“Good afternoon, everyone.” Carol walked into Room 666 and said to them, “First, some good news. Your applications have all been approved. Next week, you can report to your respective departments.”
The five Revelators all nodded.
Angela asked, “When exactly?”
Carol said, “It will be at 2:00 PM on Monday. Still come here, and then I will take you to your respective departments. Remember, absolutely do not be late.
“Except for the First Corridor, the Salon, and the departments you are about to join, the other departments are somewhat exclusionary. Their work locations won’t be revealed to you.
“Of course, generally speaking, you won’t be involved in the work of other departments. If there is a real need, you can go to Room 5 of the First Corridor, which is the Emergency Handling Center.”
Carol casually mentioned a few points to note.
Angela nodded repeatedly, then asked, “Then, can we still use this room in the future?”
Carol blinked, seemingly realizing something, and smiled. “Of course. This room is assigned to you, and moreover, only you can enter it.
“After you complete the introductory course, my access will also be revoked. At that time, only the five of you will be able to enter this room, unless you expand the access to others.”
Carol pointed to the door handle and said, “That is this room’s recording method. During the ritual duration, as long as you grasp the door handle, you can clearly know who is allowed to enter this room.”
The others were suddenly enlightened.
Carol likely knew they still wanted to keep in touch after the introductory course, and didn’t stop them. Instead, he said, “The friendships formed during the introductory course might be the purest, cleanest friendships of your entire Revelator career.
“Cherish such bonds.”
They all nodded.
Then, Carol clapped his hands. “Alright. By the way, the Second Corridor is already investigating the situation with Brewer’s fiancée, but they haven’t found anything yet.”
He looked at these Revelators, and the Revelators looked back at him.
So Carol smiled. “Next, it’s time to get down to business. Let’s learn a new ritual: [Trace Tracking].”
He took five bottles of potions and five magnifying glasses from his coat and handed them over.
Siles had taken a potion when he woke up in the morning, and its effect was just wearing off now, so he drank the 1% purity potion Carol handed him.
The faint blue radiance appeared in his vision once again.
Carol said, “The function of this ritual, as the name suggests, is to allow you to focus on a certain unique trace, such as bloodstains, footprints, and so on. It is extremely practical for the Revelators of the Second Corridor.”
He nodded at Eric, while Eric looked down at the magnifying glass, lost in thought.
Darrell said with some disappointment, “I thought it would be an offensive ritual!”
Carol laughed. “You can’t learn offensive rituals yet, Darrell. Entry-level Revelators can only learn some safe, auxiliary rituals.”
Darrell seemed unconvinced and asked, “Then, where can this [Trace Tracking] ritual be used? Besides handling sudden cases in the Second Corridor like you mentioned.”
Carol said, “When you need to find a certain object or a certain person, you can use this ritual. This is a basic object-finding and person-finding ritual.”
Darrell was taken aback and said, troubled, “This counts as traces too?”
“Of course,” Carol patiently explained. “The source of this ritual is police officers from the police station. We will borrow their keen observation skills.”
Siles thoughtfully toyed with the magnifying glass, thinking, This ritual is probably used to increase the Investigation attribute, right?
This actually sounded quite interesting. It could play different roles in different situations.
Among the several rituals he had currently learned—[Flowing Wind], [Formless Shield], [The Silent Heart], and [Trace Tracking]—except for the first one which was used for introduction and experiencing the wonders of a Revelator, the latter three all had their own usage scenarios.
Moreover… practically speaking, if he could find a shield fragment made of better material, then the effectiveness of [Formless Shield]—especially if he wanted to explore the Ashless Land in the future—would definitely increase a lot.
And the Investigation attribute brought by [Trace Tracking] would often result in an extremely crucial check. It directly decided whether he could discover important clues.
Noticing that they were all focusing, Carol said, “Before you arrived, I placed some special clues and traces for you to find in this room. You can try exploring this room.”
Excited by this “game,” Darrell asked, “How do we use this ritual?”
“Place the magnifying glass in front of your eye, and then observe the world through this magnifying glass,” Carol said. “Be careful where you walk.”
After saying that, he stepped aside, waiting with interest for them to begin taking action.
