Goddess Kaleidoscope

"Don't be afraid, Master Lu De sent us to save you."

Upon hearing that the "green-headed monster" had been sent by Lud to rescue him, Trilling was so moved that he almost burst into tears.

When he fell into such a predicament, his family abandoned him, and his half-brothers were so cruel as to want to kill him. Only Master Lu De was a truly benevolent person who extended a helping hand to him time and time again when he was in danger.

The three sisters volunteered to rescue Trin, temporarily taking on the role of operators. Besides wanting to impress Rudd, they also wanted an opportunity to test their newly developed gadgets in real combat. These gadgets were created by Rudd providing the "ideas," with the three sisters contributing their labor and technology, using dwarven skills and magic to replicate these "Earth gadgets" in this world!

Seeing that the "hostage" had been found, Lachesis, the youngest and strongest of the three sisters, immediately put down her large shield and stepped out from behind it.

Only then did Trin realize that the other party was actually a little girl who was 1.2 meters tall, wearing a light pink bubble dress and cute black leather shoes, but wearing an enormous metal helmet on her head, just like a player who only cared about stacking stats and didn't care about the appearance of the equipment!

Trin watched as the other person approached his cell door, stretched out a slender, white hand, grasped the iron bars, and then gently yanked the entire gate off, as if it were made of straw. Trin was dumbfounded.

"Ah, this..."

"What are you standing there for! Get up and come with us."

"oh oh!"

Urged on by Lachesis, Trinn, despite his injuries, stumbled to his feet and followed the three sisters as they fled the dungeon that had tormented him so deeply. Not long after their escape, Ron arrived with the guards to find the dungeon in ruins and the two guards unconscious from the explosion.

The unexpected discoveries—piles of contraband goods, a makeshift dungeon—all pointed to a serious problem for Ados: the Black Mandala Trading Company. Without hesitation, he ordered the company shut down and all its staff, including Dorn, arrested.

Dorn never expected that the knights under the baron's command would be so arrogant and unreasonable, completely disregarding them.

"Knight, don't blame me for not warning you, you've gotten yourself into big trouble. That lord won't let you off the hook! Even your baron master will suffer!"

"You talk too much nonsense! You don't even dare to say your own name, Spicy Lord, in front of me. Who are you trying to scare?"

"you……"

Take them all away!

Soon, news of the Black Mandolin Chamber of Commerce's headquarters being shut down spread throughout Pine Tree Town. However, this incident did not cause much of a stir. The locals had seen many "big scenes" over the past few years, and the trivial matter of a few unscrupulous merchants smuggling contraband was simply too boring to mention.

At the temple, Trin was taken directly to the underground hall by the three sisters. The Black Mandolin Guild wasn't the only one that had left backdoors in the town's sewers.

As soon as Trin saw Lud, he immediately knelt down at Lud's feet, hugged Lud's leg, and burst into tears.

"Master! I was wrong! I shouldn't have ignored your words. My brother is a beast! He even used a red-hot iron rod!!!"

"..."xN

Trin tearfully recounted the atrocities he had suffered to Lud, who comforted him while trying to remove his snot- and tear-stained face from his newly changed trousers.

"Calm down, Terin. You're safe now. This is my territory. No one can hurt you."

"Really?"

"Really, get up first."

With a silent heal, Ludr healed the injuries inflicted by torture on Trinn. To allow himself a few more days of fun, Dorn had actually asked for leniency last night, the torture methods used generally being more humiliating than harmful.

As for the "red-hot iron rod" that left a psychological impact on Terlin, it was only used to scare him and was not actually inserted.

His wounds healed instantly, and Trinn knelt before Lud once more, full of gratitude. By this time, he was completely disappointed with the Navarro family because of Dorn's atrocities, and he even suspected that his father was behind it.

Lud helped Trin to his feet and had Hydra take him down to rest. Lud had witnessed Trin's entire ordeal the previous night, hoping that this ordeal would change Trin's mind, and the result was exactly as he had hoped.

It's important to know that Trin's current body belongs to the necromancer Dick. Lude hopes to train Trin and turn him into a spy who can be used by him, impersonating the necromancer to work for him in Flamewood City.

Lude initially wanted to go himself, but firstly, he was too busy, and secondly, the disguise required the artifact mask, "Hume's Smile." Although the fake God of Thieves was not the real Hume, she was not a fake but a "substitute," and therefore essentially belonged to the same origin as the God of Thieves. Once the mask entered the territory of Flamewood City, it was very likely to be detected by her.

Therefore, Trin, who possesses the true physical body of a necromancer, becomes exceptionally valuable in this situation.

