Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

Then Longin I might be the greatest, most generous, and most loving emperor that the brave Charles had ever seen in his life.

That’s why…

Charles exhaled slowly, stared at the palace in the distance, and whispered to himself:

"You saved your country and all your people. So, even though your people have turned into monsters and don't remember what happened back then, they all remember your achievements..."

"That's why they say that they have the greatest, most generous, and most loving emperor in the entire Pangaea."

"Is that right?"

But no one answered.

The emperor...Longjin I, remained silent as usual and did not respond.

Charles stopped daydreaming.

He moved away from the window, took the holy sword beside the pillow, and observed the inscription on the blade in the dim light of the room.

To be fair, the appearance of the holy sword passed down by successive brave men is not that...gorgeous. It's even a little...ugly.

The sword blade is exceptionally wide, with many notches and sawtooth-like structures on both sides. Under the mottled and crisscrossed scratches, the spine of the sword is densely covered with dark blue and black lines, which are straight and crisscrossed, extending from the hilt to the tip of the sword.

Sometimes Ciel even felt that it was less like a sword and more like a key.

The hero thought so and gripped the holy sword tightly.

He began to slowly infuse the magic power of forbidden spells into the holy sword in his hand.

Gradually, like a progress bar, the almost dark patterns on the spine of the holy sword gradually brightened from the hilt, emitting a bright blue light, and finally spreading almost to the tip of the sword.

The progress bar is not yet full.

But the holy sword still lit up.

Just like in Lentiheim, when facing the mad mother, at the critical moment, the holy sword in Charles' hand automatically activated and constructed an ultra-standard forbidden spell that was far beyond what Charles could perform.

Although Ciel understood, that was actually the strength of the forbidden spells mastered by the heroes of all generations.

And he is just a defective product.

He understood why Rachel wanted to sleep in the hotel, because that was probably the best way for both of them to deal with it.

With his mastery of forbidden magic, they really had no way to deal with the anomalies in Diesel's territory.

Waiting obediently in the inn until the White Tower's reinforcements arrive is far more reasonable than relying on the two of them to solve the problem, but...

Ciel raised his head and looked at the sky which was still covered with dark clouds.

"But," he muttered to himself in his heart, "Can the White Tower's reinforcements really enter Diesel?"

……

"How on earth are we supposed to get into Diesel?"

Black Cat Nicholas sighed in a condescending manner and shook his head.

Its assistant, Verdin, shook his head:

"I don't know, sir."

There are not many slender ghosts returning to the area around Diesel nowadays. Probably in the past thirty years, almost all of the slender ghosts that Diesel exported to the outside world... or the Diesel people, have returned to their hometown, so this wilderness is gradually returning to tranquility.

Except for the birdcage in Wilding's hand.

In the exquisitely crafted antique birdcage inlaid with many gems and decorated with gold and silver, there were several shrunk-looking tall and thin ghost figures struggling and screaming, trying to get out.

The black cat, who was a little annoyed because he couldn't figure out how to get into Diesel, turned his head towards the birdcage and glared at the noisy black shadows with his vertical pupils, saying:

"Quiet!"

It was as if they were shocked, or perhaps all the courage to resist was crushed by the huge pressure that came down from the sky.

Sure enough, those black shadows were no longer noisy.

The assistant was not affected at all.

She still held the birdcage and reported in an orderly manner:

"The few specimens we captured were all in a 'dormant' state at first. At that time, they were almost the same as ordinary people. Apart from being in a daze, neither you nor I could find any difference between them and normal humans."

"But after we captured them, they all 'woken up'."

"They instantly turned into thin and long ghosts and began to show extremely aggressive behavior, while losing all communication capabilities."

"So," Veldin concluded, "perhaps, in the past thirty years, these slender ghosts who left Diesel have always maintained an inert state similar to 'sleeping' -"

"But the data is not detailed enough. I have no way of inferring the specific conditions and approximate thresholds that can cause the Slender Man to 'wake up'."

"That's enough, my assistant." The black cat was quite satisfied with the assistant's ability to observe and summarize, and praised him generously. If its two front paws were good enough, it would even applaud the assistant. "Then have you conveyed this information to our dear Ms. Verliden?"

Verdin nodded:

"It has been sent, teacher."

"Okay," the black cat raised its whiskers, "since the information has been delivered, I believe our reliable Ms. Verliden has already started the investigation."

As it spoke, it turned its head and stared with its amber eyes at the nearly doubled number of slender ghosts behind the barrier. Its voice suddenly became much deeper:

"The work over there in the White Tower is obviously much more difficult than ours. In order to reinforce them, we may have to speed up the progress and quickly break through this barrier that only allows the tall and thin ghost to enter and exit."

——Although they had tried almost everything before.

But the barrier was unmoved and rejected all attempts. In the end, even the legendary investigator Black Cat had to admit that he had run out of ideas.

