Chapter 749: The End of a Ruthless Hero

"I understand."

Lausanne the Second spoke faintly.

"So that was why he, why Turnbull, said those words before he died."

I understand... you were right, kid. I should not have... should not have thought I could play their game...

The killer's gaze was dead.

It was as if he had returned once more to the abandoned house under that rainy night, watching the old gang leader in the endless pool of blood cry out in despair and madness, sorrow and unwillingness.

"And so, amid the boiling internal strife of the iris family, Turnbull thought himself clever. On one hand, he bowed low and made himself small, swearing loyalty to the powerful duke. On the other, he became restless and secretly courted the unruly viscount..."

Belicia sneered.

"According to that old lantern himself, some ancestor of his was even a seed the Covendiers had left outside. They were all relatives, were they not? Helping either side was helping family."

Lausanne the Second did not laugh.

But he understood.

Turnbull had watched the internally fighting iris family deepen their attempts to pull him in and rely on him, allowing him to obtain more resources and privileges and rise from a mud-legged thug into a collaborator.

At the same time, he secretly observed and influenced the situation, occasionally adding fire under Jade City or pouring in a ladle of water, keeping this great pot at the temperature most suitable for the Blood Bottle Gang's growth.

The woman folded her arms.

"After returning to the Blood Bottle Gang, besides balancing his subordinates and eliminating dissidents, he also had to pretend that his family business was too large and he could not look after every end, that he was deeply troubled by the newly born Brotherhood. Raising an enemy to increase his own importance, and showing weakness outwardly."

Belicia's smile flashed and vanished. Her expression gradually froze.

"Clearly, our old gang leader handled it with ease and performed almost perfectly, deceiving everyone from top to bottom."

Almost.

Only almost.

Lausanne the Second's face was ashen.

Because Turnbull forgot.

Even if he truly was a Covendier relative,

his surname was not Covendier.

Even if his family business was enormous and he was nearly an underground king,

he still could not see the light.

"I suppose, until one day, the two Covendier brothers who had fought until blood flowed, who wished they could bite the flesh from each other's bodies, suddenly discovered their conscience and woke up," Belicia's emotions were complicated and subtle, "and made up their minds, reaching a consensus..."

Lausanne the Second softly completed her words.

"To discard Turnbull."

Discard the sliding weight that no longer obeyed.

Even if the price was weakening the Blood Bottle Gang.

"But unlike us, those were great people born noble. Decent people, civilized people. They are not fond of drawing knives and chopping people whenever something happens, making things bloody and ugly," Belicia sneered. "They needed to complete the transfer of power in the Blood Bottle Gang decently, steadily, safely, silently, and without future trouble."

Decently.

Lausanne the Second was expressionless.

Of course.

The people below were bleeding rivers and harming one another.

The people above clinked cups and prospered.

What the hell was that if not decent?

"First was hollowing Turnbull out, gradually cutting off his control over the Blood Bottle Gang, just as Turnbull once did to the East Sea people."

Belicia snorted softly.

"And when a colossus like Emerald Palace pressed down, bypassing Turnbull and bringing interests and authority directly over their heads, guess how many of those scum, Rubay, Solo, Red Viper, Song, Flying Knife Clown, the blade bitch, War Wolf, even Ferg, who looked the toughest of all..."

Those fanatical lackeys whom Turnbull had accumulated by swindling, threatening, enticing, and killing the previous batch of bosses, who slapped their chests and pledged loyalty to him.

Belicia brushed her hair back, alluring and mocking.

"How many could grit their teeth and preserve their chastity for old gang leader?"

Of course, such people had once existed too.

They just no longer did.

"And that was not enough," Lausanne the Second suddenly said.

Belicia nodded.

"Not enough. They also had to take away the weapon he used to intimidate enemies, his sharpest knife."

"They drove a wedge between Boss Turnbull and me," Lausanne the Second understood everything. "Made him doubt me, fear me."

And in the end, decide to remove me.

"Wrong order."

Lausanne the Second frowned.

"It was not making him doubt you."

Belicia's voice was cold.

"It was making you doubt him."

The vampire killer frowned slightly.

Me, doubt him?

The killer frowned.

"I had neither reason nor ever harbored ambition toward Turnbull..."

