trying hard not to think about these disturbing things, he was an Undead, with endless years awaiting him, if he got defeated by these trivial matters, then he would be too fragile.

"I'll go see Teda." Bologue mentioned to Palmer before pushing the door and leaving.

He planned to ask Teda about the Vow Festival plan, if Teda also didn't have any plans, they could accelerate their research pace.

Just like their investigation of the Gray Trade Association, the research on Bologue's Alchemy Matrix had also hit a bottleneck.

Initially, Teda's research was on the Alchemy Matrix of a Seeker of Glory, Xilin had almost completely exhibited this power, providing a wealth of data for Teda's research, but now it was different, Bologue was merely a Condenser, he had no ability to fully unfold the power of the Summoning Hand.

This kind of thing can't be rushed, Bologue can't possibly ascend to a Seeker of Glory in just a few days, it sounds too ridiculous.

Teda realized that this would be a long-term task, along with Bologue's ascension, this power would gradually reveal its full picture in front of them.

Ascending to the second-floor experiment area, Bologue saw Aimou busy at the workbench, aside from taking care of Teda's daily life and a few auxiliary tasks, Aimou's most important task every day was learning Alchemy.

It might be because of her identity as an Alchemy Puppet, Aimou was exceptionally adept at learning these things, and during her learning, she could apply learned knowledge to her own body.

Teda once mentioned, the gel-like substance mimicking skin on Aimou's torso was made by Aimou herself, not only does it look nice and mimic skin, but also has strong shock absorption and protective ability to stabilize Aimou's internal mechanical structure.

Bologue took a few more glances, only to see Aimou's pitch-black arm slowly becoming illusory, until it completely dissolved into nothingness, like a shadow, she extended her hand into another piece of metal.

This was the first time Bologue saw this, and he didn't know what it was, but he guessed it might be Aimou's "Secret Energy", she could be regarded as an Alchemy Armament with self-awareness, so some of her strange abilities were quite normal.

At the end of the corridor, Bologue saw Teda, they nodded to each other, then stood together, watching from a distance through the safety glass, Aimou busy at the workbench.

"She really loves Alchemy, it's just like us humans, pursuing our own souls, she's also researching where she originally came from."

In Teda's words, there was a hint of philosophy, but Bologue didn't agree, he shook his head.