Standing at the side, Glaint felt a little nervous. He wondered if he should leave early.
-----------------------------------
Late at night.
The Tasok River trickled silently through the darkness. On the shore, Sharon came once again.
She gazed at the calm, rippleless waters, her expression serene, lost in thought.
After waiting for a few minutes, a pea vine descended from the sky. Sharon reached out and grasped it, and in an instant she was carried above the clouds.
It was still that person, the Mystic Queen. Tonight her attire was far more conservative than usual, less personalized. Elegance laced with majesty, making her look more like a princess long accustomed to high rank.
Just a glance was enough for Sharon to know that the Bernadette was in a foul mood tonight.
If she were in good spirits, she would not dress like this.
"Little Sharon, that outfit of yours is quite nice, though don't you usually prefer black clothing?"
Bernadette smiled as she studied Sharon. She still wore her small black hat, but her Gothic dress had a touch more playfulness than before.
Sharon didn't answer the question. She simply said calmly: "The Indulgence Faction's action this time, was it aimed at you?"
"Mhm. That Divine Offering also came."
Bernadette's smile faded. To be targeted by a Sequence 1 Abomination made her situation much more dangerous than before.
Fortunately, this was Backlund. That Divine Offering feared provoking a divine descent and dared not enter rashly. Otherwise, she would likely have had to pay a great price to escape from Their grasp.
Sharon's expression shifted slightly. "What exactly did you do?"
"I merely revealed to the Church of Storms that they were planning to perform a divine descent ritual in West Balam, which led to its failure."
At this point Bernadette paused, then said in a low voice: "But that alone is not enough for the Divine Offering to fixate on me. Yet He still lingers outside Backlund, refusing to leave."
"He only obeys divine oracles."
"Do you know much about this god?"
"I'm not clear. My teacher understands more, but she never told me, she didn't want me to be tainted."
"A very wise choice."
Bernadette didn't continue on that subject, not even mentioning the Temperance card.
She knew Sharon's group desperately needed it, but that was a trap laid by the Mother Tree of Desire. Even Bernadette dared not go there, let alone Sharon and her companions.
"No need to worry about my situation. I'll just treat this as a vacation in Backlund. The food here is excellent, far better than at sea."
Sharon gave her a look and said calmly: "I have never worried about your situation. What I worry about is that the Indulgence Faction might remain stationed in Backlund."
Bernadette laughed. "That, I cannot help."
"This trouble was caused by you."
"Little Sharon, isn't that a bit heartless of you to say?"
"You need to compensate me for my losses."
"So that's why you came. Go on, what is it?"
Sharon was silent for a moment before slowly saying: "I need a Weeping Infant Flower."
Bernadette stepped closer, the corner of her lips curving up. "If I recall correctly, that Beyonder material is used to prepare the Sequence 7 Briber potion on the Black Emperor pathway."
"Mhm."
"Why do you need it?"
"I owe someone a favor. I have to repay it."
Bernadette merely gave Sharon a look, not pressing further. With a wave of her hand, a wooden brocade box floated out of the void.
"Take it. What you need is inside."
"Thank you."
Sharon accepted it without ceremony, put the box away, and turned to leave.
"Little Sharon, to think you came to me in the middle of the night, for someone else. That's really heartbreaking."
Sharon stopped in her tracks and asked, "Is there anything else?"
"No."
"…" Sharon froze slightly, then left without looking back.
Bernadette watched her disappear into the distance, then raised her eyes to the stars above and whispered: "Are the stars truly watching everything?"
She was now certain that the series of assassinations she had faced from the Rose School was connected to the Son of Chaos.
The Son of Chaos's change originated from the stars above, from that mysterious meeting.
The meeting of old Outer Gods, just thinking of it made one's scalp tingle.
She dared not dwell on it further, only feeling a deeper fear of the stars.
Fear the cosmos, be wary of the moon, and remain vigilant against the stars as well.
Bernadette sighed and let go of those troubling thoughts. Better to consider which restaurant to visit tomorrow for some fine food.
…
Headache.
Dizzy and swollen, his thoughts drifting away.
Hastur awoke, clutching his head. He lay on the bed for over half an hour before gradually regaining clarity.
Last night, Greg and Hibbert seemed to have conspired to make him drink heavily. Luckily, he had Glaint by his side to shield him a bit.
With his barbarian physique, he managed to stay sober through the drinking contest without losing control.
Glaint wasn't so lucky. In the end, two servants had to carry him upstairs.
Greg and Hibbert were still in decent shape, though about seven or eight tenths drunk. They each took a carriage home to rest.
