In the name of the true god

He waited for me for a full twenty years.

Vincent Monroe's brief remark nearly stunned Jude. Fortunately, he knew he couldn't linger in front of a single cell for long, and he also knew that learning the law of similarity was not something that could be done overnight.

So in just two or three seconds, he forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart, slowly closed the partition, and replied in a low voice at a rapid pace: "I can't stay here with you in front of them any longer. Let's ask each other questions first, and then answer them together next time we meet."

"I have no questions," Vincent Monroe said, waiting for Jude to ask his questions.

"Okay. Why did you wait for me for twenty whole years? Also, how can the law of similarity be applied safely?"

"throat."

After the questions were asked, the partition closed at the same time.

Jude took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and pretended that nothing had happened. He and his colleagues, who had not noticed anything amiss, carried the sewage buckets to empty the waste.

7:30 p.m.

Special prison building and temporary rest room for prison guards.

Jude, still subtly tense, changed into casual clothes and planned to wait outside the building to go home with Connor after get off work.

Fat Allen locked the wardrobe and asked, "Jude, what do you do after get off work every day?"

"Take a bath, listen to the radio for a while, and then go to sleep," Jude said honestly.

"Want to go to the pub for a drink? My treat."

Jude chuckled lightly: "So generous?"

"If you hadn't generously returned my winnings to me today, I'd probably have worked for nothing for days. Isn't it only right that I treat you to a drink?" Fat Allen said gratefully.

If Jude weren't so preoccupied with other things, he would really like to go for a drink with him to relax, and then go to a ballroom dance with the vain Colin, living a carefree life where all he had to do was enjoy himself.

Unfortunately, the circumstances simply didn't allow it, so he could only politely decline: "I appreciate your kind offer, but I'm always very tired after get off work lately, so I need to go home and rest early."

"Alright," the fat man, Allen, didn't insist. "Then we'll find another time."

"Um."

Jude said goodbye to his colleagues one by one and went alone to the outside of the special prison building, patiently waiting for his brother Connor to get off work.

While waiting, Vincent Munro's words kept echoing in his mind—

I have waited for you for twenty years.

This sentence contains a lot of information...

As a follower of Edmund, Vincent Monroe was imprisoned in the capital's heavy prison when he was one year old.

The brother, who works in the prison, has never even mentioned his existence to his colleagues.

In other words, Vincent Monroe could only learn of his identity from Edmund.

So he voluntarily went to prison?

Makes no sense.

If someone wants to impart their knowledge of the law of similarity, they can simply remain hidden in the shadows, waiting for the right opportunity to meet them.

Why must one endure twenty years of torture in prison?

The only reasonable explanation is—

In the normal timeline where no interference occurred, Vincent Monroe did not know himself. He was imprisoned solely for his failed assassination attempt on King Leonard of the Kingdom of Florence.

Then, after working in the prison, he discovered that Edmund was a third-tier Resonance Mage and a follower of Edmund. So, the next time he entered the mystical space, he asked Edmund to tell him about himself after he met Vincent Monroe in the future, and to ask him to help him in the prison.

Therefore, the reason for Vincent Monroe's imprisonment became ambiguous from the moment he became involved in the timeline.

In short, he must be in prison.

If he weren't in prison, none of this would make sense.

But the problem is...

I haven't even started getting involved yet!

The original plan was to collect all the major events of the past 29 years and then select one of them to test on Edmund.

Now that the intervention has occurred, doesn't that foreshadow that I will definitely get involved in the future?

This is equivalent to the fact that what is happening now is actually caused by your future self influencing your past!

What if I deliberately don't ask Edmund for a favor when I see him next time?

Vincent Monroe would not know his information, let alone contact him.

Because he couldn't reliably contact Vincent Monroe, he ended up entrusting Edmund with the task, thus creating a perfect closed loop?

Jude's pupils constricted slightly, and a chill ran down his spine.

Following this line of reasoning, it seems that many things, which appear to be caused by one's own active influence, are also as if they were predetermined.

Self-intervention can lead to a lack of self-intervention.

If you don't intervene, you'll end up intervening yourself.

How terrifying...

This one thing alone has made my mind a complete mess.

If we intervene too much in the future, we won't even be able to distinguish which events are from the original timeline and which events we intervened in. Wouldn't it be easy to fall into a cycle of intervention, non-intervention, intervention, and non-intervention?

No...

We must be more careful about this kind of thing in the future...

Once intervention results in a negative outcome, it's best to accept it and avoid needlessly going against the result...

"What are you thinking about?"

Jude snapped out of his daze and found his brother Connor standing in front of him: "...It's nothing."

"Let's go." Connor walked towards the main entrance. "I asked a friend to collect a batch of newspaper specials you need during the day."

"Oh? What year is the earliest one?" Jude pressed.

"I'm not too sure either. A friend told me that the newspaper's warehouse is overflowing with junk, and he bought a whole bunch for less than two gold coins." Connor walked up to the car parked outside the prison and pointed to the back seat. "That should keep you occupied for several months."

Jude looked in the direction Connor pointed and saw that the back seat of the car was piled full of at least several hundred newspapers.

That should be enough to keep me occupied for quite a while...

"Thanks, bro." Jude took out his wallet, intending to pay for the newspaper himself.

"You don't need to pay for this little bit of money, get in the car." Connor stopped Jude, then got into the driver's seat and started the car.

"...Okay." Jude had no choice but to put away his wallet, take the car back to Hearthstone Street, and together with Connor, carry the heavy newspapers into the house in two trips.

