"Old man, did you find anything?"
Leonard asked suddenly.
After leaving the café and saying goodbye to Ms. Daly, he had returned to his residence alone.
Only after settling onto the sofa did he finally have a chance to speak with the entity living inside him.
"Ahem..."
An elderly voice immediately sounded in his mind, replying irritably, "You've been getting ruder lately."
You haven't exactly done anything to earn my respect... Leonard resisted the urge to argue and continued, "So, what do you think of our new Senior Deacon?"
"You suspect him?"
"I wouldn't go that far."
Leonard hesitated before saying, "I just think there's something mysterious about him, and I want to learn more."
Lord Ahab Ishmael had become a Senior Deacon without the slightest warning.
Before this, Leonard had never even heard that such a person existed within the Church. On top of that, the man's distinctive presence and sharp, decisive way of handling matters had left a deep impression on him.
"Besides, you saw how he fights, didn't you?"
Leonard continued, "You even said he was extremely dangerous..."
During the battle between the Senior Deacon and the demigod who had lost control, Leonard and the rest of the team had naturally been unable to look directly at the scene. Only the old man inside him had witnessed the entire fight.
According to the old man, the new Senior Deacon appeared to be a Beyonder of the Darkness pathway, but he had also seemingly used a Beyonder item from the Shepherd pathway. It had given him an aura of darkness, corruption, and madness.
"Heh heh..."
The elderly voice chuckled. "So what? Do you honestly think the upper ranks of the Evernight Church are all incompetent? That they'd be foolish enough to put someone dangerously unstable in charge of the Red Gloves?"
"They didn't notice you inside me either..."
Although Leonard knew the old man had a point, the rebuke still irritated him, so he immediately fired back.
"That's because you're too weak to be worth examining closely!" the old voice replied without a hint of mercy. "If you somehow stumbled into enough luck to become a Senior Deacon or an Archbishop, do you really think they wouldn't investigate your background more thoroughly?"
"So, by your logic, there's nothing wrong with him at all."
Leonard said.
"Hmph. Maybe there's nothing wrong with him as far as the Church is concerned. That doesn't mean he's harmless to you."
The old voice took on a more pointed tone. "Back at the café, I could sense him watching you the entire time... It was a kind of spiritual examination, as though he sensed something unusual about you and wanted to look deeper, to uncover your secrets."
"What?"
Leonard froze, a chill crawling down his spine. "Then..."
"Relax. With me here, he didn't discover anything."
The old man chuckled inside his mind. "Still, that man is dangerous. I suggest you stay away from him from now on."
"I have a feeling you're still keeping something from me."
Leonard said reluctantly.
The old man ignored him. Instead, he took control of one of the ghosts in the house, had it open the mailbox and retrieve the newspaper, then began reading at his leisure, completely brushing off Leonard's barrage of questions.
---
Meanwhile, above the Grey Fog.
"A new figure has recently emerged in the Sonia Sea," the Hanged Man, Alger, said. "The Craziest Hunter, Gehrman Sparrow, had already built an impressive record, and he recently killed the Admiral of Blood, Senor, in public, further proving his strength."
I've heard about that too. Backlund's newspapers have been full of stories about this Craziest Hunter... The tabloids have even invented some suggestive romance involving him and two female pirate admirals... the Magician, Fors, thought idly. With a little more effort, she could probably come up with something even more entertaining herself.
"According to my sources, he recently appeared near Oravi Island and joined forces with the King of Blood's fleet to hunt down remnants of the King of Immortality forces," the Hermit added.
Oh? That happened too?
Silas thought to himself, Anderson hasn't had a chance to write to me about it yet.
Please don't drag me into this...
Klein curled his toes where no one could see them, then made the World puppet turn toward the Sun.
In a low, hoarse voice, the World asked, "Is the exploration of Afternoon Town still underway?"
"Yes," the Sun, Derrick, replied. "We spent a long time establishing a camp. Now we're clearing out monsters and exploring the ruins one street at a time, with everyone moving in coordinated groups. Progress is slow, but it's relatively safe."
After saying this, he turned toward Silas.
"The Chief also specifically arranged for several monsters to be captured alive. It seems he intends to use them as materials for Elder Lovia's advancement ritual."
But the ritual clearly requires the corruption of ten thousand people. Could monsters really count...?
Silas had no idea what the Chief of the City of Silver was planning, but he simply nodded to show that he understood.
"And have you discovered anything about Lovia?"
"Well..."
The Sun, Derrick, lowered his head, looking embarrassed and ashamed.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Temperance. A few days ago, as soon as I was released from quarantine, I went straight to the archives to investigate...
"But all records concerning the elders are classified, and my rank isn't high enough to access them. I was planning to ask around and see whether I could learn anything from someone else."
"That's fine," Silas said evenly. "There's no hurry. Take your time. Also, as I mentioned before, you can tell the Chief directly that a high-Sequence Warrior pathway formula can be offered in exchange."
"All right," Derrick replied. "Once the Chief returns, I'll try to bring it up indirectly."
Upon hearing this, the other members of the Tarot Club wore subtly strange expressions.
None of them knew where Temperance had obtained such a high-Sequence potion formula. However, the Chief of the City of Silver was at least a Sequence 4 demigod. That meant the potion formula Temperance possessed had to be at least Sequence 3!
After a brief silence above the Grey Fog, Justice, Audrey, spoke.
"Hmm... I'm not sure how to explain it."
Her delicate brows drew together in concern. "I don't know whether I'm imagining things, but lately, I've felt that something about the atmosphere among Backlund's nobility has changed."
"Changed how?" the Hanged Man asked.
"I can't quite put my finger on it either..."
Audrey carefully considered her words. "The changes are very subtle... I've noticed that the gentlemen and ladies have been making slightly more jokes about Feysac than usual."
Within Loen's noble circles, mocking the Feysacs as northern barbarians and the Intisians as immoral and promiscuous had already become something close to the socially accepted position. Even so, Audrey had the vague sense that something was wrong.
The nobility...
Silas fell into thought upon hearing this.
Hadn't that dead Senior Deacon been involved with several nobles?