"This villa is indeed quite nice, but... it's a bit large for one person to live in alone."
After the house purchase contract was signed, Mr. Miller Carter showed no lingering attachment and moved out of the villa immediately. In fact, most of his belongings had already been moved out in advance; he was just waiting to sell the house as soon as possible so he could quickly leave Backlund, this place of sorrow.
"Although I have a house now, such a large place certainly can't be occupied by just me—" Lorne rubbed his brow as practical problems followed one after another.
"People in high society definitely need some servants, and even a professional butler to help manage daily affairs."
"Sigh—" Lorne still felt a headache regarding these matters.
On one hand, hiring servants and a butler would be another significant ongoing expense. Secondly, he was already accustomed to living alone. It was more comfortable and unrestrained—at most, he'd add a cat. Servants and a butler would only restrict his freedom.
"The renovation of this villa needs to continue, but without a supervisor, the project will likely drag on for a long time."
Previously, Miller Carter used his own servants to supervise. Lorne, however, didn't have a single servant right now. Moreover, he had plenty to keep him busy lately—the integration of various factories and Sharon's mysticism lessons—making it impossible for him to personally oversee every detail of the house renovation.
"Should I... find a group of servants?" Lorne fell into deep thought.
"No, there's actually no need to find a large group; just one or two reliable people to help manage things would do, or perhaps—"
A thought suddenly flashed through his mind. "If only there were a group of people who never got tired, didn't need wages, and were absolutely tight-lipped... wait!"
Lorne's eyes suddenly lit up as he thought of a certain fellow who liked playing poker with Zombies.
Brave Bar.
"So, you've come to find me." Wearing a black vest and exuding a gloomy aura, Marich looked at Lorne with a rather strange expression. "Yeah," Lorne nodded calmly.
It wasn't exactly a special trip to find him. He was just passing by on his way to the factory and decided to drop in.
"Uh—" Marich hadn't expected Lorne to seek his help for something like this. Using Zombies as renovation supervisors and porters? That was certainly a unique way of thinking.
"By the way, what's the word on the Indulgence Faction?" Lorne didn't dwell on the topic and instead asked about business first. He remembered Marich mentioning a while ago that powerful members of the Indulgence Faction might come to Backlund to cause trouble for them. "It's fine. They did come, but they didn't find us," Marich said succinctly.
—
"The arrangements Sharon left behind worked; the Indulgence Faction members came up empty-handed in the city and should have left Backlund by now."
"Hmm, good," Lorne nodded.
This indirectly reduced trouble for him as well. If Sharon and the others were truly in danger, he certainly wouldn't stand by and watch. "Is there any other news to share?"
Marich pondered for a moment before asking in return, "Do you remember the fourth epoch noble tomb I mentioned to you before?"
"The one belonging to the Amon family?"
"Yes," Marich nodded slightly. "I participated in an exploration of that tomb with a few others from the same gathering."
"Uh—I remember you saying that tomb was quite dangerous—" Lorne was somewhat surprised; Marich didn't seem like the type to take risks lightly.
"Yes, it is indeed very dangerous," Marich confirmed. "So, we only briefly explored the outer areas. We never even considered the middle or inner layers from the start."
I see. If it didn't involve the core of the tomb, the danger level should still be within controllable limits. After all, Marich was an experienced, veteran Sequence 6.
"Any gains?" Lorne asked curiously.
"Nothing special. We found some Corpses of previous explorers and some fourth epoch antiques." Marich paused and added, "As for the most unique gain, I obtained a Beyonder characteristic."
"A characteristic?"
"Yes, a 'Marauder' characteristic."
Marauder—Lorne's interest was suddenly piqued. He thought of his damaged monocle.
"Did you find anything else around that characteristic? Like... some worm-like things?"
"Worms—" Marich shook his head. "No, I didn't see anything like that. It's possible they existed and I just didn't notice, since our attention was focused on potential dangers at the time."
After a period of contemplation, Lorne looked up. "Can you sell that characteristic to me?"
"I might need it for some experiments."
"Sure," Marich replied without the slightest hesitation.
The characteristic itself was of no use to him, and since a friend asked, he had no reason to refuse. Besides, Beyonder characteristics didn't have a long "shelf life," and he was already worried about how to handle it.
Because they were friends, Marich ultimately sold the characteristic to Lorne for the low price of 250 pounds.
Once the transaction was complete, Marich went to a compartment, took out a pitch-black tin box, and handed it to Lorne.
Lorne took it and opened it. Inside lay a translucent, black, finger-like substance.
His spiritual intuition sensed no issues—he put the tin box away and tucked it into his breast pocket.
The two chatted a bit more on related topics, and Marich reluctantly agreed to find time to help "supervise" Lorne's new villa and do some security and porter work. Before leaving, Lorne seemed to remember something and asked half-jokingly, half-seriously, "By the way, are you interested in becoming my butler?"
He realized that Marich was truly suited for the profession of a butler. With those "Zombies," he alone could cover the work of a butler and all the servants.
Of course, having "Zombies" as servants felt a bit like a horror movie, but Lorne himself didn't care; pragmatism reigned supreme.
"Uh—I don't have much interest in the profession of a butler."
"That's a pity."
Inside the office.
Lorne sealed the area with a wall of spirituality, then took out the damaged monocle and the long-shriveled "Worm of Time."
Then, he carefully opened the tin box. The finger-like "Marauder" characteristic lay quietly inside.
"If I don't discover anything, I'll find a way to sell it. Anyway, with my 'portable space' to keep it fresh, I won't lose out either way," he calculated in his mind.
"As expected—there's a reaction!"
Lorne could clearly feel a mutual attraction between the monocle and the "Marauder" characteristic, like the poles of a magnet.
"This is definitely something from the same Pathway. Could the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Convergence be at work?
The level of this monocle is certainly much higher than Sequence 9."
While Lorne was lost in thought, the monocle beside his palm suddenly trembled violently and slipped from his hand. With a light "snap," it fell straight into the open tin box below, landing right on top of the "severed finger" characteristic.
Oh no!
A wisp of extremely faint white smoke rose from the tin box and quickly dissipated. Once the smoke cleared, only the monocle remained in the tin box; the "Marauder" characteristic had vanished.
"Could it be... the Beyonder characteristic was absorbed by it?"
After repeatedly confirming that his spiritual intuition sent no warning and no anomalies appeared in the surroundings, he carefully reached out, picked up the monocle again, and held it before his eyes to examine it closely.
The monocle was still the same monocle—there were no obvious changes.
Except—
"Some of the cracks on it have disappeared!" Lorne suddenly noticed this detail.
The web-like cracks originally on the lens had actually vanished slightly to the naked eye, becoming less dense!
"Could it be... it can use characteristics of the same Pathway for self-repairing?!