Chapter 461

Chapter 358: Faithful Fragrance

‘Oh no…… It seems I can’t gather any other useful information. Relying solely on these clues won’t help me find those human bombs…’

With a furrowed brow, Dorothy thought to herself. At this moment, she took out her pocket watch and checked the time; it was already ten forty. She had been monitoring for half an hour and apart from finding the spider from the Eight-pointed troupe, she hadn’t found any other leads. The pressing matter now wasn’t catching the mastermind behind the scenes but identifying and extracting the bomb-armed individuals from the crowd.

‘I can’t wait any longer. I must take some other measures; otherwise, it will be too late…’

As she watched the time ticking away on her pocket watch, Dorothy anxiously thought in her heart. Continuing to eavesdrop and waiting for Sado and his team to expose themselves was essentially a passive act leading to their demise. With only a little over an hour left, they needed to act immediately.

‘But the problem is… The current intelligence isn’t enough for me to locate the human bombs in the crowd. How should I proceed? Should I try to alert the surrounding hunters to end the party and disperse the crowd? But what if that directly provokes those individuals to detonate the bombs?’

In this way, amidst the celebrating crowd, Dorothy rubbed her chin, pondering the solution to her current predicament. Just then, there was a new development on the stage of the party.

At this moment, after the acrobatic performance concluded, the actors took their bows and exited amidst applause. The neatly dressed host walked back onto the stage once more, smiling at the audience below. After the applause died down, he loudly addressed them.

“Thank you very much to the young performers of Dos Circus for their wonderful show. They truly live up to their reputation as one of Tiwian’s most renowned acrobatic troupes. What did everyone think of their performance?”

The host shouted to the audience, who all cheered in approval. Seeing this, the host continued with a smile.

“Yes… It was great. The clown performances from the Odd-Face Circus were delightful, and the mime shows from the Gogo Theatre were equally impressive. The skills displayed by the young performers of Dos Circus were also excellent. For tonight’s party, Princess Isabel has invited the finest actors from across Tiwian to perform.

“Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps the previous outstanding performances have already delighted you. However, let me tell you that the greatest surprise is yet to come. Princess Isabel mentioned that she has prepared a surprise for tonight’s party, and now I am honored to reveal its true form. Please welcome one of the most charming women in Prilt, the brilliant dance star, the brightest ruby of Tiwian—Miss Adele Briouze!”

The host announced energetically from the stage, extending his hand towards the stage curtains. As the orchestra played melodious music, the large curtains slowly opened, revealing a red figure leaping forth.

The vivid red dress adorned with sparkling jewels bloomed like a rose as the graceful figure twirled, her slender arms wrapped in dark silk gracefully moving. Her light steps danced like cranes continuously stepping on the stage. This dancer, wrapped in a crimson ribbon, gracefully moved under the spotlight.

Under the host’s announcement, Adele led her dancers from behind the curtains to the front of the stage. When her beautiful and alluring figure appeared before everyone’s eyes, a thunderous cheer and applause erupted from the audience, louder than any previous performance.

No one expected that Princess Isabel’s surprise would be Adele Briouze, the most famous female dancer in Tiwian. They never imagined such a big star would attend this party for ordinary lower-class citizens. When this renowned dancer appeared at the party for commoners, the excitement reached an unprecedented peak. The cheers for Adele were unceasing.

“Hey! Dorothy! Did you see? That’s Adele! It’s the big star Adele!? I’ve always wanted to see her performance, and I never imagined she would come here. It’s just unbelievable!”

In the crowd, Gregor enthusiastically patted Dorothy’s shoulder while watching Adele on stage, and Dorothy looked at the familiar figure with astonishment.

‘The princess’s surprise… is Adele? Adele actually came to participate in this party for commoners!?’

Dorothy’s mouth slightly opened in surprise. Then, she quickly realized that Adele might be able to help her find the human bombs.

‘With Adele’s abilities… she might be able to help me find those human bombs!’

Dorothy continued thinking. There was no time to waste. Immediately, she began preparing to contact Adele through the information channel and planned to send her a prayer to inform her about the complex situation at the party. During her last search for her teacher Dalena with Adele, Dorothy successfully established the information channel by having Adele pray to Akka.

Like contacting others, Dorothy pretended to pray to Akka and then prepared to send the prayer content through the information channel to Adele. However, at this moment, the system issued a warning.

‘Warning: Detected transmission obstacles set up by the target. Information cannot be effectively transmitted.’

The system’s voice echoed in Dorothy’s mind. After a moment of stunned silence, she questioned the system internally.

‘Set up with transmission obstacles? What does this mean?’

‘Detected that the transmission target has actively set up barriers to hinder the transmission. The information cannot reach the target. A forced transmission can break through the barrier, but this would cause uncontrollable mental damage to the target.’

The system explained to Dorothy, and she quickly understood the general situation.

In short, it seemed that Adele’s mind contained a psychological barrier against spiritual intrusion. Without her prior permission, anyone interfering with her mind would be blocked by this psychological barrier. This was apparently a spiritual defense measure Adele had established as a senior spiritual Extraordinary Being, preventing Dorothy from directly sending information to her mind.

Of course, according to the system’s own statement, it could easily break through this defense to deliver a message to Adele, but the problem was that it would harm Adele mentally. This result made Dorothy very conflicted. She didn’t want to harm Adele’s mental state since she still needed her help to find people shortly.

‘But… the problem now is that I need to find a way to contact Adele first before I can ask for her help. If the information channel can’t be used, I’ll have to rely on “Navigation of the Literary Sea.” But now, Adele doesn’t seem to be carrying a communication book. Even if she did, Adele isn’t like Neve or Vania, and she doesn’t usually carry my Puppet Mark. Even if I write something, it would be hard to alert her in time…’

Dorothy thought anxiously in her mind, desperately needing to contact Adele but unable to find a suitable method.

Furrowing her brows, Dorothy stood in place, nearly stomping her foot in frustration. Just then, an idea popped into her mind.

‘Right, I could do it this way… Although it might expose a bit, there’s no choice now.’

Dorothy thought to herself, then she firmly resolved her determination and glanced at Gregor nearby. Seeing him still engrossed in watching Adele, she reached into her small bag and fumbled around until she felt the magic box inside.

By touch alone, Dorothy silently opened her magic box and took out an item. Holding the item, she pulled her hand out of the bag and looked down. In her hand was a piece of letter paper, emitting a peculiar fragrance.

This letter paper was from the first letter Adele sent to the detective. Due to its strong and distinctive scent, Dorothy had suspected there might be something wrong. After reading the letter, she placed the fragrant letter in the magic box and used stone powder to remove the smell.

Now, when Dorothy took out the letter again, the fragrance remained undiminished. The instant the letter was taken out of the magic box, Adele, who was dancing on stage, couldn’t help but glance towards the corner of the audience seats. Her expression momentarily froze, and a faint smile appeared at the corners of her lips.