The First Clash with the Special Inspection Office

"Are you a Knower?"

Given Benjamin's blunt question, the person answering clearly had no reason to think for long.

"No." Fan Ning's answer took less than three seconds.

In other words, he wasn't one, but he knew such an existence existed.

Although he had answered quickly, his heart was hanging by a thread.

After all, he had lied.

"Then, the second question." Benjamin nodded and took a puff from his pipe. "What's your relationship with the Guidance School?"

That was close...

Fan Ning's heart had nearly dropped, then quickly settled again.

Only after hearing the second question did he confirm that his answer to the first had been correct.

He had to tell that lie.

After hearing what he said, Hiran had called the Woodpecker Inquiry Office's duty line, and they should have had some dealings with the Special Inspection Office.

Although he didn't know the exact content of those discussions...

If he answered "yes," it would definitely contradict the Guidance School's account.

And answering, "I don't know what you're talking about," would raise even more problems. He already knew people from the Guidance School, so how could he not know what a Knower was?

The reason Fan Ning was handling this so cautiously stemmed from a premise he had assumed:

As an official imperial institution, the Special Inspection Office was the most powerful among the legitimate Knower organizations within Tioleian territory, perhaps even occupying a supervisory position.

Since he still didn't understand the relationships between the Knower organizations, this assumption might not be correct, but it was definitely the safest one. Even if he was wrong, it wouldn't hurt.

Regardless, he had shot and killed someone, there was also his father's unclear connection, not to mention the theft and circulation of The Remnant of the Musical Scale...

His advancement and acquisition of abilities had also originated from the cipher indicated by The Remnant of the Musical Scale...

If he gave any strange or inconsistent answers during the Special Inspection Office's questioning, it could cause serious trouble for both him and the Guidance School!

A Knower shouldn't be able to directly see it simply by not invoking mysterious power, right? At the very least, another Knower of roughly the same level shouldn't be able to see it directly, right?

Various thoughts flashed rapidly through Fan Ning's mind as he began answering the second question:

"I learned of the existence of Knowers and the Guidance School through Lord Viadlin, and the person who introduced me was my late teacher, Professor Anton Conall. His original purpose in recommending me was for me to study piano there."

"However, my thoughts have changed somewhat. As you know, I'm a fourth-year student at Saint Leniya University. My family went through some difficulties in the past, leaving us in strained circumstances. Now that I'm facing the need to choose a career, and the competition for a position at the university is extremely fierce, after learning about the salary, benefits, and work involved for clerical staff at the Guidance School, I think it would also be a rather respectable job..."

Benjamin's threads of inspiration invisibly enveloped Fan Ning's Aether Body and Emotional Body.

As he answered, the contours of his body, heart, and blood vessels displayed the healthy, normal green phase of the Cocoon, transitioning into the dark green and then red phase of the Pool. There were few mixed colors and no signs of ordinary Aberration.

The Pool's red was more peach-pink than crimson. The Emotional Body on the outer layer swayed very little. Unless Benjamin was a master of counter-investigation, Fan Ning probably wasn't lying.

His brain displayed a vast expanse of incandescent white, with some pale gold as well, indicating the fairly powerful inspiration of the Candle phase. There were also silhouettes of purple from the Key phase, with a dark transition zone between them.

"Pale gold?" Benjamin was somewhat puzzled, but these were indeed all phases of the Candle.

Perhaps it was because Fan Ning was a music student who had recently been frequently composing music?

"Are you peering into me? Another Knower who advanced through the Candle phase?"

Fan Ning likewise sensed the probing of the other man's inspiration. If he resisted, Benjamin's observation of his Aether Body would be greatly weakened.

However, he didn't do so.

"All right. I hope you find a sincerely respectable job after graduation." Benjamin continued nodding.

"Thank you."

"Third question. Please explain the scorched pistol grip at the scene and the mirror that was smashed into pieces." Benjamin's eyes narrowed slightly beneath his silver-gray soft felt hat.

Fan Ning's heart tightened.

Was he really paying attention to such details...?

Or was he already suspicious?

"I don't quite understand what you mean." Fan Ning gave him a bewildered smile.

"I understand." After taking a deep breath from his pipe, Benjamin placed it on the mahogany desk and slowly exhaled.

Fan Ning continued looking at him blankly.

"In a crisis, in the pitch darkness, when resisting on instinct, it's indeed difficult to notice details. You don't need to explain it yourself. I'll just take a look."

As he spoke, Benjamin took three candles from the office cabinet beside him. He lit them one after another with a match, fixed them in place by dripping wax, and arranged them in a triangle on the desktop.

Is he going to use some method to test me? Fan Ning felt somewhat uneasy.

He didn't know whether anything about him would be discovered.

But it seemed he had no reason to refuse to cooperate.

"Place your left hand inside this area." Benjamin spoke.

Fan Ning had no choice but to do as instructed.

Benjamin then tossed a snowflake-shaped crystal onto the candle flame closest to Fan Ning, and white mist billowed upward.

"Please close your eyes."

In the darkness, Fan Ning smelled a cool, sharp scent. He felt his mind grow quiet and his personality become reticent, losing the desire to communicate with others, while his memories of recent events became extraordinarily clear.

His memories from the past day in particular flew by at high speed without missing a single detail—not only images, but seemingly his senses as well, all vivid and clear beyond compare.

Before the funeral began, the complete order of the mourners' faces as they presented flowers at his teacher's coffin;

The distribution of occupied and empty seats below the stage when he bowed after finishing his performance;

The exact spot on his shoulder where Qiong poked him with her finger in the funeral procession;

The clothes worn by each of the four unfamiliar students sitting beside them while the three of them chatted over lunch;

The path of his hand as it brushed through Hiran's hair on the lawn inside the compound;

The choking smell of the dusty corners he discovered during the thorough cleaning;

The way the food scraps were piled on the dinner plate;

The sensation of hitting the wrong notes while performing his teacher's piano sonata;

The complete pattern along the collar of the nightclothes Hiran was wearing on the sofa...

Stop!

When the timeline reached the moment the two of them had said good night to each other and Fan Ning had returned to his room to sleep...

Fan Ning suddenly realized that the memories in his mind were being dragged out by an external force like a spinning black record in a gramophone, reading the information engraved upon it!

It was a sensation of being pulled between incandescent white and dark silver...

"The phases of the Candle and the Wasteland?"

Fan Ning immediately tried to reclaim control over his own inspiration. He felt that his spirit was a flame ranging from incandescent white to pale gold, carrying a small purple silhouette. Although its main body only consisted of roughly one phase, compared to the two phases dragging at it from outside, it was even slightly superior!

He felt that, under his interference, the shuttle of memories should be able to speed up or slow down, move forward or stop, become clear or blur.

He could even forcefully drive it forward and sever this state of "being read"!

However, he didn't choose to resist that way. Instead, he blurred the information in the memories that followed...

The record of memories continued to spin:

He dreamed of Lu and Roy, but only engaged in logically incoherent dialogue;

He woke abnormally in the middle of the night, searched around, and then went to Hiran's room;

He dozed off in the small chair, then awoke when a man stabbed at him;

He tackled Hiran amid the gunshots, then grabbed a stool and brought it down on the man's head;

A confused struggle whose details were unclear, with glass shattering all over the floor;

He snatched the pistol and immediately shot the man dead...

Everything proceeded exactly along the course Fan Ning had arranged, until he opened his eyes again.