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Horamick had a very gentle and kind face, looking like a highly learned elder. At this moment, he also showed no trace of anger. He withdrew his gaze, looked around, and said, "Moreover, there was more than one person here last night; there were at least two, divided into two opposing sides."
"One of them might even have a higher Sequence than I do, but the other side strangely escaped."
"Although I cannot restore the complete scene, some things can still be 'seen'."
"Things are more complicated than we imagined."
Speaking of this, he handed the silver mirror in his hand to Deacon Ikanser Bernard, who was beside him, and then sighed, "I also know why they stole the bookmark. We have been deceived by Roselle for over 150 years."
"There's no need to ask about the bookmark's whereabouts anymore. You can ask who the opposing parties were."
Ikanser Bernard's brown hair was always messy, stubbornly sticking out, and even the hat he wore couldn't hide it.
He took the silver mirror with a slightly stiff expression, nodded, then, unwilling to give up, looked back at his teammates behind him who were lowering their heads, pretending not to hear. He sighed and, resignedly, raised the silver mirror in his hand.
He looked at the silver mirror in his hand, stroked its surface three times with his right palm, paused for two seconds, and Ikanser took a deep breath, saying in a deep voice, "Respected Arrodes, my question is, who were the participants in the events that just occurred in this place?"
The surrounding Darkness suddenly became hazy, and ripples of water light spread across the silver mirror's surface.
Soon, a scene emerged within the silver mirror:
In Roselle's restored study, thick green pea vines hung everywhere, and bloodshot eyeballs emerged from black cracks.
The figure of a lady appeared, dressed in a white shirt with lace and ribbon flowers on the upper body, beige trousers, black leather boots, and an old-fashioned black soft hat. Opposite her was a phantom figure, so blurry that only a vague outline could be seen.
As the water light fluctuated, and the Machinery Hivemind team members were about to see the next scene, the original image suddenly disappeared and no longer reappeared. The few people looked at each other, utterly bewildered.
Just as Ikanser was about to ask for the opinions of his teammates and Archbishop Horamick, several lines of blood-red ancient Feysac words suddenly appeared on the silver mirror:
"According to the principle of reciprocity, it is my turn to ask."
"If you answer incorrectly, or lie, you will be punished."
These lines were blood-red, as if still dripping liquid!
As a deacon who frequently used Sealed Artifact "2-111," he clearly knew that this mirror had living characteristics and a considerably high level of intelligence.
And from the color of the font alone, he felt the mirror's anger. Unaware of the reason, he merely attributed it to the Sealed Artifact's occasional madness.
Ikanser's expression first distorted, then became extremely solemn.
Immediately after, water light shimmered on the silver mirror, and a new line of blood-red words appeared:
"Who is the object for whom you gave your all, tried your best to please, but only received the outcome of being discarded?"
Ikanser was stunned, feeling all of his teammates' gazes on him, and even the kind-faced Archbishop Horamick inadvertently glanced over.
With a buzzing sound, Ikanser's face first lost its color, then turned crimson.
This question both pierced a hidden wound deep within his heart and left him at a loss.
If he said who it was... Ikanser swallowed hard, imagining the possible scenarios, closed his eyes in pain, and said in a desolate tone, "I choose punishment."
A bolt of lightning immediately struck, but unlike before, it was no longer silvery-white; it was tinged with a hint of blood-red.
It struck Ikanser directly on the head, making his hair stand on end and reflecting the color of the lightning.
He shook violently like rolling dice, as if he had been given a hallucinogenic drug.
Archbishop Horamick sighed, closed his eyes, recalling the previous scene, and muttered to himself, "Queen Mystic Bernadette, and a phantom, eerie figure."
Max Livimore, the captain of the Machinery Hivemind squad, looked at Deacon Ikanser, who was still trembling, with a clear struggle in his expression, but ultimately stepped forward.
After all, regardless of whether a high-Sequence powerhouse had acted, the Church had lost an important item this time, and he was largely to blame. He was also willing to contribute to the investigation.
Taking the mirror from Deacon Ikanser's still trembling hand, Max stroked its surface three times with his right palm, paused for two seconds, swallowed with difficulty, and said in a deep voice, "Respected Arrodes, my question is, who exactly was the phantom figure in front of that lady just now?"
As soon as he finished speaking, no text or image appeared on the mirror's surface. A silvery-white bolt of lightning materialized out of thin air and struck Max's head.
Zzzzz, Max's hair stood straight up, and his body fell with a thud, with some black smoke rising from him.
However, the mirror did not fall with him; instead, it floated up on its own and landed on the table.
Shouldn't it display the image first, then answer the question, and only then punish? The surrounding Machinery Hivemind squad members looked at each other, bewildered, and hastily helped their captain to a nearby chair.
After two seconds, Max shakily stood up, leaning on the chair, trembling and gasping for breath.
Archbishop Horamick's eyes narrowed. He beckoned and drew the silver mirror to him, questioning it personally, but the silver mirror no longer reacted, like a dead object.
As the head of the Backlund diocese, Horamick knew this magic mirror well. It was a living Sealed Artifact; although its personality was poor, it would follow its own rules and answer questions normally.
Unless, the matter being asked touched upon existences of extremely high status, causing the magic mirror to choose to passively resist.
Horamick was silent for a long while, then handed the magic mirror to Deacon Ikanser, who had regained his composure. The latter quickly covered the magic mirror with a black cloth and placed it into a box inscribed with complex symbols, entirely made of gears.
What no one noticed was that after the box closed, the magic mirror, which had previously looked like an ordinary mirror, showed three lines of pale text on its fluctuating surface:
"The Origin and Shadow of Order;"
"The Great Emperor of the Land of Chaos;"
"The Lord of Order who wields rules."
Immediately, a faint, dark-gold mist spread across the mirror's surface, concealing and making everything disappear.
-----------------
Backlund, West Borough, 9 East Vilas Street, Earl Mistral's residence.
Red moonlight streamed through the window. Under the bright lamplight, a lady with black hair and red eyes sat at her desk, carefully examining the open book before her—"A General History of the Northern Continent's Fifth Epoch."
This was a book personally recorded and written by a prominent figure within the Sanguine. The copy in front of Louise Sills was naturally just a reproduction, but even so, it could only be borrowed within the Earl's residence; ordinary Sanguine could not see it at all.
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