Southwest suburb of Tivian, on the road leading to the City.
Inside the shaking carriage, Dorothy sat, still examining the changes after her promotion. The next examination was her Spirituality limit.
After being promoted to Chalk, Dorothy's total Spirituality accumulation limit increased to fifty points, a full twenty points more than the Black Earth Stage, which was a considerable improvement.
'A Spirituality limit of fifty points, this means... if I want to be promoted to Scarlet next, the 'Qi' Spirituality must accumulate at least fifty points. If 'Qi' is fifty, other Spirituality should at least start at twenty. The difficulty of Spirituality accumulation has increased a lot... I don't know when this much Spirituality can be accumulated...'
Dorothy thought to herself. Although the Spirituality requirement for promotion to the Scarlet Tier was much higher, Dorothy was not in a hurry.
After all, she had only been in this world for half a year and had already jumped three levels from an ordinary mortal to Chalk. For other Extraordinary who mingled in the secret transmission world, this was like riding a rocket. As for the An Yin Bureau, Director James of the Igwinte branch was in his fifties or sixties and was only a Black Earth. The core elite Captains in the An-Yin Main Bureau, with more abundant resources, were also promoted to Chalk in their forties.
The youngest Chalk Tier Extraordinary Dorothy had met, besides herself, was Adele. If the newspaper's celebrity section was correct, Adele was only twenty years old this year, seemingly only a few months older than Grego.
Ultimately, the obstacle to ordinary Extraordinary's promotion in terms of Spirituality accumulation is very large. If they are not specially invested with resources by an organization and do not have a suitable Spirituality accumulation method, it may take more than a year just to be promoted to Apprentice. Adele being able to be promoted to Chalk at twenty was largely due to her Spirituality accumulation method, ""Desire Dance"". This Spirituality accumulation method, which relies on collecting desires to accumulate Spirituality, accumulates Spirituality very quickly when it is on the right person, and Adele happened to be such a suitable person.
From the Wolf Blood Society's attempt to ruin Adele's reputation to stop her Spirituality accumulation, it seems that Adele's Spirituality accumulation speed relying on ""Desire Dance"" has reached a certain level of warning. Give her some more time and she might be able to fully accumulate Spirituality and perhaps be promoted to Scarlet.
And Dorothy, relying on the "Spirit Sight" brought by the system, accumulates Spirituality even faster than Adele. As long as the secret transmission is sufficient, Spirituality can be accumulated directly in no time.
'In short, although I have just been promoted and am not in a hurry to consider the next step of promotion, the accumulation of Spirituality still needs to be done quickly, not for promotion, but for emergencies. After all, the current Spirituality situation is probably not enough to fight a battle, it's still too dangerous.'
Dorothy continued to think. Because of the promotion, her current Spirituality is not much, and the key ""Cup"" Spirituality is only one point. In Dorothy's current situation, if she encounters any crisis again, she will be very passive. Therefore, her primary goal at the moment is to quickly save up a wave of Spirituality and save up various main Spirituality used to above the safety line.
'Now my blue bar 'Qi' already has 20 points, and in the future, there should be no situation where 'Qi' is not enough, but the types of auxiliary Spirituality used have also increased, and the pressure on auxiliary Spirituality is also greater... For a while, I will focus on accumulating Spirituality, at least to the point where I can calmly deal with emergencies.'
As Dorothy thought this, she drove the carriage towards the distance. At this moment, the dim sky was gradually brightening, and the continuous huge outline of the city appeared in front of the carriage. The high-pitched crowing of chickens occasionally came from the distant countryside.
The night gradually faded, and morning arrived. Dorothy drove the carriage to the edge of Tivian in exhaustion. Other vehicles began to appear on the road, and the buildings on both sides of the road began to become dense.
Finally returning to the City, she couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief after confirming that the Eight-Pointed Nest people had not chased after her.
Dorothy originally planned to drive the carriage directly back to her home in Green Shade Town in the northern suburbs, but after driving for a while, she found that she was too tired and driving was very dangerous, having almost collided with another carriage just now. Therefore, for safety reasons, Dorothy decided not to drive while fatigued, but instead found a hotel with carriage parking services and stayed there.
Dorothy used a Corpse Puppet as a cover to open a room in this hotel and then stayed in the room. After taking a quick hot shower, she lay down on the hotel bed and slept soundly. Not long after lying down and closing her eyes, Dorothy fell into a deep sleep.
