In Viscount Horatio's garden villa in Empress Borough.
Ever since attending Miss Audrey Hall's coming-of-age ball, Emma had stayed at home. Now she sat alone by the window and said, almost to herself:
"Flora, what was really behind the Great Smog?
"I don't think it was as simple as a Demoness of Despair trying to advance."
As a Mystery Pryer, Emma was deeply interested in what had happened. If the plague outside had ended, and her parents had not grounded her because of her close friendship with Fanny, she would already have gone to East Borough and Prince Edessak's Red Rose Manor to investigate.
"Isn't your mother a member of the Psychology Alchemists? Why not ask her?" Flora Jacob, a Demigod of the Marauder Pathway, spoke sharply in her ear, her tone faintly mocking.
"My mother's only an ordinary member of the Psychology Alchemists. She has no access to secrets that important..." Emma smoothed her waist-length black hair with one hand and continued, "And there's no need to keep probing me. I've told you before: I got the Contract binding you through my own channels. It has nothing to do with the Psychology Alchemists."
"Who knows whether you're telling the truth? You're young, but you're more cunning than some old foxes!" Flora said bitterly.
Emma raised an eyebrow, plainly displeased by the comparison to an old fox. "How could anyone on our Pathway go through the Swindler stage without becoming cunning? You walked into that trap so easily because you'd spent too long possessing a rat. You hardly had any wisdom left."
"Who could've imagined that He could even tamper with the knowledge that comes with a Sequence..." Flora fell silent for a long while before managing that reply.
"All right, back to the original question... I want to hear