Chapter 675: Record
In a luxurious suite of a high-end hotel in Froz, Doro sat comfortably on a soft sofa, warming herself by the nearby burning fireplace while examining the golden pedestal in her hand, observing the phenomena it manifested with curiosity.
Based on her understanding and speculation about the Key of Sight, Doro attempted to infuse her “Enlightenment” spirituality into the pedestal. As expected, the golden pedestal, now devoid of its crystal carrier, underwent a change, displaying a hint of extraordinary characteristics. Upon sensing this extraordinary trait, Doro immediately proceeded to identify the golden pedestal.
“Guiding Base, capable of binding and linking multiple Keys of Sight simultaneously, combining into ‘Guiding Key.’ In the case of the base remaining, it can only read the information status of the bound Keys of Sight in the Grand Library.”
‘Can record information of the bound Keys of Sight…’
Seeing the identified information, Doro’s eyes lit up. Her earlier speculation was not wrong; items in the Key of Sight series possessed a very high efficiency of spiritual conversion. Thus, after use, the extraordinary traces left were almost nonexistent, allowing the item’s spirituality to reach a level comparable to ordinary items. This resulted in these items not revealing any special traits under common “Lamp” abilities. However, as long as they were recharged, their extraordinary characteristics would again emerge, whether this spirituality originated from the Grand Library or was conferred by Doro herself.
Now, the experimental results aligned perfectly with what Doro had anticipated; the golden pedestal exhibited extraordinary traits, and its function had been successfully identified, which was precisely what Doro desired.
“Ha… According to this identification, if the pedestal can read the information of the bound Keys of Sight, then it can be used to locate the crystals, as long as this information contains positional data.”
Holding the golden pedestal, Doro pondered this in her mind and then began to attempt using the pedestal’s functions, trying to master its usage. Before long, she successfully activated the remaining extraordinary functions within the golden pedestal, allowing her to read some information about the other crystals.
Subsequently, Doro began to analyze this information seriously. With her powerful information processing capabilities, the information about the crystals was quickly deciphered. After browsing through all this information, Doro couldn’t help but frown slightly.
The information indeed recorded the locations of the crystals, but not their real-time positions; rather, they detailed historical positions. Doro could not ascertain where the Keys of Sight’s crystals were currently located but could know where they had been in the past.
Faced with this situation, Doro couldn’t help but furrow her brow, puzzled as to why this was the case. Why could she only read historical information of the crystals from this golden pedestal while being completely unable to ascertain real-time information? This was contradictory; hadn’t the identification technique stated that the golden pedestal could know the specific state of the crystals? Why was this the situation?
“Strange… This thing can know where the crystals were before, but can’t seem to clarify where they are now. What on earth is going on?”
Frowning, Doro stared at the golden pedestal in front of her, muttering in confusion. She then decided to investigate further into the nature of these historical records.
Among these historical records, the general state and locations of four crystals were included, with the earliest recorded time being about 150 years ago.
In the earliest entry of the historical record, these crystals were together in northern Froz, in the vicinity of the Palace of the Goddess, based on the detailed location indicated. For decades following that earliest record, these crystals spent most of their time within the Palace, only occasionally wandering around Froz City and at most visiting other cities in Faraluo, but returning quickly. Based on time deductions, during this period, these crystals were likely made into necklaces shortly thereafter, worn by Queen Maria and her successors, thereby exhibiting such a range of activity.
About 110 years ago, near the time of the Cold Moon Revolution in Faraluo’s history, these crystals suddenly left the Palace of the Goddess and moved to the secondary capital, Bogut. According to historical records, that was the palace of the greedy King Robert. During Robert’s reign, due to his extreme mistrust of the Church after Charles’ d*ath, he relocated the capital here, away from Froz, where the Church’s archbishop resided, and the Light of Maria was evidently transferred there as well.
Then, during the time of the Cold Moon Revolution, the Light of Maria began to transfer again, leaving Wigit and heading far away to a certain area on the eastern border of Faraluo, where it remained stationary and has not returned to Froz. Doro believed this might be because these crystals were taken by Federico and secretly stored in a certain Dark Gold Society stronghold.
In this suspected Dark Gold Society stronghold, the Light of Maria remained for a whole century until last year when it finally underwent a change.
Around April of last year, the historical records of the Light of Maria’s crystals suddenly vanished, completely disappearing. From that moment on, Doro had no information about these crystals, which seemingly vanished from their original location.
A month after this record disappearance, the crystal records reappeared, but this time they were not at their original border location in Faraluo but had changed to another city in southern Faraluo. Here, the records lasted only two or three hours before disappearing again.
From that moment on, the documentation of the crystals’ locations began to become strange, intermittent; there were recorded hours during some days, yet most of the time, there was no record. This situation persisted for nearly a month.
A month later, the locations of the crystals began to change, shifting within cities inside Faraluo. During the transition, there were no records, but once they moved to a new city, the records would resume their previous intermittent state, disappearing entirely after a while before reappearing in another city, sometimes even going abroad to Iwig. In a few instances, the crystals even returned to Froz, aside from being taken to Bogut as well.
This sporadic and continually shifting process lasted for several months and only gradually decreased during the latter half of last year. By the end of last year, the records completely disappeared and maintained that state until now, with the disappearance occurring while the crystals were inside Faraluo and in the midst of their transition. During this peculiar period of activity, the state of the crystals seemed even more vibrant than before.
Using the historical records of crystal transitions through the golden pedestal, Doro mentally charted all the transition routes, mapping them out in her mind in an attempt to discern any patterns. However, no matter how much she analyzed, she remained puzzled, unable to clarify the information available.
