Chapter 6. Landlord
The calm and gentle state of Corvos was cut off by the sound of a car engine echoing from outside the building. Juwel only managed to notice that Corvos suddenly paused for a beat, then he stood up with a decisive motion.
Juwel frowned as he observed Corvos. "Is something wrong?"
"There is something." Corvos replied shortly. "I heard the landlord's car."
Corvos was very sensitive to sounds, so even though they were in a high-floor apartment many meters above ground and the soundproofing was fairly good, Corvos still noticed it.
Juwel also leaned to look outside the window, but he did not see any car. They were staying in a small alley so the number of passing vehicles was minimal. Juwel thought Corvos might be lying to distract him from some topic he did not want Juwel to touch.
"Juwel, use the blanket to cover the broken part of the window."
"Why?"
"This is a rental apartment, so if the landlord finds out we will have to compensate..." Corvos said seriously, "...A lot of money. We are not wealthy right now and we might be thrown onto the street."
While saying the last part, Corvos suddenly smiled, as if he imagined some amusing situation. His teasing attitude as he half turned toward Juwel while talking about the scenario made Juwel even more irritated.
"The landlord might want to come inside. I will try to stall them, but this battlefield..."
Both of them looked at the mess they had created.
The apartment now looked no different from a place that had just gone through a raid.
Broken glass was scattered across the floor, reflecting light into sharp glints. The bed had collapsed entirely to one side, the wooden legs tilting because they had been snapped. The blankets were rolled into a wrinkled heap, the pillows had fallen everywhere. Outside the window frame, shards of glass still clung to the edges and trembled faintly whenever the wind blew. The balcony was littered with broken chairs, a shattered vase scattered into tiny pieces, a few books lay soaked in the puddle formed by the broken glass jar. The living room was not any better: the table was scratched, the curtain had a torn patch because it had been yanked hard, even the shoe rack near the door was tilted, shoes thrown all over. No corner retained its original neatness.
"You attacked first, I only defended myself," Corvos explained immediately to divide responsibility.
Juwel did not answer. His gaze slid elsewhere, the shattered room suddenly becoming more interesting. Part of him knew Corvos was not wrong, but admitting it was no different from lowering his head. In the end he chose silence.
Corvos shrugged, not forcing Juwel to respond. He turned his back and opened a drawer. In his hand was a transparent plastic bag. He placed it down in front of Juwel.
"Use this to gather the stuff." While speaking, Corvos quickly gathered some shards of glass around them.
Juwel took it. The material felt strange, smooth and light, crackling in his hand. A memory flashed through him: the reflection of candlelight on a soft ceremonial robe inside a spacious hall, the scent of grape wine, the brief sound of a violin.
It made him remember gấm phu quang, a fabric woven from mineral-dyed silk, so thin that light passing through it would glow into a halo of lapis hues. This type of fabric was used only by the aristocrats of Ilix to make festival cloaks. Each sheet cost as much as a small estate. Money was not an issue for the Rosebrella family, but it was hard to obtain because the quantity was limited. People usually could only buy it at auctions, and gấm phu quang could be bid up to a hundred times its original price.
After that, Corvos took a khẩu trang (face-cover mask) and put it on. Juwel watched him, not fully understanding what the object was used for. He only knew that Corvos was hiding his bruised face.
"I will buy some time." Corvos said, then he walked out the door, carrying some broken pieces of the chair inside a black bag.
Letting Corvos out of his sight felt like handing a sharp sword to someone without knowing where that person might point it. However, Juwel knew nothing about this world and could only temporarily trust Corvos, believing that the situation was indeed serious.
The mini apartment building was located on a piece of land considered relatively good for a large city. A city like this had never been a place for ordinary people. Only those with enough money could own a private house in an airy area and have the right to breathe air not full of dust.
The rest of the residents had to accept living in alleys and narrow gaps patched together like a spider web. Such pathways usually allowed only one person to pass through reluctantly. If two people walked together, they could not walk side by side. They had to split into a front-and-back line. That small distance was enough to sever the intimacy of a couple.
The rooms in this area rarely received full sunlight. Taller buildings could block out the entire sky, forcing the spaces beneath them to squeeze themselves into a prolonged darkness. Therefore, the idea of a "good location" here did not require luxury. It only required an alley not too narrow, a room that could catch a bit of leftover sunlight, and a rental price that would not drain the tenants.