After a long dreamless sleep, Dorothy finally opened her eyes and got up. The sky outside the window was still bright. After scratching her messy long hair from sleeping, she stretched a big lazy stretch, stretched her slightly sore body, and then looked at the pocket watch on the bedside table, which showed that the current time was already 2:30 PM.
Still feeling a bit sleepy, Dorothy got dressed and casually tidied herself up, then opened the door and went downstairs to check out. Then she got on her carriage and drove it onto the street with much more energy.
On the street, Dorothy first found a telegraph office to send a telegram to Grego informing him that she had arrived home safely. Then she found a relatively nice place to eat something. Before eating, Dorothy specially got a copy of today's newspaper from the front desk, and then sat at her seat eating cream bread while reading the newspaper. As she expected, the headline of the newspaper was about the New Year's Eve party at Bishop Square last night.
"Unexpected Situation! The New Year's Eve Party Hosted by Princess Isabel Encounters a Sudden Explosion"
"At midnight on January 1st, an unexplained explosion suddenly occurred in Bishop Square in the South District, where the Princess's New Year's Eve party was being held. Princess Isabel, Duke Barret, and many other personnel were injured in the accident. The cause of the accident is currently unknown. The Princess and the Duke are currently receiving treatment, and the official status of their injuries has not yet been announced. Bishop Square and the surrounding areas have been sealed off since last night..."
'Explosion accident? Heh... It seems the Kingdom government temporarily has no intention of announcing this incident as an assassination... If it were announced as an assassination case, from the perspective of the Kingdom government, if a Duke is backstabbed, they must find the real culprit and catch the assassin no matter what, otherwise the face of the Kingdom government would be completely lost.
'But the nature of this incident involves Extraordinary secrets, so even if the real culprit is found, it will not be easy to announce it. So for now, they are using the reason of an explosion accident to prevaricate, and then slowly deal with it. Anyway, for ordinary people, the situation at that time also looked like an explosion, and even if Duke Barret's death is eventually defined as an accident, it is completely possible.'
Chewing on the bread in her hand, Dorothy thought about this while looking at the newspaper. During this time, she also paid a little attention to the situation of other people in the restaurant. Afterwards, Dorothy found that although many of them were discussing the newspaper, it had not reached a particularly heated point. If the newspaper had reported directly that Duke Barret was assassinated and died, then the number of people discussing it would probably double.
'It probably won't be long before this newspaper reports that Duke Barret's injuries were too severe and he has passed away. At that time, there will probably be another small wave of public opinion. Coupled with the previous one, this is equivalent to slightly weakening a large wave of public opinion and splitting it into two smaller waves. The Kingdom government is also trying to reduce the negative impact of this incident.'
Thinking this, Dorothy finished the bread in her hand, then after slowly drinking a cup of coffee, she paid the bill and left the restaurant. Back in her carriage, she quickly drove towards the north side of the City.
Finally, after several more hours, Dorothy returned to Green Shade Town in her carriage. When she had the Corpse Puppet stable the carriage, the sky had already darkened, and another night was approaching.
Dorothy hurried back to her home, and when she reached her doorstep, she saw a familiar figure. It was none other than Beverly.
"Beverly?"
"Oh, Miss Meisihuos is here. Just in time. Your diligent exclusive postman is working."
Seeing Dorothy walking from a distance, Beverly smiled and bowed, speaking. Dorothy waved her hand upon seeing this.
"Alright, alright. If your postman, who is terrifyingly expensive, were truly diligent, I couldn't handle it. Back to the point, do I have any new letters?"
"Of course~ And it's an urgent one." Beverly said, then she took out an envelope and handed it to Dorothy. After Dorothy took it, Beverly examined her again, then spoke again.
"Miss Meisihuos, it seems you didn't come back last night. Coincidentally, last night in the South District, something major involving the Despenser Royal Family seemed to have happened. Could it be you..."
"Stop 'could it be'... I didn't do that. I just spent New Year's Eve with my family. Stop guessing wildly." Listening to Beverly's words, Dorothy rolled her eyes at her and said. Beverly was slightly surprised upon hearing Dorothy's words.
"You still have family you can spend New Year's with..."
"Of course~ Is that very surprising?"
"A little... Generally, Extraordinary like you who are deeply involved in the secret world, their mental state is more or less problematic. The deeper one goes on the Extraordinary path, the harder it is to maintain the emotional values of a normal person. If you hadn't said you still had the thought of spending New Year's with family, I would have thought you were a fanatic who only knows how to research Extraordinary secrets."
