South Tivian, Bishop’s Square.
Under the cold winter night, the New Year’s Eve gala on the square has already begun. Joyful and exciting performances take turns on the stage, eliciting laughter and cheers from the crowd below. Amidst the continuous applause and shouts, the enthusiasm of the people rises wave after wave. In such an atmosphere, people can even forget the biting cold wind of the winter night.
While the crowd in the square is immersed in laughter, Dorothy stands among them with a furrowed brow and a heavy expression. When she learned of the immense crisis hidden within the crowd, her mind could no longer focus on the performances on the stage.
“These guys have planted bombs among the audience and plan to detonate them at a significant moment... They’re insane. If they want to carry out a terrorist attack, why not choose a more meaningful target instead of this place…”
Dorothy thinks with a hint of anger. Through Kapak, she knows that the indigenous people of the New Continent have been severely oppressed by the colonizers. It’s understandable that they harbor hatred, but grievances should be directed at those who carry out the oppression. Why target these ordinary civilians?
This gala is held in the South District, and its audience is mainly the lower-class citizens of Tivian, many of whom are workers—also victims of oppression. Dorothy can’t understand why Sado chose this place as the target for the attack.
“Just as Kapak said, Sado is completely blinded by hatred. This guy probably chose this place because of the dense crowd, thinking he could kill more people... It also feels like he’s been manipulated by the mastermind behind this.”
Dorothy thinks to herself. At this moment, she can’t afford to dwell on why Sado chose this location for the attack. Her urgent task is to find the bombs hidden among the audience.
The best way to find the bombs now is to continue eavesdropping, hoping to gather more clues from Sado and his group’s conversations.
Calming her emotions, Dorothy focuses her mind and uses her bird-shaped marionette to continue eavesdropping on Sado’s conversations.In the smoke-filled attic on the rooftop by the square, Sado is still trying to calm the other indigenous people who are growing restless due to the long wait.
"Please remain calm, everyone. I know many of you are eager to make those celebrating white-skinned people bleed and feel fear, but the more we approach this moment, the more we must remain composed and not act rashly.”
"We’ve already made arrangements. Kum and the others will sacrifice themselves at the predetermined moment. What we need to do is rush out after their sacrifice and create more chaos, killing as many as possible to leave a lasting lesson for those bastards!”
"I know that everyone gathered here has been severely oppressed by the white-skinned demons. We’ve come together from various tribes with a shared desire for revenge, all to make those bastards pay.”
"I share your feelings. I understand that hearing these people celebrating makes you want to rush out and kill them, but we must endure. Since the plan has been set, we must follow it. Otherwise, we won’t be able to maximize their suffering! So now, please, for my sake, continue to endure."
In the small attic room, Sado stands among the other indigenous people, calming them. Under his reassurance, the restless crowd quiets down. These brown-skinned indigenous people sit back on the floor, enduring the laughter from the square while smoking in silence. Each of them has a rifle by their side, clearly ready to rush out and wreak havoc later.
By the attic’s skylight, an inconspicuous little bird secretly observes the scene inside. Just moments ago, Dorothy, through her marionette, obtained crucial information.
“The predetermined moment... sacrifice... bombs... These guys are planning a suicide bombing. They’ve already infiltrated the audience, waiting for the right moment to detonate the bombs on themselves.”
“From what Sado said earlier, they plan to detonate the bombs at the peak of the celebration, during the most intense moment of the gala. If I think about it... the most intense moment of this gala should be at midnight, when the New Year is welcomed. They must be planning to strike then…”
Dorothy thinks to herself. She then pulls out her pocket watch and checks the time. It’s 10:20 PM, and there’s only one hour and forty minutes left until midnight.
“I need to find a way to uncover the suicide bombers hidden in the crowd within this time…”
Putting away her pocket watch, Dorothy glances at the surrounding crowd. There are at least several thousand people gathered in the square, making it extremely difficult to find two or three individuals hiding bombs.
Initially, Dorothy plans to use her bird-shaped marionette to search for the suicide bombers in the crowd. According to Sado’s earlier words, the individuals tasked with sacrificing themselves are also indigenous people from the New Continent, who generally have brown skin. So, all she needs to do is find people with brown skin in the crowd.
However, Dorothy soon realizes this method isn’t practical. It’s very dark, and the lighting in the square where the audience is gathered is minimal. In such dim light, it’s hard to distinguish skin colors without getting close, let alone from a bird’s-eye view. Due to the winter cold, most of the audience is wearing hats and bundled up tightly, making it impossible to identify specific skin tones or who might be carrying a bomb from above.
“This is going to be tricky... I need to think of another way to find them…”
Since the bird-shaped marionette can’t detect the suicide bombers in the crowd, Dorothy starts considering other methods. She thinks of using scent to locate them. Due to differences in living environments, the indigenous people from the New Continent have distinct scents compared to the people of Tivian. If she can identify these differences, combined with the smell of gunpowder, she might be able to find the suicide bombers in the crowd.
