South Tivian, Bishop Square.
Not long after the New Year countdown ended, the audience in the square was immersed in revelry. These commoners, who had worked hard all year, were celebrating this rare festive moment under the guidance of the host.
The fireworks blooming in the night sky gradually stopped, and the audience's celebration of the initial moments of the New Year also gradually subsided. Just as everyone was eagerly anticipating the upcoming exciting programs and activities, the host on stage unexpectedly announced the news that the party was about to end, which caught everyone off guard for a moment.
According to the promotion before this party, there should have been some programs afterwards, as well as a fundraising event led by the Princess and aimed at the other distinguished guests in attendance, but now none of that was happening. With a few apologetic words from the host, the party could only end hastily.
Facing the host's words, the reluctant audience below couldn't help but let out a chorus of lament. While expressing their dissatisfaction, they were also chattering and discussing why the party would suddenly end early. Many at this moment looked towards the balcony where the Royal Family was located, but there was no one there at this moment. The disappearance of the Princess and the Duke at this time further intensified the public's discussion.
Although the sudden end of the party inevitably disappointed everyone, it was a free party with no admission fee, so while disappointed, the public had no complaints. After all, the previous high-quality programs themselves had been enjoyable for the audience, and they even had the good fortune to appreciate the dance of Tivian's most famous dancer. For these audience members who were at the bottom, unable to even enter a theater once throughout the year, this trip tonight was already a huge profit.
The lights on the stage gradually dimmed. After a brief period of disappointed discussion, the dense crowd gathered in the square also began to disperse. At this moment, above Bishop Square, Dorothy's bird-shaped Corpse Puppet was still soaring. Dorothy, sitting by the street and hugging herself, was currently observing the situation below using the bird-shaped Corpse Puppet.
'It's over? Well... it wouldn't be a wise choice to continue this kind of party after realizing there's danger nearby...'
Dorothy thought to herself. Sitting by the street at this moment, she was frowning, looking seriously at the scene captured by the Corpse Puppet's vision.
'This is bad. I originally arranged for Corpse Puppet audience members and planned to make a large donation during the final fundraising segment of the party to attract the attention of the Royal Family and get in touch with that Duke... With things turning out like this, the Royal Family ended the party early for safety reasons, and now I've lost my way to connect with him...'
Dorothy thought with considerable frustration. Her original ultimate goal for attending this party was to get in touch with Duke Barret and obtain information about the Mirror Moon Goddess from him. As a result, the Eight Point Nest interfered halfway through, the party ended early, the final fundraising segment was gone, and her original plan to spend heavily to attract everyone's attention was ruined.
Although in this series of actions tonight, Dorothy successfully saved the Royal Family, saved countless audience members, saved Kapak's native compatriots, prevented the escalation of conflict between the New World natives and Prit, avoided a greater catastrophe, and also gained an extraordinary item. While consuming a lot of resources, she also achieved many meaningful results. However, her primary goal this time was not achieved; she failed to successfully contact Barret, which made her feel quite depressed.
'Sigh... there's nothing I can do. So many audience members had to be saved, and if that Duke had died, contacting him would have been even more impossible. But after all this, I probably won't have a chance to contact him tonight.
'Now I can only think of other ways to contact the Duke. As for now, the only one who can help me get in touch with him is Adele. Adele has been active in Prit's high society for a long time, and this time she was invited by the Princess, which proves she has a stable communication channel with the Royal Family. I can ask her to help me contact the Duke.
'But the problem is that the questions I want to ask the Duke are related to secrets. If I ask Adele to help me make the connection, Adele will inevitably be suspected by the Royal Family of being involved in secrets afterwards. This will affect her activities as a big star in Tivian in the future. The Tivian government will not be at ease with such an influential star actually being a cult member.'
Resting her head on her hand, Dorothy thought to herself. Currently, not many people know that the big star Adele is involved in secrets. Besides Adele herself and her Scarlet Heart subordinates, only Dorothy, the Church, and the Wolf Blood Society know. From the perspective of the Tivian government, Adele is still just an ordinary big star.
Adele's own wish is not to let the Tivian government know that she is involved in the extraordinary. According to Adele herself, for a period of time, the Wolf Blood Society frequently reported Adele's involvement in secrets to the An Yin Bureau, but fortunately, Adele hid her secret forces very well, and had the support of the Holy Mother faction of the Church in secret, so the An Yin Bureau's covert investigations into her yielded no results. Since Adele tried her best to hide her involvement in secrets from the Prit government for the convenience of public performances, Dorothy couldn't risk exposing her to make the connection for herself, especially since she had helped her greatly not long ago.
