SOP CH23: Destined Frost Bell

The carriage whip cracked down again and again, tearing through the air with violent, shrill shrieks.

At this moment, a brutal scene was unfolding within the manor. The wrinkles around Madam Spades’s eyes tightened abruptly; brandishing the leather whip with fury, she lashed Morana savagely multiple times. The maid curled into a ball against the wall, her pitted face filled with sheer terror.

When Diamonds and Quicksand returned to the estate, they saw Morana collapsed on the floor, covered in bloody welts. Diamonds hurriedly rushed forward, seizing Madam Spades’s wrist:

“Madam, calm down! What happened to her?”

“She left fingerprints while polishing the silverware and seared several scorch marks onto the leg-of-mutton sleeves while ironing clothes, committing a string of amateur mistakes!” Angry wrinkles bunched upon Madam Spades’s face behind the veil.

Diamonds hastily attempted to intervene: “These are all minor faults; there’s no need to fly into such a rage…”

“Minor faults?” Madam Spades’s voice suddenly spiked in pitch. “Do you know that when purifying morphine, a minuscule deviation in temperature could leave excess papaverine residue, sending a patient to their grave? Even a minor fault is the beginning of a fatal mistake, and that is absolutely intolerable in our household!”

Diamonds offered an awkward chuckle. “Even so, striking someone over it is ultimately wrong. A stern scolding would suffice, Madam. Why let your anger get the better of you?”

Quicksand interjected: “Stop hitting the maid. If you want to hit someone, hit the black-hearted boss instead; he has thick skin.”

Madam Spades glared coldly at Diamonds. Diamonds, in turn, glared coldly at Quicksand.

A heavy atmosphere filled the parlor. After a long while, Diamonds loosened his tight grip on Madam Spades’s wrist.

Lowering the carriage whip, Madam Spades said, “Mr. Diamonds, I told you not to interfere with my family affairs. To ensure its offspring can soar the azure skies, an eagle will cast its chicks off a cliff. I am strict with Morana so she can learn to spread her wings before plunging to rock bottom.”

At that moment, Quicksand stepped forward, his eyes devoid of a single ripple, and stated: “Yet the way I see it, you didn’t whip her to stop her mistakes or urge her onto the right path.”

“Your gaze tells only one story: you hate her.”

Madam Spades froze. After a long silence, she put away the whip, squared her shoulders, and resumed her usual calm, elegant posture, as if the blood splattered across the floor were none of her doing.

“Gentlemen, please do not make baseless conjectures,” she said with composed ease. “You need only fulfill your own duties.”

Stepping away, she suddenly added, “Tomorrow night at the ‘Tower of the Crown’ clock tower, acting as a representative of the Group, I shall publicly unveil the latest findings regarding the physical substance of time to the lords. I will need you both to accompany me as guards. Until then, please rest here; mechanical servants will attend to your daily needs.”

Madam Spades cast a glance at the two, her gaze bone-chillingly cold:

“After all, you are merely… guests from the future.”

After Madam Spades left, Quicksand helped the fallen maid up, discovering mottled old scars marking Morana’s skin beneath the whip-shredded dress. This was not the first time Madam Spades had beaten her so viciously. Quicksand remained silent for a moment before asking:

“Madam… used to beat you like this in the past too?”

Morana nodded tremblingly.

Diamonds averted his gaze to the side. “The Madam Spades I knew wasn’t a violent thug like this. If she ever wanted to hit someone, she only hit me.”

Quicksand cast a sidelong glance at him: “You deserve a beating anyway.”

The maid buried her face in her arms: “Whenever she feels even slightly displeased, Madam beats and scolds me… I’ve grown used to it. The overseer’s whip at the mine hurt far more than Madam’s, and my constitution is fairly sturdy, so I can endure it. But many girls my age in this manor couldn’t bear it. Some fled in the dead of night, only to be caught by mechanical soldiers, never to be seen again; others were dragged before Madam and beaten so severely, they eventually… lost their breath…”

Diamonds and Quicksand exchanged a glance, both reading the hidden shockwaves in the other’s eyes. This manor might have once housed many living people, but after they perished one by one, only Morana was left.

