That afternoon, with nothing better to do, Edward gave another two-hour online lecture to the believers on the Rorsted Archipelago.
After several consecutive days of teaching, his potion was steadily digesting, and the date of his next return to the Harry Potter world was drawing closer.
"Almost forgot—before I go back, I still have to make a trip to Bernadette's Emerald City."
He immediately wrote a letter, sending it via Phoenix, informing Bernadette that he would be arriving in two days. If nothing unexpected happened, by then his potion should be fully digested.
Once he advanced to a Sequence 4 demigod, his spirituality would increase dramatically. By that point, he might even be able to directly consume Sequence 2—or possibly Sequence 1—powers. That would be a truly legendary upgrade!
And yet, Edward didn't feel much joy. The matter of "Adam's death" still weighed heavily on his mind, a looming pressure like an oncoming storm. The worst part was—he couldn't do anything about it.
At times, he even considered offering a sacrifice through Klein again to travel to the Forsaken Land of the Gods, just to ask face-to-face. But the thought of that fraud Amon, and the ambiguous attitude of the "Adam-Creator," made him abandon the idea—no need to deliver himself to certain death.
Just then, Edward's spirituality stirred. From the Sea God's Sceptre came a certain kind of prayer—different from the mindless praises of the Rorsted natives. This one carried a clear intent to communicate.
It was the Resistance with news: they had located Roy King, in Bayam's Governor's Mansion.
Edward froze. Didn't I just go to the Governor's Mansion this morning to check? Was my earlier divination wrong, or did Roy King only get taken there after I left?
Either way, he'd have to make another trip.
———
Bayam, Governor's Mansion Dungeon.
Klein sat facing the two men before him, keeping up a cold and aloof façade.
He had already learned their identities from Secretary Lueran the moment they arrived: the bespectacled, scholarly one was Roy King of the Life School of Thought—the very man mentioned the previous night—and the pudgy fellow was his disciple.
This fatty…Klein thought, He really does seem like that Apothecary I met at the Beyonder gathering. What's he doing here in Bayam?
From their brief encounters before, Klein felt that although this chubby apothecary had a sharp tongue, his heart was good. Maybe he could even be considered a decent person? If that was the case, then the teacher who trained him probably wasn't some great villain either.
Which meant, from the looks of this incident, Admiral Amyrius—aka himself—was playing the antagonist. But why had this "antagonist" arrested them?
Amyrius's records hadn't mentioned anything about it.
Fortunately, from his time playing Mr. Fool, Klein had accumulated plenty of experience in such situations. Hands clasped behind his back, he looked down from above at the master and disciple, speaking in a calm voice:
"Talk."
Talk about what? The chubby apothecary, Darkwill, blinked in confusion, quickly turning to his teacher for help.
Roy King, however, met Klein's gaze evenly.
"I've already given the item to my teacher. Didn't you search us already?"
Item?
What item?
Klein very much wanted to ask, but couldn't without breaking character.
Instead, he naturally turned to look at Lueran. The blond secretary stepped forward respectfully.
"Admiral, we have indeed searched them, as well as the nearby areas where they might have hidden anything. All suspicious objects are here."
He placed a box before Klein.
Klein's mind stirred. From Lueran's tone, it seemed even he didn't know what exactly Amyrius was looking for.
"Oh, and according to our later investigation, Roy King's disciple previously had a pet owl. When we captured them, we didn't see it."
Klein nodded and cast a cold look at the chubby apothecary. Behind his back, his left hand quietly took on a golden sheen—
The "Creeping Hunger" switched to the Interrogator's soul!
Two sparks of lightning flickered faintly in the depths of his eyes, perfectly overlapping with the image of the chubby apothecary in his sight. With the soul-level pressure from "Psychic Piercing," Klein truly appeared to be Admiral Amyrius as he asked in a deep voice:
"Where is the item?"
The chubby apothecary shuddered, feeling as though a sharp dagger was pressed against his spirit, ready to stab at any moment. The words slipped out instinctively:
"It…it…"
But before he finished, he clamped his hands over his mouth, panicked, looking at Roy King—only to see his teacher give a nod.
"Go on. You can't hide it."
The chubby apothecary exhaled in relief.
"My pet owl took it…but…I don't know where it flew off to now."
Klein looked toward Lueran. The secretary immediately understood.
"I'll have the entire city searched at once."
"Mhm. Lock them up for now."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
At a wave from Lueran, several soldiers escorted the pair back to their cells. Against ordinary soldiers, a Sequence 5 Winner like Roy King could easily break free—but he offered no resistance at all. He had no desire to provoke a demigod's wrath..
If Klein knew what Roy King was thinking right now, he'd definitely give him a thumbs-up: Good thing you didn't resist. The moment you did…heh~ you'd have been delighted to discover I'm a total paper tiger!
