Chapter 109

"Your silhouette is so distant, so distant that I have to exert all my strength just to catch up with you, but so what?"

Mordred laughed merrily, pointing to the churning clouds on the horizon. "You're like a cloud, always there no matter how hard I try to chase it."

"So, whether you walk slowly or run fast... this path is lonely but interesting. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks like me."

"Because my mother was such a great person."

Hebe's expression remained calm, but her toes curled up unconsciously.

Silent Bookstore.

Toyokawa Shoko sorted through the documents bearing their respective crests, but her mind was clearly unsettled, wandering off somewhere.

A sudden knocking sound rang out. Shoko looked up and saw Morgan standing in front of the door with a strange expression.

"Director." Toyokawa Shoko bowed slightly.

"Come with me." Morgan had no interest in returning the courtesy.

"What are you doing?" Toyokawa Shoko frowned. "These documents still need to be organized and archived..."

Morgan looked at Shoko's air of someone else, and the nameless fire in his heart burned even more fiercely.

She suppressed her resentment and cast a cold glance at him.

"Aren't you curious about where Hebe went?"

Toyokawa Shoko's fingers trembled slightly as she obediently followed Morgan to the top of the tower, where an observatory housed telescopes of various sizes.

After intensive study, Shoko learned that this observatory could not only observe the movement of stars, but also directly observe the wasteland and border during the right time period.

Each telescope corresponds to its own target.

Morgan picked up a monocular telescope from the table and handed it to Toyokawa Shoko.

This one corresponds to the Blankog Island.

A certain generation of voyeuristic administrators spent a fortune to build it, using it to observe the movements of the apprentices on the island and their nightlife, recording it in their diaries.

For this reason, only librarians and Lord of Blankog have the authority to use it.

Toyokawa Shoko accepted the brass telescope.

Her gaze swept across the Silent Bookstore complex in an instant, casting a stare down from the sky like a bird in flight.

"This telescope is connected to the line of sight of the birds in Blanckug ..." Toyokawa Shoko thought.

Just then, Morgan's urgent voice came from beside him. "Focus your attention on the tavern on the island."

Toyokawa Shoko responded immediately and replied after a moment, "There's no one in the tavern."

"As expected... she really did go to Mordred," Morgan thought to himself.

She urged anxiously, "Keep searching, search around the island!"

Toyokawa Shoko did not answer immediately.

Through the monoculars, the image of Hebe sitting side by side with another blonde girl came into view.

Flocks of birds circled and soared, and the conversation between Hebe and the blonde girl echoed clearly in my ears.

"Mom," the blonde girl called out, hugging Hebe.

Hebe neither objected nor pushed her away.

Toyokawa Shoko stared blankly at the binoculars.

It felt like something inside me had shattered.

Emergency leave request

The author had a cup of mango pomelo sago in the afternoon, and then a tea egg on the way home, after which bloating started. After dinner, the author began vomiting. Thinking they could rest for a while, they woke up at 7:50 PM and started vomiting violently—a whole bucketful... They need to go to the hospital for an IV drip. The situation is urgent, and the author needs to take two days off (desperate). Hope everyone understands...

167 Treason! Treason!

Shoko trembled as he reached out and pulled the gold ring from his chest, clutching it tightly in his palm.

It seems that doing so can bring some warmth.

Such an unusual phenomenon cannot be ignored.

"What exactly did you see?"

Morgan grabbed the brass telescope.

Shoko murmured as she recounted what she had seen, and the observatory fell into a terrible silence.

On the beach.

Hebe a sudden chill run down her spine for no apparent reason.

'Royal Sister, it must be Royal Sister searching for me.' Hebe felt a sudden pang of sadness.

However, this is Blanckug, and even at dusk, one cannot conduct a reckless search.

Knowing that her time was running out, Hebe interrupted Mordred, who was engrossed in conversation, and began to talk about the important matter of her trip.

"Mordred, I know you have a way." Hebe grasped Mordred's hand. "Can you get me a cruise ship?"

Mordred paused slightly. "Yes, of course."

"Then it's settled." Hebe nodded calmly, a smile unconsciously curving her lips. "We'll meet at the port of Blanckug."

As she spoke, the tingling sensation on her scalp continued to spread, instantly turning into a chill that surged up Hebe's spine. There was no doubt that Royal Sister had already cast her gaze upon her.

Hebe ran away in a hurry.

Mordred did not give chase.

"Mother..."

Mordred muttered to himself.

She could sense Morgan's presence, but why wouldn't Morgan come to see her?

At this moment, Mordred's mind was always racing. She quickly realized that Morgan was deliberately distancing himself from her... because a child belonging to Arthur seemed superfluous between Morgan and Merlin.

I was rejected...

Mordred was hardly surprised when he guessed the connection.

After all, that's the kind of person Morgan is.

Mordred stared in the direction Hebe had left and gave a self-deprecating laugh.