“If that’s the case, why didn’t you flee this place, and why do you still speak up for Madam?”

Morana tucked her chin near her collarbone, her expression gradually settling as she wrung her fingers, saying sheepishly:

“Be… Because Madam has a vast collection of books here, along with cinchona bark, calomel, musk, and many other precious medicinal ingredients unavailable elsewhere…”

“You like pharmacology?”

“Just a bit of an interest. At the mine, far too many people died of illness.” The maid’s eyes seemed to trace a fragile, snapping gossamer thread in the air, light and floating, before a smile bloomed across her face. “If possible, I want to complete the undertaking that even Madam could not, so that poor people like me will no longer suffer from disease.”

Following this minor interlude in the parlor, the relationship between the two and Madam Spades seemed to drop to freezing point.

They watched Madam Spades fly into a towering rage, throwing and smashing things around the manor. At the slightest displeasure, she would raise her whip and lash the couriers who came calling. One coachman mentioned she had once whipped herself bloody, even lashing out one of her own eyes. Even the ordinarily resourceful Diamonds couldn’t fathom how a gentle, magnanimous elder two hundred years in the future could originally be so brutal and sinister. Quicksand, however, brushed it off, adopting the air of a philosopher and stating with feigned depth: “Because time changes everything.”

The following night, honoring Madam Spades’s request, they took a carriage to the Tower of the Crown. Although Quicksand was profoundly unhappy about guarding this brutal old woman, Diamonds persuaded him with a classic rationale: “We’re already here.”

The Tower of the Crown was actually the clock tower of St. Giles’ Cathedral, though upon being invaded by the Time Entropy Group in 1805, it had suffered heavy modifications. Its spire pointed straight toward the heavens like a screwdriver, its exterior hung with winding, coiled copper steam pipes that hissed like a train pulling into a station.

Yet the moment the two stepped inside, they were instantly dumbfounded. The dome above let light filter through, and a wrought-iron exhibition platform was already erected upon the altar. Beside a massive agitator lay an astronomical array of instrument panels, steam lamps, and mechanical clocks. Moving through the resplendent glow of the firelight were numerous noblemen and women, everyone wearing carnival masks, either raising glasses in toasts or chatting merrily.

Upon entering the Tower of the Crown, Quicksand’s eyes locked firmly onto the banquet table, laden with an overwhelming array of dishes: fragrant ribeye steaks, buttered lobster pie, and roasted peacock with red currant sauce.

Diamonds tugged at his sleeve: “Let’s go, stop staring. We came here to do guard duty, not to eat and drink.”

Quicksand’s eyes practically watered with drool as he said, “We’re already here.”

He then turned to ask Diamonds: “Black-hearted boss, who’s paying for meals right now?”

“Since we’re in 1805, Madam Spades is covering the meals.”

Quicksand said, “Better to work on a full stomach. Sharpening the axe doesn’t delay the woodcutting; you go do guard duty first, and I’ll join you in a bit.”

Unable to stop him, Diamonds watched as Quicksand, charging like a Spanish fighting bull at mealtime, dove headfirst into the banquet spread, picking up a plate of roasted lobsters, shelling them and devouring one in a single bite, leaving onlookers slack-jawed.

Diamonds decided to simply put some distance between them, threading his way among the lords to seize opportunities for gathering intel. He heard the aristocrats whispering:

“What kind of invention is Madam Spades going to announce tonight?”

“Last time she claimed to have discovered temporal fluid, and the world truly was changed by her. The Time Entropy Group arriving from the future has provided us with far too much convenience. Look at these mechanical servants; I believe an era where humanity no longer needs to work is fast approaching!”

“Madam Spades’s discovery is certainly epoch-making, but she is ultimately nothing more than a puppet of the Group. What 1805 Branch Director?” A gentleman with a stiffly starched bowtie sneered. “Cleaner ‘Raven’ is the one truly controlling the board!”

