Chapter 157: The Year of Disappearance
Chapter 157 – The Year of Disappearance
The old man’s tone was flat, as if he was calmly telling a story in which he merely happened to appear for a while.
“I’m sorry, it’s easy to talk too much when you’re older,” the old priest smiled and looked at Vanna, “Do you have any friends from other sects?”
“…… I have a close friend who is a cleric of the Academy of Truth,” Vanna thought for a moment, “but she doesn’t really tell me much about the admonitions of Rahm, the God of Wisdom.”
“The followers of the God of Wisdom, ah …… that’s normal, their creed usually requires a college degree or higher to understand, and sometimes they need to pass a higher math score check,” the old cleric nodded with a matter-of-fact look on his face, “The God of Wisdom’s followers, ah …… that’s normal. “In contrast, it is rather the followers of the God of Death who are the best to deal with – after all, we are always going to die.”
Speaking of this, the old man paused for a moment and looked at the neatly arranged volumes behind Vanna with some curiosity, “Your Honor the Inquisitor, can you tell me a little bit about it, what are you looking for?”
Vanna suddenly hesitated a bit.
She didn’t know whether or not to tell the old priest in front of her, the fire that had been hidden was most likely pointing to a very dangerous shadow, and she couldn’t be sure whether or not that “shadow” was monitoring the city-state in some way, nor could she be sure whether or not the old man in front of her was really able to help her, and if she rashly told the truth, she would instead risk If she told the truth, there was a possibility of alerting the snakes.
However, after a brief hesitation, she decided to reveal some information.
This was the deepest part of the Church of the Deep, a sanctuary favored by the Goddess of Storms, and this old priest who looked after the archives was a determined warrior who had stayed here to offer help to visitors in such a situation.
“I’m looking for an archive – it’s not quite accurate to say archive, as the thing likely never existed in the first place,” in deliberation, Vanna spoke slowly, “Technically, it’s a clue that took place in 1889 June of 1889, and may point to a fire, but the information about it was erased.”
“A fire in 1889?” The old priest pondered, “I don’t really remember any fires ……”
He stopped abruptly and looked thoughtfully at Vanna.
“So the erased information included our memories, right?”
“At least it included people’s memories,” Vanna nodded softly, “I don’t have enough evidence to prove the existence of the fire in any way other than my own ‘perception’, and I’m not sure what force is manipulating this thing, I …… am just being skeptical.”
She suddenly felt a little embarrassed, as an Inquisitor, she was used to questioning and investigating, but this time the situation was very different from the past, she didn’t know who the target of her suspicion was, and she wasn’t even sure if that target was a human or a ghost, she launched an investigation based on her own thoughts alone, which was greatly inconsistent with her usual style of acting in a calm and collected manner.
However, the old priest in front of her just nodded calmly, “Your piety and character are the evidence, Your Honor the Inquisitor.”
As soon as the words fell, the old priest quickly walked over to one of the pillars between the nearby bookshelves and tapped on a few specific bumps on the pillar with his own mechanical prosthetic hand, and in the next second, a low rumble came from deep within the floorboards, and the creaking and rattling of the gears and connecting rods in operation ensued.
The doors to the archive closed, while a portion of the shelves within the archive began to move slowly, some of them moving closer and closing up, while in the area left free, pillar after pillar depicting many complex runes slowly rose from the floor.
As the pillars rose, the subtle sound of waves echoed softly in Vanna’s mind.
“…… There’s no need to get so worked up about it,” Vanna was a little bemused by the old priest’s actions, “It’s just a preliminary investigation now …… “
“Past experience has taught me that there is no such thing as a ‘preliminary’ investigation against a great threat,” said the old priest as he slowly walked towards Vanna, raising his mechanical prosthetic hand made of brass, “And I would think that an organization that is capable of large scale interfere with perceptions, or even erase specific historical events is a ‘great threat’.”
“…… But your rash move to blockade the archives could attract a lot of attention.”
“No it won’t, the Archives are randomly blocked off a few times a month so as to keep the sacred installations and bookshelves here active,” the old priest smiled, revealing a mouthful of uneven teeth, “‘Don’t let the ancient scrolls be quiet for too long ‘, that’s the rule.”
“Then I have no questions.”
“You have just reviewed a lot of information, and by the look on your face, you should have discovered something, right?” The old priest nodded, “I can help.”
“I’ve found some records about ‘cults of heresy’ – and while there’s no direct connection to the events I’m investigating, and the records themselves are quite fragmented, it doesn’t seem quite right to me, “Vanna said matter-of-factly, “The cults share common characteristics and were concentrated in the first half of 1889 and came to an abrupt end after the factory leak in the sixth neighborhood ……”
The old priest listened attentively to Vanna’s description and then found those corresponding archives under the other woman’s fingerprints.
