Chapter 41
Chapter 41: Unexpected Reunion
Charlotte had been following Michel in this city-state that prided itself on representing technology and freedom for half a year now.
She had accompanied and witnessed this veteran agent from the Kingdom of Corenzo reach an agreement with the cunning old lord of Gray Cloud Fort, Joseph.
For the first time since the old nobility was driven out, the Church had re-established its seven-academy institutions in this land of chaos and opportunity. The Gray Cloud Fort branch of the Temperance Academy rose up in the bustling George Forest District.
Rather than calling it an agreement, it was more accurate to say it was a compromise and concession made by Michel on behalf of the Pope. The Temperance Academy became a useful tool for Joseph to handle troubles, on call and working tirelessly without complaint.
The four major gangs excluded and antagonized Church forces, never giving the Temperance Academy a friendly face. The Church’s plans for expansion and infiltration were severely hampered.
Yet Joseph remained obsessed with a mysterious series of mansion murders shrouded in fog, giving the branch in George Forest District an ultimatum. Michel, who had yet to complete his Church mission, had no choice.
But whether it was the Temperance Academy being constrained everywhere, Joseph secretly finalizing some scheme, or the interest disputes and conflicts among the four major gangs—
Everything happening in this city-state seemed utterly irrelevant to Charlotte.
She had come to Gray Cloud Fort only to search for traces of her adoptive father, Sera.
Charlotte believed Sera had never died. He was a tall, strong man, a hero admired throughout the Papal States, an idol who could serve as her example and direction.
The pitch-black evil witch had stood in their father and daughter’s way.
In the chaos.
Sera had turned his back to Charlotte.
He told her: “Live on, Charlotte. Your future is far brighter than an old man like me. Return to the Papal States, return to Vatican, and tell everyone that he stood before the Blood Witch to protect tomorrow, and he never regretted it.”
She had run away.
She had also come to regret it.
When lightning split the sky and clouds, Charlotte woke up startled. She ran back to that place like a madwoman, but saw only thorns and withered flowers everywhere, with blood already congealed.
Her worshipped, respected, beloved adoptive father had vanished.
She regretted not being able to fight alongside Sera to the very end, even if she was weak, even if she was insignificant, even if it meant defying Sera’s wishes—her pride wouldn’t allow her to show her cowardly, frightened side.
Even if she died, she should have died fighting alongside her adoptive father.
Not like now.
A coward wallowing in the past and memories, spending her days in a chaotic city filled with lights and haze, chasing ethereal phantoms…
If there had to be some connection between searching for missing girls and searching for the missing Sera, perhaps “missing” would become some weak yet somewhat absurd connecting word between the two.
But Charlotte had no better choices.
Moreover, driven by her sense of justice, she wouldn’t ignore such horrifying cases anyway. Sera had told her that as an enforcement officer of the Temperance Academy, she should naturally extend a helping hand to the weak and helpless, seeking no reward and asking no motive.
So she made a bet with Michel.
Wagering her future freedom of movement for one chance to go to Blackwater River District to pursue case leads.
Thus Charlotte came to this famous industrial district of the archipelago with full enthusiasm. The oppressive management of the Blood Wine Society made the atmosphere here depressing and stifling. She visited the families who had lost daughters house by house but gained little.
As the first day was about to end, Charlotte decided to try her luck at the suspicious location Michel had mentioned earlier.
Vivian Glass Factory.
Michel said someone had seen struggling burlap sacks being forcibly dragged into the factory building. Just this one description was enough to support Charlotte taking a look around—those kidnapped girls might very well be housed in the glass factory.
When she first came to the glass factory, she found everything was locked up tight, and she hadn’t discovered anything strange or noteworthy outside either.
Near midnight.
Charlotte wandered around the area, even taking a special look at the cemetery Michel had told her to stay away from.
When passing by the iron railings, Charlotte vaguely seemed to hear someone calling her name, but there shouldn’t be anyone in Blackwater River District who knew her. This was either an illusion or she was seeing ghosts.
Charlotte thought the latter was more likely.
So she nervously quickened her pace and ran away from the cemetery.
This time she came to the glass factory area again, but saw a strange, suspicious figure dodge and disappear around a corner. However, apart from this, Charlotte still found no useful clues.
Then came the third time, driven by some ghostly impulse.
