South Tivian, somewhere on a street.
After briefly helping with rescue and order maintenance in the chaotic square, Grego returned to where Dorothy was waiting, took her away from Bishop Square, and walked all the way towards other parts of the South District, away from Bishop Square.
Holding his sister's hand, Grego wandered the streets of the South District, finally finding a hotel that was open even on New Year's Eve. Grego booked a room for Dorothy there, and after paying and completing the formalities, Grego stood seriously at the door of the room and instructed Dorothy.
"Dorothy, you rest well here tonight and go back when it's daytime. I have a lot of things to do, so I won't come to pick you up. Remember to send me a telegram after you arrive at your school dormitory, okay?
"Tonight is a bit dangerous. Go straight to sleep after you enter the room and definitely don't come out, understood?"
Grego seriously instructed Dorothy like this, and Dorothy nodded obediently in response.
"Mhm... I heard you. I can take care of myself, so go ahead, Grego. Remember to be careful."
"Haha, Dorothy, you're really becoming more sensible the more I look at you. I knew you would listen." Seeing Dorothy's response, Grego couldn't help but say with relief. After patting Dorothy's shoulder, he got up and walked out, leaving the hotel a short while later.
In front of the hotel entrance, Grego lit a cigarette. After taking a deep drag, he looked into the distance, towards Bishop Square, where strange wind sounds were coming from above.
"Hah... I thought... I could have a leisurely good year..."
Sighing, Grego heeded the call of the distant wind tide and, in his capacity as a Hunter, set off straight towards Bishop Square.
'Eight Point Nest, Royal Family, An Yin Bureau, and the mysterious organization that believes in Aka... The waters of Tivian are much deeper than Igwinte. I hope my choices in this won't be wrong.'
As he thought this, Grego's departing figure disappeared into the dark distance of the street. At this moment, on top of a street lamp above him, a black crow stood on top of the street lamp, silently watching Grego leave.
"Big brother left, time to sneak out..."
Inside the hotel room, Dorothy, who was sitting on the bed and using a Corpse Puppet to monitor the situation outside, immediately stood up after seeing that Grego had gone to work his night shift. She opened the door, sneaked out, and started going downstairs.
Using a Corpse Puppet to pretend to ask about room prices and attract the front desk's attention, Dorothy successfully sneaked out of the hotel. She jogged all the way down the dark street to a crossroads, where she began to wait in the cold evening wind, rubbing her hands together. A short while later, the sound of hooves echoed from the end of the distant street.
Dorothy looked towards the sound and saw a black carriage pulled by two horses. Driven by the coachman, it quickly drove towards her and soon stopped in front of Dorothy.
After the black carriage stopped, the coachman immediately got off and opened the carriage door for Dorothy. Then Dorothy directly got in, returning to her familiar carriage compartment.
"Let's go, it's time to go to the Duke's villa..."
Sitting inside her familiar carriage compartment, Dorothy murmured, and then she re-controlled the coachman Corpse Puppet to return to its position, driving the carriage forward on the dark street towards the distance.
When she came down from Green Shade Town yesterday afternoon, Dorothy had been riding in her own carriage. After arriving at the location agreed upon with Grego, Dorothy manipulated the carriage Corpse Puppet to park the carriage nearby so she could use it at any time, and now was the time for it to be put to use.
Dorothy wasn't going anywhere else, but to Duke Barret's villa in the suburbs. According to Barret's Ghost, his research materials on the mirror moon statue were all kept in the secret room of that villa, including a saint emblem, so now Dorothy needed to go there overnight to find the items.
Going to Barret's villa to find things, now that Barret himself is dead, must be done quickly and without delay, for two reasons. Firstly, after the Royal Family and the An Yin Bureau discover that Duke Barret is dead, they might search and seal all of Barret's residences to investigate the cause of his death. If the saint emblem and research materials fall into the hands of the An Yin Bureau, Dorothy would have to go through a lot more trouble to obtain them.