Darrell and Angela were the first to move, each starting from opposite ends of the room, seeming to have a bit of a secret rivalry going on. Mrs. Fuller remained seated on the sofa, appearing to want to start from there.
Eric stood up and went to the door, planning to search carefully all the way from the entrance.
Siles looked at the positions they each chose, pondered for a moment, then stood up and went to the bookshelf.
If this ritual is to increase the Investigation attribute…
Siles thought to himself as he raised the magnifying glass and placed it before his right eye. The sound of rolling dice echoed in his mind, followed by a prompt: [Investigation +5 (Temporary).]
Siles was slightly startled, unavoidably thinking that his Investigation attribute had originally only been 30, and now it was 35. And this was just the result of a 1% purity potion.
However, this was because his ritual compatibility was always maxed out, and furthermore, the final increased Investigation attribute would certainly be limited by the Time Trace’s owner.
In other words, it would be best if he could find a senior police officer or detective and try to reproduce this ritual from them?
The Investigation attribute could greatly help Siles find things he had overlooked.
He kind of wanted to experiment, but unfortunately, this magnifying glass could only be used inside the History Society. After leaving the History Society, the current Siles couldn’t openly use rituals yet.
He felt a bit of regret—he actually wanted to use this ritual to try and search his office to see if there were any clues he had overlooked regarding Professor Cabel’s disappearance.
Siles gathered his thoughts and shifted his gaze to the bookshelf, inspecting it carefully.
What he had in mind was to find the things Carol previously placed on this bookshelf. The more he thought this way, he suddenly noticed that one or two books on the shelf suddenly emitted a faint blue light.
Siles paused, walked over to take a look, and found that they were books that had never appeared on the bookshelf before.
This made Siles somewhat enlightened.
He was probably the person in this room most familiar with this bookshelf. Which meant, theoretically speaking, he actually knew very well what books used to be on this bookshelf, and which ones Carol had put up later.
However, if he were to observe it himself, it would actually be very difficult for him to spot, because his memory and investigation skills weren’t that good.
But the [Trace Tracking] ritual helped him very well, bringing the two extra books on the shelf to his attention.
Furthermore…
Siles reached out and took down the book in front of him.
On the cover of the book, several fingerprints faintly glowing blue were displayed before his eyes—Carol’s fingerprints.
Siles looked at this sight with some amazement.
To the naked eye, these fingerprints were actually very hard to discover; but during this ritual, the fingerprints became much easier to recognize. Moreover, due to Siles’s own uniqueness, these fingerprints directly glowed with a faint blue light, allowing Siles to notice them at a glance.
The books on the shelf, and the fingerprints. Siles thought, These are the two forms of assistance, or rather, hints, that this ritual gave me.
And due to the existence of the blue radiance during the ritual duration… they were as conspicuous as quest items in a game.
He turned around, swept his gaze across the entire room, and sure enough, found quite a few items flashing with faint blue light. He thought with a mixture of amusement and exasperation that this game was truly on easy mode for him.
“Siles, congratulations on being the first to find something!” Carol clapped his hands and said with a laugh, “How did you find it?”
Siles thought for a moment, then said, “I often read books here, so I noticed there was an extra book on the shelf.” He tilted his head to look at the bookshelf. “No, two books.”
He took the other one down as well.
Carol looked at him in amazement and praised, “You really have keen observation skills!”
Siles shook his head and said, “It was the help of the ritual.”
Carol wanted to say something, but he noticed that the others had also consecutively found the items he had placed, so he just smiled, went to praise the others, and didn’t continue talking with Siles.
Not long after, everyone had found something.
Siles had two books; Eric had a stack of middle school exam papers; Mrs. Fuller had a beautiful hat; Angela had an exquisite bracelet; Darrell had a set of comic books popular on the market.
After everyone had found their items, they also realized the meaning of these things and unanimously looked towards Carol.
Carol smiled and said, “Graduation gifts for you all.”
Everyone laughed and thanked Carol.
Darrell muttered, “Why not give them during the next class?”
“Because the next class is an outdoor practical class,” Carol said easily. “After all, always using rituals indoors in comfort is nothing to be happy or celebrate about, because the success rate here is always higher.”
