Lanqi glanced at the sky outside the rose window.
It was about time to bring today's conversation to an end. Since his objective had been achieved, lingering here too long in conference with Headmaster Violet might arouse suspicion.
"Also, Headmaster Violet, can you cast divine arts similar to the [Heart-Cleansing Divine Incantation]?"
Before leaving with the cat in his arms, Lanqi posed one final question to Violet.
Priests of the caliber of the Ice Snow Witch and Loren could master the status-cleansing divine art [Heart-Cleansing Divine Incantation], which stood as the supreme divine art for dispelling mental afflictions, curses, illusions, and similar negative conditions.
Yet, in the end, it was only a tier-8 spell.
Rasheal's authority, [Blood Mind Control], was a tier-9 authority that transcended the mortal realm.
If the opponent was a tier-8 War God, it would not be easy to have a curse-dispelling spell hit cleanly and take full effect.
Furthermore, if it were an even higher-tier negative mental state, the Ice Snow Witch's divine art could not dispel it either; it could only expose the affliction.
Unless there was a more targeted curse-removal art—such as one wielded by a high priest of the Moon Goddess—there might be no way to break it.
This was why the Ice Snow Witch believed the probability of the Sixth War God, Violet of the Aquamarine, being controlled was extremely low. As the High Priestess of the Moon Goddess, Violet was very likely immune to mind control magic altogether.
Naturally, another prerequisite for being controlled by [Blood Mind Control] was possessing Mind Laceration. If someone's heart was completely flawless, Rasheal's authority would not work on them. But for people who clearly bore psychological wounds, like the Ninth War God Marquis Ryan, there was virtually no way to counter Rasheal.
"I can, though if I were to truly use the barrier divine art of the Elsayer Sanctuary, [Flawless Pure Land of the Moon Goddess], to dispel tier-9 mind control, it would still be quite difficult," Violet confirmed after thinking for a moment. "First, the caster must be weakened to a certain degree to drastically reduce his mental power. In addition, I would need to locate the caster—the source of mental pollution—in person. Only then might I briefly disrupt his mental magical interference over other living beings through purification."
Though difficult, counteraction was not impossible for her.
"Since there is a way to counter it, I am relieved. With you watching our rear, our chances of victory are greatly increased."
Lanqi thanked Violet once more, bidding her farewell inside the headmaster's office.
With Violet providing backup and interception, Lanqi no longer needed to worry and could focus all his efforts on destroying Blood Moon City.
As long as the vampires' stronghold was blasted out of existence, the Blood Clan would no longer possess a sanctuary to scrape by in the shadows of eternity.
...
Winter nights in Creti arrived early.
After two or three hours, it was deep in the night.
The sky took on a coat of pitch-black ink, hung with starry sand and a pale moon.
After concluding his private conversation with Headmaster Violet, Lanqi left her office.
Sure enough, Secretary Naila was still waiting outside the door.
At this hour, there were no longer any campus shuttles. Professor Landry would have had to walk back alone while carrying a large cat, so Naila had already arranged to drive him back.
Guided by Secretary Naila, they left the corridors of the Chief Hall together.
After a brief wait while Naila brought the silver magic-engineering vehicle onto the road, Lanqi climbed inside.
With a faint hum, the vehicle drove away from Saint Creti Monastery's magnificent Chief Hall, heading toward the monastery's residential district.
"Did your meeting with the Headmaster go smoothly, Professor Landry?" Secretary Naila asked as her car carried Lanqi away from the Chief Hall grounds.
"Very well. Headmaster Violet is a wonderful person," Lanqi replied, looking out the window at the monastery's night view.
"Of course she is. Which is why Julius, who snapped at Headmaster Violet tonight, is utterly unforgivable. He will definitely regret it."
Naila spoke with an intense grudge, her tone even fiercer than Violet's own.
Lanqi chuckled at her words.
Whether she liked or disliked someone, she was always completely upfront about it, never leaving anyone guessing.
Then silence settled inside the car for a while.
Lanqi stroked the large grey cat in his arms idly.
"Miss Naila, would you mind coming to my house with me in a bit?" Lanqi finally spoke up, looking toward Secretary Naila, who was focused on driving in the front row.
He felt it was necessary to confirm whether she was truly a member of the Silver Moon Restoration Society.
If a person was connected to both Imperial Princess Alexia and Headmaster Violet, he already had a few candidates in mind.
Secretary Naila was undoubtedly the most suspect.
"Please, Professor Landry, I don't want to become the new fiancée in the rumors about you," Naila answered, breezy and nonchalant.
"No, no, that's not what I mean," Lanqi said, holding his head.
A rumor takes one mouth to spread, but refuting it takes running till your legs break.