Beverly said this to Dorothy, then she waved her hand, turned, and said goodbye.
"Anyway, I've seen many fanatics like that. Your kind is rare, and I like it more. I wish you won't be driven mad by some weird stuff in the future."
Beverly finished speaking, then walked away slowly with her hands behind her back. Dorothy, standing in place, thought about Beverly's words and decided they made some sense. In this Extraordinary world with various abnormal Spirituality accumulation methods and Spirit Sight distortion, it is indeed difficult to adhere to one's human nature. Perhaps this is why various evil societies are constantly emerging and cultists are absurdly numerous.
If Dorothy didn't have the "Reading Method" brought by the system and Spirit Sight immunity, her mind would definitely not be normal after being in the secret world for a long time.
Thinking this, Dorothy took the envelope Beverly gave her and went inside. Then she sat on the sofa, opened it, and read it. After quickly scanning a few lines, Dorothy finished reading the letter's content.
This letter was written to Detective Ed, and the sender was none other than the leader of the anti-traitor team from the An-Yin Main Bureau, Misha, a Royal Knight.
Sending the letter at this time, Misha's purpose was certainly nothing else but to inquire about the situation at Bishop Square. They seemed to have already confirmed that the attack was carried out by the Eight Point Nest. Now, Misha wanted to urgently consult Detective Ed on some questions, as in Misha's eyes, the organization Detective Ed belonged to had an insider within the Eight-Pointed Nest, so perhaps they knew some key information from the Eight-Pointed Nest regarding this incident.
Moreover, Misha had recently disclosed information about Duke Barret to Ed. Now Duke Barret had been directly killed. Misha certainly had to inquire about the relevant situation clearly to confirm if the organization Ed belonged to had any connection with this incident. Therefore, Misha once again invited Ed to meet directly to discuss the matter in this letter.
After reading the letter, Dorothy rubbed her chin with interest, thinking to herself.
'Yo-ho... Just in time. I also want to know some of the current official situation. And if you proactively invite me there to provide you with information... I should also be able to ask for some compensation, right? I'm currently short on Spirituality, asking for a few secret transmissions isn't too much.'
Thinking this, Dorothy immediately put the letter aside, then took out a feather pen and an envelope from the magic box. After injecting Spirituality, she began writing a reply on it.
In the letter, Dorothy responded that she was willing to meet Misha tomorrow morning at the old place, and regarding the cost of the information, she also proposed some small compensation of her own.
"Phew... It seems the new year will be a busy one."
After finishing writing on the envelope, Dorothy sighed like this. Then she prepared to get up and go out to find her exclusive "diligent" postman.
...
Time passed quickly, and the night flew by.
The winter sun shone on the spires of the Church District. Amidst the steady tolling of bells, countless citizens crossed the wide square and came to St. Yong Cathedral, offering New Year's prayers.
Although it was already the second day of the new year, St. Yong Cathedral was still very lively. The church benches were almost full of citizens, and many people who didn't have seats were also standing or kneeling, praying devoutly to the altar of the Three Saints. At this time, in a corner of this spacious cathedral away from the crowd, two figures were standing. They were Ed, wearing a dark trench coat, and Misha, dressed in male attendant clothes, with obvious dark circles under her eyes.
"It's a pleasure to see you again, Miss Misha. You don't look well. With respect, as a lady you should pay more attention to getting enough sleep; it's the key to beauty."
Lifting his short hat, Ed spoke to Misha with great politeness, while the tired Misha scoffed and spoke.
"Heh... Thank you for your kindness, Detective... Although I don't know where you get these theories, I obviously don't need them. Let's get straight to the point. First, I want to confirm, the case at the South District square on New Year's Eve, was it the Eight-Pointed Nest's work, right..."
"Correct, those Vampire spider fellows did it. I'm glad you didn't attribute the responsibility to us, Misha, especially since I just received information about Duke Barret from you last year."
Listening to Misha's words, Ed shrugged and said, while Misha, with dark circles under her eyes, continued to speak.
"Among the survivors at the scene, some had contact or even brief clashes with the Vampires attempting to infiltrate. Based on their testimonies, we almost confirmed from the beginning that the Eight Point Nest was the mastermind behind this incident. However, we still haven't clarified many details. Don't you have an insider within the Eight-Pointed Nest? Have you obtained any crucial information from that insider?"
"For example... Who was the assassin who made the final move?"
...