Four Hundred Sixty-Ninth Handling
Iwig, Adria.
In the morning, within one of Adria’s canal-side cafes, Dorothy and Nephnis were sitting together at a secluded table. Dorothy was drinking coffee while observing Neve in front of her. In front of Nephnis lay an open thick book. She was rapidly writing with a pen on its pages, pausing occasionally to observe the content before continuing to write.
The book in front of Nephnis was Dorothy’s “Navigation of the Literary Sea.” At this moment, she was using it to communicate with Nunut, who was far away in Tivyán. After all, only she, as the Boyle family’s young lady, could fully gain Nunut’s trust. Only she could persuade the rescued Nunut to cooperate with Adele’s work.
As time passed, Nephnis wrote more earnestly in “Navigation of the Literary Sea,” while Dorothy silently sipped her coffee and enjoyed the view outside the window. Finally, after a burst of writing, Nephnis threw down the pen and sighed in relief.
“Alright… Grandpa Nunut has been persuaded. He will do his best to cooperate with the work there.” As she spoke, Nephnis picked up the “Navigation of the Literary Sea” and handed it back to Dorothy. Dorothy, who had been admiring the boats outside, turned her gaze and accepted the book.
“Oh, it’s done already? That must have been hard work. Thank you.”
After a brief response, Dorothy took a closer look at the book, then continued, “Actually, thank you, Miss Dorothy. Without you, Grandpa Nunut would be in grave danger. I couldn’t help from so far away.”
Dorothy replied, “It’s nothing, just a small matter. Your grandpa’s notes are still in the hands of your butler at home. I naturally don’t want anything to happen to him. This is about the material for your promotion ceremony, right?”
Hearing Dorothy’s words, Nephnis was surprised. She hadn’t realized she held such importance in the Rosy Cross. To get involved in such a significant ceremony, she had to eliminate a White Chalk. She was still a newcomer to the Black Earth, worthy of such attention? Could she be on the Rosy Cross’s list for key development?
Suddenly realizing she might attract high-level attention from the Rosy Cross, Nephnis felt slightly uneasy. Meanwhile, Dorothy took another sip of coffee and said, “By the way, did you ask the butler how he got tangled up with those robbers? What was their purpose in kidnapping him? Could it be related to that scepter?”
“It’s about that golden scepter. I asked Grandpa Nunut, and he said the bandits who kidnapped him were driven here by an ancient undead. They encountered this ancient undead when they were tomb-raiding in Northern Ufeiga and were cursed. The undead used the curse to threaten them into stealing our scepter from Tivyán. Since they couldn’t find the secret room, they ended up kidnapping Grandpa Nunut.”
“So it really is related to that guy?”
Nephnis directly responded to Dorothy, confirming her earlier suspicions. This group was indeed sent by the Mound Sand Prince, though they weren’t his direct subordinates but were coerced by his curse.
‘That undead prince knows the exact location of the Neph family… It seems he sensed it when the golden scepter’s power weakened and the curse came true. His curse can even determine the location of the cursed person, which is quite powerful.
‘Given the exact location of the Neph family, the undead prince didn’t choose to come personally to settle the score. Instead, he waited for a long time and used the curse to force a group of treasure hunters to work for him. This suggests that either the undead prince fears the Archbishop’s Tiered Vision or is unable to travel far himself and thus relies on others to act for him.
‘The possibility that the undead prince isn’t free is greater. If he simply feared the Tiered Vision, he would avoid major cities where the Archbishop is present. He could develop his own forces elsewhere and send more loyal subordinates to find the Boyle family instead of relying on curses to force a few treasure hunters to come from afar.
‘So… the state of that undead prince must also be problematic. He lacks a certain degree of freedom. Even forming his own forces is difficult.’
Dorothy thought to herself, believing that with the strength of that undead prince, forming a formidable extraordinary society would be no problem. If he had several White Chalk underlings, he could immediately dispatch them to Tivyán upon discovering the Boyle family and make every effort to seize the golden scepter.
