Northern Shore of Conquest Sea, Adria.
Inside Adria’s renowned tourist attraction, Pure Flow Cathedral, Dorothy stood beside the door of the Crown Chamber, carefully positioned just outside the reach of the detection glows from within. Outwardly, she appeared to be leisurely admiring an old porcelain plate with a chipped corner inside a glass showcase, her eyes skimming across the explanatory card bearing donor information. Yet inwardly, her thoughts were completely elsewhere.
“All the artifacts inside the Crown Chamber are perpetually bathed in the detection glows emitted by the Crown of Emmanuel. The instant any item inside exhibits a mystical trace, it would be immediately exposed. If Azam truly wanted to ensure the divination artifact ended up in the hands of the Church rather than Garib, he would certainly choose a place Garib would hesitate to approach, a place where the artifact would be promptly confiscated once its cooldown expired. No place fits these conditions better than the Crown Chamber.
“The issue is that if the divination artifact is indeed inside the Crown Chamber, not only Garib’s men, but even I would find it challenging to enter and investigate. The intensity of the Crown’s illumination within the chamber is far greater than outside. Whether I go in myself or send a corpse marionette to look around, it would consume a significant amount of my stored Shadow spirituality.”
Seemingly absorbed in the careful examination of a delicate vase, Dorothy continued these reflections. Although she now had a general idea of the divination artifact’s whereabouts, she didn’t plan on spending her precious spirituality on immediate reconnaissance. Casually strolling through the cathedral, she gradually moved away from the Crown Chamber, leisurely exploring other sections of Pure Flow Cathedral. After making several rounds, she exited through one of the cathedral’s side doors.
Employing her Concealment Ring, Dorothy swiftly departed from Pure Flow Cathedral, braving the intense scrutiny of the Crown of Emmanuel as she crossed a bridge leading away from the cathedral plaza and back into the city. Instead of immediately returning to her hotel, Dorothy boarded a small sightseeing gondola at a nearby dock, instructing the boatman to guide her on a leisurely tour around other parts of Adria.
Accompanied by her knowledgeable guide, Dorothy visited various famous sights—the Old Lord’s Palace, the Armory, the Floating Stage, the Bridge of Sinners—and even spent a considerable time relaxing in Adria’s largest library. After spending a genuinely enjoyable afternoon touring and thoroughly relaxing, the sun began setting in the west.
At dusk, Dorothy chose a waterside restaurant along one of Adria’s canals for dinner. She was particularly impressed with many of the pasta dishes here—Adrian macaroni and Ivengard flatbread among them.
Having traveled to many countries and cities, Dorothy generally found herself satisfied with the local cuisine everywhere she went. Perhaps this satisfaction stemmed from her comparatively low expectations after enduring Pritt’s bland food for so long.
After dinner, Dorothy leisurely cruised the canals for a short while, admiring Adria’s nighttime scenery before finally returning to her hotel amidst the glittering lights lining the waterways. Back in her room, Dorothy kicked off her shoes and lay face-down on the soft bedding for a moment, wrestling internally before pushing herself up, slipping into slippers, and sitting down at the desk by the window of her suite. Reflecting briefly on her sightseeing that afternoon, she sighed softly.“If only this journey had been purely for tourism without important business to worry about…”
With that sigh of regret, Dorothy ended her short-lived tourist moment and turned her attention back to the task at hand—formulating a plan to secure the divination artifact from the Crown Chamber.
“The divination artifact is most likely hidden in the Crown Chamber… If I want to obtain it, I’ll need to act before its three-year cooldown is up, stealing it out of the chamber before the Church notices anything abnormal and moves it elsewhere.
“Although the Crown of Emmanuel has strong mystical detection capabilities within the Crown Chamber, based on my previous estimates, its effectiveness is still within manageable levels. If I act swiftly within the chamber, my stored Shadow spirituality should be sufficient… but the real challenge is, I have no idea what this artifact looks like. There are dozens of different-sized exhibits inside the Crown Chamber, and I can’t possibly carry them all back. Opening each locked display case silently would require significant time. I simply don’t have enough time for that.”
Staring out through the window toward the distant cathedral plaza, Dorothy continued deliberating. Her limited Shadow spirituality wouldn’t support a prolonged stay in the Crown Chamber. Without the option of packing away every single artifact, she had to execute a precise theft. Yet Dorothy currently had no clue what the divination artifact even looked like.
