Ligeia's Murder Order

I witnessed firsthand how Iver easily sealed Fifth Level Earthbound Spirit into a small Tarot Card.

Sherlock, who was watching from the sidelines, was extremely astonished.

It could even be described as utterly astonished.

"... How did you manage to do that?"

Sherlock was completely baffled.

This completely violates Sherlock's common sense—the path to transcendence is one where the superiors blatantly suppress the inferiors.

Many abilities become significantly weaker when crossing one energy level, and ineffective when crossing two energy levels. Those so-called cases of the weak defeating the strong either involve circumventing the suppressed ability in some way, or the weaker party actually possessing fragments or inheritances of the stronger party, making them stronger than the stronger party in a specific field.

However, Iver's ritual can be said to be completely unrelated to either.

—That was clearly a "ritual" that Path of Transcendence! I didn't see Iver use any power stronger than the Earthbound Spirit to suppress her... Iver did pray to Amber, but it's not like Amber could come to help him herself!

Even if the Earthbound Spirit left voluntarily, it would be almost impossible to contain the power so perfectly.

All her existence and power were contained within this small, ordinary card, without the slightest leakage. This was an absolutely perfect seal—the power of the Path of Wisdom allowed Sherlock to astutely analyze that as long as Iver didn't actively remove the complex seal on this card, the Earthbound Spirit would absolutely not be able to escape.

Judging from Iver's skill level, this was clearly not his first time.

"How many of these cards have you obtained?"

Sherlock couldn't help but ask.

Iver said with a smile, "It's a secret. And it's not about obtaining it, it's about creating it."

—As long as Sherlock doesn't know he only has four cards, he will appear incredibly tall and mysterious.

"Just as I bestowed upon you the initiation ceremony of the Mitra Worshiper. You also said that I have the affinity for the Path of Wisdom. But I know of this ceremony, yet I have not used it on myself... that is naturally because I have better career options."

Iver said seriously, "Weren't you curious about my profession that Path of Transcendence for so long? The Great Sin Scholar —that is my profession."

Although Iver isn't yet, he can take out a lot of loans.

Anyway, I'll just advance two more times.

"... The Great Sin Scholar sounds similar to the Demon Scholar. But they are different."

Sherlock murmured, "You don't have a natal demon, but you've gained the ability to Card Making. That card is the Death card from the Tarot Card. Based on that reasoning, you can probably have up to 22 such cards... Summoning twenty-two phantom minions that you've personally captured? This class has such a powerful potential..."

Although he couldn't see the attributes of the [Follower Card: Earthbound Spirit], judging from the previous conversation between Iver and the Earthbound Spirit Alice, he could roughly guess that Iver wanted to take the Earthbound Spirit away. And judging from his smug look now, he must have succeeded.

But Sherlock breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that Iver was not Demon Scholar.

He is now increasingly recognizing Iver.

When Sherlock was investigating Edward, he didn't feel the thrill of gradually getting closer to the truth. Instead, he felt a strange unease... as if something was instinctively warning him to stay away from the truth.

At the time, Sherlock relied entirely on his youthful, fearless determination and a defiant, rebellious spirit—the more upset I was, the more determined I was to get this done—to finally uncover the Moriarty Family's dark history and criminal evidence.

But he wasn't happy at the time.

Sherlock believed that the emotion was called remorse.

Now, he was unwilling to investigate Iver any further. However, Her Majesty the Queen had been kind to him, and his family had been loyal to Avalon for generations. Logically and morally, he should ensure that Iver wouldn't become the next Minister Drost ... And now, he finally had an investigation result that could convince himself and also be presented to the Queen.

When Iver was preparing the ritual materials, he did not avoid Sherlock at all, and even accompanied him during the process of collecting the swamp extract.

Sherlock saw it clearly: Iver did not use any human materials at all.

Compared to the evil and corrupt Demon Scholar and the dangerous and mysterious Ritual Mage, the Great Sin Scholar seem to be a cleaner profession than the Path of Transcendence.

Compared to this, capturing the Phantom Demon is not a difficult task.

"Next time," Sherlock said softly, adjusting his newsboy cap, "I mean later—you can come to me anytime you need. I can help you catch whatever... the undead? Or I can help you investigate whatever information you need."

He wasn't entirely sure what Iver's capture range was. Judging solely from the outcome, Iver could at least capture the undead.

Iver's eyes lit up. "That's great!"

He didn't refuse at all, but happily agreed.

Rather, he shared the secret with Sherlock for this very reason.

Although Iver occasionally appeared smarter Sherlock due to his superior insight and intelligence, Iver was well aware of his own limitations. His ability to analyze existing information was significantly weaker than Sherlock's.

Furthermore, Sherlock will further advance in his Path of Wisdom, and his mind will become increasingly sharp...

The smarter and more capable his secretary was, the less trouble Iver had.

