Chapter 26: The Key to Digesting the Potion
Silas consulted the Nighthawks' archives and found some notes reportedly left behind by Emperor Roselle.
They were stored in a box, and when he opened it, Silas was astonished to see Japanese characters.
Looking at these familiar yet jarringly out-of-place words, he was shocked beyond measure.
Emperor Roselle really was a fellow transmigrator, and from the same civilization as himself, no less.
Though he'd already suspected this possibility, when Silas actually discovered the truth, his emotions were simply indescribable for a moment.
No wonder no one could understand them.
These were from another world entirely!
But if that's the case, why would Roselle use a script only he could read to record hidden information?
Silas reached into the box and pulled out three manuscript pages.
The characters were written quite large, with somewhat strange strokes, clearly copied by later generations who didn't understand Japanese.
He read on with a nostalgic feeling.
"November 18th, truly a remarkable thing. A whimsical experiment and a chance error led me to discover a poor soul trapped in a storm, lost in the depths of darkness.
He can only approach the real world slightly during each full moon, yet still cannot transmit his cries inside.
He is fortunate; he met me, the protagonist of this era."
"1184, 1st January. At the grand New Year Gala, Lady Florena was truly splendid."
"3rd January. I made a hasty choice back then. In hindsight, I should have chosen the Apprentice, the Seer, or the Marauder. Unfortunately, there is no way of redoing it."
"23rd September. I have lost communications with the ship seeking the Forsaken Land of the Gods. I should consider inventing wireless telegraphs. I hope it would not be affected by the storm."
The information in the three manuscripts wasn't continuous. They seemed to be diary entries Roselle left at different periods of his life.
Besides some palace secrets and state politics, Silas discovered, both unexpectedly and expectedly, that Roselle himself appeared to be a high-sequence Beyonder.
He even had the ability to contact mysterious figures not existing in the real world and search for unknown regions called the "Forsaken Land of the Gods."
But what excited Silas most was this passage in the diary:
"4th January. Why are my children so stupid? I've repeated myself so many times. Do not be fooled by those charlatans! The key thing about potions is not about grasping them, but digesting them! It's nothing about tapping powers, but acting! And the name of a potion is not solely symbolic at its core, but a concrete imagery, and the 'key' to digestion!"
Digestion?
Potions need to be digested?
And the key to digestion is the potion's name?
Digest, use the potion's name to digest!
Thoughts surged forth continuously, exploding like thunderclaps in his mind.
Silas was extremely excited, his hands trembling as he gripped the diary.
Roselle was clearly a high-sequence powerhouse. The probability of him deliberately lying in writing only he could understand was extremely low.
In other words, this method was very likely real and would be extremely useful for his path as a Beyonder!
But just then, his smile suddenly froze, as if remembering something.
Wait, I can't advance to Sequence 8!
He recalled what Dunn had once warned him: a Secrets Suppliant absolutely must not seek advancement, or it would be courting death.
If that's the case, even if the method provided in Roselle's diary was real, he still couldn't use it to rapidly advance and become a high-level powerhouse.
Silas gradually calmed down. He sat back in his chair and put the diary back in the box.
Looking on the bright side, he could at least use this method to "digest" the potion, reduce its influence in his body, and avoid losing control.
Thinking of this, his heart felt somewhat more balanced.
But how exactly should he digest it?
The potion name is the core symbol, concrete image, the key...
The name Secrets Suppliant, from its literal meaning, is someone who prays to hidden secrets, a supplicant.
In other words, as long as he did things consistent with this name, he could digest the potion?
Silas lowered his head in recollection. He seemed to have actually done similar things. He had prayed to the True Creator twice, once to deal with the crazed Hanass, once to save Old Neil.
So after those two prayers, did the potion's influence decrease?
Hiss, it actually seemed like it did.
When he'd just consumed the potion, his spirit was very unstable; he would see strange things in corners.
But after those two prayers, his spirituality became increasingly stable. Besides that, learning rituals and practicing Hermes seemed to have also provided some digestion.
Silas's expression was a bit strange.
What kind of sick joke is this! To reduce the True Creator's influence, he needed to digest the potion, but the key to digesting the potion was actually praying to the True Creator?
Talk about a closed loop!
Wait, the potion name mentioned hidden existences, not specifically the True Creator.
So if he prayed to other hidden existences, could that also work for digestion? Seemed worth trying.
Silas let out a long breath and closed the box.
Roselle's diaries seemed to be scattered everywhere. If he had the chance in the future, he could look for them, since they were genuinely useful.
He suppressed the various thoughts churning in his mind and tried to continue self-studying the mysticism curriculum, but he simply couldn't calm down.
He simply tossed it all aside and closed his eyes to rest. Only when Leonard came down to replace him did he open his eyes.
"So leisurely? Didn't the captain tell you to self-study mysticism?"
He asked with a slightly flippant smile.
"Got tired of studying."
Silas was quite tired right now and didn't really want to deal with him.
"I see."
Leonard smiled, staring at him with moss-green eyes.
Just as Silas was about to walk out of the armory, he suddenly spoke up. "Hey, Silas, I always feel you have a unique quality about you."
"Really? I don't feel it. What kind of quality?"
"The quality of a story's protagonist. Look, you not only miraculously survived cultists, you even became a Beyonder, joined us, displayed abilities..."
Silas didn't want to hear his rambling. He turned to look at him.
"What are you trying to say?"
"I just have one question."
Leonard smiled, his eyes carrying an obscure meaning. "Why is the Aurora Order so fixated on you?
And why did Sirius, who was guarding you, suddenly go mad? There seems to be some peculiar secret about you, right?"
Silas silently observed him for a few moments, then spoke:
"No idea. I was a lunatic back then, and lunatics don't understand that stuff."
Leonard's smile froze.
A lunatic... a lunatic...
Silas dropped that line and stopped being verbose. He went out to the main hall.
Facing the sunlight outside, he suddenly thought of Klein, who'd left earlier.
That "Seer" had gone to the divination club to divine for people, which precisely matched his potion name's behavior.
Could he also know the key to digesting potions?
Thinking further about Leonard, who'd just probed him, Old Neil praying to evil gods, and himself, a Secrets Suppliant under the True Creator's gaze... this little Nighthawks squad was really quite the colorful bunch.