Secrets Suppliant, is a profession with extremely high spiritual intuition.
Compared to ordinary Beyonders, they find it easier to perceive hidden and terrifying existences.
They can make use of hidden existences, but more often than not, they're influenced by them and driven to madness.
The instant he saw the strange eyes behind Old Neil, Silas suddenly recalled these words Dunn had once said.
He was absolutely right, too.
It would've been nice if he'd also bothered to tell Silas that there were such dangerous things right here in Nighthawk headquarters.
The sinister aura from those terrifying eyes came flooding into Silas's mind.
He quickly lowered his head, avoiding eye contact with them, which helped a little. His nose felt itchy. He reached up to wipe it and found blood flowing out.
The illusory sound of ocean waves faintly echoed in his mind, and the suffocating sense of pressure weakened considerably.
"Silas, you finally made it... What's wrong with you?"
Klein's words of welcome weren't even finished before he noticed something off about Silas.
"I'm fine."
Silas quickly wiped away the blood and looked up with a smile. "It's a bit dark in this room. I wasn't adjusted to it just now and got a little dizzy."
He didn't plan to expose what he'd seen. Instead, he'd act as if nothing was wrong.
"You must be Silas Londor, right?"
Old Neil said with a smile from behind the desk. "Dunn already told me about you. From now on, just come here on time and study together with Klein."
"Hello, Mr. Neil."
Silas stared at his face, maintaining his smile while doing his best not to look at the enormous eyes floating behind him.
They were terrible, eerie eyes, without eyelashes, transparent to the point of being nearly illusory, their gaze full of cruelty and indifference.
They clung to Old Neil's back, drifting back and forth with his movements, almost like some new growth sprouting from his body.
What the hell is going on?
What is that thing?!
Relying on his intuition, Silas was certain those enormous eyes were absolutely not anything benign.
On the contrary, those eyes gave him the same feeling as the True Creator he'd once seen in his hallucinations: evil, mad.
In other words, they were very likely related to an evil god.
An evil god again? Damn it, if I'd known, I wouldn't have joined the team.
Captain, didn't you say the regular work was pretty leisurely, the danger level wasn't high, and encountering evil gods was an extremely rare occurrence? And I believed you!
Silas's smile stiffened, and cold sweat gradually broke out on his back.
Klein, sitting beside him, had maintained a completely composed expression the whole time, as if he couldn't see those eyes at all. For a moment, Silas really envied him.
"...Hey, young man, are you listening?"
What made it worse was that the old man kept trying to talk to him, looking like he wanted to come over.
"Of course I'm listening, Mr. Neil. It's an honor to be a student in your mysticism course."
Silas tipped his top hat slightly in a gesture of respect.
"Please, have a seat. Right next to Klein is fine."
Old Neil said, pointing at the chair opposite.
Silas had no choice but to sit down. At the same time, he was rapidly thinking through how he should handle this.
Shouting out loud on the spot or running away would definitely be the stupidest move.
Setting aside whether anyone would believe him, if the situation were fine right now but his actions instantly escalated the conflict and made things go south, he'd be the one in trouble.
That being the case, his best choice was to temporarily pretend nothing was abnormal.
So Silas could only force himself to act normal and listen as Old Neil continued.
"Silas, tell me about your education."
"I never went to school, but I can read and write at a basic level."
"Oh, right, Dunn mentioned that to me... So that means you probably haven't studied Hermes or Ancient Hermes, have you?"
Silas shook his head.
Old Neil looked at Silas's reaction, confirming his guess, then explained, "Simply put, both of these languages carry mysticism and can be used to communicate with deities.
There are also others like Ancient Feysac, Ancient Elvish, and so on, but Hermes is still the most commonly used.
If you want to learn mysticism, this language is a must. Understand?"
Silas had only heard of these languages before, but hadn't realized they had such uses. Without looking at the eyes behind Old Neil, he asked earnestly, "So how should I start learning?"
"Klein knows them all. Just have him teach you."
Old Neil said with a laugh, tossing the responsibility to his colleague. "He's a top student from the History Department at Hoy University. More than qualified to teach you."
"If you don't mind, that is."
Klein didn't seem to care either way.
For the rest of the time, Old Neil introduced Silas to a series of mysticism basics, roughly covering the topics they'd be studying going forward, including astrology, pendulum divination, herbalism, ritual magic, and extraordinary creatures. His language was witty and humorous.
If not for the terrifying eyes constantly asserting their presence behind him, this would have been a very engaging and interesting introductory mysticism lesson.
"Oh, there's one thing I need to specifically warn you about."
Old Neil said solemnly. "Never pray to mysterious existences outside the seven gods.
Otherwise, it could very likely invite unimaginable consequences. Your pathway is prone to encountering hidden existences, so you absolutely must pay extra attention! Caution and restraint!"
How can you say that to me...
Silas looked with dead eyes at the thing behind him, thinking privately. That thing was clearly something he'd attracted.
Old Neil also specifically taught Silas an ability called "spirit vision." According to him, it was the most commonly used, most basic ability in the mystical domain.
It allowed those who activated spirit vision to see more mysterious things, as well as certain existences that would normally go unnoticed.
Hearing him say this, Silas immediately made an excuse to decline, just saying he hadn't been sleeping well lately and didn't want to try it.
Are you kidding? Without spirit vision activated, you already made my nose bleed. If I activate spirit vision, won't my brain just cook itself?
Just like that, relying on the protection of the phantom ocean in his mind and his own efforts at pretending, Silas finally made it through to the end of the lesson.
He and Klein said goodbye to Old Neil, chatting as they left the underground and climbed the spiral staircase back to the ground-level corridor.
"Oh, right, I've got something I need to tell the captain about."
Silas said to Klein, appearing completely calm.
"I'll head out first, then."
Klein waved at him and left ahead of him.
Silas watched him go, then walked to Dunn's office and knocked. After receiving Dunn's permission from inside, he pushed the door open and entered.
Dunn was still the same as when he'd left earlier, sitting behind the desk, except the air now carried the scent of burned tobacco.
"Is something the matter?"
Dunn looked at him calmly.
Silas took a deep breath.
Actually, he'd considered just now whether the captain was reliable. After all, even Old Neil, the most senior member of the Nighthawk team, was in this state.
There was no guarantee Dunn wouldn't have problems, too.
But thinking back on what had happened before, Dunn had completely fulfilled his duties as a Nighthawk, and as an enforcer, he'd even shown some human warmth.
Plus, his own eyes had only seen that Old Neil had a problem. If Dunn were corrupt, theoretically, he'd also carry the mark of an evil god, and clearly, he didn't.
So Silas decided to trust Dunn.
"Captain, do you trust me?"
Having made his decision, he spoke earnestly.
Dunn gave him an odd look. "What are you trying to say?"
"Old Neil... something seems off about him."