“Outdoor!” Darrell cheered up. “That’s great!”
Everyone present heard his underlying meaning, but only Angela deliberately teased him, “Are you going to go home and show off about this?”
Darrell rolled his eyes at her and said, “So what! I just want to prove to my parents that I’ve grown up! I can hold my own! I can be as awesome as my brother!”
This statement actually made Angela laugh. A young child’s ambition always made one reluctant to shatter it.
Carol clapped his hands and said, “Next, let’s continue practicing this ritual. My suggestion is that you practice in groups of two or three, hide things, and let the others find them.”
Quickly, they formed groups according to Carol’s instructions and searched for the hidden items respectively. From time to time, an exclamation of “How are you so good at hiding things!” could be heard in Room 666.
This Wednesday afternoon’s introductory class also concluded smoothly. Carol bid them farewell and then left.
Siles put the two books Carol gave him into his bag and hefted it, instantly feeling that his backpack had become much heavier. He planned to go to 13 Milford Street first to store this backpack at the Fenn household.
Eric was waiting for him at the door. When the other three saw Eric looking as if he was waiting for someone, they felt a bit curious.
Angela asked curiously, “Are you two planning to go somewhere together?”
Eric glanced at Siles and answered, “We plan to go to the underground trading fair in the West City together.”
“The underground trading fair!” Angela exclaimed, her face full of curiosity and excitement. “Can I go?”
Mrs. Fuller said thoughtfully, “The trading fair at Ernestine’s? I’ve heard of it before, but I’ve never been able to actually see it.”
“I want to go too.” Darrell frowned. “But I have to go home and tell them first.”
What was originally a two-person trip suddenly turned into a group outing. However, Siles didn’t think this was a problem. He said, “Then I’m afraid you’ll have to change your clothes first, especially the two ladies.”
Mrs. Fuller and Angela’s attire couldn’t be described as exceedingly gorgeous, but one could tell at a glance that they were nobles from the East City. This would be too eye-catching over in the Old City.
The two ladies both nodded. Angela looked extremely surprised and excited. Darrell also said, “Then I’ll head home for a bit.”
Siles thought for a moment and said, “How about we meet at the Logan Market in the West City at six o’clock?”
Everyone agreed. They dispersed, each secretly looking forward to the group activity that evening.
Siles and Eric took a public carriage and went to the West City first.
“I didn’t expect it to turn into a group activity,” Eric sighed.
Siles said, “However, this is also a good thing.”
Eric thought about it and also nodded. He sighed, “I never thought before that my life would become like this. My wife is already packing up the items in our house.
“I’ve also already contacted a middle school, and my daughter will enroll there in the second semester. That middle school is very close to Milford Street, so it’s very convenient.”
Siles said, “We always encounter turning points in life inadvertently.”
Eric’s eyes widened slightly, then he said, “You’re right.”
“Nothing has happened at the trading fair recently, has it?” Siles shifted the topic and asked.
Eric shook his head. “After that incident on the first day, Ernestine’s doubled the number of guards. Since then, the order has been much better, and no more vicious incidents have occurred.
“However, how tonight will turn out is ultimately an unknown. It’s still a bit dangerous. I’ll have to remind them later.”
He was referring to Mrs. Fuller, Angela, and Darrell.
“I’m guessing an elder of Darrell’s will accompany him,” Siles said in a low voice. “That’s my guess.”
“His brother?” Eric said. “I’ve always been a bit curious about what the Church’s knights are like.”
Siles thought of Bunyan, and then of the others in the Church of the Past. Finally, he said, “The followers of Antinam… sometimes you can tell them apart at a glance. They all have a particularly peaceful aura.”
Eric looked somewhat doubtful, but he didn’t ask further. He said, “We’ll see them eventually in the future.”
When they arrived at Logan Market, it was still early. Siles went to visit the Fenn family, deposited his backpack there, and only took a small amount of coins with him, to avoid any accidents happening if he brought the items in the backpack to the trading fair.
Bertram wasn’t home; Mrs. Fenn said he was over at Ernestine’s. Anthony was home, though Mrs. Fenn said he was studying hard in his room, seemingly having developed a strong interest in mathematics.
