Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1289: Lovers

When the singing began, amid the smoke, inside the royal viewing box where Her Majesty was seated—

Lancelot immediately pulled the Queen back from the edge of the balcony, then swiftly took out a handkerchief and soaked it with red wine.

“Cover your mouth and nose… it’s better than nothing,” Lancelot said quickly, then rushed out the door—only to shut it again almost instantly and retreat back to the Queen’s side.

“Outside?” Her Majesty asked at once. She was not overly panicked.

“Everyone’s been knocked down,” Lancelot said with a frown, casually brushing her palm across her chest as she checked the recovery state of her sacred armor.

It hadn’t fully repaired yet… at most, she had only her basic combat strength.

She stepped back toward the balcony. The entire hall was already engulfed in thick smoke… faintly, the soaring singing could still be heard through it.

At the same time… the phone signal had been jammed.

A sharp cutting sound suddenly rang out. Lancelot turned instantly, shielding the Queen behind her. The door to the room was sliced into several pieces and collapsed to the floor.

A woman in a purple leather outfit, apparently of Asian descent, with black hair, walked in slowly. She held a short sword about a foot long in each hand, and a thin scar ran across her left cheek.“So it was planned in advance,” the Queen said, frowning. “It seems… some of my advisers were bought by you?”

“As expected of Your Majesty, you reached the answer quickly,” the purple-clad woman smiled slightly. “In that case, Your Majesty, why not stop resisting? It would save me quite a bit of time.”

“You’re a member of Doomsday Myth?” Lancelot asked coldly. Noticing the scar that marred the woman’s beauty, she quickly identified her from intelligence reports. “You’re a senior operative of Doomsday Myth—Nekomata… Catherine?”

“Correct. In that case, I’ll reward you with courtesy later,” Catherine said, narrowing her eyes.

Lancelot remained calm. “That is, if you think you can defeat me.”

She swung her arm. A beam of light slowly emerged from her palm, forming a silver-black longsword—but its blade was riddled with cracks, as though it might shatter at any moment.

“The other Twelve Knights might be troublesome, but if it’s you…” Catherine chuckled softly.

She struck first, lowering her body and sprinting forward.

But such speed posed no threat to Lancelot—if anything, it was slow.

Lancelot easily deflected the short blade and thrust straight toward Catherine’s chest. Yet at the instant the sword was about to pierce her body, the blade shattered outright.

That shouldn’t have happened!

Even if it wasn’t fully repaired, in terms of durability it should have been sturdier than a standard-issue sword!

At the moment the blade broke, Lancelot reacted instantly, reassembling the shattered sword—still covered in cracks.

This time, Catherine didn’t even move, letting the sword stab toward her body again… and once more, it shattered.

Lancelot stared at the blade that had broken twice, unable to maintain her composure any longer.

“Strange, isn’t it?” Catherine smiled faintly. “That the ‘Indestructible Lake Light’ has no effect on me? No matter how many times you try, your weapon cannot harm me. Do you believe that?”

“What… are you wearing?”

Taking a deep breath, Lancelot finally sensed it with her acute perception of magical power—Catherine was wearing something. It was this outer layer that blocked the attacks of the Indestructible Lake Light.

Catherine said softly, “Sacred Vestment: Guinevere’s Repentance.”

As she spoke, a gray-white robe appeared on Catherine’s body, resembling a nun’s habit.

“It really exists…” Lancelot stared at her in disbelief, fear finally showing on her face.

“As the relic of the woman he loved,” Catherine sneered, “how could this sinner ever be harmed by him? With your power as a Knight of the Round Table sealed, how much strength do you really have left?”

“Enough to deal with you!”

The knight suddenly swung her arm again. Since it was a sacred vestment that countered her armor, she would fight without relying on it—yet the instant she struck, Lancelot felt like she wanted to die.

What she swung should have been the spare dagger she always carried—

—but what flew out was unmistakably a decorative object, twisted into the shape of a metal rose.

For a moment… silence.

Catherine was stunned, staring blankly at Lancelot pointing a metal rose at her with an otherwise heroic posture.

An awkward pause followed.

“…So you really do think I’m easy to deal with,” Catherine snapped back to herself, anger rising. “I don’t have time to play games with you!”

She vanished in a flash—taking advantage of Lancelot’s momentary distraction!

Like a phantom, Nekomata Catherine emerged from the Queen’s shadow in the next instant. An icy blade was pressed against the Queen’s shoulder as she whispered into her ear, “Don’t move. Otherwise, perhaps the Crown Prince can ascend the throne tomorrow. I think he’d be quite pleased.”

