Deeper into the Ruins

It's all your fault!

It's all your fault!

Damn it!

"You son of a bitch!"

Guillaume Béné kept pounding his fist into the air in front of him, as if an invisible creature were standing there.

His expression was filled with hatred, and his inner emotions were vented without any attempt to conceal them.

Aurora deepened the Gloom in her Eyes, guiding "White Paper" to look at the void where the Parish Priest had struck.

There was nothing there, no indescribable creatures, no transparent or illusory beings; there was nothing but air.

"This is someone who's been dissatisfied with someone for a long time but hasn't dared to express it directly," Lumian clicked his tongue beside him. "Who is he blaming?"

Aurora shook her head and casually replied, "It could be a bishop suppressing him, preventing him from advancing to Clerical Orders and gaining extraordinary power; or it could be Someone enticing him to Convert Hidden Being, hoping to receive Gift and become stronger..."

She felt Parish Priest as the Subdeacon of the "Eternal Blazing Sun" Church and a powerful figure presiding over a rural Church, the parish priest could not easily establish a connection with some Concealment entity through his own efforts.

In matters involving supernatural powers, he would certainly request assistance from the Church in the Dalege Region. The corresponding Mystical Item and Witchcraft Notes would also have to be handed over to the Tribunal safekeeping or even sealed, and would not remain in the Church in Cordou Village. More importantly, it was already quite an achievement that he could master Old Feysac; languages like Hermetic and Elvish, which could mobilize supernatural powers, were not something a Subdeacon could access. Moreover, Aurora had already confirmed through the "Mystery-Prying Eye" that he was not the kind of person who was naturally highly spiritual and would inadvertently attract evil.

Therefore, without the "guidance" of a certain person, how can this Parish Priest access the Hidden Being?

Of course, Aurora also doesn't rule out the possibility that Guillaume Béné accidentally obtained Mysticism items but didn't hand them over.

Hearing her Older Sister's words, Lumian chuckled:

"Is it not permissible for this Parish Priest to criticize That One Hidden Being?"

"If he dared to make Saint Sies suffer a little, it's not impossible that he would blame That One Hidden Being for tempting him."

After mocking Guillaume Béné, Lumian analyzed seriously. "I've been thinking about why the Parish Priest suddenly fell into depravity. After much thought, I think there are two suspects, uh, suspects. One is Madame Pualis. She is obviously very powerful. Whether it's Louis Lund giving birth in the Castle or the woman who seems to be her surrounded by the Undead in the Wilderness, it all shows that she is not simple. She is involved in abnormal Pathway and has Concealment existence. As one of Madame Pualis's lovers, it is normal for the Parish Priest to be seduced by her."

"Oh, right..."

Lumian suddenly slapped his forehead.

"What's wrong?" Aurora wondered what her brother had made up.

Lumian answered with a serious expression:

"Tell me, did the Parish Priest have any children with Madame Pualis?"

"..." Aurora now regrets it, regrets believing her brother's performance and thinking she had made some important discovery.

She retorted irritably, "Who told you that Louis Lund's child is Madame Pualis's?"

"What if it's Administrator Beaost's? What if it's some Hidden Being? No, it's not. If it were, you would have exploded Mutation Monster the moment you saw that scene."

"I just feel that when the Administrator and Madame Pualis are together, Madame Pualis is clearly more dominant." Before the Loop even started, Lumian felt that Administrator Beaost was a bit weak; he couldn't teach the Butler well, nor could he keep an eye on his wife, and when he appeared with Madame Pualis, he always seemed to be trying to please her.

Lumian had initially thought the Administrator loved his wife, but now he had a new guess:

"Do you think the Administrator might be just another breeding machine for Madame Pualis?"

"Perhaps," Aurora rubbed her forehead, "The Mysticism World has truly opened my eyes. Many plots that only exist in novels and imaginations have come true, in Distortion ways..."

After sighing, she muttered to herself, "It seems there were more than one or two children born in the Castle. Where did those children go?"

Lumian thought for a moment and said he had no idea.

He didn't dare suggest sneaking into the Castle for a thorough search; after witnessing Louis Lund and what happened in the Wilderness, he instinctively wanted to avoid Madame Pualis's trail.

Aurora was the same; both siblings developed a deep fear of Madame Pualis.

At this moment, the Parish Priest, having vented his anger, walked to the table in the room, poured himself a small glass of Red Wine, and gulped it down.

He let out a long sigh, put down the stemmed glass, and walked towards the Bed.

Only when the Parish Priest's breathing became calm and he seemed to have fallen asleep did Lumian scoff, "Sleeping so early?"

"I thought he'd find another mistress. And, well, he doesn't smoke in private."

This conclusion was drawn from the absence of Cigarette Case, Pipe, or other similar items in the bedroom.

