Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 26: V.O.R
Kalen turned around.
After settling the patients, he put his shirt and priest’s black robe back on. He was even taller than Salaar. In the dim light, the priest carried an indescribable pressure.
Myss tensed his back warily. The silver snake Fork stirred restlessly.
“Ah, your goal isn’t the plague? …Then you two aren’t secret investigators from the capital?”
Kalen spoke in surprise, looking a bit troubled, and that pressure popped like a soap bubble. Outside the window, a few crows softly cawed, inexplicably sounding like sighs.
Myss and Salaar: “…”
It was one thing to fool Hailey with that talk, but why did this guy believe it too?
Leaving Salaar aside, even Myss had shown a glimpse of his true form before this man. Was “secret investigators from the capital” really that thrilling?
For a moment they couldn’t tell whether Kalen was acting or if his thinking was truly that simple.
Kalen clearly noticed their speechlessness and explained nervously, “I first thought it was a lie, but you risked your lives to save us, so I felt it might be true… I’m sorry. I was raised in the countryside of Atla and don’t understand the bureaucracy here very well.”
“But don’t worry. I’ll keep your peculiarities a secret. Where there is mystery, it’s shrouded in shadow.”
Is secrecy the point here? Salaar couldn’t help glancing at Myss.
Myss’s appearances were striking to the point of abnormal. After the battle, his inhuman traits had shown even more clearly.
In such a situation, people would usually be instinctively wary of Myss. Kalen, however, never reacted at all. They didn’t know if he was simply dull or if there was something else going on.
Come to think of it, the mysteries on Father Kalen were no fewer than theirs.
Not to mention those rings imbued with divine power, Kalen’s bodily recovery was also unheard of. He claimed he couldn’t use magic, yet Mina’s pale red threads had retreated on their own in front of him, as if something truly was protecting him.
Most interesting of all, he happened to share the same goal as they did.
Meanwhile Kalen was still marveling. “I didn’t expect you two to be nobler than I thought. Saving my life was a pure act of righteousness…”
Myss’s ears ached from listening. “Enough. We came for Scintilla.”
Kalen stopped and gave an enlightened “oh.”
“She used the alias ‘Patience’. She’s my pen pal.”
Salaar studied Kalen in silence for a moment, then picked up the thread at the right time. “She suddenly cut off contact two months ago, so we came to check on her.”
The smile on Kalen’s face froze. “Which pen pal?”
“‘Pilgrim’,” Salaar said. “I even have Miss Scintilla’s reply letters. Now it is my turn to ask questions, Mr. Rural Priest.”
He stepped forward a little. The silver snake slowly slid between his fingers.
“We did save your life. But your trust came too quickly, and what you told us was too far from common sense, as if you were deliberately misleading us. What are you hiding?”
“Miss Scintilla is an important friend to us. We’ll pursue this to the very end.”
“That’s right, to the very end,” Myss said, unusually cheering on the great hero.
After all, he really wanted to know where the marvelous Abnormal Fruit was.
And just like that, Kalen was pinned in place by two sharp gazes.
“God of Shadows, protect us. I didn’t think this through.”
Father Kalen heaved a long sigh and tugged at his sleeve a bit awkwardly. “I’m sorry. I did hide some things. I thought that since Miss Scintilla was already saved, there was no need to drag you two into it.”
He fell silent for a moment, added calming herbs to a cup of water, and handed it to Hailey. After making sure the girl was fully asleep, Kalen took a deep breath and stood before them.
However, just as he was about to start recounting a story from “a long, long time ago”, he was interrupted by Salaar.
Tap, tap.
The serpent staff became a lightsaber, casually held in Salaar’s hand. Knife’s tongue flicked lightly against his knuckles.
“Before you start, answer me this. How does a village priest know about the Abnormal Fruit that even the kingdom’s investigators are unaware of?”
“…If they knew of its existence, they would have screened the altered victims at once.”
Salaar took one step closer to Kalen.
The sword tip hissed across the floor. A presence that Myss knew all too well spread outward. That chill wrapped around a person layer by layer, as if he had plunged to the bottom of an icy sea.
Kalen seemed a bit short of breath. He loosened his collar and said, “Allow me to introduce myself again. I am a priest of the Order of Shadows. One of the missions of the Order of Shadows is to purge ominous signs like the Abnormal Fruit. The veil of shadow is inclusive, but it shouldn’t become a place for filth to hide.”
