On the bustling streets of Tivian, Dorothy's Corpse Puppet coachman drove the black carriage forward along the road, heading towards the northern suburban area, while inside the carriage, Miss Dorothy and Naifnis, who had just been picked up, were sitting upright.
"Phew... that's finally done. I didn't expect to run into something as soon as I got back..." Sitting in the carriage seat, Naifnis, who had removed her face veil and headscarf, let out a long sigh, saying as she looked at the familiar streets outside the window, smelling the faint pungent odor and slightly furrowing her brows.
"Hmm, the air here is still as bad as ever. I used to think maybe the air was like this in any city, but after traveling around, I realized that Tivian's air is really terrible..." Naifnis complained about the city's air, while Miss Dorothy responded lightly.
"The places we went to were either remote areas or tourist cities. Without heavy industry, the environment is naturally better. Besides, we came back this time precisely because something happened here in Tivian. It's expected to encounter this situation as soon as we returned. It's all because those spider fellows couldn't hold back anymore."
"Spider fellows... have those guys who assassinated Duke Barret started something again? Are we coming back this time specifically to deal with them?" Listening to Miss Dorothy's words, Naifnis also asked curiously from the side, and Miss Dorothy quickly replied.
"Whether we'll end up dealing with those spider fellows specifically is still unknown, but it's highly likely that they are involved. We can't rule out the possibility of a direct confrontation in the end. In short, we need to be mentally prepared now, ready to experience the situation on the night Duke Barret was assassinated again..."
"The situation on the day Duke Barret was assassinated... hmm... If that's the case, I think I won't go home for now. I'll wait until everything here is resolved, there's nothing else to go out for, and everything has temporarily stabilized before going home..."
Listening to Miss Dorothy's words, Neff thought for a moment before speaking. Miss Dorothy pondered for a bit after hearing her words, then also responded.
"Your idea is not bad. The current situation is still unclear, and it's not the time to rashly return to public life. Let's wait a while and see how things go." Miss Dorothy said this. Her current situation is similar to Naifnis'. Although she has returned to Tivian, she hasn't told Grego that she's back and hasn't met him. Otherwise, if she has to leave again for something, it would be difficult to find another excuse.
"I hope things can stabilize for a while after this is over. I'll be attending classes normally next semester and don't want to keep skipping classes."
"Based on the current situation, I can say that I haven't attended classes for most of the year. I missed a lot of the planned study tour courses. According to the time, the professors should be back in a few days. After the next semester starts, they will arrange for us to choose topics from the study tour process in the first half of this year to write papers... I missed more than half of my study tour courses... I don't know how I'll write them then..."
Covering her forehead, Neff said this with a clear hint of distress, while Miss Dorothy shrugged and spoke frankly.
"Haven't we encountered more historical events along the way than your classmates? Isn't it easy to find paper topics? For example, the secret history of the Baruk Dynasty in Adus... or the past of the pirate island Moncarlo... aren't there quite a few topics to choose from? If you need it, I can also guide you~"
"This... please don't joke, Miss Dorothy. If those things are written, they might easily become a secret transmission if not careful! There's no way they can be considered a paper!"
Neff said to Miss Dorothy with some urgency, while Miss Dorothy smiled and didn't respond further. Just like that, the carriage they were in drove out of the City and headed towards the North Suburb.
Since Neff's house in the City had been burglarized, it wasn't safe. Now that the Golden Scepter, along with the ritual, had been moved to a safer place, it was almost empty. Neff didn't plan to return there when she came back, nor did she plan to return to her new home in Tivian. So, she simply found a place to rent near the school, which was relatively close to both the school and where Miss Dorothy lived.
After arriving in the pleasant environment of the Tivian North Suburb, Miss Dorothy first said goodbye to Naifnis, then returned to her residence at 17 Green Shade Town. After tidying up there, she went out again and went alone to the large campus not far away.
...
During the daytime, bright sunlight shone down on the old century-old buildings of Saint Crown University's King's Campus. Along the long corridors and on the wide green lawns, most of the students who were usually bustling about and resting were now gone. As it was during the holiday period, Saint Crown University was much quieter than usual.
