Chapter 166: 102. The Breaking Point
As morning approached, Fisher finally emerged from his office. Looking at the surrounded female dormitory, he lit a cigarette to awaken himself; he hadn’t rested at all last night.
Last night he didn’t follow the fleeing Jasmine; he needed to help the panicked Jasmine deal with her belongings, especially those left behind by her aunt. In her rush, she only took her notebook, but fortunately, Fisher had taken Muxi’s things for her. Otherwise, it would have been troublesome if the authorities found them.
He also packed up all the things he had left here, as he would be moving out of Saint Nali University starting today.
The police were searching the female dormitory, but it was entirely expected that they would come up empty-handed.
After several attacks, only eyewitness accounts could prove the existence of those monsters, and Fisher had considered capturing a live one to show the Nali authorities. However, once their mission was complete, the people from the Pink Pavilion would immediately destroy any evidence, as if it vaporized into thin air.
Fisher was unclear about how those monsters were created, but he could only think of one possible source for such bizarre technology and knowledge, which was the Supplement Handbook.
The puppeteers behind these events possessed a Supplement Handbook that was somewhat similar to the Soul Supplement Handbook in Feilon’s hands. However, this time, their understanding of the handbook was evidently deeper than Feilon’s, and the means used were more bizarre.
Relying on this technology and means, the Pink Pavilion repeatedly launched attacks, practically running amok in Saint Nali.
Fisher was enraged by the continuous attacks from the unknown mastermind behind the Pink Pavilion, but at that moment, his thoughts were remarkably calm.
He had initially thought that after attacking the Shivali delegation, they would quiet down, allowing him to wait until he gathered all the evidence to present to the Nali authorities.
But now the Nali authorities were also deeply mired in conflicts, and without the Supplement Handbook, it was difficult for them to understand the context of potential attacks.
At present, human medicine has only just progressed to the point of discovering that random bloodletting is ineffective and that blood from different people is not compatible. Healing Magic has, to a large extent, both prolonged human lifespan while hindering the genuine progress of medical scholarship. Fisher did not expect them to understand the biological weapons created by the Supplement Handbook.
Fisher’s patience had reached its end; he would no longer sit idly by. Since the Pink Pavilion was willing to play this game, he would play it to the end.
He extinguished the cigarette butt, picked up Jasmine’s and his belongings, and walked with a cold expression toward the school entrance.
Saint Nali University had recently been at the forefront of public opinion. The police had yet to clarify the incident from last night, but they seized the opportunity to attack Principal Ken for accidentally admitting a subhuman student.
Thanks to Principal Ken’s good health, having recently experienced a magical terrorist attack, he now had to rush over to explain the university’s recruitment loopholes to the media around eight or nine in the morning.
Seeing Fisher emerge from the school, Ken quickly distanced himself from the media and approached Fisher to inquire,
“What happened yesterday? Was that female student really a subhuman? How could there be such a slip-up?”
Fisher glanced at Ken, providing no excessive explanation. He patted Ken on the shoulder, did not answer his question, and simply stated,
“I will persuade Damien from the Griffin Party to lift the professor restriction on Saint Nali University. He will agree. After that, you can recruit a few new magic professors from the Magic Association to fill the position.”
Ken was somewhat surprised and quickly looked at Fisher, asking,
“What do you mean by that?”
Fisher loosened his tie and unbuttoned several buttons before replying,
“I hereby formally resign and will no longer serve as a professor at the Magic Academy of Saint Nali University this fall semester. With three days until the start of the semester, I believe you can quickly find a suitable replacement.”
“Wait, Fisher, we need you! Saint Nali University is not doing well right now!”
Fisher waved his hand dismissively and continued walking out of the school, intending to bypass the media held outside by security and take a carriage to the city.
“I will consider returning to teach after I resolve some personal matters; this is also for the good of Saint Nali University.”
Ken stood there, dumbfounded, watching Fisher leave with his staff and backpack, completely unable to comprehend the meaning behind his words.
But in that moment of daze, Fisher disappeared into the crowd, quickly vanishing from Ken’s view.
Fisher returned to his rented room by carriage, still unclear about where Jasmine was hiding. He planned to find her this afternoon, but before that, he had two preliminary matters to attend to.
First, he wrote letters to Principal Damien and Teacher Heilson, requesting they lift the professor recruitment restrictions on Saint Nali University or arrange for one or two suitable professors to teach in his place.