"Hmm..." Connor hadn't been here for several days, so he took a tour of the place. "The cleanliness is well maintained."

As Jude hung the clothes on the hanger, he replied, "The space isn't big, but it's still quite easy to tidy up."

"Working in the heresy ward, nothing bad has happened, right?" Connor asked again.

"No. It's just delivering some food to the heretics and emptying the sewage bin. Nothing serious." Jude walked into the living room. "Would you like some water or coffee?"

"No need, I'll head back now. If anything comes up, remember to let me know." Connor didn't linger, offering a brief instruction before leaving.

Jude went to the balcony and made sure Connor had driven away before quickly returning to the newspaper to check it.

These newspapers, with their strong smell of ink, all came from the Florence Times.

There are special editions summarizing major events each year, as well as regular daily newspapers.

Jude first separated the special edition from the regular newspaper, and then focused on arranging the special edition according to time.

It took more than an hour to complete just this one task.

"The year 411 of the Divine Calendar... Wow... that's quite a long time..." Around nine o'clock in the evening, Jude moved a stack of special publications to the living room, sat on the sofa, and carefully flipped through them. "Hmm... there's no 419, but there are 420 and 421..."

[Florence Times Annual Special Issue]

【神教历421年1月31日发行｜售价：10铜克｜第27卷·年度特刊】

[Annual Major Events - 420 Years in Review:]

On January 17th, 420 of the Divine Calendar, after twelve mediation attempts by the Cardinals of the Holy Fire Church, tensions between the Duchy of Agnes and the Zara Empire escalated again. It is understood that this conflict stemmed from the unresolved issue of the allocation of mining rights along the border between the two countries.

On January 28th, 420th year of the Christian calendar, the Observatory of the Clock City University in the Principality of Alsani released an observation report stating that over the past fifty years, the ice sheet in the far north has been expanding southward at a measurable rate, and the report predicted that temperatures in the following year might once again fall below the lower limit.

On February 11th, 420th year of the Divine Calendar, King Aaron Cross of the Kingdom of Nordonia officially deposed his eldest son, Mona Cross, from his position as crown prince and appointed his second son, Ryder Cross, as the new crown prince. Previously, Mona Cross, who had been suffering from a serious illness, had been reported to be critically ill on several occasions. This change of crown prince is expected to stabilize the internal situation of the Kingdom of Nordonia.

……

[Florence Times Annual Special Issue]

【神教历422年1月31日发行｜售价：10铜克｜第28卷·年度特刊】

[Annual Major Events - 421 Years in Review:]

On January 1st, 421 of the Divine Calendar, the Emperor of the Sara Empire repeatedly missed public events, with the Cardinals of the Water Church performing ceremonial duties on his behalf. There was speculation that the Emperor might be seriously ill, but the Church stated that he was in meditation and recovering well.

On January 21, 420 of the Divine Calendar, the Free City-State Alliance announced a port maintenance tax to be levied on merchant ships of the four Holy Churches, but this was jointly rejected by the four Holy Churches. Meanwhile, the four Holy Churches did not respond to the issue of their ships occupying civilian berths in large numbers.

What is all this nonsense...?

Jude's head throbbed more and more as he looked at it.

He had assumed that heretics would appear more or less in major events, but after reviewing the two years' worth of special issues, there was not a single report about heretics.

Could it be that Edmund hasn't made any significant impact on the world in the past two years?

That's normal...

After all, Edmund in 419 was only a second-tier entangled wizard. Even if he could rise to the fourth tier in the next two years, he probably wouldn't be able to cause too much trouble.

Look behind you...

Jude quickly flipped through the newspaper and finally pulled out the special edition from the year 427 of the Divine Calendar.

really.

In the year Edmund was publicly executed, a special issue finally featured related reports:

[Florence Times Annual Special Issue]

【神教历428年1月31日发行｜售价：10铜克｜第34卷·年度特刊】

[Annual Major Events - 427 Years in Review:]

……

[On May 8th, 427 of the Divine Calendar, Crown Prince Leonard of the Kingdom of Florence personally led his guards to capture the number one heretic—the seventh-order traitorous wizard Edmund Ravenscrow! The heretical evil organization was successfully dismantled! The three-year manhunt has come to an end!]

Edmund, known as the most powerful entanglement wizard in history, raised the Law of Contact to the seventh level before his death?!

Jude didn't know whether this was considered high or low.

To put it bluntly, Edmund, at the seventh rank, is already the most powerful entanglement wizard in history.

To put it simply, the law of contact is divided into three major levels and nine stages.

Ok……

It seems that if I want to break through to the eighth or ninth rank in the future, I won't be able to rely on anyone...

Jude continued to roll backward.

On August 11th, 427 of the Divine Calendar, three months after his arrest, Edmund Ravenscrown, one of history's most threatening heretical leaders, was publicly executed in the Royal Square of the Kingdom of Florence. The execution was carried out personally by Crown Prince Leonard of Florence. During the execution, numerous heretics who had infiltrated the crowd attempted to rescue Edmund Ravenscrown, but were all captured by the Holy Church, who were prepared in advance.

Jude squinted.

The report made no mention of the year of divine intervention that Edmund had predicted before his death.

Was it deliberately concealed to avoid causing unrest?

But even a bartender vividly remembers it, which is enough to prove from a certain perspective that suppression is actually a disguised form of encouragement.

The more the Holy Church tries to block it, the more the prophecies of the Year of Descent will sweep across the world.

only……

Why did Edmund make such a prophecy before his death?