Hearing the name “Raven,” Diamonds’s gaze darkened. Simultaneously, he noticed that for some unknown reason, the movements and gestures of these lords were somewhat rigid, as if performing in a marionette show.

Suddenly, the music of the pipe organ and violins ceased. Stained-glass lamps cast dazzling hues as Madam Spades took the stage amidst the glow. Her face covered by a black veil, she looked like a goddess bringing death.

“Gentlemen, ladies, please spare me a few minutes. Today I shall recount to you all my latest discovery,” Madam Spades spoke in a gentle, slow voice. She raised the reagent vial high in her hand, holding a transparent liquid within. “Behold: after enduring thousands of failures, I have finally yielded results. The ‘Water of Life’ sought so desperately by alchemists now rests in my hands—”

An uproar swept through the crowd. This was a legendary panacea rumored to possess miraculous properties, even capable of resurrecting the dead.

Standing to the side, Diamonds and Quicksand watched the high-spirited Madam Spades upon the altar. Diamonds mused thoughtfully, “Theoretically speaking, if one has discovered physical time, inventing a ‘Water of Life’ that resurrects the dead isn’t a difficult feat.”

Holding a bowl of turtle soup and sipping with sheer delight, Quicksand mumbled, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I could do that too.”

Diamonds pondered: “But there’s one thing I don’t quite understand. If Madam Spades truly is the Director of the 1805 Branch, boasting massive discoveries like the physical substance of time and the Water of Life, why did I never hear of her back in 2026?”

“Because you have a stupid brain and love forgetting things,” Quicksand subjected him to a ruthless personal attack.

Diamonds thought to himself, “I wonder whose head is actually empty.”

Right at this moment, the shadows cast by the lamps abruptly dimmed. Diamonds and Quicksand’s eyes sharpened; their bodies moving faster than their brains, they lunged forward. Without warning, a continuous grating of gears erupted throughout the hall. They witnessed an eerie scene: the lords seemed frozen in place as machine oil seeped from their joints, flakes of synthetic skin drifting down like light snow within the cathedral.

Gradually, the surrounding people revealed their true forms: they were actually a battalion of mechanical soldiers dressed in fine garments. In the blink of an eye, they transformed into an iron wall, advancing toward Madam Spades with the overwhelming force of a landslide!

“Wh-What are you doing?”

Madam Spades cried out in shock. In an instant, the servants under her command and the very audience she intended to present to had all turned into enemies.

“Madam, it seems this wasn’t a product launch tailored for you, but an ambush at a banquet.” Diamonds intercepted her, cold sweat pouring down his back. Quicksand drew a short ash-wood handle from his waist, pressed a switch upon it, and the file-axe sprang out.

“What on earth is going on?” Madam Spades shouted. “I am the Director of the 1805 Branch! My inventions are completely at the Group’s disposal!”

“Who knows, burning bridges is their specialty,” Diamonds shrugged, suddenly sneering coldly. “Though honestly, I think they aren’t trying to kill you this time, but us.”

Suddenly, several mechanical soldiers pounced forward. Diamonds drew his Mauser and fired a shot toward the dome. A chandelier chain shattered under the bullet, the carved bracket plunging down heavily to smash into them with a colossal crash, scattering crystal beads in all directions.

At that exact moment, a decorative wall carved with a holy grail burst open, and a tidal wave of mechanical soldiers poured in. Whirling the file-axe, Quicksand whipped up a fierce gale that swept shards of rose window glass from the floor, driving them like daggers toward the mechanical soldiers.

Yet when slashing at the cluster of machines, they seemed to possess intelligent sentience, clamping their mechanical arms tightly around the axe blade.

“Black-hearted employee, didn’t you just eat your fill? Why are you so frail now?” Diamonds fired off several stasis bubbles, hindering the soldiers’ movements while mocking him.

“I didn’t eat my fill; I only had the appetizers,” Quicksand protested. In a flash, he drove power into his legs, sweeping out a kick like a howling winter gale! Copper casings and iron fragments danced in the air as the mechanical soldiers before him had their arms dislocated, crashing heavily to the floor.