At this point, even if he were to clarify that he opened the tavern in Blanckug to reserve a seat for his mother in advance, it would be a pointless act.

Mordred walked toward the town's post office. She handed a note to the female postmaster sitting behind the counter.

The note had a number written on it. The female postmaster glanced at it and said, "Ordinary equivalents are not enough to dial this number."

Mordred nodded and took out another iron coin from her pocket. The back of the coin depicted a murder scene, with a gleaming knife slashing across it.

Spintria Coin, ancient tokens from the Roman era, were not legal tender, but they served as a secret equivalent in Roman times—their value was recognized by all apprentices.

This iron coin has the lowest face value among the many Spintria Coin. Converted to the current currency of Albion, it is worth about five shillings (one-quarter of Albion Gold Pound).

"Words are a sharp blade, enough to cut open the door to a certain place and time."

The female postmaster took the ancient coin and put it into the machine behind her that was flashing with a faint light. Then the dim, firefly-like machine began to roar violently, and the light gradually grew into a vast expanse.

Fire and electricity bridge the gap between the real and the unreal, opening a path between Blanckug and London.

These massive points of light flickered silently, gradually changing from a faint red to a cobalt blue—the color of the wasteland.

The female postmaster had disappeared at some point, and the doors and windows of the post office were all closed.

"I am Mordred." The rebellious knight stood amidst the vast cobalt blue starlight and spoke softly, "I speak to you from Blanckug, Father."

Throne Hall, Mordred's voice rang in Arthur's ears.

Morgan looked at Toyokawa Shoko.

She initially felt that the young librarian was completely unnecessary; even after Toyokawa Shoko demonstrated her talent, Morgan did not think she was wrong.

But now, Hebe's autonomy is a bit too strong.

Of course, Morgan really liked this diamond-like, sparkling personality... she even somewhat enjoyed the feeling of chasing and capturing.

But this is on the condition that only Hebe and herself engage in the chase.

"I'll give you a chance, administrator."

Morgan had her back to Toyokawa Shoko, her hand resting on the doorframe, her voice icy.

"Work with me—that way we can both get what we want."

"What is it? I don't know..." Toyokawa Shoko muttered to herself.

"Don't play dumb." Morgan frowned in disgust. "Isn't what you want from Hebe to get that thing that can be called 'motherly love'? And that's superfluous to me... It's just a good deal that we each get what we need, as long as you're willing to help me."

Toyokawa Shoko remained silent, but Morgan knew that the foundation for cooperation had been laid.

What should I do?

"The more forceful the approach, the less effective it is with Hebe," Morgan replied with a hint of frustration. "So the more submissive you are, the more genuinely you give to her, the more care you will receive from her... For you, that should be quite simple, right?"

The source of the Fallen Empress's troubles is easy to imagine: she is not the kind of person who is easily softened.

Fortunately, Arthur is in the same boat—judging by the progress of the campaign, she should still have the advantage.

Hebe returned to the Silent Bookstore.

Sure enough, as soon as I stepped into the lobby, a low-pressure atmosphere emanating from Morgan lingered.

Toyokawa Shoko was sitting behind her desk working on documents, seemingly unaffected.

Hebe walked over and tapped the table, signaling Shoko to come with him.

In the reading room, the lighting was soft, Hebe piled all the picture books, scrolls and manuscripts she had found beforehand on the table.

"You dreamed about the route to Atlantis before, didn't you?" Hebe stared into Toyokawa Shoko's amber eyes. "Now I want you to draw them on the nautical chart, without hiding anything."

"But there will still be mistakes and omissions, right?" Toyokawa Shoko was silent for a moment, then spoke up.

Hebe raised an eyebrow slightly.

She wasn't surprised at all, after all, when it came to Atlantis, Toyokawa Shoko probably knew just as much as Morgan did about it.

"Yes."

Hebe nodded, making no attempt to conceal the matter.

As the famous literary master Albion, Alex Kennedy, once said, "Every translation means killing a bit of knowledge."

When it comes to tacit knowledge, even more content is lost during transcription and translation.

Therefore, in some early heretical branches of the Orthodox Church, nuns would decapitate their apprentices and, through prayer and ritual, seal the knowledge the apprentices possessed into their skulls.

When it was time to use it, the brain matter, which had already turned into liquid, was made into a form of communion and shared... It can be said that this "human-centered" method of acquisition is the form that minimizes the loss of knowledge.

"I'll go with you."

Toyokawa Shoko replied, "I'll go to Atlantis with Miss Hebe."

168 This is a lie

Hebe naturally wouldn't refuse a live navigation system that was offered to her.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that she already had similar thoughts, but she just didn't know how to bring them up.

The Silent Bookstore has many ways to make living navigation devices.

The most efficient method is to extract the apprentice's spirit and preserve it in a bright, transparent glass container.