“Oh… I think so too, Miss Catherine,” the Queen replied calmly, signaling to Lancelot with her eyes not to act rashly.

In truth… the knight was deeply shaken. She could only give up resistance in frustration.

Satisfied, Catherine smiled faintly and glanced down toward the auditorium. By now, the smoke was sinking and gradually dispersing.

At that exact moment, the singing stopped.

Applause followed.

……

……

The drug didn’t work?

The same doubt arose simultaneously in the minds of Caesar and Judas. Judas—the actor playing the prince’s father—removed his robe, revealing a muscular physique completely at odds with his aged face. His long white beard, nearly reaching his chest, was clearly not a prop.

He even pulled out a pair of knuckle guards from behind his waist and put them on. But Caesar suddenly raised a hand to stop him, shaking his head slightly before stepping down from the stage.

As he walked, his gaze shifted, yet never left the young man who was applauding.

He spoke slowly, “Madeira knockout toxin. Even one gram, once diluted, is enough to knock out ten elephants instantly. Ordinary people can’t resist it. I’m very curious… it seems this performance has encountered some unexpected variables.”

“So the smoke has a name,” Luo Qiu said curiously. Boss Luo’s understanding of medicine had always stopped at over-the-counter drugs.

Miss Maid, however, looked at the male lead walking toward them and said calmly, “Madeira knockout toxin. Standard dosage: thirty grams of powdered lacewing insect corpse, fifteen grams of twin-ear grass, ten grams of viper fangs—rattlesnake teeth are best—seventy-eight grams of mugwort, and one standard measure of armadillo bile. Additionally, daisy root, fig bark, and leech extract, each one standard measure. However, whoever made this toxin was lazy. They clearly didn’t use rattlesnake fangs, just ordinary snake teeth, so the potency dropped by at least twenty percent.”

Caesar, halfway down the stairs, froze, one foot stuck on the step above.

At the same time, a startled cry came from above the stage: “How did you know I only used ordinary snake teeth?!”

A thin, sallow-faced man with round glasses jumped down from above the stage.

“That’s just the cheapest alchemical poison,” Miss Maid replied flatly. “Even apprentices can make it. Is it difficult to analyze?”

“Are you saying I’m worse than an apprentice?!” the thin man shouted angrily, only to have Judas grab him by the collar and clamp a hand firmly over his mouth.

Boss Luo, meanwhile, was still gently rubbing Miss Maid’s fingers under the seat, as though praising her breadth of knowledge. Considering that Miss Maid had her own private laboratory before meeting him, it wasn’t hard to understand.

“To think that a retired alchemist would appear here,” Caesar said after a moment’s thought, then asked cautiously, “Madam… are you a member of the Magicians’ Association?”

He knew that the Magicians’ Association had members spread across almost the entire European continent. Among them, especially the potion masters, many were eccentric figures—so he could not help but pay attention to the movements of the Magicians’ Association.

Because of that farcical referendum in Great Britain a few years earlier, subtle changes had emerged in relations between countries. The Magicians’ Association, which wielded enormous influence across Europe, had therefore made certain decisions to resist Britain. Even so, the two sides had not reached the point of severing relations—after all, within Britain itself there were still many certified members of the Magicians’ Association.

So encountering magicians or occultists on British soil was nothing unusual. What was strange was encountering one here… perhaps even two.

Caesar’s gaze quickly shifted from Miss Maid back to Luo Qiu.

“And you are?” Caesar asked, staring intently.

Luo Qiu glanced at the surrounding crowd, who were merely unconscious and not actually injured, and smiled. “If you don’t mind, it would be best to think of me as an innocent passerby who was accidentally swept into this incident… To be honest, I was hoping today could pass peacefully.”

“Peace…” Caesar nodded. “My apologies. It seems today’s operation disturbed you… If you wish, you may leave.”

He made a courteous gesture—pointing toward the exit.

“Then we’ll be going.” Luo Qiu nodded and stood up, elegantly extending his hand so Miss Maid could take it and rise as well. “There should still be quite a few performances on the West End today. It shouldn’t be boring.”

Lifting her skirt, Miss Maid placed her hand in his.

Luo Qiu then looked at Caesar. “Actually, today was my first time properly listening to an opera, so there were many things I didn’t understand. But… I like your singing. If there’s a chance, I hope to see you perform on stage again. May I know your name?”

“Kafra.”

Luo Qiu was briefly stunned. That was precisely the name of the male lead who should have been performing Turandot this time. He nodded. “All right, I’ll remember it… Then I hope you can find your princess, Prince Kafra.”