Siles then said, “Who knows, he might become a mathematician in the future.”
Mrs. Fenn shook her head and said, “As long as he can maintain his father’s business, I consider him a good boy.”
Siles couldn’t help but smile, and asked again, “How is his injury?”
“He’s fine now. It just left a scar, but it will slowly disappear,” Mrs. Fenn said. “Thanks to you, and thanks to that doctor.”
He chatted with Mrs. Fenn for a bit, then returned to Logan Market. Eric had bought some ingredients and daily necessities at Logan Market and taken them home, and hadn’t returned yet, so Siles strolled around Logan Market by himself.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, he secretly took a 5% purity potion with a ritual duration of 5 hours, and wore the brooch, just in case. Even though he hadn’t learned any powerful rituals, the ritual duration itself was a form of help to him.
At around six o’clock, everyone arrived one after another.
They gathered in a corner. Eric explained to them the location of this trading fair and some things to note. They all listened attentively, among whom Darrell’s brother listened the most carefully.
Just as Siles had thought, Darrell’s brother had also come. He was a young man in his twenties, looking extremely similar to Darrell, like a grown-up version of him.
However, his expression and demeanor were much more serious and solemn, and his eyes were filled with the kind of peace and gentleness unique to the Church of the Past. His name was Lloyd Hobbs.
After understanding the general situation of the trading fair, they set off together, but the group slowly separated. Eric walked with the two ladies, while Darrell walked with his brother.
So Siles walked alone into Ernestine’s and went underground through the small door.
Having been here once, he navigated familiar paths to his desired destination—the passage selling stationery and books. It was still the same crowded and narrow underground passage, with noisy human voices and complex smells.
Compared to Saturday night, the atmosphere tonight held a bit more restlessness and unease.
As Siles passed some stalls, he noticed that the goods the stall owners brought out were different from what he had seen last time. Some more exquisite, bizarre items had appeared.
Consequently, there were even more glowing blue figures in Siles’s line of sight.
He knew these people were here for the Time Traces. Those bizarre old items from the past… Siles suddenly thought, Isn’t Biological Imprint a much more convenient way to construct Time Traces?
Using Biological Imprints, they wouldn’t need to specifically seek out those dangerous and maddening old items, risking contact with possible relics of the Old Gods. But it seemed this construction method hadn’t truly become popular yet.
Is it a method limited only to the internal members of the History Society, or… is there some other hidden reason?
As Siles pondered, he soon arrived at his destination.
Compared to Saturday night, the foot traffic in this passage had increased quite a bit, though overall it still wasn’t as crazy crowded as the other passages. Flickering dim yellow lights illuminated the fragmented shadows of the people.
Siles stepped into it, casting his eyes down at the books and supplies on the stalls, while searching for the stall owner who had previously sold Leon’s manuscript.
He walked from the beginning to the end of the passage, and finally had to regretfully admit that the stall and that stall owner had both disappeared.
Siles had anticipated this, but he still couldn’t help but sigh.
He didn’t dare to continue buying books here—Leon’s manuscript had really given him a fright. He didn’t dare to casually let his curiosity run wild anymore, especially when he was already extremely busy.
Siles simply left this passage and went to browse the other passages. Last time, due to Anthony Fenn’s sudden injury, Siles hadn’t really explored this trading fair, so this time he browsed around casually.
He stopped in one of the passages. This was a place selling souvenirs and special handicrafts from the Ashless Land. Many people strolling here carried a blue radiance.
Siles noticed a set of marionettes displayed on a stall.
There were six wooden marionettes in total, palm-sized, overall short and chubby. Each had a different design—men, women, old, young—all with beaming smiles, painted in bright, vibrant colors like red, yellow, blue, green, and purple.
The eyeballs of every marionette were just two pitch-black dots. Their lips were clearly stretched open in hearty laughter, but those pitch-black eyeballs made it hard to feel that these marionettes were laughing sincerely.
In the dim passage, this set of marionettes instantly caught Siles’s attention.
He knew it wasn’t just because the marionettes themselves were brightly colored and peculiarly designed, but more so because of the scene he had witnessed in his dream not long ago. That giant marionette standing on the sea.