“We are few, but we have religious sanctions from the three major kingdoms. We’re nothing like those cultists, the Stargazers Society.”
So there are humans who specifically sought out the Abnormal Fruit, like truffle pigs. Myss was quietly amazed.
Salaar had never heard of the Order of Shadows, nor of that so-called Stargazers Society. His expression didn’t change. He took another step forward and stopped just half a step from Kalen.
“An inspiring creed,” he said flatly, the sword tip lifting slightly. “However, the mutants are that powerful, and the Abnormal Fruit that dangerous, yet the Order of Shadows lets its clergy operate alone?”
“For an investigation of this scale, there should be at least two people.”
At that, the calm Kalen had worked to maintain shattered at once.
The priest’s shoulders slumped, his face dimmed, and he looked terribly pained. The crows outside fell silent with him. They glanced at one another and finally lowered their heads together.
Salaar still didn’t let up, and the pressure grew heavier. It reached the point that Myss began to wonder whether he should intervene. This was a rare truffle, no, Abnormal Fruit finder. They ought to raise him.
“… It was my brother.”
Before Myss could decide, Kalen spoke again, now with bitterness and worry in his voice. “My partner is my brother. He went missing during our last investigation.”
“Missing?” Salaar repeated.
Kalen brushed a hand over the trouser pocket under his long robe and carefully took out two letters. He solemnly handed them to Salaar.
Salaar raised an eyebrow and accepted them with care.
The two letters looked identical. The envelopes were of the finest parchment, completely blank on the outside. The seals were scarlet wax with no imprint.
One was dusty, neatly folded, and carried the scent of dried herbs and ink—clearly it had come from Scintilla’s desk.
The other had been preserved with great care. The envelope didn’t have a single bent corner, but showed faint wear, as if someone had rubbed it over and over for a long time.
Salaar opened the first letter. Myss darted in close to read with him—
[Farewell, Miss Patience, my dear friend.
We shall meet again in the season of harvest.
—V.O.R.]
It was indeed Scintilla’s letter, but the contents looked normal, with nothing special on the surface.
Salaar looked up, about to ask a question, when Kalen gently shook his head and pointed to the second letter.
Salaar obligingly unfolded it.
[Farewell, Mr. Hemet, my dear friend.
We shall meet again in the season of harvest.
—V.O.R.]
Huh? Wasn’t this exactly the same content?
Myss couldn’t help clicking his tongue. “Who is this Hemet?”
“Hemet is my brother’s name.”
Kalen made the sign of the cross over his chest. His voice was a little hoarse. “In our last investigation we found that victims of the Abnormal Fruit had received farewell letters from V.O.R. Right after that my brother disappeared. At the scene there was only a farewell letter left behind, and traces of a struggle with blood.”
“Miss Scintilla received the same farewell letter. You saw her state. This V.O.R is extremely dangerous. I simply didn’t want to drag you two down with me.”
Salaar stared at the initials for a while, then put away the lightsaber. The pressure evaporated without a trace.
“Unfortunately,” he said slowly, “I think we’re already dragged in.”
Salaar clearly remembered that this V.O.R had written to Lord Karns.
In order to restore his own magic, Lord Karns used the alias “Pilgrim” and often posted bounty questions in various scholarly journals.
One day, a letter signed V.O.R appeared on his desk.
In it, V.O.R told him that he—or she—knew a genius well-versed in Magibases named “Patience”, and was willing to put them in touch. That was how Karns and Scintilla had connected.
Lord Karns had too many pen pals, and the contents of V.O.R’s letter were too ordinary. Salaar hadn’t paid attention to the name before.
“I did receive a letter from V.O.R, but not this kind of farewell letter,” Salaar said truthfully. “This person only introduced Scintilla to me, and we didn’t correspond again afterward.”
Kalen nodded. “You should be safe for now, but I recommend that you change residence and absolutely do not contact V.O.R on your own.”
We’ve done more than change residence. Lord Karns’s house had been burned down, Myss thought.
That said, did the summoning that brought him and Salaar into the human world count as an ominous sign?
Thinking that, he dragged Salaar over to sniff him. Sadly, Salaar didn’t have the Abnormal Fruit’s distinctive scent.
Salaar patted Myss helplessly and reclaimed his collar.
Then he looked at Kalen for a moment more. “Thank you for the advice. I’ll keep it in mind. And I apologize for earlier. A friend is in trouble, and I got a little heated.”
