North Shore of Conquest, Adria.
Inside a luxurious suite in a hotel in Adria, Dorothy sat on the soft sofa. On her knees was the thick "wen hai hang zhi". Having just finished writing her proposal to Beverly, she was concentrating on waiting for a reply, and this reply appeared on the book's communication page not long after.
"An opportunity to trick a Scarlet... interesting. I didn't expect your luck to be so good to encounter such a chance. However, I'm a bit too unfamiliar with your situation here, so I don't dare to make a decision easily. At least briefly introduce your situation over there so I can have a general idea."
Looking at Beverly's response, it was clear she found Dorothy's claim of a Chalk being able to trick a Scarlet somewhat unbelievable. Seeing her response, Dorothy paused slightly, and after some thought, picked up her pen and wrote on the page.
"Okay, I'm in Adria now. According to your intelligence, I came here to look for Azamu's donation and found Garib, who also came looking for the donation. Since the donation is on the Church's territory, I now have the opportunity to expose Garib and his group in front of the Church. Archbishop Antonio is currently in Adria, and he can deal with Garib."
"I have already obtained Azamu's donation and there's no need to risk dealing with Garib, as he has no grudge against me. However, if you can give me some reward, I don't mind taking action."
Dorothy wrote on the "wen hai hang zhi" like this, then silently waited for the other party's response. After a short while, Beverly's printed text appeared before Dorothy.
"Driving a tiger to swallow a wolf? Heh... that's quite in line with your way of doing things. I didn't expect you could actually drive it towards a Scarlet this time. This can be considered your skill."
"Alright, I can agree to the reward issue here. I'll talk to the main workshop later. They won't let go of an opportunity to trick a Scarlet defaulter. Just do it with confidence. As long as it's done, there will definitely be a reward."
'I've already done it...' Looking at the text on the page before her, Dorothy thought this in her heart, and then she wrote on the page again.
"Okay, then I'll take action now. Everything will be clear today. You can pay more attention to the intelligence from Adria."
"Don't worry, we have a dedicated intelligence network and will verify Garib's movements. As long as something happens to him, we'll definitely know. Once we finish verifying Garib's situation, I'll contact you again."
Beverly's response appeared on the page of the "wen hai hang zhi" again. After reading these replies, Dorothy nodded understandingly and finally picked up her pen to write again.
"In that case, I'll be on my way. I look forward to your verification."
After writing, Dorothy closed the "wen hai hang zhi" and put it back into the magic box, then let out a long breath. She sat comfortably on the soft sofa and rested.
Using the crown of emmanuel to trick Garib was not part of Dorothy's initial plan. She had originally planned to just fish in troubled waters and steal Azamu's donation while Garib and Antonio were entangled with each other. However, when the plan was being implemented, she saw that Garib and Antonio were not only entangled in the inner world but also seemed like they would be entangled for a long time, so she had the idea of using the crown of emmanuel to trick Garib.
And since she had already tricked him, she had to make good use of this trick to gain some benefits for herself, otherwise, it would be unfair to Mr. Garib who was tricked for nothing.
'Now it's time to wait... wait for Azamu's donation to finish its cooldown, wait for the Craftsmen's Guild to verify Garib's situation. To be honest... I'm also a bit curious about what kind of ending this guy Garib will have...'
Sitting on the sofa, Dorothy thought this while looking out the window, towards the sun gradually setting in the sky.
...
In the afternoon, in the Conquest Sea southeast of Adria.
Under the sunlight on the sparkling sea, three extremely fast medium and small Church warships were speeding across the surface, leaving long wakes and smoke trails, sailing rapidly towards Adria.
Inside the cabin of the leading warship, Antonio sat with a solemn expression. He was holding a card in his hand, staring at the text on it with focused eyes and slightly furrowed brows.
"Thief K... from the beginning, have we been played by you?"
Staring at the card in his hand, Antonio murmured like this. It was clear now that there was a mastermind behind the series of events in Adria. The Scarlet he had been diligently pursuing was not Thief K, but merely a scapegoat created by Thief K.
In the battle at the Church square last night, Antonio's side successfully captured one or two prisoners. To obtain information about the pursued Scarlet in time during the chase, these prisoners, who were directly knocked unconscious, were sent onto the warship. They finally woke up not long ago. Initially tight-lipped and loyal, their psychological defenses instantly collapsed after seeing their captured leader, and they directly provided a large amount of information. It was this information that suddenly made Antonio realize he had been deeply played.
According to the prisoners' confessions, they were members of the treasure-robbing society Hai Sha Society, and their leader was named Garib. They came here to steal several artifacts that their former leader had donated to the Net Flow Church. Their target was not the crown of emmanuel. They had originally planned to act immediately after Antonio left, but they didn't expect Antonio to suddenly change his plan and stay in Adria, thus disrupting their original plan and catching them off guard. He was not Thief K at all.
