Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 560 - 28: The Elegance of the Assassin_1

Chapter 560: Chapter 28: The Elegance of the Assassin_1

"I just want to ask one question." The expression on Pannis’s face was strange as he asked Bart, "These past few days, the food you’ve been eating, it hasn’t been prepared by Mr. Langdon here, has it?"

"Of course not." Bart asked, puzzled, "Why bring up the food out of nowhere? Is there some connection?"

"Hehe, good that it’s not, you should consider yourself lucky." Pannis nodded, "So my next question, and perhaps the most important one, is: how many days has this Mr. Langdon here not eaten—a single morsel—I mean? "

The look on Bart’s face froze in confusion. He glanced at Langdon, whose expression was odd, then at Pannis, who looked similarly strange, and answered blankly, "From the afternoon before yesterday, Langdon said his stomach felt off, so he didn’t eat, and nothing yesterday either."

"Of course, how could he possibly eat?" Pannis asked smiling, "Would you agree with me, Mr. Langdon?"

"You really recognized who I am." Langdon suddenly disappeared, reappearing in the corner of the tent, gracefully raising his hand in a gentleman’s salute to the tent’s entrance, and said evenly, "This is the third time you’ve ruined my plan, isn’t it? Nellie’s adventure team, I really wonder if you are continually following me. If the Thorn President hadn’t explicitly forbidden conflicts between us and you, there wouldn’t have been a second chance."

"It’s strange to me too, why is it that our assignments always seem to coincide with yours?" Pannis said nonchalantly, "And each time, your plans clash with our goals. Do we have too much luck, or do you just have bad luck? How unlucky must you be for us to destroy your plots three times consecutively?".

"I honestly do not know." Langdon’s demeanor was that of a perfect gentleman: "But comparatively, I am more curious about something else. I have never met anyone who could recognize me so easily. You are the first. How did you manage it? I do not believe my disguise is terribly obvious. Listening to you marching straight to this tent, I sensed you knew it was me as soon as I crawled in here this morning. I thought it might be a chance sighting, but you recognized me, so you must have been watching me closely the whole time. If that’s so, you would have seen through my disguise early on. When did you realize? Last night? Or possibly the moment we met?"

"Do you think I’d spill the beans to you?" Pannis’s words were as irritating as ever, "I dearly love making you guess, especially seeing you lying awake in frustration, unable to let it go even to death, that gives me immense satisfaction."

"Hehehe, it seems you have the makings of a captain as well," Langdon’s politeness was impeccable, "What a shame you refuse to join our ranks, it truly is... regrettable."

"No matter, I couldn’t be less interested in your hometown," Pannis replied, "Let alone joining you."

"And that’s why I said it’s a regret," Langdon shook his head, "But I should clear this up. If you did join us, I fear we wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, and I can’t accept that. I like the way things are and have no plans to change it for the time being."

"What exactly is going on here?" Bart asked nervously, a strong sense of foreboding made him nervous, "You’re suggesting Langdon is an imposter? Impossible! I’ve known him for forty years. I know his every habit. He’s no different now than he was before. No one could mimic him convincingly enough to fool me."

"Heh, I initially intended to trick you and leave the campsite early and distance myself from the five of them. Who would’ve thought I ended up failing," Langdon shook his head in regret, "A pity, only one step away from success and then trouble comes brewing."

"Causing trouble for you is our honor," Pannis directed his gaze to Bart continuing to explain, "You thought nobody could possibly fool you, but that’s merely because you haven’t encountered an expert in this field. Especially this man before you, he is an expert among experts. No one knows his true appearance, and he has fake identities all over Yarra. He can perfectly imitate someone without their parents and spouse noticing, let alone mere friends. Am I right? The most mysterious Captain Elegant of the Shadow Hand Guild."

"Since matters have come to this, I see no point in remaining here," Captain Elegant tore off the various parts of the armor he was wearing and threw them to the floor. Wearing only a shirt, still under the guise of Langdon, he rose and announced, "We give up this mission and hope there won’t be a next time."

"So it was you all along, the assassins we encountered on our journey?" Bart glared at Captain Elegant angrily, "What have you done to Langdon?"

"As for this body’s original inhabitant? Heh heh, what do you think I did?" Captain Elegant chuckled with elegance, "Go back the way you came and search around the place where you camped three days ago, you might still be able to find him, provided that his corpse has not become food for passing predators."