“I understand.”
Kalen carefully put the two letters away. After a few deep breaths, he was calm again. “Since the misunderstanding is cleared up, may I take Miss Scintilla home?”
“Of course,” Salaar said. “I have done my best to heal her. Any further spells would only delay the inevitable.”
Myss was a little unhappy.
He didn’t know what thoughts were going through Salaar’s head, but it sounded like they were about to part ways with Kalen. This was a rare Abnormal Fruit finder. If they let this one go, who knew when the next would appear.
Besides, leaving the connection aside, was the Abnormal Fruit not a lead in itself?
He had to think of a way to steer the situation…
Either make Salaar take an interest in the Abnormal Fruit or make Kalen stay of his own accord.
Myss’s gaze moved back and forth among Huey, Hailey, and Scintilla; his pupils gradually darkened like mist.
Yes, he had seen Mina’s magic. He knew how Mina cut Magibases, how she used memory, and how she fed power to Scintilla.
Myss shot a glance at Salaar, then directly yanked Hailey and Huey awake.
Salaar’s gaze swept back almost instantly. He watched Myss quietly and didn’t stop him.
Once he was sure both of them had opened their eyes, Myss copied Salaar’s tone and said solemnly, “Scintilla is close to death. I know a magic that can restore her to normal.”
“It requires you to ‘contribute’ a little power. You will feel weak for a while, but it won’t be fatal. I need your permission now.”
Following Salaar’s pattern, surely Salaar wouldn’t make trouble again, right?
Before Salaar could speak, Kalen was the first to lift his head. “By the Lord of Shadows, can you bring her back?”
“Oh, it’s simple.” Myss glanced at Salaar from the corner of his eye. “Earlier she devoured Magibases to strengthen herself. I only need to use the same magic and transmit the Magibases’s power to her.”
“I’ll…” Kalen opened his mouth as if to volunteer, then remembered he had no Magibase. He slumped and moved to the wall. “I’ll keep quiet and never get in your way.”
Salaar reacted at once, his brow furrowing. “Impressive.”
If it were only restoring the human body, the required power wouldn’t be much, and a single person could bear it. Of course, if two people shared it, the damage would be even lower.
As for how to undo the mutation, Myss didn’t say outright, but he had some guesses.
Myss said proudly, “Hurry up. You cancel their mental magic first. I’m waiting for permission.”
Salaar didn’t move. He only looked at the uncle and niece, who were staring at each other.
“I have no problem. I’m in good condition,” Hailey said steadily. “Uncle said there’s nothing wrong with helping others, so why not?”
Huey, lying on the bed, looked equally calm and gave a slight nod.
“You heard them. Do it, Myss.” For some reason Salaar looked a little pleased.
“That guy is starting to smile again. It’s really annoying,” the little snake Fork twisted on the back of Myss’s hand grumbled.
“Not bad, you get it,” Myss muttered back. “Forget it. Let us hope we find some useful clues.”
After all, he only said he could save her. He never said he wouldn’t take the chance to do something else.
Myss drew a deep breath and carefully recalled the texture of the pale red threads. He condensed similar pitch-black filaments again, and this time he fully suppressed their annihilating power.
Imitating the pale red threads, he connected one end to the dry red strands on Scintilla’s body and coiled the other end around the two people’s Magibases.
Then his filament slipped and almost went splits on the Magibases.
Right, there was that problem. Salaar’s magic could block the plague’s erosion. The guy had done it on purpose.
Myss was just about to protest when a gentle lute sound rose.
To Kalen’s astonishment, Salaar straightened his left arm and created that flesh lute on the spot. Waves of gentle music spread out layer by layer. Hailey and Huey’s expressions didn’t change, but their Magibases were no longer as slick as before.
It was Mina’s magic property.
Myss recognized that damned sensation in an instant. It always forced him to think of the “most trusted” Salaar, which was infuriating.
“This way, the support is faster and controllable,” Salaar said. His gaze slid past Kalen without a trace and finally landed on Myss’s magic filaments.
The meaning was that he could interrupt the treatment at any time, the cunning guy.
Myss snorted and continued to imitate Mina in his own way. The black filaments coiled around the two people’s threads, drawing a little Magibase power bit by bit and transferring it into Scintilla.
Scintilla’s breathing immediately steadied, and a hint of color appeared on her face.
