Mystery: The Witch of Desire

"Excuse me, sirs, please come with me to the reception room for some tea and snacks. If you're hungry, I'll take you to the best night market in the Joewood district for a late-night meal."

The three of them immediately left the detention cell, and after they had gone some distance, Livre whispered to Fors:

"Once you hear the knocking signal, open the door in this direction. Don't worry about alerting the other prisoners; you'll definitely be exposed after tonight."

Fors stared at the "Clevill" before her, recalling how Livre had transformed into Clevill just now. Her face was filled with astonishment. She paused for a few seconds before reacting, nodding vigorously with eagerness and surprise in her eyes.

Without further delay, Livre turned and left the detention cell, going around to an empty warehouse behind the women's prison. The warehouse was filled with miscellaneous items and was deserted, making it an ideal rendezvous point. She raised her hand and knocked on the wall separating her from the detention cell. After a few seconds, the wall rippled slightly, and a crack slowly opened. Fors bent down and stepped out, looking somewhat tired.

Afterwards, Livre went out of the warehouse to look at the next room. It was an office where a police officer was working overtime and looking through files. However, it was a room facing the street. She could leave the police station by activating the door-opening ability once more. The other walls led to the warehouse and other detention cells, and she would need to activate the door-opening ability several more times to get through them.

After a moment's thought, Livre knocked on the door and entered the office.

"Inspector Clavel!"

The officer immediately stood up, greeted him respectfully, and at the same time showed a hint of doubt:

"Why are you still at the police station at this hour?"

Liviel tried to take out a banknote and hand it to him, but the appearance created by her acting ability was all fake, and she didn't have a single penny on her.

He could only cough awkwardly and say:

"Go outside and buy me two packs of cigarettes."

The police officer was somewhat surprised:

"Now?"

"What, it's not okay?"

Livre quietly activated her weakened Arbitrator ability, and an aura of authority emanated from her. Although the police officer looked reluctant, he immediately got up and went outside to buy cigarettes.

"In some ways, the arbitrator's abilities are more useful than those of the instigator."

Once the police officers were out of sight, Livre tapped the wall with satisfaction. A few seconds later, the wall shook, and a haggard-looking Fors emerged.

Livre pointed to the wall with windows facing the street and said:

"Go through this wall and you will be free."

Fors looked grateful.

"Thank you……"

Livr waved her hand:

"Don't thank me yet. I'll go out through the front door to make sure it's safe outside. Then you can escape through the wall. If someone comes in, you can activate your door-opening ability beforehand."

Fors nodded repeatedly, genuinely admiring Livre's meticulousness.

Liviel walked out of the main gate openly, only to see the strange look the gatekeeper was giving her.

Livre was torn: should she ignore him or continue playing Clive?

After a slight hesitation, she strode over and asked in Clive's characteristically authoritative tone:

"Has anything unusual happened tonight?"

The gatekeeper trembled with fear, immediately straightened his back, and respectfully reported:

"Report to the Inspector! Two incidents of disorderly conduct have occurred near Commercial Street and Hope Street. On-duty police officers have already gone to handle them. Apart from that, there are no other abnormalities."

Livre nodded slightly and said calmly:

"Very good, continue your duty and do not slack off." With that, he swaggered out of the police station and headed towards the street.

Behind him, the gatekeeper let out a long sigh of relief and muttered to himself:

"As expected of Inspector Clivell, his sense of oppression is getting stronger and stronger."

Upon hearing this, Liviel's heart stirred slightly, and a strange feeling suddenly arose within her, as if her acting ability was slowly "digesting." However, this digestion was different from that of traditional potion digestion; there was no shock of breaking through a threshold. Instead, it felt as if her body was gradually merging with certain factors, and the connection was becoming increasingly close. Along with this came a subtle improvement in her acting ability, and the transformed form became more and more stable.

"This extraordinary ability, bestowed by grace, is essentially a form of corruption, but Chick has already helped me remove the gaze of that evil god. Continuing to strengthen this ability shouldn't be harmful, right?"

As Liviel pondered, she quickly walked to the alleyway facing the street, and relying on her memory of the location, found the exterior wall of the office that was still lit up, and gently knocked on it.

The walls rippled instantly, and Fors staggered out, her face ashen, her body trembling slightly. Using her door-opening ability three times in a row had exhausted her, but she still managed a forced smile and choked out to Livre:

“Miss Monroe, I really don’t know how to thank you... If it weren’t for you, I might have spent the rest of my life in prison, or even been captured by the Mechanical Heart and turned into a sealed artifact.”