More crucially, the second reason is that if Dorothy's speculation is correct, then the purpose of those guys from the Eight Point Nest is to stop Barret's research on the mirror moon statue. To completely stop this research, killing the researcher is certainly not enough; it would be best to destroy all his research materials to prevent anyone from finding the materials later and taking over the research.
Therefore, to prevent the Royal Family and the An Yin Bureau from continuing the research after finding Barret's materials, the Eight Point Nest might also go to Barret's residence to steal or destroy those materials. Given their level of infiltration into the An Yin Bureau, it is very likely they already know the location of Barret's research.
Due to the advantage the Eight Point Nest has in intelligence, their actions will only be faster than the An Yin Bureau. If those research materials, including the saint emblem, fall into their hands, it will be almost impossible for Dorothy to get them.
Therefore, Dorothy cannot wait now. She must quickly go to Barret's villa, preferably getting her hands on this batch of materials before they arrive at the villa.
'I need to be faster, otherwise I might be forced to clash with those guys again. The key is that this time I'm going there alone. Without Vanya and their help, a conflict would be very tricky...'
Inside the carriage compartment, Dorothy thought this to herself. For various reasons, she could only go to Barret's villa alone now.
As the first discoverer of the Royal Family's assassination and the overall healer and commander at the accident scene, Vanya had too much work to cooperate with the An Yin Bureau afterwards, so she definitely couldn't leave. Grego was also summoned back by the An Yin Bureau at this moment and couldn't help. As for Naifnis, she had already overused her abilities and couldn't be put in danger again now. As for Kapak, he was currently just an Apprentice of """Silent""", and going in this situation wouldn't be much help, not to mention he still had a bunch of compatriots who needed comforting.
Given the current situation where no more manpower can be allocated, Dorothy can only go to Barret's villa alone. What she hopes for now is that her actions can be fast enough to reach the destination before the people from Eight-Pointed Nest.
Just like this, Dorothy sat wrapped in a blanket inside the dim carriage, controlling the Corpse Puppet to drive the carriage quickly towards the outskirts of the city. As the night was deep, waves of drowsiness kept surging into her mind, making Dorothy yawn repeatedly while forcing herself to stay alert and continue controlling the carriage.
If it weren't for Dorothy's strong mental power as an Erudite, which could effectively suppress drowsiness, her fatigued driving like this would sooner or later lead to problems.
Hooves stepped on the flat street, carriage wheels rolled over the flagstone-paved road. Amidst the subtle shaking and clattering sounds, Dorothy's carriage quickly traveled towards the southwest. Having already memorized the entire map of Tivian and using a bird corpse puppet to navigate and guide the way in the sky, Dorothy wasn't afraid of getting lost at all. Along the way, she chose the most convenient and shortest routes, so her speed in leaving the city was quite fast.
After nearly two hours of journey, Dorothy's carriage finally drove out of the city. Then, after traveling for almost another hour on the dirt road, she finally approached her destination.
Since Dorothy had a control range of nearly ten kilometers for a small number of Corpse Puppets, after leaving the city, she sent her bird corpse puppet to fly ahead of the carriage into the distance for reconnaissance. Finally, after several hours of travel, the bird corpse puppet farthest from Dorothy flew to Shield Hill.
Using the sight of this bird corpse puppet, which was eight or nine kilometers away from her main body, Dorothy could already see the large villa below the northern slope of Shield Hill. Looking down from the sky, Dorothy could clearly see the brightly lit building in the dark grassland.
'It's actually so bright... The servants inside the villa shouldn't turn on so many lights late at night when the master isn't home... Could it be...'
Seeing the brightly lit scene of the villa below, a bad feeling arose in Dorothy's heart. She then controlled the distant bird corpse puppet to descend in height and began observing the villa scene up close. After one look, her heart sank sharply.
In the brightly lit villa courtyard, several bodies were lying scattered. These bodies were all wearing uniforms, and although their manners of death varied, they were generally quite gruesome.
