Mystery: Survival from the Secret Doll

Chapter 248 247 Feather Pen

"What clue?"

"Tingen University checked the books Welch McGowan borrowed and the list of people who entered and left the library on the day the Antigonus family notes went missing."

Ms. Daly, with her face covered in strange eyeshadow and blush, smiled and said:

"Among them, their Beyonder who is good at divination discovered something very interesting."

"Among the people who entered and exited the library that day, one person did not register, and the corresponding divination was also interfered with and could not be completed."

Inside Tingen University, especially in several places that are clearly related to the occult, there is a large-scale ritual magic monitoring. This kind of monitoring cannot even deceive Sequence 4 Saints or the corresponding "Level 1" Seals. The Beyonders of Tingen University have completed the inspection of the entire ritual magic and found the mark left by the person who neither has a registration nor can be divined.

Although according to the feedback from the ritual magic, the intruder did not do much.

The intruder who had performed a counter-divination and counter-prophecy on himself might not have known that the library was monitored by ritual magic...

In short, because the invader himself had some unnecessary anti-divination and anti-prophecy, the person in charge of screening this part of the problem at Tingen University discovered the problem.

"What a coincidence, we know that person."

"Who is it?" asked Pettigrew.

"Nix Miller of the Secret Order, the Sequence 6 Faceless Man. At the time, he was using one of the identities we were monitoring."

"Don't you think it's interesting? He performed a counter-divination and a counter-prophecy. As a faceless man, he used one of the familiar images. On the day when the Antigonus family notebook was lost, he happened to sneak into the Tingen University Library..."

This doesn't seem like he's trying to hide himself at all.

Even Klein sensed something was wrong.

"It's just like live bait!"

In an ordinary building near Khoyi University in Tingen.

The crimson moon outside the window was blocked by heavy curtains, and the brightness of the mineral lamp was extremely low, making this temporarily rented study room, which had few decorations and books, seem a little gloomy.

In the study near the window, an ordinary-looking feather pen stood upright on the desk without anyone holding it. It was not still, but like a clockwork, controlled by an invisible hand, writing and drawing on the white paper on the table.

Words continued to appear on the paper to form new paragraphs, and then pen and ink were used to cross out all the previous paragraphs.

It is both reasonable and unreasonable. It is "alive" but like a puppet being manipulated. It has fallen into some kind of error, is constantly fooled and deceived, and constantly composes new and more story lines, but keeps falling into a cycle of self-denial.

This continued until the door was opened from the outside, and a middle-aged man with dark golden hair, one blind eye, and wearing a pure black clergy robe, with facial features as deep as sculptures, walked in and picked up the quill that was standing upright on the desk.

The quill kept sliding across the paper, writing down word after word, outlining story after story, but then kept erasing it, falling into an infinite loop of contradictory actions, and only then did it stop.

The middle-aged man ignored the many crossed-out words written with the quill pen. He read through the thick stack of written and crossed-out papers page by page until he reached the very beginning.

Written on the fine white paper was:

"Poor Ince Zangwill failed his advancement. He couldn't become a Sequence 4 Undead. The Pope of the Church of Evernight believed this was because Ince Zangwill didn't have enough faith in the Goddess. Perhaps he was influenced by the fallen Death God of the Fourth Epoch? After all, the Death God Salinger isn't truly dead yet."

"..."

"Influenced by the Pen of Alesuhod, Ince Zangwill, who failed to ascend, decided to take it with him and leave the Church of Evernight's headquarters, the Church of Tranquility... He vowed to become a demigod and make those who despised him, and the Church of Evernight, pay the price..."

"Ince Zangwill succeeded! He obtained the Pen of Alesuhod! It was a coincidence. The ritual magic in the Tranquil Church that day failed for unknown reasons, and the seal was temporarily broken... This was a perfect opportunity, even if Ince Zangwill didn't understand why such a coincidence happened..."

"He took the Pen of Aleshod and some information about the city of Tingen in the Kingdom of Loen and fled from the Church of Tranquility."

"He swore that he would become a demigod and trample under his feet those colleagues who once looked down on him..."

"Poor Ince Zangwill, preaching his own grand ambitions, ah, poor Ince Zangwill, didn't he notice? He looks like a clown in a play, arranged by others..."

"He is indeed a clown who amuses himself. This is not a derogatory description by Al-Suhod, but a straightforward and indisputable fact..."

"Of course, regarding the aforementioned plot, regarding the fact that the Church of Evernight's seal on the Pen of Alesukhod temporarily failed due to unknown reasons... Alesukhod's Pen discovered this unusual coincidence. After all, such unnatural coincidences wouldn't appear in a story written by Alesukhod's Pen..."

"After this, the Church of Evernight's response was too indifferent, so indifferent that they didn't even send the corresponding saints or angels to try to snipe Ince Zangwill. This is extremely strange, but as a top psychologist, Alesukhod's Pen feels that it can be used..."

"Alesukhod believes that there are no coincidences or accidents in this world without reason. There are only inevitable developments within accidents... Poor Ince Zangwill, after escaping the monitoring range of the Tranquility Church, he thought he was no longer under surveillance, but he had no idea..."

A large area here has been crossed out.

"Ah, the Pen of Alesuhod has discovered the source of this anomaly."

"The unfortunate Ince Zangwill, after escaping intact from the sight of the angels in the Quiet Church, saw Don Eggers and Nicolas Flamel."

"This is Sequence 1 of the Diviner's Path, Sequence 1 of the Thief's Path. The Pen of Alesuhod also understood the source of this coincidence and why the Church of Evernight cooperated..."

