Chapter 440

Chapter 347: Reply

In the northwest suburbs of Tivyán, underground at the Gale Fortress.

Inside the Anonymity Headquarters, people walked back and forth in the spacious underground hall. Beneath the high-hanging flag of Prit, the gigantic Mirror Moon Goddess Statue stood in the midst, gazing down with an indistinct expression that was hard to discern.

Gregor, who had just finished responding, stood before the huge statue, looking up at the figure holding the circular mirror form of the goddess. A strange, puzzled expression emerged in his eyes.

‘Every time I see this… it feels familiar… It’s strange, where is this feeling coming from? I’ve clearly never seen something like this before… Where exactly does this feeling come from?’

Holding his head, Gregor pondered as he gazed at the statue. Having spent some time at the headquarters, he had already seen this statue several times, yet each time it invoked a strange familiarity within him. In his memory, he had never encountered anything like it.

‘What a pity, even the people in the bureau do not know much about the origin of this statue. If I could gather more clear information, maybe I could recall something.’

Gregor thought to himself. He was quite attentive to this inexplicable sense of familiarity, so in the past few days, he had been trying to figure out the source of this feeling, reflecting on whether he had ever seen a similar statue before. However, until now, he had not clarified what exactly the source of this familiarity was.

After glancing at the statue a few more times, Gregor let out a quiet sigh and prepared to turn away. At that moment, a familiar male voice echoed in his mind.

‘This is… Detective’s response!’

Hearing the voice in his head, Gregor’s expression turned serious. He carefully recalled the whispers in his mind, and after thoroughly sifting through the contents of the voice, he couldn’t help but stroke his chin.

‘The detective wants me to recall the information about those few people, and then pray to convey it to him, especially regarding their appearances. So, praying to Akka can also convey images? What does the detective want their appearances for?’

Gregor pondered, filled with confusion. Yet despite his doubts, he still followed the detective’s orders. After swiftly leaving the hall, he found a spot to sit down, closed his eyes, and began to pray to Akka while reflecting on the appearances of his colleagues he had met not long ago.

…

In the living room of number 17, Green Shade Town, on the northern outskirts of Tivyán.

The embers in the fireplace crackled as they burned. Nearby, Dorothy, dressed in casual home attire and sitting on the sofa, slowly opened her eyes, a thoughtful glint flickering within them.

“Finally here, even more detailed intelligence…”

Muttering to herself, Dorothy sat up straight from the sofa, picked up a piece of paper and a pencil prepared on the coffee table, and wrote down the names, paths, and origins of the five individuals on the blank sheet. After a quick scan, she focused on two names.

One was Leo Cardo, who claimed to come from the North Sapsen County of Noris. The other was Wei Han Calder, from the South Laim County of Kseth.

Both of these individuals belonged to the bl**d Darkness Path, also known as the Shadow Faced Man route, possessing the ability to disguise themselves. From Gregor’s example, these individuals seemed to have infiltrated the investigation team by substituting themselves midway, using their ability to assume the appearance of the original person after eliminating them. This batch of people came to the headquarters intending to be promoted. Originally, if the apprentices disguised as Shadow Faced Men chose to become Wind Sorcerers, it would lead to trouble. Their only choice was the bl**d Darkness Path, “promoted” back to their original profession in the eyes of the An Yin Bureau.

Thus, these two from the bl**d Darkness Path were the most suspicious of being insiders; it was almost certain that one or both of them were.

However, no matter how much she speculated, for Dorothy, confirming who the insider was among them still required concrete evidence. As for how to distinguish which of them was the insider, Dorothy decided to resort to her old method: divination.

‘Among these five individuals, any of them is protected from counter-divination. Regular team members have counter-divination provided by the Anonymity Headquarters. Once they are promoted, they are officially included in the anti-divination protection system of the Anonymity Headquarters. Meanwhile, insiders are more likely to have received double counter-divination protection from the An Yin Bureau and even the Eight Pinnacle Nest.

