Secret: The years I served as a foreign aid for the Aurora Club

Chapter 218: Their respective experiences

464
The Kingdom of Loen, the capital of Eastchester County, Stoen City.

Sunny Sunday afternoon.

After leaving the manor and returning to the castle, Audrey entertained the noble children there and sent her servant to the Bavart Bank to withdraw some cash.

At this point, she no longer had to worry about anything, and could easily repay the 2000 pounds she owed to Mr. Fool's followers and pay Mr. World the 1800 pounds that came from her Psychologist trait.

A quarter of an hour later, Audrey opened the bedroom door, glanced at Anne, the personal maid who was supervising the servants' work not far away, and looked down at the big golden retriever squatting by the wall. She smiled, lowered her voice, and said with sparkling eyes:
"Susie, you will have a gift later. Are you looking forward to it?"

She had asked Susie before and knew that she had completely digested the potion by Wednesday of this week.

If it were the old Audrey, she would definitely say "Susie, your gift has arrived", which would allow the golden retriever to find out that she can get real objects in the room, and it would be easy for Susie, who has recently been studying the basics of mysticism, to guess that it was ritual magic.

With a different storyline, it would appear that Audrey received a mysterious letter/message in her bedroom confirming that the gift was about to be delivered, which leaves too many possibilities.

Susie read Audrey's heartfelt joy and sincerity, and subconsciously opened her mouth, vibrated the air, made a sound, and asked what the gift was, but she keenly noticed that Audrey's personal maid Anne was approaching, so she gave up her original idea.

She returned to the state of an ordinary dog, slowly wagging her tail to express her joy and anticipation.

After deliberately finding an excuse to go outside for a walk, Audrey entered the "chemical laboratory" specially allocated to her and placed the characteristics and auxiliary materials of the "psychologist" on the long table one by one.

"Susie, do you remember the process of mixing the potion last time?" She cleared her throat, straightened her back, and played the role of a teacher with interest.

"Woof, remember!" Susie already knew what her gift was. She was very happy and woofed loudly.

Audrey said casually:

"Try mixing it yourself."

Susie looked down at her paws and suddenly fell silent.

Audrey was stunned at first, then fell silent for a moment.

After a few seconds, before the golden retriever opened its mouth, she smiled and said, "Okay, Susie, don't say anything. I know what you want to say. You want to say that you are just a dog and can't mix potions, right?"

So embarrassing, so embarrassing...At the same time, Audrey, who looked elegant and dignified, covered her face in her heart.

"Woof!" Susie nodded vigorously.

Audrey seized the opportunity, turned around, and quickly prepared the "Psychologist" potion.

465
Ston, north urban area.

Amon, wearing the uniform of a city library employee, stood on the top floor of the library, which was closed on weekends, and adjusted the monocle on his right eye.

Today, he took off all the "non-Amon" decorations and extra items on his body, and only wore simple employee uniform, a white shirt, black trousers, and a blue and white tie. He tried to completely match the image of "Librarian Amon" in order to deceive the other party and confuse his self-perception.

Because he had taken over the other's identity, there existed a connection between them that only the other could vaguely sense.

Amon felt that "it" would make its last struggle today.

"If he was not Sequence 3 but Sequence 4, I would have dealt with him long ago."

"But Amon's memory doesn't contain many battles with opponents of the same or higher order... It seems I need to figure it out on my own."

One Amon deceived another Amon and took over the other's identity. This had never happened before in Amon's history, and Amon naturally could not find any reference memory.

Maybe this is why the Medici and the Outer Gods are not going to help me? They all want to see how I can solve this problem?

Amon frowned. In addition to the usual nervousness and uneasiness, he also felt a strange excitement.

He had an inexplicable feeling, as if these two people were waiting for a result to verify whether he was now a better Amon, and the current emergency was the best way to test him.

——Can you deceive yourself?

——If he succeeds, he will be an Amon who goes against common sense, a "mistake" among mistakes!
The northern part of Stoun is part of the Church of the Storm. It has a church, a strong team of "Substitute Punishers" and a demigod bishop. Amon confirmed that this bishop is a Sequence 4, who was transferred from Backlund several years ago and has retired in East Chester County. Amon has no impression of him - his name is Luermi, and he is actually a Storm Bishop known for his wisdom.