The apartment mentioned above had all of that. It was close enough to a main road to be convenient for daily life and far enough to avoid chaotic noise. In a city where every open space had a price, that was considered decent.
"Hello."
"Hello. Have you had lunch yet, Uncle?"
"I already ate."
"So, did you hear any explosion sound?"
"I was singing karaoke inside so I did not hear any sound. What is it, something exploded?"
"Ah, I received a complaint from a tenant saying there might have been some loud noise."
"I do not know anything. Maybe because I turned my music too loud."
"Mm, I am going up to check."
The landlord had received the report about a possible explosion and immediately drove over, afraid that the building might be on fire. There had been many similar incidents recently. Probably because of climate change. If it really burned, they would lose a lot of money.
"Huh?" The landlord suddenly saw someone.
"Corvos?"
Corvos was holding a trash bag, pretending he had just noticed the landlord.
"You came to check the building today? I am taking out the trash."
Juwel carefully observed the height, the angle of sunlight, and the line of sight from the yard below. The broken part of the window was extremely conspicuous, and if he covered it directly with a blanket then the possibility of raising suspicion would increase even more.
Based on observing the upper floors, he realized that the blurred glare would make every outline fade. From the ground yard below, people would only be able to see the reflective glass surface and the compressed darkness inside.
It would not provide enough detail for anyone to distinguish an intact window from a broken one. Juwel understood this immediately when he leaned against the window frame and watched how the light shifted each moment. He knew that what he needed to do was not to conceal the entire opening, but to distort its familiar shape.
He tore a thin strip of fabric from an old bedsheet, soaked it with water from the washbasin, and hung it loosely on the edge of the window frame. When the strip absorbed water, it clung tightly to the wood and created an uncertain dark patch. When the wind blew through the gap in the wall, the strip of fabric quivered and caused its own shadow to tremble across the inner surface of the room.
This small movement was enough to disrupt the boundary between the remaining glass and the empty space of the broken part. Once the border was destroyed, the eyesight of any observer could only register a vague patch similar to an old curtain slipping down, instead of noticing the true deformation of the window frame.
The light from above also created a steady layer of reflection on the shards of glass still clinging to the corners. When viewed from below, these bright points blended with the darkness inside, making the gap impossible to define. Someone might still notice that the glass had been damaged somehow, but once the sunlight shifted direction, they would not be able to find the fracture again.
Their mind would automatically adjust its perception and treat what they saw earlier as a brief misjudgment, just like the thousands of forgotten moments that pass through ordinary life.
When Juwel leaned his body out of the window, he could also see the silhouettes of Corvos and the landlord.
He froze for a moment, and when he saw the two of them starting to move, Juwel left the window to find something that could cover the opening. The unfamiliar apartment made him feel as if he were walking through a room from another era. Every object had a strange form, with nothing resembling anything he had known when he lived in Ilix.
He walked slowly around the room and swept his hand across a cylindrical object placed on the table. The object vibrated lightly when he touched it. A part of the metal slid to one side, producing a crackling sound, and then it lit up with a flickering blue-white glow. Juwel flinched and stepped back.
From the contact point between two thin layers of material rose a faint wisp of smoke and a trembling streak of light. That light flared up, turning into a tiny flame, then immediately died when the plastic layer on the surface charred. Juwel watched the entire scene in genuine bewilderment. His normally serious expression shattered in an instant.
He looked around to see whether anyone had witnessed it or not, then he bent down and blew lightly on the burn mark like a child who had damaged an object whose function it did not understand. When he saw no further reaction, he set the thing aside and reassured himself that it was merely a strange tool of this era and that he had nothing to fear.
While Juwel was struggling with the apartment, Corvos stood at the foot of the staircase facing the landlord. The smell of the afternoon breeze mixed with the scent of old wood from the hallway. The landlord appeared confused when mentioning the neighbors' remarks about an explosion-like sound in Corvos's apartment.
The neighbor's recounting carried a tone of exaggeration and the curiosity of people who enjoy spreading inaccurate information. The landlord, although not entirely convinced, still wanted to check because of his responsibility.
