Chapter 103

Chapter 103: Open the Door, Tribunal!

“Mm.”

Xia’er did not ask any questions, merely nodding slightly to prompt Tara to continue.

“There has always been a ‘dark pin’ around Lucy. Recently, her behavior has been strange, very much like she encountered something special… However, this also led to several believers being discovered when infiltrating, and the heterodox followers caught them.”

“Not long before you arrived, the ‘dark pin’ reported that Lucy Hilufa had sustained serious injuries and was likely on her deathbed… We can use this opportunity to guide her onto the right path.”

Tara paused briefly before continuing, “If you agree, the ‘dark pin’ will act before dawn.”

There was also a cult member around Lucy? Didn’t the Daidon Group headquarters in An Su City start internal cleansing? How did the ‘dark pin’ evade the search? Was it because they had been following Lucy on fieldwork, thus avoiding investigation by luck?

It seemed that Tara could sense something amiss about Lucy, but didn’t know exactly what happened.

“Not urgent for now,”

Xia’er spoke slowly, “If you’re going to act, you must first investigate the source of the doom… This is your test.”

Whether Lucy would develop into a cult member in the simulation didn’t concern Xia’er; she only cared about knowing the truth, no matter what means she had to use.

“Yes! Mother Goddess!”

Hearing the word “test,” Tara took a deep breath, stood up immediately, and bowed toward Xia’er, “Your humble servant will go and investigate right away!”

With that, Tara quickly turned around and ran out, leaving before Xia’er could even say anything.

About ten seconds later, the wooden door creaked open slowly, and Tara walked in, “I changed clothes, Mother Goddess…”

Xia’er had intended to remind her about the nightgown earlier.

“I’ll check the results by noon.”

Xia’er approached, patted Tara’s shoulder, and said, “This is crucial for me to regain my strength and memories.”

Sensing Xia’er’s encouragement, Tara felt energized hearing her words, even her breathing becoming heavier.

“I… I promise to complete the mission!!!”

After saying this, Tara rushed upstairs. By the time she came back down after changing, Xia’er was already gone.

Mother Goddess… left?

She stepped forward, walked to where Xia’er had been standing, took a deep breath, and raised her hands as if embracing the air.

The scent of the Mother Goddess was warm…

Even the Mother Goddess’s words, expressions, and demeanor were comforting.

Although the features of the Mother Goddess she had parsed from ancient texts differed significantly from what she imagined, given that her strength and memories were not fully recovered, she could still accept it.

To be honest, Tara preferred the current form of the Mother Goddess.

After all, the image she parsed through ancient translations was too… sacred and indescribable.

After calming herself down, Tara walked out of the room quickly and headed towards the city outskirts under the night sky.

…

At this moment, Xia’er was walking on Cat’s Eye Street. After confirming the remaining time via the system, she headed towards the Gemstone Avenue, planning to walk all the way to the Jazz Bridge District to reach Aivana’s home.

By now, Aivana was probably asleep, but Xia’er’s time was limited, so she could only sacrifice some of Aivana’s sleep time.

She needed to find Nia before the doom fell, and let Nia convey the message to Aivana in an open area, asking Aivana to tell her the residence of Prince Leopold from the royal family.

The doom could strike at any moment, so she had to cherish every second.

The shadow horse that had exhausted its energy had already dispersed, and now Xia’er could only run on her own. If she used the shadow to carry her, the speed wouldn’t differ much, but the consumption would be significant.

Tara had already assisted in investigating the source of the doom. If she survived until tomorrow noon, she might learn something from Tara’s mouth.

Having a loyal subordinate indeed brought Xia’er many benefits, at least helping her investigate things when she couldn’t spare the time.

Unfortunately, Tara was unstable, and Xia’er wasn’t ready to interact with her in reality yet.

After all, Tara was loyal to the “Mother Goddess,” not to her. Xia’er wouldn’t make contact with her in reality until she could confirm she could fully control her.

Suddenly, Xia’er sensed hoofbeats at the end of the street. She slowed down and hid her figure in the shadows of the buildings.

Who was it? Running a carriage late at night…

To avoid encountering extraordinary beings or raising suspicion, Xia’er prepared to wait quietly for the carriage to pass. But when she saw the warhorse clad in silver armor, she paused.

Was it Nia’s warhorse?

The person on the carriage was most likely Aivana.

When the outline of the carriage appeared in Xia’er’s vision, sure enough, she saw the silver armor behind the horse.

What a coincidence?

Should she ask now?

At this moment, Nia, controlling the warhorse, noticed the extraordinary being hiding in the shadows, but she made no move and intended to pass by directly.

Why were tribunal members appearing in the gemstone district? Hadn’t all the cult properties here been confiscated?

Nia whipped the horse, speeding up its pace. Inside the carriage, a hand burning with black flames emerged from the shadow beneath Aivana, who sat in the soft cushion inside, staring blankly out the window, her eyes unfocused.

She didn’t even notice a dark shadow slowly emerging from her own shadow and sitting beside her.

—

Suddenly, the carriage came to a sudden stop in the middle of the road.

A shimmering silver armor appeared next to Aivana. At the same time, the carriage door was pulled open by Nia, who grabbed Aivana’s arm and dragged her behind her, raising her sword with her left hand to face the terrifying black shadow.

“May I ask what brings you here?”