End of this chapter

After the Black Mandolin Chamber of Commerce was shut down, most of its employees were detained on the spot by the guards who came to reinforce them, while Dorn and several key personnel were taken back to the guard post in Pinetown and locked in "deluxe single rooms" in the detention center.

Squatting in his small single cell, which was less than 2.5 square meters in total area, Dorn calmly considered his options. Even at this point, he still believed that "there shouldn't be any major problems."

Dorne left his hometown at the age of fifteen to participate in the family business. Over the years, he has traveled all over the country and visited many fiefdoms within the kingdom. He has seen all kinds of lords, and this is not the first time he has been arrested like this.

The so-called seizure of contraband is just a pretext. In most cases, it's just that the local tyrants are short of money and want to take advantage of these out-of-town merchants, using any plausible excuse to extort them!

The only thing that made Dorn slightly uneasy was the explosions that almost everyone heard during the negotiations with Ados at the trading post.

He vaguely guessed that something must have happened in the dungeon, but unfortunately, Athos's sword was at his neck at the time, and then he was "sent" here by two burly guards not long after. So, Dorn was also full of questions and had no idea what had happened.

As for the confidential documents and correspondence in his study, these truly crucial items were all locked in a specially made safe, hidden in a secret compartment behind the bookshelf, requiring a special key and combination to open. Forcibly cracking the code or entering the wrong combination three times consecutively would trigger the safe's self-destruct mechanism, burning the documents inside to ashes.

There were two keys to the safe, one for him and one for his most trusted steward, while the combination was known only to Don.

However, Dorn never dreamed that his trading post had been infiltrated by a "mole," and that his every move these past few days had been under constant, all-encompassing surveillance. Not long after the three sisters rescued Trin, Shanes used "Hume's Smile" to disguise herself and infiltrate the trading post, stealing the confidential documents Dorn had hidden in the safe.

Even before Elaine and Lacey were on surveillance, they had already discovered Dorn's secret safe. They not only stole the password using their dream-entry abilities, but also swapped the safe's spare key with the steward's.

Therefore, while Don was squatting in the detention center, thinking he was in a safe position, his documents were already on Ludd's desk for him to browse at will.

"This Dorn has some ideas!"

While flipping through the documents with great interest, Ludwig noticed a very intriguing detail: many of the letters he had hidden in the safe explicitly instructed that they be "burned after reading," but instead of destroying them, Donn secretly kept them and even "thoughtfully" wrote the date and location of receipt on the back of each letter.

Clearly, Don was not entirely loyal to the Navarro family; the fact that he kept these letters shows that he was wary of his own family.

The earliest of these thirty-odd letters dates back three years and was sent from the capital, while the most recent one was sent just this morning. The contents of the letter caught Lud's attention because it mentioned Olivia, a blonde, blue-eyed girl of about thirteen or fourteen years old. She looked exactly like the problem child who lived in his house. In addition, these guys had ulterior motives regarding his divine medicine formula!

"Luckily, I was quick-witted and struck first!"

After roughly reading through the letters and documents in his hand, Lude basically concluded that this Dorn should not have a high status in the Navarro family. Although he is a young master, he is only an illegitimate child and is not valued at home. He harbors resentment towards his father, who favors Trin, and is completely like a "traitor in the making".

If he hadn't met Trillion first, this guy would have been a great target for defection. But unfortunately, he was just an insignificant figure in the Navarro family, a typical example of someone with ambition but no ability. Even without Trillion, he still wouldn't have been a candidate for the family inheritance.

However, this guy did do him a favor by successfully turning the previously wavering Trilling completely to his side. Ever since that unfortunate kid was beaten up by his own brother, his mentality has completely changed. Lud is now planning to set a trap, having Dorn cooperate in a play to further deepen the misunderstanding.

Meanwhile, the rescued Trilin was resting inside the temple's underground palace. Although Trilin wasn't sure where he was, the surrounding architectural style vaguely reminded him of the Spiral Abyss Labyrinth. However, compared to the labyrinth's dark and cold atmosphere, this place was much brighter and warmer, and there were no insidious traps or mechanisms. Hydra led him to a small bedroom and gave him some food. The horrific ordeal of the previous night had left Trilin exhausted, and he fell asleep almost immediately after lying down on the bed.

He didn't know how long he had slept, but when Trin woke up again, he saw Lud sitting by his bedside, quietly reading a book. Not far behind him, a black-haired nun was leaning against the door, half of her body hidden in the shadows.

Noticing that Trilling had opened his eyes, Lud said with a smile.

"You're awake."

"Master, how long have I been asleep?"

"About seven or eight hours, it's just getting dark outside now."

"...Master, may I...ask you a question?"

