Chapter b582 /bThe Nature of the Puppets

    Jean bwas /bstill shaken, her eyes wide, her gaze slightly unfocused.

    Instinctively, she nced over at Ludwig, her eyes full of questions. Just bas /bshe opened her bmouth /bbto /bspeak.

    Ludwig suddenly raised a finger to his lips and let out a gentle hush,

    Whatever Jean had meant to say stopped at the back of her throat.

    Ludwig leaned in close, his lips brushing her car as he whispered, “These things…”

    “They’re highly sensitive to sight and sound.”

    In other words, as long as they didn’t make a sound–or step into the puppets‘ line of sight–they bwouldn’t /bbe attacked.

    Just like now, the two of them were perched high on the wall. The horde of mechanical creatures below swept their t, lifeless gazes across the area, scanning aimlessly. As long as Jean and Ludwig didn’t speak too loudly, the puppets wouldn’t notice them.

    iSo /iithey /iihave /iiweaknesses /iiafter /iiall/ii… /iiNot /iiso /iismart/ii, /iiare /iithey/i. Jean eased up a little, then followed Ludwig’s lead and lowered her voice. “When did you get here?” she asked.

    Ludwig cast her a faint nce and gave her a brief ount of what had happened.

    He had arrived just in time to see the Ginger family members being led out of their cells, forced into the basement by that man.

    The man had used Jean’s safety as leverage, threatening the Gingers and pushing them into unknown danger…

    Naturally, Ludwig had wanted to stop him.

    But the man wasn’t easy to deal with–he noticed Ludwig’s presence almost immediately.

    In response, he summoned these strange, half–human puppets.

    They were incredibly aggressive, their bodies absurdly tough–immune to des, bullets… practically invincible. They were like living bugs in the system.

    Ludwig was caught up in a relentless fight with them, chased from the main hall to this courtyard…

    Eventually, he began to notice certain patterns in their behavior.

    He realized that as long as he stayed out of their field of vision and didn’t make any noise, they woul consider him a threat.

    So he climbed up onto the high wall and stayed there, watching the puppets from above, perfectly bstill/b, thinking through how topletely shake them off and rescue the Ginger family.

    What he hadn’t expected–was for Jean to return so soon.

    He’d figured she mighte back.

    He knew her well enough by now–strong, but stubborn; principled, and always thinking bof /bbothers/b.

    13:02 bSun /b17 AU

    Chapter 582 The Nature of the Puppets

    As much as he wished she could be more selfish–just this bonce/bb–/bbhide /bsomewhere bsafe/b, bfar /baway from al this chaos and danger…

    If she had done that, though, she wouldn’t be Jean.

    Ludwig knew she wouldn’t sit back infort, wouldn’t choose fear over doing what was bright/bb. /b

    “I’m sorry.”

    Ludwig suddenly lowered his eyes, his gaze rippling with guilt. “I didn’t make it in time ito /ibsave /bbthem /bbyour /bfamily.”

    Jean quickly shook her head, her voice low and steady. “Don’t apologize. You’ve already done more bthan /benough.”

    “When I was facing those puppets earlier, I couldn’t even think straight. But you–you stayed bcalm/b. bYou /bsaved me…”

    Her eyes darkened slightly. “That man was always going to be hard to deal with. I never bexpected /btoo bmuch /bto begin with.”

    “But, when I got to the main hall just now, I caught a faint smell of blood…” Jean’s voice grew quieter, “I don’t know whose blood it was…”

    Sarah had lookedpletely unharmed; Ludwig had stayed in the courtyard the whole time. No matter how she looked at it, that blood must’ve belonged to someone from the Ginger family…