"It's Deepness."
"……what?"
"One Aglaia is certainly not enough to quell the resentment, but if we can destroy or even capture the Sun-Defying King...what do you think will happen?"
The room fell silent, and Hitzfeld held his breath.
"You guys, are you using Nosa as bait?"
Sixus's voice contained a tone of suppressed extreme anger.
"Mad man! Bastard!!"
"boom!"
There was a loud bang.
"Smashing things won't solve anything..."
"Wow--"
It was like the noise of a basket of stainless steel knives and forks falling to the ground.
"Sixus, calm down—"
Villefort was advising.
"And Grest, your plan is too risky. Why do you think he will come?"
“Because it’s been 11 years.”
"Fat man let go!"
"boom!"
There was a loud bang and it hit the door panel directly, and Hitzfeld was frightened.
Seeing that the situation was not good, she quickly ran forward, opened the door of another room and hid inside.
Almost as soon as she entered and the door hadn't closed yet, the angry mixed-haired loli rushed out and stood in the aisle with her chest heaving.
"Grest."
She heard her suppressed curse.
"You better not let me catch you making any mistakes..."
"in addition."
There was a faint sound of gasping.
"A long time ago, I respected you very much."
“All, all…”
There were footsteps coming down the stairs, it seemed she had left.
Closing the door, Hitzfeld leaned into the darkness and breathed a sigh of relief.
Sure enough, her previous suspicion of Grace was not just neurosis on her part.
Charuni, also known as Charuni-Sara, Sara VII.
He is the supreme ruler of this land.
Did the royal family already know that cultists were behind the deadly football ticket case?
Could it be that Grest had known for a long time that there was something wrong with Aglaia?
Even Prince Tenize, would he be cooperating with them only at the instruction of the royal family?
Well...actually, Hitzfeld has an even more terrifying guess.
It's the royal family... The royal family may be deliberately using the Eclipse Church as a weapon to weaken the aristocratic alliance.
A prince disguised as a rebel...Infernal Affairs?
Sure enough, politics is a very complicated thing.
Not suitable for her.
Let’s think of something happy.
Sixus left so abruptly, which at least meant that Ferdinand was fine.
Hitzfeld was filled with emotion in the darkness.
Then I suddenly realized that I might be in big trouble.
Now that Doctor Sixus has left, there is no need for Grace and Villefort to stay.
If Ferdinand was really a bait... a pawn arranged to lure Deepnes out, then it goes without saying that the house would be surrounded by guards.
Then how will she escape later?
She was basically trapped!
Her heart was beating wildly in her chest, and after a while, she regained her composure.
The price is bound to be paid.
Instead of worrying about nothing, it is better to find ways to get more benefits.
She stood up and began to search the room in the dark.
I'm lucky because this is a study.
There are bookshelves on the four walls, except for the one with the door and the one with the window.
Then there is no doubt that her target - the code book is here.
Half an hour later, Hitzfeld's forehead was covered with sweat.
She didn't find it.
She felt that something must be wrong.
Not in Ferdinand's bedroom, she was sure of it.
This person must have a rigid and rigorous character. Wherever he lives, books will definitely be placed where they should be.
Then why isn't it on the bookshelf?
unless--
He turned quickly and took a step toward the center of the room.
The next moment, Hitzfeld's body stiffened, and he half-knelt down, covering his toes.
What she was looking for was lying on the ground.
It even had the cover flipped open, as if someone had been sitting on the floor trying to continue deciphering it.
But because of an accident, he had no choice but to leave it here.
Chapter 60: The Sphinx in the Gray Mist (Part 1)
The face of a beautiful woman represents temptation, and the body of a beast represents coercion. To some extent, the story of the Sphinx is the story of young people in reality who gradually grow up in society. If they cannot survive the test of society, a monster, and cannot stick to their original intentions and continue to overcome difficulties to seek... they will not be torn apart and eaten alive like the poor people in the myth. But judging from the perspective of life, they are no different from a slow death.
——《Interpreting the Fable: Oedipus Rex》
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Hitzfeld once saw a joke on the Internet: No matter whether it was Xiang Yu, Lu Bu or Lu Xiaojun, what would make them more uncomfortable than the enemy's iron fist must be the close contact between the little toe of any foot and the leg of the bed.
…She now fully understood what that felt like.
