Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 82: The Stolen Divine Blood

The basket jolted, and Myss rolled right onto Salaar. Both of their bodies were light and soft, and Myss bounced instinctively, almost launching himself out of the basket.

Salaar instinctively reached out to grab him, but unfortunately, the doll’s hands had no fingers. In his desperation, the Great Hero had a sudden idea. He opened his mouth and bit down, using his cloth mouth to clamp onto Myss’s long cotton-thread hair.

Just then, the bread cloth was lifted.

Cousin Mag had a stern expression on her round face as she silently looked at the two dolls stacked together. Exposed suddenly to the light, the two dolls froze instinctively, while Myss’s cotton-thread hair was still caught in Salaar’s mouth.

Mag’s hand loosened, and the bread cloth fell back into place.

Father Kalen: “…”

Father Kalen cleared his throat. “That is what happened, Madam. I’m willing to swear to the Lord that they absolutely didn’t touch anything recklessly. They didn’t even leave the room.”

“But you told Redding that you didn’t know where they had gone.” Mag frowned.

She had been called back temporarily by Redding, so her hair was a bit disheveled, and there were still damp traces of sweat at her temples.

Father Kalen subconsciously paused. In truth, he wasn’t very good at dealing with nobles. Before this, his older brother Hermit had always been responsible for such things.

Fortunately, when they hurried over, Salaar had sent out Knife and taught him a set of talking points in advance.

Father Kalen slowly spoke. “Yes, I concealed the truth from Mr. Redding. Likewise, we hope you can keep this secret.”

“You know Sa… Kendrick’s current situation. Right now, he has no ability to protect himself. Your brothers and sisters have many connections here. If this matter gets out, their situation will become even more difficult.”

“I can also crush him to death with one hand.”

Mag sat back in her seat, interlaced her fingers, and elegantly supported her chin.

“We all believe you’re not that kind of person,” Father Kalen said earnestly.

Strictly speaking, only Salaar and Tass had firmly insisted that Mag wasn’t the sort of person who would carry out meaningless slaughter. As for Myss… Myss was still Myss. Compared to Mag’s moral character, he was more interested in poking Salaar’s cotton belly.

Mag stared fixedly at Father Kalen for a while. There was no warmth in those lapis-lazuli eyes, neither agreement nor denial.

“You chose correctly.”

Only after a long while did Mag finally speak.

“If you had still insisted on that ‘missing whereabouts’ story, I would have immediately reported the matter to the royal family and the Karns family and dug three feet into the ground to find those two little beasts.”

“As for now… I’ll tell Redding and the others that I found Kendrick and Myss making out in a broom closet. I decided to lock them in my confinement room until the chaos is resolved.”

Father Kalen let out a sigh of relief, as if a heavy burden had been lifted.

“However.”

Mag continued mercilessly, “From now on, all of you must cooperate unconditionally with my investigation.”

“Tsk!” A little bump under the bread cloth moved. From the sound of it, it seemed to be Myss.

Mag tilted her head, signaling for the priest to place the bread basket on her desk. A stir came from under the bread cloth, and the two entangled dolls rolled out together.

The Salaar doll was tangled in the Myss doll’s cotton-thread hair and had no idea how to untangle himself, so he could only move around while dragging the hair. Myss grew irritated from being tugged around by him and punched back with his soft little fist, only for the two of them to become even more tightly tangled.

Tass leaned alone in a corner of the basket. Somehow, his button eyes actually showed a hint of disdain.

Mag sighed and deftly untangled the mess of hair. She lifted the Salaar doll, but when she raised her hand, she discovered that the Myss doll had come up with him. He had bitten onto Salaar’s pant leg, his garnet eyes watching Mag warily.

Mag: “…”

She casually tugged, only to find that Myss’s bite force was astonishing. Not only did she fail to pull Myss off, she almost pulled Salaar’s pants off with him.

“Enough. I’m not planning to do anything to Kendrick.” She shook her head wearily. “It’s just… the abnormality on your bodies is not the first time it has appeared.”

“Is it the ‘that’ Mr. Raymond mentioned earlier?” Tass asked curiously.

“Yes and no. All I can tell you is that someone in the United Library has also turned into a doll. They were all highly respected seniors who had worked here for a very long time.”

When she spoke to Tass, Mag’s tone became much lighter and softer.

“At present, they have lost their magic power are being carefully watched over and treated. So—”

“So we’re more suitable for research,” the Salaar doll said. He tried hard to hold onto his pants with his hand to prevent Myss from pulling them down.

“No, ‘you’ are more suitable for research.”

When her gaze turned to Salaar, Mag’s tone became icy again. “I told you not to expect me to help you. This is only a transaction.”

“Ah, all right,” Salaar whined pitifully. “But I’m very curious. Have you tried taking those affected seniors out of the United Library? Maybe this place is cursed.”

He was probing for the boundary of the Divine Realm. Myss immediately pricked up his nonexistent ears.

“Of course we tried. It was useless. Even taking them out of Serpentia was useless.”

Mag used a tone of “did you really need to tell me such a basic thing to try?” as she spoke. “We found no trace of a curse, nor could we find any common factor among those affected. Thanks to you, now that common factor is even harder to find.”

So leaving this place is useless, Myss thought.

To be honest, Myss disliked this state.