“Actually, each exhibit inside Pure Flow Cathedral has a label listing the donor’s name… If I knew exactly what pseudonym Azam used when donating the divination artifact, it would be much easier to pinpoint which case contains it. But the information Beverly provided didn’t mention the alias Azam used when donating.
“More crucially, even though I don’t know Azam’s pseudonym, Garib’s men certainly do. If he decides to forcibly steal the artifact, his people would have a much greater advantage than me…”
Thinking along these lines, Dorothy opened her bag, pulling out a thick bundle—a roll of newspapers she had picked up that afternoon from the Adria city library.
Dorothy unfolded the papers and briefly scanned their publication dates, noting most were from the previous year. Indeed, these were old newspapers she had obtained earlier that day, containing news articles she found particularly intriguing.
“September 20th, 1359: Moran City Museum robbed… October 9th, 1359: Lonia City Museum robbed; stolen artifacts were all donated items… November 26th, 1359: Kaidna Museum robbery, several artifacts stolen…”
Reading these newspaper articles, most ordinary readers would naturally imagine a gang of thieves specifically targeting museums for valuable antiques. However, Dorothy knew better—these thieves weren’t common criminals, but subordinates of Garib and the Corpse-Sand Society. Their repeated thefts targeted not ordinary antiques, but specifically Azam’s divination artifact.
To avoid drawing attention, Azam had donated artifacts using different pseudonyms across seven museums, slipping the divination artifact among them. Desperately trying to find it, Garib had already robbed the other six museums aside from Pure Flow Cathedral.
Based on Beverly’s intelligence, around this time in previous years, the Corpse-Sand Society would normally be actively preparing an expedition to raid new Star Numerology Scriptorium ruins. This year, however, they had remained completely silent—a clear indication that Garib had not found the artifact at the previous six museums. Although Garib’s six failures seemed irrelevant at first glance, they actually conveyed crucial insights to Dorothy.
“Garib stole the suspicious exhibits even before the artifact’s cooldown had ended. This implies two possibilities: either he has some method that doesn’t require Illuminating Beacons to identify the artifact, or he simply intended to recover all donated items, wait until the cooldown expired, and then use an Illuminating Beacon to single out the real divination artifact effortlessly.”
“According to the newspaper reports, the museums that were robbed didn’t lose many artifacts, which indicates that Garib had specific targets. Those targets were precisely the artifacts donated by Azam. This means that Garib already possesses all the pseudonyms Azam used when donating items. Museums usually label exhibit cases with donor names, so all Garib needs to do is retrieve everything donated by Azam…”
Gazing at the newspapers spread out before her, Dorothy pondered deeply. She was acutely aware that she wasn’t the only one eyeing the divination artifact. Garib, the current leader of the Corpse-Sand Society, was clearly gearing up for action as well. He outmatched her both in strength and intelligence, making it exceedingly difficult for her to seize the artifact from under his nose.
“According to Beverly’s earlier intelligence, after securing ample resources from the Corpse-Sand Society, Garib successfully completed a ritual he’d been preparing for years and advanced to Crimson rank at the beginning of this year…
“A Crimson-rank Beyonder, especially one who commands considerable resources within a notable organization, would be extremely difficult for me to contend with. Taking the artifact from him would be as dangerous as snatching prey from a tiger’s jaws…”
Dorothy’s brows knitted tighter as she contemplated this. Confronting a Crimson-rank Beyonder posed a considerable challenge. However, within this seemingly perilous situation, Dorothy detected a unique opportunity, stemming from a crucial detail she had just realized.
“Garib, newly advanced to Crimson, commands extensive resources and knows exactly that Azam’s last batch of donations resides within Pure Flow Cathedral, yet he has not acted so far? Garib became a Crimson at the start of this year. The other six museums’ donations from Azam were stolen last year, but the artifacts here at Pure Flow Cathedral remain untouched. It’s now mid-March, yet Garib has held off for at least one or two months without acting.
“The mystical detection of the Crown of Emmanuel is powerful, true, but not unbeatable. As long as someone has a sufficient amount of Shadow spirituality, the Crown’s detection can be overcome. After all, the Crown is mainly displayed for civilian viewing, not specifically for anti-theft measures.
