After Sno pressed his hand onto the golden document and entered into the notarized contract, the delicate cherry lips visible beneath Bernadette's fine veil trembled slightly. Sno waited for Bernadette to complete her portion of the notarization before narrowing his eyes and saying:
"To advance to Black Emperor, one must first possess a kingdom of one's own, linking one's name to the title of emperor and making it common knowledge among the people.
"Second, one must establish a rigorous and complex set of rules that nevertheless defies normality. This includes the political system, architectural style, social structure, and so on.
"Then, one must compel the people to secretly construct nine pyramid-like mausoleums."
"Is that all?" Bernadette matched each matter in her memories against the Black Emperor's ritual and felt that something still seemed to be missing.
"That's right. I concealed the final step. After all, the ingredients for a Sequence Zero potion are known to everyone. Knowing the ritual is equivalent to knowing the complete formula. Since this is the price of an incomplete formula, naturally part of it must be withheld. I only hid the last step, and what I revealed is already enough for you to understand many things, isn't it?"
Sno made no attempt to conceal the fact that he had withheld an important step. Bernadette neither approved nor objected to his actions, merely continuing:
"Then what about the intelligence regarding the Backlund Catastrophe?"
"In fact, Backlund has suffered more than three disasters within a single year, and all of them involved entities of a high level. So let me ask you this: can your protection withstand the gaze of an existence above Sequence One?"
Sno spoke with a teasing expression, though his tone remained calm. Bernadette's eye twitched slightly upon hearing this. After hesitating for a