A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 270 The Cunning Rabbit's Third Burrow

The fog in Storm City dissipated, and it was already evening. Finally, the shimmering waters of the Tamas River under the setting sun could be clearly seen.

A young man arrived at an old, run-down, and small inn. The inn had no front desk, only the owner smoking cheap cigarettes and minding the business. He sized up the newcomer, who was wearing a newsboy cap with a hard top and a work uniform.

This is a young man from the countryside, who came to the big city with his parents' savings. The first thing he does is get himself a new outfit. People like this won't stay in your shop for more than a few days before obediently moving to the suburbs, closer to the docks or factories, to sleep in shared dormitories with their coworkers. The boss took a second look; the young man was well-proportioned, and his exposed arms were lean and muscular, indicating he had the potential to work hard.

"Checking in at a hotel."

It wasn't the local accent or the language. The boss was unsure again. Could it be an apprentice from a small town who came to Storm City seeking opportunities after completing his apprenticeship?

Rorschach hadn't expected his new outfit to evoke so many thoughts in the hotel owner's mind; he had gone to considerable trouble to choose this place to stay.

First, I returned to the Magic Guild and wrote a letter to the Storm Tower explaining what had happened. I also wrote to Master Kano, hoping he would also write to the mages at the Storm Tower to do me a favor. Then, using Rorschach's identification, I found an inn and booked a room.

The above was for the Knights' attention. Once in the room, Rorschach immediately jumped out the window under the cover of [Mirror Flower, Water Moon]. The fog hadn't lifted yet, making Rorschach's disguise incredibly easy. Afterward, he took off his Valois-style coat, had the carriage take him to the clothing shop the driver frequented to buy his current attire, and then looked for a third inn—his current location—to stay.

"Identity document." The boss exhaled a smoke ring without turning his head while facing Rorschach.

Luckily, there was the [Air Filter Bubble]. Rorschach stood still, not dodging at all, and took out a piece of paper.

The boss glanced at it, then covered it with his large, hairy hand and took it away. There were no identification documents, just crumpled banknotes: "You should at least register a name, right?" In his mind, Rorschach's identity had changed from apprentice to fugitive. Maybe he had committed a crime back home. Young people are capable of anything in a moment of impulse, and now he was in the kingdom's largest and most populous area, "hiding in plain sight."

Rorschach immediately uttered the first name he heard in Istani: "Bandi."

The owner nodded and made a note of it: "How many days will you stay?"

"Stay for three days first." He laid out a handful of coins, some shillings and some pence. The owner pulled out four shillings and sixpence, and tossed the young man a rusty key: "Breakfast is provided, other food and drinks are extra. Room 207, if you can read, I won't come up with you."

Rorschach's final destination was this cheap hotel. The wooden floors were riddled with insects and rodents, and there were stains of varying sizes everywhere. The air reeked of musty and sweaty smells. If it weren't for that unexpected incident, he could at least sleep in a relatively clean bed.

"Never mind, that shop doesn't change the sheets either." Luo Xia moved all the sheets and blankets aside and took out his sleeping bag from his storage ring.

It was still early before bedtime, so Rorschach bought some pea soup and bread and ate in his room while sorting out the current situation.

Something was wrong. The series of events felt too coincidental. Why would the Knights of the Order search the hotel the moment he checked in? Although they were after the previous missing tenant. After calming down, Rorschach stopped equating the "missing tenant" with "Teacher Caroline," because the only evidence was his letter.

His letter had not been altered; the name "Caroline" was clearly written on it. Rorschach also remembered that the content he wrote at the Stormwind guild's headquarters had not been altered either.

In the words of the elves, they were a special case among the "madmen," not only immune to the curse that erases traces of a person's existence, but also unable to have their writing altered. Moreover, Cano remembered Caroline. The contents of the Royal Academy's reply were unknown, but Rorschach believed they were also unaffected by the curse.

So the effect is limited to Istani, or even just Storm City.

Rorschach witnessed the letter being distorted, so it must have triggered an effect. When the letter was delivered to Istani, it was clearly still intact, and when Rorschach opened it himself, it was still the original text. So when did it change?

The first time was when the guild staff saw the letter, and the text had changed.

The second time, Rorschach restored the information to Benedict, causing the distortion to reappear.

So it's a human! The local residents of Storm City will change upon seeing it. Rorschach has grasped some of the rules of the curse, but he still doesn't understand many details, such as how "local" is defined, and whether he's not special, but simply hasn't been assimilated or corrupted by some force because he's new here.

He glanced at the deep night sky over Storm City outside the window and shivered.

Calming down, Rorschach decided to resort to a last resort. He took out the Pearl of Balan. Ever since the pearl dragged Rorschach into the predicted scenario last time, the boy had become more wary and cautious about the remnant soul of the God of Deception, no longer feeding it magic and transmutation dust. But today's situation left him no choice but to use it.

He simply provided "yes" or "no" options on the paper, then infused the bead with a small amount of magic before asking, "Does the Shadow City truly exist?"

Rorschach rolled the bead, and it stopped at the "Yes" option.

Benedict didn't try to fool me with old urban legends, or to put it another way, "urban legends are all true." Rorschach, on the other hand, was familiar with similar premises, such as the Quincy's Wandenreich existing in the shadow of the Seireitei.

He added a little more magic to restore the luster of the feathers inside the bead, and then asked again, "Is Caroline, a teacher at the Imperial Royal Magic Academy, in the Shadow City?" Since "Caroline" was a common name, Rorschach added a qualifier.

The bead hovered on the paper for a while, seemingly disturbed, but it still gave an affirmative answer.

Should he let it directly present the scene like last time? Rorschach felt it would be best to see where the teacher was directly, but he was also worried about letting the bead invade his consciousness again.

"Let me ask first," Rorschach decided. "Can you see where Ms. Caroline is?"

The bead rolled to "No" this time.

Finally, Rorschach posed the question he wanted to confirm: "Is the Elf Benedict Conch related to the Mother Earth, or is it related to the return of the Virgin Mary to the Order and her objects of worship?" He had originally intended to ask the Mother Earth directly, but fearing that her status was too high and the bead would refuse, he changed his question to:

Bang, bang, bang. The bead bounced on the hard wooden table, its answer—"Yes!"

Rorschach paused, but since it was related, he rephrased his question: "Was Benedict a follower of that being?"

The bead stopped bouncing and rolled off the paper, its feathers shimmering.

Is this some kind of bargaining? Rorschach infused some more magic into the bead, and it finally answered, "No."

"Is Professor Caroline's disappearance related to that being?"

"Yes."

After asking a series of questions, the bead seemed to finally lose its strength. Even when Rorschach infused it with magic, the feather could not regain its luster or make a choice to answer Rorschach's questions.

Thankfully, Rorschach breathed a sigh of relief. The tasks of finding people and tracking clues seemed to converge on one point. It appeared that going to the Shadow City was now imperative, but he absolutely could not be led in by the suspicious Benedict.

It would be best if I wasn't alone. Rorschach set up the warning system, crawled into his sleeping bag, and before falling asleep, he thought of a face mostly covered by a beard.

(End of this chapter)