Dorothy understood that these large extraordinary organizations have a comprehensive deflection against divination. Their anti-divination system usually revolves around a high-level entity or object, using special means to include the other members under the protection of that high-level entity, which consumes a large amount of “Enlightenment” and “Shadow” as counter-divination resources.

Once a person is integrated into a counter-divination system, any divination aimed at them will be considered a divination targeting the high-level core of the system, and lower-tier individuals attempting to divine higher-tier individuals would face severe penalties for crossing ranks, with greatly unequal resources being expended by both sides.

So, if Dorothy were to directly divine these individuals now, it would be impossible regardless. She needed to find another method to conduct her divination.

Examining Wei Han’s information on the paper, Dorothy focused her expression, allowing Wei Han’s facial image to surface in her mind. After thoroughly imprinting it, she took out a coin from her pocket and recited the divination incantation.

“Is Wei Han Calder, from the city of Kseth in South Laim County, already dead?”

After completing her incantation, she tossed the coin into the air. As it spun down, she timed it perfectly and slapped it onto the back of her hand. Feeling the drain of her spirituality, Dorothy lifted her hand to see the coin showing heads, indicating that what she had just said in her divination was correct.

“This means… the man named Wei Han Calder, from South Laim County, is now dead. The one who was in the meeting with Gregor and the others was a fake…”

Looking at the coin on her palm, Dorothy muttered to herself; Wei Han’s identity as an insider was now practically confirmed in her mind.

Yes, this was Dorothy’s method of divination. Since the insider was protected by counter-divination, she could instead divine the state of the deceased he had killed, the unfortunate individual he had impersonated midway.

Wei Han Calder, a hunter from Kseth City, en route to Tivyán for his assignment, encountered a situation similar to what Gregor faced initially. Due to a leak from the headquarters, he was targeted by someone from the Eight Pinnacle and was killed and substituted, lacking the luck that Gregor had.

Despite the An Yin Bureau having branches throughout Prit, the intensity of extraordinary resistance in many places was quite low. Divination was an extremely rare activity, and many small societies could not afford the “Enlightenment.” Thus, local branches did not have counter-divination protection; this original Wei Han was naturally the same.

Wei Han was killed and substituted before officially joining the headquarters, so he lacked any counter-divination protection, making it possible for Dorothy to divine his state. To accurately divine him and not confuse him with others who shared the same name, Dorothy specifically asked Gregor for details about their appearances. To successfully impersonate, the insider perfectly replicated the victim’s appearance onto their own face.

Knowing the name, address, and appearance allowed Dorothy to divine that person’s state. The conclusion was that the counterpart was dead, making it clear who stood there with the face of a dead man.

Having confirmed that Wei Han was a werewolf, Dorothy moved on to divine Leo. Since she no longer had any coin-like “lamp” storage, she used regular coins for her two divinations, paying for them with the “lamp” accumulated from her own spirituality.

The result was a failed divination; the person named Leo Cardo was currently under the protection of counter-divination. This meant that the Leo who had been in the meeting with Gregor was indeed the real one. He had successfully arrived in Tivyán, accepted the counter-divination protection of the Anonymity Headquarters, and chose the path of bl**d Darkness himself.

In other words, the investigation team members who had their identities swapped as part of the Eight Pinnacle’s plan were actually only Gregor and Wei Han. Gregor’s side failed, and now Wei Han had also been exposed.

‘Then… now I have the information on the insider within the investigation team in hand. When negotiating with that Ms. Misha later… I have more bargaining chips now…’

Dorothy thought to herself. Now, she was just waiting to write the invitation letter to the detective.

…

Time flew by quickly, and soon two days passed. Knowing that a letter would be sent, Dorothy had stayed indoors during these two days, quietly waiting at home.

As expected, on the morning of the third day, while Dorothy was sitting in her study reading, she heard a ringing from downstairs. Peering out the window, she saw Beverly, dressed in gentlemanly trousers and a vest, stopping in front of her house on a bicycle, shaking a letter in her hand while pressing the bike bell.

