Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1462 Meeting with the "Detective"
If someone were to ask who is the second-in-command in Grand Duke Toril's Violet City, the answer would not necessarily be the same.

Grand Duke Toril has already chosen his successor, but he understands that governance cannot be achieved by one person alone, so he has already delegated power. The Church will not interfere in political affairs, and the strongest military force is held by the commanders of the five knightly orders in the area. As for administration, the chief steward of the administrative office, the castle's steward, and the chief justice appointed by the emperor are essentially on equal footing.

It is clear from the above that the administrative structure under Grand Duke Toril's authority was extremely chaotic. And if we go down one level, the number of people with influence becomes impossible to count.

In such a system, if one wants to climb to a high position of power, one must understand the complex political environment. Among these people, the nobleman Steinber is already a veteran. He has been operating in Violet City for decades and has been associating with people from all walks of life since he was young. Unless someone is a complete pauper with no skills, Steinber will sincerely try to get to know them.

Because of his reputation, people would always come to visit him. Steinber would often recruit talented people to his cause, and if they didn't have talent, then status would do too—he was not stingy with his investments.

Today, a young gentleman arrived at the door. Steiner had read the visiting card; he was a scholar of antiquities and history who had already published numerous articles, demonstrating considerable achievement in both the investigation of some of the Empire's hidden histories and the research of some famous excavations. Steiner was delighted to meet such a talented young man.

However, when Mr. Poirot actually sat down in front of him, Steinber suddenly felt a little regretful.

Mr. Poirot was sharp-tongued and had a refined manner, which fit the image of the elite talent that he admired. However, Mr. Poirot's gaze was rather piercing, and Steinber always felt that the other man was scrutinizing him.

“Mr. Poirot…”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Steinber, but I know some methods of physiognomy, and according to my observation, your face indicates that your fortunes have recently taken a major turn for the worse,” Mr. Poirot said.

Steinber was somewhat displeased: “It is indeed a major turning point, but it’s a good thing. Mr. Poirot, I don’t think it has anything to do with the topic we’re going to discuss today.”

“Oh…of course, of course. I’m not prying into your privacy, it’s just out of curiosity. You know, my work and research require me to maintain a strong sense of curiosity, otherwise how could I possibly achieve anything?”

“You should maintain this curiosity about history and artifacts, Mr. Poirot.”

The meeting ended unhappily, but Mr. Poirot seemed oblivious to Steinber's displeasure. He politely took his leave and indicated that he might visit again later.

After Poirot left the Steinberg house, he toned down his sharp demeanor, and his eyes became languid.

“This is a case, but it probably has nothing to do with the cases I’m handling,” he said.

A woman came out of the alley and met up with him.

"Do you think this is a case worth paying attention to? If not, we will transfer it..."

“Transfer the warning device, but don’t give it to the court,” Poirot said with a smile. “You don’t need to be so nervous. Although I have indeed uncovered quite a few cases, most of them are not major cases. I’m just bringing you out to learn. If it’s really urgent, I will definitely use more special methods.”

"Yes." The woman nodded.

Poirot, along with the student who had accompanied him, hailed a carriage and traveled to a parish.

There are some other students here, all of whom are now studying under Poirot. Although they are not wearing monk robes, each of them wears a church pendant.

"Hello everyone, Mr. Steinber is not the person I'm investigating. Unfortunately, this case still doesn't meet my objectives. If I remember correctly, there are only three suspicious items left to investigate. I hope you all will put in a little more effort, because the real crisis may threaten Violet City."

"Teacher, someone from the Cardinal's side submitted a visit today."

“Oh? I remember I don’t need to accept assignments from the Cardinal of Violet City,” Poirot said.

"It was submitted in the name of the Saviour's Seat, supposedly for a medical examination... You could indeed refuse," the student who spoke said. "However, this medical examination was requested by a saint, and it seems the Saviour's Seat has discovered something. You know, the Saviour's Seat and the Heart-Releasing Seat are respectively qualified to make such requests regarding the plague and the treacherous incident. Even if you refuse this time, they will definitely find another opportunity."

"Alright, alright, I understand." Poirot waved his hand with a smile. "There's no need to feel awkward about this. We're all working hard for the betterment of the church. A medical checkup is for our own health. So, this afternoon we'll go—who submitted the application? Which saint?"

"It's a 'pharmacist'."

Poirot paused slightly upon hearing the name: "A pseudonym?"

“Saints usually have multiple names, teacher,” the student reminded him.

Upon hearing this, Poirot slapped his forehead and said with a self-deprecating laugh, "How could I have forgotten about that? Indeed, just like me. Then there's no need to worry. Since it's a saint who would use such a name, there's probably no problem."

=
Just like Poirot, the pharmacist also uttered a sigh at the same time.

“Even though I know that saints need many different identities and titles to walk the world, there are just too many titles,” she said helplessly to the savior beside her.

“After all, while there aren’t too many saints, there aren’t too few either.” The collaborator smiled wryly—this collaborator was also a saint, and one of those gifted individuals who had just officially joined the church and been accepted by God. However, due to her lack of experience, she was still doing some auxiliary work. She was currently also using the code name “Flower Garden.”

For this medical examination of the Savior's Cardinal, the Pharmacist specifically contacted a church in a large parish of Violet City to cooperate. Such places always have five or six saints present; besides this newcomer to the Savior's Cardinal, there were four others, also with various code names. Although the Pharmacist's goal was merely to use this as a pretext to check the list of saints, it only narrowed down his investigation. Moreover, the identities assigned at the distribution center were all those of outsiders. If they could directly contact the local church like Bavotley, that would be fine, but without such contact, they wouldn't appear on the list.

