Next page password is bold portion: vA1rah-6RU*e
Translator: SumTLMan
“Have you found any clues?” Freud asked eagerly, “Have you discovered whom they were worshipping?”
According to what Freud learned from Little Seim, the sacrifice was not just conducted by the farm owner; many of the town’s elites were involved as well.
This was a typical collective sacrifice event, primarily involving human offerings, imbued with a primitive style. Similar instances in the historical records of the Wizarding World suggest a high probability that the entity being worshipped was an evil god from another world, using the sacrifice to deepen ties with the Wizarding World and thereby gain entry.
Such scenarios are common in the primitive tribes of the Feran Continent, hence, periodically, wizard organizations from various regions dispatch missions to eradicate these types of sacrificial events in the primitive tribes of the Feran Continent.
Drew shook his head, “We still don’t know whom they were worshipping.”
Freud’s brow furrowed slightly, “Then, what clues have you found?”
Drew’s expression turned slightly awkward, “The clues found by the Knight Order are still unconfirmed as related to the collective sacrifice event, but based on some speculations, there might be some connections we haven’t discovered yet.”
“What do you mean?”
Drew adjusted his bifocals, signaling Freud to enter the castle first.
As they walked towards the Star Lake Castle, Drew also began to narrate the clues discovered by the Royal Knights in Dawn Town of the Silvercloud Duchy.
Drew’s narration was clear and concise, allowing Freud to quickly grasp the gist.
The story begins with the Knight Order investigating the farm owner’s sacrifice.
Since the Silvercloud Duchy is a vassal of the Central Empire, the Silver Heron Royal Knights hold a revered status in the Silvercloud Duchy, along with special law enforcement rights. Therefore, when the Knight Order investigated the farm owner’s sacrifice, they used their status to pressure, quickly identifying all the elites involved in the sacrifice event in Dawn Town.
Unfortunately, the Knight Order didn’t find many clues from these individuals. Their participation in the sacrifice seemed to come out of nowhere, and they knew nothing when questioned.
The knights speculated that a powerful entity from another world might have used abilities like memory interference. To unearth the clues, it would probably require the intervention of a formal wizard.
Thus, the Knight Order first reported this information back to Eniya.
Because the matter of sacrificing to an evil god from another world could be either significant or trivial, some deities are merely curious, while others harbor malice towards the Wizarding World, but regardless of the scale of this sacrificial event, Eniya immediately relayed the information to Hurricane Tower, hoping they would send a formal wizard.
Whether a formal wizard would come, and when, was still uncertain for the Knight Order. So, they decided to take this opportunity to continue uncovering the secrets of Dawn Town, hoping to find additional clues.
However, after investigating the noble families and their associated industries, no problems were found. Many members of these noble families were even unaware that someone from their family was involved in the worship of evil gods.
In a situation where they were at their wits’ end, a knight suggested that they should investigate the slave market.
Since sacrifices were needed, they would require offerings, which meant living people.
Many nobles were involved in these sacrifices, but individuals like Little Seim were rare. The majority of the nobles did not want to escalate the situation, so the offerings sacrificed by these nobles of Dawn Town were bought from the slave market.
As for using servants as offerings, the nobles were unwilling to do so. This was because the servants of the nobility were skilled and trained in etiquette.
It would be absurd to sacrifice servants who had been cultivated with so many resources. They were not grand nobles with the power to influence duchies, and cultivating a qualified servant was also time-consuming.
The members of the Knight Order thought that investigating the slave market might indeed reveal something, so they agreed to the proposal.
In the following days, the Knight Order conducted a comprehensive investigation of the slave market in Dawn Town and indeed found some hidden clues.
However, these clues did not directly point to the nobles of Dawn Town.
The reason these clues, which dated back thirteen years, were unearthed was mainly because they were related to a “supernatural event.”
According to a worker at the slave market, thirteen years ago, many slave ships entered the nearby Dawn Harbor from the open sea, totaling about a dozen or so.