At that moment, he remembered something, and his face suddenly changed.

A few seconds later, he looked again at Belicia, his eyes dead and sorrowful.

"Yes, my dear."

Belicia returned before him and sighed softly.

"The small doses of drugs I mixed into your food long ago were not meant to weaken or control you."

The beauty before him bloomed with a bleak smile.

"Their existence was meant to be discovered by you."

To discover that he was being poisoned.

Lausanne the Second's thoughts went blank for an instant.

The smile of the beauty before him gradually overlapped with the curve at the lips of the girl from back then.

The girl from back then slowly shook her head, her tone drifting.

"Because you, my dear, knew from the start: I was Turnbull's bitch."

Lausanne the Second closed his eyes.

So I began to doubt Turnbull.

To guard against Turnbull.

"Were you not afraid that after I discovered what you had done, I would kill you on the spot," the killer kept his eyes tightly shut, his voice trembling slightly, "or worse, take you to confront Turnbull?"

Belicia laughed softly. The sound echoed through the black dungeon, cold and strange.

"Afraid."

Both mocking and helpless.

"Scared to death. Scared enough to have nightmares. Scared enough to be unable to sleep."

Belicia paid no mind to the filthy ground. She sat down sideways by herself and gently held the killer's head, letting him rest against her thigh.

"So scared that I could only hold you tight every day and every night, say nothing, and numb myself."

She spoke foolishly.

At this moment, Lausanne the Second suddenly realized he could not stop his body from trembling.

"Then why..."

"But do you think that while I stayed beside you 'heroes and good men,' played my role, racked my brains to survive," Belicia interrupted him, holding the vampire killer and staring blankly into the darkness before her, "there was a single day when I could be completely unafraid, have no nightmares, and sleep soundly?"

Lausanne the Second opened his eyes.

"Of course you would not think so, first killer of the Blood Bottle Gang, infamous Lausanne the Second," the woman said lightly. "Because you were used to holding a sword in your hand. You could never imagine my situation, my choices."

"Just like those good men who once held me in their arms. When they saw me smiling like a flower, they always thought I enjoyed it too. 'She must have been willing,' yes?"

Belicia giggled.

For some reason, listening to her laughter made Lausanne the Second feel cold in his heart.

"But there was a moment, when my fear reached a certain limit, when I thought, ah, let it be like this," Belicia gently stroked his bloodstained face, and her gaze dimmed. "Even if you discovered the truth and killed me with one sword, that did not seem so bad."

The killer was silent.

The dead quiet in the dungeon lasted several seconds, until Belicia sighed and returned from the trance of the past to the present.

"Of course, in the end, you did not expose me."

The beauty's eyes moved, and she laughed.

"But to say your ears were soft and that you pitied beauty would seem to underestimate you."

Lausanne the Second clenched his teeth.

"I think it was probably because you knew that whether you killed me or took me to Turnbull, no matter the result..."

Belicia tidied the killer's bloodstained, foul-smelling hair strand by strand, as seriously as if she were arranging her own.

"You would no longer be able to trust him."

Lausanne the Second's gaze dimmed.

"Even if Turnbull denied everything, acted completely innocent, tortured me to death, and added the excuse that 'she must have been a spy,'" Belicia looked at the killer, "would you then release all grudges and stop doubting him..."

She blinked slyly.

"Or would you become even more vigilant and careful, suspecting that he merely used me as a scapegoat and silenced me casually, leaving no witness alive?"

Lausanne the Second had no answer.

"But you," he said faintly, "how did you make Boss Turnbull doubt me in return, even decide to remove me?"

Belicia laughed again.

"Feelings and emotions are very wondrous things, and also very fair."

"When you begin to doubt someone else," she pressed her face against Lausanne the Second's with some feeling, "the other person can sense it."

Lausanne the Second's gaze froze.

If you want someone to trust you without doubt, you must treat them with sincerity.

He remembered again the filthy species from Feast Territory, and his words about mental abilities.

"And those people you doubt will begin to doubt you in return," Belicia said softly.

If you want someone to love you deeply, you must first entrust your true heart.

Lausanne the Second took a deep breath.

