The Deceitful One

Bryan and Andrew visited most of the places in Damascus on foot, looking for anything they found suspicious, whether it was supernatural-related or not.

They first patrolled the entirety of Laurent Avenue and Kingston avenue. Since this was a relatively well-off area and also had the presence of the Church and the Police Station, there were barely any crimes that took place there.

Next, they visited the neighborhood of Augustus Street. This was the place where all nobles, wealthy businessmen, and other affluent families resided in. This neighborhood too had a very minimal crime rate.

The police always made sure to patrol here day and night since most of their funding came from the wealthy in the form of donations.

Then the duo headed towards the area where the middle-class people lived.

Patrolling in this area took them close to three hours to complete because the entire middle-class neighborhood included all the blocks from 1st Street all the way up to 20th Street.

Following that, Bryan and Andrew visited the slums and the area around them. The slums were the nastiest and the most cutthroat place for a person to live in. Altercations took place here every day and in most cases, there would even be deaths.

Bryan guided the entire way with great familiarity and showed Andrew the most likely places where crimes could take place. They came across many drug addicts and even petty thieves in the slums that tried to rob them.

Dealing with them, however, was as easy as breathing air for people like Bryan or Andrew. Unknowingly, the duo had reached DeShawn Street, which was situated right next to the slums and in some sense could be considered a part of the slums as well.

As they were walking down this street, Bryan paused his steps and looked at a two-storied dilapidated building to his left.

A half-broken wooden plaque hung next to the entrance of the building. One could vaguely make out that the number 11 written on it.

This was where Bryan had lived for almost a year of his life in the slums before he met Detective Watson. With a complicated expression on his face, Bryan's eyes glazed over as he recalled the small room that he had rented in this very building.

He remembered the time when he had to save up a lot of money through either begging or stealing and rent this room to escape the cold winters. At the time, even that messy, small room was a luxury to him.

Things had changed so vastly since then. Bryan couldn't help but sigh as he thought about this.

Sensing the change in Bryan's emotions, Andrew patted his shoulder and asked, "Bryan, is everything all right?"

Snapping out of his daze, Bryan turned to look at Andrew and smiled faintly, "Yeah, I'm fine."

He then pointed at the building in front of him and added, "That's the place I used to live in."

Andrew was taken aback. The way Bryan always paid for the drinks and food whenever they hung out, he always thought that Bryan came from a very affluent and well-to-do family.

However, now Bryan was claiming that he used to live in the slums. For a moment, Andrew could not think of how to reply.

Seeing Andrew's speechless expression, Bryan chuckled, "At a very young age, after my parents passed away, I lost everything. Ever since then, I've been living in the slums.

I had to resort to begging and theft in order to survive. It was only after I met my teacher that I came out of that miserable phase of my life."

Andrew felt slightly emotional listening to the tough life that Bryan had to live through. He replied apologetically, "I'm sorry to hear about your parent's passing."

Bryan waved his hand and started walking, "It's all right. That was more than a decade ago."

Catching up to Bryan, Andrew put his arm around Bryan's shoulders and tried to cheer him up, "We're quite similar in that way, you know. My mother passed away when I was a child too. However, my father was a real asshole though!

He married another woman and abandoned me. I had to live on my own after he left. But I was lucky enough to be taken in by the Church while I was still young."

"Oh? The church took you in?" Bryan was intrigued.

"That's right. I happened to meet a priest when I was a kid. He took pity on me and took me in. So, in a way, I was raised by the Church.

And when they found out I had a very good spiritual aptitude, they introduced me to the Transcendent world." Andrew replied with a reminiscent smile.

"I see. What about the rest of the members of the Strike Team?" Bryan inquired.

Andrew thought about it for a moment and replied, "I know Elijah comes from a wealthy family here in Damascus. Henry lives with his mother, his father passed away a long time ago.

Ron joined the Silver Owls more than ten years ago and was practically raised by the church along with me.

So I've known him since I was very little. He's like a big brother to me. The rest of the team members are relatively new, so I don't know much about them."

Then he seemed to recall something and added, "Oh, and Livia is Bishop Walls' granddaughter."

Bryan was surprised, "She's Bishop Walls' granddaughter? That's unexpected."

"Haha, yes," Andrew nodded his head.

Bryan then took out another cigarette from his silver case and put the tip of it between his lips. After lighting it with his silver-colored lighter, he asked, "We've visited most of the places in North Damascus. Is there anywhere else we need to go?"

Andrew started chuckling with a playful look in his eyes, "Of course! We still have one more place we need to visit."

Bryan inhaled a puff of the cigarette. After enjoying the buzz brought by the nicotine, he exhaled the smoke and inquired, "Which place?"

Andrew's lips curled up into a smirk, "Wilmington Cemetery!"

"What the fuck are we going to do in a cemetery!? Pay our respects to the dead?" Bryan was flabbergasted. This was the answer that he least expected, no, he hadn't expected this answer at all.

However, Andrew didn't state the reason. He simply acted mysteriously, "Hehe, you'll see, Bryan, you'll see!"