“These are the ones,” Vanna pointed to the rummaged through documents, “Rationally invalid sacrificial rituals, substantial spiritual damage, all small in scale but all solid acts of heretical worship. The closure reports for all the cases also look normal, with arrests made and sentences handed down, but I think each of these cases was actually …… not investigated properly.”
“For a case of this magnitude, apprehending and trying those involved would already be tantamount to an investigation in place, but you’re right, when several similar incidents are iterated together …… the situation is different,” the old priest frowned as he looked through the file, frowning. “All the people who held the sacrifices were under ‘inexplicable compulsion’, and the source of the compulsion can’t be investigated ……”
He grunted, suddenly looking up.
“Your Honor, the Inquisitor, you have only examined the files from 1889, correct?”
“Yes,” Vanna nodded, and responded immediately afterward, “You mean ……” “It’s true that the one you’re concerned about took place in 1889, but has it ever occurred to you that these odd cases of heretical cults didn’t necessarily start in 1889,” the old priest darted in, and immediately afterward looked up at the other rows of the bookshelf, “The earlier records are here, and the three rows counting from the three rows counting from the bottom to the top are all there, and they can all be thumbed through.”
Vanna immediately walked towards those files and began examining the records in the case files along with the old priest.
After a few moments, they found similar records of heretical cults in the files they were looking through almost simultaneously.
There were records from 1888, 1887, and even all the way back to 1886.
“There’s also a record here …… of a sacrifice that took place in the harbor district, and over here, only two months apart from the last record!”
Vanna flipped through the file book in her hand quickly, feeling her heart thumping as she looked up to that old priest about her discovery, only to suddenly realize that the old priest was standing fixedly in front of the bookshelf, staring motionlessly at a certain place.
“Have you found something?” Vanna immediately frowned and asked somewhat nervously.
“There’s no record for 1885,” the old priest whispered as if he were muttering, “It should be right here, right on this row, after 1884 …… but now after 1884 it’s directly after 1886 ……”
……
“This is as far as it goes,” Duncan said with a slight exhale as he glanced back in the direction he and Shirley had come from at the edge of the sixth block, “There shouldn’t be any more to be gained by investigating here.”
They had been delayed for a long time in the chapel, but their current level of occultism, which was less than that of a dog, was clearly insufficient to decipher the strange time-locking phenomenon in the underground sanctuary.
Before they left, the underground sanctuary returned to its original state, and the nun, who was somewhere between ashes and a living person, was still praying in the main hall of the church, not reacting to Duncan and Shirley’s departure.
The exterior of the church was still crumbling, and the area around it was still empty.
But Shirley didn’t really care much anymore about what secrets the church held.
“Can I …… I really go home?”
She looked at Duncan rather nervously, her tone apprehensive but mixed with an unspoken hesitation.
“Of course you can, I have never restricted your freedom to leave,” Duncan smiled and rubbed the other party’s hair, although Sherry’s age was similar to Nina’s, but the girl’s overly petite and thin physique always made him unable to resist treating her as an even younger child, “Today’s investigation is over, you can go home.”
Sherry subconsciously turned her head to look in the direction of her home, wanting to move her feet, but then suddenly hesitated a little, “Then …… after that, do we still continue the investigation?”
“Of course, this is far from over,” Duncan raised an eyebrow, “What? Are you reluctant to leave?”
“Ah no no no!” Shirley hurriedly waved her hand at that, “I just …… just the next time I investigate ……”
“I will find a way to contact you, you can also take the initiative to come to me,” Duncan smiled again and rubbed Shirley’s head, “And it’s not just about the investigation, if you meet any other difficulties, you can also come directly to me for help.”
Shirley blinked, always feeling that there was something strange, but finally nodded her head gently, but before turning to leave, she couldn’t help but ask curiously again, “So …… so what are your next plans?”
“Me?” Duncan froze and thought for a moment, “I’m going to buy a bike this afternoon.”
Shirley was dumbfounded, “…… Huh?”
“Get a bike,” Duncan repeated thoughtfully, “I promised Nina, it’s been days, and it’s time to honor that promise today. Why, what’s wrong with that?”
Shirley opened her mouth for half a day before she finally managed to hold her tongue, “A …… dog says you have to do what a subspace invasion is supposed to do anyways ……”
Before her words fell, a shadow snapped out of the air next to her, and Dog’s broken voice yelled hurriedly from the shadows, “I didn’t say that!!!”
The shadow dissipated again in the next second – apparently Dog was afraid he’d be seen if he showed his head outside.
Duncan: “……”
He holds back a helpless smile, “Well then, now Subspace Invasion is going to get his niece a bike – we’ll leave you at that.”
(End of chapter)