Underground, Gale Fortress, Tivian Northwest Suburb.
Inside the An-Yin Main Bureau, people came and went in the spacious underground hall. Beneath the high-hanging Prit national flag, a giant Mirror Moon Goddess statue stood, its blurry, indistinguishable face looking down upon the people coming and going below.
Grego, who had just finished responding not long ago, stood before the giant Goddess statue, looking up at the form of the Goddess holding a round mirror. A hint of strange confusion appeared in his eyes.
'No matter how many times I see this... I always feel a sense of familiarity... Strange, where does this feeling come from? I've clearly never seen anything similar before... Where does this feeling come from?'
Grabbing his head, Grego thought to himself as he looked at the statue before him. Having been at the Main Bureau for some time, it wasn't the first time he had seen this statue, but every time he saw it, a strange sense of familiarity would spontaneously arise in his heart. In his memory, he had never seen anything similar.
'It's a pity, even the people in the Bureau don't know much about the origin of this statue. If I could get a little more information, maybe I could recall something.'
Grego thought this to himself. He was quite bothered by this inexplicable sense of familiarity, so he had been trying to figure out the source of this feeling for the past few days, wondering if he had seen a similar statue before. However, he still hadn't figured out the source of this familiarity.
He looked at the statue before him a few more times, sighed softly, and then turned to leave. Just then, a familiar male voice echoed in his mind.
'This is... Detective responded!'
Hearing the voice in his mind, Grego's expression became serious. He then carefully recalled and listened to the whispers in his mind. After carefully sorting out and understanding all the content in that voice, he couldn't help but stroke his chin.
'Detective wants me to recall the information of those few people and then pray to Aka to convey it to him, especially their appearances. So, praying to Aka can convey images? What does Detective want their appearances for?'
Grego thought with considerable confusion, but confusion aside, he still followed Detective's instructions. He quickly left the hall, found a place to sit down, closed his eyes, and began praying to Aka while recalling the information and appearances of those colleagues he had just met not long ago.
...
In the living room of Number 17, Green Shade Town, Tivian North Suburb.
The charcoal in the fireplace was burning with crackling sounds. Not far from the fireplace, Dorothy, dressed in casual home clothes and sitting on the sofa, slowly opened her eyes, a thoughtful look flickering in them.
"It's finally here, more detailed information..."
Murmuring, Dorothy sat up straight from the sofa. She then picked up the paper and pencil prepared beforehand on the coffee table and wrote down the names, Paths, and origins of the five people on the white paper. After scanning them, she focused her attention on two names.
One was Rio Cardo, who claimed to be from Noyce, North Sapson County. The other was Weihan Cardel, from Kexte, South Lem County.
The Paths of these two people were the Blood Darkness Path, which is the Shadow Masked Man Path, possessing the ability to change appearance. Judging from Grego's case, the way these guys planted moles in the investigation team was by switching places halfway, killing the original person and then using their ability to impersonate them. This batch of people came to the Main Bureau to be promoted. An Apprentice originally disguised by a Shadow Masked Man would have an issue if they chose to be promoted to a Wind Art User. Their only choice was the Blood Darkness Path, to "promote" to their original profession in the eyes of the An Yin Bureau.
Therefore, these two guys from the Blood Darkness Path were the most suspected moles. It was almost certain that the mole was among them, either one or both.
However, no matter how much she guessed, for Dorothy, confirming who the mole was still required concrete evidence. As for how to distinguish who among them was the mole, Dorothy decided to use the old method: divination.
'Among these five people right now, anyone would have anti-divination protection. Regular team members have anti-divination provided by the An-Yin Main Bureau. After their promotion is complete, they are officially included in the An-Yin Main Bureau's anti-divination protection system. The mole is more likely to have received double anti-divination protection from the An Yin Bureau and even the Eight Point Nest.
Dorothy understood that these large Extraordinary organizations had complete divination defenses. Their anti-divination system generally used a high-rank person or object as the core, using some special means to include other members under the protection of that high-rank being. The high-rank being would accumulate large amounts of "enlightenment" and "Shadow" as anti-divination resources over time.
