Manuscript Disposal

Late that night, a little later, on the Tussock River,

Rosago walked steadily, holding a sapphire pendant in one hand.

He had a handsome face, black hair, and blue eyes. His well-groomed beard accentuated his masculinity without making him appear rude. Presumably, such a man would be popular with ladies of all ages at a ball.

Is this the place?

The pendant, defying the laws of physics, maintained its buoyancy and tilt, guiding Rosago. He reached the riverbank and stopped, for any further and he would have to step into the water.

So he stopped by the riverbank, which reeked of a fishy stench, and closed his eyes.

"Splash..."

Not long after, a sudden, surging sound came from the river, and something floated up and swam to his side.

It was a three-finger-long bass with bulging eyes, shaking its head and swaying its body. It wasn't afraid of Rosago at all. Instead, it swam up to him and, as he squatted down, handed him what it was holding in its mouth.

After performing these actions, the bass flipped belly up, died instantly, and sank to the bottom of the Tussock River.

The bass was biting a pale piece of meat, which had lost its rosy luster, seemingly because it had been soaking in water.

"It has Degeneration feel to it."

Rosago frowned.

After failing to seize the manuscript, he withdrew from the battlefield, only to find that he could no longer contact his "Faceless's " subordinates—who, following his orders, had infiltrated the gang to extract clues about the manuscript, but had never returned, which was very strange.

Rosago had thought dealing with a bunch of gangsters would be easy, but his men had simply vanished. He had no choice but to use his position to search for them. Eventually, he found the bodies of his men at the Tussock River.

Using the eyes of the perch, Rosago saw the corpse's transformation, and combined with the sense of Degeneration in the piece of flesh he had bitten off, he suspected that his subordinate had died at the hands of an extraordinary Secrets Suppliant Sequence.

Holding the slice of meat in his hand, Rosago tried to use his Dream Divination. However, in his dream, he only saw a crimson Blood Fog of blood, nothing else.

"Aurora Order...? I should probably tell the ambassador when we get back."

After finishing the Divination, he pondered to himself and offered a prayer for his men as a form of remembrance:

"Poor Andol, may your soul return to the land of the radiant Sun God."

This mission can be described as a complete failure. His men were killed, and the Marionette were all Destruction. Most importantly, he failed to retrieve the manuscript of the Third-Generation Differential Engine.

No, it was never really possible to get our hands on that thing in the first place, because there was a mole among us, and the news had already leaked to MI9... His Your Excellency the Ambassador was also implicated and had to return to Intis...

Rosago felt somewhat regretful because he was directly under the Intis ambassador, Bakerland, and if Beckeron returned, Rosago would have to go back with him. Fortunately, his abilities were very suitable for espionage, and even if he returned to Intis, he certainly wouldn't be neglected.

However, before that, the ambassador had given him another small task: to kill a junior Detective who had gotten caught up in the incident. If it weren't for him, MI9 would never have noticed their actions.

Coincidentally, the young Detective turned out to be a "Clown" in the same Sequence as him, impersonating Detective by taking over and trying to make money in Backlund.

Although all the Marionette had been Destruction, Rosago wasn't worried about being killed by a low-level Sequence 8 Sequence. However, out of caution, he still used the sapphire pendant in his hand to perform a simple Divination.

"Um?"

The sapphire pendant quickly responded, slowly rotating clockwise.

In other words, it's possible to succeed, but there will be some difficulties?

Rosago paused for a moment, then quickly offered an explanation.

It's probably because that little Detective hired a Sequence 5 bodyguard... Heh, the "Wraith" just happens to be countered by my abilities. Although it will cause some trouble, it can also supplement my Marionette.

With that thought in mind, he no longer hesitated, said goodbye to his colleagues underwater, and turned to leave.

Before the night was over, he needed to rush to 15 Minsk Street, take care of that little Detective named "Sherlock Moriarty," and then report back to the ambassador.

What a life of toil...

He smiled bitterly and walked into the pitch-black night.

"Stop following me!"

Luther cursed angrily, forced to emerge from the shadows.

Behind him, the red-haired girl followed closely. When she saw him stop, she also stopped.

"Give me back my things!"

She shouted.

"Believe it or not, I'll kill you!"

Luther said coldly, his mind reeling.

He managed to stay conscious for a bit too long today; if he doesn't get back soon, he might go half-mad on the street.

"You think you can kill me so easily?"

After being threatened by Luther, the red-haired girl's face turned pale at first, but she quickly retorted.

Luther stared at her, but did not make a move immediately.

Because what this guy said... was actually true.

The red-haired girl carried many Mystical Item. With the help of these items, she managed to hide several times in a row.

She found and caught them all. And even when Luther attacked, she was able to dodge thanks to her Beyonder Item.

She has so many Beyonder Item, and they're all very effective. Most people would be lucky to have one or two, but she has so many!

He looked like a young descendant of some ancient, prominent family.

Moreover, Luther wasn't sure how many Beyonder Item the other party possessed, nor could he assess the danger of those items. Having someone he couldn't hit and couldn't shake off constantly following him was incredibly frustrating.

"I've taken the things, don't even think about it," Luther said fiercely. "If you keep bothering me, I'm going to get serious!"

If she insists on forcing him, then Luther will have no choice but to give up dodging and go all out.

The red-haired girl took a few steps back, seemingly genuinely frightened by him.

However, she quickly shifted her gaze, as if she had thought of something, and asked, "Then let me ask you, if you took the manuscript..."

"Can we find a place to sell it?"

Luther was taken aback.

He was so focused on grabbing it that he didn't even think about that.

The manuscript is indeed very valuable, but where can we sell it?

The Fat Apothecary told him about the Beyonder Gathering, but he hadn't been there yet and didn't know anything about it. Revealing information about the items rashly might get him discovered by MI9... Other underground black markets have the same problem: you can't find buyers in the short term, and it's easy to leak your information.

"See, I knew it."

The girl's voice carried a Feysac accent, with a distinct trill of the 'r', "I happen to know of a Beyonder Gathering where a very important person is requesting this manuscript. That person has a very good reputation and isn't an official. How about this, I'll provide you with the channels, and we can split it between us, okay?"

After she finished speaking, Luther hesitated for a moment.

In any case, it's best to get rid of this manuscript as soon as possible. It would be good if someone could handle it quickly. Anyway, he got it without paying much, so a small reward would be acceptable.

"Okay, 90/10 split."

He nodded.

"No way! Why don't you just rob it! We'll split it..."

After some haggling, they settled on a 30/70 split, with the red-haired girl agreeing to take him to the Beyonder Gathering and introduce him to the important figure.

My name is Sophia, what's yours?

The other person's name and accent matched, both having Feysac style.

Kafka Anderson.

Luther gave his pseudonym.