At that time, people from the slave market of Dawn Town went to acquire some high-quality slaves——slaves from overseas were generally more expensive than local ones, and there were also some humanoid slaves from overseas that could cater to the abnormal preferences of some nobles, making them even more expensive.
They did find quite a few desirable slaves, but they only acquired a very small number of them, as the majority were bought by another buyer.
This buyer was very peculiar; he was generous with his money, offering high prices for many slaves that were not considered valuable, which led the merchants of the slave ships to prefer selling to him over the slave market of Dawn Town.
The workers at the slave market were very frustrated by being outbid and paid extra attention to this buyer.
Then, they noticed something strange about the buyer’s selection criteria for slaves.
He was not interested in the slaves’ talents, beauty, or rare status, but rather… their body size and height.
The slaves he purchased were all within a certain height range; he did not want any that were too short or too tall, even if they were more valuable.
The worker who discovered this secret became more thoughtful and started to consider that their slave market also had many slaves within this height range, many of which were unsold. If they could sell to this person… it seemed like a good idea?
Eventually, through contact, the buyer was indeed willing to purchase.
In the process of trading, the staff further interacted with the other party, not sensing anything amiss at the time, merely attributing to the other party a peculiar fascination with height.
However, on one occasion, when a staff member delivered a slave to the temporary residence of the buyer, they discovered that all the slaves previously delivered had vanished without a trace. Despite not witnessing any departures, and certain that the disappearance of a large number of slaves would leave some clue, everything seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Moreover, this staff member also saw a strange symbol in the buyer’s home…
“A symbol?” Freud inquired, “What kind of symbol?”
Drew shook his head, “I don’t know, the staff member forgot.”
Freud’s brow furrowed, up to this point, the story recounted by Drew had not revealed any useful information, nor any clues to the so-called “supernatural aspects.” He wondered, what was the point of Drew telling this story?
As Freud pondered, Drew continued, “That symbol was peculiar, the reason the staff member forgot wasn’t due to his own volition, but because his memory was interfered with.”
“Oh?”
“According to the staff member, he felt that the symbol might hold some significance, perhaps a clue to the buyer’s identity, so he tried to memorize it forcefully, intending to investigate later.”
“However, the symbol itself wasn’t complex, but whenever he felt he had memorized it, and closed his eyes to recall, the memory of the symbol would completely disappear.”
“As if, the symbol possessed some mysterious power, making it impossible to be retained in one’s memory.”
Hearing Drew’s explanation, Freud felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity: a symbol that cannot be remembered, this seemed very similar to something else…
“Does he remember anything about the symbol?” Freud asked.
Drew thought for a moment, “Not exactly, according to him, he can remember the framework of the symbol, but not the symbols inside the framework.”
The framework? Freud’s eyes lit up, he quickly asked, “What does this framework look like?”
Drew replied, “A concentric circle, and it seemed to have a hexagon as well.”
Freud paused for a few seconds, then abruptly turned, “Do you have paper and pen?”
Drew nodded, somewhat puzzled, and took out a pen and a small notebook he carried with him.
The notebook was titled —Drew’s Notebook—, a compilation of Drew’s records and experiences with extraordinary powers, filled with countless tiny writings. However, Freud showed no interest in it, flipping directly to a blank page, and quickly sketched a symbol.
The symbol Freud drew had concentric circles on the outside, and within these circles, a standard ritualistic hexagon was depicted.
Freud asked, “Is the framework of the symbol like this?”
Drew looked at it and nodded, “Yes.”
Freud, upon hearing this answer, seemed to have realized something and let out a long sigh.
Drew, curious, asked, “Does Master Tyson recognize this symbol?”
Although it happened thirteen years ago, this symbol is related to extraordinary powers and is very likely connected to a mass sacrificial event, so Drew was also curious about the symbol. If Hurricane Tower was to send a formal wizard to investigate, he could provide relevant clues to his superiors.
