Pushing open the wooden door to the archive room, the elf’s lifeless eyes swept across the entire room, which was very tidy—a sight that struck everyone upon their first glimpse of this space.
The elf turned around, took down the "Needs Tidying" sign from the hook behind the door, and hung it on the doorknob.
"Need some tidying up, want me to help?" the halfling worker asked.
The elf smiled and shook his head, then glanced at the cat sitting on the counter, which gave him a look before indifferently lowering its head to lick its paw.
Taking a step back, the elf closed the door.
Turning around, he quickly reached the criminal case file cabinet, pulled out seven case files from the last three years, opened the first one, and flipped through rapidly until he stopped at the cousins of the Logan family. He frowned slightly, flipped through a few more pages, and when he saw Lady Aurelia’s file, his brow relaxed somewhat. He then flipped through another dozen pages until he came upon the old noble who had fallen to his death from the roof.
"Buddy, how’s it going?" the halfling pushed open the door.
"The files are out of order, my old friend. Would you mind helping me sort them out?" the elf looked up, pulling at the corners of his mouth with a smile that, to the worker, looked devilish.
"Spare me from Heatherwood’s, would you?" the halfling quickly stepped back and paused before closing the door behind him, "Need me to order you a meal from the Thananese store?"
"A mixed vegetable soup, a vegetarian meal," the elf nodded, "and two more vegetarian dishes."
"I knew you’d like it, hard worker," said the halfling, closing the door behind him.
The elf continued flipping through the files while beginning to sort them. Eventually, he had meticulously arranged the criminal records from 1795 to 1801.
The elf stuffed the files back into their proper place, and the owner of the lifeless eyes once again scanned the archive room. Then he noticed the squirrel outside the window, munching happily on an acorn. When it felt the elf’s gaze, it leaped down from the windowsill.
Walking up to the window, the elf noticed it had been opened recently, but considering that it was common for someone to open the windows for ventilation while searching for files, he didn’t mind, just watching the squirrel climb the tree and head north along the branches.
After a moment of silence, the elf closed the window and headed towards the exit.
Upon opening the door, he saw the cat, which also saw him and let out a piercing howl before dashing away out of sight.
Lady Olive lay on a lounger prepared by a young girl from the Goddess of Harvest Church, feeling bored to death. It was the apprentice Maya’s second day off, and she felt the girl deserved a chance, although Lady Olive doubted these children could solve Gaiate’s problems.
Lady Olive even wondered if they could protect themselves.
But... never mind, one shouldn’t stop the children from trying to help their father. After all, their intentions were good, and it seemed unlikely they’d cause any unnecessary trouble or encounter any danger.
With that thought, she saw her panther pet making its way into the hall—transformed into the appearance of a cat in the human world, courtesy of spirits.
It was a small creature brought over by the Thananese, known as a Thainese Cat. They were adept at dealing with common rats, and while they couldn’t hunt giant rats, giant rats also couldn’t take down a fully grown Thainese Cat.
"Lolo, where did you run off to?" Lady Olive spread her arms, allowing the little one to jump into her embrace. The cat mewed a few times. Being fluent in creature languages, Lady Olive frowned, "You say you saw a devotee of the Mimicking Bird?"
The cat continued to meow and gestured with its front paw in the direction of the south.
"You’re saying you soul-linked with another Thainese Cat and saw that guy... in a hall?"
The cat nodded and then began meowing again.
Lady Olive listened to her magic pet’s calls and eventually looked up, "You’re saying you saw my apprentice and her friends?"
The cat nodded vigorously.
"The places they’d go with a hall... the town hall, humans really are an interesting race. Come on, Lolo, let’s go find that old monkey." She let the cat down, tossed the blanket off her legs, and the 17-year-old Panso girl, looking nothing like her age, made her way unobstructed. After inquiring with several guards, she finally found her old monkey at the training ground, "Old Hoffman, my magic pet saw the devotee of the Mimicking Bird."
The old monkey, who had been watching the apprentices’ sparring, froze for a moment and then furrowed his brow, "Devotee of the Mimicking Bird, where?"
"Lolo said it connected with a Thainese Cat and saw the followers of the Mimicking Bird and my follower Maya," Mrs. Aurelia spoke all in one breath before leaning down to pick up her pet. "You have to believe Lolo, he wouldn’t mistake that."
"Even if he did, based on your warning, I must still take people over to have a look. Guards, where is Colin?"