Corvos kept a calm gaze and placed his hand on the bridge of his nose as if to hide a brief moment of fatigue. The image he constructed every day was a shell of friendliness and discipline. That shell made him well liked everywhere he went. He always maintained gentle gestures and a moderated voice. He also created the impression that he was someone who listened and took responsibility.
In this moment, he let that shell speak for him. He tilted his head in a manner that showed respect and dedication toward the landlord. He acted as if he genuinely wished to help resolve any misunderstanding.
Corvos observed the person in front of him with the eyes of a predator studying its prey. He calculated every expression, every tiny reaction of the landlord to know how easily that person could be persuaded. He did not feel any fear or guilt. Those emotions had not existed inside him for a long time.
He only wanted to stabilize the situation, in the same way he used to crawl into the lair of his victims to complete a deal after he had already observed everything he needed.
When the landlord expressed a desire to go upstairs, Corvos maintained a graceful smile and stepped aside as if there was nothing to hide. Beneath that composure lay the ruthless confidence of someone with extensive experience handling situations that ordinary people could not bear. He knew that only a few simple explanations and a few proper actions would convince the landlord that all the rumors were exaggerated words.
Juwel pulled the blanket closer but did not use it. He tore a thin strip of cloth from the blanket's edge, dampened it with water from the basin, then placed it on the window frame. The wet strip clung to the ledge, trembling like an old curtain. When the wind blew, it cast patchy shadows that concealed the torn part of the glass frame. Anyone standing in the yard below would think the window had a curtain, although the apartment had none.
After temporarily handling the top part, Juwel climbed over the window railing. The descent was not very high, but it was enough to make someone unaccustomed hesitate. Juwel slid down the drainage pipe as if he had done this his entire life. He landed so lightly that no one noticed.
Ah, except for a dog that noticed. Because Juwel's sudden movement startled it, the dog barked at Juwel nonstop.
The Rosabrella family owned hunting dogs, and the dog reminded Juwel of his own.
"Good." Juwel soothed the dog. The look in Juwel's eyes made the dog stop barking.
The broken glass scattered beneath the window posed a risk of being discovered. Perhaps they should consider themselves lucky because it was lunchtime, when everyone was eating, napping, or staying indoors. If not, it would have been difficult to clean up the aftermath.
A few neighbors were chatting. They felt that some apartment window seemed to have broken. One person insisted that he had just seen light reflecting from an open frame, but when the group looked back, all they saw was a faintly swaying curtain.
"It seems like something happened on the mini apartment side." The man who had encountered the landlord earlier spoke to his young child while they were eating.
"Really? Something happened?" The child ran out excitedly to look and returned to his father with an unimpressed tone. "Nothing happened at all!"
Juwel gathered each shard and stuffed them into the building's trash bag, then tied the bag shut. He placed it in a dark corner next to the sorting bins, blending it with the other bags without leaving a trace. The ground no longer bore any marks. The window frame above had lost its only remaining evidence.
When Juwel made sure no neighbor would see him, he climbed back into the room using the same route he had descended. The window looked acceptable when viewed from afar. Juwel dusted off his hands, adjusted the mask on his face, and stood still waiting for Corvos to return.
In the silent room, only the faint smell of glass dust lingering in the air revealed how chaotic this place had been.
Corvos stopped right in front of the door and turned toward the landlord. He placed his hand on the handle as if he was ready to open the door at any moment, but he did not hurry. His gaze lowered slightly, showing an expression as if he was hesitating because he wanted to ensure the privacy of the person inside. A part of his face was covered by the mask, but his eyes clearly expressed the embarrassment of a polite tenant.
"My dear, the landlord wants to come in, you should prepare a bit."
Corvos had mentioned that the two of them were in the Omega heat cycle in order to push back the landlord's attempt to enter. But the landlord was still determined to step inside and check.
He tilted his head slightly and asked the landlord about the water pipes on the upper floors. He said that sometimes he heard faint clicking noises and the sound of wind slipping through the door crack.
"Oh, I will check that again."
The landlord grew slightly impatient and glanced toward the lock. She wanted to go inside to check. Corvos kept his gentle smile and asked her to wait for a moment because he was not sure whether the person inside had put on proper clothes or not. He said that in a lowered voice, as if he was protecting Juwel's privacy.