Although Quicksand downed a whole swath of mechanical soldiers, enemies continued pouring endlessly into the hall, creating a dire situation. Grabbing Madam Spades’s wrist, Diamonds said: “Madam, it’s dangerous here. Follow me first!”

With Quicksand covering the rear, the two dashed out of the nave, sprinting through the side aisles. They climbed the clock tower, its octagonal spire pointing straight toward the stratosphere. Moonlight struck the spire, casting a cross-shaped shadow across the cathedral plaza like a sharp sword.

Under the frost-like moonlight, everything appeared in stark contrast of black and white. Reaching the top floor, Madam Spades panted relentlessly, still failing to process the situation.

She asked: “I still do not understand. Why… does the Group want to kill me, and you as well?”

Diamonds found it puzzling too. Madam Spades had discovered physical time, and the Time Entropy Group had developed time-jump technology based on her findings. She now held the position of 1805 Branch Director and served as a technical advisor to the Group. Why would the Group want to assassinate her?

“Let me be the one to provide the answer to that question for you both.”

Suddenly, a voice drifted over from the side.

The two whipped their heads around, only to see a person stepping out of the clock tower’s shadows. The figure wore bizarre attire, donning a beak mask resembling a plague doctor, brown glass lenses fitted over the eyeholes, obscuring the face entirely. He wore a heavy black tweed trench coat and corduroy cargo pants, holding a short cane inlaid with a pocket watch.

His footsteps were measured and unhurried, carrying a murky, blood-soaked aura—the scent unique to someone who had slaughtered like a maniac.

Seeing him, Madam Spades’s eyes trembled, displaying a look of utter resignation as she murmured:

“Time Cleaner… Raven. Why are you here?”

Cleaner Raven was the backbone of the 1805 Branch, the one who handled Group affairs with her on a daily basis and arranged raw material shipments. He was courteous and proper, yet seemed to carry a degree of detachment, though still qualifying as an old acquaintance Madam Spades had dealt with many times.

Raven chuckled: “Madam Spades is unveiling a grand invention to the public today. As the Deputy Director of the 1805 Branch, how could I not attend?”

Diamonds sneered coldly: “Sir, you didn’t have to come at all. I can see Madam is someone dedicated to academic research, likely paying little heed to Group affairs. The actual person calling the shots in the 1805 Branch is you, isn’t it?”

The cleaner known as “Raven” stepped forward. The fog was thick right now, the sky above blanketed in leaden-gray clouds. Raven’s footsteps were exceptionally distinct in the quiet night, striking dread into the heart. His sharp gaze pierced through the lenses, fixing firmly onto Diamonds as he spoke with deliberate, theatrical exaggeration: “My, my, look who has graced us with their presence?”

Raven’s long-beaked mask glinted coldly, a bizarre hint of amusement coloring his voice:

“If it isn’t our distinguished guest from two hundred years in the future, the grand senior to all us cleaners, Mr. A-0?”

Suddenly, Madam Spades felt Diamonds’s back stiffen slightly. Yet he said nothing, merely stepping in to shield her.

“Senior, what do you think of this era? This backward, filthy year of 1805 has been given a brand-new look under my remodeling. I wonder if it meets your discerning eye?” Raven asked with a smile.

Diamonds smiled, though his eyes held not a trace of mirth: “Tin men everywhere; I thought I walked into a children’s amusement park zone.”

Raven’s tone carried a stage-play exaggeration, yet completely lacked genuine emotion: “What a profound pity. I went to such great lengths to invite you into the jar, welcoming you, Senior, into 1805, yet you find my hospitality unsatisfactory.”

“The person assassinating Madam Spades in 1805… is you?”

“Correct. Truth be told, her life or death is entirely irrelevant, because to the Group, you are the ultimate prey.” Raven bowed with exquisite politeness. “Every single branch of the Group lists you as the number one most wanted criminal. Even the Chief Cleaner was deployed, hunting you relentlessly without a moment’s rest. The whole ‘Fraudster’ moniker is nothing but a smokescreen; what everyone wants to find is the prototype for all cleaners, the defector from the Group: A-0.”

