On the outskirts of Tingen City.
The morning sunlight was lovely. It shone upon the house with its dark red chimney, making the lawn before it look lush, charming, and full of life. The second-floor bedroom window stood open, letting sunlight spill inside and cast a golden gleam across the desk by the window. An open notebook on the desk was illuminated, its writing clearly visible.
The notebook read:
"Sirius Arapis and Hynas Vanster, members of the Aurora Order living in Tingen City, followed the orders of Ms. M, a high-ranking member of the Aurora Order, and successfully found a half-mad young man named Luther Rondal. He seemed to carry the aura of the True Creator. Following their orders, the two lured and temporarily controlled him and his younger sister, awaiting further instructions from Ms. M."
"However, Ms. M underestimated Luther's danger. As Sirius spent day and night with Luther, the aura around him rapidly affected Sirius, a Secrets Suppliant. His perception became increasingly distorted until he finally went completely insane. He decided to kill Luther, use him as a blood sacrifice, and pray for the descent of the True Creator. How insane, yet it all follows logic."
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"Sirius successfully killed Luther, but his ritual would fail. He would lose control completely and be killed by the Nighthawks team that rushed over. Dunn Smith, who led the team, would be subtly tainted by the out-of-control Sirius."
(The next few lines had been crossed out. Beneath them were several hurriedly written lines.)
"Unbelievable! Illogical! Luther Rondal was not killed by Sirius. On the contrary, he killed Sirius and consumed the Beyonder Characteristic that had been left behind, becoming a Sequence 9 Secrets Suppliant."
"But things have not yet reached the point of no return! The letter Sirius wrote about Luther's secret was accidentally burned, and Dunn did not know of Luther's danger. The police station has an Aurora Order informant planted within it. He happened to learn of Sirius's death and urgently informed Hynas that very night."
"Driven into a corner, Hynas took a desperate gamble and decided to conduct a mad blood sacrifice ritual. This was forbidden knowledge Ms. M had previously bestowed upon them as a reward, but because its success rate was extremely low, Hynas had never used it. Yet tonight, his ritual would succeed with extraordinary luck."
"After succeeding in the ritual, Hynas came to Blackthorn Security Company based on information provided by the police informant. He happened to avoid the Nighthawks team heading to his home. Since the two sides chose different routes, it was perfectly reasonable that they would not meet."
"Hynas infiltrated when the Nighthawks' defenses were at their weakest. He would devour Luther and create immense chaos..."
(Another large section had been scribbled out. Beneath the writing, a classically styled quill pen floated above the notebook. Though it had not been dipped in ink, it wrote freely.)
"Damn Luther Rondal! He survived again in a way that defies reason! The ravings of the evil god actually had no effect on him. He carries a deeper secret."
"He is just like that detestable Klein Moretti, constantly disrupting Ince Zangwill's plans..."
At that moment, a somewhat pale hand seized the quill pen and solemnly began a new line:
"But it doesn't matter. Ince Zangwill still has many opportunities left."
The following morning, at Blackthorn Security Company, in the break room.
The sound of things being rummaged through woke Luther. He sat up and saw his younger sister, Cecilia, with her back to him as she sorted through a battered suitcase. Noise continued to drift in from the hall outside—confused voices mixed with the sounds of furniture being moved.
Oh, right. So much had happened last night.
As his mind gradually cleared, Luther recalled what had happened yesterday. An unexpected death, transmigration, his younger sister, cultists, an evil god, the Nighthawks, a mad ritual... After Hynas died, a small black sphere had slowly emerged from his corpse. Luther recognized it immediately. It was the very thing Sirius had forced him to consume—the so-called Secrets Suppliant Sequence potion. After that, Dunn had arranged for him to sleep in the break room while he continued investigating the case.
Come to think of it, I killed two people last night.
Luther lowered his head and looked at his palms. They were fair and slender, entirely different from how they had looked last night, stained with blood.
Hynas's howl yesterday had injured both his nose and ears, but after one night's sleep, neither place felt uncomfortable, nor had they bled again. It made him somewhat doubtful of his own constitution.
To his surprise, he felt neither guilt nor discomfort. Had the Secrets Suppliant potion distorted his perception and made him cold-blooded?
No. Luther recalled that his original personality had been somewhat nasty to begin with. He was petty and vengeful. Besides, there was nothing to lament. They had come to kill him, so being killed by him was only what they deserved. Rather than caring whether those mad cultists lived or died, it was more important to pay attention to his cheap little sister.
He turned his gaze toward his sister again.
Cecilia had not noticed that Luther was awake and was still sorting through the suitcase. Inside were several clean but plain articles of clothing, socks, scraps of cloth, needles and thread, a few clay bowls, wooden spoons, a small number of penny coins, several pills wrapped in paper, and some miscellaneous items... This was all the siblings currently possessed.
The suitcase had previously been left in Sirius's house. They had not been allowed to take it away at the time in order to preserve the scene. Cecilia had thrown a huge tantrum over it. Only after Hynas had also been brought down and the matter had largely concluded did Luther take the initiative to mention it to Dunn and retrieve it from the police.
The policeman who delivered the suitcase overnight had been extremely dissatisfied, because there was nothing valuable inside at all. He could not understand why Cecilia had insisted on immediately getting back a broken suitcase, and he was very annoyed at having to make the trip in the middle of the night. He tossed down the suitcase and left.
The policeman could not understand, but Luther could more or less understand his sister's thoughts.
It was merely a poor person's obsession. After all, this was everything their family owned. To the poor, wearing one less article of clothing or missing a few meals could become the cause of death. To survive, they had to clutch desperately at everything they possessed.
"It's still here! Thank goodness!"
Hearing Cecilia's delighted voice, Luther looked up and saw that she had found a small brush in a gap within the suitcase.
Ah, I think I've seen that before.
The relevant memories automatically surfaced in his mind, and Luther remembered. It was a tool his sister used for work.
After their parents died, the siblings had lost their means of livelihood. Their meager pension could not fully support them both, so the young Cecilia had no choice but to take on the burden of earning money.
But in an era like this, there were not many ways for a frail young girl to earn money. Moreover, Luther, who often went mad, needed someone to look after him at all times. In the end, Cecilia chose to do contract work for a match factory, pasting matchboxes together at home every day. Filling one basket with matchboxes earned a little over two pennies. She could paste together two or three baskets a day, and together with the pension, that had barely kept the siblings going for several years.
Thus, whenever the former Luther was lucid, he often saw this scene: his sister sitting sideways beside his bed, her cute little face tense as she deftly used that small brush to paste matchboxes together. Whenever she noticed that Luther was awake, she would put down what she was doing, smile happily at him, and bustle about taking care of him.
"Luther, you're awake!"
Just as Luther was being enveloped by memories of the past, Cecilia finally noticed that he was awake. She turned around and smiled at him.
Seeing that radiant smile, Luther suddenly felt warmth and guilt surge within him. He suddenly understood why the former Luther had been able to grit his teeth and persist through the evil god's mad illusion for so many years—perhaps it was so that he could wake up again, return to reality, and see that adorable smile waiting for him.
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