Chapter 465
Secret Knowledge of the Ring Heavenly Envoy
At this time, Shafiya and Oswald had also left Moriarty Manor.
They were discussing their next course of action.
Although Eivass intended to assassinate Prince John, Shafiya still planned to try and steal the corpse. After all, Eivass’s actions might fail.
Previously, she had wisely chosen to flee because she was outnumbered and unprepared for combat.
But this time, with Oswald, they might not lose in a direct confrontation—
Thus, Shafiya felt confident.
This time, she first took Oswald back home, sent her husband and children to a safe place, and retrieved her staff.
“The first-tier mission to be executed is to reclaim the Queen’s body.”
At Shafiya’s home, she assigned tasks to Oswald: “If the first-tier mission is confirmed to have failed or cannot be completed, immediately activate the second-tier mission—to draw a vial of the Queen’s blood.
“This is a syringe pre-filled with anticoagulant; we each take one. At least ten milliliters need to be drawn… as a backup material for the Shadow of Avalon ritual.
“If the second-tier mission also fails, abandon the Queen’s body directly and instead begin searching for and rescuing Sherlock Hermes, while also trying to lure those two from Star Antinomy away as far as possible, buying time for Eivass’s plan.
“If possible, help Eivass assassinate Minister Dross… He is a priest, after all, not skilled in combat. Although that fat man has likely forgotten how to fight by now, he is still an Extraordinary of the Fourth Tier…”
“—First, Madam Grand Inquisitor,” Oswald interrupted Shafiya sternly, “I must emphasize that our plans and missions must be based on Young Master Eivass’s sufficient safety. If he encounters fatal danger, I will immediately abandon these plans and rush to his rescue.”
“Of course, I will go with you too,” Shafiya nodded in agreement, “At least we can’t let that child get hurt.”
He was the one Princess Isabel was fond of, and her only reliance now.
Shafiya had to at least preserve Eivass’s life.
As long as a person is alive, there will always be opportunities; if a person is dead, there is nothing.
Stepping back, as long as Eivass and Isabel were sent to the Church, she herself could remain in Avalon… and have a chance to perform the Shadow of Avalon ritual again.
Professor Moriarty’s words had actually begun to convince her.
That seductive voice kept echoing in her mind, making it impossible to forget.
…If Prince John was going to die anyway, then why not hasten his death.
If Eivass couldn’t do it, then she would find someone to do it—John was only two years old this year. Rescuing John was difficult, but killing John was easy. Drawing blood from Prince John’s corpse would certainly be easier than drawing blood from the Queen’s corpse.
At that time, she would bear this sin.
Shafiya thought to herself.
Meanwhile, in Moriarty Manor.
Everyone else had left, leaving only Isabel.
She had been invited into the reception hall by Professor Moriarty. They ate snacks and drank tea, chatting about trivial matters, which didn’t at all seem like the Queen had just been assassinated. This made Isabel somewhat wary, so she continued to maintain her disguise, fearing it was some kind of test.
Professor Moriarty expressed his curiosity about how Isabel and Eivass met.
…In fact, Isabel was also very curious about Professor Moriarty.
Eivass rarely mentioned his foster father, but at the New Year’s Eve banquet, Edward was very admiring of the Professor.
Yulia’s attitude was the strangest—on one hand, she was very affectionate and trusting towards her foster father, and on the other hand, she was vaguely wary of him.
That feeling…
Isabel felt it was like two men with families, who were quite familiar with each other, happened to meet while going out for fun—there was a plot like that in the plays she watched.
The two parties had a common secret, and could use it to destroy each other; but once this secret was used to destroy the other party, it meant that they would also be destroyed. Isabel believed that Yulia’s attitude towards her foster father was like this… trusting yet wary.
Eivass, on the other hand, seemed very wary of his foster father.
It was like the attitude of those ministers towards her grandmother when Isabel was young, subconsciously avoiding mentioning him. Even when mentioning him, they would not directly call him by name, or the term they often used to address him, but would use some pronoun instead.
As if if they uttered the word used to address him, someone would suddenly respond.
Isabel had also known Professor Moriarty before.
When Professor Moriarty was in university, he was responsible for the subjects of astrology, astronomy, and advanced mathematics. Isabel didn’t need to study any of these three subjects, so she never became a formal teacher-student with Professor Moriarty… but at least she was quite familiar with him.
However, curiosity aside…
But during her conversation with Professor Moriarty, Isabel’s nerves remained taut, and she quickly thought, weaving or modifying lies.
On the one hand, it was to hide her identity as an Ascender, and on the other hand, it was to help Eivass conceal information.
—Based on her understanding of Eivass and her keen intuition, Isabel vaguely sensed Eivass’s subtle hostility towards his foster father.
Although she didn’t know the origin of this hostility.
But since Eivass was resistant to Professor Moriarty, Isabel would naturally side with Eivass.
Fortunately, Shafiya had left, Isabel thought.