"He only drinks a little, and everyone says he's perfectly normal," Aurora chuckled.

She had "White Paper" observe for a while longer, and seeing that it hadn't gained anything, she ordered it to return. She then turned to Lumian and said, "You only mentioned one suspect. What about the other one?"

"That sneaky, peeking Owl!" Lumian voiced his speculation. "It might have led the Parish Priest to the remains of That One legendary Warlock."

"Hmm." Aurora felt the possibility was quite high.

Lumian then proposed:

"If that Owl comes to see me again, let's catch it and torture it severely."

"Are you sure you can beat an Owl's lived for who knows how many years?" Aurora laughed.

"Isn't it you we have?" Lumian flattered her Older Sister.

Aurora chuckled.

Even if the two of us combine our efforts, our chances of success aren't very high.

"Uh... but we can try. Doing nothing means we won't discover anything, which is a waste of precious time. Well, the key is that it won't affect the arrival of the Twelfth Night."

Lumian nodded emphatically.

Seeing his exhausted and pale face, Aurora caught the "White Paper" that flew back and instructed, "You've practiced Spirit Vision too many times today. Go to sleep and get some rest so you can continue tomorrow."

She thought for a moment and added, "Tomorrow morning, I'll teach you Hermetic, the simplest of those supernatural languages. In the afternoon, go find Pierre Berri and have him buy you drinks. I'll take the opportunity to go to his Sheep Pen and talk to the three sheep to see if I can get any useful information."

She felt this was the easiest lead to investigate at the moment.

"Isn't this too dangerous?" Lumian asked, having already stood up.

Aurora smiled and comforted her younger brother:

"Don't worry, I'm not going to fight or kill anyone, nor do I plan to immediately try to restore them to human form. I won't trigger any potential alarms. I just intend to communicate with them in the Highland Language; they should know some things."

Lumian nodded:

"I'm going to the Old Tavern tomorrow afternoon. I plan to 'get to know' those Three Foreigners; they're trustworthy helpers."

Of course, this is on the premise that the siblings' identities Wild Beyonder are not revealed.

"Okay." Aurora agreed with her brother's choice.

In the light Gray Fog, Lumian awoke in her Dream bedroom.

Unsurprisingly, he discovered that all his Gold Coin, Silver Coin, and Copper Coin coins, as well as the Axe, Steel Pitchfork, and other items beside him, were gone.

The Dream Ruins have begun a new Loop.

"I have to pick it up again..." Lumian muttered to himself as he left the bedroom and went into the Study.

He picked up the Little Blue Book on the table, flipped through it casually, and saw that many Vocabulary had been cut out.

"So it really was the Request for Help..." Lumian was no longer emotionally affected by it.

Moreover, he suspected that it was "sent" under Aurora's guidance, since he would most likely have chosen to find a reliable messenger or wait for the Postman if he had no knowledge of the Mysticism at the time.

Thinking of the Postman, Lumian realized that the guy who came every week wasn't in the Loop.

He thought about it for a while and felt that this was normal. After receiving the Request for Help and confirming that there was something unusual in Cordou Village, the authorities would probably find some excuse to prevent Ordinary Person from entering Cordu.

Lumian casually looked around, trying to see if any boxes for storing letters were missing, but he couldn't remember how many similar things Aurora had collected, so he quickly gave up trying.

Without hindering his movements, Lumian put on some more clothes and trousers, took the Iron-Black Axe, and once again left home, entering the cracked Wilderness, heading towards the Ruins surrounding the dark red "Mountain Peak".

With his previous experience, he easily dealt with the two Monster he was familiar with, slung his Hunting Rifle over his shoulder, hung Bag of Lead Shot on his back, and put away various coins.

Lumian cautiously crept forward, deliberately avoiding the path he had originally taken and instead venturing deeper in a different direction—he figured he was unlikely to be able to handle the Monster with three faces on its head.

As he walked past the buildings that had collapsed into a thin Gray Fog, he sniffed, his mind still focused.

He smelled a very faint scent of blood.

After a moment's thought, Lumian crept along the shadows toward the source of the bloody smell.

Not long after, he hid in a concealed space on the roof of a half-collapsed house, peering ahead through a large gap between several stones.

On a barren wasteland devoid of Weeds, amidst several completely collapsed and haphazardly piled-up buildings, a mass of flesh and blood writhes.

The flesh and blood were mixed with some yellow fat, and the whole thing looked like some creature had been crushed by a falling boulder.

It still seemed to have a will to live, slowly crawling towards a building.

"How do we deal with this Monster? Cut off its head? But it doesn't even have a head..." Lumian fell into deep thought.

Just then, several thick, dark black ropes covered with flesh membranes appeared out of nowhere and bound the mass of flesh.