I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

If they didn't know, that would be fine, but now that they know this gray area exists in the floating city, Cecil will not abandon it no matter what.

There was nothing Duke could do but stay by her side.

Besides, selling addictive drugs is a heinous crime.

"The question is... where did you get this medicine?"

Duke brought his face closer to the leader of the gray organization, a slight upturn of the corner of his mouth peeking out from under the mask revealing a smile that seemed terrifying to the leader, yet his tone was devoid of any genuine mirth.

The leader shook his head, sweating profusely.

I don't know what you mean.

“My point is simple: your organization appears to be the sole source of this drug called ‘Bird of Paradise,’ but in reality, you are just distributors. Once we take you all down, it won’t be long before a sensible gang takes your place.”

Duke snapped his fingers, and every word he uttered made the leader tremble:

"The floating city is basically self-sufficient, and it also has floating ships for trading with the outside world, but the frequency of these trades is far from enough to support such an industry—it's obvious that the source of the Bird of Paradise is in the floating city, and not you. Tell me, where is the source of the Bird of Paradise?"

"Silence is golden."

The leader uttered a word tremblingly, which made the hot-tempered Cecil furious. He slammed his fist on the table and shouted, "If you don't speak, we'll beat you until you do!"

"Shut up, Guangbao."

Duke gave her a casual push, intending to push Cecil out of the way, but unexpectedly pressed her in an odd position, feeling an extremely soft touch and a deep, immersive sensation—then, Duke watched helplessly as her full breasts... were pushed askew by himself.

Duke: "..."

Cecil: "..."

Gray organization leader: "..."

The three fell into an awkward and long silence. After a long while, Guangbao finally moved. She looked at the two people in front of her expressionlessly, silently adjusted the height of the padding in her chest to normal, and then silently left the room.

The Radiant Witch is very famous in the floating city. In fact, not many people know Duke. He can cover up his stunning beauty, add cat ears to his head and a cat tail to his back, and make sure no one recognizes him. But Cecil is different. If she only covers her face, she will definitely be discovered.

But Duke had a brilliant idea—he had her padded with breast pads until she had enormous breasts, which would completely conceal her identity.

After all, the image of the Light Steel Plate Witch is so deeply ingrained in people's minds that simply changing this aspect would be enough to cover everything up. Most humans are simply lustful, and their eyes will naturally be drawn to beautiful things. At first glance, they will stare at Cecil's breasts, which are of an unusually large size and perfectly shaped (hand-molded by Duke). People whose minds are filled with breasts generally lack the ability to think rationally.

As expected, the effect was immediate... At least until now, no one has discovered Cecil's true identity, until this person in front of him discovered that Guangbao's chest was fake.

"My God, is that Cecil? Because she was a big-breasted character before, I didn't connect her at all. If she's the Radiant Witch, then you're Crazy Du..."

The leader of the gray organization seemed to notice Duke's displeasure. He coughed heavily and then solemnly announced:

"I don't know who you are, let alone who Duke or Cecil are."

Duke could only describe his words as an attempt to cover up the truth, but given the awkward situation that had just occurred, Duke decided to accept the other party's perfunctory response and let the two parties skip the previous topic and continue with the serious conversation they had just had.

"What does 'silence is golden' mean?" Duke frowned, seemingly guessing yet also speaking with absolute certainty, "Are you a believer in the mute?"

Upon hearing Duke address the mute by name, the leader looked astonished. He quickly took a step back and waited for several seconds, but nothing happened.

This made him widen his eyes in surprise, and he was about to say, "That's right, I am a person with aphasia..."

His words came to an abrupt halt, his skin cracked inch by inch, blood splattered out, and he collapsed to the ground with a thud.

"Divine punishment...? As expected, the source of this bird of paradise drug is inextricably linked to the mute."

Duke's expression was somewhat solemn, because he hadn't seen this scene in so long that he had forgotten that directly calling out the name of the mute might lead to divine surveillance and direct death.

Especially within the floating city, one must not directly address the person as a mute.

"However, when I say 'aphasia,' I don't seem to get hurt. Strange, aphasia, aphasia, aphasia... If you're so capable, strike me dead with lightning!"

Nothing's wrong.

"Maybe I really am the chosen one?"