Raven stepped forward, continuing to unfold his body in a flamboyant posture, pressing a hand to his chest one moment, tilting his neck and raising his voice the next:

“Our 1805 Branch was exiled to such a remote timeline, a completely insignificant outpost. But as long as we kill you, we will earn the Group’s favor and return to the ‘future,’ where food and water flow in abundance. Ending you in this era is my absolute honor.”

“What’s wrong with staying in the ‘past’? I’m quite the nostalgist myself.” Diamonds’s gaze was like a freezing pool. “Speaking of which, the 1805 Branch… is it just you alone?”

Bathed in moonlight, the clock tower looked as if it had been bleached pale. The iron gate stood half-open, creaking uneasily in the wind. Raven spoke slowly:

“There used to be many people. But in this wasteland cut off from the ‘future,’ plagued by endless inconveniences, plagues, and wars, my comrades departed one by one. Right now, I truly am a lone shadow.”

“But what does that matter?” He spread his arms, boasting to Diamonds: “Look below. There are so many people lining the streets to welcome you!”

The two looked down, seeing the cathedral plaza packed with people. Mechanical soldiers swarmed together, murderous red light glowing in their optics, resembling a torrent composed of iron coffins.

Diamonds sighed: “Fine, I never knew I was this popular two hundred years in the past. Before we start fighting, let’s chat a bit more. Since Madam Spades has already become your branch director and brought the Group so much assistance, wouldn’t keeping her alive be more beneficial to you?”

“Since Senior was willing to travel back two hundred years to save her, it must mean she betrayed the Group in the future, correct? You used to be a cleaner too; you know the Group’s style has always been to pull the problem up by the roots, never allowing a single seed of rebellion to sprout.”

Raven spoke unhurriedly, every word seemingly weighed upon his tongue before being uttered.

“Furthermore, you can also tell that she is merely a puppet. History was etched in stone long ago. Someone was destined to discover physical time in 1805, launching a new epoch where time-jumping is possible. Whether this discoverer is Madam Spades or someone else doesn’t matter in the slightest. What the Time Entropy Group must do is seize this invention before anyone else does.”

“In other words, you’re just waiting for the invention to appear, then erasing the discoverer and claiming the results as your own, is that it?”

“Heh heh, Senior needn’t phrase it so harshly. In truth, Madam Spades cooperated quite well with the Group’s work. If possible, we would have loved to maintain a long-term partnership with her.”

Diamonds rolled his eyes. He knew the Time Entropy Group’s true nature: profit-driven and treating human life like grass. Raven was spouting pure nonsense.

Raven smiled faintly: “Actually, drawing you here required quite a bit of effort on my part. My descendant met you two hundred years in the future, do you remember?”

Suddenly, Raven produced an object from his pocket. Diamonds’s eyes widened in shock: it was an item that did not belong to this era at all. Slipping a plastic bag over his head, Raven chuckled:

“Does this… jog your memory?”

In that instant, flashes of memory raced across his mind. Diamonds recalled how, inside the Gilded Conclave in 2026, he had heard about the 1805 Branch’s movements from a man wearing a plastic bag over his head. That man was an informant he had dealt with multiple times; he never expected him to be a spy planted by the Group right at his side.

The corner of Diamonds’s lips twitched slightly, sneering coldly: “Haha, usually I’m the one tricking others; I didn’t expect to be the one getting tricked this time.”

He turned his head, speaking to Madam Spades in a breezy tone:

“Madam, my apologies. It seems this time-traveler is the reason you got fired by the Group. They want to kill me, and you’re just collateral damage. Still, it’s better to jump ship from this dump early anyway. Want to start a business with us two hundred years in the future? We’re setting up a ‘Poker Bar,’ and we urgently need your investment.”

Right at that moment, the crisp, clear ring of a drawn sword drifted through the wind. A flash of bright light swept past as Raven drew the blade concealed within his short cane, lunging at Madam Spades! Diamonds raised his hand abruptly, sliding a butter knife he had hidden earlier from his sleeve, blocking Raven’s strike.

