After gently stroking the surface of the silver mirror three times, Sherlock Moriarty licked his lips and hesitated for a moment before asking:
"Dear Arrodes, my question is about the current situation of Jason Beria."
He carefully stated his question word by word, without using the obviously pseudonym "Patrick Jason", nor pointing the question at "Desire Apostle", because in this world, or even within Backlund alone, there may be more than one Beyonder with the same Sequence.
The flame in the fireplace suddenly became dim, almost extinguished, and the sunlight outside the window gradually dimmed. Water rippled on the surface of the silver mirror, and then a scene looked down from a high altitude appeared:
Next to the small dock, a sailboat raised its sails in the wind and prepared to set sail. A man wearing a peaked cap and a black coat carried a suitcase and hurriedly squeezed through the crowd and entered the cabin. His cheekbones are high and his blue eyes are cold, just like the portrait I saw in Jason Residence this morning.
"This is like the downstream of the Tussock River, close to the dock of Docklands. If you look in the distance, it has reached the suburbs."
Isengard, who was observing carefully from the side, immediately recognized the location in the scene.
"He must want to leave Backlund and go south along the river to Pritz Harbor."
Caslana also squeezed over to watch the clues provided by Arrodes. Seeing this "Desire Apostle" running away, a relaxed smile appeared on her lips.
It seems that Demigod and Ace Snake of Church of Storms have put considerable pressure on Beyonder of Sequence 5. He has been struggling with Backlund for so long. He received the joint attention of Nighthawks and Machinery Hivemind, but refused to stop. However, as soon as the strong High Sequence appeared, he gave up decisively and prepared to leave Backlund, and even left North Continent...
Angel sighed with emotion at Desire Apostle's sincere action. His eyes continued to stay on the silver mirror and saw Jason Beria disappear from the screen, and then a line of neat small words appeared:
"Based on the principle of reciprocity, you can choose to answer the question or complete the task."
"Huh?"
The first person to speak out was Ikanser Bernard, who was watching the process of using Sealed Artifact. He scratched his somewhat disheveled hair under his hat, his face full of confusion.
"I choose to answer the question."
Sherlock chose the former without hesitation.
The white letters on the mirror quickly decomposed, Reassembly, into a new line of sentences:
"What's your favorite color, brown or purple?"
What kind of strange problem is this? According to the questions asked when Ikanser used this mirror last time, it is obviously inclined to reveal some secrets or hesitating thoughts in the user's heart. For example, the deacon of "Machinery Hivemind", although he agreed He will not pursue my identity in this incident, but as an official Beyonder, he wants to bring Beyonder like me, a "Demoness" Pathway, to justice...
Could it be that there is some unspeakable secret about color hidden in Sherlock's heart, so Yin Jing asked such a question?
Angel looked at "Arrodes" in surprise. The latter's question seemed to be frozen in the rippling mirror, waiting patiently for the user's response.
"Purple."
"Correct answer."
As the line turned purple, the comment disappeared, and the surface of the silver mirror returned to normal.
"Well, this Sealed Artifact may be a little, um, restrained today." Ikanser took the Arrodes and touched its surface twice curiously, but did not have the courage to touch it a third time. " Let's get back to the topic. Obviously, Jason Beria tried to escape by boat, but this was not a wise choice. 'Spellsinger of God' can fly in the wind, and no matter how fast the boat is, it will not escape his grasp. It will be a matter of time before he is caught up."
"But this is even more strange. If I were him, and I was locked by Mandated Punishers, instead of running away in a hurry, it would be better to blend into the crowd and hide and seek with them in Backlund, which has a population of five million. This might still have a chance to escape. Going out of the city, especially leaving by boat, is a dead end in front of the strong Demigod."
The gray-haired Isengard held the pipe close to his nose, gently inhaled the smoke that helped him think, and slowly spoke out his analysis.
"He has no way to escape. If he stays in the city, he will soon be locked by us and Nighthawks through Sealed Artifact. If he leaves Backlund along the waterway, he will only face the pursuit of Ace Snake, and he may still have the possibility of survival."
