Secrets: Priestess

Chapter 15 Crimson
"How come you, a 'Sleepless One', are even more like a 'Mystery Peeper' than I am..."

It was almost noon when Old Neil came down from the ground and pushed open the iron door, only to find that the desk behind the door already had an owner.

Claire, dressed in a dark classical robe, lowered her head and immersed herself in a book, as quiet as a blooming violet.

Claire brushed aside her long, pale blond hair and said with a smile, "Good afternoon, Mr. Neil. Why not be more like 'The Universalist'?"

"Not bad..." Old Neil said, sitting at the other end of the desk, holding a silver-inlaid tin can. "I mean, you just got promoted, don't you need to take a break? You come here to read books."

Watching Old Neil pour hot water and brew the fragrant coffee powder, Claire spread her hands and said, "You know, I'm already a 'sleepless person'. I only need to rest for three or four hours during the day."

Old Neil blew the hot air and exclaimed in an aria-like tone of longing, "'The Sleepless' is really good. Then you won't need to drink coffee to stay awake anymore."

Claire pushed the water cup next to her toward Old Neil. "But I'm used to the taste... Thank you."

Old Neil rolled his eyes at Claire. "We need to show the Holy Temple your true colors. You're ordering an old man around like that."

Although he complained verbally, Old Neil kept working.

After making Claire a cup of coffee, Old Neil sighed, "Praise the Goddess! The Sanctuary actually approved your special request and made an exception to grant you the Sleepless Potion."

Old Neil tutted his words in amazement. "Everyone was stunned when Lord Cecima announced the news. They were all happy for you, but no one had ever held out hope for this."

“I was surprised, too.”

Claire took the cup of water and thought back to the time after she drank the potion in the early morning. Creste Cesimah had a small meeting with Dunn and her three companions. She specifically emphasized that Dunn should cooperate, conceal her true sequence path, and pretend to be a newly promoted "Insomniac".

"This is for the safety of Claire Meazza, the Lord's favored one." Creste Cecima emphasized.

At that time, Captain Dunn looked at Crested Cecima's serious expression, then looked at her equally astonished expression, and remained silent for a long time.

After a long pause, Captain Dunn finally asked another question: "Can the 'Sleepless' also disguise itself?"

At that time, Her Excellency Cecima's face was filled with inexplicable complex emotions as she explained, "The holy relic, the 'Sword of the Goddess', has chosen Claire again. With this relic, it's easy to disguise herself as the 'Sleepless One.' But the Lord said..."

Claire blew away the fragrant water from the cup. Her mind was still fresh in the memory of Lord Cecima's solemn warning: "The 'Goddess's Sword' is also a form of pollution to those of you who are not members of the Sleepless Order. Please use with caution."

Sipping her coffee, Claire couldn't have noticed the Goddess's Sword already integrated into her heart unless she pulled up her collar to look.

This holy object not only seals the pollution in her body from the hidden sage, but also carries a hidden power that conceals all unusual auras on her body.

But when and why did I become the goddess's favorite?
Creste Cecima shook his head, unable to answer her doubts. Then, without even a break, the lone senior deacon rushed non-stop to his next destination.

"Come to think of it, Mr. Neil, you haven't heard back about the notes of Emperor Roselle that you requested? It's been several days." Claire gave up thinking about those complicated and confusing things and chatted with Old Neil on a light topic.

Old Neil sighed and said, "No."

Claire, looking disappointed, suggested to Old Neil, "Then continue sending telegrams to the Cathedral."

Old Neil asked suspiciously, "If you want to see it too, why don't you send a telegram?"

Claire said matter-of-factly, "If we telegraph something like this to the Holy Temple, the captain will nag us. So, it's more appropriate for Mr. Neil to do it."

As he spoke, he took a sip of coffee elegantly.

Old Neil almost wanted to tell Claire to get lost.

But then he thought about the fact that he still needed Claire to help him on duty, so Old Neil swallowed all his vulgar words and said, "I'll urge you... But you have to help me on duty today. I have to go out for something."

Claire waved her hand indifferently. She would be staying here to look through various materials anyway, so guarding the armory was just a convenient task.

Old Neil threw a bunch of keys over and said, "I'll leave the keys to you."

The quaint keychain was quite heavy, containing the keys to the armory's iron door and several safes.

Claire took the key and hung it on the armrest, where it was just enough to be supported by her left arm. Then, Claire picked up another document about the spirit world and said casually as she lowered her head to read, "Resistance, please. I can see from the clairvoyance you taught me that you are a little tired."

Old Neil forced a smile and said, "You don't need to tell me about this kind of thing." After Old Neil left, the only sound in the narrow room was the sound of Claire reading.

During this period, Luo Shan came to deliver a meal and chatted with me.

The rest of the time, Claire was alone.

Loneliness is the norm when on duty.

So the night watchmen will develop some hobbies while on duty.

For example, Claire had loved reading in the past ten days, and there were enough books behind Chanis's door to interest her.

Some books with simple introductions can be read relatively quickly, but professional books need to be read slowly and carefully, and many times you may not be able to finish a few pages in a whole day.

But all this changed after last night.

The "Generalist" potion gave Claire a photographic memory, and her comprehension ability also improved along with her memory. At least she no longer had to flip through books to look up forgotten points.

This is a pretty cool thing.

"It would be better if the whispering in my ear could stop..."

Ever since I officially embarked on the extraordinary journey last night, the whispering in my ears has rarely stopped.

Claire discovered that the mumbling could only quiet down when she was reading and absorbing new knowledge from the book.

This realization made Claire grumble inwardly, "Could these incomprehensible mumblings be saying 'Study hard and make progress every day'?"

In addition, Claire also discovered that when she prayed devoutly to the goddess, her crazy mumbling could be reduced a lot, but the effect was slightly worse than reading.

But if we continue thinking in this direction, is there a way among the higher levels of the church to completely solve the problem of mumbling?

Before leaving, Lady Cecima said that as long as she could improve the sequence of the "Educator" path, she would be able to withstand more contamination from the "Sword of the Goddess" and disguise herself as a "Midnight Poet" of a higher sequence.

A higher order of the Universalist... Claire wrote "archaeologist" on the paper and marked it with "Solution to the mumbling problem?"

But how to improve the sequence is a difficult problem.

The Nighthawks' code states that in order to consume higher-order potions, one must wait three years and pass an assessment. Even so, there are still many cases of Nighthawks losing control every year.

However, there are exceptions to this rule, with some geniuses able to pass special tests in a short period of time and be able to consume new potions. Daly is one of the best.

"It's necessary to go to Sister Dai Li to ask for advice on promotion."

"Before that, let's first look for more records of the experiences of our predecessors. Tentatively, we can categorize them into two groups: fast and slow. Let's see if we can find any common ground..."

Claire continued to record on the paper.

In fact, with her current memory, she does not need to rely on written memory, but this way of recording is a habitual action for her to organize her thoughts.

This recording action also makes it easier to concentrate.

Just as Claire was writing down her thoughts, the quaint key ring hanging on the armrest of the chair suddenly emitted a deep red light. Before she could react, it enveloped Claire in an instant.

When she regained her sight, Claire saw the gray fog that had seemingly saved her from the pollution last night before the "Goddess's Sword"...

Is it a goddess?
Claire saw a mysterious man standing not far away, his body shrouded in gray-white mist.

Before I could think about it, two voices, one male and one female, came from beside me, filled with panic, vigilance, fear and awe:

"Sir, where is this?"

"What do you want to do?"

(End of this chapter)