South Tivian, Bishop’s Square.
Just as the New Year’s celebration ended early and the crowd in the square began to disperse, an unexpected event suddenly occurred.
A violent storm erupted from inside the Blue Weave Street No. 1 building, which had been serving as the royal viewing platform. All the windows were shattered by the fierce winds blowing from within, and the loud noise caused panic among the remaining audience members. Shards of glass, flung by the wind, injured several people standing close to the building. Many clutched their wounds and collapsed in the cold night.
As the incident unfolded, the emergency medical station set up by the church in the square immediately sprang into action. Under the direction of the nuns in charge, the staff rushed to treat the injured.
Meanwhile, Adèle used her abilities on a small scale to charm the ordinary guards on-site, convincing them to follow her instructions. She and her troupe members worked to maintain order and prevent further chaos that could lead to more unnecessary injuries.
Fortunately, since the event had ended early, a large portion of the crowd had already left the square. Otherwise, the number of injuries and the level of chaos would have been much worse.
On the rooftop of a building at the edge of Bishop’s Square, Kapak looked down at the chaotic scene and the now nearly windowless Blue Weave Street No. 1 building. His expression was grave. He turned to his fellow tribesmen, who also looked surprised, and asked.
"Do any of you have people elsewhere preparing an attack?"
"No, no! Disciple of Uta the Great Shaman, we swear by the Great Soul, apart from Kum and the other two, all of us are here. There’s no one else elsewhere."
Facing Kapak’s question, one of the tribesmen raised his hand and answered. Hearing this, Kapak frowned, his mind filled with confusion."Everyone’s here... Then what just happened in that building?"
"I don’t know. Maybe it was those white-skinned people who were in contact with Sado... But no matter what, it really wasn’t us. All of us are here!"
The tribesman continued to explain to Kapak. After hearing his explanation, Kapak couldn’t help but breathe a slight sigh of relief, though his worries quickly resurfaced.
“Those white-skinned people in contact with Sado... Are they the secret society trying to use us? What is their true purpose in using our people?”
As Kapak pondered this, a familiar voice suddenly echoed in his mind. He recognized it as the voice of the Scholar who had guided him before. Scholar was now instructing him and Miss Thief to immediately head to a small alley across the street from the wind-damaged building.
“Scholar has new instructions... Is there an enemy inside that building?”
Hearing this, Kapak’s expression turned serious. He turned to Nephthys, who was standing nearby, and spoke in Prittish.
"Miss Thief, Scholar seems to have new orders. We need to move quickly."
"I... I heard it too... Let’s go... Ugh..."
On the other side, Nephthys weakly leaned against a wall, responding to Kapak. As she spoke, she suddenly covered her stomach and vomited, spilling the contents of her dinner onto the ground. Beside her, the wild spirit, in the form of a lynx, was intently licking a coin placed on the ground.
"Ugh... I didn’t expect... using the spirit’s combat methods would lead to this... Ugh... I even swallowed some of it... It’s so disgusting..."
Leaning against the wall, Nephthys looked pale and exhausted as she wiped the blood from her mouth. She shot a resentful glance at the spirit, but the lynx paid no attention and continued happily licking the coin.
Earlier, Nephthys had used her Soulbinder abilities to channel the spirit’s combat skills, allowing her to fight the Eight-Spired Nest watchers with the lynx’s techniques.
However, the lynx was still a beast, and its combat methods involved not only claws but also fangs. During the fight, Nephthys, influenced by the spirit’s instincts, had bitten into her enemies and torn off chunks of flesh.
Biting into human flesh was something Nephthys, a wealthy young lady raised in Tivian, could never have imagined doing. While channeling the spirit, she hadn’t noticed anything unusual, but once the connection was severed, the overwhelming taste of blood in her mouth made her feel nauseous. She had been leaning against the wall, vomiting for a while now.
Seeing this, Kapak, who knew the truth, could do nothing to help. The other tribesmen, unaware of what had happened, were deeply confused.