"Having a husband like Corvos must be the blessing from your past life, right?" The landlord noticed how caring and attentive Corvos was when taking care of his lover.
Inside, Juwel understood Corvos's intention at the moment Corvos mentioned wind and water. Juwel straightened up and let his eyes sweep across the room. A shard of glass left under the table leg glimmered under sunlight, so he bent down, picked it up in his palm, and put it into his jacket pocket. He walked toward the tilted chair and set it upright. The burn mark on the strange device made him uneasy, yet he placed it under the table so that sunlight would not touch the burnt plastic surface.
Juwel went to the wooden cabinet in the corner and opened the door slightly to block part of the view. The cabinet door created a shadowed space large enough to confuse the eyes of anyone walking in. He used the darkness as a screen, preventing the landlord from seeing the small traces that remained. The light streaming diagonally across the floor was partially blocked as Juwel gently pulled the curtain. The curtain swayed a little but was still enough to stop the light from falling directly on the missing edge of the glass.
Outside the door, Corvos continued talking to the landlord, appearing genuinely concerned about the apartment's issues. He talked about sometimes hearing a faint knocking sound on the balcony, so maybe that was the reason everyone mistook it for some kind of explosion. Corvos glanced at the door to see whether Juwel had finished arranging things.
Finally, the door opened.
Corvos stepped slightly aside so that the landlord could enter first, showing that he had nothing to hide, while his eyes discreetly examined every detail in the room to make sure everything was in the place that needed to be hidden.
The landlord stepped inside and stopped right at the threshold. She did not say a word, even though moments ago she was still irritated by the neighbor's rumors. Her emotions were swept aside within seconds because all of her attention was pulled toward the young man in front of her. His eyes passed over the landlord and he tilted his head slightly as a greeting. Juwel did not know the landlord's name so he did not speak much.
The way he shifted his shoulders immediately made others recognize the pride formed in grand castles, not something that belonged to a modest modern apartment. Juwel's smile appeared very lightly. That smile was soft and friendly enough that it made people think he was receiving her politely. However, anyone observant would notice that his facial muscles did not truly move with joy. It looked like a trained gesture meant to make the person in front of him feel less guarded.
The landlord naturally knew who was living in the rented unit, so she knew about the two young men with outstanding appearances. But she did not expect that the person living with Corvos possessed a beauty that could make the viewer forget their original intention. The air in the room paused for a beat because beauty often has the ability to stop thoughts. In that moment, Corvos stood beside the landlord and felt completely calm about her reaction.
Juwel had cleaned the living room. Everything looked fine at first glance. However, to Corvos, that "fine" appearance was like a hurriedly crafted story filled with gaps. The far corner of the table was a bit too clean compared to the other spots. A small strip of cloth the size of a fingertip lay in the chair gap. A tiny shadow on the wall shifted half a centimeter because the light was blocked incorrectly. With those flaws, Juwel could only fool the human eye temporarily, assuming they did not look carefully.
He breathed lightly in his heart and thought that cleaning up a crime scene should always be left to someone with experience.
The landlord walked farther inside and was about to move toward the window. That moment made both Juwel and Corvos tense up in silence. Juwel took one step to the right and accidentally covered exactly the angle she intended to look at. Corvos saw that and immediately moved to the left so that they formed a curved line that made the landlord change her walking direction. The landlord thought that they were politely giving her space, but in reality every one of their movements existed to stop her from seeing the misaligned curtain edge and the uneven reflection on the window glass.
A small porcelain item that Juwel had temporarily placed on the table edge to hide the burn mark trembled lightly because the landlord walked past it. Corvos noticed that and stepped over, pretending that he was tidying the corner of the table. When his hand touched the object, he rotated his wrist slightly and pushed it half a handspan deeper, enough to hide it from her view.
The landlord turned toward the bookshelf. Juwel saw the half-burned paper flick under the light. He bent down as if he was tying his shoelaces. When he lowered his body, his hand swept quickly across the floor and pulled the piece of paper under the chair. He stood up as if he had just finished a small task, his lips still holding the polite smile.
Corvos stood on the opposite side and saw the entire motion. He straightened his back slightly, his eyes calm, but deep inside that gaze there was a helplessness that was hard to describe. He did not know why they could synchronize like that. It might be because both of them were used to handling trouble in silence. It might also be because they were too familiar with hiding things other people should never know.