Now that the New Party had been successfully suppressed, it was pointless for them to continue suppressing Saint Nali University. Fisher believed that, upon weighing the pros and cons, Damien would make the right decision.
As for the other matter…
After arranging to mail the letters, Fisher changed into a suit, donned a gentleman’s hat, took up his staff, and rode a carriage to Turner Street, heading for the bustling Pink Pavilion.
However, upon arriving, he did nothing but stand in front of the Pink Pavilion for about ten minutes before slowly walking toward the Full Moon Church on another street.
On Saturdays, the Full Moon Church was quite crowded. Fisher found a quiet spot against the wall to sit down, quietly watching as the bishop led the faithful in prayer.
Not long after, a beautiful woman dressed in traditional attire entered the church. She wore a small western hat, from the brim of which hung a white veil that obscured her eyes above the nose.
That lady was Anna from the Pink Pavilion.
Fisher had heard that Anna often came to the Full Moon Church to pray. Originally, they had arranged to meet here next Wednesday, but Mr. Fisher, provoked by the attack, could not wait a few more days, so he used this method to call Anna.
If she had any ulterior motives, she would surely have kept an eye on him these days and would know what his appearance in front of the Pink Pavilion meant.
Once inside the church, Anna did not sit next to Fisher but walked straight to the Mother God Statue at the front of the church, dropping several Nali bills into the donation box. With sincerity, she offered a prayer before the kind bishop, who smiled and returned the gesture:
“May the Mother God bless you.”
“Thank you, Mother God.”
Fisher watched her bow respectfully and then also stood up to approach the donation box, dropping in two large Nali notes. Before the bishop could thank him, he had already turned with his hat and walked toward the adjoining room designated for teaching.
Anna sneaked a glance at Fisher leaving but did not immediately follow. She prayed for quite some time and waited until the ceremony was over before casually heading toward the classroom direction.
When she reached the side room, she paused to look into the classroom but did not see Fisher’s figure, unsure of where he had gone.
Just as Anna gently pushed open the classroom door, a cold sword hilt suddenly pressed against her slender waist, pushing her slowly into the classroom.
Behind her, with a cold expression, Fisher covered her mouth with his hand, allowing her perfume-stained lipstick to leave a mark on his hand, while his other hand closed the door.
“Mmm!”
The classroom was quite dark as the curtains were drawn. Fisher pressed Anna’s body against the wall; his force made her breath hitch nervously. His grip was heavy enough that she winced in pain, but just before she was pinned against the wall, she hurriedly said,
“It wasn’t us at the Pink Pavilion last night! The task to capture the Child of the Sea was given to the Healing Room!”
Upon hearing this, Fisher’s eyes shifted slightly. His grip loosened, and he leaned closer to her neck, saying,
“What were you trying to achieve by attacking the Shivali delegation? What was the purpose of capturing the Child of the Sea?”
“Wasn’t the premise for negotiation… equal and kind communication? If you continue to be aggressive, I would rather die than cooperate with you.”
Fisher chuckled lightly upon hearing this, and then he released her arm. As she regained her freedom, Anna immediately stepped back, turning her head to wipe the lipstick that had smudged at the corner of her mouth, watching Fisher warily as she spoke.
“I said to meet here next Wednesday. Why are you so anxious? Is the famous Professor Fisher of Saint Nali really so impatient?”
“I have no patience to play these cat-and-mouse games with you anymore, but if you hesitate a bit longer, I might very well show up at the Pink Pavilion and the Healing Room with explosives tonight; an eye for an eye seems the appropriate rule, doesn’t it?”
Fisher couldn’t wait for the Pink Pavilion and the Healing Room to strike again. From this past Monday until now, Saturday, they had already launched three consecutive attacks. If he waited any longer, those bizarre monsters would almost be crawling all over Lady Martha’s vegetable garden. He decided to take the initiative, switching the roles of offense and defense.
Anna glanced at Fisher, sneering lightly before saying,
“Do you think simply blowing up those buildings will help? The things hidden underground and their purposes can’t be solved just by bombs. The backgrounds of the Pink Pavilion and the Healing Room are extremely complex, with Blake standing behind them. It would be very difficult to bring them down with that scoundrel involved.”
Upon hearing that Blake was the mastermind behind it all, Fisher’s expression became serious.
He hadn’t expected that the forces behind the Pink Pavilion and the Healing Room were indeed that legendary Captain Blake—the man who first discovered the Southern Continent!
