As the sky lit up, the manors along the Tussock River's north bank began to wake up amidst the morning mist.
The tall and portly Framis Cage came to the guest room where Qonas Kilgor slept last night. He knocked on the door and prepared to have breakfast with this MI9 deputy director.
However, there was no response.
Has the Brigadier General headed for the dining room? Framis Cage turned around in puzzlement and left the first floor.
After breakfast was over, everyone realized that Qonas Kilgor had vanished. Under Dwayne Dantes's lead, they headed outside the guest room and watched the land steward, Richardson, open the door with his key.
There was no one inside.
"Does Brigadier General Kilgor have a hobby of taking morning strolls?" Macht asked curiously as he pinched the two ends of his cheekbones.
Framis Cage shook his head without hesitation.
"No."
"Did you hear anything last night?" the chancellor of the Backlund University of Technology, Portland Moment, surveyed the area and asked.
Macht recalled for a moment.
"No, it was very quiet, perfect for a vacation."
Beside him, Hazel looked into the room curiously, but she couldn't think of any possibilities.
At this moment, Framis Cage raised his theory:
"Brigadier General Kilgor is an important member of the military, and he often needs to handle unexpected matters. Perhaps he had long left the manor and returned to Backlund."
This steam car tycoon was clearly trying his best to downplay the matter.
He seems to know something. Or at least, he guessed that Qonas Kilgor came to Maygur Manor for some private, personal goal... Klein listened to their conversation as he said to Butler Walter and Land Steward Richardson with a heavy look, "Ask the servants in the manor if they had seen Brigadier General Kilgor last night or this morning.
"If they haven't, send someone back to Backlund and visit Brigadier General Kilgor's family. Inform them of this matter and let them decide whether we need to immediately make a police report."
After giving his instructions, Klein stroked his white sideburns and said to Macht and his other guests, "Things aren't clear yet. Perhaps Brigadier General Kilgor left because of an urgent matter and didn't want to hold up everyone's vacation. Let's do this. We'll continue with our hunting plans and return when the police arrive."
As Brigadier General Qonas Kilgor's companion, Framis Cage had raised an excuse for the crisis, one that was rather convincing, Macht and company agreed with Dwayne Dantes's suggestion and left the area.
Hazel walked right at the back and glanced at Brigadier General Qonas Kilgor's guest room and its neighboring room. She had a nagging feeling that something wasn't right as she subconsciously wanted to use her powers as a Cryptologist to reconstruct the situation.
However, an intense sense of fear emerged deep in her heart. She had no idea what she was afraid of, so she eventually gave up on the idea.
She vaguely felt that she had some experience in such matters, and those experiences told her not to look at things she shouldn't see or listen to things she shouldn't hear.
After the guests and servants left that floor, a thick carpet that held the weight of the coffee table inside the room beside Qonas's guest room began moving.
Bit by bit, it pulled itself up from under the sofa and coffee table without causing much of a stir.
Following that, the yellowish-brown carpet stood up and revealed its other side.
It was solidified flesh!
The flesh was squirming and reorganizing itself, and it soon transformed into a person, a mixed-blood young man. This was Dwayne Dantes's valet, Enuni.
And the one following Dwayne Dantes was Qonas Kilgor. He wore the same face and had the same build!
To Klein, there was no need to disguise Enuni in such a manner. He could get him to transform himself into another person and blend in with the servants, using an illusion to interfere with their senses, making them unable to discover the addition of this person. It was a simpler and more reliable method. However, "acting" remained important to a demigod. It was key to accelerating the potion's digestion and for resisting the inclinations of losing control and madness. Therefore, Klein would deliberately try to be bizarre in his handling of many matters.
Of course, he didn't wish to harm the innocent. Even in creating bizarre and eerie situations, he would try hard not to let others notice it. It was to prevent them from being left with a mental scar due to excessive fright.
The bizarre and eerie atmosphere was mainly for himself, to gain the approval of the potion inside him. This would undoubtedly accelerate the digestion rate of his potion, but without the feedback of a spectator, it meant that the "acting" wasn't complete enough. This made the speed at which he digested the Bizarro Sorcerer potion not as fast as he imagined. Despite doing so many things and trying out so many acts, Klein didn't feel that it was possible for him to reach Sequence 3 by the end of this year.
Backlund East Borough, inside a two-bedroom rental apartment.
Xio sat on an unstable chair as she stared out of the window in a daze, her expression a little gloomy.
Fors swallowed her saliva and sat opposite Xio, blocking her line of sight.
You seem to have lost all your motivation?
"Do you not know what to do after receiving that answer? It's because you have no access to the king?"
Xio's eyes fluttered as she slowly came to her senses.
"Whether it's to redeem my father's reputation or revenge, the chances are slim when facing the king. I can't think of a way to complete something like that..."
"That's because you're too weak. When you reach Sequence 4 and become a demigod, you'll discover many solutions, the only problem is that it'll be more dangerous!" Fors tried encouraging her. "In addition, you can still use others. Just like the person monitoring Shermane. She too wanted to know who Viscount Stratford was loyal to. She must be interested in the king's secret."