Watching the man and woman walk up the steps toward the exit, Caesar’s expression shifted subtly. Behind him, Judas hurried up, accompanied by the emaciated man who had refined the potion.

Unwilling, the thin man said, “Leader, you’re just letting them go like this? They saw us! I’ll chase them!”

As he spoke, the man was about to rush past Caesar when Caesar suddenly reached out and lightly struck backward. The emaciated man was instantly sent flying, crashing all the way back onto the stage.

He scrambled up in pain, shouting in disbelief, “Leader, are you insane?!”

“Caesar?” Judas frowned deeply, clearly not understanding why Caesar had suddenly attacked their own man.

Caesar shook his head. “You won’t be able to get past. As for why…”

He took a deep breath, clenched his fist, and threw a punch forward—his fist seemed to strike something invisible.

A tremendous boom followed, like an explosion, so loud that dust fell from the ceiling.

Something was blocking them!

Judas stared in horror, then cautiously reached out… An invisible wall stood before them, completely splitting the theater in two.

“What kind of power is this…” Judas muttered.

Looking at Caesar’s fist—bloody and mangled—Judas realized that this punch had not been a test. Caesar had struck with full force.

“At the very least, there was no malice in his eyes,” Caesar said after a long silence. “A very strange person. From the first glance, he gave me a feeling of… kindness.”

“Kindness?”

Caesar shook his head. “Perhaps only when you face him yourself will you understand…”

“What just happened?”

At that moment, a woman’s voice rang out. From below the stairs, Caesar could be seen escorting Her Majesty the Queen out at speed. Lancelot followed behind with her hands in shackles, her expression grim. The shackles were clearly specially made, tools designed to restrain superhuman beings.

“I heard a loud noise… Caesar, what happened to your hand?”

Seeing Caesar’s injured palm, Catherine immediately released the Queen. Startled, the emaciated man hurried to take her place, shouting angrily, “Catherine! Do you even know what you’re doing?!”

Catherine ignored him. She rushed to Caesar’s side, lifted his bleeding hand, unzipped her leather jacket without hesitation, tore her inner clothing, and wrapped the wound. “What kind of person could injure you?”

“He did it to himself,” Judas shook his head. How was he supposed to explain what had just happened to Catherine?

Even if he said it, no one would believe it. In the half minute she was late, everyone might have narrowly escaped death.

“Caesar?” Catherine frowned.

Caesar waved his hand, shook his head slightly, then walked toward the Queen. Standing before her, he said calmly, “This is our first meeting. Pardon the discourtesy, Your Majesty. Please come with us.”

The Queen replied slowly, “I am just an old woman. Even if you abduct me, you may not achieve what you want… The ending may not be a good one.”

Caesar said, “It’s better than having no ending at all.”

He then waved his hand. “Forgive us.”

Judas immediately covered the Queen and Lancelot with black hoods.

Caesar took one last look back at the stage, recalling the words spoken by that mysterious young man as he left.

Under the still-lit stage lights, he seemed to see a woman singing alone beneath the moonlit night.

“Turandot…”

……

……

To avoid trouble, when they left the theater, the guards outside and the government security personnel waiting beyond were effectively unable to “see” Boss and Miss Maid.

On the street, Luo Qiu was looking for another theater, hoping to find one that had not yet started its performance.

“Master, Lancelot seems to have been captured as well… Do we not need to care?” Miss Maid asked softly.

Luo Qiu thought for a moment. “During Black Soul’s vacation period, contact with the shop is cut off. Whether danger is encountered or not, no help from the shop will come… I remember such a rule exists. Because this is all considered part of the life Black Soul purchased.”

Miss Maid nodded lightly. “Vacation Regulations, Article Seven, Clause Three.”

Luo Qiu stopped and laughed. “Actually, do you want to take action against Doomsday Myth?”

Miss Maid looked up and suddenly said, “Master, I can accept ten days of standing at the dictionary website as punishment, and then erase this organization. Is that acceptable?”

Ten days of standing at a dictionary website… what kind of punishment was that?

Luo Qiu said nothing and simply leaned in to kiss her. She responded, wrapping her arms around his waist and holding him gently.

“Beautiful lady, are you feeling better now?” Boss Luo asked softly when they parted.

“Hopefully there won’t be a third time.”

Luo Qiu found it rather strange—he seemed to have been raised into a useless person by Miss Maid, and then, in turn, had raised her into a proper lover.

A Miss Maid who could act coquettishly like this was wonderful too.

(End of Chapter)