If Shafiya were here, it would be inconvenient for her to lie. If she fooled the Professor, she might arouse suspicion from Shafiya, who knew her better. The Professor knew almost nothing about her, so she had much more room to maneuver…
But at this moment.
She suddenly heard a clear bell.
According to Janis’s teachings, this was a death notification that only appeared during a Full Moon Ritual when there was a “need for role-playing” and a requirement to cooperate against a strong enemy. The appearance of this notification meant that this Ascension Ritual involved cooperative combat.
This was to prevent Ascenders looking for teammates from having to wait endlessly for those who had died long ago. Among the three Ascension Rituals Isabel had experienced, only one had not rung this bell… and that happened to be Great Philosopher’s ritual.
The moment Isabel heard the bell, her pupils contracted with tension and then dilated with fear.
—Someone had died?
Was Eivass alright?
Since Sherlock was not in the lineup, her only teammate was Eivass. But she thought for a moment, and based on the walking distance, Eivass might not have reached the Silver and Tin Hall by this time… so she breathed a sigh of relief.
But then, she heard a burst of laughter.
It was as if a comedian told a joke on stage, and more than a dozen different laughs erupted from the audience. Some were sharp, some were low, some were loud… some were hysterical, laughing until they couldn’t breathe.
An Ascender’s identity had been exposed!
This was the first time Isabel had heard this sound.
During her first Ascension, her teammates died too quickly, and their identities were not even exposed. In the second ritual, the only person who could have exposed their identities was the “front desk” who died in each nightmare.
And this time, she finally knew… what Sherlock meant by “burst of laughter” and Janis meant by “sarcastic laughter”…
—Two people had been eliminated! And eliminated consecutively!
If the first person killed was not Eivass, would the second person whose identity was exposed be him?
Isabel pursed her lips and forced herself to calm down.
No, it was unlikely.
Following the first funeral bell, it should have been when someone was doing something, or having an important conversation, and then was exposed because the funeral bell suddenly rang. With Eivass’s mental fortitude, it was unlikely he would be exposed by such a thing.
“Are you… worried about Eivass?”
At this moment, Professor Moriarty suddenly asked.
Isabel glanced at him hesitantly, still playing the timid princess, and slowly nodded, saying softly, “Yes…
“…He’s just a priest, is he really alright?”
She had already had a moment of emotional leakage. If she insisted now that she wasn’t worried, it would be more likely to arouse suspicion. So Isabel smoothly pushed the reason for her worry about Eivass to Eivass’s profession.
“There is no need to worry, Princess Isabel.”
Professor Moriarty said gently, “Eivass is particularly skilled in prayer. He can not only pray for the power of the Pillar Gods, but he is also very familiar with even Apostles and Heavenly Envoys…
“By the way, Your Highness. Have you heard of… ‘Ring Heavenly Envoy’? That is the power Eivass is particularly good at borrowing.”
“…Ring Heavenly Envoy?”
Isabel repeated, somewhat confused.
“That’s right.”
Professor Moriarty nodded and smiled at Isabel.
“…You mean the [Ouroboros]? Ring Heavenly Envoy, Infinite Heavenly Envoy…”
Isabel finally remembered that Lixia seemed to be related to the Ring Heavenly Envoy: “The Contractor of the Ascencist… right?”
Professor Moriarty was silent for a moment.
The corners of his mouth turned up slightly.
“Yes.”
He nodded in assent, “It is Him. You should know which Path He belongs to, correct?”
“Transcendent Path?”
Isabel was not sure: “I actually know very little about theology… But He is the Son of Father Snake, right?”
“…Indeed.”
Professor Moriarty was silent for a moment and slowly nodded.
He raised a finger to his lips and lowered his voice: “I will show you more secret knowledge… Your Highness can tell Eivass about this later, he will be very surprised. Of course, you don’t have to tell him… you can choose freely.”
Upon hearing this, Isabel immediately became wary.
Is he trying to pass false information to Eivass through me?
But she couldn’t not listen… What if this was something useful to Eivass?
…When Isabel thought this, she realized she had fallen into a chain of suspicion.
Whether to listen or not listen was problematic.
After much deliberation, Isabel decided to listen. At least she would gain the initiative.
But perhaps because she lacked too much knowledge about theology, she listened somewhat vaguely and could only record the content for the time being…
“…Before the [Cicada Molting] occurred, the Ouroboros did not belong to the Transcendent Path. He was once the Heavenly Envoy of Self-Destruction, the Heavenly Envoy of Reboot and Resurrection… He was a Heavenly Envoy of the Path of Balance. Only after obtaining one of the fruits of Cicada Molting, the [Endless Knot], did He become a Heavenly Envoy of the Transcendent Path.
“And in the ancient era before the Elves were born, the [Ouroboros] had completely different authority than now.”
Professor Moriarty said softly: “At that time, He could restart the world line and reset the world to a certain moment in the past. Only after [Cicada Molting] occurred, history was splintered, and it could no longer return to before [Cicada Molting]. So He abandoned this fragment…
“The former Ouroboros had another name.
“—The Dragon called Him… Samsara Heavenly Envoy.”
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