Stripped of all his magic, with no idea how to recover it, it felt as if his feet were treading on thin air. He suddenly realized that if Salaar died in front of him, he wouldn’t even be able to do anything.

As for his own death… To be honest, Myss had never imagined it. Consequently, now that such a situation had arrived, he was overcome by a disorienting sense of unreality.

Countless thoughts surged chaotically, nearly seizing up Myss’s brain.

He didn’t know what he should think or what he should do, like a fish thrown onto the beach for the first time.

No. It wasn’t that solid.

A fish could still feel the existence of the sand beneath it, while he had stepped into empty air and was still falling.

Myss discovered in surprise that this heart of his, which could function normally, had to be built on some sort of solid foundation. For example, his vast and boundless power, or…

Myss bit Salaar’s pants tighter, even taking the soft ankle into his cotton mouth.

Salaar wasn’t afraid, so he wouldn’t be the first to retreat.

Myss flailed his short limbs and swung upward with all his strength, finally climbing onto Salaar’s body. Amid Salaar’s cries of “Hey, hey,” Myss successfully climbed onto Salaar’s soft cloth head and wrapped all four limbs around him.

“Tell us what happened.” Lord Archdemon finally managed to say now that his mouth was free.

Mag raised a brow.

“I’m more useful than this guy. That elephant professor wouldn’t write letters of introduction for two useless people.”

“If we can help that elephant solve his troubles, we can help you too. You’re much weaker than him, aren’t you?”

Myss hissed, squeezing Salaar’s head slightly out of shape.

“That makes some sense,” Mag conceded, her fingertips lightly tapping the desk.

That priest wasn’t weak, and he also didn’t look like someone with ulterior motives. That Dragon Fae had some fame and liked acting alone. It was impossible that they would follow two completely incompetent.

As for this Myss, if he could get tangled up with her deranged cousin, he must have some ability. Not to mention that attitude of superiority ingrained in his bones was incredibly difficult to fake.

“I don’t have the authority to tell you all the details. But I can still tell you the general situation. So far, our guess is a ‘malicious experiment by the Stargazers Society.’”

Mag released her hand and placed the two dolls on a handkerchief. Tass staggered over, and the three dolls sat in a row in front of Mag.

Hearing the key phrase “Stargazers Society,” the priest’s brows immediately furrowed. He stepped forward two steps and stood directly in front of the desk, his shadow almost covering Mag.

Mag paid it no mind. “Three weeks ago, high-purity ‘Divine Blood’ was stolen from the storage room.”

“At first, we thought it was another rotten incident like the Nebula family’s, that someone was fantasizing about creating a ‘Child of Divine Blood’… However, after that, my superior turned into a doll.”

According to Mag, the United Library had thoroughly investigated everything the transformed people ate, wore, and used, but failed to find anything abnormal. After that, several more senior scholars turned into crude cloth dolls, and people had no solution.

When the people of the United Library said they had “no solution,” it wasn’t on the same level as ordinary people saying they had “no solution.”

The moment Professor Gentry heard that they wanted to research Divine Blood, he had recommended the United Library to them, and naturally, he had his reasons.

The United Library was an institution directly under the Aufon royal family, a paradise for researchers.

Almost all the books and materials in the world had copies in the United Library. As for rare things mentioned in the books, the United Library would store samples of them, and it was equipped with Aufon’s top laboratories.

Every employee of the library was an elite at the national level. They wandered through rivers of information and lingered in forests of materials, trying to find lost truths within them.

When people like this couldn’t find the reason for the abnormality, the atmosphere in the library became increasingly tense.

“…All we know is that everything began with the ‘theft of Divine Blood.’ And the Stargazers’ secret letters intercepted by the royal family also mentioned ‘Divine Blood research.’”

Mag concluded, “At present, we suspect that there is a Stargazer hiding inside the United Library. He, or she, is using local materials to conduct dangerous research.”

“Well? Has this inspired anything?”

Myss resentfully rubbed his face.

They had come excitedly to investigate Divine Blood, only to step right into the very midst of a Divine Blood crisis. Truly this was the classic case of “someone getting a pillow just when one’s about to get sleepy”. 

Salaar hesitated. “Those people who turned into dolls, were they ‘Children of Divine Blood’?”

Mag burst out laughing. “How could that be? Children of Divine Blood have a hard enough time becoming normal people, let alone entering the United Library.”

“Leaving aside everything else, this Dragon Fae has no father or mother. It’s even more impossible for him to be a ‘Child of Divine Blood.’”

Tass nodded solemnly. “I’ve never seen Divine Blood in my life.”

“Just in case.” The Salaar doll squeezed closer to Myss. “We don’t understand this. First bring out all the materials related to Divine Blood.”

Myss, meanwhile, was thinking furiously.

Previously, the ones who transformed had all been senior scholars? Judging by V.O.R’s pattern, maybe the transformation standard was “magic genius.”

Before he had time to tell Salaar this guess, he heard—

“If possible, please help me search for the notes of the Order of Shadows,” the priest said. “There are many records of strange incidents inside. Perhaps they can provide some reference.”

Mag’s smile faded as she pursed her lips. “Actually, after reading Professor Gentry’s letter, I’ve had a question this entire time.”

“…What exactly is the ‘Order of Shadow?”

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The author has something to say:

Priest: ???

Priest: The veil of the Lord of Shadows really is impenetrable… [please]

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