According to them, they still had to wake up early today to handle business.
"Sigh, I really need to train my alcohol tolerance…"
Hastur sighed. In noble circles, socializing was very normal, and drinking was even more common.
In order not to make a fool of himself from drunkenness in the future, he felt it necessary to improve his alcohol tolerance.
After resting for a while longer, Hastur finally got up and went to the washroom to freshen up.
The thoughtful butler Neil had already arranged for sobering sweet soup, as well as food suitable for a hangover.
After enjoying the food for a while, Hastur asked, "Where's Glaint?"
"Still resting in the upstairs guest room."
"I thought he had already gone back. Looks like his alcohol tolerance isn't that good either."
Hastur smiled, then thought of a good way to prevent drunkenness.
Now that Glaint was a pharmacist, it shouldn't be difficult for him to develop an anti-intoxication drug, right?
It just so happened that with this chance of him getting drunk, he could be persuaded to focus on the research.
Seeing that Hastur had finished eating and mostly recovered, Butler Neil came to report on the gifts received last night.
Yesterday was the day he moved into his new home, and most of the people who attended the banquet brought a gift.
Every gift needed to be recorded, so that next time when someone else moved, he could send something of roughly equal value.
Hastur closed his eyes, listening silently.
Among the gifts delivered last night, the one from Greg was the most valuable. He probably knew Hastur's family background was shallow, so he deliberately sent ten antiques to let him maintain appearances temporarily.
According to Butler Neil's estimate, the total value was at least over 5,000 gold pounds.
That was a heavy gift.
The other gifts were quite normal, all within the usual range.
Hibbert and Audrey were the same, the gifts they gave were worth around 100 gold pounds, which was the normal value of social courtesy.
Professor Wayne, however, gave him some truly good things, three treasured ancient books, not even found in Backlund University's library, essentially unique copies.
What surprised Hastur was that aside from the banquet attendees last night, he also received three additional gifts.
One was from Madam Germani. If not for Butler Neil suddenly mentioning her, he would have almost forgotten this person, despite the deep impression she had left on him.
The other two gifts had no signature, and even Butler Neil couldn't say who had sent them; they were as if they had just appeared in the pile of gifts out of thin air.
Normally, there would be people specifically recording such gift lists.
But when Butler Neil asked the one responsible last night, he swore he had not received any unsigned gifts.
Hastur instructed Butler Neil to bring those two gifts up to the study, as he wanted to personally open them and see.
He guessed that one of them might have been sent by Mr. A.
As for the other, he had no clue for the time being.
Going upstairs to the study, after waiting for a while, someone brought in the two gifts.
One large, one small.
The small gift was wrapped in a tiny light-gray box, somewhat like a ring box.
Hastur first swept over it with spiritual vision, his brow furrowing.
After thinking for a moment, he said solemnly, "No resurrection Beyonder items is permitted here!"
Having set the rule, he then opened the box to see.
Inside the small box lay a crest made of both gold and silver, its front engraved with decorations of a blade and a bow.
His spiritual vision had already told him that this was an Beyonder item.
At the moment, its surface was covered with a layer of spiritual seal, tied into a cross shape with silver threads. As long as the silver seal wasn't broken, it was just an ordinary crest.
Hastur reached out to flip the crest over. The back was a black-iron color, but in some places it was faintly stained with blood.
He placed it in his palm, lightly weighing it. It was heavy, as if made from a solid piece of iron.
"The aura of war…"
Hastur flipped it back to the front, touching the engravings of the blade and bow with his fingers. It seemed as though a war was contained within.
"Even if Mr. A gave gifts, he wouldn't send something like this."
"Who on earth sent this gift?"
"He must have meant it kindly."
Although Hastur couldn't grasp the exact nature of this Beyonder item, he could feel it was even more remarkable than the bell from the Almshouse he had obtained some time ago.
After thinking for a while, Hastur put the crest back in the box, then picked up the other gift.
This gift was an iron long box, about thirty centimeters long, with a width and height of about five centimeters.
Hastur removed the outer wrapping, a golden glimmer flashing. When it was fully unwrapped, inside the iron box was actually a golden box!
The golden box had no seams at all, completely one piece, as if forged from solid gold, radiating strands of golden light.
Looking closely, it resembled more a rectangular golden coffin!
Damn!
Hastur quickly withdrew his hand and stood up, full of vigilance, his heart heavy. His intuition was fluctuating crazily.
Could this damned golden box be the thing that those Fate pathway Beyonders were pursuing?