He felt tongue-tied now.
Matters regarding the Silver Moon Restoration Society could never be brought out into the open, yet this was an immensely crucial affair that could only be discussed in private.
"Meow."
Cat Talia looked at Lanqi speechlessly.
*Serves you right for causing trouble, meow.*
All the bad karma Lanqi had accumulated in the past was now coming back to bite him.
Back then, Lanqi hadn't actually started the rumors about Loren—to this day, Lanqi didn't know who in Ikerite Academy had been spreading them.
It was just that the bet with Miss Juliana he later arranged for Dean Loren, combined with a few ensuing farces, had inadvertently seemed to confirm some of the rumors. Reality and gossip had collided head-on, ultimately culminating in the incident on the final day of the academy exchange visit, where Loren sat at the referee's stand during the team combat event, weeping into his hands.
Talia remembered that day vividly; she had sensed something amiss halfway through and fled.
It was only after Hyperion returned home that she learned the full extent of the tragedy at Ikerite Academy that day.
"Don't worry, Professor Landry. They wouldn't dare make fun of me," Secretary Naila chuckled twice, dropping the teasing. "After all, when Headmaster Violet is away, I'm practically the acting headmaster. I hold most of the monastery's administrative authority, so I can put anyone firmly in their place."
"Besides, we meet so frequently for work anyway. If rumors were going to spread, they would have started long ago," she told Lanqi, her tone carrying a clear hint that she had just been teasing him on purpose.
"..."
This only made Lanqi even less certain of what she was thinking.
Naila took a portable soundproofing barrier magic-engineering device from her coat pocket and deployed a miniature barrier, isolating all sound within the cabin as if she had prepared for this all along.
"Ask whatever you want, Professor Landry. Now, only you and I can hear what is said in this car," Naila said without turning her head.
"I need to ask you a few questions first."
Lanqi pondered for a moment. Although he already considered Naila a friend, he still had to be cautious regarding matters of this gravity.
"Ask away," Naila replied briskly.
"Miss Naila, you haven't had any private contact with people from the Allied Forces, have you?" Lanqi asked with a much graver expression.
"Of course not."
Naila wasn't offended and answered naturally.
"..."
The cat in Lanqi's arms made no movement at all, lying peacefully as he stroked her.
"Pardon the rudeness, but Miss Naila, can you guarantee that you are loyal to the Empire?" Lanqi continued.
"Of course," Naila nodded without hesitation. "And what about you?" she asked back.
"I am as well."
Lanqi stared at Naila in the front seat for a moment and likewise nodded.
"You wouldn't happen to have any ties to the Silver Moon Restoration Society, would you?"
Lanqi posed the final question to test Naila.
The first two questions had all but proven that Naila's stance was trustworthy; all that remained was this final inquiry.
"With such pointed questions, Professor Landry, could you be testing me for lies?"
From the driver's seat, Secretary Naila's azure eye beside her mechanical eyepatch looked straight at the road ahead as she addressed Lanqi.
"..."
Lanqi lowered his head in slight embarrassment.
Secretary Naila's sharp remark had pierced right through his lie detection attempt.
Presenting three rapid questions without any preamble had indeed tipped off someone as perceptive and clever as Naila.
Though he could have asked more tactfully, things had reached a point where he didn't want to waste time or play mind games with a friend.
"Still, since you're asking this, you must have guessed something as well. Are you Number Seven?"
Naila decided not to tease Lanqi any further, turning her head slightly to ask.
"As expected."
Lanqi and the grey cat in his arms both lifted their heads, staring at Naila.
Her asking this meant she was indeed an ally!
She might have even played dumb just now on purpose to mess with Lanqi.
"That day, Her Highness the Imperial Princess asked me to cover the new member at the train station if I had the spare capacity. I happened to be going to pick up the incoming professor anyway. When I saw Nikolai eyeing you back then, I strongly suspected you were the newly arrived Number Seven."
As Secretary Naila spoke, after shifting gears, she lowered her hand to reveal a communication magic card radiating a soft pink glow, holding it up briefly for Lanqi to see.
[Ultra-Long-Range Communication Program-8]
[Type: Spell Card]
[Rarity: Pink Sacred]
[Attribute: Link]
[Tier: 6]
[Effect: Compared to ordinary ultra-long-range communication magic, it possesses greater range and stronger resistance to interference.]
[Note: The purity of the Empire shields man's soul from the stain of sin.]
"That's why I tested you when we were alone in the Chief Hall's banquet room this afternoon, deliberately mentioning that I knew the Princess to see if you would react. But you hid it completely—not even a change in expression, nor did you probe further into the topic. Fortunately, you've taken the initiative to lay your cards on the table now," Secretary Naila continued.
