Chapter 66: Uninvited Guests

"Actually, there is no real grudge between us, is there?"

"Is that so?"

Ethan countered.

"It was Lewis who kept hounding you. I never liked him either. Now that he's dead, all our problems are gone." Aeblin spoke casually, as if Lewis had never been an agent of the Prohibition Bureau.

"Then what about the alcohol? Are you giving up on prohibition?"

"Ethan, you've actually misunderstood one thing. Prohibition can never completely eradicate all alcohol. What we want is only relative prohibition. But there's a problem here: how to achieve relative prohibition? We need to find someone who can unify everything, someone to cooperate with us. But right now... we can't."

Aeblin wiped the glass with his hand, clearing a small corner, and then pointed outside the window. Farther out lay the vast ocean.

At the edge of the ocean stood that solitary castle.

"Your underworld saint, Sandro, refuses to cooperate with us."

"So what are you implying?"

"We want you to become the new underworld saint." Aeblin turned his head back, his gaze burning intensely as he looked at Ethan.

"Why me?"

"It's very simple. Because you are young enough, your capability is plain for all to see, and you leave us completely helpless. Sandro is old; he hasn't stepped out of his castle in ten years. The mindset of his generation can no longer keep up with the modern world. The world belongs to the young, it belongs to you. We will give you our full support. All you need to do is keep the alcohol controlled within the scope we require. What do you say?"

Aeblin sounded sincere and earnest, his expression dead serious.

Finally, he extended his hand, as if saying: Come on, embrace the new world.

Ethan had been smoking all this while, the cigarette tip glowing faintly in his mouth.

Until the cigarette burned down to the filter, he stubbed it out in the ashtray.

Then he walked to the door.

"Dear Agent Aeblin, thank you for your story. It really clears the head and it's quite interesting. Rest assured, I will leave this story right here in this smoking room, known only to the two of us. Finally, I wish you a pleasant evening."

With that, he walked out without looking back.

Aeblin stared at the rolling waves outside the window, lost in thought.

————————

Ten o'clock in the evening.

Aeblin returned to the headquarters of the Prohibition Bureau.

Marvin was smoking in the large conference room.

"How did it go?"

"He's certainly not an easy man to fool." Aeblin shook his head, though his face did not show excessive frustration.

Marvin smiled, looking as if he had expected this all along.

"We need to hurry. Give this fellow a little more time, and he'll truly become part of the upper crust."

The two chatted for a little longer. Just as Aeblin was about to leave, the telephone on the desk rang.

Marvin picked it up. After listening for a few moments, his lazy expression vanished, replaced by a serious and grave look.

"Bring him to the conference room to see me immediately."

"What happened?" Aeblin paused in his tracks.

"Nothing good." Marvin shook his head and said no more.

A moment later, the door to the conference room was pushed open. Two prohibition agents dragged a tall, weather-beaten man into the room.

Judging by his attire, this man was also a prohibition agent.

Yet for some reason, the moment the man stepped inside, the entire conference room was instantly filled with a freezing and fishy stench.

The man appeared to have been unconscious earlier. Now, he managed to open his eyes, looked at Marvin, and revealed a faint, hard-fought smile. "Marvin, it is so good to see you."

"Groot, what on earth happened? Aren't you stationed in St. Quentin? How did you end up like this?"

Marvin strode forward and grabbed the tall man's hand.

"St. Quentin... has fallen. The details are all inside."

The man called Groot spoke as he tremblingly drew a black-bound book from his snow-covered heavy coat, but his grip failed him, and it dropped directly to the floor.

Aeblin picked it up and began to flip through the pages.

Marvin did not stop him. He continued to observe Groot's condition. Groot was covered in ice and snow, and though there were no obvious external wounds, Marvin could feel Groot's life force rapidly draining away piece by piece.

It was as if some curse was entangled around him.

"Get medicine for him quickly! And vitality fluid! And anything else that can save a life! What are you all standing around for?!"

Marvin roared fiercely.

He rarely lost his composure like this, solely because Groot was a friend of many years.

They had once worked together in the Kingdom Security Bureau, executing numerous classified missions side by side.

They were, without a doubt, comrades who had shared life and death.

After prohibition was enacted, he and Groot had been dispatched to the north—one to oversee prohibition operations in Winster, and the other in St. Quentin.

They had even promised to share a drink together when they had the time.

Never had he expected...

"It's too late, Marvin. I'm a dead man."

Groot shook his head at Marvin, signaling him to stop wasting his efforts.

"You must remember what I am going to say next."

"Go ahead."

"First, St. Quentin has suffered a Class-A contamination event. The situation is completely out of control. You must report this to the Royal Capital immediately. Second, you must intercept anyone coming from St. Quentin, and my corpse must be disposed of as quickly as possible. Third, I suspect that behind this contamination is... is..."

"Ugh... Ugh! Ah!"

At this point, Groot suddenly began to convulse violently. His strength surged abnormally, and he shoved Marvin and the other agent aside with a single push.

He collapsed to the ground, his body twisting contortedly, and began to vomit frantically. Yet what came out was neither blood nor digested food, but a large mass of pitch-black, fish-scale-like objects.

He writhed, struggled, and shrieked in agony on the floor.

Finally, his entire body stiffened, rapidly turning black and freezing into a pitch-black ice sculpture.

Looking closer, one could see that his body had turned black because pitch-black scales were erupting all over his skin.

The freezing, fishy stench in the air grew even heavier.

"Groot..."

Marvin closed his eyes in pain, then picked up the phone to make a call.

But at that very moment, Aeblin pressed down on the receiver, cutting off the call.

"What are you doing?" Marvin glared at him fiercely.

"Director, I think... you might want to look at this first." Aeblin handed the black-bound book to Marvin.

"I believe this presents a magnificent opportunity to break the deadlock."

Marvin took the black book, stared at it for a long while, and then asked, "What do you want to do?"

Aeblin did not answer. Instead, he stared at Groot's corpse on the floor. The beam from the lighthouse outside swept in once more, casting a chilling reflection in his glasses.