The two of them set to digging with a will.
Melissa had advanced to the Melee Scholar not long ago — her stamina, endurance, and strength had all grown noticeably. Shovelling dirt was hardly an ordeal for her.
Still, she couldn't stop herself from glancing around every few minutes, paranoid that someone might pass by and see them. This was digging up a grave — deeply illegal and ethically indefensible.
Though, she reflected with a certain odd feeling, not that long ago she had herself been "dug up" out of a burial vault by her teacher.
"Relax."
Stephen chewed his grass stem and smiled. "Nobody comes through here at this hour. The whole area's been abandoned for years."
Seeing "Christine" unwind slightly, he asked: "Miss Christine — I've been curious. Is it really just about seeing an ancient Fourth Epoch vault? That's your whole reason for this, you and Solicitor Derlin both?"
Melissa nodded. "Seeking ancient ruins, exploring hidden knowledge — that's one of the core pursuits of the Moses Ascetic Order. Knowledge is what drives progress."
"Pursuing knowledge."
Stephen understood it wasn't just the Moses Ascetic Order. It was the pursuit of every Hermit Pathway Beyonder — Queen Mystic included.
"Oh, while I think of it — there was something I forgot to mention yesterday."
Melissa's hand paused. "What?"
"Not long after I found the vault the first time, someone from the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery came looking for me. An official Beyonder. He was also asking about Solicitor Derlin — apparently they'd been in contact before all this."
Stephen made a show of recalling. "And he seemed to already know about the vault."
"..."
Melissa was quiet for a few seconds. "Do you know who he was?"
"His name is Louis Ellet. He was recently transferred to Backlund from Terrier in the Intis Republic, and he should still be at St. Herland's Cathedral."
"I understand."
Twenty minutes later, working together, they pried up a stone slab. A dark hole appeared beneath it. Stephen lit a lantern he'd prepared and led the way inside. The easy smile on his face vanished the moment he crossed the threshold.
"Psh."
A quiet snicker sounded in his head. "You've been dragging this out — you just want to trigger the magic so your captain notices something's wrong. Too bad — I cleared that magic away long ago. Even if you blew this whole place up, she wouldn't feel a thing."
Stephen walked on as if he hadn't heard a word.
"Besides — even if she came, what then? Would you really want to drag her into the blast radius?"
"I'm not afraid of dying."
Stephen said it suddenly. "Which is actually the thing I've been curious about. Why haven't you just killed me and turned me into a full avatar? Why bother playing this game?"
Amon gave a soft laugh. "Finding a little amusement for a very long life."
"So bringing me along on this girl's little adventure — that's also for amusement?"
"What else?"
Stephen was about to say something more when a slip of paper appeared in his hand as if from nowhere. He looked at it: a note from that noblewoman called Audrey. She was asking if he had any interest in spending a few days as a bodyguard for a friend of hers.
He let out a small, bitter laugh inside. In my situation? How could I bodyguard anyone? He was on the verge of writing a refusal when his fingers moved on their own, writing out: No problem. Ready whenever.
Once the reply had been sent off by the messenger, Stephen regained control of his own hand. He asked in his mind: "Wanting a different kind of amusement again?"
"Not quite."
Amon said cheerfully: "I just have the feeling that this particular commission… is going to be interesting."
...
Half an hour later, Queen's Borough.
Vincent found himself in front of Katrina again. The Eternal Witch was stretched languidly across a sofa, long legs bare, wearing nothing but a thin white dress sheer enough to leave little to the imagination.
"Good afternoon, Mr. A."
Katrina gave a lazy greeting, raised one hand, and pulled a blanket over herself, covering that exceptionally appealing figure.
"..."
It wasn't his first time meeting this Witch, but it was the first time she'd been quite this candid. And this was without her using her Beyonder abilities to enhance the effect. No wonder the Emperor had so enjoyed "the flavour of a Witch." Some temptations were genuinely hard to resist.
Bernadette said, dryly: "So — are you like Father? You find Witches interesting?"
"Absolutely not," Vincent shot back immediately. "No matter how beautiful she is, she used to be a man. I have standards."
"Oh. And if the Witch had always been female?"
"That's…"
Vincent's mind went somewhere he immediately pulled it back from. Don't even go there.
He cleared his throat and fixed Katrina with a deliberately flat look. "Do you know someone called Trissy?"
The languid ease dropped off Katrina's face in an instant. She sat up slowly. "Why are you asking about her?"
"Nothing in particular. Just asking."
Katrina clearly wasn't buying that. "Did you see her? Where? How is she?"
The moment Trissy had fled the estate, Katrina had received word. But because the ring Trissy carried rivalled a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact, Katrina's attempts to divine her whereabouts had come up blank.
If Mr. A had come here specifically to open with Trissy's name, it was very likely he knew something.
"Don't be hasty."
Vincent settled comfortably into a chair. "First, why don't you tell me what makes that particular Trissy so special — enough for a Sequence 3 demigod like you to be this worked up?"
Katrina studied him for a moment. "She's someone our Demoness Sect's leadership selected. She has an important role in the plan ahead. But two days ago she disappeared without warning."
"If Mr. A can tell me where Trissy is, I can personally owe you a favour on behalf of the Demoness Sect."
Katrina's reaction confirmed something: whoever had put the sapphire ring on Klein's finger was not Katrina. It was someone else — and Katrina had no idea it had even happened.
So Vincent smiled. "I happened to run into Trissy yesterday. I was planning to hand her over for the bounty — but she offered me a Beyonder item in exchange for letting her go."
"A sapphire ring with unusual power. I don't know exactly what it does, but the energy radiating off it alone is unmistakably significant." He spread his hands. "So I agreed."
To be continued…
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