"So the reason you were so harsh with Nikolai that day was mainly to divert his attention away from me?" Lanqi asked with sudden realization.
Looking back now on many things that had happened, almost all had cause and effect.
The day Landry arrived in Brillda, Alexia had asked Nikolai to help the new member and had also requested Naila's assistance.
Unfortunately, Naila and Nikolai hadn't known that each other was there to bail him out, and both had played their official roles to perfection.
"No, I just purely despise purebred Imperial running dogs like that. Unlike a mongrel like you, he's the real deal," Secretary Naila glanced at Lanqi through the rearview mirror and said with distaste.
"Uh..."
Lanqi was left speechless.
The people Imperial Princess Alexia recruited were truly extraordinary.
"Do you know the identities of Number Four and Number Nine?" Lanqi asked nervously, resting one hand on the back of the front seat.
"Her Highness only ever told me to treat Number Four as if he didn't exist. His agreement with her is that he won't provide real-time assistance to the Silver Moon Restoration Society; he will only appear in an irreversible, desperate crisis," Naila recalled with a frown. "As for Number Nine, he is both the most trustworthy and the most untrustworthy person. Even the Princess felt that giving him a Sacred communication magic card was a gamble. On the contrary, Number Six, whom you didn't ask about, is regarded by Her Highness as supremely reliable."
Naila spoke in a low, slightly apologetic voice.
In reality, Alexia had never revealed the identities of the others to her either; the guidelines set when the organization was established were consistently observed.
"No wonder when Number Three asked for my research materials last time, Number Four just acted like he was chatting and had no intention of intervening," Lanqi analyzed, cupping his chin.
So he was staying out of it entirely.
Number Four, who had originally been recruited by the Princess, was more like an external associate who didn't want to get involved. But the fact that the Princess gave him Card Number Four proved how crucial he was in her eyes for countering the Blood Clan.
As for Number Nine, he was even more of an enigma.
The Princess didn't seem to fully trust him either, yet for certain reasons she knew him and instinctively wanted to believe in him. In the end, she had taken the risk and given Card Number Nine to him to improve their odds against the vampires.
"I'm sorry. Even though you found me, I haven't been able to give you much substantial help," Naila apologized to Lanqi.
"Not at all. You've been helping me all along, Miss Naila," Lanqi waved his hand hurriedly.
Tonight, just securing Violet's promise and successfully locating the missing Number Eight was already a massive harvest. If he could glean even a little information about the remaining members from Number Eight, today's overtime would be extraordinarily fruitful.
His current gains had already far exceeded his expectations.
"Would you like to come with me to meet the other members?" Lanqi asked Secretary Naila.
"I'd rather not. The help I can offer you all is limited; it's best if I don't know too much for now," Naila shook her head, focusing on the late-night roads of Saint Creti Monastery. "I'm so weak, and knowing too much intelligence might end up hurting you. All I can do is provide cover for you here at Saint Creti Monastery, do my best to keep irrelevant people away from your residence, and provide logistics support whenever needed. Just think of me as an innkeeper."
She had a very clear understanding of her role. The Princess had approached her initially because of her interpersonal connections and administrative capabilities within Saint Creti Monastery.
"All right," Lanqi didn't press further.
Before long, the vehicle slowed to a stop on the street beside a familiar courtyard.
What came into view was Professor Landry's two-story residence. Its creamy white walls cast a soft glow under the monastery's streetlamps, and its azure tiled roof and dark brown window frames gave it the look of decades of architectural history.
"If you need help going forward, you can contact me at any time using your communication magic-engineering device," Secretary Naila said, offering her customary bow.
"When the celebration banquet comes, you must come," Lanqi waved to Naila.
"Definitely. I'm also curious about who else I'll meet at the celebration banquet," Naila replied affirmatively, a slight smile showing.
She couldn't guess the identities of these online friends; the only ones she could confirm for now were Professor Landry and Imperial Princess Alexia.
She, too, looked forward to seeing who would be there.
"Goodbye then."
The two parted ways.
Lanqi watched as Secretary Naila's car disappeared into the night.
She had provided him with guidance and information when he was new to Brillda, serving as his first companion in the city, quietly helping him all along.
Carrying the large grey cat, Lanqi turned and walked into the courtyard.
He felt little of the tension typical of a spy.
His days since arriving in the Creti Empire had been far better than those in the Northern Continent.
After an exhausting day, nothing was more important right now than getting proper rest. The Creti National Day Festival, which could change and decide everything, was just around the corner—it felt as if it were tomorrow.
He looked up at the residence.
His journey in the Creti Empire thus far—the long stretches of work and toil—had come to a successful close.
Yet a new undertaking, his final battle, was about to begin.
Chapter 835