Leonard?
For a moment, Klein thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.
However, the blurriness caused by the light wasn't serious. Since he was familiar with the other party, he quickly confirmed his previous judgment.
In the time it took to take a breath, Leonard disappeared, and the light dispersed. The valley returned to its midwinter tranquility, and the scene in Klein's dream shattered.
He opened his eyes and placed the badge he had obtained from Lanevus on the surface of the long bronze table.
Is it the real Leonard, or is it Leonard disguised as Faceless? Klein thought for a moment and tossed a gold coin.
His spirituality used this medium to tell him that it was his teammate from the Tingen Nighthawks, Leonard Mitchell!
"Is he an investigator sent by the Church of the Goddess for the gathering, or is he an avenger who is taking risks to seek revenge behind the Nighthawks' back?" Klein muttered to himself, unable to make an accurate judgment.
And without any prior information, his divination was unable to give any revelations.
After a few seconds of silence, Klein laughed self-deprecatingly and drew a crimson moon on his chest.
"Good luck to him. May the Goddess bless him."
Klein didn't dwell on this issue anymore. He planned to learn more about the details of the gathering before deciding if he should participate in it in the future and if he should warn Leonard Mitchell anonymously.
…
Baekeland, a secret room in the basement of the Steam Church.
Ikanser took off his hat, pressed down his fluffy but not soft hair, and took the first seat on the left.
Following that, he took out Arrodes's ancient silver mirror from a special pocket inside his clothes and placed it in front of him.
To his right, opposite him, and diagonally across him, there were deacons and captains of the Machinery Hivemind. They had all been summoned for a meeting by a member of the Divine Council, the Archbishop of Baekeland, Horamick Haydn.
The archbishop, who was dressed in a white priest robe, looked like an ordinary old man as he sat peacefully at the top.
Seeing that everyone was present, he looked around and said gently,
"Starting from Ikanser, tell me about the investigation over the past few days."
Ikanser Bernard combed his hair, flipped through the thick documents, and reported in a concise tone, "Yes.
"Your Grace, we are in charge of Sherlock Moriarty. After a detailed investigation and the assistance of corresponding Beyonder means, we have confirmed that he was passively involved in this matter. Before this, there was no evidence that he knew of Prince Edessak's problem.
"He was friends with the dead Talim Dumont, and he indirectly completed some of the commissions given by the prince, but that wasn't a problem. At most, he falsely reported some expenses."
At this point, Ikanser suddenly felt a little guilty. This was because Sherlock Moriarty was also an informant for the Machinery Hivemind, and the expenses he claimed here were likely exaggerated to a certain extent.
In any case, his work as an informant has been effective and excellent. It's enough to offset a lot of problems. Furthermore, he hasn't been our informant for long. The most money involved was a "split" … Ikanser slowly exhaled and continued reporting.
"Our conclusion is that he's innocent, and there's no hidden plot behind him. He once acutely sensed the danger of Red Rose Manor, but that was a typical case of wrong reasoning that turned out to be correct. What he was afraid of was internal strife with the royal family. For this reason, he had been slacking off and didn't do any substantial in-depth investigations. He had reported this to us.
"Unfortunately, he still wasn't able to avoid this incident, but he was lucky enough. The descendant of Death he mentioned was monitoring the vicinity of Red Rose Manor, and he was rescued from the desperate situation of the meteorite crashing down in time. The traces at the scene indicate that this was a very terrifying attack, and there's a high chance that it's related to 0-08."
Klein had mentioned the existence of Ince Zangwill and 0-08 in his letter. As for whether he knew the former archbishop and the Grade 0 Sealed Artifact, no one cared. This was because he had been with Aztec Eggers at the time, and it was entirely possible that he had learned of it from him. This was also the subconscious judgment of everyone.
And on the Grade 0 and Grade 1 Sealed Artifacts, the seven orthodox Churches had been reporting the rough situation to each other. The serial numbers were shared, and there were no duplicates.
"… However, we don't know everything. There are still three things that we can't confirm. First, 2-111 shows that after Sherlock Moriarty escaped into the forest, he wasn't in a hurry to leave. Instead, he stayed in place and prayed to someone. Second, when did he get to know Aztec Eggers? Third, how did he escape from the underground ruins? With his strength, it's unlikely that he could've done it. And during this process, he even destroyed the Aurora Order's descent ritual," Ikanser concluded.
"2-111" referred to the magic mirror, Arrodes.
Horamick listened quietly and smiled as though he was muttering to himself.
"Falsely reporting expenses …"
He then cleared his throat.
"No matter what, Sherlock Moriarty is a hero of Baekeland.