If that legendary figure was indeed the mastermind and had the Supplement Handbook…
“But it’s not impossible to achieve. I know a lot about them, even their deepest secrets.”
Fisher looked at Anna and said,
“Since you are an insider of the Pink Pavilion, as long as you are willing to testify to the Nali authorities, it would be very easy to investigate and eliminate the Pink Pavilion and the Healing Room; I just need evidence.”
“Yes, I know you need evidence, but I absolutely cannot be the one to leak that evidence, at least not right now.”
Anna hesitated for a moment, then slowly walked in front of Fisher, raising her head and opening her mouth. On her delicate tongue lay a band of black markings, and at the same time, she explained,
“【Lifebound Bell】. My life is bound to an artifact hidden in Blake’s treasury. Do you see this mark? My life and death are in that person’s hands; he can kill me at any moment. If testifying for you costs my life, I would rather not cooperate. That’s all I have to say; I can help you, but only after I regain my freedom.”
Saying this, she closed her mouth and quietly awaited Fisher’s response.
But Fisher only gazed at her beautiful, serene face and suddenly asked,
“Do you hate Captain Blake?”
Anna was momentarily taken aback, then smiled mockingly.
“Hate? It’s more than just hate; I wish I could skin him, peel off his muscles and organs, and feed them to the Lulu pigs. I wish his soul would fall into hell and never be reborn!”
Lulu pigs?
Anna’s description of the pigs was quite strange. Fisher recalled hearing this term before, when traveling in the Southern Continent with the Dragon Race, Ral had mentioned that her mother raised Lulu pigs in the tribe.
“Are you from the Southern Continent?”
Upon hearing this, Anna glanced at Fisher, arranged her clothing slightly, and ambiguously replied,
“I am a human from the Southern Continent, the ‘indigenous’ person in your arrogant eyes from the Western Continent. Are you satisfied? Do you want to cooperate with me or not?”
“Why choose to cooperate with me?”
“Choosing you? To be precise, I am choosing to cooperate with Her Highness Princess Elizabeth behind you.”
Anna sat down in a chair, looking toward the church with a gentle reminiscing in her eyes.
“I once saw that princess come here as a guest at the Full Moon Church, probably for some event. I was originally going to escape, but she encouraged me to stay and listen to the teachings of the Mother God. Heh, it was after that day that I realized there was still light in this world, so I decided to escape from that scoundrel.”
“Princess Elizabeth’s status is very high, and she is unlikely to have any relations with the Pink Pavilion; she is the real person I want to cooperate with. But since I can’t meet Her Highness, I can only convey my intentions through you, someone who has a good relationship with her.”
Fisher asked his questions meticulously. Although he could observe that this Anna was likely an insider turned traitor of the Pink Pavilion, her enmity toward the Pavilion and its backers was indeed genuine. Understanding her thoughts a little more wouldn’t leave room for errors.
Seeing that Fisher was still reflecting, Anna simply revealed more about her thoughts on Fisher from their first encounter.
“Heh, I knew from the moment you first pretended to be a Shivali person before coming to the Pink Pavilion that you weren’t a real Shivali; my nose is very sensitive. So that night, I immediately recognized you as Fisher Benavides. The Shivali perfume you used was lighter than that of other Shivali people, which allowed me to detect your true scent.”
“At that time, I speculated that you came to find the Sorceress Carlo. Otherwise, do you think I would allow her to contact and trade with you? Without the protection granted to the Shivali delegation through your transaction with her, there would definitely have been casualties, and the severity of that situation would go far beyond what has occurred today.”
Wow, Fisher had indeed not anticipated this.
He had sprayed the Shivali perfume gifted by Elizabeth when he entered the Pink Pavilion. She must have thought that the genuine Shivali perfume was overly wild, so she had gifted him a lighter version for himself. As a result, it became Anna’s means to discover his flaw. No wonder Carlo had consistently contacted him so smoothly; it turned out she was pushing from behind.
“As long as you can enter Blake’s treasury and help me destroy the artifact that controls my life and death, I will testify for you and expose all the things he has done.”
Fisher tapped the edge of the chair, waited a second or two, and nodded, saying,
“Alright, I agree to cooperate. Tell me all the information you know.”
Seeing that Fisher was willing to cooperate, Anna displayed her joy somewhat uncontrollably, but a second later she tentatively asked him,
“You will tell Her Highness Elizabeth about our cooperation, right? Without her help, it’s likely…”
Fisher smiled wryly and nodded, making it seem like getting that artifact was not his responsibility but Elizabeth’s. However, he did not mind the matter of phrasing.