Freud nodded, “I’ve seen a similar symbol, but I think this symbol is probably not related to the mass sacrificial event. That buyer, I guess, is also unrelated to the sacrifices made by the farm owner and others later on.”
“What makes Master Tyson say that?” Drew wondered, “Is it because the event happened too long ago?”
Freud shook his head, “No, this symbol, if nothing else, is related to the Qwest World. And the reason that staff member you mentioned couldn’t remember the symbol is because it contains a symbol lock from the Qwest World.”
Qwest World!
Although Drew was only an apprentice, having drifted in the Wizarding World for decades, he knew some things about the Qwest World.
It is the Realm of Souls!
It exists in a dimension that the material world cannot probe, ancient and ever-present.
Currently, in the Southern Region, only three immensely powerful soul families can enter or, to say, contact the Qwest World.
The farm owner’s sacrifice, and those elite sacrifices in Dawn Town, are just minor disturbances. Such primitive human sacrifices can at most contact a wild god from another world, and cannot reach the Qwest World, a dimension that exists since time immemorial.
By now, Drew understood why Freud was certain this matter was unrelated to the mass sacrifice, because the levels were too different.
“So, the buyer who owns that symbol, is he a wizard from those three soul families?” Drew guessed.
Freud did not respond, likely because Drew’s guess was incorrect.
This buyer bought a large number of slaves of similar stature, possessed a symbol of the Qwest World, and it happened over a decade ago… This is similar to the altar in the cave!
In that cave, there were three hundred and sixty small caverns, each with a skeleton sitting cross-legged, and each skeleton was of similar stature and height.
This is a ritual of sacrifice, which requires a strict standard. The height range is an important condition for the sacrifice.
And on the altar in the cave, there was also a symbol that couldn’t be remembered by memory alone. The outer frame of this symbol was also concentric circles and hexagons.
With so many coincidences, Freud could almost be certain that the clue discovered by the Knight Order this time was unrelated to the sacrifice on the farm owner’s side, but… was closely related to the sacrifice in the cave!
Freud’s eyes narrowed slightly: Unexpectedly, by A Twist of Fate, they actually stumbled upon the clue to the cave.
It’s worth noting that, in Freud’s view, the sacrifices made by the farm owner were negligible, whereas the sacrifices in the cave, especially those related to the Qwest World, were of greater significance.
While Freud was pondering, Drew was still lamenting: “However, it has been thirteen years since then. Even if the buyer was indeed from one of the soul families, they would probably have left by now.”
Freud casually replied: “Yes, so we can overlook this clue for now.”
Drew nodded: “I thought it was an important clue, alas… let it be.”
Freud: “The priority now is still the ghost of the farm owner.”
Freud deliberately steered the conversation back to the ghost of the farm owner, and Drew, oblivious, agreed, seeing the ghost as indeed more important than this elusive topic: “Indeed.”
“The ghost of the farm owner is now at the foot of the mountain, and Lady Eniya is also on her way… Do we need to make any preparations?” Drew asked, “Or, should we move Little Seim?”
Freud shook his head: “No matter where we move Little Seim to, the ghost of the farm owner will find him.”
Little Seim’s constitution meant he would always be “favored” by ghosts.
So, hiding was not an option; it was better to resolve it sooner rather than later.
“The fact that the farm owner’s ghost has not rashly come up the mountain is a bit strange. I suspect he might be a special kind of ghost,” Freud said.
“If it’s a special ghost, that could be troublesome,” Drew expressed concern. Ordinary ghosts were already difficult to deal with, and even Lady Eniya would find it hard to completely eradicate a ghost unless there were specific means to deal with them, which usually involved soul spells. Other types wanting to learn would have to cross-train…
Dealing with ordinary ghosts was hard enough, but if it were a special ghost, it would be even more challenging.
Freud, however, was unconcerned about this, as he had the Prelude of Reincarnation in his possession. Even if it were a special ghost, it would just be a matter of one or two shots.
What he cared about was, if the opponent was a special ghost, what kind of special ability might it possess?