Instead of heading for the university, Richard and Cindy drove directly to the storage facility where the motorbike had been kept before.

"I expected you to have a storage building or garage... why would a rich man use a storage container... no, why the hell would you store stuff in such a place?"

Cindy complained while following Richard through what could only be described as a junkyard- no, they were literally in a junkyard.

"A building is traceable, a garage even more so, moreover, those places are obviously going to get hit by scavengers and criminals"

"So a junkyard is safer?"

The place where Richard brought Cindy was not the high class storage units that are available to even the poorest of individuals. Instead, the place where Richard brought her was an abandoned junkyard far outside the city limits.

"The city secretly dumps trash here, the owner is an overseas businessman whose permits are stuck in the city hall, likely forgotten since the man was unwilling to pay the bribes."

Unlike other small countries where every piece of land is monitored by the government, the US is quite lax in its handling of properties.

Properties within city limits are heavily monitored while those in the outback that spans hundreds of acres are also mapped properly.

But a small property that’s barely 1 acre? Moreover, one that used to be a junkyard but has been bought out?

The city would rather keep the property in limbo, this way development halted indefinitely. They could then impose taxes and other fees while also adding in some "nuisance fees" for the "pollution" the property brings to the city.

Of course, the City would only inform the poor slob who owned the property about the mountain of fees. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

In terms of enforcing anything? So long as the man doesn’t sue the city, the council would just ignore the junkyard.

It was too far from the city to be a problem and nobody would go there for anything but crazy stunts. Maybe the junkyard would have the occasional teenage visitor but there were other spots that teens would rather frequent.

Fortunately, the 80’s had long passed and teens would rather spend their nights at the club than go out drinking in a dark and stinky junkyard.

All Richard did was create a fake businessman, made him go through the corruption and get stuck in the bureaucracy. Then all he had to do was stash things secretly in the junkyard.

"On the off chance that someone does decide to take a tour of your junkyard-"

Cindy still didn’t see the logic though, it was like an overcomplicated way to go about doing something that could have been done with less resources.

"Even if they did, they won’t be able to find it"

Richard led Cindy to an extremely filthy part of the junkyard, it was a place where one could see the unsorted wastes that people threw away. The stench was worse than the smell of a sewer and all it took was a slight whiff for Cindy to gag-

"Hurk-"

Just as she was about to hurl, Cindy waved her hand and an invisible barrier that filtered out the horrid smell enveloped her and Richard.

"Wow, magic huh? Quite useful"

The two continued to walk through the maze of mounds, going around the dump for a good 15 minutes before they reached a storage container that was slightly buried under filth.

Cindy could see the signs of the motorbike going out of the container and driving out of the dump.

"How did the bike not smell?"

"Do you think I’d walk around the city smelling like shit?"

"Fair point"

Richard took out a key from his jacket and unlocked the storage locker, the moment it opened, the smell of dust and stale air erupted.

It wasn’t a foul odor making it bypass the barrier-

"Hm? It has a certain level of specificity to it huh? Is it purposeful or an accident?"

"What are you saying?"

"Nothing, now then, all the cash, gold and a few jewels are in here"

"..."

Richard led Cindy in the storage container, the spot were the motorbike was previously stored was obvious. The marks on the floor could still be seen, but the storage container did not have any lights.

Even if it was still midday, the darkness already made it hard to see what was inside the locker by the halfway point-

"Hm? What’s that?"

As she was looking through all the items, a peculiar piece caught the young witch’s eyes. At the very end of the storage container, in the darkest point, a tiny piece was shining with a bronze hue-

"Oh? That belongs to the previous owner."

Richard explained, the piece Cindy was staring at was a brass knuckle, it was quite well maintained and even after years of storage was still in pristine condition.

"I was going to throw it away but I had a feeling that it was... lucky? I dunno, I treated it like a lucky horse shoe and hung it in the very back to maybe ward of..."

Richard paused, the more he spoke the more he realized it-

"Is that a magic item by any chance?"

The explanation of the deity made Richard second guess many of his previous decisions. He thought about how he had acted all his life but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

He still tried to excuse the things he did, but the more he thought about it, the more he contemplated...

It’s like the moment when you notice a shadow pass your eyes. You think it’s your mind playing tricks on you until you feel the tiny brown bug start flapping its wings at the back of your neck- a moment that would make even the hardest of men squeal like a little girl.

But this was different...

"It’s... not right? I mean... brass- brass won’t rust because it’s a copper alloy-"

[Looking away are you? You know that brass would still corrode, you thought it was nothing more than a well maintained piece, a shiny brass knuckle treasured by its previous owner. But you’ve never touched it right?]

"..."

Richard went silent and Cindy could tell that he was likely hearing things from the Goddess so she just mouthed off about her own observations.

