Chapter 65

Sixty-Five Correspondence

Sitting in her room, Dorothy flipped through a few pages she had extracted from the “Gospel of Glimmer” and began reading them. With the rapid reading ability granted by the Sage, these few pages were read by Dorothy in less than a minute.

“There’s really not much… It seems that guy is afraid I’ll get overwhelmed by Poison Recognition and go mad,” Dorothy said as she looked at the pages in her hand. Honestly, she felt a bit unsatisfied with the lack of content in the secret transmission, but then again, it made sense. The Holy Communion wanted controllable puppets, not crazy girls. They wouldn’t give an ordinary thirteen-year-old girl an entire book of secret transmissions all at once.

The secret transmission Dorothy had just read was titled “The Taste of Crimson.” It described how a normal person gradually became obsessed with the spirituality of the “Cup” after accidentally coming into contact with its knowledge, eventually leading to their downfall. The author was unknown, and it was a novel-style secret transmission. Unfortunately, due to the limited number of pages provided by Colif, Dorothy only managed to read the beginning. The atmosphere had just started to build up when the story suddenly ended. The accumulation of spirituality for the “Cup” was barely one point, and the “Enlightenment” accumulation was too small to even trigger a system prompt, meaning it was zero.

“Hmm… Looks like he wants to take things slowly. Every time I return a book and borrow another, he gives me a little more. To finish this book, I guess I’ll have to borrow it several times…”

Dorothy thought to herself and continued pondering along this line of thought.

“In that case, I’ll have to interact with that guy more often in the future… Gregor can’t always be around, so I need to be extra cautious when I do. Internal Group 1020037992

“Also, after long-term reading of those secret transmissions, I’ll have to pretend to be affected by the Poison Recognition. Once that happens, I won’t be able to bring Gregor along. Eventually, if he wants to speed things up, he’ll probably try to drug me.”

As Dorothy pondered, she had more ideas.

“Now that I’ve taken in some Poison Recognition, his guard should be lower. After renting books a few more times, even if I go alone, as long as I show signs of being affected, they won’t use force against me.

“If… If I can resist the effects of the drugs, and drink them voluntarily, seeing me taking both Poison Recognition and the drugs, he might fully believe I’m under control. In that case, wouldn’t I be infiltrating their inner circle? Not only would I get internal intelligence, but I might even demand more secret transmissions.

“The key is… How do I resist the drugs of the ‘Cup’…”

As she spoke, Dorothy reached into her wallet, feeling the newly bulging thickness, and sighed helplessly.

It seemed she needed to find Audric again.

Then, Dorothy shook her head, put away the book, and took out the school uniform from her wardrobe.

…

The next day, in the western suburbs of Igewent, at St. Amanda School.

During the day, students were in classrooms receiving lessons from their teachers, while Dorothy ignored the teaching sounds and quickly walked through the school garden.

Dorothy, who had been on a spree of excessive absences, hadn’t stepped into a classroom for several weeks. Now, it was likely that her classmates had forgotten about her.

Gregor paid the tuition, while Dorothy paid for her absences. Currently, Dorothy was in a state where she was just registered for school. If this situation were back in her previous life, she would have been called to the principal’s office and subjected to parental correction, including physical punishment.

But in this era, teachers didn’t have the luxury of time to notify parents. They believed that attending school was a precious opportunity, and it was up to the students themselves whether they wanted to learn or not. Ultimately, the students were the ones who suffered the consequences. This attitude suited Dorothy’s needs, so Gregor still believed his sister was diligently studying at school every day.

Quickening her pace, Dorothy entered a small chapel from the garden and arrived at the stone coffin chamber where the school’s distinguished figures’ remains were displayed. She triggered a hidden mechanism on a carved stone knight named Audric, causing the heavy lid of the stone coffin to open with a loud noise, revealing a concealed passage underneath.

Dorothy entered the passage and followed the stairs down to the basement of St. Amanda School. As soon as she entered the basement, she sneezed heavily due to inhaling the floating dust.

“Achoo!”

“Oh oh oh! Miss Meyshos, it’s rare to see you come here on your own. Is there something you need?”

In the center of the basement, dressed in worker’s attire and carving a stone knight named Audric, he noticed Dorothy at the entrance and commented. Dorothy, wiping her nose with a handkerchief, couldn’t help but think in her heart:

‘Are you worried about getting silicosis from constantly carving stones down here?’

Putting away the handkerchief, Dorothy looked at Audric and said.

“I came to ask about the last question. Do you have any methods to prevent corruption, especially the corruption of the ‘Cup’ society?”

Dorothy got straight to the point and, before Audric could respond, took out 10 pounds and placed it on the table beside her.

“Hehe, looks like you’ve made some gains recently, Miss Meyshos. That’s good…”

As he spoke, Audric put down his tools and clapped his hands.

“Preventing corruption… For Poison Recognition, there’s no need to say anything; just follow the full process of resisting Poison Recognition. I believe Miss Meyshos is already clear on this. As for drug corruption… it can be solved using the method of fighting poison with poison.”

“Using poison to fight poison?” Hearing Audric’s words, a hint of doubt appeared on Dorothy’s face.

“Yes… Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. It should be more precise to say neutralization through spirituality. Well… what I’m about to say will slightly exceed the scope of your previous questions, so add…”

“Slap!”

Before Audric could finish, Dorothy expressionlessly slapped another 10 pounds on the table. Seeing this, Audric continued smiling and said.

“Haha, straightforward… Then let me continue. You may not know this, but there are mutual correspondences among the six spiritualities. For example, ‘Lamp’ corresponds to ‘Shadow,’ ‘Cup’ to ‘Stone,’ and ‘Enlightenment’ to ‘Silence.’

“Mutually corresponding spiritualities generally exhibit a mutually restraining oppositional relationship. The most typical example is the opposition between ‘Lamp’ and ‘Shadow.’ In many fields, these two are the strongest restraints on each other. Although the antagonism between ‘Cup’ and ‘Stone’ isn’t as strong as that between ‘Lamp’ and ‘Shadow,’ they still have a mutual restraining relationship.

“Often, ‘Cup’ and ‘Stone’ can neutralize each other. The reason why drugs made with the spirituality of the ‘Cup’ can make people addicted is because ‘Cup’ represents intense biological desires on a spiritual level. By stimulating these desires, the drugs of the ‘Cup’ can make people unable to stop once they start, becoming lifelong dependents.

“On the contrary, ‘Stone’ represents stubbornness, restraint, rigidity, inflexibility, and refusal on a spiritual level. Therefore, drugs made with the spirituality of ‘Stone’ can neutralize the influence of ‘Cup’ drugs.”