He is one sequence lower than me and can pose a certain threat, but as long as he is used properly, he should be able to help me.

It requires good planning.

Amon looked up at the weather. It was three o'clock in the afternoon and the sun was bright and warm. There was still some time before dark, and there was no sign of dark clouds gathering around. Lulmi probably hadn't noticed the unusual incident in his jurisdiction yet.

Amon lowered his head again and looked at the city below him.

It's the weekend and the weather is good, but there are not many people on the streets, which is unusual.

He clearly saw that many of the people walking back and forth looked more or less abnormal.

A man in a formal suit, who looked like a government employee, was walking on the street, carrying a basket of clothes in his hands, and walking in an awkward manner. From time to time, he would go to the doors of some nearby residents to collect clothes, as if he was a woman who made a living by washing clothes.

A middle-aged woman in simple clothes sat in a coffee shop, squinting her eyes and looking carefully at a pile of information, writing and drawing on it from time to time, with a cup of coffee at her hand, just like a hard-working student you can see everywhere.

They walked and lived normally, and no one noticed anything wrong.

Occasionally there are a few whose identities and appearances match, but it is impossible to confirm whether they really match.

"That 'colleague' came to me yesterday and mentioned that the Hall family was temporarily recruiting people from the library. Was it a hint or a normal coincidence?"

Amon thought independently, but he couldn't make up his mind, so he took out a coin and tossed it up.

Catch it, reverse side up.

Amon nodded slightly. "It should be a coincidence indeed. Although it knows my location, it certainly doesn't dare to give me the address directly to duel with me. Choosing to hide and take a roundabout way is the normal development... No, how do I know if it deliberately gave me a hint to make me waste a week in Hall Castle so that it could escape?"

He tried hard to make a guess, but Amont's fear of death still made him undecided.

Divination? But not everyone has the powerful divination blessing of Sefirah Castle. God knows how much influence will be applied during the divination process. In the end, if three or four out of ten times are correct, it will be considered a success.

The thief is not good at divination, and the target of divination is his present self, so how can it be accurate?

Amon...what would other Amons do? Unless it was absolutely necessary, Amon would not put himself in a "stalemate" situation. If he found that he had no advantage, he would retreat. There were no words like "gamble" or "fight" in Amon's dictionary.

It's just a physiological way of self-preservation.

Amon pondered and slowly sat down on the raised platform on the edge of the roof, with his feet dangling in the air.

"In fact, I don't have to fight it head-on. It would be better if the church found and dealt with it. Isn't this what I have been looking forward to all along?"

"But it seems that it is no longer possible now. The Outer Gods are waiting to see my solution. This is a 'trial'..."

At this moment, Amon's pupils suddenly shrank. He saw a person below suddenly raised his head and gave him a sinister smile.

Blonde hair, wearing a mask and glasses... the same outfit as the thief who broke into the house before!

It leads me down!
To play or not to play, that is the question. Amon always avoids facing these choices, because they can only welcome victory, or at worst a draw, but not failure or even death.

"Go down."

Amon stood up, turned back to the stairs, and walked down one floor at a time in the city library.

When he reached the door at the bottom of the stairs, he cautiously poked his head out from behind the corner. There was no one where the thief had just stood. He flashed behind the bookshelf and looked around cautiously again. After confirming that there was indeed no one around, he walked out bravely.

The streets outside were also very quiet, with no noisy sounds.

The only thing wrong is that it is too quiet here. The northern part of the city is where the boarding schools, libraries and parks are located. Every weekend, students would come out for a walk or to buy daily necessities, and the flow of people should be very large. But now, except for a few crooked people with abnormal identities, there is no sign of students on the road.

Are they all dead?

That shouldn't be the case. Even if it wants to steal lives, it doesn't need to steal so many. One person's is enough... and it is now equivalent to an extraordinary item, how could it need lives?
As Amon avoided the pedestrians with confusing identities, the figure of the thief suddenly appeared in the corner of his eye.

The other person was standing on the second floor of an apartment building, looking down at him from behind the glass window.

This was a blatant temptation, but the only thing he didn't understand was why it wanted to lure him over. Could it have found a way to regain its identity? Was it confident enough to deal with him?
impossible!

Unless when I open the door, Lu Ermi is standing in the room...