Myss kept his pupils in a diffused state and carefully observed the magic flow. Sure enough, he saw one tiny “endpoint” after another inside Scintilla. Those were the “spells” still operating that caused her body to be abnormal.
So it was indeed that clump of Magibase that was no different from minced meat.
Taking advantage of the outside magic still transfusing her, Myss sent more filaments into Scintilla’s body.
The filaments split into two routes. One went to those “endpoints” and neatly annihilated the deformed Magibases. The other continued to imitate the pale red threads and quietly entered Scintilla’s memories.
In an instant, Scintilla’s whole life unfolded before Myss like a bookshelf open for reading, and also like a perfectly dissected corpse.
It was only fifteen years. Myss quickly found the memories from ten years ago and began to read them.
The night before the summoning ritual, at Scintilla’s home.
Bottles and jars filled the shelves. Books were stacked neatly in the corner. There were no piles of books and parchment that blocked one’s feet, so the room looked much more spacious.
Fresh herbs hung above the fireplace. Milk simmered in the fire with a soft bubble. A cute checkered cloth lay on the small table, and in the vase stood a blooming sunflower.
Everything was in order, and the air was warm to an absurd degree.
Philomina held her clean and pretty daughter, sinking deep into the rocking chair as if she were a bouquet about to wither.
Unlike the Mina in their impressions, Philomina was thin, with a waxy complexion, and looked unhealthy. They didn’t seem poor, yet Philomina wore simple linen clothes.
“Sweetheart, remember. In all things be steady. Don’t show off too much.”
Mina—no, Philomina— gazed gently at little Scintilla.
“You’re too young and lack enough backing. Power that is too strong will only invite trouble… Mom only hopes you can be happy and healthy in this life.”
“But Mom, everyone is so happy,” Scintilla said in a childish voice. “The teacher said I’m a once-in-ten-years genius and said he’ll give me a lot of money. When I go to the bookstore to play, I can read whatever I want.”
Philomina moved her lips. The words reached her mouth, then were swallowed again under her daughter’s radiant smile.
In the end, she pressed a kiss on Scintilla’s forehead.
“Mom, the summoning ritual is tomorrow. After the ritual, you’re taking me to the stalls!”
Scintilla buried her face in her mother’s neck and rubbed affectionately.
“Alright.” Philomina patted her back lightly and smiled as she spoke.
“Mom, if I really am a genius, will I be like Lord Lagensia and summon a huge Magibase phoenix?”
Scintilla gestured excitedly. “Then you can hold me, my phoenix will carry you, and we can fly in the sky together, right?”
“Alright.” Philomina coughed twice and smiled as she spoke.
She stroked Scintilla’s hair with deep affection. Her hand was a little cold.
“Mom, after tomorrow I’ll be an amazing mage. Later let us live in the capital, alright?”
“Mom, I want to eat croutons. Tomorrow, can we buy more to bring home?”
“… Mom?”
Her mother didn’t answer. She became even colder than before.
As a child of the Lower City, Scintilla knew what that meant.
As her mother’s child, Scintilla also knew this day would come sooner or later. Her mother’s health had never been good. She knew that.
She had begged the lords of the Upper City to recommend doctors, but one doctor after another came and went, and her mother’s illness never improved.
Why?
Scintilla lay back in her mother’s arms without moving, trying hard to draw in the remaining warmth.
She didn’t actually want Lord Lagensia’s phoenix. She only wanted a Magibase strong enough to cure her mother… Why was her gift memory magic of all things?
“Mom, stay with me one more day, please.”
She pleaded through tears, as if that could bring her mother back. “You promised me that you would stroll the stalls with me tomorrow and let my Magibase carry you flying.”
“…You promised to stay with me.”
The familiar embrace slowly grew cold. The milk on the stove burned, giving off an unpleasant scorched smell.
In an instant the world turned cold and hard. It was dark outside the window, and she began to feel afraid.
Her panicked gaze darted around the room, trying to find a place to hide. Suddenly her eyes fixed on something.
A cute checkered cloth lay on the small table, and in the vase stood a blooming sunflower.
…And beneath that vase, an envelope condensed out of the darkness and appeared on the table out of thin air. In the center of the envelope, scarlet sealing wax reflected the firelight.
The author has something to say:
What the Demon Lord did here was essentially performing surgery while transfusing blood.
He really will do anything for a bite to eat.
And the honest priest really is an honest priest, a simple country boy…
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