A small sound echoed in the corner of the room. A tiny piece of glass had just slipped off the table. Juwel and Corvos reacted at the same time. Juwel lowered his foot and pushed the glass fragment under the carpet with the tip of his shoe. Corvos lifted his hand as if he was showing the landlord a small crack in the wall, making her turn her head naturally, preventing her from seeing Juwel's movement.
Their coordination unfolded continuously without either of them needing to speak. The landlord only saw two polite men who were trying to welcome her with their best manners. She had no idea that every step they took existed to hide a secret that had happened inside this very room.
When the landlord walked in to examine the apartment, both Juwel and Corvos believed that they had managed to fool her. The landlord checked each corner of the room with a reluctant expression, then signaled that she wanted to leave. The two of them almost exhaled in relief at the same time. In that exact moment, the pile of damaged items that Juwel had pushed into one corner suddenly tilted. A loud clatter rang out clearly in the quiet room. The landlord turned back and saw the scene with eyes round and full of suspicion.
She did not have time to form any thought or emotion when a very small sound rang out. Xoẹt. Corvos's arm had swung up from behind. His elbow touched the point right under the landlord's occipital bone.
Juwel saw the entire scene.
The landlord fell forward and collapsed into Corvos's arms like a sandbag slipping out of its tied rope, it all happened within a single short breath. Juwel seemed to have imagined how his own loved ones had died in this man's hands. The scene before his eyes was soaked in blood in his mind, and in the next second he rushed forward.
"You bastard!!!"
Juwel took the landlord from Corvos's arms, then grabbed Corvos's collar and used the full weight of his body to throw him down onto the floor.
The anger in Juwel's eyes boiled over, he could not hold it back anymore.
Before Juwel could bring down a heaven-splitting punch onto the face that had not even fully healed for half an hour, Corvos spoke.
"She is only knocked out temporarily, there is no serious harm."
His voice was calm to an unbelievable degree.
Juwel looked back at the unconscious landlord, trying to determine whether his words were true or not. After a moment he realized her breathing was steady and her heartbeat was not irregular.
However, Juwel's anger did not subside that easily. Juwel used one hand to grab Corvos's shirt, the tendons on his arm all standing out. He gritted his teeth and said:
"You messing with me?! You think my words are just air or what?!"
A chop to the back of the head in reality, if Corvos did not control the force well, could break the landlord's cervical vertebra instantly. At the same time, if it was too light, the person would only feel pain and would not faint. And obviously Juwel did not trust Corvos enough to let him do that again.
Because Corvos controlled the force correctly, it only affected the balance system at the back of the skull, causing temporary loss of consciousness. That technique required just enough strength and a precise angle of contact.
"I apologize. I will adjust my behavior to suit our life together."
When Juwel heard this, it was as if the volcano that was about to erupt had been sealed again. Juwel closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then released the hand gripping the collar.
"There will not be a next time."
Corvos brushed the dust off his clothes.
"Alright. I will bring her down to the security guard."
"The security guard? Why?"
When Juwel climbed down earlier to clean the glass shard, he had taken the chance to observe the surroundings in every direction and knew that the security guard was a man. The reason Juwel knew the man was the security guard was not complicated, because the back of his shirt clearly had the words "Bảo vệ" printed on it. Leaving an unconscious woman for a man to handle was not a good idea.
"Don't underestimate him. That is her younger brother."
Corvos had found out the security guard's identity because he noticed the man was a bit unusual. And just as he expected, the man did not lack money, but lacked a job to make life less boring, so he decided to work as a security guard.
"Yes, I think miss landlord fainted because of low blood pressure."
Corvos kept a composed expression and explained very convincingly. His demeanor also looked as if he was helping a woman avoid a brief dizzy spell, not hiding the fact that he had delivered a lethal blow to the back of her neck in an instant.
"Low blood pressure? I remember she did not have that condition."
"Anyway, miss landlord is old already, having a few more conditions is not strange."
"Alright, then let me take her to the hospital."
Corvos helped the security guard escort the lady owner to her car, which was parked on the main road, because the alley was only wide enough for a single motorbike to pass through.