After reading the prisoners' confessions, Antonio finally understood the whole story. Why would a Scarlet, a great treasure thief, forget to erase the Beacon when stealing the crown of emmanuel? It was obvious that he had also been played by the audacious Thief K. His target was not the crown of emmanuel from the start. The conflict between himself and the other party was clearly provoked by the real Thief K.
In the cabin slightly swaying due to the wind and waves, Antonio looked at the confessions of the Hai Sha Society members and Thief K's card, his face grim and silent. There was a simmering anger in his heart. Even as an Archbishop in charge of a large diocese, Antonio, with a lifespan of a hundred years, had rarely encountered something so infuriating in his life.
"Hmph... truly an audacious thief... but don't get too happy too soon..."
With a cold snort, Antonio murmured like this. Facing a thief audacious enough to use the Church as a tool, he naturally wouldn't ignore it.
After returning, Antonio was immediately prepared to perform a divination targeting Thief K. However, Antonio didn't hold much hope for getting a result. Since the other party dared to provoke the Church, they naturally had preparations against divination. Divination at a regular consumption level probably wouldn't be able to find his trace. Divination consuming more than the regular level needed to be reported to Holy Mountain, and it was clear that although this incident was infuriating, its impact hadn't reached that level yet.
After all, the other party didn't cause too much loss to the Church in the end. The crucial crown of emmanuel was recovered, and his side even captured a Scarlet and eliminated a treasure-robbing society. In a sense, it was quite fruitful. For Holy Mountain, in a sense, he was not only blameless but also meritorious, although he was still extremely unhappy about being used.
'Thinking about it now, my sudden stay in Adria can be said to be the result of various coincidences, but when there are too many coincidences, it's no longer a coincidence. Because of Natsuki's letter, I canceled my original itinerary and decided to stay in Adria for half a day, and then because of Thief K's warning letter, I stayed in Natsuki for another half a day. I originally thought Thief K's warning letter was sent while I was away, but now it seems that Thief K saw that I was still in Natsuki, so he specifically sent the warning letter to make me stay, because he knew Garib was coming that night, so he deliberately made me stay to deal with Garib.
'The letter from Natsuki should be fine. I've contacted Natsuki through various means and confirmed the letter was indeed sent by Elder Anman. Not to mention, the intelligence they provided about the Sea Abyss Church is very important. Natsuki, an island tribe isolated overseas for hundreds of years with little interaction with the Main Continent, is hard to imagine having ties with a master thief like Thief K, who operates on luxury cruise ships. If Natsuki's letter was truly meant to keep me here to deal with Garib, they could have simply kept me until the afternoon or even evening in one go, rather than just noon.'
Antonio thought this to himself. As someone who knew the Natsuki language, he had a deep understanding of Natsuki, his key work target. He knew that the Natsuki people were xenophobic, and their means of external communication relied only on a few sea merchants from their own tribe. Overall, they had little interaction and understanding of the Main Continent, making it difficult to connect them with Thief K, who had recently gained fame in the newspapers. After all, one was a distant islander, and the other was a master thief from the Main Continent; the difference was quite significant.
'So, if we rule out Natsuki's issue, the key to the matter shifts to within the Church. The reason Thief K sent the announcement letter in the morning is truly because she knew I hadn't left Adria as reported in the newspapers, but was still here waiting for a telegram. So she seized this opportunity to send the announcement letter. And knowing I would only stay until noon, she specifically chose the morning to send it.
'Since I was waiting for the telegram to obtain secret intelligence about the Sea Abyss Church, I didn't let the outside world know about my delayed itinerary. Yet Thief K knew about this, which proves that she might have an informant near me.
'This informant could be among my retinue, or within the local Church in Adria. It's also not impossible for them to be within the local Deep Concealment Guard or the Holy Rite Knights at the military port. People within these organizations knew about my delayed itinerary. Thief K must have obtained the intelligence about my temporary stay from one of these channels. Based on this intelligence, she decided to send the announcement letter, and then used this announcement letter to keep me for another half a day.'
Sitting in his seat, Antonio thought this to himself. Among the organizations he listed as potentially having leaked information, he did not include the pilgrims, because these ordinary pilgrims were not privy to the confidential information about his temporary stay. Antonio didn't even suspect the Sister among the pilgrims who delivered the letter to him.
The reason was simple: the letter Anman gave him was written in the Natsuki language. How could an ordinary person understand such an extremely obscure language? Antonio only learned the Natsuki language because he was taking over as the Iweig Archbishop and needed to resolve the Natsuki issue with a conciliatory policy. How could a Sister from Prit possibly understand the Natsuki language? Her communication in Natsuki relied almost entirely on others' translations.