Klein carried the box into a room, opened it, and found only a few bottles and jars, several dozen pennies so small even he wouldn't bother picking them up, and a handful of nuts—none of which contained any trace of mystical power.
Although he didn't think the chubby apothecary had been lying earlier, he still performed divination on each item in turn, and again found nothing suspicious.
"Hiss—"
Klein rubbed his temples. Whether or not he found what Admiral Amyrius was after, he could live with that—but at the very least, he had to know what the admiral was looking for. Otherwise, who knew if a single wrong answer would blow his cover?
"The item's not here. Store it away for now."
After giving that order to the waiting Lueran at the door, Klein left the holding cells ahead of him.
As soon as he returned to the study's doorway, a beautiful young lady in a casual house dress came over to greet him. She was in her early twenties, exuding a woman's grace yet still holding onto traces of girlish charm—Amyrius's mistress.
Klein's nerves immediately tightened. More often than not, the person who knew you best was your pillow-side companion; they knew you down to how many moles you had on your backside, and naturally had an even clearer grasp of your every habit.
"Admiral."
She stepped forward, apologetic. "I'm sorry I couldn't come keep you company last night."
Suppressing his inner unease, Klein let a smile appear on "Amyrius's" otherwise stern face. "It's fine. Just focus on resting these next few days. I've had the rats nearby taken care of, so you don't need to be afraid anymore."
"Thank you, Admiral." She nestled into his arms, tiptoeing so her cheek brushed his, and whispered with a smile, "I knew you'd treat me well."
She then looped her arm through Klein's, walking into the study together. "Admiral, the people who came to the Governor's Mansion yesterday to catch rats—who were they?"
"I'm not sure either. Lueran found them."
"Oh."
She helped Klein sit on the sofa, then stepped behind him. Her soft fingers rested lightly on his scalp, sending a pleasant, tingling numbness through him.
Tsk. Testing the old bureaucrat with this, are we?
Klein closed his eyes and began to enjoy the massage.
"Admiral, are you okay?"
"Mm."
"You've seemed more stressed lately."
"It's manageable."
"Too bad I can't help you."
"This is more than enough."
"Admiral…"
Her fingers slid down along his cheek, gently stroking it. Leaning forward, something soft pressed against the top of Klein's head. "I want…to have a child with you."
"…"
Klein's eyes snapped open after barely having closed them. He took her hand and said evenly, "Fine."
"Really?" She brightened instantly.
"But you'll have to wait until after this period. You can tell I've got important matters to handle right now."
Her smile faltered, lips pouting. "But you said that six months ago."
Uh.
Klein was speechless. It seemed the real Amyrius simply had no intention of having a child with her. Still, he smiled faintly. "This time for sure."
"But—"
Before she could finish, Lueran came rushing in, visibly flustered. "Admiral! Those two people—we've just had them snatched away!"
"What?!"
Klein shot to his feet. "Take me there!"
Ignoring the mistress's wistful expression, he followed Lueran out of the study at a brisk pace.
The girl watched "Amyrius" leave, then sighed softly. "Ah…Great Mother Tree of Desire, what should I do?"
When she'd woken that morning, she found her necklace missing. She'd searched the entire room without success, and she knew perfectly well that with her status, no one except the Admiral himself would dare enter her room without permission—no one from here, anyway.
And yesterday, there had been several "outsiders" in the mansion catching rats. Could it be… while she was dozing off, those kids had snuck in and taken the necklace?
Once the suspicion took root, she couldn't shake it. The so-called distrust-your-neighbour-over-a-missing-axe was nothing more than this.
"No…that necklace was a gift from the Great Mother Tree of Desire, to help me bear the Admiral's child…I must…I must get it back."
Muttering to herself, she left the study and headed toward the gates of the Governor's Mansion.
———
What did Isabella truly want?
For the other children, Lilith had figured it out long ago—they simply wanted to be fed, to be warm, to have a place to stay, and to never wander the streets again.
But Isabella?
What she wanted seemed to go beyond that.
When the house collapsed, the other children had cried because they were afraid—afraid of becoming vagrants again, living day-to-day without security.
Isabella hadn't cried. Instead, her emotions carried a trace of despair, as if…a dream had finally ended, and she was being forced to face reality again.
Lilith had seen and felt all of this with her own eyes—this wasn't an ability per se, but rather something she'd gained upon becoming an Instigator: a heightened sensitivity to shifts in others' emotions, allowing her to better manipulate them.
So…why did Isabella despair?
She had taken Lilith and Alisa along, done everything she could to make sure they never went hungry, shared a run-down house with them, and insisted that every meal be eaten around a table with plates laid out—striving to create the feeling of a home.
So, was it that what Isabella truly wanted…was a home?
———
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