Chapter 63

Sixty-Three Opportunity

“Old books? Yes… We mainly buy books here, but we also rent and sell them.”

The assistant behind the counter, with a vigilant expression, answered Dorothy’s question. Dorothy continued after hearing this.

“Could you please check if you have these books?” As she spoke, Dorothy took out a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to the assistant behind the counter. The assistant frowned slightly after looking at it.

“The ‘Gospel of Glimmer’ Volume Four… ‘Rhetoric and Speech’ Volume Three… ‘Adolf’s Logic’ Volume Three… ‘Basic Etiquette’… ‘Geometry and Arithmetic’… Sis, you’re asking for quite a lot of books. I’m not sure if the store has them all. How about this: Wait here, and I’ll call the owner.”

The assistant replied to Dorothy, who immediately agreed.

“Mm, then I’ll trouble you for that.”

Afterward, Dorothy watched as the assistant went up the stairs behind the counter and headed to the second floor.

…

At that moment, on the second floor of the bookstore, an elderly bald man stood in a dim secret room. In front of him was a red skeleton altar, on which twitching flesh grew an ear and a mouth.

“So, you still haven’t met your mentor?”

Facing the bloody altar, Colif said seriously, and the mouth on the altar began to speak, emitting Buck’s voice.

“No, I visited my mentor’s dream cocoon in the Dream Realm, but the dream cocoon refused to open to me. I couldn’t enter his dream, nor could I see him in person.”

“Sigh… It seems that the preparations for the mentor’s advancement are too cautious. It looks like we can’t count on him for now.” Colif sighed, and Buck responded through the altar.

“Hmm… So we need to be more careful. Since that mysterious society can counter-divination, and since we don’t know much about their intelligence, we shouldn’t directly search for them in the city for now.”

“Then we just ignore them?”

“Not exactly ignoring them… We might use other channels to find them, such as the An Yin Bureau…” Buck continued, and hearing this, Colif showed a puzzled expression.

“The An Yin Bureau?”

“Yes, that society has revealed our information to the An Yin Bureau twice. I suspect they might have some connection that even our informants don’t know about.

“Or to put it more boldly, James has already sensed the presence of a traitor, but he can’t confirm who it is. That society might actually be secretly dispatched by James to assist him. They hide among other societies in Igewent to conduct searches against us separately, thus avoiding our informants.”

Buck continued seriously, stating his speculation. After listening to this, Colif was slightly stunned, then said.

“So you mean that the mysterious society is actually a branch of the An Yin Bureau?”

“Exactly… Otherwise, why would an outsider society always target us upon arriving in Igewent? If it’s a smokescreen set up by the An Yin Bureau, everything makes sense!” Buck said with certainty, and Colif nodded thoughtfully.

“It does seem plausible. There aren’t many rare mystical resources in Igewent to attract other societies. If that society is part of the An Yin Bureau, it makes sense. But… If James has the ability to request more personnel, why doesn’t he ask for more divination opportunities?”

“Hmph… Divination isn’t easy to request. With over eighty branches of the An Yin Bureau in each of the eighty-plus cities in Pritt, each one has its own difficult issues that need solving through divination. The divination resources are limited, and I suspect even the main bureau itself doesn’t have enough. How much do you think they can spare for the lower levels? James has to compete with over eighty colleagues, while requesting personnel is much easier…” Buck said coldly, showing he had considerable knowledge of the An Yin Bureau.

“That’s true… That makes sense. So, if that mysterious society is indeed a branch of the An Yin Bureau, how should we deal with it?” Colif said seriously, and Buck responded.

“For now, we shouldn’t make any big moves, especially not the search for that mysterious society. On the other hand, we can find opportunities to infiltrate the Igewent branch of the An Yin Bureau. If our informants within the An Yin Bureau become more numerous and eventually reach James himself, I believe we can obtain a lot of intelligence about that mysterious society.”

“Mm… That’s all we can do for now, but where can we find such an opportunity…”

Colif pondered, and at that moment, a voice sounded outside the dark room.

“Mr. Colif, are you there?”

Hearing the voice outside, Colif was startled and turned to the altar.

“Alright, let’s stop here for today…”

“Okay.”

Colif tapped the red altar lightly, making the ear and mouth revert to twitching flesh. Then he activated a mechanism, stepped out of the dark room, and closed the door. Turning to the assistant in front of him, he asked.

“What is it?”

“Mr. Colif, downstairs the customer wants quite a few old books, and I can’t find them all. Could you come down and look for them yourself?” the assistant immediately responded, and Colif snorted.

“Hmph… Always looking for books. Troublesome. Maybe I should close this shop in the future. Anyway, I haven’t received anything good in a long time.”

As he spoke, Colif walked downstairs. When he reached the counter on the first floor to see who was looking for books, he paused slightly.

In front of Colif were a young man and a girl, and the appearance of the girl made him recall something important.

‘White hair, red eyes… Could this be…’

“Excuse me, are you the owner of this store?” Looking at the somewhat dazed Colif, Dorothy asked, and Colif immediately reacted and answered.

“Oh yes, yes, haha, I am the owner of this store. May I ask which gentleman and lady want to look for books?” Colif said with a smile, and Dorothy immediately raised her hand in response.

“It’s me, sir. Could you please check if you have these books?”

As she spoke, Dorothy handed Colif the piece of paper, and Colif unfolded it immediately to check.

“‘The Gospel of Glimmer’ Volume Four… ‘Adolf’s Logic’ Volume Three… ‘Rhetoric and Speech’… Ah… These are all middle school textbooks. Miss, you really love learning. Well done. You know, I happen to have all the books you want. Please wait a moment while I fetch them. This might take some time. Please take a seat.”

As he spoke, Colif glanced at the assistant beside him and said.

“Danny, serve the guests some black tea…”

“Black tea… Understood, sir.”

As he spoke, Colif walked towards the old bookshelves and started searching for the books. Meanwhile, the assistant ran upstairs and began pouring tea onto a small table.

After filling two cups with black tea, the assistant remembered the previous signal and went to a cabinet, pulled out a drawer, and took out a glass bottle filled with fresh, viscous liquid.

Then, the assistant returned to the table and added a drop of the liquid to each cup, placed them on a tray, and carefully walked down the stairs.

Reaching the counter, the assistant placed the tray with the two cups of black tea on the counter and said.

“The owner needs some time to find the books. Please enjoy the tea while waiting, guests.”

While speaking, Colif, who was searching for books between the bookshelves, used his peripheral vision to casually observe the brother and sister standing back-to-back before the counter.

‘Unexpectedly, this opportunity came so quickly…’