Empress Borough, in the garden villa of Viscount Horatio.
Since attending Miss Audrey Hall's coming-of-age ball, Emma had been staying home. She now sat alone by the window, murmuring to herself,
"Flora, what exactly is being hidden behind the Great Smog Incident?
"I don't think it's as simple as a single Demoness of Despair trying to advance."
As a "Cryptologist," Emma was deeply interested in the hidden truths behind the matter. If the plague outside had ended—and if she weren't grounded by her parents for being too close to Fanny—she would've already gone to the East Borough, to investigate at Prince Edessak's "Red Rose Manor."
"Isn't your mother part of the 'Psychological Alchemy Society'? Why not just ask her?" Flora Jacob's sharp voice sounded in her ear, laced with a hint of mockery. Flora was a demigod of the Marauder pathway.
"My mother's just an ordinary member of the Psychological Alchemy Society. She has no access to secrets that deep…" Emma ran her hand through her long black hair that fell to her waist as she spoke, then added, "And stop wasting your time trying to probe. I've said it before—the contract that binds you came through my own channels. It has nothing to do with the Psychological Alchemy Society."
"How do I know whether that's true or not? You're young, but even more cunning than some old foxes!" Flora said bitterly.
Emma raised an eyebrow, clearly displeased by the "old fox" comparison. She replied teasingly, "Our pathway goes through the 'Fraudster' stage—how could we not be cunning? The only reason you walked straight into a 'trap' is because you'd been possessing rats for too long. There wasn't much intelligence left in you."
"Who would've thought even Sequence-attached knowledge could be tampered with..." Flora was stunned into silence for a moment before squeezing out that sentence.
"Alright, back to the original topic... I want to hear your take on the Great Smog Incident," Emma smoothly shifted gears.
Flora fell silent, seemingly deep in thought, before replying carefully,
"The Loen royal family must be plotting something—and to achieve it, they were even willing to cooperate with the Demoness Sect and the Aurora Order.
"The first layer of the Great Smog's appearance was just a Demoness of Despair attempting to ascend. But hidden underneath were schemes to revive the Primordial Demoness and attempts to bring about the descent of the True Creator..."
At this, Flora gave a cold laugh and continued, "But even that layer may just be a smokescreen—used to cover the royal family's true objective."
"So that means Prince Edessak and Duke Glacis were merely scapegoats pushed to the front... And even the claim that Intis colluded with Edessak to create chaos in Backlund might've been a frame-up?" Emma murmured thoughtfully.
She had overheard the intel about Intis and Edessak from her father.
"Intis may have truly colluded with Edessak—and the intelligence agency caught hard evidence of it. Otherwise, the three major Churches wouldn't have believed it so easily... But it probably has nothing to do with the Great Smog."
Flora, being a descendant of the Jacob family, had no fondness for the Augustus family. From the beginning, she had been convinced the royal family was the true mastermind.
Is that so? No wonder Father won't let me see Fanny anymore—not even write to her... Emma fell into brief contemplation before asking again,
"If Intis was caught red-handed, and the Churches are applying pressure, wouldn't they be forced to give some kind of explanation?"
"Intis won't pay a heavy price. What the three Churches want is just a gesture—so long as someone of sufficient status steps forward to confess, the rest will be brushed aside…
"After all, the Churches aren't fools. If I can figure this much out, they certainly can too. But without direct evidence, and with the Loen royal family offering considerable concessions, no one's going to push too hard."
At this point, Flora seemed to realize what Emma truly wanted to ask and couldn't help but sneer,
"You're afraid your friend's family will be pushed out as scapegoats, aren't you?
"Tsk, when you think about it, her grandfather does fit the role perfectly…"
"Flora, have you been a rat so long you've forgotten your pathway? You're a Marauder, not a Provocateur." Emma didn't take the bait—she knew the Surrey family had a high-ranking saint serving as an archbishop in the Church of Steam. They weren't so easily manipulated.
Still, I should give Fanny a heads-up… If someone tries to use her as leverage against Mr. Surrey...
Emma recalled the observers she had previously noticed tailing Fanny, and couldn't help but furrow her elegant brows.
Just then, her personal maid Wendy entered the room. She hesitated for a moment before speaking softly, "Miss, there's something I need to report to you."
"What is it?" Emma asked curiously, noticing Wendy's odd expression.
"It's… Detective Bryan has returned to Backlund," the maid answered a little awkwardly.
It was no secret that her young lady had an unusual relationship with that detective. Over a month ago, she had even assigned servants to stroll past the villa at No. 28 Kingster Street every day…
As her personal maid, Wendy had considered advising her lady, but when she thought of Emma's past "rebellious" behavior, she wasn't sure how to bring it up.
"Falling for a famous detective is still better for her reputation than all the wild, incomprehensible stunts she pulled back then…" Wendy could only comfort herself with that thought.
Bryan is back? Emma's eyes lit up instantly, and an idea took shape in her mind. She bent over her desk and began writing a letter.
Although she was under house arrest, her servants were still free to go out.
She hadn't asked them to send a letter to Fanny before, partly because she feared they'd be caught by those stalkers and lose their lives, and partly because she didn't want to alert the enemy and force them to act prematurely.
But Bryan was different… He was powerful, with exceptional "stealth" abilities. When he'd followed her and Fanny into Baron Conva's underground castle, they hadn't even noticed.
…
Inside the villa at 28 Kingster Street, Bryan had just come downstairs when he saw Helene lounging idly on a couch in the small parlor, flipping through a magazine.
Helene looked up and immediately stood. "Mr. Bryan, are we staying in Backlund for a few days?"
Just earlier, she had offered to help Mrs. Skade with the chores, only to be politely turned down. That was when she realized—she was no longer a maid, but a guest.
It made her feel a bit lost and uncomfortable. She felt like she needed something to do.
"Probably five or six days, maybe even a week," Bryan replied after a moment of thought.
He planned to use the time to visit some friends, craft a few items… and more importantly, await the result of Mr. Gaston's sale of the transformation wand to the "King of the Five Seas." Once he left Backlund, it would no longer be so convenient to "teleport" to Damir.
"That long…" Helene looked a little disappointed.
Bryan noticed and, after thinking for a moment, smiled and said, "Weren't you a merchant before you were captured by Trissy?"
Why not survey the market a bit?
Helene perked up but quickly deflated again. "I don't have many gold pounds…"
Although Bryan hadn't paid her for her maid work, during a gathering at the Amyris Leaf Bar, she had borrowed money from the "Sea Serpent" Waive and made some profit through arbitrage.
"I can invest," Bryan said with a glint in his eye, then asked, "What do you think is the most popular thing from Backlund in Intis?"
"What's most popular…" Helene frowned and thought for a while. "Honestly, it's the exotic customs and cultures… But you can't exactly take those with you. You can only select some specialties, but we can't purchase on a large scale, so there's not much profit."
"Who says you can't bring 'customs and culture' back?" Bryan chuckled, laid out a sheet of paper on the parlor table, and wrote a line:
"Bryan Film Company Investment Proposal"
With photography already fairly widespread—even portable—how was it that filming hadn't yet been invented? That was Roselle's failure!
And once there was "videography," playing the role of a Mysticism Magister would become much easier.
(End of Chapter)