Inside the washroom, Brandon set the empty cup of faint red liquid on the sink. Leaning against the mirror for support, he began panting heavily. As the ingested drug gradually took effect, his breathing evened out, eventually returning to normal.
Slowly lifting his head, Brandon looked at his reflection. The twisted expression on his face had subsided, leaving him as composed as before.
"Praise the Blood Chalice..."
He murmured softly, standing straight before the sink. Brandon meticulously tidied up any traces left on the counter, wiped his damp cuffs, and then took out the test tube containing the crimson powder for closer examination.
Engraved faintly on the test tube were inscriptions and crescent symbols. Though subtle, they hinted at the test tube’s covert properties tied to the Shadow.
“Whew... If the number of Illuminating Beacons keeps increasing like this, this stuff won’t be enough. Eventually, it’ll be unavoidable. Such an unrestrained push to boost the lamps’ count... Looks like James is catching on. I’ll need to report this tonight...”
With this thought, Brandon carefully put away the test tube, turned the door handle, and walked out of the washroom.
Strolling leisurely back to his workstation, he deliberately avoided areas heavily illuminated by Illuminating Beacons. Before long, he returned to his desk.
“Now I just need to wait until the end of the shift...”
As time ticked by, the Serenity Bureau eventually reached its end-of-day mark. Except for a few field agents on active assignments in the city, most of the administrative staff, including Brandon, were free to leave.After securely locking his desk, Brandon rose, selecting one of the many concealed exits. Ascending a flight of stairs, he reached a closed door, which he opened to step out into a discreet storage room on the ground floor of a neighboring building.
Dressed in civilian clothes, like many others heading home after work, Brandon exited the building and walked down the night-draped street, intending to hail a carriage home.
Barely a few steps onto the sidewalk, a scruffy black stray dog emerged from the crowd, sniffing along the ground as it approached Brandon. It finally stopped at his pant leg, sniffing its way up.
Feeling the movement near his feet, Brandon frowned and looked down, only to lock eyes with the stray dog gazing up at him. For a moment, man and dog stared at each other.
"Where’d this filthy mutt come from? Get lost!"
Disgusted, Brandon kicked at the dog. The stray nimbly dodged and scurried off, vanishing into the crowd.
Unperturbed by the dog’s retreat, Brandon continued to the roadside. After about ten minutes, he flagged down a carriage and climbed aboard.
Riding through the streets of Igwynt, Brandon’s carriage trundled along, oblivious to the black crow perched atop it.
...
Several dozen meters behind Brandon’s carriage, another carriage followed. Its coachman, a pale-faced man in a top hat, appeared grim and somber. Inside, a white-haired girl in a black dress sat composedly, a faint smile on her lips.
"Finally found him... the Chalice addict," Dorothy murmured, her smile deepening. The mole the Crimson Eucharist had embedded within the Serenity Bureau was now firmly within her sights.
Dorothy had long pondered how the Crimson Eucharist managed to plant a spy inside the Serenity Bureau. After all, an organization like the Bureau would undoubtedly conduct stringent background checks during recruitment. Public hiring was out of the question; most recruits likely came from internal promotions within the mundane police system. Given the Bureau’s closed recruitment and rigorous vetting, planting a spy through ordinary channels seemed nearly impossible.
Moreover, based on her interactions with the Crimson Eucharist members, Dorothy found them to be somewhat unhinged—far from the meticulous and methodical types capable of training a spy to infiltrate such a high-level organization. Even if they succeeded in planting a low-level spy, such individuals wouldn’t have access to critical intelligence. However, during the Burton case, the mole had relayed information to the Crimson Eucharist with remarkable speed, suggesting they held a significant position.
Eliminating the possibility of a carefully trained infiltrator, Dorothy concluded that the only viable method the Crimson Eucharist could use to plant a spy was their specialty: corruption.
In Dorothy’s analysis, the Crimson Eucharist likely identified a current Bureau member and corrupted them through various means. She had witnessed their methods firsthand with Clifford: a potent combination of Chalice drugs and cognitive poison allures. When caught off guard, it was nearly impossible to resist their influence.
Once corrupted, the Bureau member would be entirely under the Crimson Eucharist’s control. By threatening to cut off their supply of Chalice drugs, they could force the spy to comply, turning them into an invaluable informant within the Bureau.
Dorothy realized that the Crimson Eucharist’s attempt to corrupt her and use her to manipulate Gregor was not an isolated effort. The resources and effort they poured into this plan indicated its high stakes and potential rewards. Their confidence suggested prior success with similar schemes.
With this realization, Dorothy devised a clear plan to identify the mole, starting with obtaining a sample of the Chalice drug.
Pretending to be corrupted, she tricked Clifford into giving her a dose of the drug. Using her Stone antidote, Dorothy tested its addictive properties on herself. The results were alarming: within three hours of her first dose, she experienced an intense, unbearable craving.
If she, a first-time user, succumbed so quickly, a long-term addict’s dependence would undoubtedly be stronger, with shorter intervals between doses.
Given that a workday far exceeds three hours, the mole would inevitably experience withdrawal symptoms during work. To manage this, they would likely carry a supply of Chalice drugs for discreet use on the job.
With this insight, Dorothy’s plan became straightforward. Over several days, she identified the Bureau’s hidden entrances and exits. During shift changes, she deployed canine corpse marionettes near these locations to sniff out the scent of Chalice drugs, using the sample she acquired as a reference.
Every step of Dorothy’s mole-hunting strategy hinged on obtaining the Chalice drug from Clifford. Her calculated risk in confronting him was driven by far more than just gaining access to forbidden knowledge.
Animal corpse marionettes, with their heightened senses, were tools Dorothy could precisely control through her Revelation spirituality. She had memorized the appearances of nearly all Bureau members using her extraordinary memory, ensuring no one would escape her detection.
Through meticulous preparation and a series of calculated maneuvers, Dorothy had finally uncovered the mole the Crimson Eucharist had embedded within Igwynt’s Serenity Bureau. Now, she planned to use this discovery as a starting point to extract more intelligence.