A sudden thought flashed through Livre's mind. Instead of responding immediately, she maintained her composure as Clive, a sinister yet authoritative smile playing on her lips, her tone icy:

"Oh? So your accomplice is named Marilyn Monroe?"

Fors froze, her gratitude instantly replaced by fear and confusion. She stared at the "Clever" before her, her lips trembling, unable to utter a word.

Livre continued to exert pressure with an authoritative and icy tone:

“You have already revealed that you are an extraordinary one of the Apprentice Path. Now, what else do you have to say? Confess your guilt, and I might give you a chance to be my guinea pig.”

These words struck Fors like a thunderbolt. She trembled violently, her eyes brimming with terror. Her legs gave way, and she nearly collapsed to the ground, her voice trembling with tears.

"No...no...I didn't..."

Just then, Livre chuckled, raised her hand and gently wiped her face. Clive's figure vanished instantly, revealing her original charming appearance:

"Sorry, sorry, it was just a joke. Don't be scared, let's go."

As she spoke, she grabbed Fors's arm and quickly walked towards the North District.

Fors was still in a daze. After a long while, she finally recovered from the lingering fear, reached out and gently pinched Livre's cheek, her voice trembling:

"Miss Marilyn Monroe...is it really you?"

Livre nodded with a smile:

"Don't worry, it really is me. Do you remember? Yesterday in bed..."

Before she could finish speaking, Fors's face flushed crimson, the blush spreading from her cheeks to the tips of her ears. This private matter was known only to the two of them; it seemed the person before her was indeed Marilyn Monroe.

Livre wasn't deliberately making fun of Fors; rather, she was using this opportunity to put her acting skills into practice. Sure enough, watching Fors' extreme emotional shift from gratitude to terror, she clearly felt that the "digestion" of her acting abilities had deepened considerably, with much better results than when dealing with the gatekeeper earlier.

To her even greater surprise, the witch's potion showed signs of being digested, and she vaguely grasped the rules of the witch's role:

A witch is someone who instills fear in others through her evil core.

Just now, with a bit of malice, she made Fors feel deep fear, and even without using the witch's power, she still effectively accelerated the digestion of the potion.

Livre was quite pleased, and as she put her arm around Fors's, she felt a strange sense of intimacy. Suddenly remembering her secret, she quickly asked:

"By the way, you didn't reveal that I'm an Extraordinary being, did you?"

Fors shook her head vigorously, her tone certain:

"No, no! They mentioned you during their questioning, but only asked a few trivial questions and didn't delve into anything further. I didn't say a word more than necessary."

Livre breathed a sigh of relief and nodded gently. The two walked for a while longer, and Fors's pace gradually slowed down. Her face grew paler and paler, and she was clearly exhausted. She had been interrogated by Livre, questioned by Clive, and detained at the police station today. She was already physically and mentally exhausted. The North District was still quite a distance away, and in the middle of the night, two young and beautiful women walking on the street would be too conspicuous and could easily attract trouble.

Seeing this, Livre quickly settled Fors in a secluded corner, telling her to stay put, and then hurried to the street, where she found a working horse-drawn carriage. She negotiated the price with the driver and helped Fors into the carriage.

The carriage sped along the deserted streets, and after about half an hour, it finally arrived at Pesfield Street in the North District.

After getting off the carriage, Livre secretly activated her instigator's ability, leaned close to the driver's ear, and whispered in a soft yet seductive voice:

"Wait for us here, okay?"

The coachman's eyes were glazed over, completely captivated by Livre's charm and allure, and he nodded heavily.

Livre helped Fors upstairs quickly. As soon as she opened the door, she saw Hugh pacing anxiously in the room. Upon seeing Fors, Hugh's eyes lit up instantly, and he excitedly shouted:

"Fors!"

Before she finished speaking, she rushed forward and hugged Fors tightly in her arms, her eyes instantly reddening.

"Hugh... I thought I'd never see you again..."

Fors, who was almost a head taller than Hugh, nestled in Hugh's arms. All her grievances and lingering fears burst forth in an instant. Her voice choked up, and tears welled up in her eyes.

Watching the two embracing, Livre suddenly felt a strange sensation. Their relationship was somewhat like that of the two female protagonists in Fors's novel, *The Woman of Desire*. Could it be that Fors based that novel on herself and Hugh?

Upon thinking of this, Livre's cheeks flushed slightly, and she quietly looked away, not wanting to disturb the two long-separated best friends.