To the other tribesmen, this woman, who had fought alongside the Great Shaman’s disciple, had displayed the ferocity of a wild beast, pouncing on and killing three watchers. The image of her licking the blood from her claws with a fierce gaze had left a deep impression on them. But just as they began to see her as a savage warrior brought by Uta the Shaman, her demeanor suddenly shifted 180 degrees, and she began vomiting uncontrollably.
Nephthys’ sudden change left the tribesmen puzzled, but she and Kapak had no time to explain. After hearing the voice in their minds, they quickly began organizing the tribesmen’s retreat and then hurried to a small alley across from Blue Weave Street.
During this process, Kapak heard the familiar voice again, and this time it posed a question to him.
"What? What do you need for a soul-summoning ritual?"
…
Inside the ruined Blue Weave Street No. 1, in the dim and chaotic hall, Vania, dressed in her white nun’s habit, knelt on the ground. She placed her hands on the wounds of the injured person before her, focusing intently on her healing work.
Under the soft glow emanating from Vania’s hands, the horrific wounds on Isabella’s body gradually stopped bleeding. As the healing process slowly progressed, Isabella’s breathing, though she remained unconscious, began to stabilize, and her complexion improved.
"How is she doing now?"
Beside Vania, a guard marionette controlled by Dorothy asked. Vania responded.
"Her injuries don’t seem too severe. I’ve stopped the bleeding, and she’s no longer in critical condition. However, further treatment at a hospital would be better."
As she stopped the healing glow, Vania spoke. She glanced around at the ruined surroundings and the gruesome corpses, her brow furrowed with worry.
"How could something like this happen? The princess and the duke... They were under such tight security, yet they were still attacked, and with such destructive force... Didn’t we already drive off the assassins?"
"Yes, the surface-level assassins were dealt with, but it seems those people had a deeper card up their sleeves... Heh... To cause such a scene for an assassination, it seems they’re getting desperate..."
Through the marionette, Dorothy spoke to Vania. She then controlled the marionette to walk over to Barrett’s body, which was leaning against the wall. She began searching his body while asking.
"By the way, how long will it take for the princess to wake up?"
"I’m afraid I don’t know. My medical skills are still quite rudimentary. I can’t determine the cause of her unconsciousness, so I can’t say when she’ll wake up."
Vania replied. Hearing this, Dorothy had the marionette glance at Isabella, the only survivor in the room, before continuing to search Barrett’s body.
During the search, Dorothy found a snuffbox-like object, damaged and of unknown use. After examining it briefly, she set it aside. Finally, she had the marionette pick up a piece of cloth soaked in Barrett’s blood and a broken pen, handing them to a marionette bird perched on its shoulder. The bird flew off toward the exit.
"Vania, the ordinary guards outside will be here soon. Remember, from now on, you are the first person to have discovered this scene. You saved the princess’s life when she was in critical condition. Understand?"
After sending the marionette bird away, Dorothy had the guard marionette turn to Vania and speak. She had already confirmed that everyone in the area, except Isabella, was dead. Isabella, who had been marked by Dorothy’s marionette mark, was truly unconscious, so Dorothy could directly instruct Vania. Hearing Dorothy’s words, Vania nodded.
"I understand."
Hearing Vania’s response, Dorothy silently had the guard marionette walk to the side and then released her control, causing it to collapse lifelessly to the ground.
…
On the outskirts of Bishop’s Square, in a small alley across from Blue Weave Street, Kapak and Nephthys stood inside. Kapak looked around with a serious expression, while Nephthys was still vigorously wiping her mouth with a handkerchief. Beside her, the wild spirit floated leisurely.
In the dim alley, the two Silence-path Beyonders seemed to be waiting for something. At that moment, footsteps echoed from the alley’s entrance. The two turned their heads warily, only to see a handsome young man dressed in ordinary clothes, wearing a low hat and with a scholarly air about him. Seeing the young man, Kapak asked cautiously.
"Who are you...?"
"Is that... Mr. Brandon?"
Before Kapak could finish his question, Nephthys exclaimed in surprise. She recognized the young man as Brandon, one of Dorothy’s marionettes.
"It’s fine, it’s fine. This is Scholar’s subordinate. He’s one of us."