"No, maybe not entirely." Black Cat suddenly thought, "There are actually two methods that I haven't tried yet."

But both of those options are crazy.

First, actively let yourself be contaminated by the Slender Apparition, so that you will be recognized as a friendly party by the barrier with a high probability, thus passing through the barrier.

Second, dead objects without thoughts can pass through the barrier, so all one needs to do is commit suicide and the corpse can easily cross the Wall of Sighs.

However, Black Cat could not be sure whether a person contaminated by the Slender Man could turn back into a human being. If not, then a legendary investigator contaminated by the Slender Man would probably be much more terrifying than an ordinary person who was also contaminated.

As for death...

Everyone knows that there is no magic in this world that can resurrect the dead.

Black Cat even thought of other ways to crack the problem that were similar to "death", such as knocking the assistant unconscious and throwing him in, but they still failed.

It was unable to get its unconscious assistant through the barrier, and when the assistant woke up, he told it...

After she fell into a coma, she had a dream, in which she still saw the wall.

Therefore, they concluded that

That wall does not block the "awake people" but the "thinking people". Anyone with a complete mind cannot pass through that wall. Even if the body has fainted, the brain is still thinking and the soul is still active.

The black cat thought that perhaps only a corpse without thoughts could pass through this wall.

However, the necromancy that can control corpses can only achieve the extent of "sending the corpse in", because the wall can even block the magic power carrying the caster's will!

Thinking of this, the black cat became more and more annoyed.

If it guessed correctly, Diesel's condition was deteriorating rapidly.

From the beginning, everyone could enter and exit Diesel freely, to only being able to enter but not exit, and then to only those who meet the requirements can enter...

Will it eventually develop into a situation where no one can enter Diesel, and no one can leave Diesel?

The black cat stared worriedly at the countless broken walls and wandering tall and thin ghost figures in front of him.

"Longin Tyr!" it couldn't help but think, "What on earth do you want to do?!"

[To be continued]

-

60. Palace Book Sea

Charles put on the holy sword and left the room.

He had just closed the door and had not yet had time to wake the witch up when he heard two soft "clicks" almost simultaneously.

The doors of the witch's and the priest's rooms opened at the same time.

Then, the witch and the priest came out.

Charles keenly noticed that the witch, who always wore a plain face, was wearing light makeup today. But perhaps because the witch's makeup skills were not very proficient, even he, who knew nothing about makeup, could see the obvious traces.

And the priest... perhaps because she didn't sleep well last night, her eyes were dark and her face was tired, but in order to meet the Emperor Diesel, she still forced herself to be energetic and climbed out of bed.

But no matter whether it was the witch or the priest, after walking out of the room and seeing Charles, they immediately turned their faces away and looked away.

Neither of them seemed willing to face him.

"..."

Charles had no idea what was going on.

He just had an inexplicable feeling - he felt that both the witch and the priest were a little... guilty?

But why do I feel guilty?

Could it be that yesterday, without him noticing, the two of them had done something to offend him behind his back?

Come to think of it, the witch's condition did seem a little off yesterday, although if you pressed him, he couldn't tell what was wrong.

Fortunately, Ciel has a good habit: if he doesn't understand something, he usually asks.

So, he turned around and asked the witch:

"Are you OK?"

He really wanted to care about the witch, but his mouth was a little dumb and he couldn't say anything nice, so he could only ask in such a dry way.

If it were usual, the witch might have teased him in return, but today, the witch only answered him too briefly:

"I am fine."

After that, she turned her head coldly and ignored him.

Charles had no choice but to ask the priest:

"Did...something happen last night?"

He was a little reserved.

First of all, Charles is not good at dealing with the opposite sex; secondly, the opposite sex he needs to deal with now happens to be that... priest.

He really didn't know how to face the pastor.

Although he now understood that the pastor in front of him was most likely the product of a certain wish, it was precisely because of this that he had mixed feelings when facing her.

After all, the pastor had the face that he missed so much.

But that is why he has to keep his distance from the pastor.

As Charles was thinking about it, he suddenly turned his head and glanced at the witch who was facing away from him out of the corner of his eye.

Because he was afraid that she would be jealous.

Although, she is actually very cute when she is jealous.

The hero couldn't help but smile.

But he quickly put away his smile - now was not the time to think about these things.

The pastor on the other side avoided her gaze.

There was a suspicious blush on her cheeks, her lips were pursed, but her expression was obviously guilty and vaguely... guilty?

"No...nothing..."

After the priest answered Charles in a low voice, she quickly lifted the hem of her nun's uniform as if she was avoiding some prehistoric beast, and trotted to the witch's side, walking side by side with her.

Charles was stunned.

At this moment, the witch suddenly turned her head, as if she was protecting the priest, and said to Charles:

"Aren't you going to meet the emperor? Let's go."

After saying this, she walked out of the inn with the pastor.