"Sigh... For now, I can only see if I can find other opportunities to contact them later. Since they both survived safely, there will be opportunities to contact them in the future."
While continuously monitoring the building at Blue Weave Street No. 1 using the bird-shaped Corpse Puppet, Dorothy sighed and murmured. Due to security needs, many Hui Jian Lamps were installed in this building. Considering the consumption of """Shadow"""'s Spirituality and to avoid misunderstandings, Dorothy did not directly send small Corpse Puppets inside to investigate the Royal Family's movements.
However, since those two Royal Family members were persuaded to return by their bodyguards, and the Eight-Pointed Nest member disguised as a Royal Family bodyguard was also gone, it indicates that the security system around the Royal Family is now operational. The assassins were either expelled or controlled, and those two should now be under thorough protection.
'Grego is removing his makeup now, Neff and Kapak are still settling the natives, Vanya has left the scene. I'll leave too after meeting up with Grego. Hiss... It's freezing sitting by the road with the wind blowing...'
Dorothy thought to herself. Immediately, she began preparing to withdraw the Corpse Puppet surveillance from various locations around Bishop Square. The audience in the square was also slowly leaving. This party had truly ended.
And just at this moment, a sudden change occurred.
"Bang!!!"
A sudden loud noise broke the night sky that had only been calm for a short time. The windowpanes of Blue Weave Street No. 1 suddenly shattered at the same time. Powerful wind pressure, carrying various fragments, roared out from the broken doors and windows, blowing out all sorts of small debris from inside the house along with the shattered glass.
As if some powerful force had suddenly erupted inside, all the doors and windows of Blue Weave Street No. 1 were blown open by a powerful airflow from within. Various items in the house were thrown out of the windows by the chaotic airflow. The loud noise that shook the night sky caused the surrounding people to let out startled screams, and the remaining crowd in the square began to flee in panic.
'What happened?!'
Dorothy, who was originally preparing to pack up, was startled by the sudden change before her eyes. Using the Corpse Puppet's perspective, she looked in surprise at the strange scene of Blue Weave Street No. 1 constantly spraying wild winds outwards. This wind blew erratically for several seconds before stopping. After it stopped, Dorothy immediately received a message from Adele.
'Great Aka, please build the bridge for me to communicate with the Detective Miss again...'
'Detective Miss? What was that wind just now? Did the Royal Family guards have a large-scale direct conflict with that group of spiders?'
Through the consultation channel, Adele spoke, asking Dorothy, and Dorothy replied with a serious expression.
'We are not yet clear on the specific situation. Logically, the people from Eight Point Nest should have already retreated... In any case, the situation just now was also sudden for us. I will go investigate now. You should do your best to maintain order at the scene and ensure civilians evacuate in an orderly manner.'
'Okay~ Good luck, Detective Miss.'
After ending her conversation with Adele, Dorothy immediately controlled the bird-shaped Corpse Puppet flying in the sky to fly towards Blue Weave Street No. 1. It flew in through the window that had been shattered by the strong wind, and using the Light from Bishop Square outside, she observed the situation inside No. 1. What appeared before her was a scene of devastation indoors.
Inside Blue Weave Street No. 1 at this time, it was a complete mess. Broken glass shards were everywhere on the ground, everything that had been standing was knocked over, vases were smashed to pieces, cabinet drawers were pulled out, and the paintings that had been on the walls were also blown onto the ground.
Dorothy controlled the Corpse Puppet to continue moving deeper into Blue Weave Street No. 1. After a short while, she saw scattered bodies lying on the ground. Their bodies were covered in cuts and wounds as if from sharp blades. The flowing blood soaked the wrinkled carpet, and their wide eyes were filled with shock.
Dorothy continued to control the Corpse Puppet to explore the deeper parts of the house. The further in she went, the more strange marks she discovered. For example, there were sharp, long scratches of varying depths on the furniture and walls, as if something sharp had carved them. The deeper she went, the more numerous, dense, and deep these scratches became.
'These marks... they look like they were cut by wind blades. Was the previous wind caused by someone releasing their ability from the Wind Art User path?'
Looking at the cuts before her, Dorothy thought to herself. She had previously investigated the scene where Davik was ambushed by the Hunter and had also witnessed Edmund's battle, so she was very familiar with these sharp, thin cuts.
Since the space ahead was far from the Light of Bishop Square outside the windows and was very dark, Dorothy immediately manipulated a relatively intact guard's Corpse Puppet to stand up. She had him take out the gas lamp he carried, which was luckily still intact, and after lighting it, they continued to explore.