Amon hesitated for a moment, but chose to move closer to the apartment building.

But he did not choose to go in directly. Instead, he climbed up to the roof of the next building along the path next to him in the blind spot. He saw that the thief was still standing by the window with his back to him. Amon frowned, feeling something was wrong.

“I’m afraid this is a fraud.”

"I can feel that my extraordinary ability has been suppressed, and now that I have its identity, defrauding it is equivalent to defrauding myself."

The doors and windows of the room were all shut, and there was no one else in the room except the thief.

"Maybe the house is full of gas and it will explode when I open the door. The explosion will affect many houses around it, which will attract the police or the church. That's the purpose."

He looked at the white spire of the Tidal Church a few hundred meters away and hesitated again.

This time's hesitation made him a little annoyed, because he felt that the other party seemed to have taken advantage of the Amon group's inherent vacillating character, and would not take the initiative to move forward even if clues appeared in front of them, thus delaying a lot of time in vain.

This can’t happen anymore.

Amon decided to go around from another direction and take a look. He approached the window from the roof and came to the side of the thief.

moment.

Amon reached the roof of another building, but as soon as he approached, he blocked the direct sunlight, and the house in front of him suddenly became gloomy and dim, presenting an uneasy atmosphere.

The spiritual perception gave no warning, and he didn't take it seriously at first.

But when he walked towards the counter, his steps suddenly stopped.

At this moment, he suddenly felt some reaction in his spiritual perception, and a strange feeling emerged in his heart -

At least five minutes had passed since he discovered the thief.

But the thief's stance...seems to have not changed at all.

The tightly closed windows blocked out the unwanted smell. Amon hid behind the wall, took out a mirror, observed the thief's face in the reflection, and activated his clairvoyance.

In the spiritual vision, there was no spiritual glow in that house, and the furniture and the people by the window were all lifeless colors.

There were strange marks on the side of the thief's face, and he stood stiffly and motionlessly. Only then did he realize that the person standing by the window was no longer a person, but a dead body.

This person was still alive just now, but now he looks like he has been dead for several days. Could it be that it took advantage of the thief's life while he was still alive to deceive him into thinking he was a corpse that had been dead for several days?
"He was replaced with a dead person, so he became a dead person too?"

"The real one has already run away. I should have chased after it just now."

Amon was a little annoyed.

At this moment, the thief's corpse's hand suddenly twitched strangely. The doors and windows were closed, so it was impossible for the wind to blow his sleeves.

"cha"

A match burned in the corpse's hand, and the house suddenly exploded with a huge explosion.

The explosion blew off the roof, frightened the pedestrians around and made them scream, and also blew the body beyond recognition. Limbs and internal organs were scattered everywhere, and a strong odor and the smell of gas burst out.

Amon cheated space and distance repeatedly, and instantly ran several hundred meters away, ready to look for other clues.

But just as he was about to move forward, the number of people with mixed identities around him increased unnoticed. The students who had disappeared before seemed to come out from every corner, wandering around him in disorder, strolling around the street leisurely and easily like every weekend in the past, filling up the street in front of Amon.

Amon looked around and immediately chose to parasitize the dozens of people in front of him, but these dozens of people were just a drop in the bucket for the residents of the entire northern urban area. He was still squeezed in the middle by countless people, and it was of no avail even if he continued to expand the scope of parasitism.

Of course, he could parasite this entire city and turn all the residents of Stoen into himself, but this would not allow him to catch it. Instead, it would attract the pursuit of the three churches and force him to give up this identity.

Then all his efforts would be in vain.

There were many cleaners, clerks, and people who looked like students standing in front of him, lined up in a row, three or four layers high, like a human wall, completely blocking his way.

"It's blocking me? It's indeed in front, but it's some distance away from here."

A place name suddenly flashed in Amon's mind:
"It really hid in the castle of the Hall family? So last night was not a coincidence, but a deliberate smokescreen to make me think it was deceiving me?"

But at this time, the number of people around him continued to increase, and it seemed that all the people in the surrounding residences had come out, crowding the streets tightly and blocking him from walking in any direction.

"What if this is another fraud? I get to Hall Castle and it's not there?"

"And is it too late for me to go now? What exactly does it want to do?"

Amon was completely undecided.

……

On a warm sunny afternoon, Audrey was sitting in her bedroom, painting in a relaxed mood.