However, he didn’t do so. After confirming the location of the Boyle family, the undead prince waited for months before using a curse to force a group of treasure hunters to steal the scepter for him. This clearly indicates that the undead prince lacks the ability to form a society and can only rely on cursing some misfortunate treasure hunters who enter his domain.
Dorothy estimated that the range of activities for this undead prince is very limited. Not only can he not leave Northern Ufeiga, he might even be confined to some ruins and tombs, far from civilization. The living people he encounters are likely only the unfortunate treasure hunters who enter his activity area, such as Azamu from the Boneyard Society or the ones who kidnapped Nunut.
Having confirmed this, Dorothy felt a sense of relief. She was soon going to Northern Ufeiga herself and didn’t want to encounter such a formidable opponent. Now that she knew the undead prince’s range was minimal, she felt much lighter. As long as she didn’t run into Azamu’s group, and if the ruins she descends into aren’t within the undead prince’s activity area, she wouldn’t see it.
Thinking this, Dorothy happily took another sip of coffee. Meanwhile, Nephnis continued speaking to Dorothy.
“By the way, Miss Dorothy, there’s another thing. Grandpa Nunut agreed to give me the rest of his notes. He said that at this point, he shouldn’t interfere too much with my extraordinary path. Unlike before, he now hopes I can improve quickly.”
“He actually agreed to give you the rest of the notes? Wow… With these notes, you can focus on preparing for advancement.”
Listening to Nephnis, Dorothy couldn’t help but smile. She wasn’t surprised by Nunut’s change in attitude, or perhaps she had anticipated it.
Originally, Nunut was unwilling to give Nephnis the remaining notes because he was scared by Neph’s rapid advancement, fearing something might go wrong. Therefore, he didn’t give her anything. This mindset essentially reflected a lack of trust in the Rosy Cross.
Nunut was concerned about the quick advancement methods provided by the Rosy Cross for his daughter, and thus was uncertain about fully supporting Neph’s studies in secrecy. However, after being saved by the Rosy Cross himself, his attitude softened considerably. Additionally, the threat from the undead prince became increasingly urgent, so he naturally had no reason to hold back Neph’s progress anymore.
“Preparing for advancement to White Chalk… Hmm… It’s been less than three months since I became Black Earth, and now I’m already preparing for White Chalk…
“Hey, Miss Dorothy, although I don’t know much about the Secret World, isn’t my advancement speed a bit fast?” Nephnis, tilting her chin, curiously asked Dorothy with a hint of excitement in her expression. Seeing this, Dorothy responded directly.
“Fast? Is it fast? You’ve only started preparing for White Chalk after three months. Many people have already become White Chalk. Don’t slack off, Neph-senpai.”
“Mm… I understand.”
Listening to Dorothy, Nephnis lowered her head slightly. Watching Nephnis, Dorothy took another sip of coffee, thinking that according to Neph’s personality, once she feels she’s superior to others and invincible, she will definitely relax and likely return to her previous lazy state, not studying diligently. Thus, she needed to keep Nephnis on edge.
After all, moderate tension could motivate learning. Besides, Nephnis didn’t know much about the overall situation in the Secret World anyway. Whatever Dorothy said would be taken as truth, and making her think the average level in the Secret World is higher wouldn’t be a bad thing.
…
After finishing coffee with Nephnis, Dorothy returned to her hotel. Over the next few days, she stayed in Adria, continuously monitoring the situation in Tivyán.
After Nunut’s injuries initially recovered, it was time for him to return to the Boyle family. Given the significant attention the Boyle family’s case had drawn from the East District police, Nunut’s reappearance needed to consider the situation with the police and the An Yin Bureau.
Thus, Dorothy asked Adele for help, asking her to use zombie puppets to control two of the kidnappers’ corpses, making them pretend to kidnap Nunut again. They drove through the East District at night, deliberately encountering patrolling police.
Since many East District police were instructed to pay attention to foreigners with faces from Northern Ufeiga, the patrol stopped the car and checked inside, discovering the kidnapped butler. When the two zombie kidnappers saw things unraveling, they quickly fled, with one being killed by the police.