Behind his lenses, Raven’s eyes seemed to emit a sickly cold glow. He laughed: “Truly worthy of Senior; your defensive stance is absolutely flawless.”

Diamonds felt tremendous force behind the blow, bearing down like a collapsing mountain. Unfortunately, his old ailment flared up just then, a searing pain burning inside him, cold sweat beading on his forehead. Feigning an enigmatic smile, he said: “Old ginger is spicier, after all.”

In a flash, Raven stumbled slightly, spinning his body with the momentum to unleash a flurry of silver blossoms with his blade, attacking Diamonds’s vitals like driving rain. Wielding the Mauser in one hand to fire stasis bubbles, and the butter knife in the other, amidst a chaotic blur of light and shadow, Diamonds actually managed to intercept every single strike! Locked in a stalemate, Raven chuckled deeply:

“If it were you in your prime state two hundred years in the future, I truly wouldn’t have confidence in winning. But after crossing through the time labyrinth ‘Stairs of Paradox’ to reach here, you are destined to be rejected by this era. Senior, your body must be suffering terribly right now, isn’t it?”

Diamonds replied: “Feels a bit like motion sickness. Still, my accomplice is perfectly fine, just gorging himself with an open belly. Seems he was starving hard.”

Raven chuckled dryly. He noticed that despite Diamonds’s flashy attire and flippant, frivolous mannerisms, his strikes were crisp and decisive, displaying an intimate mastery of the human body’s fragile points and the art of lethal, one-hit kills. Unleashing a vicious swing, Raven lunged toward Madam Spades, prompting Diamonds to shoulder her aside and intercept the blade with lightning speed.

Raising his brows, the diamond stud gleaming below his eye, Diamonds added: “To sum it up, Madam Spades is under my protection. Don’t think you can score a cheap victory on my watch.”

“Is that so?” Raven chuckled lightly. “But have you forgotten, Senior? This era is my home turf. Killing anyone here is child’s play for me.”

Suddenly, the hands on the pocket watch inlaid within his short cane began spinning wildly. A dense clatter of gears emanated from within, sounding like countless silkworms devouring mulberry leaves. An eerie gust of wind seemed to sweep across the world, the pendulum freezing dead in mid-air. At that very moment, the time of the entire world was frozen.

Time began flowing in reverse. Within mere moments, Diamonds jolted back to his senses, noticing the world’s anomaly. Hearing the sound of dripping blood, he turned his head, staring in horror as Raven’s blade pierced straight through Madam Spades’s heart.

“Madam!”

A look of sheer astonishment washed over Madam Spades’s face as a massive volume of blood spilled from her lips, collapsing heavily to the floor.

Trembling all over, cold sweat drenched Diamonds. He understood this tactic. Most time cleaners possessed weapons capable of manipulating time, such as Cleaner Quicksand’s file-axe that could detonate temporal particles, his own Mauser that spat stasis bubbles, and even Monkey Face’s gauntlets that severed human bodies across spacetimes. Raven’s short cane likely possessed time-related functions as well.

And that function was, to his horror, time reversal. Raven had dialed time backward by a single second and impaled Madam Spades’s heart.

The frosty moon hung like a silver plate, casting its heavy white light upon the earth. Raven’s black attire looked like mourning garb, exuding the ominous aura of the Grim Reaper. Gritting his teeth, Diamonds ground out: “Raven… you!”

“No need to fret. I merely fulfilled the destiny of death that she was bound to face two hundred years in the future, which is exactly why you came here, is it not?” Raven smiled, his gaze chilling. “However, the doomsday of the Clepsydra rebels you defected to is drawing near.”

“Senior, I will lie in wait two hundred years in the past, slaughtering your ancestors one by one until you are completely eradicated from the Earth, leaving not a single soul behind.”

Flashing a dangerous smile, he leveled his blade at Diamonds. The pocket watch began trembling uneasily, its hands spinning wildly.

“You possess no past, and you are destined to have no future.”