Chapter 142: Asterion’s Mansion

Chapter 142: Asterion’s Mansion.

It’d been only evening before the chaos erupted in the bank.

The members were furious as their cheques were rejected. A few people came out, cursing under their breaths.

Some of them reached toward the company, where they noticed a few people already waiting. As the manager came out of the company, he looked at both men wearing royal suits. "I’m sorry, but at this moment, I can’t give the payment."

Hearing that, both men moved forward a few steps. "We can’t move without the fund. I need to talk to Asterion right now. If he had run out of money, then he shouldn’t have dealt with us. If within the next hour, we don’t get our money, the whole cult is going to end your life."

The manager stepped back in fear as he looked at both men, one with a black suit and the other with grey. Both of them had black hair, while one wore jewelries, like three rings in his hands.

One of the men with the black suit adjusted the tie and grumbled. "Do you know if we don’t get the liquid cash, our business will vanish almost instantly?"

Behind them, the furious men also demanded their payments, leaving the whole scene in chaos.

Meanwhile, in the bank. The bank clerk looked at the ledgers and found out that Asterion’s account didn’t have enough liquid cash to cover all of them at once.

Finding no other option to pay even the legitimate business funds, he formally rejected the payments.

He sent a notice that arrived at the time when the argument was still ongoing as the panicked manager looked at the notice, which stated that the bank needed liquid cash, and if the company couldn’t pay soon, the news would spread since they’d have to tell the information to locals.

Reading the notice, his expression panicked even further as he quickly called out the staff member. "Go to Mr. Asterion, it’s an emergency. Oh heavens, are we robbed by that man?"

Of course, the clerk wasn’t faster than news, which traveled fast across the tight-knit financial districts of Pacian. Within a few hours, the rumors spread that Asterion was bankrupt.

Soon, some of his legitimate creditors who read the news got scared and quickly arrived at the bank to demand immediate payment.

In a while, the news traveled to Murphy, who was at a restaurant near the edge of Pacian City. A newspaperman, who told the fresh news regarding the reputation of Asterion. Murphy laughed loudly at the situation Asterion was going to as he turned back toward his favorite Chalsea bun and teacup.

Now, only one thing remained. ’Outstanding loans, of course the panicked should withdraw their money from a bank whose current reputation had been ruined. If I’m not mistaken, then Asterion had taken out business loans to fund his companies and demonic cult, which means he’d have to pay it all to the bank and make himself financially paralyzed. Hm. Hm. Hm. It was a great idea to check his financial data first.’

He took a sip of tea and finished eating the bun before sliding the payment.

Finally, he walked away and exited the city, leaving it behind in chaos as he stepped through the large border of a small town that was directly bought by Asterion.

He quietly entered and moved silently while hiding himself from anyone around. However, he didn’t find anyone there and only crossed paths with a large mansion, which loomed at the center of the town.

With the carriage, it took him a few hours to reach here.

He looked at the sun, which began to set behind the mountains.

’One more night to go without sleep.’ He swiftly bypassed the guards who stood outside and entered the large mansion.

Inside were multiple expensive fountains with a face of fishes as they dropped water back into the fountain. It was a circle, crafted with traditional arts of animals.

In the evening, the whole mansion seemed far too silent. He looked back at the guards who pulled their hats down before darting their eyes around the place.

As Murphy entered the main hall, he found three people who were inside the mansion.

They sat on a sofa, sipping tea as they waited for Asterion to arrive. Murphy quietly hid behind the walls and tried to hear them.

Within a few moments, a man arrived who wore a dark coat over an expensive suit embroidered with silver lines. The chest pocket of the suit had a flower pin made of diamonds.

In a small graceful movement, the man sat on a nearby sofa and pulled a cup from the table.

The three men gave him a silent nod before pulling out a newspaper from the table and opening it. "Mr. Asterion, someone is planning against you."

With slow movement, Asterion took the paper and read it silently as his expression turned grim. "Who could possibly be doing this, and how did he manage to do that?"

"Creditors and investors are demanding a return; the whole business is getting lost, and we can’t even pay them, as our liquid cash has been stolen."

Hearing that, Asterion’s eyes widened; the information had broken something in him, although he hid the fact of how much it bothered him and spoke. "I must take action soon before it spreads further."

The men stood and called out their servants to quickly bring the news to the bank again as soon as his worker moved quickly to stop the freeze. Asterion turned toward three men and spoke again. "Did our hitmen kill the Detective?"

A hesitation crept over their face as one of them adjusted his cape. "Mr. Asterion... all of them had been murdered."

Suddenly, Asterion took a step back as fear began to come out. "What? That’s... impossible." His mind raced with thoughts as he finally understood everything clearly. "Tell me, did the hitmen know my name?"

"From the cheques, they may have..."

Asterion stepped back and landed hard on his sofa. "It’s him... without any doubt, it is him." He took a long breath as sweat formed on his face. "Quick, do it. Call out our secret meeting in church, I need protection, he is after me..."

The three men exchanged a look as an unease settled over their expression. "Mr. Asterion, the church is—"

"I know! Call it out. I don’t know how long it’ll take him to come here, but he’ll surely come!" He yelled as his voice turned colder.

Asterion looked back at the newspaper; the financial performance wasn’t frightening, he’d get money again, he had multiple businesses... but that Detective. Due to the incident of Clockwork City, he did know that Murphy didn’t have any morality to spare him in any way, and now because he directly hired hitmen, the situation became even worse.

All of these things... from his account freezing, then the Herbius company, to the disappearance of liquid cash, all of these couldn’t be coincidence; he wasn’t trying to be paranoid. "Find out everything about him!"

"We... tried."

"Try harder, I need to know where he is right now." With that, Asterion opened a secret wardrobe built inside a wall and took the mask and wore it on his face. It was a vulture mask.

The men nodded before following him as they brought their cultist masks too.

Behind them, Murphy, who heard all of this, scoffed quietly before pulling his fedora and moving behind them. Deliberately making his footsteps silent to move through the estate.

All of them exited the hall to walk into a main hallway of the estate. In a while, they reached a room and opened the door.

A large room that was filled with books and a vast carpet beneath. Asterion pulled the chair near the library’s counter; just as he did that, he called out his followers. "Open the door now."

All three nodded and pulled the heavy carpet away.

Murphy entered behind them and jumped toward a bookshelf as one man turned back to see the movement but found nothing.

Murphy jumped toward the ceiling and held the lantern with his hand and moved inside the empty window on the top of the door.

On the floor, two men pulled something as the carpet that matched exactly with the ground appeared, and they pulled it off.

Beneath was a large door that opened up to a cave that reached toward somewhere.

All four of them entered, and as they were slowly turning to look back, they closed the door.

After waiting for a minute, Murphy slowly opened the door and jumped inside. ’A whole secret place like Clockwork... let’s see what is there.’

He ran to catch up with them. Keeping his footsteps silent, he moved through the cave, which crafted a large pathway.

In a while, he saw the backs of the men ahead and quickly stepped back slightly to avoid any hustle.

The pathway shifted as he saw a new path, reaching high back to the surface. Murphy’s smile widened further, that was the most fascinating part to do, which would complete the final step of his plans.