"Shermane..." Xio repeated the name as her state of mind suddenly recovered.
Beside them, there was a bronze cross and a ghostly-blue gem that resembled a vertical eye on the table.
The gem's exterior had thread-like patterns, the Beyonder characteristic that appeared after Shermane's death. It made the things around it appear mild, and it accentuated their beauty. However, with the bronze cross around, its glow was confined to a small area.
"That monitor is one of the culprits behind Shermane's death," Xio said rather seriously.
They had already found a spot to bury Shermane, and Fors had flipped through Leymano's Travels to placate the dead Shermane.
Fors immediately nodded.
"Yes, it's why she was instigated to investigate the king's secret and come into contact with the latent danger.
"Didn't you say that she might be able to monitor where we used to live? We can find an opportunity to return incognito, throw a letter into the mailbox, and write that Viscount Stratford is loyal to King George III and that he has a huge secret. This way, I believe she will be able to see it."
Xio thought carefully and nodded solemnly.
"Okay."
After discussing what they were about to do next, Fors stood up and pointed at the bronze cross.
"It's time for us to show our sincerity to Mr. Fool for all the help we received. I plan on sacrificing it to Mr. Fool now. You don't have any objections, right?"
"No," Xio replied without hesitation.
Maygur Manor. It was another evening. The news sent back by Qonas Kilgor's family was to wait since this MI9 deputy director often acted in such ways, involving himself in matters of national security; therefore, Macht and company didn't panic. They made use of the animals they hunted and roasted them over a bonfire at a party on the lawn behind the manor.
Seeing the gentlemen roll up their sleeves and busy themselves around the roasting rack, the ladies heading over to help from time to time, and the children running around eagerly, Klein held a cup of sweet white wine—a fine product of Maygur Manor—and sat on a white wooden chair, a smile suffusing his lips.
Beside him was his mixed-blood valet, Enuni, who stood upright while awaiting instructions.
And inside a particular room in the manor's main building, a pair of eyes were silently looking down. It belonged to a person who looked identical to Enuni.
The evening breeze blew past. Just as Klein was about to get up and showcase what it meant to roast meat from Desi at the roasting rack, he suddenly saw a figure phase into existence in front of him.
It was Arianna who wore a simple robe and tree bark as a belt.
This servant of Concealment looked at Dwayne Dantes and said, "There was nothing special in the underground ruins..."
"She" then recounted the main points of what "She" and the three archbishops saw, as well as the explanation given by Prince of Sonia, Grove Augustus.
That doesn't make sense... The first thought that appeared in Klein's mind was suspicion.
As Viscount Stratford had Saintess of White Katarina provide him with assistance, this clearly meant that the king's faction hadn't completely severed ties with the Demoness Sect.
Under the premise that the Great Smog of Backlund had already happened, their continued relationship with the Demoness Sect meant that it wasn't something that could be explained as hoping to keep the Blood Emperor's ruins for themselves
With such in-depth cooperation, would the Demoness Sect and Psychology Alchemists not wish to split the spoils?
In that case, why wouldn't they directly seek the help of the three Churches?
Klein instinctively believed that the problem with the ruins hadn't truly been discovered. He suspected that there had been a leak during the entire process, allowing the king to make preparations.
With Ma'am Arianna around, the possibility of discovering something amiss via the methods of divination and prophecy can be eliminated...
From my killing of Qonas Kilgor to the three Churches' joint operation, the number of people who know of it doesn't exceed ten. Furthermore, they all involve the high-ranking members of each Church. How is it possible that there was a leak...
Viscount Stratford's problem resulted in the people in the ruins deploying contingency plans? No, his standing wasn't at that level. Even Qonas Kilgor didn't know the exact situation, much less him. He was only in charge of liaising with the Demoness Sect and handling matters at the periphery. He might not even know of the underground ruins... Klein's thoughts raced as he sought the reasons.
He first eliminated the possibility of them being prepared due to Viscount Stratford; after all, the death of the captain of the royal guards wasn't that important or crucial.
As such, there were very few possibilities that could explain the situation. One, a person who knew of the secret amidst this sequence of events had deliberately or unintentionally leaked the matter due to particular reasons. Two, they had noticed something wrong with Qonas Kilgor's seemingly ordinary state, but Klein didn't notice anything.
The Psychology Alchemists are in cahoots as well... Could my thoughts be read and the secret revealed? But I have the gray fog augmenting me. No matter what, there will be some abnormality. It's just like when I faced that Spectator demigod with Anderson... The Psychology Alchemists originated from something Hermes left behind... Hermes is... As he thought about it, Klein's eyes suddenly widened.
He instinctively stopped himself from thinking deeper about it as he shot a look at Arianna and relaxed. He asked, "Is this place concealed?"
"Very," Arianna replied calmly.
People behind "Her" came and went, but no one noticed "Her."
Klein exhaled as he formulated his thoughts.
Emperor Roselle once said in his diary that the members of that ancient secret organization are all important figures... Then, could it be possible that one of the high-ranking members of the three Churches is a member of the Twilight Hermit Order?
And could it be that the ruins which Arianna and the archbishops saw wasn't the real one, but one "imagined" by Adam?