After a person is included in an anti-divination system, any divination targeting them will be treated as divination targeting the high-rank core within the system. Low-rank individuals divining high-rank individuals will suffer severe cross-rank penalties, and the resources they expend will be completely disproportionate to what the high-rank side expends.
Therefore, if Dorothy were to directly divine these few people now, she wouldn't be able to divine anything no matter what. She needed to change her method of divination.
Examining Weihan's information on the white paper, Dorothy's expression was focused. At this moment, she allowed the image of Weihan's face to appear in her mind. After remembering it deeply, she took out a coin from her pocket and then recited the divination phrase.
"Weihan Cardel, from Kexte City, South Lem County, is he dead now?"
After reciting the divination phrase, Dorothy tossed the coin. The coin spun and fell in the air, but she seized the opportunity to slap it onto the back of her hand. After feeling the consumption of Spirituality within her body, Dorothy lifted her hand and saw the heads side facing up. This meant that the divination phrase Dorothy had just spoken was correct.
"This means... that man named Weihan Cardel, from South Lem County, is now dead. The one who was meeting with Grego and the others earlier was an imposter..."
Looking at the coin on the back of her hand, Dorothy murmured. Weihan's identity as a mole was now confirmed in her eyes.
That's right, this was Dorothy's divination method. Since the mole was protected by anti-divination and couldn't be divined, she would divine the dead person he had killed, the poor guy he had impersonated halfway.
Weihan Cardel, a Hunter who set off from Kexte City to take up his post in Tivian, encountered the same situation as Grego halfway. Because of the leak from the Main Bureau, he was found by the Eight-Pointed Nest people. Because he didn't have Grego's luck, he was killed and replaced.
Although the An Yin Bureau has branches throughout Prit, the intensity of Extraordinary confrontation in most places is very low, and divination is extremely rare. Many small societies simply cannot afford "enlightenment," so the corresponding local branches do not have anti-divination protection. The original Weihan was naturally the same.
Weihan was killed and replaced before officially joining the Main Bureau, so he did not have anti-divination protection. Dorothy could divine his state. To accurately divine him, and not someone else with the same name, Dorothy specifically asked Grego for the appearance information of those people. To successfully impersonate, the mole perfectly copied the victim's appearance onto his face.
Knowing the name, address, and appearance, Dorothy could divine the person's state. The conclusion she now had was that the other party was already dead, so it was self-evident who was standing there with the face of a dead person.
After confirming that Weihan was a definite wolf, Dorothy proceeded to divine Rio. Since she no longer had any 'Light' storage in the form of gold coins, her two divinations used ordinary coins, paying for the 'Light' from her accumulated Spirituality.
The result was divination failure. The person named Rio Cardo was currently protected by anti-divination, which meant that the Rio who was in the meeting with Grego earlier should be the person himself without a doubt. He had successfully arrived in Tivian and received the An-Yin Main Bureau's anti-divination protection. Promoting to the Blood Darkness Path was his own choice.
In other words, the investigation team members the Eight-Pointed Nest planned to replace were actually only Grego and Weihan. Grego's attempt failed, and Weihan is now also exposed.
'So... I now have the information about the mole in the investigation team. When I negotiate with Madam Misha later... I have another bargaining chip...'
Dorothy thought this to herself. Now, she was just waiting for the invitation letter to Detective.
...
Time flew by quickly, and two days passed. Knowing that a letter would be sent, Dorothy stayed at home quietly waiting during these two days.
As expected, on the morning of the third day, Dorothy, who was sitting in her study reading, heard a bell ring downstairs. After opening the window and sticking her head out, Dorothy saw Beverly, dressed in men's trousers and a vest, stopped in front of her house on a bicycle, ringing the bell while shaking an envelope in her hand.
