The thick fog inside the city was even worse than outside. There were no hired carriages to be seen on the streets, and the few pedestrians hurried along only after wrapping themselves tightly beneath black umbrellas.
That was the travel advice printed in the newspapers.
After arriving at Belinder Manor, Luvia listened to Shade describe the monster he had encountered outside the city and immediately knew what it was:
"This kind of monster has also been named by the Church—an 'Explosion Pus Man.' It explodes as long as it suffers a severe external blow. Besides Lightbulb Men and Explosion Pus Men, there is another kind of monster in the fog, called Light Believers.
The third kind are madmen created by Dangerous Radiance. Their outward mutations are not as pronounced as the first two types; their skin merely glows faintly, and all their hair falls out. These monsters can speak insane prayers that no one has understood to this day, releasing mental contamination that directly turns ordinary people into glowing monsters.
The authorities now describe the appearance of these monsters as a special infectious disease. And those three are merely the most common varieties—there are even stranger things wandering in the fog."
She delivered all that information in one breath, seeming to have prepared herself long ago for Shade's questions.
"But since you mentioned those monsters, take a trip to the Alchemy Laboratory on the ship. Megan and Miss Swift have already developed a new use for the crystals left behind after those glowing monsters die."
Luvia did not board the ship with Shade. She needed to use the Countess's Divination Room at the manor for divination.
The Alchemy Laboratory aboard the Radiance Messenger was not a temporary arrangement either. During the hundreds of years since Illustrious Miss had awakened, she