Although the castle has been renovated, this ancient building is not suitable for too many modifications. Gas pipes and new equipment will damage the original interior decoration. Therefore, candles are needed in the castle after dark.

Although life in the family castle was not as comfortable as in Backlund, the environment in the suburbs of Eastchester County was far better than in the city of Backlund. Audrey also had the opportunity to ride a horse for the first time in a long time, and enjoy the warm sunshine and fresh air that did not exist in Backlund.

Overall, life in the next few months is worth enjoying slowly.

The big golden retriever was lying on the brand new cushion beside him, with a pair of decorative gold-rimmed glasses hanging around his neck.

It tilted its head and watched Audrey paint on the canvas, reading its owner's mood from the overlapping colors.

At this moment, there was a knock at the bedroom door. The maid knocked on the door, then opened it and bowed to Audrey:
"Miss, your afternoon tea is ready."

Audrey turned her head and said with a smile, "Okay, please put it on the balcony for me. I want to drink tea there."

"Ok."

After the maid left, Audrey began to pack up the paints and canvas and change her robe.

Audrey tilted her head casually and saw Susie also tilting her head and looking at her, as if she had something to say.

"Susie, what's wrong with you?" Audrey also felt a little strange and asked in a low voice, "Afternoon tea has your favorite snacks, and you are always the most enthusiastic."

The big golden retriever stood up, walked around Audrey twice, then walked to the door and sniffed the place where the maid had been.

Susie came running over, looked up, and asked in confusion:

"Maid, should it be a female?"

Audrey nodded: "Of course."

"That maid just now... was a little strange..." Susie said, "She was over 1.7 meters tall, wearing a men's windbreaker, and there were footprints of leather shoes at the door. Why do we all think she was a maid?"

Audrey's face changed slightly, and she quickly lifted her skirt and moved closer to the door.

A striking gray footprint was left behind the door and extended into the distance.

"She...she is obviously a maid, the snack maid of the Hall family. I still remember her name. Her name is Tina."

Audrey looked at the footprint and her expression changed. She tried her best to recall the scene just now - Tina invited her to have afternoon tea. This was a very normal situation, which happened every afternoon! There was nothing strange just now!

What about these footprints? A man?
A man becomes a "maid" in their perception?
Audrey and Susie looked at each other.

"I still think that what happened just now was normal, but how could Tina appear in the castle wearing men's clothes and leather shoes?"

Susie nodded: "Woof."

"The castle has been affected by an unknown extraordinary force!" Audrey noticed immediately, "I have to tell my parents right away."

The Hall family is protected by extraordinary people, so the Earl and Countess should be relatively safe.

Audrey hurried to her parents' study, adjusted her smile and demeanor, knocked on the door, and saw her father sitting next to a bookshelf filled with sunlight, while her mother was playing the piano gracefully.

Audrey breathed a sigh of relief, walked up with a smile on her face, hugged the Countess's arm and said:
"May I invite this beautiful lady to my afternoon tea?"

The beautiful Lady Caitlin smiled and gently stroked Audrey's hair:

"Sorry, my dear little angel, I have to wait here until your father finishes reading this. You know he can't stop once he starts working."

"Okay, Mom, I hope I'll have that chance tomorrow."

Audrey showed a somewhat disappointed expression, took a quick look at Mrs. Caitlin's clothes, and then left the study.

Susie was waiting for her outside the door.

They turned a corner as if nothing had happened, and Audrey breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile:

"My parents are fine, nothing happened."

"Mom's hair just reaches her shoulders..."

Audrey's expression suddenly changed.

"Mom...why is your hair short?"

She quickly looked at Susie, who had not seen Mrs. Caitlin just now: "Susie, do you remember what your mother looks like?"

Susie immediately comforted her: "Audrey, calm down, I remember your mother had blond hair and blue eyes, and her hair was longer than her shoulders."

"But now, I think my mother has short brown hair that reaches her shoulders."

Audrey slowly grasped the corner of her clothes, her tone a little anxious: "Susie, am I still me?"

TBC
------

It is very regrettable that the original work was "fraudulently" stolen by the thief.

What does Antignus's suicide have to do with me, Crane? What does your deceiving Crane have to do with me, Antignus?

(End of this chapter)