"Hey~ Detective Miss upstairs, you have a letter~"
Beverly shouted to Dorothy with a drawn-out tone. Dorothy frowned upon seeing her, then slipped on her slippers and hurried downstairs with a thud. After opening the door, she lowered her voice and sternly shouted at Beverly, who was sitting on the bike at the door.
"Can you wind-up person be quieter? What if someone on the street hears it?! Is that how you address a client by their title? Where is your confidentiality attitude?"
"Oh, relax, Detective Miss, I've sensed it, there's no one around. The people who rent houses in this area are basically young masters and misses from wealthy families at Crown University who aren't used to living on campus. Classes are going on at Crown University right now, so there aren't many people. You're the only one in the entire King's Campus who completely disregards class time."
Beverly said this while handing the envelope in her hand to Dorothy. Hearing her words, Dorothy wanted to say something, but in the end, she bit her lip without saying it, then reached out and took the envelope.
"The letter has been delivered, I should go. If you have a reply, just write it and come to my place."
After giving the envelope to Dorothy, Beverly pedaled her bicycle forward and rode away. Dorothy watched Beverly's receding back for a moment, then turned and returned home.
Upon reaching the living room, Dorothy placed the letter on the table. She used Stone Wisdom Powder to remove any scent from the letter and then used Hui Jian Lamp to check for any Extraordinary traces on the letter. After confirming there were no issues, she opened the letter, sat on the sofa, and began to read.
As expected, this letter was sent by the An Yin Bureau to Detective.
There were many words in the letter, but in summary, the An Yin Bureau expressed their gratitude to Detective for helping to return the confidential document, apologized for the long delay in contacting him, and now the An Yin Bureau formally invited Detective for a face-to-face talk to discuss the reward for returning the document.
Since she had already known Misha's purpose beforehand, Dorothy had already roughly guessed the content of this letter. Dorothy naturally planned to let Detective meet with Madam Misha, but she didn't want this meeting to happen under the mole's nose.
Dorothy wanted Detective to be able to communicate directly with Misha without alerting the mole, so that they could discuss matters related to the mole better and avoid alerting the enemy. In short, because there were too many moles in the investigation team, Dorothy wanted to communicate directly with Misha, not with the investigation team.
Dorothy needed to write a reply now, but she wanted this reply to only reach Misha, allowing her to communicate directly with herself, bypassing the investigation team. If Dorothy communicated with the entire investigation team, no matter how much information she shared, it could be stolen by the Eight-Pointed Nest's mole.
And if Dorothy directly reported the mole in the letter, not to mention whether it would be seen as a scheme to sow discord, it would also go against Dorothy's idea of using the mole's information as a bargaining chip to slowly negotiate.
'The key is... if I write a reply, I cannot guarantee that the letter will reach Misha immediately and that only she will see it. So I need some information in the letter that only Misha can see.'
Dorothy thought this, and then an idea came to her. She first went upstairs to her study and used the typewriter in the study to type a standard reply. The specific content of the reply was that Detective was willing to meet with the An Yin Bureau, but the time and place of the meeting needed further discussion.
After typing this letter with the typewriter, Dorothy took out an envelope from the drawer and put the letter inside. Then she placed the envelope on the table and took out a quill pen from her magic box.
This was a feather pen Dorothy had found in the ruins of the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) under Crown University. It could write Common Sense Text by consuming 'enlightenment' Spirituality.
Common Sense Text could be recognized by anyone. The writer of Common Sense Text could encrypt the content they wrote, allowing only people of a specified category to see the Common Sense Text. The Common Sense Text in the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society) ruins was set to be visible only to 'enlightenment' Extraordinary.
"This text is only to be seen by Misha De Blanca..."
Holding the quill pen, Dorothy murmured as she set it up. Then she began to write on the blank envelope.
"Esteemed Madam De Blanca, I apologize for communicating with you in this manner, but there are prying eyes around you, and the entire An Yin Bureau is under dangerous scrutiny, so I must ensure that the content of this message is only visible to you. The content inside the envelope is merely superficial; the content on the envelope is what I truly want to tell you..."