The cold metallic hum echoed from the gaps in the armor. The silver armor on Nia glowed faintly, ready to activate defense at any moment.

An enemy?

Aivana gradually reacted, lifting her gold-rimmed glasses and looking at the shadow in the carriage.

“Xia

“What?!”

Just looking at the silhouette-like shadow, Aivana couldn’t help but blurt out.

Charle?

Nia observed the shadow in front, and from this angle, the figure did seem somewhat similar… But this shadow was completely enveloped in black robes, with curly hair, which didn’t look like Charle at all.

The most crucial point was that Charle wasn’t an Extraordinary Person at all. Previously, Charle had intended to pursue the “Physician” path and started reading various papers, but he hadn’t even begun drinking potions before leaving.

But this shadow, controlled by someone at least a hundred meters away, beyond her range of perception, was at least a second-tier “Tribunal.”

Could it be that the young lady recognized this shadow solely based on its similar body type to Charle? Was her obsession too deep?

If they really found Charle’s corpse, perhaps they could contact Adelle and have her use her connections to get a “Psychologist” from the Redemption Society to help the young lady…

The shadow sat in the carriage, swinging its legs under the long robe, seemingly waiting for something as it didn’t answer Nia’s question.

After a while, the shadow extended its hand, inserting its index and middle fingers into its chest.

When it pulled them out, the shadow’s fingers already held a piece of paper. It casually folded the paper a few times and tossed it toward Aivana’s direction.

Nia caught the paper, froze upon unfolding it, and confirmed there were no special Extraordinary effects attached before handing it to Aivana.

“Young Lady, take a look, this…”

While Aivana read the paper, Nia looked again towards Charle’s direction.

This morning, she still accompanied Miss Aivana to the station to see Charle off… At that time, she was still not an Extraordinary Person…

How could she suddenly return with the ability to use second-tier Extraordinary powers?

Was this really Charle?

Nia recalled the Extraordinary person in the Tribunal’s clothes she saw earlier.

Was she Charle?

Or someone else passing on information for Charle?

Aivana, holding the note, felt her tightly-held emotions begin to waver upon seeing the handwriting and content.

[Aivana]

[I’m currently investigating the truth about the Doom with members of my organization. Can you tell me some information about Opoldusadious and his address?]

[This would reduce my workload]

[My current Doom has accumulated to a terrifying degree, so I can’t directly contact you]

[—Charle]

She gently wiped the ink on the paper, smearing her thumb and other parts of the paper.

This was freshly written…

At this moment, Aivana finally relaxed, not realizing her eyes had turned red.

Aivana frantically searched her body, took out a fountain pen, opened a small portable water-filled crystal bottle, and discarded the bottle.

She placed the paper on Nia’s back armor and began writing.

About three minutes later, the back of the paper was filled with at least three hundred words. After checking it was fine, she folded the paper and threw it toward the shadow’s direction.

The shadow easily caught the paper, waved its hand toward Aivana, and swallowed the paper, disappearing into the shadows.

Only after the shadow disappeared did Nia turn to Aivana and ask, “Young Lady, shall we still go to the railway?”

“Ah…”

Aivana looked at Nia and shook her head, saying, “No need, let’s go back.”

Once Aivana got into the carriage and it turned around, she removed her glasses, covered her face with a handkerchief, and calmed her fluctuating emotions.

…

“Clock Tower Lane District?”

At this moment, Charle, who had taken the letter from the shadow, looked at the address left by Aivana in puzzlement.

“Prince’s son, Knight Commander of the Queen’s Sword…”

Such a significant background, why choose to temporarily stay in Clock Tower Lane District? And alone, without any guards?

Although Aivana’s message seemed incredible, Charle decided to trust her.

Watching the carriage depart, Charle put the paper in his pocket and headed toward Clock Tower Lane District.

Such a distinguished person living in Clock Tower Lane District without reason.

From Aivana’s description, this person was also a third-tier “Crown Guard,” a pathway very popular among nobles.

Compared to other pathways, “Detective” was easier for nobles, especially major ones, to digest, and the subsequent “Law Judge” potion wouldn’t hinder their position advancement or potion consumption.

Moreover, when the replication ritual reached the “Crown Guard” stage, they would gain extremely strong survival abilities… For nobles, this pathway was indeed beneficial.

For Charle, if the threat was only a “Crown Guard,” it would be much smaller—perhaps influenced by Nia’s perspective.

Returning to Clock Tower Lane District was familiar to Charle, and she knew many shortcuts. Soon, she arrived at a row of connected small buildings according to Aivana’s address.

These buildings were very uniform, often divided into different rooms by landlords for rent, making them a popular choice for families of workers.

Charle and her sister previously lived in a place similar to this, though the kind landlord hadn’t split the two-story building into smaller, narrower rooms but rented it out cheaply to them.

Montagne Street, No. 21.

Standing in front of the building, Charle confirmed the address and looked to the right—less than four hundred meters away was the Clock Tower Church.

Ding-dong-ding—

Charle knocked on the door.

Soon, she heard footsteps, and someone stood behind the door, asking, “Who is it?”

“Open up, Tribunal.”

The fake identity as a Tribunal was too effective, especially with the Clock Tower Church nearby; no one would think someone would dare to impersonate a Tribunal under the eyes of the Salvation Goddess Religion.

Indeed, after Charle revealed her identity, the wooden door slowly opened.