This idea is excellent, but just as Dorothy is about to implement it, she encounters a critical problem: the Scent-Tracking Sigil she obtained from Adèle has been completely used up. Without the enhanced sense of smell provided by the sigil, she can’t distinguish scents in such detail among thousands of people.
“Tsk, the Scent-Tracking Sigil is so useful, but there’s just not enough of it. Adèle only had three after dealing with the Wolf Blood Society for so long... and now they’re all used up…”
Dorothy laments in her heart. With another plan foiled, she struggles to think of a good way to find the bombers. Reluctantly, she continues to use the bird marionette to monitor the situation in the attic, hoping to gather more clues from Sado.
Through further careful observation with the bird marionette, Dorothy soon notices some subtle details in the attic. For instance, she realizes that the attic isn’t solely occupied by indigenous people from the New Continent. In a corner of the attic, there are two or three masked men keeping their distance from the indigenous people. These men seem to deliberately avoid the others, and the indigenous people glance at them with a hint of wariness.
Moreover, Dorothy spots a spider on the attic wall. While the spider appears ordinary, it stands out to Dorothy because she has seen similar ones before at King’s Campus. Back when Dorothy was engaged in an intelligence battle with Thorn Velvet, he used such spiders to track her marionettes. These are special mystical creatures used by the Eight-Spired Nest, capable of surveillance.
“The mastermind behind these guys... is actually the Eight-Spired Nest?”
Seeing this, Dorothy is quite surprised. She had initially thought the mastermind manipulating Sado was the indigenous man Banu, who had allied with the Nether Coffin Order. But now, it seems the Eight-Spired Nest is involved.
“So, it’s the Eight-Spired Nest orchestrating these guys to cause trouble here. It seems they’ve reached some kind of agreement with the Nether Coffin Order. But... why would the Eight-Spired Nest want these indigenous people to carry out a terrorist attack here? What do they gain from it?”
Staring at the spider on the attic wall, Dorothy ponders. She already has some guesses about the Eight-Spired Nest’s motives for manipulating Sado and his group to launch the attack, but she doesn’t dwell on it. Her primary goal now is to find the suicide bombers in the crowd, not to speculate on other matters.
Dorothy continues to use the marionette to eavesdrop on the attic, hoping to gather more useful clues to help her locate the bombers. Unfortunately, after Sado calmed the other indigenous people, there has been no significant communication in the attic. Dorothy listens for a while but fails to pick up any crucial information, which makes her increasingly anxious.
“This is bad... It seems I can’t gather any more useful intelligence. With just these clues, I can’t find the suicide bombers…”
Frowning, Dorothy thinks to herself. She pulls out her pocket watch again and checks the time. It’s now 10:40 PM. She has been monitoring for half an hour but has only found the Eight-Spired Nest’s spider. Her urgent task isn’t to catch the mastermind but to uncover the bombers hidden in the crowd.
“I can’t keep waiting like this. I need to take some other measures, or it’ll be too late…”
Watching the time slip away on her pocket watch, Dorothy grows increasingly anxious. Continuing to eavesdrop and wait for Sado to reveal clues is essentially sitting idle. With only a little over an hour left, she must act immediately.
“But the problem is... the current information isn’t enough for me to find the suicide bombers in the crowd. What should I do? Should I notify the Hunters patrolling nearby and have them stop the gala and evacuate the crowd? But what if that provokes those guys into detonating the bombs out of desperation?”
Amidst the celebrating crowd, Dorothy strokes her chin, deep in thought, trying to find a solution to the current predicament. Just then, there’s a new development on the stage.
At this moment, an acrobatics performance on the stage concludes. The actors bow and exit amidst applause, and the well-dressed host steps back onto the stage. With a smile, he looks at the audience below and, as the applause dies down, speaks loudly.
"Thank you very much to the young performers of the Doss Acrobatics Troupe for their wonderful performance. As expected of Tivian’s renowned acrobatics troupe, everyone, wasn’t their performance amazing?"
The host calls out to the audience, and the crowd responds with enthusiastic cheers. Seeing this, the host continues with a smile.
"Yes... it was amazing. The burlesque show from the Funny Face Circus clowns was amazing, the mime performance from the Gao Theater was amazing, and the skills of the young performers from the Doss Acrobatics Troupe were also amazing. For tonight’s gala, Princess Isabella has invited the finest performers from all over Tivian to entertain us.”
"Everyone, perhaps the previous performances have already thrilled you, but let me tell you, you need to save your greatest amazement for what’s to come. Earlier, Princess Isabella mentioned that she has prepared a surprise for tonight’s gala. Now, I am honored to unveil the true face of this surprise. Please welcome one of the most captivating women in all of Pritt, the talented dance star, Tivian’s most dazzling ruby—Adèle Briouze!"