However, before leaving, Iver reminded Sherlock to try not to tell others about his profession— Sherlock understood that "try" meant he could say it, but not to say it carelessly.

This is probably why Iver didn't avoid mentioning the griffin Liz throughout the entire conversation.

Although Liz can't speak yet, she'll soon be fully developed. Then, what she knows, Hai Na will surely know too.

After capturing Alice, Iver took Sherlock and flew back to Eagle Cape Village aboard Liz.

He originally thought he would have to walk the same path into the village again and wait until dusk to enter the village... but he found that he could fly directly back to the village.

They were very efficient on their journey, and it was only noon when they flew back.

"Perhaps it was because some villagers invited us to stay overnight, or simply because some villagers accepted us," Sherlock analyzed softly, "That we were identified as one of our own."

"That's more normal. Otherwise, it would be difficult for messengers to deliver messages here—they always arrive at dusk, which would be noticed as something was amiss, and they would also be more likely to run into the Wild Hunt. The same goes for Hai Na. She obviously didn't go home at dusk, otherwise she wouldn't have specifically bought a train ticket for an early morning arrival."

"That's right."

Iver agreed.

The materials for the New Moon Ritual are much harder to gather than those for the Full Moon Ritual. Although substitutes can be found, they can't be just randomly sourced.

A standard New Moon Ritual requires a live petrel, the heart of a deer that has just died today, a miniature wax figure of a philosopher, a snake, a handful of black salt, a horse's penis, a fed mouse, an oyster, and a mirror.

Petrels can be replaced with pigeons or sparrows, as long as they can fly; oysters can be replaced with pearl oysters or other shellfish. Horse penises can also be dried; snakes don't have to be alive, but they must be soft... Therefore, Iver bought a few and soaked them in the wine, bringing them with him.

The hardest thing to find is undoubtedly the Deer Heart.

However, there is a substitute for deer heart: Deer Heart's heart. Lily and Hai Na went to Bagpipe Town to buy sheep—and while they were at it, to catch some rats, since there weren't even any in Eagle Cape Village. As it turned out, Iver returned even faster than they did.

Before they returned, Iver and Sherlock began sketching the magic circle needed for the Promotion Ritual in a room on the second floor of Hai Na's house.

Three people will advance in this New Moon Ritual — Iver and Lily will advance from second to third, while Hai Na will advance from third to fourth.

Moving from three to four means advancing in one's profession; Hai Na will transition from Inspector to Arbitrator.

Iver had also tried to dissuade Hai Na, suggesting she wait for them to join her. After all, it wouldn't be long...

However, Hai Na helplessly explained that it was her teacher's idea.

Ligeia required her to complete a New Moon Ritual alone in order to officially pass the test. Before this, Hai Na had only participated in the Full Moon Ritual and had never experienced New Moon Ritual.

But Ligeia believed that the difficulties Hai Na would face were far more dangerous and unexpected than this. She would have to be able to confront and solve sudden problems, and she would have to survive unscathed amidst the battles of wits and courage between people and the fierce fighting.

At the time, Hai Na didn't quite understand what she would have to do in the future that would be more dangerous than the three-into-four New Moon Ritual... but now she has gradually come to understand.

—If Hai Na is the successor to the "Grand Arbitrator," then she certainly needs to possess such qualities.

If she can't even protect herself, wouldn't she be so nervous that she'd get a stomachache when she's supposed to protect a country?

Faced with that kind of responsibility, it seems that simply advancing from the Crescent Moon Field to the Fourth Level on one's own is nothing.

Hai Na needs even stronger, far stronger, personal abilities than this.

Iver initially thought this might be difficult.

But when Iver realized that Hai Na was the future leader of the "Hyena Gang," and even possessed a small fragment of Lancelot I's soul... he felt that Hai Na might actually be capable of it. Old Meg's insight was indeed sharp; she could see even this.

Hai Na has that talent, but she lacks the pressure to bring it to the surface.

Facing the New Moon Ritual alone, which she had never experienced before, put her under this kind of pressure—the punishment for the New Moon Ritual is usually one level higher than that for the Full Moon Ritual. The transition from the third to the fourth level can frequently result in the price of "death," and at the very least, it would damage the soul and prevent the individual from advancing to the Fifth Level in the future.

In other words, Ligeia is sending Hai Na to kill someone.

It wasn't for justice, for the Queen, for Avalon, nor in the name of law and protection. There was no excuse to shirk responsibility; it was simply for one's own growth and one's own benefit, to mercilessly kill others—and kill as many as possible—in the New Moon Ritual when there were no allies.

The future Grand Arbitrator must not be a soft-hearted or indecisive person.

She must be ruthless, iron-fisted, and cold-blooded enough to control both internal and external troubles.

Iver is looking forward to it.

When the sun rises tomorrow, how much will Hai Na, who survived this Promotion Ritual, have grown?