Nephthys said to the wary Kapak, who looked at the approaching young man thoughtfully and murmured.
"Scholar’s... subordinate?"
"Greetings, apprentice shaman from the New Continent, and Miss Thief. I’ve come on Scholar’s orders to find you two. My purpose has already been explained by Scholar. We need to perform a soul-summoning ritual to call forth a spirit. Apprentice Shaman, you know how to perform a soul-summoning ritual, right?"
Dorothy, controlling Brandon, spoke to Kapak, who nodded in response.
"Yes, shamans are focused on communicating with spirits. After I became a Spirit Medium, my teacher taught me how to perform soul-summoning rituals.”
"For any spirit that hasn’t fully returned to the Great Soul, as long as I have a sufficiently strong medium, I can attempt to summon it."
Kapak explained. Ordinary soul-summoning rituals only require an Apprentice-rank Silence-path Beyonder, and since Kapak had been personally taught by his teacher, he knew the basics.
"Here are some personal items of the spirit I want to summon, as well as a piece of cloth soaked in his blood... These should be enough as mediums, right? He died not long ago, so his spirit shouldn’t have returned to the Great Soul yet."
Brandon said, then pulled out a broken pen and a bloodstained piece of cloth from his pocket and handed them to Kapak. Earlier, when Dorothy had asked Kapak about the requirements for soul-summoning through the information channel, he had mentioned the need for a medium. Dorothy had then retrieved these items from Barrett’s body.
Taking the mediums from Brandon, Kapak examined them closely and then spoke.
"Fresh blood from a recently deceased person is an excellent medium. After death, if a proper soul-returning burial ritual isn’t performed immediately, the spirit will wander in confusion for a long time before reaching the Great Soul. If the person died recently, the spirit can definitely be summoned."
Kapak explained. Hearing his words, Dorothy recalled the mystical texts she had obtained from the Nether Coffin Order, which described the state of the soul after death.
“According to the Nether Coffin Order’s texts, after death, the soul leaves the body and enters a state they call ‘sinking’, gradually sinking into the inner layers of the world until it completely leaves the present world, disappearing without a trace. In the shamanic theory of the soul, this process seems to be the journey back to the Great Soul. Once the soul successfully returns, it becomes impossible to summon it through rituals.”
Dorothy thought with interest. She then had Brandon continue speaking to Kapak.
"Now that we have the mediums, you can perform the soul-summoning ritual."
"Sir, we have the ’object medium,’ but we’re still missing the ’information medium.’"
To Dorothy’s surprise, Kapak continued speaking to Brandon. Hearing this, Dorothy was momentarily stunned.
"Information medium? What’s that?"
"It’s the basic information about the spirit’s life, such as their name, date and time of birth, place of birth, the names of their parents, children, or other close relatives. Generally, the more detailed, the better.”
"The medium’s purpose is to strengthen the connection between the spirit and the ritual. This requires not only objects but also information. Detailed information about the spirit’s life is an important part of the summoning medium."
Kapak explained to Brandon. Hearing this, Dorothy couldn’t help but complain internally.
“Detailed life information... Name, birth date, names of relatives... Seriously? Is this some kind of horoscope situation? Does summoning spirits in this world require this too?”
“But I don’t know any of Barrett’s personal details! Sure, as a member of the royal family, his information is probably public, but there’s no time to look it up now!”
Dorothy thought to herself. When she had asked Kapak earlier what was needed for soul-summoning, he had only mentioned the medium. Dorothy had assumed that personal items would suffice, but she hadn’t expected it to be this complicated.
"Can I just use the name?"
Dorothy, feeling somewhat helpless, had Brandon ask Kapak, who frowned in response.
"Just the name... Hmm... That might be a bit difficult... Generally, with just a name, the connection provided by the medium might not be strong enough..."
Hearing Brandon’s words, Kapak spoke with a hint of doubt. After thinking for a moment without reaching a conclusion, he spoke again.
"Mr. Brandon, please wait a moment. Let me ask my teacher..."
With that, Kapak pulled out a short pipe from his pocket, lit it, and took a deep puff. He then exhaled a cloud of white smoke, which began to slowly take shape in the air.