"My barrier blocked out the smell but this place should still be affected by the elements. Moreover, the storage container... even if it’s made to last, you buried it in rotting matter. This is worse than the salty air that it’s meant to weather through. Not to mention..."

Cindy’s explanation caught Richard’s attention as he followed along wherever she pointed and then-

"The outside is crawling with bugs but this place is surprisingly clean"

Richard turned to look outside, the moist muddy dirt was crawling with various bugs, some of the brown buggers were also there but the thing that caught his eyes was-

"Huh?"

"Oh?"

It was then that Cindy also noticed it-

"The mud was cleaned..."

The floor of the storage container that should have been filled with filth was surprisingly clean. The dust build up did not change, the foot prints in the dust was also still there-

But there was a lack of mud...

"How did I not notice it before?"

[Willful ignorance, when you see a cockroach in your home, you expect there to be hundreds if not, thousands more. Yet you barely see any scurry about save for the special flying bugger who gets in your face once in a blue moon]

Richard pondered over the words of the Goddess.

Now that he thought about it...

"This container was buried in waste... it should have collapsed ages ago"

It was a stupid idea but one that worked and he just ignored it since Richard took it as "if it works don’t stress about it". But now that he thought about it-

"These storage containers... they could be stacked together by properly aligning the posts... the walls and roofs of the containers could barely carry any mass..."

[Yet they stood strong despite being buried underneath tons of organic waste]

"That’s-"

Organic waste... even if the containers were made to endure through corrosion, prolonged exposure was not the same as what they were built to withstand.

Wind, rain and salty air was different from being soaked in rotting fluids 24/7...

"Those brass knuckles..."

Richard turned his attention to the inconspicuous pair of brass knuckles, they were hung up for good luck but now-

[Quite a special piece, if Cindy didn’t notice it I would have spoke out]

"What are those?"

Now that he was aware of the supernatural and that some things are more fact than fiction. Richard did not try to turn his eyes away, he fully dived into the mystery but-

[You really are lucky huh? You’ve had an artifact with you all this time. Moreover, that one’s quite powerful, a total of 4,562 souls are bound to it]

Hearing the explanation, Richard couldn’t help by exclaim-

"Souls? Binding? Necromancy?"

But his guess was somewhat off-

[Necromancy is a work of fiction, that there is a standard tool for invocation]

"INVOCATION? Using souls for magic... isn’t that necromancy?"

[Boy, do you think everyone in the world has magical blood? That all those that practice mystical arts have the blood of a mystical being?]

"..."

Richard went silent, it didn’t take a genius to understand what the Goddess meant.

[The will of a single individual could not affect the rules of the world, but thousands could create an emperor. What you see right there is an application of such concept]

"So those souls..."

Richard was not a saint, he was not someone who would cry for people he didn’t know but- despite all that... he was still human.

If someone told him that the brass knuckles gained magic after being used to kill millions of people, babies- whatever- he could still stomach it.

But- there was a difference between a tool being used to kill and a tool binding the deceased.

The former makes the tool an item of cruelty while the latter turns it into a literal torture chamber.

[Don’t lose yourself to such a mundane thing now, if you think having thousands of souls bound to an item as a magical catalyst is bad... then you wouldn’t be able to get through knowing "how it’s made". Even more horrific are the experiments that various mystics use to achieve immortality]

"Tsk..."

Richard took in a deep breath, fortunately, the barrier that Cindy made was still on. But that did little to calm his mind.

Sometimes... genius was truly harmful.

Others may have been able to avert their eyes but Richard was unable to do the same. His mind had already connected dots and created theories... ideas.

To others, "Binding souls to an item" and "horrific methods" would only lead them to think, "that’s bad". But Richard was unfortunately the type who wanted to know it all, he was the type to question even the most basic things to ensure that what he was seeing- was right.

It was an instinctive thought process that brought him success but now-

[Your ideas are close but still too tame]

"What?"

<hold the items in your hands... well, you might need it soon though so better get used to the shock>

"Huh?"

Richard did not know when or how but the Goddess had manifested herself already and the pair of brass knuckles were already presented to Richard.

Looking at the pair of shiny brass knuckles that he had played with before... Richard couldn’t believe that they were magical.

If they were... why didn’t they react- no, he knew why... he already knew it.

Without even needing to touch the brass knuckles, the moment it was just inches from him... he felt it.

"Aauoowuuuauuu"

"Pro...protection... protection... protection...protection"

"Maintain- waaooouuuughhraaa -mai-"

Mournful howls echoed in his mind, things he had never heard before- now-

[You sensed it right? It was working purely in response to your subconscious desires. You put it up as a "good luck charm" in order to "protect and hide" this secret storage]

"..."

[Now then, it’s time for you to make proper use of these things]