Siles’s footsteps stopped in front of this stall.
[You need to make a Knowledge check.]
[Knowledge: 52/89, Failure.]
[You feel there must be something fishy about these marionettes, after all, they caught your attention at first glance. But you couldn’t find anything. Admit it, maybe you just want to spend some money shopping?]
A check result appeared in Siles’s mind. Siles suddenly felt somewhat speechless.
…How did I just want to spend money?
The six marionettes were housed in a wooden box, with a piece of glass installed on the front to display the appearance of the marionettes inside. The stall owner was a quiet, silent man, plain-looking, with black pupils that calmly watched Siles.
Siles hesitated for a moment, then spent five Duke coins to buy this set of marionettes.
If he hadn’t received the payment from the Church of the Past, there was no way he would have spent such a high price to buy a set of marionettes that might not have any use.
The stall owner kindly gave him a sturdy brown paper bag to pack the wooden box. Siles politely bid him farewell and left. As he reached the corner of the passage, Siles sensed something and stopped to look back.
That quiet, mysterious stall owner, those pitch-black pupils, seemed to still be watching him.
Siles felt a subtle, indescribable, wondrous sensation. That stall owner had no blue radiance on him, and hadn’t spoken more than a few words, but Siles inexplicably cared somewhat about this man.
He thought, Is it because of the influence of the marionettes?
He looked down at the brown paper bag in his hand. Finally, he shook his head, feeling that he might be too exhausted and was experiencing some illusions.
He continued to wander through the different passages.
Unknowingly, Siles suddenly realized that the blue radiance around him seemed to be increasing. The Revelators all seemed to be heading in this direction.
He inconspicuously merged into the crowd, walking and stopping, eventually arriving at the end of an abandoned passage with the others. The space here was more spacious, but no one was setting up stalls here. In the empty space in the middle, there was a table. A person was standing right there.
The light in this area was even dimmer. Siles subconsciously narrowed his eyes, noticing that the gazes of everyone around were fixed on that table.
…A private auction? Siles guessed inwardly.
He looked around and noticed Mrs. Fuller and Angela, who were in disguise, in the crowd. Eric was probably near them too, but was blocked by other figures.
Mrs. Fuller noticed Siles’s gaze, merely nodded slightly, and didn’t greet him.
The surroundings were very quiet.
Siles also noticed Darrell and his brother squeezing in from outside, causing a small scope of dissatisfaction. But eventually, everything returned to silence.
They seemed to be waiting for something. And the vast majority of people present seemed to understand what this place meant.
“…Seven o’clock exactly! Our special item auction begins now!” The person standing at the table patted it with his hand and said loudly, “Everyone who comes here knows the rules. We won’t waste time, let’s get right to the point!
“First, Stardust, which can be used as a potion ingredient! 50g!”
The surrounding people began to bid, but there weren’t many voices. Brewing potions was a complex and precise process, and many people lacked this need and ability.
“10% standard capacity!”
“5% standard capacity, three bottles!”
Those bidding here all chose to use potions. Of course, some people also shouted prices in Duke coins and the like. Converted, 1 Duke coin was roughly equivalent to a 1% purity, 1 standard capacity potion. But the value of higher purity potions was hard to measure; it was highly likely to increase exponentially.
Siles, mixing among them with his companions, didn’t participate in this auction. They just spectated this orderly bidding process.
Soon, the 50g of Stardust was acquired by a Revelator who bid three bottles of 10% standard capacity potions.
If converted equally, 50g of Stardust was equivalent to roughly 300 Duke coins in value.
Siles couldn’t help but be dumbfounded.
After the price was settled, the host conducted the transaction on the spot. That Revelator put the Stardust into his coat, then immediately left. The others remained silent, and no one chased after him—or perhaps Siles just didn’t notice anyone chasing after him.
Then the auction continued.
Siles felt his horizons greatly broadened. The introductory course at the History Society followed a prescribed order, but here, he got to see the diverse and varied methods of the Revelators.
Apart from auctioning Stardust and some unique potion ingredients, such as plant and animal materials, Siles also saw some manuscripts and copies, originating from the private notes of some Revelators.
