Secrets: Priestess

Chapter 20 Joining the Team Mission
"Gui'an."

The straight black-haired woman walking gracefully beside her responded to the greetings from the female students on both sides of the road with impeccable manners.

Following the black-haired woman, Claire actually saw jealous looks from some of the girls on both sides of the road who kept greeting her.

This was something new to Claire.

In other words, in the eyes of these girls, the charm of the elegant woman next to her is far greater than hers?
Claire couldn't help but look curiously at Serenad, the student council president of the academy who was leading her.

She is a beauty, but I don’t think she can be better than herself, who is not a witch but is better than a witch after all her experiences.

Claire combed her long hair into a braid. On this mission, at Serena's suggestion, she did not wear the inspector uniform issued to official members of the Nighthawks.

Instead, he was wearing a dark wizard robe that almost reached his ankles.

"Although I've heard that the student council members at Saint Selina College have unparalleled prestige among the student body, after experiencing it for myself, I still think it's exaggerated."

"Also, although I was forced to accept the status quo, because of my female identity, I was assigned to the Saint Selina Girls' Academy... The captain really knows how to assign people."

He muttered to himself in boredom as he walked along a long ginkgo path. Following Serenad's lead, he came to a deserted area with few people around, until he reached an abandoned church building.

"This is an old school building from more than ten years ago. When the new school building was completed, we planned to renovate it, but the project was delayed and the whole area became abandoned."

"A student came here, was frightened, and remains unconscious... Ms. Meazza, you have also met this student."

Claire tapped her temples twice to activate her clairvoyance.

The pupils became darker.

Things invisible to ordinary people appear in the field of vision.

There were twisted, narrow figures clinging to the wall of the abandoned church building, staring at her. There was also a row of big-headed dolls standing upside down on the eaves, staring at her with their huge eyes.

It's quite lively.

It was so lively that Claire exclaimed, "This is too normal."

"What's too normal?" Serena looked around at the overgrown weeds and was stunned.

Serenade is a reserve "Sleepless One" trained by the church. She has a certain understanding of the mysterious side and does not need to consider confidentiality.

"In a place like this, it's normal for spirits to wander around. And I use my clairvoyance to observe..." Claire paused.

Serenader clenched her palms. "Didn't you see anything?"

"There's a tall, narrow figure stuck to the wall, staring at us. There's also a bunch of big-eyed dolls hanging upside down from the eaves..." Claire warned, "One is coming closer, almost touching your nose."

Claire's reminder made Serena feel a little itchy on the tip of her nose. The elegant Guild Master forced a smile and said, "Ms. Meazza, stop joking."

"I'm not kidding." Claire patted the big-headed doll's head. These were basically harmless little guys that couldn't even hurt people.

"But I didn't see any threatening guys..." Claire looked at Serenad, wanting to tease this elegant and quiet woman.

But when her spiritual vision fell on the other person's long, straight black hair, she saw a strange black "thread".

Claire was silent.

Then Claire sighed and said, "Then please tell me, Miss Serena, what unusual behavior have you shown recently?"

Serena looked at Claire in confusion, obviously not understanding what she was saying. After a pause, she hesitated and said, "Ms. Meazza, are you saying that I... that there's something wrong with me?"

Claire reached out and lifted up Serena's black hair, trying to pull out the black thread, but she couldn't.

But when Claire touched the black thread, she seemed to see the unconscious girl crying. This was because the black thread had partially sucked out the girl's spirit, causing her to fall into a coma.

Unable to pull it, Claire stopped making any rash moves and told Serenade her own judgment:
"The root cause must be related to you. Currently, there's only one person unconscious, but if things continue to develop, there will probably be more and more victims... Then, you'll have to ask Dunn Smith for help."

As a candidate for the Sleepless, Serenad knew Dunn's name and knew that he was the strongest Nighthawk in Tingen.

Serenade's expression changed slightly, and her brows furrowed. "But I haven't come into contact with anything unusual."

"It's not necessarily something you find unusual." Although this was Claire's first solo mission, she had read many Nighthawk logs and provided experienced guidance: "Think about what you've done recently that you haven't done before, or what you've come into contact with before?"

After hearing this, Serenade's expression changed slightly. After hesitating for a moment, she took out a pocket watch from her pocket. When she opened it, there was immediately a small photo of the two of them.

There were two girls with sweet smiles, holding hands and standing close to each other. They both had an elegant temperament, the kind of elegance that was somewhat similar to Serena's.

Serenade's hand, which was tightly gripping the pocket watch, turned pale. She whispered nostalgically, "It's time to graduate. I found this in the corner behind the cabinet when I was cleaning the student union."

"Who are they?" Claire asked.

Serenade smiled wryly and said, "They are seniors I met in the student union two years ago. As you can see, they were a couple. Later, over a year ago, I heard that they eloped due to a lot of pressure. I often think about them and wonder if they are happy now... I didn't expect to find this on graduation, so I kept it as a souvenir."

After hearing this, Claire stroked her chin and suggested, "Try throwing away the pocket watch."

Serenade looked hesitant.

Claire noticed the other person's concerns and changed her approach: "I didn't ask you to throw it hard... Put it on the rock far away and try running back."

This time, Serenade obeyed the command and walked towards the stone that Claire pointed at.

Having read the school rules of the girls' college that running is prohibited, Claire shouted again, "Run."

Serenade jogged off, put the pocket watch down, and jogged back to Claire.

Claire could see clearly with her clairvoyance—

The black silk thread that she couldn't pull apart really separated from her black hair and fell on the pocket watch when Serenade put down the pocket watch.

But after Serenade put it down and ran back to her, the black thread seemed to have sensed something and quickly twisted towards her like a snake!

Because Serena ran a step further, the black thread actually twisted towards Claire's feet!
Claire took two steps back swiftly.

The black thread turned a corner and wrapped around Serenad, who was closest to it, then went up and disappeared into the black hair again.

After watching the whole process and making sure it couldn't be lost, Claire said, "Okay, go get it back."

Serenade didn't ask or make a fuss, and cooperated to pick up the pocket watch again.

Claire was now certain that this was a resentful entity with the potential to develop into an evil spirit.

According to the experience of the Nighthawks, as long as these resentful entities have not yet developed into evil spirits, there are usually two ways to deal with them:
One is to completely eliminate the opponent through the ability to eliminate spirits;
The second is to find the root cause of the problem, start from the root of the incident, and let the resentment dissipate naturally.

"The extraordinary ability to exorcise spirits..."

"At the moment, I can only perform a simple ritual magic and call on the goddess to solve the problem..."

"Or maybe try shooting the pocket watch?"

She was fully armed in her robes on this trip, but the Nighthawks' records showed that using physical means to solve such problems had a 50% chance of making the situation more complicated.

Claire gave up these thoughts and decided to try to find the origin of the incident first.

(End of this chapter)