Even though it was just a tin book that made her curl up on the ground and tremble.
After recovering, Hitzfeld picked up the book and limped to the window.
The room is so dark, don't ask if the curtains are drawn.
It was Sunday, and Xi Yang was always there. So there was always some light. But she didn't dare to open the curtains directly, so she leaned against the wall near the window and began to operate with the light coming through the gap.
First of all--
She recalled what the blonde woman had said in the illusion.
[Unexpressed emotions never die. They are just buried alive to emerge in uglier ways in the future.]
Hitzfeld didn't know if she remembered it correctly, but she seemed to have heard similar philosophical sayings on Earth.
Could this thing really be the answer to the mystery?
Anyway, give it a try.
Ferdinand guessed there were ten levels based on the spacing between the wooden boards. Now that the first level had been solved and she had read the contents of the book, it was time to solve the second level.
If we assume that this sentence is the entire answer to the puzzle, then the ciphertext for the second level should be "eternal emotion".
Hitzfeld stared at the gears in the light, making sure the code formed the phrase.
With a "click" sound, it seemed as if a lock was opened.
It really can!
Her breathing suddenly became rapid.
But she did not wait to see the second level. Instead, she continued to decipher the puzzle. After trying many combinations, she entered short sentences such as "will not die", "buried alive", "an uglier way", "emerge again", etc., and finally cracked all levels 1-8.
Yes, levels 1-8.
This sentence was only enough for her to decipher up to this point. Theoretically, there were two more parts to the rest of the story, but she obviously had no idea what they were.
She decided to ignore them for now and finish reading the pages of levels 1-8.
First is the second level.
It was still three pages, a total of six sides. But this time it was not pictures, but a text she had never seen before.
This language is very similar to ancient Sarai, but there are some differences. Hitzfeld needs to understand each word one by one to understand the content of a paragraph, which makes her reading process very difficult.
After reading all six pages, she was a little dazed.
The content of the pages in the first level is already confusing, and the content of the second level is even more bizarre.
[I woke up from nightmares countless times, and the shadow still lingered in front of my eyes. I told everyone I could ask for help about my troubles and experiences, but no one was willing to believe me. I finally realized that all of us are its puppets. I once thought that it appeared in my nightmares to kill me, but this idea seems so ridiculous today. Because it is true that humans are like maggots to it. My personal death? Or the death of a large group of people? It doesn't matter to it at all.]
…She could understand its meaning, but what did it mean?
"what is it?
What does it mean that "the death of a large group of people is of no consequence to it"?
Hitzfeld frowned and analyzed, feeling that this thing was a bit like... She gave an example, not sure if it was appropriate: it was like something written by a patient in a mental hospital after forgetting to take his medicine on time.
Time, scene, characters... nothing at all.
Even if you write about your feelings, don't be so casual, brother?
If you can't find anything useful in your research, just keep turning to the next page.
The third level still had a similar record, but based on his sense of language, Hitzfeld believed that the narrator here was not the same person as the one in the second level.
[After four weeks of being in a daze, I realized that something might be wrong with my body. My mind seemed to be affected by something, so I did such a stupid thing in the company today...]
[How could I say such harsh words to Claude? Saying that he was a useless piece of shit... Even if I really thought so, I shouldn't have said it out loud.]
[Also, I stated at the meeting that all lanyards should be removed and those who violated the rules should pay a fine. This kind of thing... I know this can bring more revenue to the company, but is it me? ... When did I start to become like this? ]
"Lanyard?" Hitzfeld fell into thought.
A clothesline?
still is……
At this moment, she opened her right eye wide and saw that at the bottom of the wooden page - that is, in the empty space under the text paragraphs, delicate carvings were emerging.
She could have sworn there was nothing there before, and like magic, the carvings just appeared out of nowhere!
What it's going to show is... a factory?
The most striking thing in the carvings was undoubtedly the chimneys. They were located in the distance, constantly spewing smoke into the sky. The smoke and dust merged with the clouds, making Hitzfeld feel uncomfortable staring at them.
The content below the pattern made her even more uncomfortable: there were many alleys in the gaps between the factory warehouses. She saw rows of simple straw huts built in these alleys. A rope was hung on the outermost supporting pillar of the hut, connecting to the opposite side, and there were seven or eight people lying on each rope.
