Irene grunted dully in pain, her fingernails almost digging into Isaac's arm right then! "Umph!" Isaac knew that she was hurting a lot, but words of comfort seemed to be pointless just then.Even as he caressed Irene's cheek, he told Zachary, "Hurry."Zachary was certainly working as first as he could and was in full concentration as he tried to extract the bullet. Fortunately, he could see the entire bullet clearly without any equipment and easily took it out!However, Irene's started to bleed even more freely after he did, and he promptly pressed hemostatic powder over her wound. Irene was almost passing out, and she was sweating so much it was as if she had just taken a shower!Zachary then poked his head out to yell at Stan, "Let's go!" Stan got in and asked, "Is it done? Did you take the bullet out?""Yeah," Zachary replied, while Stan started to car and they resumed their journey.They were not far from Franconia—a little more road past this town, and they would r

Stan was slightly relieved to hear the doctor's words and walked up to ask, "Are you saying that treating it will be easy?""Relatively speaking, blindness caused by external factors should be easier to treat than blindness caused by illness," the doctor explained. "However, we need to find out what's actually causing his blindness first, to decide if it's treatable."The cause was certainly very important in treatment, though Stan became weary from the doctor's response.He thought then that everything the doctor said was pointless!Still, the doctor glanced at Stan and said, "Please keep it down. I'd rather not be disturbed while I examine the patient."Stan slid a peek at Isaac to see that the latter was pursing his lips and glowering. Stan promptly turned silent—another word, and Isaac would really get mad! The doctor opened Isaac's eye just then and held his flashlight in front of his pupils, asking, "Can you see this light?"Isaac could somewhat see it, but it was very

Zachary replied, "I did."Irene frowned. "Then why'd you say you don't know what happened to him?"Unable to hide it, Zachary said, "He might have been captured. Don't worry, though—Isaac has already asked people to find him."Irene remained worried. "Is he really going to be alright?"Zachary did not tell her about the phone conversation he had with that gang member, so that she would not worry too much."You're still hurt," he said instead. "You should be resting. Isaac and I will find James."After all, Irene was arching her back slightly even as she stood, and her face was pale—the bullet wound her shoulder must still hurt."Call me immediately when there's news," she rasped."Yeah. I'll go bring Erin over now," Zachary replied.Irene nodded, and Zachary turned to leave.Pierre approached her then. "Ma'am."Irene then saw a maid carrying a tray of food and said, "Just bring it to the dining room. I'll eat with everyone else.""Sure." Pierre gestured for the maid to leav

Irene was left stumped. She stammered a little before saying, "The place he went to was remote and has poor cell signals…""He wouldn't let that stop him," Erin said, her eyes almost ablaze as she held Irene's gaze. "I hope you're not hiding anything from me, Irene."Irene was afraid to look Erin in the eye just then—she could not do it while lying to those exceedingly sharp eyes. "Why would I lie to you?" Irene said."But why did you bring me out here? To persuade me to go home?"Irene quickly denied it. "Of course not. You just came, so of course I'd like you to stay a few more days… but you can't stay because of work, right?""I applied for an extended leave," Erin replied. Irene was stumped. Erin was not so easily fooled. What should she do?Irene certainly did not know what to do just then. To make things worse, Erin suddenly said, "Let's go. Once we're done shopping, we can head to your place."And with that, Irene could not tell her to return to Minerva at all!

Stan closed his eyes, afraid to look just then!As Zachary pulled the zipper, the sound seemed so loud it was deafening!Stan's lips were trembling, but he did not dare to make a sound.At the same time, Zachary opened the zipper and forced himself to see what he did not want to see. It was a leg, still soaked in blood.Thankfully, it was not an entire corpse.Zachary stared at it grimly. On the other hand, Stan had not been hearing anything for a while, and he slowly opened his eyes!He stumbled backward when he saw what it was.However, he was not so faint-hearted that mere gore would scare him.He was afraid that it was James's leg!"Our location is compromised," Zachary said quietly then.Stan nodded.The gangsters obviously had their address. That was how they sent this here."Doesn't that mean everyone is in danger?" Stan asked. Zachary did not respond to that. "Check whose leg it is. I'll tell Isaac."Stan nodded. "Okay."-In the castle, Irene could hear Er