"When you first avoided the old gang leader's eyes and ears to set up safe houses, when you began repeatedly reviewing and verifying the information he gave you before accepting work, when you deliberately stopped following the mission lists and suggestions he gave you, when you met him fully armed each time and watched your surroundings, when you always chose times and places that were very safe for you but threatening to him..."

Belicia shook her head in pity.

"What do you think Turnbull, a man of grand talent and ambition, began to think from that point on?"

Building trust is difficult, but destroying trust...

Lausanne the Second did not speak.

"Perhaps you did not realize it, but your reputation began to spread through the gangs at that exact time, growing more and more fearsome," Belicia's gaze turned hazy, her tone deep, as if telling a story to a child. "A mysterious and cruel blade, a murderer with countless lives on his hands, the greatest expert of the Blood Bottle Gang: Lausanne the Second."

She laughed softly.

"Even the name was bestowed by old gang leader. That shows how much he valued and trusted you... So in the future, if the gang leader was gone, would you be the one to carry the Blood Bottle Gang's banner?"

Lausanne the Second clenched his fist.

No.

"In the end, everyone who heard those rumors would gain an illusion: Turnbull rose to power and held up the entire Blood Bottle Gang because of you, because of your sword."

Belicia spoke softly.

"And you, my dear, were the obvious next gang leader."

The next gang leader.

At the very least, an existence the next gang leader could not offend, one he had to win over and please.

Thus Turnbull began to doubt him.

Locked in chains, Lausanne the Second leaned in the woman's arms and breathed out with difficulty.

"He should not have easily believed those rumors. He should have come directly to me to clarify."

Belicia's eyes brightened.

"He did come."

But she sneered and changed direction.

"But do not forget. That old lantern doubted you, feared you, guarded against you, for the same reason you did not go to him: he did not even know whether your words were worth believing."

So he would never come directly to me.

Lausanne the Second's gaze froze.

Belicia clicked her tongue.

"At that point, according to Turnbull's personality, the method that would put him most at ease, the method for judging whether you could be trusted, left only one choice..."

She did not continue.

Because Lausanne the Second already knew the answer.

"You."

The vampire killer murmured.

"Yes. Me."

Belicia curved her lips and smiled like a flower.

"Turnbull's bitch."

Lausanne the Second closed his eyes again.

"Driving a wedge between two sides and creating space to profit from the middle was once Turnbull's best scheme, whether when he sent me against Bott or when he dealt with the iris brothers..."

Belicia said with feeling,

"He probably never imagined that, years later, someone would use the same method against him."

Or perhaps precisely because he had immersed himself too deeply in this path, once it involved himself, he became even more unable to extricate himself.

At this moment, Lausanne the Second's mood was complicated.

He understood.

The problem was not those drugs.

It was not even Belicia.

The seed of suspicion had been planted firmly between Turnbull and him, between the old gang leader and the first killer, long, long ago, so long ago that neither of them had noticed.

In fact, before he and Turnbull had even met, it had already sprouted.

Old gang leader.

Old friend.

Old big pot.

Lausanne the Second abruptly opened his eyes.

"All of this was enough to make him doubt, betray, and even kill me?"

Belicia laughed softly.

"Do not forget, Turnbull was no ordinary thing either."

She remembered the old acquaintance, and fear and disgust surged in her eyes, though it was hard to say which was greater.

"From a petty thug to the leader of the Blood Bottle Gang, after fighting and struggling for so many years, he was especially sensitive to every breeze and movement around him. Perhaps there was no solid evidence, but he felt it. Not only you. The way many subordinates looked at him had changed.

"At some unknown point, although Jade City's iris internal strife continued, the blades of mutual slaughter had quietly turned and pointed at him alone.

"He sensed danger and suspected that he was losing control of the Blood Bottle Gang, that he was about to become an abandoned piece, and that many of his subordinates were gradually being turned, quietly conspiring to support a new gang leader."

The beauty before him, venomous as a snake, gently stroked the killer's face.

"Somehow, Turnbull thought of a plan to kill two birds with one stone. He pretended to set a plan, mobilized the entire gang, and launched a full encirclement against the Black Street Brotherhood, which had hopped up and down for years and was difficult to eradicate."

The woman spoke faintly.

"Red Viper, the blade bitch, Ferg, and the others would fight on the perimeter and cut off the wings. That old lantern and you would go straight for the key and behead Black Sword. It sounded like a frightening formation, truly a large stroke, did it not?"

