"I don't know either..."
Peter gave a wry smile, then struck another match and lit Percy's cigarette. "Remember to give me the cigarette butt and ashes."
Half an hour later, footsteps sounded outside the holding cell.
With a creak, the heavy iron door opened, and an authoritative voice echoed through the room. "Percy Anias... you are released! Your position as captain is hereby reinstated!"
"What happened?"
Percy's expression was grave, without the slightest trace of joy on his face. "Even if I passed the review, someone in my situation surely isn't fit to remain in the Investigation Bureau, am I?"
"Come with me!"
The stern-faced investigator led Percy out of the holding cell and toward Jacob's office.
"The Bureau deployed quite a few people..."
Looking at the empty offices and desks one after another, Percy asked with a note of speculation, "Have you already found the location of the Sothos Mausoleum?"
"No!"
The authoritative investigator abruptly stopped walking, nearly causing Percy to crash into his back.
Though his voice was calm, it could not conceal that trace of gravity. "They're all dead..."
"All... dead?!"
Percy turned his head again, looking at those vacant desks as his expression gradually froze...
Inside Jacob's office.
"Percy Anias..."
Deep exhaustion lined Jacob's face, and he seemed to have aged considerably. He handed Percy a document. "Read the operation briefing first... This is top secret. You must sign a mysterious contract and swear not to leak a single word!"
Percy took it. After merely glancing over it, his pupils abruptly dilated. "Sothos Mausoleum... devastating casualties... Caslow killed in action... Count of Green Forest... an Immortal... the Invisible Cult?"
His heart grew incomparably heavy, and his voice turned dry. "A secret of this level... doesn't seem like something I should be allowed to read, does it?"