Following the direction of the cuts, Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet continue walking towards the deeper parts of the house. After a short while, her Corpse Puppet arrived at what seemed to be the center of where the strong wind had erupted, a spacious hall.
Entering the hall, what appeared before Dorothy was an even more chaotic scene than before. By the Light of the gas lamp in the Corpse Puppet's hand, Dorothy could see broken carpet mixed with glass shards and wood splinters covering the floor. Furniture like chairs and benches were cut into countless small pieces by invisible blades and scattered everywhere. The chandelier on the ceiling had split into several pieces and fallen to the ground. On the walls and floor were dense wind blade cuts in various directions, making one wonder what kind of storm this room had just endured.
On the floor of the hall, several figures lay scattered. Their bodies were mangled by dense blade cuts, and some had severed limbs. Dorothy identified some of the bodies with fewer facial injuries and discovered that they were all the bodyguards who had been protecting the Royal Family on the balcony earlier!
Those bodyguards who had been closely protecting the Royal Family's safety and were able to repel Chalk class Vampires were now all dead, and their deaths were extremely gruesome.
Seeing this group of bodyguards' bodies, Dorothy's expression couldn't help but sink. She then began using the Corpse Puppet to search everywhere for traces of Barret and Isabel, and soon she found her targets.
Beside a broken sofa, Dorothy found Isabel lying on the ground in a formal dress. At this moment, large patches of blood stained her body, and she had several cuts.
Not far from the fallen Isabel, Barret was sitting slumped against the corner of the wall. He was also covered in blood, his entire body slumped against the corner, his head lowered so his face could not be seen clearly.
Seeing this scene, Dorothy immediately had the Corpse Puppet go forward to examine the condition of these two members of the Royal Family. The result was that Isabel still had breath. Although she had injuries, none were serious or fatal. The large patches of blood on her body were not her own but seemed to have splattered onto her from the bodyguard nearby. It was unknown if it was due to a head injury, but Isabel was currently unconscious.
Barret, on the other side, was in a terrible state. He had far more cuts than Isabel, and there was one wound precisely located at his neck. More than half of his entire neck had been severed. Warm blood was still gushing from the wound, and his wide eyes were filled with unbelievable shock.
Duke Saranchi, Barret Despenser, was assassinated at Blue Weave Street No. 1 in South Tivian.
Seeing Duke Barret's death, Dorothy, standing in the cold wind, took a deep breath. She herself was in shock at such a sudden assassination attempt.
'How... how was this done? Didn't those guys' assassins already retreat? How did they suddenly succeed in assassinating? Do they perhaps have a third assassin? Was this assassin not detected by Adele's desire detection?! As someone from Eight-Pointed Nest, doesn't he have sadism? Was that strong wind just now the bodyguards fighting against that assassin?'
Looking at the chaotic scene before her, Dorothy rubbed her temples, thinking in confusion. This sight before her was completely beyond her expectations.
Originally, Dorothy thought that since Isabel and Barret knew about the assassins, they would end the party early, leave the balcony, enter the building, and receive protection from the bodyguards. With two known Eight-Pointed Nest assassins driven away, their safety should have been foolproof! Who knew that in the blink of an eye, it would suddenly turn out like this?!
A Princess and a Duke, while being vigilant and under their most thorough security, were suddenly successfully assassinated!?
Within just a few minutes of the Princess and the Duke entering Blue Weave Street No. 1, all the bodyguards were dead, the Princess was injured and unconscious, and the Duke was assassinated. How did the Eight-Pointed Nest group do this? Did they arrange for a third assassin besides those two? If this third assassin was so powerful that he could take out all the Royal Family's security in a short time, why didn't they use him from the start?!
Seeing the scene before her, Dorothy felt a chill run down her spine for a moment. She never expected that Eight Point Nest had hidden such a powerful assassin at the scene.
Dorothy controlled the Corpse Puppet to carefully examine the chaotic hall space around them, seemingly wanting to see if that powerful and mysterious assassin was still at the scene. However, after searching around, she found no trace. It seemed that the assassin had also directly left the scene after succeeding, leaving no trace behind.
With a somber face, Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet sweep the assassination scene once more. Then, after glancing at Princess Isabel, who was still unconscious, she closed her eyes and prayed.
'Great Aka, please convey to Sister Vanya to immediately go to Blue Weave Street No. 1, the building where the anomaly suddenly appeared just now. There's no need to hide her identity; there are injured people here who need her treatment.'
After sending the message to Vanya, Dorothy had the Corpse Puppet look at the bodies of Barret and the other bodyguards around them again. Then, she closed her eyes and began contacting Naifnis and Kapak through the consultation channel.