Having ruled out the Sister and the pilgrims, Antonio determined the scope of the leak. At this moment, he had already decided in his heart that upon his return, he would notify the higher-ups of the Deep Concealment Guard and work with them to conduct an internal purge of Adria's local official extraordinary organizations. His own staff and the Holy Rite Knights must also be investigated. He was determined to root out Thief K's informant from within these groups. Once Thief K's informant was found, then they could follow the clues to find more leads about Thief K.
"That madman... will ultimately pay the price for her arrogance..."
Looking at the turbulent sea outside the window, Antonio murmured in a heavy tone.
...
Time flew by. The sun set, the moon rose, the moon hid, and the sun rose again. Soon, a day had passed, and Adria welcomed a new morning once more.
On the new day, the citizens of Adria living near the Church square quickly noticed something special as they went out. The flash of light on top of the Net Flow Church in the square, which had been missing for a full day, suddenly reappeared this morning. The citizens of Adria once again witnessed the shining radiance that symbolized the entire city. Although the Church square was still sealed off, the Net Flow Church remained closed, and the authorities hadn't issued any announcements, everyone already knew one thing: the lost Crown of Emmanuel had finally returned.
With all sorts of rumors about Thief K spreading throughout Adria, the return of the Crown of Emmanuel was undoubtedly another bombshell dropped into the public discourse. The enthusiasm for discussion among Adria's citizens and tourists was reignited, and everyone began discussing the recovery of the Crown of Emmanuel.
Amidst the numerous discussions, various rumors emerged endlessly. Some said the Crown of Emmanuel returned because Thief K was caught. Some said Thief K wasn't caught, but simply abandoned the crown during the pursuit to divert the attention of the pursuers. Some said Thief K wasn't caught, and the Crown of Emmanuel wasn't recovered; the one on the Church roof was actually fake, forcibly put there by the authorities to save face. Others even said the Crown of Emmanuel was returned by Thief K because she didn't like it...
All sorts of rumors circulated in the streets of Adria, and all of them implicitly agreed on one point: Thief K had successfully stolen the Crown of Emmanuel after sending an announcement letter... She was a true legendary thief!
...
In the streets of Adria, various rumors about Thief K were flying everywhere. However, Dorothy, one of the two people deeply connected to Thief K at this moment, had no mind to listen to them. She was sitting on the sofa in her room, gazing intently at her palm. Lying on it was a beautiful amethyst pendant with a Golden border in the North Africa style.
This crystal pendant was one of Azzam's Donations. Yesterday, it was a colorless crystal pendant with no trace of Spirituality on it. But early this morning, it turned into an amethyst, and Dorothy, using her Spirituality vision, could also see the 'enlightenment' Spirituality radiance slowly emanating from it.
This was an extraordinary item of 'enlightenment', the hidden divination tool among Azzam's Donations. It was Azamu's capital for building his fortune, his greatest reliance in establishing the Hai Sha Society, and the thing Garib most desired.
Looking at this pendant, Dorothy roughly knew how it was used. It could perform pendulum divination, and Dorothy could use it to divine all location information regarding the Xing Shu Xiu Shu Hui (Star Numerology Scripture Society).
...
Within Adria, various discussions about Thief K were circulating everywhere. At this moment, Dorothy had no mind to care about these because she had found the divination tool. Naifnis also had no mind to care, because early this morning she received an urgent telegram.
Inside another high-end hotel in Adria, Naifnis, who had been staying there for over a week with the study tour group, was woken up by a knock on the door early in the morning. After groggily rubbing her eyes, she told her roommate Emma to open the door. After calling for a long time with no response, she turned to see the other person sleeping soundly. Helplessly, she sat up in bed, put on her slippers over her pajamas, and listlessly walked to the room door. She opened the door, and then a young hotel attendant appeared before her. After looking at Naifnis, she spoke in not-so-fluent Prite language.
"Excuse me, are you Miss Boyle?"
"Ah, that's me... Is there something?"
"It's like this, you have an urgent telegram here. It was delivered by someone from the telegraph office early this morning. It's from Tivian, Prit."
Saying this, the attendant handed a translated telegram letter to Naifnis. After receiving it, Neff shook her head in confusion. Thinking about who in Tivian had been in long-term telegraphic contact with her and knew her address here, it could only be her family. So, it must be a telegram sent from home.
'Did something happen at home? They had to send an urgent telegram?'
Opening the envelope, Naifnis looked at the letter paper in her hand. After reading for a moment, her eyes widened.
"Grandpa Nu Nuo Te... he's missing?!"