Want to know why I helped you?

Trilling didn't speak, but nodded silently, while Lud closed the large book in his hand and looked up at the ceiling at a 45-degree angle with his deep eyes.

“Child, you know I am a priest, but I am also skilled in divination. The reason I am helping you is because I have glimpsed our destiny!”

"destiny?"

"Yes! Fate is not a one-way street; it has many branches, some good and some bad, and our choices will affect our path. I can see these branches through divination and find the good path in advance. That's why I'm willing to venture into the demon's labyrinth to save you, because I need your help."

After hearing Lud's cryptic speech, Trilling was completely bewildered. Although he didn't understand what Lud was saying at all, he felt that it was very impressive.

Lude had previously worried about how to fool Trilling, but then suddenly remembered that he had previously portrayed himself as a "fortune teller," so he attributed everything to the omnipotent "Steins;Gate."

"Not long ago, a goddess in distress sought help from the medicine god I serve, so the medicine god entrusted this task to me. Through divination, I discovered that if I get involved in this mess, you will be indispensable in all the good paths, and the goddess in distress that I am to help also has some connection with you."

"Who...who is it?"

"Hume, the god of thieves!"

End of this chapter

Hume, the god of thieves, is a name that is not unfamiliar to Trilling. He is the only god that the Brotherhood of the Black Hand has designated as their faith, and Trilling is a baptized believer, although he has never drunk that "divine wine".

However, it was precisely because of this understanding that Terlin couldn't help but wonder why Hume, the god of thieves, would suddenly fall into trouble and run to the god of medicine for help.

"Master, I don't quite understand. You said the God of Thieves is in trouble... but what kind of trouble is he in?"

"Your Navarro family, you're backed by the Brotherhood of the Black Hand, right? An underground organization that worships a god of thieves. I actually knew that from the beginning, but I just didn't say it out loud. But what would you think if I told you now that the god of thieves you worship, Hume, is actually a fake?"

"Fake, fake!?"

"Hard to imagine, isn't it? But it's true."

Regarding the Black Hand Brotherhood's belief in counterfeit goods, Ludd spoke the absolute truth, without a trace of falsehood. Trilling was utterly shocked, seemingly unable to process this astonishing information for a moment. Ludd, meanwhile, recounted his improvised story to Trilling like a storyteller.

Lude tells Trin that the God of Thieves is actually a god who is both good and evil, just like the act of stealing can have different natures depending on the purpose.

Some people willingly degenerate, stealing only to gain without effort; others humbly bask in darkness while serving the light, becoming Robin Hood-like figures who rob the rich to help the poor; still others are driven to desperation by hunger and cold, forced to steal simply to survive. The God of Thieves bears full responsibility for the good and evil of these believers; this is the oldest doctrine of the God of Thieves.

However, the false god created the heretical sect, the Brotherhood of the Black Hand, attempting to replace the original doctrine with a distorted and evil one, thereby replacing the true god of thievery.

Through this story, Ludd firstly, to some extent, cleared Hume's name, and then, in language that Trin could understand, explained the origin of the false god of thievery. The boy now trusted Ludd completely and had no doubts whatsoever.

"Then, how can we help the True Thief God?"

"There's a lot to do. First, we need to find a way to infiltrate the Black Hand Brotherhood, not to destroy the organization, but to set the distorted doctrines of counterfeiters right and bring those misled believers back to the right path. Do you understand what I mean?"

Trilling nodded as if he understood, but Lud didn't expect the spoiled brat to understand immediately. However, he was prepared to show Trilling something "exciting"!

"Come with me, I'll take you somewhere."

Leaving their resting room, Trin followed Lud to the ceremonial hall deep within the underground palace. This was where the three sisters made their first appearance before the dwarves. The towering domed hall appeared both solemn and majestic, and was filled with religious mystery. Standing in the center of the empty hall, Trin felt incredibly small.

"Master, where is this place?"

"This is the ritual hall, where we can communicate with the divine realm."

"So how exactly do we do it?"

"You don't need to do anything, I can do it."

As Lud said this, he knelt down on one knee and pressed his hand against the floor. Then, Trin saw the entire floor light up with golden light, revealing a huge and complex magic circle. The light was so bright that he could hardly open his eyes.

Golden light quickly filled the entire hall. As Trin gradually adjusted to the brightness, he was surprised to see that the towering dome had transformed into a starry night sky with a magnificent Milky Way stretching across it, and rolling clouds beneath their feet. He and Lud felt as if they were standing in the sky.

"master!"

"Don't panic, this is just a projection of the divine realm, making it easier to communicate directly with the gods. Don't just stand there like an idiot, kneel down right now."

"oh oh."