The vampire killer did not respond.

Belicia smiled miserably.

"Except it was actually bait. A trap. A sinister plan meant to expose weaknesses and lure those subverted subordinates into rebellion, forcing them to reveal themselves, so Turnbull could catch them all in one net, clean house, and retake power."

To restore his prestige.

Listening to her, Lausanne the Second seemed to return to that rainy night.

There, he quietly watched Turnbull wipe his armor while telling the subordinates around him, who appeared sternly arrayed but all harbored their own schemes, the origin story of the Blood Bottle Gang.

The bottle contains no wine.

A country contains no king.

At that time, every sentence from the other man had a deeper meaning.

"How do you know?" Lausanne the Second returned to the present, his tone cold.

Belicia shook her head.

"I was his bitch."

The beauty sighed. She stroked Lausanne the Second's face, but her gaze was fixed on the dirty water on the ground.

"The good news was: Turnbull's plan was extremely successful. Whether on the perimeter or at the center, the traitors within the gang ultimately could not hold themselves back. Every one of them revealed themselves."

Belicia's gaze drifted.

"The bad news was: his plan seems to have been too successful."

She raised her head, pleased and satisfied.

"Everyone, nearly everyone in the gang, from fighters to advisers, from personal guards to bitches, every single one betrayed him."

The beauty spoke faintly.

"Even including his so-called new friends."

Her words fell. The sentence ended.

Just like the end of that ruthless hero's life.

Lausanne the Second deeply closed his eyes.

"He miscalculated."

His voice was tired.

Belicia smiled disdainfully.

"Yes. Who could have thought that old, cunning lantern, who even prepared two exits in his bedroom, would be willing to go that far, trying to catch everyone in one net and gambling on something huge? In the end, not only did he fool everyone and cause the Blood Bottle Gang to suffer terrible losses, he also finished himself off along the way."

"No."

Lausanne the Second abruptly opened his eyes.

"Exactly the opposite."

Belicia looked puzzled.

"It was not because he was willing to go that far."

The former first killer's eyes were sad, filled with indescribable pain.

"It was because... because of his new friends."

Belicia keenly sensed something wrong.

"What do you mean?"

Because he had new friends?

So he had to abandon old friends?

Lausanne the Second smiled.

His smile was bleak and helpless.

So that was it.

Turnbull.

You son of a bitch.

I owe you nothing anymore.

The killer slowly said,

"Because this plan to kill two birds with one stone and 'catch everyone in one net' was not thought up by anyone else, nor by Turnbull himself. It was demanded by those 'new friends' of his."

Belicia frowned.

"To those new friends, if Turnbull's Blood Bottle Gang had already been exposed to the enemy's sight, was no longer handy, no longer useful, no longer able to stir trouble in Jade City, no longer able to overturn rivers and seas for their interests, divide and strike the Covendier family, and make the iris gradually decline amid worsening internal strife..."

Hearing this, Belicia's expression changed slightly.

"Then they might as well uproot Turnbull and the Blood Bottle Gang together, 'catch them all in one net,'" Lausanne the Second panted, "so that even if Jade City, even if the brothers Lenster and Sonar, removed Turnbull, what they took back would only be a Blood Bottle Gang broken apart and scattered like loose sand..."

Just like today...

"Unable to run errands and serve Emerald Palace anymore."

And it would sever the iris's eyes and ears at the bottom level.

"I think that was the real purpose of 'catching everyone in one net.'" Lausanne the Second weakly ended his conclusion.

Belicia froze for several seconds before reacting.

"How do you know?"

How do I know?

Lausanne the Second lay on the ground and smiled sarcastically.

"Because I finally figured out, finally understood why even when Turnbull was driven to the end of the road, he still did not come to me, did not confess to me, but kept suspicion and distance from me."

The killer's gaze was bleak.

"Not only because he feared me."

He spoke faintly.

"Even more because he understood me."

Just as I understood him.

"Turnbull knew my past."

Lausanne the Second said in a daze, as if returning to a desert of yellow sand long ago.

"So he knew that once he confessed the truth to me, once I learned who his new friends were..."

The killer took a deep breath, his gaze firm, his tone carrying a few undetectable threads of hatred.

