Chapter 47
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Glass Island, White Queen District.
On the second floor of the pure white Brown Hotel, a young gentleman dressed appropriately and behaving civilly was slowly enjoying a freshly fried steak in his room.
Beside his table stood a maid in a soul state. She had a pure white, semi-transparent spiritual body, appearing to be only seventeen or eighteen years old. Her attire was similar to that of the “Fox,” wearing a white priest robe without an episcopal crown. Only her spine was solid, allowing a glimpse of its pale color through her translucent white form.
Suddenly, the girl leaned down and whispered something into the gentleman’s ear. Her lips moved, but no sound came out.
The gentleman acted as if he had heard something. Raising an eyebrow, he took out a pure gold pocket watch inlaid with jewels from his pocket and opened it.
“It’s ending soon.”
After glancing at the time, he put it away and then stuffed the remaining small piece of steak into his mouth.
He chewed with gusto, the juices constantly seeping out. The tough sinews made cracking sounds, but his strong teeth still managed to chew and swallow the meat.
The young gentleman, somewhat content and somewhat reluctant, murmured in a low voice, “What a shame to leave such a young and healthy body…”
At the same time.
In the room below the gentleman, a maid with a face resembling a newsboy, who was leisurely cleaning the room inattentively, also sighed with some worry.
“It’s finally ending… It’s been torture. It was too terrifying.”
Sherlock, hiding in the abandoned chemical plant with Lulu, had no common ground with the Princess. Thus, they maintained a polite and somewhat awkward silence.
He focused on the sun gradually reaching its zenith in the sky and suddenly said, “It’s almost time.”
“What?”
Lulu, holding the child, asked subconsciously, then immediately reacted, her spirit lifting. “Is the ritual ending?”
“There are still four survivors. Those two didn’t die until the very end.”
Sherlock said in a low voice, “‘Bone Sculpture’… Lars Graham? I’ll investigate him.”
“If it’s not him—don’t say I told you!”
Lulu whispered nervously.
The newsboy sighed.
“My esteemed Princess,” he said lazily, “Normally, even if I told you, he wouldn’t know it was you. I know ‘Lulu,’ not ‘Isabelle Du Lac.'”
“…Huh?” Lulu, who was doing her best to impersonate ‘Annie Alexander,’ suddenly widened her eyes, her true name spoken aloud.
“Master Janis is far too irresponsible. Although there’s no penalty for failing the first Advancement Ritual, and with your nobility, you wouldn’t fear your real identity being exposed. However, some common sense things, I believe, should be taught in advance. Not all failures have meaning—especially considering you’ve already faced your share of setbacks.”
The newsboy tugged at his cap and said softly, looking down, “I will report every detail of this ritual to Her Majesty the Queen. Including its abnormally high difficulty, information on ‘Bone Sculpture,’ ‘Knight,’ ‘Fox,’ and ‘Coco,’ as well as the matter between you and Mr. Fox. Of course, I will also include the mistakes you made during this ritual—I have recorded it all in my mind, without any omission.”
“This time is forgivable. But please remember… starting from the second Advancement Ritual, failure and death in the ritual will incur some cost.”
“I am one of Avalon’s rare Extraordinarys from the Path of Wisdom. If nothing unexpected happens, Her Majesty might entrust me to advance alongside you to protect you during the ritual. I hope that when we meet again, you can slightly correct your naive and innocent bad habits.”
Having said that, the newsboy gazed at the momentarily stunned and flustered eyes of ‘Annie Alexander’ and mused for a moment.
Then he added, “I will try to investigate the real identity of the ‘Fox’ for you. But please don’t get your hopes too high. My priority for the next period will be the ‘Sweater Brotherhood’ and ‘Bone Sculpture.'”
“…Huh? Th-thank you, Mr. Sherlock…”
Although Lulu didn’t know when she had been exposed, being discovered by the famous Mr. Sherlock Hermes wasn’t entirely surprising. So, she wasn’t too shocked.
However, when she heard Sherlock say he would help investigate the “Fox,” she felt a little shy. But she did not refuse.
Seeing this, Sherlock sighed again. He didn’t say anything more.
At this moment, a light suddenly flashed before everyone’s eyes—it was the pure white radiance emitted when the world collapsed and disintegrated.
A series of constantly changing images appeared before both the deceased and the surviving participants of the ritual.
A black-haired, blue-eyed young priest placed his hand on the back of a child’s neck, his palm emitting light;
A young supervisor, severely injured and disemboweled by a hook, turned his back to the fleeing civilians behind him. The short sword, symbolizing the authority of law, emitted pure white light as he still stood his ground;
The deep green claw of a water demon tightly gripped the Hooked Demon Jack, emitting white smoke. The Hooked Demon Jack, with a ferocious expression, seemed to be shouting something;
A bone staff was thrown into the air, emitting a dim yellow glow. Pure white smoke continuously emerged from it, forming a semi-transparent ghostly maiden with a blurred face that enveloped the staff;
The young priest held a paper cutter and resolutely and fearlessly slit his own throat;
A dark-skinned胖子 (fat person), with his entire head grasped by a pale, withered right hand, his fleshy face and terrified trembling eyes peeking through the fingers;
Annie Alexander, holding the still-sleeping Little Eivass under the sunset, displayed a look of sadness and resilience on her face.
—In the next moment, the scene before their eyes, along with the entire surrounding world, began to turn to sand.
Everything before them dissipated like flying sand.
These sands flew into the air and then surged upward, being drawn back into their bodies by a glowing, giant hourglass.
Eivass regained consciousness, tidied up his complex emotions, and decided to at least probe indirectly before reaching any conclusions.
After all, the information given in the ritual might not be entirely accurate… right?
…But he said that, he already had a similar guess in his heart.
This was somewhat expected.
Eivass sighed and looked up. He found that he had returned to his original “faceless priest” appearance, still sitting on his overwhelmingly large chair.
But before him was no longer complete darkness, nor were there eight other chairs and eight other ritual participants.
Instead, there was light.
Just like when he underwent his first advancement, it was a world of light without any shadows.
Screens of light rapidly descended before him, these were Eivass’s settlement points:
[Mandatory Mission Completed (Points: 600)]
[Self-Preservation: Ensure your own survival (Incomplete)]
[The Heart is the Sanctuary: Did not choose to hide within the Great Cathedral of the Candle Holder, actively went to Law Enforcement Plaza (Points: 100)]
[My Unforgotten Nature: Healed a person who was surely going to die (Points: 100)]
[A Thousand Miles, One Stop: Found and killed the murderer (Points: 500)]
[My Dearest Jasmine: Ensured the survival of your wife, Annie Alexander (Points: 500)]
[Live Longer: Try to be among the last to survive among nine ritualists, or die as late as possible (Points: 100)]
[The Beginning of Everything: Found the mastermind (Points: 1