However, even during the summer break, Saint Crown University's library remained open to facilitate the research work of some teachers and students who stayed on campus, and Miss Dorothy was happy about this.
On a peaceful afternoon, sunlight streamed through the large windows into the spacious area. Rows and rows of huge bookshelves formed a labyrinth of books. The large library, with fewer students coming and going than usual, appeared even more desolate and empty. Miss Dorothy was currently sitting in her favorite quiet corner, slowly flipping through the book in her hands.
Although Miss Dorothy appeared to be reading at the moment, her thoughts were still spread out to many places. At this very moment, within this library, in the archives, throughout the entire school, Dorothy's Corpse Puppets were everywhere. Some of these Corpse Puppets were reading with Miss Dorothy in the library, some were strolling around the campus, and others were hidden in the archives, quietly flipping through various archival materials.
At this time, Miss Dorothy was following the clues Misha had left her, continuing to investigate matters related to Barret's research companion. Misha had found clues in Crown University's library, and naturally, Miss Dorothy had to start her investigation from here.
The most important clue Misha found in Crown University's library was the book containing the note giving Duke Barret the alias "Richard": "Prit Grain and Food Chronology".
The first thing Miss Dorothy did after returning to Crown University was to find this book in the library and read it thoroughly. She discovered that it was a grain tax register compiled by ancient Prit tax officials.
The authors of this "Prit Grain and Food Chronology" were not historians or agricultural experts, but the Royal Tax Officials of the Prit Hyacinth Dynasty. It recorded the annual grain tax registration status across various parts of Prit from Light Era 875 to 964, a period of nearly a hundred years. The main noble territories in various parts of Prit at that time were recorded. Although not detailed, there were no serious omissions.
After finishing reading the content of "Prit Grain and Food Chronology", Miss Dorothy immediately set out to find people interested in it. She sent a Corpse Puppet to infiltrate Crown University's archive room and retrieve the detailed book collection records of the library from the past decade or so. Using the highly efficient information processing ability of the "enlightenment" ability to quickly review the thick materials, she discovered that the "Prit Grain and Food Chronology" was added to Crown University's library fifteen years ago, meaning that the book had been in Crown University's library for a maximum of fifteen years.
Then, Miss Dorothy had several Corpse Puppets stay in the archives together, reviewing all borrowing records of Crown University Library within fifteen years. With the speed of reading a hundred lines at a glance, it took Miss Dorothy a while to quickly review the mountain of data. From the vast sea of borrowing registration forms, she found all the borrowing records for "Prit Agricultural Calendar". Since this book is quite obscure, in the fifteen years since it arrived at Crown University Library, only six people, including Richard, who was Duke Barret's alias, had borrowed this book. And except for Duke Barret himself who had records of repeatedly borrowing this book, the others had only borrowed it once.
After that, Miss Dorothy investigated the other five people besides Duke Barret. She searched for Crown University's faculty and student records based on their names and also looked for what other books they liked to borrow. She organized the books they had borrowed into a list to see if there was any overlap with Duke Barret's borrowing list. As long as Miss Dorothy could find out which books they borrowed from the library, she could determine what this person was studying or researching based on these books. If his study and research direction was the same as Barret's, then he was likely the "companion" Barret knew.
However, after going through countless documents, the result Miss Dorothy obtained was disappointing.
Among these five people, two were officials from the Prit Food Department. They came to Crown University to borrow this book to improve their own archives within the department. In addition to this book, they also borrowed many books on Prit agriculture and food. There were also two others who studied Prit meteorology. Their borrowing lists were all about Prit meteorological content. They probably borrowed this book to determine the weather conditions of that year based on the harvest situation. Finally, there was one person whose research mainly focused on the history of the Prit tax system. His borrowing list was entirely composed of books related to the tax systems of various countries and Prit.
Food... meteorology... taxation... It is clear that these three research directions are far from the research Barret was conducting. Besides "Prit Agricultural Calendar", there was no overlap with Barret's book list among the books they borrowed. Moreover, they borrowed the books a long time ago, the most recent one borrowing this book four years ago, which was also a long time apart from when Barret borrowed it. They are basically unlikely to be Barret's research partners.