The pharmacist's direct contact was with the Church of East; she wasn't affiliated with any other organization. The Church of East's list of names wasn't so easily obtained, so she made it the last place she needed to check.

The inspection proceeded quickly and methodically. As a cardinal within the church responsible for exploration, analysis, and research into magic, the probability of problems arising among its members is actually quite high. They frequently come into contact with various mysterious objects of unknown origin, and even with protective spells, they are inevitably susceptible to contamination.

The pharmacist checked ten people, and all ten had some issues, leaving her speechless. The flower nursery was in a similar situation; eight out of ten people showed symptoms of mild contamination.

The Salvation Pivot is used to the usual behavior of the Secret Vision Pivot. Those who are found to have been diagnosed are also required to undergo a simultaneous examination of the Mind Release Pivot, since if the body is contaminated, it is impossible to guarantee that the mind will not be completely harmed.

"Next--"

Finally, according to the list specially prepared by the pharmacist, the saint codenamed "Detective" sat down in front of her.

"Good afternoon, madam." The young man was not dressed in the church's distinctive attire, but rather like a gentleman. He removed his hat to greet the pharmacist, then set the hat aside.

"good afternoon."

The examination room was a specially designed soundproof room, with only a switchable communication device for the members of the Savior's Cabinet to exchange messages. The pharmacist had just sent out the brief examination results for the previous patient and then turned it off. She sized up the young "detective" and said, "Should I call you Mr. Detective, or just your registered name here, Poirot?"

“Either is fine, both are my names.” Poirot looked very relaxed. “I’m very familiar with the inspection process, your efforts won’t be in vain. Would you mind chatting with me during the process? I find it boring to always repeat the same process.”

“Okay.” The pharmacist arranged a new set of testing equipment. “The physical examination for the Salvation Pivot doesn’t include some routine items. I will check if there are any damages to your health, and for any suspicious injuries, you need to truthfully explain the cause. I will consider the situation and decide whether you should be transferred to the Heart Release Pivot for further examination, or even…”

“I know the rules very well, my dear colleague. No need to tell me more, just follow the rules.” Poirot said generously, lying down on the hospital bed. “How about we talk about something else? For example, is there a reason for suddenly conducting such an examination? Oh, I know that internal investigations are not the job of the Secret Service, I’m just curious.”

"It's not exactly a secret—the plague in Violet has increased recently, and some of it is extremely difficult to detect. Before we start checking on residents, we need to make sure our own personnel are safe. After all, we'll probably be deploying more often in the future."

"Oh? I do know a little about that. Is it the night blindness in the north, or the gourmets in the east? There are fewer people in the south, and I haven't heard of any plague spreading recently. Is it the eyeball disease or tongue-twisting disease in the west?"

"How do you know so much about this?" The pharmacist took a box to the side and took out a thin needle from it. "These are the ones that have been resolved, but there are still some that haven't been resolved."

“Of course there are. Violet City is a large place, so there are bound to be more problems. And we don’t know when someone might suddenly become a plague apostle, right? For example, if you were to put some poison on a needle right now, or if the needle were the prototype of the plague, then I’d be in big trouble,” Poirot laughed.

"The Savior has considered this situation, so the needles are always made using a mixture of holy silver and copper. There's a secret formula for the needles in there. How could you not know that?"

“Haha, I’m just interested in the case. As for these confidential matters, I wouldn’t know them if I hadn’t handled the case,” Poirot said.

The pharmacist pricked Poirot's finger, squeezed out blood, took five test strips, smeared a portion of each on the strip, and then set them aside to air dry. She then picked up a bowl-shaped tool and placed it over Poirot's chest. She slowly moved the tool over Poirot's body and asked, "Your codename is 'Detective,' which means you must have handled many cases?"

"I don't handle cases involving ordinary people, not even murder cases. I handle big cases, those related to magic, history, secrets, legends, and the like. That's the job of the Secret Vision Bureau, colleagues. We have to work hard so that we can contain or destroy those dangerous things as much as possible. If you did my job, you would find that this world is really too fragile, even the church. If those terrifying things are not handled properly, it will be a catastrophe, even more dangerous than a plague."

"I believe that these dangers also include plague."

"Yes, the magic of evil gods is certainly one of the disasters. But it's not just plagues. If you've read the history of the Church, you'll know that besides the gods we worship and those plague lords, there have been countless other faiths throughout history, some of which were actually backed by deities. We don't know why or when those deities disappeared, but research and excavation can still find some relics. The people in the Cardinals, most of them only studied the basic textbooks before starting their formal work. We're short-staffed. But such dangerous work requires overcoming countless hurdles to become an expert, and you never know when someone might die. So the young people in the Cardinals are still working incredibly hard..."

"You really like using the word 'effort'?" The pharmacist had already begun the next examination.

“Of course, because all my achievements so far, apart from my status as a saint, are the result of my own hard work. I’ve worked hard to learn divine arts, read books, and accumulate experience. My talent is only at an average level, but there are many people like me, so I know very well that if even I can do this, then they can too, it’s just that many people don’t work as hard.” Poirot rolled over at the apothecary’s instruction, his back facing upwards. “I can’t guide geniuses, but I can tell those who are similar to me that as long as they work hard, they can be like me.”

“Being a saint is something that cannot be obtained through effort, and it was inappropriate for you to promote this from the beginning,” the pharmacist said.

“It doesn’t matter. As long as I’m stripped of my sainthood, I still have achieved so much, and that’s convincing. I can put in just as much effort in this matter.”

The pharmacist, unsure whether Poirot's words were intentional or unintentional, narrowed his eyes slightly.

The status of a saint, though nominal, is actually a divine favor. To strip away this status, the only usual method is treachery. However, for tourists, there is a second option.