Items like these, with unknown authenticity and unknown danger levels, unexpectedly caused a scramble among the Revelators present.
Siles only then realized how lucky he was to have met Grenfield and to be able to enter the History Society to receive a formal Revelator education.
For these “wild” Revelators, finding an entry channel was a difficult enough process in itself.
After this, the host even brought out potions of extremely high purity, including 20% and 50% purity ones, with only one bottle each. The latter caused a scramble among some Revelators who had remained silent all along.
Their bids were extremely high, and in the end, they even used items and knowledge whose value was hard to measure. For example, one person offered to use a rare ritual to exchange for it.
He told the ritual to the host privately, and the host’s surprised expression made everyone present feel curious. Finally, the host made the final decision and handed the bottle of 50% purity potion to that person.
The others were somewhat unconvinced, demanding they reveal the specific content of that ritual.
The host briefly described it: “It is a ritual that allows us to converse with the dead.”
The surrounding people suddenly fell silent.
Converse with the dead? Siles thought of the [Words of the Dead] ritual that Carol had used. Could the person who bought this bottle of potion be someone from the History Society?
Siles specifically looked at that person. Looking from afar, he could only notice that the person was wearing a pitch-black robe, had a hunched back, and looked quite aged.
After the potion auction ended, Siles saw Time Traces of different origins, shapes, and uses.
Ancient coins, photographs, toy boxes, specimens, clay molds, teacups, framed paintings, busts, glass eyeballs… It seemed anything could serve as a Time Trace, and each of these Time Traces came with a complex and precise ritual.
Siles was actually quite interested in some of them, but considering his current understanding of Revelator knowledge wasn’t solid enough, he eventually gave up.
…It should be said that his foundation was very solid, and he had heard of some higher-level knowledge, but it was precisely that intermediate knowledge, which determined his methods and strength, that he hadn’t learned much about.
Ultimately, he was still just an entry-level Revelator.
The progress of the auction was extremely fast. They spectated for an hour, from seven to eight. At exactly eight o’clock, the host finished the auction of the last Time Trace, patted the table, announced the end of the auction, and then asked them to leave.
The crowd gradually dispersed, everything seemingly orderly.
Siles took one last look at the host—the dense blue radiance on him—and thought to himself that all orderliness ultimately relied on powerful strength as a deterrent.
Leaving the auction, Siles reunited with his several companions.
“How was it? Did you buy any good things?” Angela asked somewhat excitedly. Her originally fair face had gotten a smudge of dirt on it, and she didn’t even think to wipe it clean. She was like a bird freed from a cage, exuding an enthusiastic, jubilant aura.
Darrell was also a bit excited. He said, “I saw a lot of novel gadgets!” He glanced at his brother. “Too bad I couldn’t buy them!”
Angela let out an “oh,” looked at the smiling Lloyd, thought for a while, and said very straightforwardly, “Because you’re still young!”
Darrell: “…”
The young boy glared at her fiercely.
His brother stood beside them, smiling peacefully.
Siles stood together with Mrs. Fuller. Siles asked, “Did you buy anything?”
“No,” Mrs. Fuller shook her head. “But it sure is lively here. I haven’t seen so many people in a long time.”
Siles said, “An annual trading fair always attracts many people.”
“And the prices here are much cheaper,” Mrs. Fuller added. “I imagine when the large-scale development of the Withered Wasteland happens, the market will face a major shock.”
“Of course,” Siles said in a low voice.
As they were chatting, Revelators who had also come from the auction passed by them. Siles heard them talking about matters related to this auction.
What particularly caught Siles’s attention was one sentence.
“There were really a lot of items at this year’s auction!”
Siles almost subconsciously wanted to turn his head to look at them, but eventually held back. He sighed softly and said, “It seems it has already affected the Revelator’s market first.”
Mrs. Fuller nodded.
At this moment, Eric, who had temporarily disappeared after the auction ended, suddenly emerged from a corner. His steps were hurried, and his expression carried a trace of unexpected anxiety.
He said to them in a low voice, “Time to go!”
“What happened?” Siles kept pace with him.
His companions did the same, perking up their ears to listen to Eric’s words.
