Secrets: Priestess

Chapter 209 Intercommunication

A chilly light streamed through the window of the Oak Leaf Bar, which hadn't yet opened. Claire, draped in a black cloak, looked at Tessa, who had faint dark circles under her eyes. She prepared a cup of coffee, handed it to her, and asked in confusion, "Did you not sleep all night?"

Tessa yawned softly. "My dear Miss Viper. This trip, playing multiple roles simultaneously, is truly more tiring than ever. Alicia is busy with matters, and the Witch Cult has suddenly become active. I really want to get a dose of 'The Sleepless' from the church to refresh myself."

"Potions aren't energizing coffee." Claire chuckled, even though she was indeed relying on the gift of the Goddess of Night to play multiple roles at the same time.

Claire asked, "Did you get any new information last night?"

A faint halo invisible to others enveloped the small table in the bar. It was the secret power of the holy coffin that was taking effect.

Tessa took the coffee Claire had made for her, took a sip with satisfaction, and said, "Someone contacted Alicia. Can you guess who it is?"

Tessa looked like she wouldn't tell you unless you guessed.

Faced with Tessa's deliberate teasing with a little woman's appearance, Claire sighed helplessly. After acquiring the identity of Alicia, Tessa was certain that she had nowhere to hide, and her words and actions became more and more ambiguous and unscrupulous.

If she didn't have to sleep at night, Claire would have suspected that a dazzlingly white body would crawl into her bed when she woke up in the morning...

However, understanding Tessa's efforts and dedication to her work, Claire still followed Tessa's whims and guessed, "A secret organization? Or MI9?"

In Loen, the church forces backed by the true God would not get involved with Alicia, so Claire guessed that it might be a cultist or a supernatural organization of the Loen Kingdom.

Seeing Tessa smiling without saying anything, Claire knew that her guess was wrong, so she continued to guess, "The Loen nobles?"

Tessa didn't try to be difficult, simply treating this question-and-answer conversation as a way to satisfy her emotions. She nodded and asked, "Yes, then who exactly is it?"

"Royal family?"

After investigation to this point, the Loen royal family could not escape suspicion no matter what. However, Claire also knew that with the Loen royal family's deep involvement, they probably would not contact Alicia at this time. In fact, they might even know that the "Alicia" in the church was a fake.

This answer is more like ruling out an unlikely answer.

After Tessa shook her head again, Claire already had the answer in her heart.

The Negan family...

But Claire didn't answer. She smiled bitterly and sighed, "I can't guess who it is..."

"Pallas Negan!" Tessa's face showed a look of disgust and hatred. "What a disgusting old pervert."

The answer was not beyond Claire's expectations, but Tessa's attitude was something she hadn't expected. Claire raised her eyebrows when she heard this: "He invited Alicia late at night. Does he have any plans for Alicia?"

Tessa tapped her fingertips on the table in front of her, a hint of murderous intent and mockery in her eyes:

"Yes, he wanted Alicia to work for him and his family, and he didn't hide his desire to have a one-night stand with Alicia."

"Perhaps alcohol and sex were once his disguise... but before he knew it, he had become deeply involved in them, and alcohol and sex had already affected his way of thinking and his methods of doing things."

If one wants to paralyze others with bad habits, without a truly strong and selfless heart, he will inevitably become corrupt in the end.

The original intention of paralyzing others will only become an excuse to deceive oneself.

"I asked him to investigate the Capin case. Given the power of the Negan family in Loen, I'm sure there will be results soon."

The Negan family was the largest landed aristocracy outside of the king, even possessing deep roots in the military. Compared to the church's investigation, such a powerful aristocracy, with its numerous overlapping connections with the Augustan royal family, would likely be easier to uncover. Upon hearing that Tessa had deliberately brought the Negan family into the picture, Claire agreed with this approach of stirring up trouble. Sometimes, startling the fish in murky waters can better reveal the true intentions of the enemy behind the scenes.

At the same time, Claire was also a little worried:
"However, we can't judge the Negan family's attitude... Let's not talk about whether his drinking and sex life have affected Pallas Negan's abilities. While receiving support from the Church of the Storm, he dared to take the initiative to contact Alicia privately... This guy has great ambitions."

"Heh... A powerful noble in the Kingdom of Loen still harbors ambitions. What else does he want?"

Tessa shrugged. "Obviously, greater power and a longer lifespan. In hidden history, the Augustus royal family was once merely nobles of the Trunsost Empire."

The Trunsost Empire... This was the empire founded by Trunsost, the "Night Emperor" among the Four Emperors. After talking with His Excellency Saint Anthony, Claire was now certain that the Goddess of Night and several other true gods had supported this "Night Emperor."

And the "Night Emperor" was also once a god.

After hearing Tessa talk about the Four Emperors, Claire asked curiously, "Was Augustus once a noble of the Trunsost Empire? Do you know how he became the 'Night Emperor'?"

Tessa nodded and said, "The Arbitrator Path. The Augustus family, some nobles, and the military are also Beyonders of this Path."

"The Night Emperor fell, and the Trunsost Empire collapsed. However, Augustus, a former noble of the Trunsost Empire, established the Kingdom of Loen and possessed the path to the Night Emperor..."

Tessa's words made Claire once again feel the heavy shadow hidden behind history.

This is a world where extraordinary powers exist. Those people who pushed history forward hundreds or thousands of years ago may still be hiding somewhere in this world, and some events that happened in the world may have been driven by them.

Claire sighed softly and communicated her information to Tessa: "From the church... Saint Anthony suspects that someone in the Augustus royal family has worshiped an evil god. However, it's worth noting that Saint Anthony prayed to the goddess about this matter, but received no response."

"The Goddess of Night is unwilling to intervene?" Tessa couldn't analyze any information regarding matters involving the gods, so she simply said:

"As far as I know, in the current era, the gods reside in the astral realm and, for some reason, cannot descend directly into the mortal world. This also causes the church's actions to sometimes not represent the gods' will..."

"That's impossible..." Tessa joked, "The Goddess of Night is supporting Augustus, right?"

The goddess naturally would not support the other party, otherwise she would not have tacitly allowed her followers in the church to investigate these cases involving Augustus.

But... does the goddess' silence represent some kind of compromise?
Compromising with some evil god involved behind Augustus?

However, the Church of Darkness, a true church, has a strict attitude towards exterminating the Aurora Society of the True Creator, the Witch Cult of the Original Witch, and the Moss Ascetic Order of the Hidden Sage...

If the goddess is not afraid of so many evil gods who control a certain path, how can she compromise with a single evil god?

Claire thought about it and decided to put this doubt aside for the time being. Once she uncovered the mastermind behind the Capin case and found the evil god that corrupted Loen, she might know the truth behind it.

However... if you want to know about these events involving the gods, you still need to improve your sequence as soon as possible...

Although Claire possessed the Holy Coffin, the Emblem of Night and other demigod-related means, she was still far from being a demigod.

While investigating the case, we must not relax our search for the Scroll Professor's characteristics or potions...

The promotion ceremony for "astronomers" also requires ideas and preliminary preparations.

Claire planned her own future, then looked at Tessa and took the initiative to ask her a question, which was rare:

"The things we're involved in are becoming increasingly dangerous... Galadria and I are planning to remove the Low-Sequence members from this situation. What about you? Do you want to hide as well?"

(End of this chapter)