Next came the part where the kidnapped butler genuinely thanked the police for saving him. A significant robbery case was solved in just a few days, greatly pleasing the police responsible for the district. This was a significant achievement.
Of course, the police responsible for the case didn’t forget the secretive police officer with exceptional insight who helped solve the case. It was his accurate deduction of the old suspect’s features that allowed the patrol officers to identify and successfully solve the case. Their captain had previously contacted the An Yin General Bureau, confirming that the secretive police officer helping them was named Gregor.
Secretive police officers in Pritt could forcibly intervene in investigations involving the extraordinary after showing their identity. Gregor had previously used this right to intervene in the Boyle family’s case.
When Gregor reported to the bureau, he mentioned that he got involved in the investigation after passing by the Boyle family’s area during his vacation and finding ashes from what appeared to be burnt sigils. After Nunut returned, the An Yin Bureau sent a small team to confirm the depth of involvement with the extraordinary. Based on Nunut’s testimony and clues from the two corpses, they determined that although the gang was involved with the extraordinary, it wasn’t deeply connected. Their criminal methods involved stealing antiques from collectors and selling them to merchants specializing in acquiring extraordinary items, thereby obtaining some extraordinary knowledge and sigils. Such criminals had been caught by the An Yin Bureau before.
In the eyes of the An Yin Bureau, this gang was likely recently involved in cases abroad before coming to Pritt. The Boyle family was the first collector targeted. In Nunut’s testimony, he stated that he was originally supposed to be killed by the robbers but managed to survive by pretending to know more locations of hidden treasures, thus being spared from d*ath and instead kidnapped. He was only rescued recently.
In Nunut’s testimony, the Boyle family had no connection with the extraordinary; they were merely targeted because their ancestors liked collecting antiques. Naturally, the An Yin Bureau didn’t fully believe Nunut’s words. They conducted extraordinary detection on the Boyle family and Nunut. No extraordinary traces were found in the Boyle mansion. After removing all items from Nunut and exposing him to Radiance Lamp illumination, the An Yin Bureau confirmed he was an ordinary person.
After testing, they were convinced that the Boyle family had no connection with the extraordinary, except that they were mistakenly targeted by a gang seeking extraordinary items from ordinary antiques.
The secrets hidden in the Boyle mansion were meticulously designed by Davis. Even Atif, an experienced Black Earth treasure hunter, couldn’t find them. The highest-ranking Black Earth investigators from the An Yin Bureau couldn’t uncover them either. On Nunut’s side, Dorothy helped him avoid Radiance Lamp illumination by having him draw a Puppet Mark under his tongue beforehand. Then, Dorothy used Spiritual Threads to transmit the effect of the Veil Ring, allowing Nunut to pass the inspection without carrying any items.
After determining the nature of the Boyle robbery case, the Boyle family wasn’t overly suspected. Gregor was commended in the bureau for solving the case and exposing a criminal group with slight ties to the extraordinary in Tivyán. He received credit for his efforts. Gregor gladly accepted this credit, but what made him happier was the spoils from Adele.
After defeating Atif, most of the loot, excluding the soul bone fragments, was given to Gregor. This included a small amount of “Stone,” “Lamp,” and “Shadow” storage items. Some strange sigils like exorcism, sealing, earth listening, trap setting, and shadow manipulation. Several bottles of deadly poison. Hundreds of pounds in cash.
Among these spoils, Gregor was most interested in and studied the most was Atif’s hidden crossbow mechanism. After carefully examining the small, arm-mounted box that could be concealed by a sleeve, he discovered it could transform. This mechanism was an extraordinary item, despite its small size, it contained surprisingly many things, possibly using a similar crafting method to a magic box.
Inside, it could store and sh**t many hidden crossbows, and also eject a one-inch-long sleeve sword for close combat. Besides the sleeve sword and hidden crossbows, it even contained a grappling hook launcher, which could help users climb by catching objects. This was a multi-functional mechanism box.