Some had torn limbs and faces full of terror, while others were covered in blood and mangled all over. These bodies were scattered throughout the courtyard, with large patches of blood flowing everywhere. Scattered firearms were also lying next to the bodies. Judging by their uniforms, these people should all be the villa's guards.
'Damn... All the guards are killed... Those guys have already been here... As expected, I couldn't make it in time?'
Seeing this scene in the courtyard, Dorothy thought with a frown. Since the Eight Point Nest's assassination of Barret was premeditated, their clearing of Barret's villa should also have been prepared long ago. Compared to herself, who had received the news temporarily and rushed here in a hurry, those who were already prepared could clearly reach the destination faster.
Dorothy had already thought about this on the way here. She also knew that her chances of arriving before the people from Eight-Pointed Nest were low, but she had silently hoped that something would go wrong for the people from Eight-Pointed Nest, causing them to arrive late. But now it seemed no miracle had happened.
Looking at the bodies in the courtyard, Dorothy's heart was heavy, but she didn't give up. Instead, she sent the bird corpse puppet to fly towards the villa, stopping on its street lamp to look into the brightly lit windows of the villa. This look made her eyebrows slightly raise.
From the bird corpse puppet's view, Dorothy could see several figures constantly moving around inside the villa. Upon closer inspection, they were clearly a group of masked figures dressed in black. They were moving around the rooms of the villa visible through the windows, seemingly in a hurry.
'These guys... are from Eight-Pointed Nest?! They haven't left? They're still in the villa looking for things?!'
Looking at the group of people inside the villa through the bird corpse puppet's vision, Dorothy's eyes lit up. She had originally thought that after killing the people and finding the things, they would all have left, but she didn't expect them to still be inside.
Seeing this scene, Dorothy's mood couldn't help but improve. She controlled the bird corpse puppet to fly up again and started circling the villa, observing the situation inside through various windows. She found that there were many black-clothed masked figures from Eight-Pointed Nest scrambling around inside the villa. They were rummaging through every room, turning the entire villa into a mess.
The interior of the villa at this moment could be described as a complete mess. Everything had been knocked over, vases were shattered, every book on the bookshelves was thrown onto the floor, and the walls in some places were even broken. On the floors of these messy rooms lay many different kinds of bodies. Their manners of death were similar to those of the guards in the courtyard. Judging by their attire, they were all male and female servants of the villa. Besides the bodies of these villa servants, one could occasionally see one or two bodies of the black-clothed figures. They should have been killed by the villa's own defense forces during the shootout.
Seeing this scene inside the villa, Dorothy decided to enter the villa for reconnaissance. However, she didn't take the risk of just sending the bird corpse puppet flying in for a forced reconnaissance. Instead, she used the vision provided by the bird corpse puppet to turn the bodies inside the villa into Corpse Puppets.
After turning the bodies inside the villa into Corpse Puppets, Dorothy didn't make them move. Instead, they remained motionless on the ground, continuing to pretend to be bodies. Using the auditory senses of these Corpse Puppets, Dorothy began to eavesdrop on the sounds inside the villa.
Through Dorothy's eavesdropping, she found that these people inside the villa weren't talking much. Instead, they were all focused on searching everywhere throughout the villa.
In response, Dorothy chose to use the current vision of the Corpse Puppets she already controlled and, without making any major movements, continued to switch control to Corpse Puppets in various other locations within the villa to eavesdrop on more areas.
And finally, after Dorothy controlled the body of a young maid who had died at the staircase entrance in the foyer, she heard a sound from the ears of this maid Corpse Puppet, a man's voice.
In the center of the foyer, amidst a large patch of blood, a black-clothed figure wearing a black trench coat and a mask was standing there. At this moment, he was talking to a human-faced spider in his hand, his tone revealing clear anger.
"What? You still haven't summoned Barret's soul out! I've been waiting here for over an hour?! Just waiting for the information on the exact location of his research lab! And you're telling me the summoning hasn't succeeded yet? What are you guys even good for?!"