"I would definitely betray him without hesitation."

His tone was decisive.

"Part ways with him."

Even become irreconcilable enemies.

Belicia frowned deeply.

She did not understand.

"Correspondingly, as for why Turnbull wanted to kill me..."

Lausanne the Second laughed sorrowfully.

"Why he made up his mind, even knowing it was extremely risky, to scheme everything on that rainy night, first pretending to be defeated, then decisively striking only after Black Sword and I had both suffered heavy wounds, all to kill me..."

The killer took a deep breath and looked at the endless darkness overhead.

"Because that was the condition."

His hatred was deep.

"It was the condition for his deal with his 'new friends,' the condition for obtaining their help. If Turnbull wanted to live, I had to die."

Belicia was completely stunned.

"Why? Why?"

She was lost and confused.

"His new friends, what exactly did they have to do with you..."

But Lausanne the Second interrupted her without concern.

"The ironic thing is, only at the very end did Turnbull discover: the new friends he had made to protect himself, the new force he had pulled in, did not care at all about his surrender or his value."

The killer's smile was sad.

"Even if he removed me as agreed..."

"Black Sword and the Brotherhood..."

The street gang Turnbull had personally allowed and even supported, in order to raise an enemy and increase his own importance...

Lausanne the Second spoke in a daze.

"Did not show him mercy."

At that moment, everything in the dungeon changed.

Evil whispers rang in his ears, buzzing without end.

Like the thin rain around him.

Like Black Sword's trembling and panting.

Like the faint sounds of killing from the decisive battle between the Blood Bottle Gang and the Brotherhood several districts away.

I understand... you were right, kid.

In his helpless vision, only the old gang leader with half a body left laughed painfully and desperately, crawling toward him inch by inch.

I should not have... should not have thought I could play their game.

And he, he was powerless. He could only watch in shock as dying Turnbull stretched out a trembling hand.

Handing over that solid source blood.

Live, kid. See clearly the ugly face of this world... live!

In the next second, Lausanne the Second trembled all over and gasped for breath.

The ability dispersed. Everything in the memory collapsed.

"What is this... no, no, no, you pig... goddess above... I will do it. I swear I will..."

Belicia lay beside him, painfully clutching her forehead, struggling to distinguish illusion from reality.

"No, where is this... my head..."

So what?

Lausanne the Second paid no attention to Belicia, who had been affected by the ability. He stared blankly at the thick darkness overhead.

Old friend, old big pot, old gang leader.

Thanks to you, or because of you, I lived.

I saw clearly the face of this world.

Uglier than I imagined.

But so what?

In the end,

whether you or me,

we are still in cages.

Trapped in this black dungeon where no sunlight reaches.

Helpless and powerless.

Unable to move.

Even knowing, even seeing clearly, what can that change?

"Belicia, go back."

Lausanne the Second spoke faintly.

Belicia clenched her teeth and raised her head, having just escaped the influence of the ability.

"You asked what you wanted to ask," the vampire captive said coldly, becoming again that killer no living stranger should approach. "I also learned what I wanted to know."

"But-"

"After obtaining this much intelligence, useful or not, they should be satisfied," Lausanne the Second closed his eyes. "The important person outside the door should not make things difficult for you anymore."

Given that prince's personality, he probably would not.

Hopefully, he would not.

Belicia panted slightly and raised her head in confusion, looking toward the dungeon exit.

"That's it?" she said in a daze.

"That's it," he said numbly.

Go. Go back.

Do not come back again.

In any case, even if the truth was known...

It would not change anything.

Belicia held her forehead and was silent for a long time.

"You truly cannot remember, can you?"

Lausanne the Second kept his eyes tightly shut and did not react.

Belicia looked at him quietly, indescribable sadness hidden in her words.

"About... that drop of blood."

Lausanne the Second's eyelid moved.

"Yes."

Belicia looked at the dark-red severed end of his arm and sighed.

"That drop which once represented your first failed life, which you hated beyond measure and dismissed with contempt, casually throwing it away long ago..."

She spoke faintly.

"Yet at the end, as fate played tricks, went round and round and returned to you, both causing your defeat and giving you new life..."

In that instant, Lausanne the Second suddenly opened his eyes.

"The vampire source blood?"