After a while, she stepped forward and reminded him:

"Ladies, now is not the time for sentimentality. The police will find out that Fors has escaped by tomorrow morning at the latest. You need to move immediately and live under new identities."

Fors and Hugh weren't surprised; they were already prepared for this. Hugh patted Fors on the shoulder and joked in a cheerful tone:

"It's okay. I've always been part of the underworld anyway. Now that you're with me, I feel more at ease."

Upon hearing this, Fors smiled sweetly, her eyes filled with relief, and most of her previous grievances and fears dissipated. Liviel, standing to the side, watching the two of them so tacitly together, felt inexplicably superfluous, and quickly made an excuse to get up:

"You should pack your things quickly. I've already called a carriage that's waiting downstairs. There's no time to lose; we should set off as soon as possible."

Hugh and Fors responded in unison with "Okay," and immediately turned to busy themselves, quickly packing their clothes and belongings. Livre, on the other hand, turned and went downstairs, got into the carriage, and warily scanned the surrounding streets and alleys, in case the police or members of the Steam Church came after them.

This scene reminded Livre of that night in Tingen more than a year ago, when she had also hurriedly packed her bags and left her long-time home in a disheveled state, embarking on an unknown road ahead.

Suddenly, she froze, a dull ache shooting through her mind, countless fragments of memories swirling within her, yet she couldn't grasp a single one:

"Why did I leave home in the middle of the night? And who did I leave with...?"

She frowned and pondered for a long time, increasingly feeling that there was something wrong with her memory. Many of the things that happened in Tingen City, those once familiar fragments, had become blurry, as if they were covered by a thin fog.

That's why she's so concerned about everything related to Tingen: What exactly is the secret that Fors and Hugh are hiding about Tingen? Is it related to her? There aren't many extraordinary individuals in Tingen City to begin with, so if it involves the extraordinary realm, it might really be intricately connected to her.

"I must ask Fors and Hugh later."

Livre secretly made up her mind, then took out the small mirror from her pocket, lightly touched its surface with her fingertips, and began to divine for the two ladies:

"Fors Wall and Hugh Deercha were able to escape the police's pursuit without incident."

The mirror remained perfectly still, without the slightest ripple, indicating that Fors and Hugh were lucky and should be able to escape smoothly.

Livre breathed a slight sigh of relief, gently stroked the mirror again, and cast another divination for herself:

"I'm out of danger."

However, this time, a faint ripple appeared on the mirror's surface. Although the ripple was subtle, it was clearly visible, indicating that she still faced a certain degree of danger.

Livre's heart sank, and her expression instantly turned serious:

Fors and Hugh were able to escape the police, but I am still in danger... This means that the danger I am facing does not come from the police.

Chapter 117 The Witch's Plot

She suppressed her doubts and once again activated her spiritual power, whispering a divination in front of the mirror:

"The source of the danger I face."

The mirror surface rippled slowly, and as the light and shadow shifted, it gradually transformed into a beautiful face. It was a woman in her early thirties, with a voluptuous figure, a beautiful face, and a charming and intellectual air about her—the kind of mature beauty that was extremely attractive.

Livre's pupils contracted slightly, and she froze for a moment. This face seemed strangely familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before. She frantically searched her memory, and suddenly, a flash of insight struck her—she remembered:

It was her! The one who glanced at me while I was invisible, on the outskirts of Backlund!

It was her? Why would she be a source of danger for me?

Livre was filled with doubt and her thoughts were in turmoil when she heard footsteps outside the carriage. Fors and Hugh had already packed their luggage and climbed into the carriage.

Livre temporarily suppressed her doubts, looked up at the two of them, and asked:

Have you decided where you'll stay next?

Xiu spoke in a calm tone:

"We've decided to head to the East District first. It's a mixed bag there, making it less likely for the police to find us. Plus, I have some connections in the East District that can help us settle down quickly."

Fors looked at Livre, her eyes filled with gratitude:

"Miss Monroe, thank you so much this time. I owe you a huge favor."

As Livre gestured to the driver to head to the East District, she said with a smile:

"I'm afraid you'll have to repay this favor to me now."

Fors paused for a moment, then asked somewhat blankly:

"How can I help you? I will do my best if I can."

Livre looked directly at her and slowly spoke:

"You mentioned before that you were having a picnic with authors outside Backlund. Do you know all the authors who participated?"

Fors nodded without hesitation:

"Yes, they are all well-known writers in Backlund. Even if we are not close, I can call each of them by name and I won't mistake one for the other."