“Hey~ Detective Miss upstairs, you have a letter~”

Beverly called out with a prolonged tone. Upon seeing her, Dorothy frowned, quickly slipped on her slippers, and hurried down the stairs. After opening the door, she sternly whispered to the girl on the bicycle.

“Can you be a bit quieter, you noisy person? What if someone hears on the street!? Is there anyone who addresses clients directly like that? What happened to your confidentiality policy?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Detective Miss. I’ve sensed that there’s no one around. The people renting in this area are mostly the children of wealthy families who aren’t used to living on campus, and now they are all in class at Crown University. No one is around; only you disregard class time completely.”

Beverly said while handing over the letter to Dorothy. Listening to her, Dorothy wanted to say something but ultimately held back, biting her lip. She then reached out to take the envelope.

“The letter is delivered. I should go now. If there’s a reply, just come to my place when you finish.”

After handing the envelope to Dorothy, Beverly pedaled away on her bicycle. Dorothy glanced at her retreating figure, then turned back inside her home.

Once in the living room, Dorothy placed the letter on the table. Using Stone Powder to eliminate any odors from the letter, she then checked for extraordinary traces with the Radiance Lamp. Confirming that there were no issues, she opened the letter and sat on the sofa to read.

Just as she suspected, this letter was from the An Yin Bureau, addressed to the detective.

The letter contained many written words, but to summarize, it was a thank-you note from the An Yin Bureau for the detective’s help in returning the confidential documents. They expressed their apologies for the delay in contacting her and formally invited the detective for a face-to-face discussion regarding the rewards for the returned documents.

Since Dorothy was already aware of Misha’s intentions from earlier, she had more or less guessed the content of this letter. Naturally, Dorothy intended to arrange for the detective to meet with Ms. Misha. However, she didn’t want this meeting to happen under the insider’s nose.

Dorothy wanted the detective to communicate directly with Misha without alarming the insider, as this would enable a better discussion regarding the insider and prevent alerting them. In simple terms, because there were too many insiders in the investigation team, Dorothy wanted to communicate directly with Misha instead of communicating through the investigation team.

Now, Dorothy needed to send a reply, but she wanted it to reach Misha alone, allowing her to communicate directly without involving the investigation team. If Dorothy communicated with the entire investigation team, no matter how much information she shared, it could be leaked by the insider from the Eight Pinnacle.

Moreover, if Dorothy directly accused the insider in her letter, not to mention how direct it would be considered a ploy, it also contradicted her plan of gradually using the insider’s information as leverage.

‘The key is… if I write a reply, I can’t guarantee that it will reach Misha immediately or ensure that only she can see it, so I need to make some information in the letter accessible only to Misha.’

Thinking along these lines, Dorothy had an idea. She first went upstairs to her study and used the typewriter to draft a regular reply. The contents of the reply stated that the detective was willing to meet with the An Yin Bureau, but the time and place needed further discussion.

After typing the reply, Dorothy took an envelope from her drawer and placed the letter inside. Then, she laid the envelope on the table and took out a feather pen from her magic box.

This feather pen was found in the ruins of the Star Number Repair Association beneath Crown University, capable of writing General Language by consuming “Enlightenment” spirituality.

General Language could be recognized by anyone; the writer could encrypt the content so that only specific categories of people could see it, and the General Language in the ruins of the Star Number Repair Association was set so that only “Enlightened” extraordinary beings could read it.

“This document is to be seen only by Misha de Blanca…”

Holding the feather pen, Dorothy murmured as she set it up. She then began writing on the blank envelope.

“Dear Ms. de Blanca, I take the liberty of reaching out to you in this manner, as there are prying eyes around you, and the entire Anonymity Headquarters is under heavy scrutiny. Therefore, I must ensure that the content of this piece can only be seen by you. The contents in the envelope are merely superficial; what I truly want to discuss with you is on the envelope…”