Charlotte didn’t know why she wanted to turn back yet again when she was preparing to return to the inn, as if she would definitely regret it if she didn’t do this.
Charlotte hated the taste of regret.
The third time.
She returned to the glass factory with anxious yet not-so-hopeful feelings.
The wind was light but particularly cold. Gray Cloud Fort’s winter seemed to come earlier than other places in the archipelago, and Charlotte was very unaccustomed to the climate here.
The night was thick, but rarely, when the clouds thinned for a moment, she saw moonlight pierce through the gloom and fall.
A shadow stood on the factory roof, back to the moonlight. Charlotte couldn’t make out the face.
“Church lapdog.”
The shadow looked down from its high position, tone ice-cold.
Another gust of wind—Charlotte only raised her hand slightly to shield herself, and in the blink of an eye, the shadow had vanished as if it had never appeared, mysterious and unfathomable.
An oval object in her skirt pocket was emitting a blue-green glow.
Charlotte was startled.
That was a strange sensing tool the Church had recently issued to the Bounty Academy and Temperance Academy, used to detect the presence and general location of nearby witches. Since it was still in the development stage, it was always mysteriously malfunctioning and completely unreliable.
Charlotte, who had been fooled several times before, suddenly found herself believing in its authenticity for some unknown reason.
She saw windows broken by some hard object—she was certain they had been perfectly intact the previous times she’d come here. And that strange shadow, along with the vague unease in her heart.
Tonight was calm.
Yet everywhere revealed eeriness.
But if it was related to witches, all the doubts would be resolved.
This glass factory must be hiding a witch’s base. They had kidnapped innocent girls to conduct some inhuman experiments, and now an evil witch was lurking inside.
Half a year.
Charlotte had finally caught a trace connected to witches and Sera today. Her intuition was right—Blackwater River District held the answers she wanted to find.
Easily climbing over the high wall and through the window, the blonde girl gripped the egg-shaped stone and followed the direction of the strongest light.
Finally, Charlotte found a ground door that had been violently and forcibly sealed shut. The metal frame and steel door panel were twisted and crooked together, as if compressed by some giant hand.
But this couldn’t stop a seventh-sequence extraordinary. She used equal violence to pry open the nearly destroyed door panel.
As soon as she lifted it, acrid poisonous fog and burning smoke rushed up at her. Something seemed to be burning fiercely underground.
The egg-shaped stone in her hand continued emitting blue-green light.
Pointing toward the basement.
Mere flames couldn’t stop an enforcement officer’s advance. Creating gentle water currents to surround herself was one of the extraordinary characteristics of the seventh-sequence Sheriff position in the Temperance pathway. The great angel Raguel at the pathway’s end controlled the oceans and water.
She resolutely dove into the sea of fire.
A spacious area.
Whale oil covered the ground, flames burning on its surface as if they would never be extinguished. Poison floated on the oil layer’s surface. This area full of broken rocks was actually where the fire was smaller, with rolling thick smoke pouring out from behind a slightly ajar iron door.
Charlotte maintained her water barrier as she passed through the burning whale oil layer.
But she felt a massive, cold shadow lying nearby.
The blonde girl was startled.
She turned to look, and in the firelight, black sword bones gleamed sharply while hard scales reflected the light.
A Black Sword Ground Lizard—an extraordinary creature that combined some characteristics of the sixth-sequence Agitator in the Wrath pathway. This was an opponent Charlotte couldn’t possibly defeat at the moment. There was a world of difference between sixth and seventh sequences. She hadn’t expected the witch to be crazy enough to keep such a thing underground in the city.
But after the brief fright, Charlotte realized the thing was actually dead.
No wonder poison had spilled everywhere, and the damaged rocks around were all caused by this creature’s struggles while alive. However, she couldn’t imagine what kind of weapon or extraordinary characteristic could so precisely and brutally pierce through such a hard shell.
This Black Sword Ground Lizard had lost all its spinal fluid.
Sera had taught her that one of the materials needed for the sixth-sequence Agitator potion in the Wrath pathway was its spinal fluid. Could it be that a seventh-sequence extraordinary from the Wrath pathway had defeated and killed it?
Charlotte couldn’t understand.
The egg-shaped stone’s light became weak but still pointed beyond the iron door.
The girl covered her nose and mouth, carrying her body of water as she boldly charged through the thick smoke and scorching heat. The fire hadn’t fully spread yet—the scrolls and books placed by the door and the displayed wool carpets were the main sources of the thick smoke.