The host announces with great enthusiasm, gesturing toward the stage curtains behind him. As the orchestra begins to play a melodious tune, the massive curtains slowly part, and from behind them, a figure in red leaps out.
A crimson dance dress adorned with sparkling jewels blooms like a rose as the graceful figure twirls. Her slender arms, wrapped in dark silk, move with agility, and her light steps dance across the stage like a crane. The dancer, clad in a flash of red, performs gracefully under the spotlight.
As the host announces, Adèle leads her accompanying dancers from behind the curtains to the front of the stage. When the stunning red figure appears before the audience, thunderous cheers and applause erupt from the crowd, louder than for any previous performance.
The people in attendance never expected that Princess Isabella’s surprise would be Adèle, Tivian’s most famous female dancer. They never imagined that a gala aimed at ordinary lower-class citizens would feature such a big star. When this renowned dancer appears at this civilian evening party, the atmosphere reaches an unprecedented peak, with the crowd chanting Adèle’s name nonstop.
"Hey! Dorothy! Did you see that? It’s Adèle! It’s actually the superstar Adèle!? I’ve always wanted to see her perform, but I never expected her to come here. This is unbelievable!"
In the crowd, Gregor excitedly pats Dorothy’s shoulder, shouting. Dorothy, too, stares at the familiar figure on the stage with a look of astonishment.
“The princess’s surprise... is actually Adèle? Adèle is performing at this evening party!?”
Dorothy’s mouth hangs slightly open in surprise. Soon after, she realizes that Adèle might be able to help solve the current problem.
“With Adèle’s abilities... she might be able to help me find those suicide bombers!”
Dorothy thinks urgently. Without delay, she immediately prepares to use the information channel to contact Adèle on stage, planning to send her a prayer to inform her of the complex situation at the gala. When Dorothy and Adèle were searching for her teacher Darlene, Dorothy successfully established an information channel by having Adèle pray to Aka.
As if contacting someone else, Dorothy pretends to pray to Aka and prepares to send the prayer’s content through the information channel to Adèle. However, at this moment, the system issues a warning.
“Warning: Transmission target has established a transmission barrier. Information cannot be effectively transmitted.”
The system’s voice echoes in Dorothy’s mind. After a moment of stunned silence, Dorothy asks the system in her thoughts.
“A transmission barrier? What’s going on?”
“The transmission target has actively set up a barrier to block transmissions. Information cannot be delivered to the target. You can forcibly transmit to break through the barrier, but this will cause uncontrollable mental damage to the target.”
The system explains to Dorothy, who quickly understands the situation.
In simple terms, Adèle seems to have a mental barrier in her mind designed to block mental invasion. Without her prior consent, anyone attempting to interfere with her mind would be blocked by this barrier, including Dorothy’s method of directly sending information through the information channel. This seems to be a mental defense mechanism established by Adèle herself, a senior Beyonder, to protect her mind. This mechanism prevents Dorothy from sending messages directly into her mind.
Of course, according to the system, it can easily break through this defense and deliver the message to Adèle. However, the problem is that this would harm Adèle’s mind, which puts Dorothy in a difficult position. She doesn’t want to harm Adèle’s mind, especially since she needs her help to find the bombers.
“But... the problem now is that I need to contact Adèle first to ask for her help. If the information channel can’t be used, I’ll have to rely on the Literary Sea Logbook. But Adèle doesn’t seem to have the communication book with her right now. Even if she did, Adèle isn’t like Nephthys or Vania—she doesn’t have my marionette mark on her. Even if I write something in the book, it would be hard to alert her in time…”
Dorothy thinks anxiously. At this moment, she desperately needs to contact Adèle but can’t find a suitable way.
Frowning, Dorothy stands still, almost stomping her foot in frustration. Just then, an idea pops into her mind.
“Wait, maybe I can do this... Although it might expose a little something, I can’t worry about that now.”
Dorothy steels her resolve and glances at Gregor beside her. Seeing that he is still engrossed in watching Adèle, she reaches into her small bag and feels around until she finds her magic box.
Using only her sense of touch, Dorothy secretly opens the magic box inside her bag and takes out an item. Holding it, she pulls her hand out of the bag and looks at what she’s holding: a letter, a letter emitting a strange fragrance.
This letter is the one Adèle sent to Detective for the first time. Because the scent on it was so strong and peculiar, Dorothy suspected there might be something unusual about it. After reading the letter, she placed this fragrant letter in the magic box and used Stone Powder to remove the scent from herself.
Now, when Dorothy takes out the letter again, the scent on it hasn’t diminished at all. The moment the letter is taken out of the magic box, Adèle, who is dancing on the stage, suddenly glances toward a corner of the audience seats nearby. After a slight pause, a faint smile appears on her lips.