"The Pen of Al-Suhod feels that it should stay in the basement of the Quiet Church..."

"The worms have infested poor Ince Zangwill..."

A large area here has been crossed out.

Below, some of the sloppy writing that belonged to Al-Suhod was replaced by neat handwriting.

"Ince Zangwill has decided to go to Tingen City. This is a fixed destiny and also his fate."

"Ince Zangwill understood the meaning of his life and the pursuit he needed to make."

“Remember, this is the best of times, it is the worst of times.”

"Ince Zangwill is satisfied with his future and the contribution he will make."

"He's great."

After a while, Ince Zangwill, who was blind in one eye and had a face that looked like it had been carved, sat behind a desk. In front of the desk was a stack of folded white papers, with a blank sheet on top.

He looked towards the gate.

"Come in."

Ince Zangwill speaks.

The door was opened from the outside in.

"Mr. Zangwill."

He was a young man wearing a silk top hat, but his expression was a little dull and stiff, seeming a little unnatural.

He is not a living person, but a puppet, a corpse controlled by the puppet master.

Nix Miller, Sequence 5 Puppet Master of the Secret Order.

He was one of the members of the secret order who came to Tingen City to try to steal the Antigonus family notebook, which obviously contained many problems.

Not long ago, after receiving instructions from the upper echelons of the Secret Order, he had already attempted to contact Ince Zangwill, the former Archbishop who had defected from the Church of Evernight, through the Marionette on the second night after arriving in Tingen City.

In cooperation with the renegade Archbishop of the Church of Evernight, he obtained a more accurate time to act. With the help of the gatekeeper and the terrifying seal, Nix Miller soon broke into the library of Tingen University and tried to steal the notes that were highly valued by the top leaders of the secret order.

During this process, Nix Miller, due to Tingen University's own anomalies and bad luck, missed the notebook kept in the Tingen University library. The notebook was taken by Welch McGowan. During this time, Nix Miller has been trying to find the whereabouts of the notebook. This was his stepping stone to becoming a trickster!

Now, Nicks Miller has found the whereabouts of the notebook.

But he did not come this time to get help from the gatekeeper or the terrifying seal in the other's hand.

"Mr. Zangwill, I have decided to leave Tingen City."

The marionette's voice sounded somewhat inhuman and dull, but Ince Zangwill's eyebrows twitched slightly. He turned his head and looked at the marionette, then asked in a low voice, "Why?"

"I think you should have found the notebook."

The Marionette smiled stiffly, looking a bit strange. His voice was as hoarse as the wind from a blower. "Tingen, it's really dangerous."

"So, I think I should find someone else."

Having said this, the Marionette paused for a moment, as if observing the expression of the former Archbishop of the Church of Evernight in front of him.

When Ince Zangwill heard this, his expression did not change at all, as if he was thinking.

But not long after, the former archbishop nodded and smiled at the marionette.

"can."

Upon hearing the reply, the marionette wearing a silk hat bowed to Ince Zangwill and left the spot.

Nicks Miller, who was hiding in the dark, breathed a sigh of relief.

He looked at this city, which seemed normal in the eyes of the Puppet Master, but seemed unreal, inexplicably giving people a sense of horror, strangeness, and extreme madness. He planned to ignore the mission of the Secret Society and directly leave Tingen City to hide in Feysac or Intis for a while.

"This city is not normal..."

After just less than a month here, this city brought Nicks Miller an indescribable sense of absurdity and horror.

He would occasionally wake up in the middle of the night, and dream that he was suspended in mid-air, swaying...

This city, on the surface, is calm, peaceful, and orderly, and seems to be normal, but it is this "normality" that gives Knicks Miller a false and terrifying illusion.

After tearing off the disguise that decorates the surface, the true appearance of this city will shock everyone, right?
Nicks Miller twitched the corners of his mouth. He wasn't sure if this was a feeling he had only himself, but he didn't dare to stay here alone anyway.

A magician doesn't perform unprepared, nor would he know there's something wrong, giving people a sense of foreboding, and yet go ahead without a care in the world.

With this in mind, Nicks Miller looked at the several puppets he had transformed into, wondering whether he should throw away the puppets made by these Tingen Extraordinary People.

But resentful spirits are really rare. As a puppet master whose digestion is about to be completed, such a puppet is hard to come by and can only be obtained by chance.

"Let's just throw it away."

These puppets sometimes gave him, the puppet master, the feeling that they were all alive...

I always feel chilly.

Just as Nicks Miller was about to release the spiritual string that controlled the secret puppet and leave alone, his expression suddenly froze.

He saw that his secret doll, without being controlled by him, slowly smiled at him.

Nicks Miller was in a trance for a moment. He had just seen this smile.

That was Ince Zangwill's smile.

In a trance, Knicks Miller felt his body floating in the air. He saw his resentful spirit puppet stretching out its hands, plucking the illusory and transparent black threads like plucking the strings of a guitar.

That is the spiritual thread. Whose spiritual thread is that?

Nicks Miller's brain became stagnant, and then the secret puppet master of the secret order, hanging in the air, also smiled.

It turned out to be the thread of his spirit body.

Not surprising then.

Ince Zangwill had been sitting behind his desk since the secret doll left, without moving at all.

Not long after, there was another knock on the door.

"Mr. Zangwill."

He was a young man wearing a silk top hat, his expression lively and enthusiastic.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Nix Miller, of the Secret Order, Sequence 5 of the Diviner Path, and a Puppet Master."

After saying that, he smiled.

It was exactly the same smile as Ince Zangwill's.

“We all have our mission.”