"You bastard." Bart gritted through his teeth, his beard quivering with fury; he charged forward, his hammer striking hard upon Elegant. But even he was surprised when the latter did not dodge or avoid his attack, instead, he smiled and allowed the hammer to crush his chest. His chest cavity sunk in, his ribs shattered, and at that moment, it was clear he could not survive. But even so, the smile on Elegant’s face remained unchanged, and in a weak voice, he said, "My fellow members of the Nellie Adventure Team, I bid you farewell. I hope there won’t be any future conflicts between us. Otherwise, heh heh..."

"What happened to him?" The women loathed Elegant instinctively and were prepared to join the fight when Bart went in, but to their surprise, he died without any apparent reason, and even made some baffling comments before his death. Confused, they turned to Pannis for answers: "Did he die or not? If he did, why could he still talk? But if he didn’t, then what is that corpse on the ground..."

"I’ve had my suspicions earlier, now I can finally confirm it," Pannis squinted his eyes, stroking his chin gravely, "Indulgence and Passion once said that within the Shadow Hand Guild, the rumors about Captain Elegant are rather odd. Several people have claimed that they saw him in places hundreds of kilometers apart almost at the same time."

"How is that possible?" Lina responded with a gasp of surprise, "Usually in such cases, it’s either that the person providing the information made a mistake, or someone was impersonating him. It’s easy to impersonate him since no one knows his appearance and identity, right?"

"At first, they also thought so, but after some investigation, they found that those claims might indeed be true," Pannis shook his head, "Who would dare impersonate the Captain of the Shadow Hand Guild? Those people have no regard for law or ethics, impersonation would only lead to death. Of course, there are plenty of people who do not fear death, so one can’t say for certain that there was no impersonation based on this fact. Their investigation might also have been flawed, which is why I was hesitant to make a conclusion. But now, judging from today’s situation, the rumors might just be true."

"The rumors of him appearing in different places at the same time?" Catherine shook her head, "Even if he knew how to split his body using magic, that wouldn’t allow him to cover such incredible distances, and what’s more, he’s not a mage and wouldn’t know such high-level magic. Vivian, splitting magic is advanced, isn’t it?"

"Yes," Vivian nodded, "It’s a Legendary Rank magic spell. However, the efficiency is mediocre as the copies are false, crumbling once hit. It’s not very useful, and is mostly used as a diversion."

"It’s not astral projection magic," Pannis shook his head, "It was said during the First Epoch that there was a lost secret technique, which allows some individuals of unique mental prowess to remotely control one or even several individuals whose divine wisdom was destroyed and became like simpletons, sharing their senses. The controlled party can execute various actions as directed by the controller’s consciousness, effectively giving one individual two or more bodies. This is a troublesome ability, but it requires extreme specific mental attributes. It is likely that only one out of many hundreds of years could use this secret technique, which is why it got lost."

"You think he used this secret technique?" Catherine recalled, then nodded, "Indeed, when we were in the City of Innocence, we clearly had the upper hand, yet he didn’t appear the least bit troubled. Perhaps it could be attributed to him being confident that neither Indulgence nor Passion would dare attack him. But as you said, at the Death Temple in the prairie, against you and Indulgence, he was equally calm. If we believe your inference, it does make sense. But wasn’t this secret technique considered lost? And wasn’t it lost since the First Epoch? How could he possibly know it?"

"Remember when we discussed in the City of Innocence, that he might be the true mole aiding the Divine Servant, and everyone else including Suspicion were merely being used?" Pannis questioned, "I suspect that he had been involved with the Divine Servant for a long, long time, learnt this technique from the three archbishops of the Divine Servant. That’s why he helped the Divine Servant in the City of Innocence, perhaps as a way of repaying a favor."

"Maybe, just as you said," Catherine frowned, "The next time we fight him, I really want to find a way to truly kill him. His food is truly sickening."

"To be honest, I want to too," Pannis sighed, "But I still haven’t figured out a way to locate and kill his real body within a range of several hundred kilometers."

"Thank you, guys," Bart stared blankly at Elegant’s corpse for a long time before suddenly addressing the five members of the adventure team, "I know it was because of you that he abandoned his mission and retreated. I am truly grateful. I think Langdon, if he knew, he would be pleased too."

"Now, speak," Catherine asked, "What exactly is the mission you want us to complete?" (To be continued. If you enjoyed this story, please vote on qidian.com, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users can read on m.qidian.com.)