“Considering Garib’s status as leader of the Society, and his close ties to the Dark Gold Society, he should easily be able to gather enough spirituality. Although Pure Flow Cathedral houses the Crown of Emmanuel, it’s fundamentally just a mundane museum. For a Crimson-rank Beyonder like him, stealing from here shouldn’t be significantly harder than robbing the other ordinary museums. Yet, Garib still hasn’t done anything for two entire months.”
Dorothy continued reflecting as she scanned the newspapers. She was convinced that for Garib, stealing the donation from Pure Flow Cathedral shouldn’t be significantly harder than robbing a regular museum. Yet, no news of theft had come from Pure Flow Cathedral. Garib’s inactivity for two months must have an explanation, and Dorothy believed she knew exactly why.
Dorothy once again opened her bag, pulling out a small booklet—an illustrated guide she’d purchased earlier in the day at Pure Flow Cathedral, detailing the museum’s operations.
Flipping through the pages quickly, Dorothy soon landed on one describing the cathedral’s rotating exhibition system.
Thanks to the fame of the Crown of Emmanuel, Pure Flow Cathedral regularly received many more donations than other museums. After accumulating artifacts for years, their collection vastly exceeded exhibition space.
Simply put, Pure Flow Cathedral had too many artifacts, and only a portion could be displayed at any given time. The exhibits rotated periodically, allowing visitors to see as many items as possible. Typically, new donations would only be showcased in the next scheduled rotation.
The cathedral rotated exhibits roughly every half-year, and the most recent rotation occurred at the beginning of March. This meant that the divination artifact had likely only recently been put on display. Prior to that, all these donations had been stored at Adria’s Grace Light Cathedral.
Grace Light Cathedral, built after the local church moved out of Pure Flow Cathedral, was not a museum but the active church center of Adria. Investigating or stealing from there was significantly harder and more complicated than from the museum-like Pure Flow Cathedral. Though Garib, as a newly advanced Crimson, could manage a confrontation with Adria’s bishop-level church with relative ease, openly robbing Grace Light Cathedral would draw severe repercussions from higher church authorities, making things highly troublesome.
Thus, it made sense for Garib to wait patiently for a while until the donations were transferred to Pure Flow Cathedral. Stealing something that appeared ordinary from a museum would be far less risky than causing a direct mystical conflict with the church.
Anyway, the artifact’s cooldown would expire in mid-to-late March, and Pure Flow Cathedral had rotated exhibits in early March, giving Garib sufficient time to steal the artifact.
Yet… it was already March 10th. The cooldown was nearing its end, but Garib still hadn’t acted. What was holding him back?
Regarding this question, Dorothy also had a clear answer.
Setting the newspapers aside, Dorothy picked up another newspaper and unfolded it, her gaze falling upon a black-and-white photograph depicting a kindly elder wearing an archbishop’s robes. The headline read clearly:
“Archbishop Antonio to Host Grand Welcome Banquet at Old Lord’s Palace Tomorrow to Honor Returning Pilgrims from Recent Crisis; Archbishop Antonio Will Personally Attend and Meet Sister Vania Chafferon… Reportedly, Archbishop Antonio Will Leave Adria and Return to Pezhi Following the Banquet.”
Staring at the newspaper, Dorothy’s lips curled into a subtle, enigmatic smile as she thought:
“Looks like the incident in Summer Tree had some unexpectedly far-reaching consequences after all.”
……
Late at night, near the cathedral square, alongside a quiet waterway.
Under cover of darkness, a man wearing a trench coat and hat quickly approached the waterway, leaping down effortlessly into a small boat waiting below. Immediately, the boatman—cloaked in black with a hood pulled low over his face—began rowing away from the cathedral.
“You’ve thoroughly checked the situation inside?” the boatman asked softly without turning his head.
The trench-coated man pressed down his hat slightly and replied:
“Although I consumed quite a bit of Shadow, the general situation is clear. I’ve already confirmed from outside: Azam’s donation under an alias is indeed in the Crown Chamber. As soon as Antonio departs, we can make our move.”
“Hmm… Intelligence indicates Antonio’s banquet is tomorrow, and he will leave the following day. In that case… we can inform our Lord to come over immediately,” the boatman nodded slightly, continuing calmly.
“Yes… Once our Lord arrives, everything will go smoothly. Damn… If Antonio hadn’t suddenly shown up, we would’ve finished this already…”