‘How odd… Why would the records of these crystals appear in such a condition? Is it possible that the people from the Dark Gold Society are running around with those crystals? Why would the records be intermittent during this process? Why do the crystals seem more active during this period?’
As she analyzed the data retrieved from the golden pedestal, Doro absentmindedly stroked her chin in deep thought. She gazed at the golden pedestal in her hand, reflecting on whether the Dark Gold Society members might be searching for the pedestal now since she was in pursuit of the crystals.
After a moment of contemplation, she recalled that the records of the crystals began to show issues starting in early April of last year. If she remembered correctly, she had just been in Adria, successfully stealing the Key of Sight that originally belonged to the Boneyard Society from the Pure Flow Church. She had acquired it in mid-March, and shortly thereafter, odd reactions began to manifest with several Keys of Sight preserved in the Dark Gold Society. She wondered if there might be a connection here.
Suddenly, a realization hit her, and her brows slightly raised.
“Wait… the problems with the records of these crystals started around early April of last year. If I’m not mistaken, I was in Adria at that time, having just stolen the Key of Sight originally belonging to the Boneyard Society from the Pure Flow Church. I acquired it in mid-March, and after that, strange reactions began occurring with several Keys of Sight preserved in the Dark Gold Society. Could there be a connection between these events?”
A cascade of thoughts flooded Doro’s mind, and following this train of thought, she leaned back on the sofa, continuing to reflect until her gaze shifted back to the “Navigation of the Literary Sea” on the coffee table.
She picked up “Navigation of the Literary Sea,” opened it on her lap, flipped back to Beverly’s contact page, and began to write.
“By the way, I have another question for you. Speaking of which, does the former president of the Boneyard Society, Azamu, have knowledge of an item that can find the ruins of the Star Number Repair Association? Does the Dark Gold Society know about this?” Doro wrote on the page, and shortly thereafter, printed responses from Beverly appeared before her eyes.
“Since we know, do you think the Dark Gold Society’s people wouldn’t know? Garib succeeded in seizing power only with the help of the Dark Gold Society and was able to breach our contract due to them. Their understanding of this matter is definitely more detailed than ours. There are reports that they obtained a large amount of related literature left behind by Azamu through Garib, and given their research capabilities, I suspect they understand that item much better than Garib, that foolish brat.
“I even think the collaboration between the Dark Gold Society and Garib was fake; they probably intended to monopolize that Repair Association item from the start. Once Garib attracted the Church’s hatred by stealing the item from the church exhibit, they would find a way to double-cross him and keep the item for themselves. However, they didn’t expect you to intercept it in the end.”
The printed text appeared quickly before Doro’s eyes. After reading it, she stroked her chin thoughtfully, a look of understanding dawning in her expression. She then wrote on the page.
“I see, thank you for the information, Miss Clockwork. I’ll treat you to some fine machine oil when I get back! Which brand do you want?”
“I only drink what I make myself. If you’re treating me, just buy some high-quality ones from the market, and I’ll mix them myself.”
Beverly quickly responded in writing. After a glance, Doro couldn’t help but inwardly mock her, wondering if she was mixing cocktails with machine oil. Would mixing multiple brands cause any issues?
After finishing her mental rant, Doro closed “Navigation of the Literary Sea” and continued analyzing based on her earlier thoughts.
‘According to Beverly’s neighbor, the Dark Gold Society must be aware of the existence of the Keys of Sight. Moreover, having studied the texts left by Azamu, their understanding of the Keys of Sight is likely stronger than Garib’s. If this is the case, then all these events hold a certain possibility.
‘The Dark Gold Society knows about the existence of the Keys of Sight and likely plans to double-cross Garib after he gets his hands on them. Since the Pure Flow Church is not guarded by the Archbishop of the Red Tier in Adria, Garib would probably think he’d have it easy. However, the Dark Gold Society didn’t anticipate that in the end, Garib not only failed but was also captured by the Church.
‘Generally, at such times, the Dark Gold Society would perceive the Keys of Sight to be in the hands of the Church. Yet, the rumors in Adria state that the item lost from the Pure Flow Church was the Emmanuel Crown, something that couldn’t possibly be a Key of Sight, making the dark society suspicious.
‘Afterward, it is likely that the Dark Gold Society waited for the dust to settle before proceeding to investigate the Pure Flow Church. From the Church’s statistical data, they identified other items that were stolen alongside the Emmanuel Crown on the night Garib acted, which they never managed to recover. They also discovered records about one crystal from the Keys of Sight, especially photographic proofs.
‘Through prior studies on the texts left by Azamu, they might have concluded that this stolen crystal was the item that could find the ruins of the Star Number Repair Association. Unfortunately, they could not trace any further clues regarding where the crystal ended up during that night’s chaos, leading them to give up.
‘Subsequently, the Dark Gold Society members in Adria likely reported the information about the crystal back, and the photographs of the Keys of Sight fell into the hands of the high-ranking members of the Dark Gold Society—Federico… or perhaps others who had encountered the Light of Maria might have seen that photo and recollected the Light of Maria… If I can discern the similarity between the Key of Sight of the Boneyard Society and the Light of Maria’s crystal, then the Dark Gold Society can too.
‘Recognizing the extraordinary significance of the Maria crystal, the high-ranking members of the Dark Gold Society likely immediately ordered the removal of the Light of Maria from their storage and commenced a series of studies, explaining why shortly after my dealings in Adria and obtaining the Key of Sight, the records of the Light of Maria’s crystals began to exhibit strange phenomena. The Dark Gold Society has already started to comprehend the importance of the Light of Maria and has initiated their own research on it!’
Thinking this, Doro once again looked at the golden pedestal on the coffee table. She wondered if the Dark Gold Society members were now searching for the pedestal while she was on her quest for the crystals.
