Chapter 298: Crystell City 3

"He probably doesn’t know my identity, but edited humans have an extremely keen sense of smell. He can tell that my scent is different from yours."

Ronan Kendrick patted Evelyn Ford’s shoulder. "Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him."

Seeing his confidence, Evelyn Ford said no more. Officer Graham led Quincy and Peter Owens downstairs to feed the livestock. It was getting late, and with plenty of rooms on the second floor, everyone found one to prepare for rest.

At 2:30 AM, a faint sound came from the window. Ronan Kendrick squeezed Evelyn Ford’s hand, then got up and stood behind the door.

The doorknob turned gently, and the man walked in, a gun in his hand. The instant he stepped into the room, Ronan Kendrick pulled out a towel and clamped it over the man’s face. The man quickly went limp and collapsed.

Evelyn Ford got up and pulled out an emergency lamp. When she saw the bearded man lying unconscious, it all felt surreal.

"He passed out that easily?"

Ronan Kendrick smiled and picked up the gun from the floor. "He’s only slightly more perceptive than a normal person. A failure is still a failure. I was standing right by the door, and he didn’t even notice."

Evelyn Ford looked at the towel in Ronan Kendrick’s hand. "What did you put on this? It worked so well, but I don’t smell anything. It’s not ether."

But Ronan Kendrick just acted mysterious, folding the towel and putting it away. "Just plain water."

"Plain water?" Evelyn Ford was skeptical, but she didn’t press the issue. She nudged the bearded man on the floor with her foot. He was out cold.

"What do we do with him now?"

"Kill him," Ronan Kendrick said, his tone perfectly calm.

"Aren’t you going to question him? We don’t even know if the other failures escaped like he did."

"There’s no need. Those failures are none of my concern. He can’t be left alive. I can smell the stench of rot on him. He’s drunk a lot of human blood."

Evelyn Ford’s brow twitched. "You’re saying he’s been drinking blood? No wonder I noticed something today. The faces of the onlookers were sallow, and they were all hunched over. I was thinking they might be weak from a lack of salt, but now it seems that’s not it. He’s been keeping them like livestock, and they’ve been sustaining him with their blood."

Ronan Kendrick nodded. "That’s probably it."

Evelyn Ford took out a glass beaker, slit the bearded man’s wrist, and let the blood drip until the beaker was full.

The wound on the bearded man’s wrist was not healing very quickly, and as soon as he was injured, his skin began to age.

His blood did have a faint, putrid smell. Ronan Kendrick took a pack of Silver Needles from Evelyn Ford. She didn’t see what he did, but the bearded man soon woke up. His expression was vacant, as if he had forgotten what just happened.

Evelyn Ford hadn’t expected Ronan Kendrick to know hypnosis. The bearded man blankly left the room and then jumped from the window ledge.

"Let’s get some sleep. We’ll be able to leave without any trouble tomorrow. You wanted those fruit trees, right? Now you can just wait for them to be delivered."

Evelyn Ford stared at Ronan Kendrick for several seconds. ’We’ve been together for so many years, and I thought I knew him inside and out. But it seems I don’t know him well enough at all.’

Back in bed, Evelyn Ford couldn’t fall asleep. Her mind was filled with the image of the bearded man’s eyes suddenly going vacant. ’It’s far too easy for Ronan to kill someone.’

"Don’t be afraid. I would never hurt you." Ronan Kendrick hugged her tightly from behind, kissing the nape of her neck.

Evelyn Ford drifted off to sleep. When she woke up, Ronan Kendrick was propped on one elbow, gazing at her intently.

"You’re awake?"

Evelyn Ford pulled out her pocket watch and glanced at it. It was half past eight.

"We should get going."

Ronan Kendrick brushed the messy hair from her forehead. "Alright. I’ll go check on things outside. You get washed up."

After getting up, Evelyn Ford quickly washed her face and brushed her teeth. Once she was bundled up warmly, she stepped out of her room. The others were already awake. The man from yesterday came by to call them down for breakfast, his attitude having undergone a subtle shift.

Just then, the bearded man arrived. He showed no signs of anything unusual and was as enthusiastic as ever.

"My apologies for the disturbance last night. We’ll be leaving soon, sorry to have troubled you all." Taylor Vance was always diplomatic. The bearded man gave a dry laugh and sat down stiffly.

"We’re all countrymen, so please don’t stand on ceremony. By the way, I’ve already dug up the fruit trees. Would you like to inspect them?"

Everyone was bewildered. ’We never said we wanted fruit trees, did we?’

Ronan Kendrick put down his chopsticks. The bearded man abruptly stood up, his vacant eyes fixed on Ronan. A couple of seconds passed before he seemed to return to normal.

"Ah, it’s a gift for all of you. A few fruit tree saplings."

Wyatt Vaughn, on the other hand, was delighted. She even silently vowed to herself, ’I’m going to plant a huge orchard someday.’

After breakfast, everyone packed up to leave. Once the animals were fed and the wagon was secured, Ronan Kendrick led the Mammoth out.

The fruit trees were in excellent condition, six in all. Taylor Vance loaded them into the shipping container. Seeing Evelyn Ford and her group preparing to leave, some of the people at the gate looked anxious, but since the bearded man didn’t react, they didn’t dare step forward to stop them.

Watching Crystell City recede behind them, Evelyn Ford finally stepped into the wagon.

Five kilometers later, they reached a fork in the road where it was time to part ways with Donovan Irving.

His wagon was already full. They had given him a hundred pounds of cassava, half a roe deer, a whistle, a Magnesium Rod, hemostatic powder, and an iron pot...

Donovan Irving’s eyes reddened as he looked at the supplies. He was at a loss for words, unable to express the depth of his gratitude. He suddenly dropped to his knees, and before anyone could react, he scrambled onto his horse-drawn cart and rode away.

"Heh, he sure took off in a hurry."

Quincy sighed wistfully as he stared down the fork in the road. "I didn’t even get to wish him a safe journey."

"You know, I really didn’t think that bearded fellow would let us go so easily. I don’t know what was up with him, but he seemed so strange this morning. It was like he was a puppet on a string. Not only did he let us leave, he even dug up fruit trees for us."

"He must’ve been spooked by our weapons. I mean, think about it. With all the guns we have, would he really dare to stop us?"

Wyatt Vaughn wasn’t so sure. When Ronan Kendrick shot those two people yesterday, it had already intimidated everyone. ’Isn’t it perfectly normal that we were able to leave without a hitch?’

"But that doesn’t explain how he acted today. Last night, his eyes were filled with rage and killing intent. This morning, they were just vacant and dull. I almost suspect he’s a completely different person."

Evelyn Ford almost burst out laughing.

"Perhaps he was just pretending yesterday," she said. "And what we saw today was his true nature."

"And what about those three women? He didn’t even try to get handsy with them today. That doesn’t make any sense."

Seeing them still puzzling over it, Ronan Kendrick headed straight back to the wagon. Evelyn Ford pulled out her pocket watch to check the time.

"Alright, it’s time to go. The weather’s nice today, so let’s not waste it."

Back in the wagon, Evelyn Ford saw Ronan Kendrick had taken out something that looked like a cat teaser and was playing with Mina.

Meanwhile, Crystell City had descended into chaos. The bearded man had suddenly exploded.

That’s right—he had suddenly swelled up and exploded, showering the area in chunks of flesh, leaving no intact corpse behind.