Eric shook his head and remained silent, leading them around a corner and navigating through the dense and narrow passages. They accidentally bumped into quite a few people, drawing a chorus of complaints.
But no one cared where they were going at this moment, all assuming they were just busy rushing to buy something.
After a moment, when they reached the entrance stairs of the trading fair, Eric finally stopped briefly. He looked around, then whispered, “Someone died. The body has now been moved to the back kitchen of Ernestine’s.”
Everyone was greatly shocked. Angela said in astonishment, “Who died?!”
“The person who bought the Stardust,” Eric whispered. “The Stardust on him has already been searched and taken. I suspect someone is deliberately intercepting and killing the Revelators from the auction.
“Right now, it’s unknown how many people have infiltrated the underground passages. There might be a huge chaos later. You guys leave quickly, don’t stay here anymore.”
Mrs. Fuller frowned and said, “Will they kill people directly in the underground passages?”
“That probably depends on how great their demand for those items is,” Siles said in a low voice.
“But…” Angela stammered. “But, why right after the auction just ended? Will they kill every Revelator entering and leaving this place?”
Eric shook his head and explained briefly, “There are auctions like this every year, so the killers might have been waiting outside in advance to block people. But the problem is, there haven’t been bloodbaths before, and this year is different.
“The news hasn’t spread yet, but today’s trading fair will definitely end early. When the time comes, people will be very panicked… what exactly will happen in the underground passages is uncertain.
“…Ernestine’s will try to maintain order as much as possible, but, you guys should leave early.”
Only then did they understand Eric’s meaning.
Eric glanced at Siles again and added, “I also informed Mr. Fenn on my way here.”
Soon after, they reached the surface. The six of them walked out of Ernestine’s. Lloyd took the lead and left with a pale-faced, traumatized Darrell. Mrs. Fuller and Angela closely followed.
Siles paused here for a moment and said to Eric, “Did something else happen as well?”
Eric froze, then smiled bitterly. He said softly, “The underground gangs intend to seize more power at this juncture. They have… guns. So the Revelators they target have absolutely no time to react in the haste.”
That deceased person was shot dead.
Siles’s expression changed.
Eric didn’t spell it out very explicitly, but Siles almost instantly understood.
With the large-scale development plan for the Withered Wasteland about to be announced, the underground gangs of the Old City could no longer sit still, wanting to get a piece of the pie. But the Ashless Land itself was extremely dangerous, so possessing the power of Revelators at this time was a surefire bet.
Thus, the underground trading fair and Revelator item auction, which went smoothly every year, had gone awry this year.
And to what extent was the Ernestine Tavern colluding with the underground gangs?
Siles took a deep breath, feeling the cool night breeze brush his cheeks, and said, “An eventful autumn.”
Indeed, August had passed, September’s weather was turning cool, October had frequent rain, and the cold winter of November had arrived.
Eric nodded silently.
Siles changed the subject and said in a low voice, “Since that’s the case, have you considered quitting this job? If possible…”
“Perhaps Ernestine’s will shut down within this year, and the bosses will shift to other work. But I might not be able to leave the West City,” Eric said. “I’ve been entangled here for too long.”
Siles sighed slightly, patted his shoulder, and then bid him farewell. It was getting late. He walked to 13 Milford Street and retrieved his backpack.
Bertram Fenn had also returned. He seemed to also know the inside story, saying to Siles with slight anger, “They are truly mad! For an unannounced and unconfirmed plan, they actually directly violated the rules of the underground trading fair! A thief crying ‘stop thief’!”
Siles said, “People die for wealth.”
Bertram slowly calmed down. He sat on the sofa, and after a moment, said to Mrs. Fenn, “We will move to the East City tomorrow. The West City is going to descend into chaos.”
Mrs. Fenn nodded in panic.
Bertram then said to Siles, “I will write to you then, Siles.”
Siles nodded. He thought to himself that perhaps the entire Lamifa City would descend into chaos, only that the West City’s chaos would be on the surface, while the East City’s chaos would be in the shadows.
For a millionaire merchant like Bertram, being in the East City was certainly better than the West City; but for people without such wealth and status, perhaps it was the same anywhere.
Siles sighed secretly to himself.