But Charlotte was first shocked by the room’s layout.
Nearly identical to the Humility Academy’s Sacred Grand Library, an excellent place for medical and alchemical research, an ideal environment for preparing potions.
Was this the witch’s secret base?
Was this the destination of those innocent missing girls?
Countless questions immediately sprang up in Charlotte’s mind, but this was obviously not the time to think about these things, because she immediately saw a trace of delicate snow-white and a touch of tranquil light pink behind the scorching smoke.
Parting the layers of thick smoke.
Charlotte saw a miracle in the flames.
Porcelain-white, nearly transparent smooth skin, slender and delicate limbs, knee-length light pink hair scattered about like a soft blanket gently covering this quietly curled, sleeping beautiful girl.
This tender girl seemed to be favored and beloved by God.
The flames only surrounded her but never approached, as if worried about disturbing her peaceful rest.
Sacred.
Inviolable.
So Charlotte felt she was witnessing a miracle. This girl simply didn’t seem like something from the mortal world—she should have been carved by God’s own hands.
But this wasn’t the place or time for Charlotte to worship and admire miracles. The fire had spread to the bookshelves, and this place was about to become an irreversible sea of fire. The entire Vivian Glass Factory would be doomed.
Without further hesitation.
Charlotte had no choice but to reach out and profane the miracle.
Beneath the covering hair, the girl was nearly naked, wearing only undergarments and torn white thigh-high stockings, but leather storage pouches were strapped around her arms and at the edges of her stockings, filled with dangerous weapons.
Gently lifting her up.
Water-blue ribbons and silver bells fell onto the carpet, along with small metal objects.
As if worried that what she carried were also sacred items, Charlotte actually had the leisure to free one hand to pick them up, not leaving behind a single ribbon or bell.
Finally, there was that silver-gleaming nameplate-like object, which looked very familiar—particularly like the Temperance Academy’s emblem.
Somewhat dizzy from the smoke, Charlotte blinked, and she finally saw clearly the inscription on the back of the nameplate. That short, familiar name made her almost stop breathing.
Sera Fred.
Struck as if by lightning.
Why? Why would her adoptive father’s identification appear on a tender young girl? Who was this girl? What was her relationship to Sera? Why was she here?
Was she a witch?
Charlotte looked down anxiously at her skirt pocket—the egg-shaped stone stored there showed no reaction.
Mysteriously reassured.
There was no witch here. Charlotte wasn’t one, this girl wasn’t one either. The witch had most likely quietly escaped from the fire, leaving only ruins that would be forever destroyed.
The bookshelves forming the walls groaned and toppled down with hissing sounds. Burning pages and scrolls fluttered through the ash-filled air like fiery red butterflies.
The initial small flames had now grown into savage beasts capable of devouring everything. The entire underground laboratory would fall into their maw—all equipment, all books would be unable to escape. Nothing would remain here.
Time was running out.
Even a moment’s hesitation would be fatal.
The nameplate that had once belonged to Sera now appeared on this girl. Regardless of who the girl was or where she came from, she must have had contact with Sera. Charlotte decided to take her back.
Back to the inn, back to George Forest District, back to the Temperance Academy, back to Vatican under the holy light, until the day she truly found Sera arrived.
Gentle water currents flowed like silk ribbons around the blonde girl. She held the peacefully sleeping girl in her arms more tightly, then strode firmly over the burning plush carpet.
Massive bookshelves crashed down thunderously, thick smoke churning in the sea of fire, as if the entire world was collapsing and being destroyed behind them.
Charlotte left the Vivian Glass Factory, which was being completely devoured by raging flames, her golden figure flowing into the dark depths of the alley.
Under the thin moonlight, the brilliant firelight illuminated the gloomy sky of Blackwater River District.
Tonight was no longer calm.
Gray Cloud Fort was about to welcome upheaval.
The many forces and figures hidden in shadows would all turn their attention due to this fire of unknown origin. This city was not peaceful, but had never truly faced real storms and tsunamis.
The real storms and tsunamis would destroy everything, uprooting all existing foundations.
Completely uprooted.
And then, all things would be reborn.
But none of this would disturb the girl sleeping peacefully at the moment. The autumn wind passing through the alley gently lifted her light pink hair, her slightly curved lips serene and tranquil.
That must be quite a sweet dream