Ikanser looked as usual, obviously believing in the answer of "Arrodes".
"But maybe, we have all been misled, or fallen into a misunderstanding," Sherlock frowned and thought, his eyes swept over several people and looked at Angel's eyes. After a slight pause, "He first sent a threatening letter, attacking Detective who assisted in the investigation of 'Devil Dog', attracting the attention of the official Beyonder, and then his identity in West Borough's house will be locked, making everyone convinced that 'Desire Apostle' and 'Jason Beria' are the same person. Under this premise, everyone's attention will be attracted by Jason, and they will follow him around the city, and even leave the city. In the corner where no one cares, the real conspiracy may have just begun."
"What do you want to express?"
Ikanser, who was about to put away the silver mirror, stopped and looked at Detective.
"Is the 'Jason Beria' we saw just now really the 'Desire Apostle' we are looking for?"
After listening to Sherlock's question, everyone in the living room fell into a brief silence. Everyone was thinking and recalling the similarities and differences between yesterday's "Desire Apostle" and today's "Jason Beria", as well as the uncoordinated parts of their actions.
"Your words sound like sophistry in court, Mr. Sherlock." After a long time, Ikanser chuckled and put down the silver mirror in his hand. "But my intuition tells me that you may be right. We can ask the respected Arrodes."
"But not here. If there really is another 'Desire Apostle', divination and any actions directed at him will alert him and let him know that his purpose has been exposed." Angel pressed the silver mirror on the table and activated it. A water pattern appeared on the mirror, "You follow the original plan, find 'Nighthawks', let them use the ability of another Sealed Artifact to block Devil's dangerous intuition, and then use it..."
As she was speaking, she saw dim words appearing on the surface of the silver mirror held under her fingers:
"Dear Angel Granger Miss, your most reliable partner A Luo..."
She immediately loosened her fingers and let Sealed Artifact calm down. Then she quickly looked at the people at the table and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that they didn't react as if they hadn't seen her.
What happened just now?
Because this Sealed Artifact has been activated, the "question-answer" process is still continuing? Or is there some uncontrollable change?
Angel suddenly remembered Sherlock's reaction after touching the silver mirror just now, and was a little curious whether the other party also saw the strange behavior of "Arrodes".
Ikanser, who accepted Angel's suggestion, quickly left with the abnormally behaving Sealed Artifact. As the sound of the carriage rolling over the stone pavement outside the door gradually faded away, several people who stayed behind also stood in the living room, considering their next actions.
Since the arrest has been launched, Ikanser has taken away most of the members of Machinery Hivemind, so the Isengard home, which was originally under surveillance and protection, is no longer safe. Before leaving, the deacon kindly made a suggestion, asking a few people to go to the nearest Church of the God of Steam and Machinery to temporarily avoid risks, and then come out after "Desire Apostle" is arrested.
As "Extra Personnel" who had dealt with Church of Steam a lot, Isengard quickly made a decision. He asked several other people if they would go to the church with him. Caslana, who had seen "Desire Apostle" and her assistant Lydia, were both willing to go with him, but Angel was a little hesitant.
It wasn't until Sherlock returned from going to the bathroom and shook her head gently at the door that she expressed her opinion:
"Sorry, Mr. Stanton, I won't go to church." She smiled apologetically and rejected the other party's kindness. "I have Anti-Divination's means to avoid being tracked by 'Desire Apostle', and I don't want to have too much to do with Church of Steam."
"I can understand your concerns, so please pay attention to safety after leaving and wait for their good news," Isengard did not dissuade, but looked at the last person, "Sherlock, what about you? Will you go to church with us? Believe me, compared to Church of Storms, they are very reasonable."
"I can tell this from the behavior of Mr. Ikanser, but I need to go home to get some things first, and maybe I will go to the church by myself later."
Sherlock also declined Isengard's invitation, which made the latter look confused. He looked at Angel and Sherlock repeatedly, and then showed a smile of understanding.