The investigation temporarily hit a bottleneck, with one direction directly cut off. Sitting on the library chair, Miss Dorothy couldn't help but furrow her brows slightly. Then, she immediately began a new round of analysis.
'The other people who borrowed "Prit Agricultural Calendar" are unlikely to be Barret's research companions... So... through what channel did his research companion learn about and study this book? Only if both of them were very familiar with this book would they use it to transmit information... So Barret's companion must have read this book, and it wasn't that Barret borrowed it and then gave it to him to read, because he clearly knew the book's location in the library...'
'Actually... "Prit Agricultural Calendar" is not suitable for borrowing because it is a calendar, a pure record of data in tabular form. It is not suitable for reading from beginning to end, but rather for being placed on a bookshelf to be consulted when needed. Duke Barret's residence is far from the library, so it would be too troublesome for him to go to the library every time he needed to check this calendar, so he simply borrowed it. But if he lived near the library, or even if his research location was inside the library... why would he bother to borrow it?...'
'So... could it be that Duke Barret's companion is someone who lives directly on campus or nearby, and a large part of his research is conducted directly in the library?'
Upon thinking of this, Miss Dorothy's spirits immediately lifted. Living on campus or nearby, with a large part of the research conducted in the library... isn't this a Crown University faculty member or student? And most likely a professor; students busy with graduation don't have time to discuss the academic content Barret is researching.
'If it's really a Crown University professor collaborating with Barret on research... checking this calendar would be very convenient, so there's no need to borrow the book. So, I just need to find Crown University professors whose research direction is similar to Barret's... So, what exactly is Barret's research content?'
Miss Dorothy thought this way, and then she began to analyze starting from "Prit Agricultural Calendar".
'This calendar was used by ancient Prit tax officials to record the grain tax situation in various places at that time. Barret's interest in this calendar is certainly not in the grain tax itself; his focus is on other situations reflected by the grain tax, just like someone using this calendar to infer the climate and rainfall of that time.
'This calendar records the situation for a hundred years between 875 and 964, which is the grain tax situation from nearly five hundred years ago. And five hundred years ago... was precisely when the Fengxin Dynasty, the current ruling dynasty of Prit, was just established, shortly after the Wind King Rebellion ended.
'What Barret wants is information about the Wind King Rebellion period. The true history of the Wind King Rebellion has been erased and altered by the current Royal Family and Church. Barret cannot find historical records detailing the Wind King Rebellion, so he can only resort to obtaining some details of the Wind King Rebellion from various ambiguous historical materials, thereby deducing the truth of that war.
'This "Prit Agricultural Calendar"... the initial year of record is basically close to the year the Wind King Rebellion ended. The grain tax situation in different regions of a country can reflect the grain production situation in those regions. If it's after a war, by comparing the differences in grain production in various places with a period in the future, one can estimate where the war has affected and where it has been relatively stable. Military disasters will affect grain production; long-term warfare in a place will lead to land abandonment, agricultural extinction, and a sharp decrease in grain production. Barret can read the intensity and scale of the Wind King Rebellion in various parts of Prit from this calendar. This is why he is interested in this grain tax book.
'So, Duke Barret's reason for being interested in "Prit Agricultural Calendar" is the Wind King Rebellion, and isn't his collaborator the same? They are both interested in this book because of the same research topic, which allows them to communicate and share success.'
Miss Dorothy thought this way in her heart. At this point, Miss Dorothy couldn't help but smile slightly. Her investigation direction was much clearer now. A professor at Crown University... possibly in the history or archaeology department, with a hidden interest in the history of the Wind King Rebellion. After so many clues on the cruise ship, finding the person would be very easy.
After figuring out the new clue in her mind, Miss Dorothy immediately had her subordinates continue to review the archives, checking the detailed information of all professors at Crown University, especially those in the history and archaeology departments, examining their resumes and all published papers, and not even missing a single library borrowing record. Finally, after comprehensively organizing and processing a large amount of information, a name appeared before her eyes.
"John Acheson"