“I will inform Her Highness about this.”
Anna still seemed a bit wary, concerned whether the man before her would deceive her. She hesitated whether she should disclose the information to Fisher now. However, meeting Elizabeth face-to-face was impossible, so in the end, she chose to trust Fisher.
“Alright, I will tell you everything I know. That scoundrel Blake has two operating workshops—one is the Pink Pavilion I manage, and the other is the Healing Room managed by Kachina. The scopes of our responsibilities do not overlap; I generally handle collecting ‘materials,’ which are living beings like humans or subhumans.”
“Beggars, slaves, and impoverished people wishing to make money are all targets for the Pink Pavilion. Beautiful women might be kept as one or two in the Pink Pavilion to maintain the superficial business, while the rest, after processing, would be sent to the Healing Room.”
So that’s how it was. The ambiguous business boundaries of the new economic policy allowed brothels to easily engage in the trade of human trafficking. No wonder they needed the Pink Pavilion for such business; only by doing this could they covertly buy and sell people.
“The Healing Room is where these people are processed. That person, I don’t know where he got that technology, can actually turn living people into the monsters you’ve seen before. These monsters can self-destruct, become invisible, hypnotize, and attack, and they are extremely useful for dealing with official searches. Basically, everything we need to do relies on them to act, thus leaving no traces behind.”
Before, Fisher had no idea what the situation was. Upon hearing that those biological weapons had so many functions, he finally gained some clarity.
No wonder the officials could not detect those monsters at all; didn’t those things have too many functions?
Fisher mused that this technology surely came from the Supplement Handbook. It was normal for her not to know, but he did not mention it to Anna. Instead, he continued to ask,
“So, where is the experimental site of the Healing Room?”
Anna shook her head in response.
“My responsibilities differ from Kachina’s, and we do not interfere with each other. Blake does not allow us to interfere with each other’s scope of responsibilities. However, if you want to know, I can let her come out. That woman is quite foolish; she spills the beans when provoked.”
Fisher looked at the beautiful Anna before him, raising a finger.
“One last question, what is Blake’s treasury, and where is it?”
“That scoundrel traveled around the world when he was younger and brought back many treasures, all stored in the treasury. Previously, he never let us know where the treasure was hidden, but since Kachina took on the work of the Healing Room, she needs to use artifacts from the treasury, so she might know some clues.”
“However, recently he seems to have gone mad trying to capture that Child of the Sea, the Ocean Subhuman next to you. I don’t know his specific purpose, but his intentions are very strong, to the point that he wants us to drop all other work and catch her. I deliberately leaked the Pink Pavilion’s news to temporarily get out of that task, which gave me the chance to contact you.”
As she said the word “get out,” Anna lowered her gaze a bit, her hand resting lightly on her chest, lost in thought.
And as for what Blake wanted the Ocean Subhuman Jasmine for, judging from his conduct of human experimentation, did he expect her to come over for tea and a tour?
Moreover, this further indicated that Jasmine was very likely the world destroyer he was searching for—the Child of the Sea.
He reached into his pocket and felt the Handbook for Sub-Humans, sensing its connection with himself.
Fisher tightened his grip on his staff, piecing together his basic plan in his mind.
But clearly, the target of this plan was very clear; since Blake, the Handbook holder, enjoyed wreaking havoc in Saint Nali and the authorities were unable to deal with the Supplement Handbook—an extraordinary item that could hide tracks—he would not let him off the hook.
At this moment, Fisher had reached his breaking point.
He looked at Anna and nodded, standing up to look out at the adjacent room of the classroom, saying,
“I understand. After you go to Kachina to find out the situation, we will meet again. I will first inform Elizabeth about this.”
“First, you should be concerned about that Ocean Subhuman next to you. Blake really wants her, and he will be sending the Healing Room to act soon.”
“I will act against the Healing Room first before that.”
After agreeing to meet again at the Full Moon Church, Fisher donned his hat and stepped out of the classroom, while Anna remained in the classroom.
First, she touched up her lipstick, and then she noticed her hand shaking a little, unsure if it was from excitement or fear.
But after all these years and the countless days of torment, she could no longer endure even a moment.
“Mother God bless me, Mother God bless me.”
She once again bowed her head reverently, reciting the prayer.
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(End of Chapter)