Chapter 179 The Breeding Ground of Shadows

Duke may truly be the chosen one. He possesses too many secrets and special qualities. The very existence of the system is enough to prove his qualifications as the protagonist (although he avoids using it as much as possible due to his aversion to it). But even if he is truly the chosen one, he still needs to work extra hard to achieve certain success.

Duke has been working very hard lately in order to resolve Talia's obsession as soon as possible, completely devour her soul fragments, and then find a suitable body to return to Amber and the others.

The obsession left behind by Talia can be roughly divided into several main parts.

The most crucial obsession was the issue of survivors from her home world. Logically, Duke not only needed to rescue them but also settle them down and find a way for them to survive in the floating city. This seemed incredibly difficult to Talia, but in reality, Duke essentially won this part of the challenge without any effort.

These extradimensional visitors who immigrated from the Sleeping Beauty game are now called the "Dream Clan." Because they have proven unexpectedly useful, Carol has even gone so far as to expand the floating city to accommodate them. Duke doesn't need to do anything; they can all settle down in the floating city.

Whether the Dream Clan can build good relations with the original inhabitants and adventurers of the Floating City is Duke's business.

Aside from this crucial obsession, the rest are rather complex and trivial. However, since the obsessions corresponding to those details are relatively minor, Duke only needs to solve those major problems.

For example, the future arrangements for the Tower faction, the after-sales service for Saint Megan, the prayers for the mute, the assassination plans that were not carried out by several key figures in the floating city, and the various obsessions such as competition with other factions of the mute.

Talia was prepared to fight to the death before her final battle with Duke, but she clearly didn't want to die, otherwise she wouldn't have so many regrets and obsessions left behind. There were still too many things she hadn't accomplished.

In the end, these regrets and obsessions fell on Duke's shoulders and became his burden.

"What a persistent ghost."

It's worth mentioning that in Talia's obsession, the name "Norton" is repeatedly mentioned, seemingly related to many regrets. However, Duke did not find any experiences related to Norton in the fragmented memories he inherited.

So, who exactly is he?

Duke fell into deep thought, but quickly put Norton out of his mind. After all, he didn't have much information at hand, and if he wanted to continue dealing with Talia's obsession, he would inevitably encounter Norton.

If there's anything truly crucial about Norton, we can discuss it later.

At this moment, he couldn't afford to worry about something that was still just a pipe dream. The things right in front of him were already keeping him extremely busy—the two of them had already gotten involved in the "Bird of Paradise" potion incident, so they couldn't just walk away like that.

In Talia's obsession, Duke's biggest concern was naturally the whereabouts of Saint Megan.

According to the memories he inherited from Talia's fragmented memories, she made a deal with Bugatti, one of the leaders of the Aphasic Sympathetic Faction, before her final battle with Duke, handing Megan over to the Sympathetic Faction.

But here's the problem: Bugatti... apparently was killed by Carol and Eve working together and then imprisoned in the floating city's underground prison. And in Talia's fragmented memories, there's no other way to contact the Sympathetic Faction.

In other words, even knowing that Megan was in the hands of the Aphasic, Duke had no way of knowing how to find her.

"But it shouldn't be a big problem, right? Megan is, after all, a child of the gods, a saintly figure among the mute. Even the ruthless Common Heart faction wouldn't do anything to her, would they...?"

Duke wasn't sure either, since judging from Talia's memories, there were several factions among the Aphasic whose moral standards were really questionable, and coincidentally, the Talia faction and the Common Heart faction were among those with particularly low moral standards.

"Duke, what are you daydreaming about?"

"I'm thinking about something." Duke exhaled a puff of white breath. It was getting colder. Although it wouldn't snow in the floating city thousands of miles above the ground, the temperature was still lower. "What's wrong? Hungry?"

"Don't make it sound like all I do is eat and sleep, okay?" Cecil rolled her eyes at Duke and denied it angrily, but quickly lowered her head. "Sorry, I'm really hungry."

"Then let's get this sorted out quickly."

"Oh!"

Duke smiled at Cecil. Guangbao seemed to be in high spirits, even jumping up and down, running ahead of Duke, which made the latter look at her back.

Cecil was dressed in a sleek hunting outfit, the clothes clinging to her skin and showcasing her beautiful figure. Her round, perky breasts swayed with Guangbao's bouncy steps, causing Duke's gaze to shift from time to time.