"If he hadn't stopped us in time, if he had felt afraid at that moment and chosen to escape, most of us wouldn't have lived to this day.
"Besides, he has also shown his faith in God and his friendliness towards us. As long as he doesn't have any major problems, we can pretend that we don't know about any of his small flaws or secrets."
"Your Grace, that's exactly what we were thinking." Ikanser heaved a sigh of relief and said, "I'm guessing that his prayers in the forest, including the ritual of blowing the copper whistle, were all methods to contact Aztec Eggers, but the effects were different and the speed was different. In such a critical situation, the only thing he could do was save himself. We deduced this from the subsequent events."
"Apart from saving himself, he could also write a will." Another Machinery Hivemind deacon teased before reporting the segment he was in charge of. "… We still haven't been able to find the underground ruins described by Sherlock Moriarty. Even with the help of 2-111, it's still impossible. As for the whereabouts of the royal family's High-Sequence Beyonders that day, we are temporarily unable to grasp it."
"… It can be confirmed that the Church of Evernight was the first to receive the information. This came from a special channel of Earl Hall, but the exact situation is unknown."
"… The Aurora Order's forces in Baekeland have been mostly wiped out by us, the Nighthawks, and the Mandated Punishers, but I suspect that they still have hidden forces …"
"… When the incident happened, Trissy, whom Sherlock Moriarty mentioned, was heading to Baekeland, but after that, no one has seen her. According to Sherlock Moriarty, she's a key figure and was renamed Trissy Cheek."
"… I'm unable to figure out how the Church of Evernight captured the Demoness of Despair and Butler Finkel. The results of divination tell me that they're still alive, but they're no longer free."
…
The deacons and captains reported the results of their investigations one after another. Horamick half-closed his eyes, as if he was thinking about something.
After more than ten seconds of silence in the room, he opened his eyes and said unhurriedly, "Do everything you can to find Trissy Cheek.
If she's still alive, give it to me.
"The Church has saints who are good at this, although they might not be as effective as 2-111.
"The monitoring and investigation of the royal family's High-Sequence Beyonders can be placed on the 'card table.' There's no need to worry too much. They've always known that we've been doing these things. This is also a warning.
"Continue the investigation of the underground ruins and inform Evernight and the Church of the Storm.
"Ikanser, ask 2-111 how Sherlock Moriarty escaped the ruins and when he met Aztec Eggers."
Looking at the archbishop and then at his colleagues, Ikanser gritted his teeth.
"Yes, Your Grace."
He sadly believed that his legend was about to spread from the few Machinery Hivemind teams he was in charge of to all the Beyonders of the Church of Steam in Baekeland.
After familiarizing himself with the process, he said,
"Honorable Arrodes, my question is, when did Sherlock Moriarty meet Aztec Eggers?"
The silver mirrors on both sides, which seemed to have eyes, suddenly rippled with aqueous light, quickly forming a scene.
Sherlock Moriarty stood in a room, watching a rat with a rotting abdomen climb a hole in the wall. Behind him was Old Kohler and the owner of the cheap hotel.
"He got to know Aztec Eggers when he completed the bounty mission. That mission was issued by MI9, and it stemmed from a coincidental conflict." Ikanser interpreted the contents of the scene.
With that said, he chose to give an equal answer, then held his breath and waited for Arrodes to give a soul-piercing question.
As expected, he saw the bright red words:
"Do you know how it feels to try your best to please someone, only to be abandoned by them?"
Th-this question isn't sharp enough. It doesn't seem like Arrodes's usual style … Ikanser suddenly felt that the bloody words on the mirror lacked the usual sense of horror. They weren't bloody enough and appeared weak.
He didn't have the time to think about why.
He immediately answered, "Got it!"
"Congratulations, you got it right." New words appeared on the surface of the silver mirror, and the color turned white.
…
5th January, 9 am.
With a gray scarf wrapped around his neck, Klein arrived at Rose Pier with his suitcase and cane.
The White Agate was anchored there. Compared to humans, it was abnormally large. It was said that it could carry hundreds of passengers.
It had the rich characteristics of this era. The chimney and the sail stood side by side, and there were twelve cannons and corresponding cannon positions on each side of the ship. This was necessary to guard against pirates and their peers.
Under Captain Erland Kag's arrangements, the selected strong sailors and crew lined up at the gangway. Some even deliberately revealed their legal revolvers, rifles, and sabers.
This gave the passengers who boarded the ship a sense of security, and they were no longer afraid of the nine-day journey ahead.
Klein stood below, looked up, and walked up the gangway amidst the undulating blue seawater.
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