"You mean that Mr. Fool is watching us?"
Though phrased as a question, Bernadette sounded certain.
She looked up at the special Mirror World overhead, its surface riddled with web-like cracks. Her eyes suddenly grew incredibly deep, like the sea before a storm.
A moment later, she lowered her head and turned to Cyril, her expression inscrutable.
"You've passed the test. Tomorrow night at eight, go to the Dock District. Wait for the gathering to begin between the third and fourth lampposts on the left side of the Tussock River."
"Huh?" Cyril stared at her, bewildered.
Bernadette didn't explain. She simply reached out and tapped the air, and Cyril saw a tiny, blue-green seed, no bigger than a fingernail, fall from his body.
A long-forgotten memory surfaced.
This was the token Sharron had given him for that high-end gathering. But the test she'd mentioned had never come, and the seed hadn't disappeared. He'd assumed the gathering's organizer had forgotten about him.
...So Miss Sharron's gathering is actually organized by Bernadette. And she foresaw something about the future, which is why she never let me join?
As his thoughts stirred, he saw the blue-green vines around him retracting. The eyes growing from the dense cracks were withering one by one, too.
Is she letting me go?
The thought had barely crossed his mind when he hurriedly raised a hand. "Please wait. I'd like to propose a deal concerning a disaster involving high-level powers."
When he saw the vines retracting and the eyeballs withering more slowly, he quickly continued:
"I should be able to find out the time and location of a dangerous ritual involving the True Creator's descent. I can notify you as soon as I do."
Bernadette lowered her eyes to him. Her expression didn't change in the slightest as