Although Miss Radiant Witch is always a steel plate, apart from the height of her chest, her figure is quite good.

Cecil was carrying a coffin over two meters long on her back. She was already a very tall and beautiful woman, but the coffin made her look even smaller.

But even something as conspicuous as this couldn't stop Duke from appreciating the beautiful scenery.

"I keep feeling like someone's staring at my butt with weird eyes. Is it just my imagination?"

"Anyway, it's not me looking at you with lewd eyes, trust me, Guangbao!"

"...You've already confessed, Duke."

"How is this possible? You actually found out? You're not the Cecil I know, who are you?!"

"???"

The two of them were currently walking underground in the floating city, navigating through a maze of alleyways made of magical machinery, and moving forward under the watchful eyes of many.

In a sense, the floating city is a giant magical airship. Beneath the city's surface lies the magical structure that enables the city to function.

Of course, this isn't deep underground. Such places are obviously not places that ordinary people can enter and exit at will, because there are many sophisticated mechanical devices and magic arrays inside, and even some magic arrays composed of a large number of runes. This combination of modern magic technology and ancient magic empire rune technology is a product of a special era. Even if Fei were to build another floating city, it would probably be difficult for her to do so.

...That's hard to say, after all, she is the "Witch of Miracles".

In short, this place is beneath the ground, above the important equipment. In this superfluous, unimportant, dark corner, shadows naturally become breeding grounds.

Most of the criminal gangs in the floating city use it as their base and main area of ​​operation, and it is also full of various black and gray industries.

It was also Duke and Cecil's destination.

Chapter 180 Riddlers Make People Unhappy

Malicious gazes fell upon the two masked figures, with the majority of eyes fixed on Cecil's beautiful figure, their greedy and lustful stares seeming to yearn to lick her body.

A few gazes also fell on Duke. He was in a spirit state at the moment, and not many people could see him. The few who could see him looked at him with just as much malice and greed as those who looked at Cecil.

A capable and conscious soul is extremely rare, and its value is far greater than selling a beauty like Cecil as a slave—of course, this valuation is based on not taking into account Duke and Cecil's own status and strength.

Duke frowned, his gaze meeting the stares directly in their direction. Most of these long-time residents were utter scum. If Duke were to execute everyone he saw today, innocent people would certainly be wrongly accused. But even if he executed them one by one, some would inevitably slip through.

He snapped his fingers, and the pupil of his right eye turned deep red. The blood flames of sulfur fire transformed into teardrops, sliding down Duke's cheek and dripping onto the ground.

The temperature in the air suddenly rose, causing most sensible people to stop their malicious stares. This was the back side of the floating city, where shadows accumulated; to survive long enough here, one needed exceptional eyesight and a cautious nature.

The moment Duke used the sulfur fire, they realized something was wrong and quickly abandoned their bad idea. Although they didn't realize it immediately, they were at least not like those few hotheads who hadn't yet looked away.

"Hey, beautiful, where are you going all by yourself?" A few young boys dressed like playboys blocked Cecil's way. "Hey, how about you go hang out with your buddies around here?"

Their clothing was completely out of place here; they seemed to be children of noble families or wealthy households. Not only could you not sense Cecil's strength, but you couldn't even see Duke behind her. They were a bunch of complete noobs.

I wonder if there's some club or black market auction nearby, it's rare to find people like this around.

Behind them stood a taciturn man who seemed to possess some strength, likely a bodyguard or similar figure. However, he remained silent, watching his masters court disaster without offering any warning.

“I’m in a hurry.” Cecil frowned, crossed her arms, and said irritably, “Is this a floating city? Such an old-fashioned trick is rarely seen nowadays (in Cecil’s eyes, who is always doing good deeds). You guys are really retro. Even I… even the great Witch of Light wouldn’t be fooled by such a clumsy technique!”

The spoiled young masters were stunned.

What does this masked girl mean?

“If you want to pick up girls, you should at least show some of your advantages. For example, if you have money, hang your valuables nearby. If you have the power, find a thug and beat him up in front of the girl,” Cecil said earnestly. “If there are any entertainment facilities nearby, you can ask them out. Maybe you’ll get lucky and win the heart of a beauty.”

The young man in the lead was bewildered by Cecil's words. He stammered for a while before hesitantly saying, "An auction is about to be held nearby. Would this lady, whose name I do not know, be willing to go with me?"