"Your Excellency, Sir Colin went with Lady Camilla from the Church of Justice to visit Mr. Mischael’s house today."
Hearing this response, old Hoffman sighed and stood up, "This is the trouble with having too few apprentices – there’s no one available to run an errand. Aurelia, I will accompany you to see what’s going on."
"No problem, I will summon my guards right now," Aurelia replied with a smile.
Old Hoffman, however, was fraught with anxiety. He was now beginning to doubt the rumors – rumors that Malin was the spokesperson for the God of Misfortune on earth, even some people said he was the divine incarnation of the God of Misfortune. Old Hoffman initially did not believe it; how long had it been since the God of Misfortune had shown any divine manifestation, especially at a time when even the Goddess of Fortune had perished? Who would believe such rumors?
But now, it seemed that wherever his young apprentice went, trouble followed. The last time in Parol City, things had exploded into chaos the moment he arrived, though in the end, those cults of the Evil God and the Chaos Folk were left so devastated that they lost their minds. Nonetheless, each explosion along the way had indeed cast a certain shadow over old Hoffman.
Perhaps it was time to test the boy’s divinity.
But such a test was better left undone if possible – after all, if it turned out he was anything divine, then the child would truly be like a cub with gold in a bustling market – vulnerable. Ten thousand Mowish a month wasn’t much for the upper-middle tiers of the Supernatural Realm, and with so many churches supporting Malin, even if someone was tempted, they likely lacked the courage to act.
Yet divinity and ten thousand Mowish were entirely different matters. Once a thing became connected to the divine, its value increased dramatically, making ten thousand Mowish seem like a mere trifle in the face of divinity.
In the end, old Hoffman decided to keep this concern to himself. So what if he was the God of Misfortune? Could the God of Misfortune really harm his own niece? And as for an old thing like him, he had already lived long enough.
"Let’s go." With this thought in mind, old Hoffman took the walking stick offered by the guard.
"Milani is back!" With Maya’s call out, Malin saw the little squirrel scramble down from the tree. The tiny creature made swift leaps before finally jumping onto Malin’s head with a vigorous bounce, immediately starting to chatter away.
Having learned the psychic power to communicate with animals from Mrs. Aurelia, Maya listened for a while before looking at her brother, "There definitely is a traitor. After we left, that elf named Heatherwood from the staff went into the archive room and browsed through the files."
Milani hopped onto Malin’s hand, chattering away excitedly. Malin nodded and each World Tree Sapling in his hands produced a fruit, offering one to the little creature and one to Bippo standing behind him.
Milani, satisfied, hopped into Faye’s hand, handed the acorn to her for safekeeping, and then the little squirrel jumped onto Maya’s head and burrowed into her hair.
"It looks like it was correct to use the Spell Formation to copy the files and take them out. There definitely is a traitor," the group continued, and Faye softly spoke from within the lines.
But Malin still wondered, "But now the question is, if that one is the traitor and the killer, then what is Mr. Mischael?"
"Who knows, I hope that elf is the killer, because Shela and I are good friends," Jessica quickly made her way to Malin’s side, "Malin, I truly hope it’s all that elf’s doing."
"I know, Jessica. I too hope it’s all that elf’s mischief, but so far, it’s all just our speculation. We need facts to speak for themselves. If Mr. Mischael turns out to be the killer, I think your friend Shela should be fine."
"... Right, no matter how deranged Mr. Mischael is, I can’t imagine he would kill his own sister," contemplated Jessica, seemingly finding some comfort in the thought.
However, Malin was still pondering – the elf had not exhibited any signs of abnormality from the moment he entered until he left. If he was the traitor, could that mean... he was a Chaotic Believer? And among the believers of Chaos, those of the Mimicking Bird were the best at concealing their presence.
If he was a follower of the Mimicking Bird, it could explain why Malin had been unable to detect anything amiss with the elf.
The current question was... if Mischael was also a follower, then how had he passed the Church’s test?
He was not the Great Demon of the Mimicking Bird, capable of deceiving a deity. His passing the test proved that he was not a follower of Chaos.
But if he was not, then whose follower was he? A local malevolent deity, or... was he merely a vengeful specter lashing out indiscriminately?
Malin’s head felt like it was about to explode.
Mr. Mischael, we’ve known each other for so many years, and today is the first time I want to ask you a very serious question.
... Are you a man or a ghost?