Chapter 821: Panic Arrodes
Amon?
Seeing this name, Angel looked around suspiciously, his eyes flickering constantly, observing every corner through the various mirrors and glass in the building, looking for the shadow of the crystal monocle.
Fortunately, apart from Ribak who was wearing glasses and carefully calculating accounts in the butler's office, and the plain decorative glasses given by a noble lady placed on the table in her study, Angel did not see anything that would remind her of bad memories.
"I thought they were all gone."
With a sigh of relief, Angel solemnly answered Arrodes' question, then frowned and asked in return:
"Why are you so concerned about that 'blasphemer's' clone... He infiltrated the Steam Church and found you?"
She suddenly remembered that in Klein's retelling of the battle with Amon's clone, Amon, who had come to him and parasitized the "winner" Enuni, mentioned that he had tried to touch the magic mirror and inquire about Klein's "specialness", which seemed to have caused a considerable psychological trauma to Arrodes.
Sure enough, as soon as Angel finished speaking, the whole study was lit up with a dazzling silver-white light. A bolt of lightning appeared out of nowhere and landed on the desk, accurately hitting Angel's pair of plain glasses, shattering them into pieces. The mirror surface was charred, the metal was molten, and even a burning shallow pit appeared on the table.
"Wait, Arrodes, you can't hurt others!"
Angel hurriedly stopped the crazy magic mirror, put out the flames with cold air, and looked towards the housekeeper's office on the second floor. He saw that Ribak was still wearing glasses and staring at the account book. He didn't turn into a ball of charcoal or fall to the ground and twitch. Only then did he feel relieved.
"My apologies, dear mistress. I just thought I saw that nasty fellow again..."
The silver-white electric light faded, and dim words gradually emerged on the full-length mirror. From these letters of varying sizes and twisted strokes, Angel could glimpse the heart of the poor magic mirror, which had post-traumatic stress disorder due to Amon and his glasses.
After further questioning, she confirmed that the Amon clone who met with Klein had rarely lied. He had indeed sneaked into the Steam Cathedral where Arrodes was kept and found this poor magic mirror, which was not strictly protected because it was only a "Level 2" seal. He kept activating it, stealing its thoughts, deceiving the rules by repeatedly asking questions, or forcing thoughts that did not belong to it into it, in an attempt to obtain Klein's secrets.
"So, did you say it?"
After comforting the poor mirror, Angel asked curiously.
"Absolutely not! No matter how much he tortures me, I won't tell anyone!"
Words composed of fist-sized letters appeared on the full-length mirror, almost filling the entire mirror surface. However, a line of smaller words appeared in the remaining space below:
"But the Amons are masters of deception and decryption. I'm not sure he got any clues from my perfunctory answer."
Just from your unyielding attitude, Amon should be able to obtain a lot of useful information. Fortunately, these clues were intercepted and not obtained by their real bodies... Angel muttered. Seeing the words on the mirror constantly shaking, Arrodes seemed to be about to fall into that frenzied state again, he quickly changed the question:
"Do you know the specific information about the 'Fountain of Youth'? I mean the one that allows witches to advance to Sequence 3, not the rumored fountain that grants immortality."
With a swish, all information related to Amon vanished from the mirror, and lines of neatly written Rune script, in normal size, gradually emerged:
"Dear mistress, the two 'Fountains of Youth' you mentioned are actually the same. They both point to an island deep in the Misty Sea, but I can't glimpse its specific location. It possesses anti-divination power derived from the witch's power. Unless my main body leaves the Steam Church and travels to the Misty Sea, there is no way to locate it."
As Angel finished reading the message, bright red words covered it:
"So, Mistress, please take me away! Take me away from Backlund, anywhere is fine! Or you can ask the great Master to help me leave the Steam Church! That guy said he'll be back!"
Exclamation marks filled the entire mirror, and the red halo added a touch of weirdness to the study in the afternoon.
It's over, it seems Arrodes has gone crazy... Angel looked at the glaring red words in silence, and no longer trusted its previous answer. After all, in its current state, it is entirely possible that it deliberately concealed the secret of the "Fountain of Youth" in order to let Angel or Klein rescue it from the Steam Church.
"Arrodes, don't worry," Angel thought for a moment before speaking soothingly, "We've eliminated Backlund's Amon clones. Not a single one remains. This information has been confirmed... by the Goddess."
She did not reveal the role played by Pallez Zoroast in this, in order to avoid the possibility that Arrodes had been parasitized by Amon, and the one talking to her at this time was not the magic mirror itself, but a certain Amon.
Fortunately, Arrodes didn't notice. Only one word and a big question mark appeared on the full-length mirror:
"real?"
"Of course, but I don't recommend you leave the Steam Church right now, because Amon's clones may return to this city. Compared to the unknown outside world, the church is actually a safer place. Also... you can try to show the dangers of a seal higher than '2' level, such as randomly shocking the mechanical heart that asks questions, showing hostility towards other seals. This will allow them to upgrade you to a '1' level seal, imprison you deeper underground, and take stricter custody measures.
"This is not only for internal use, but also for external use. Even if Amon gathers demigod-level clones, he won't be able to easily reach you."
Angel smiled, displaying both the "charm" of a witch and the eloquence of an instigator.
"You're right! That Mechanical Heart deacon who always asks me questions will come again tonight, and I will punish him severely!"
Arrodes seemed to have come to his senses. The words that appeared on the mirror showed joyful strokes, and the two exclamation marks were like silver-white lightning, which made Angel a little frightened.
It can't be talking about the guy named Ikanser, right? I hope he has gained enough resistance to electricity after years of electric shocks... Angel muttered, and suddenly found that the mirror in front of him had returned to normal. Arrodes, who was temporarily staying on it, had left and even forgot that Angel still owed it a question.
This magic mirror probably won't be able to communicate normally in the short term... I need to remind Klein that it'd be best if he comforts Arrodes as well, to avoid leaving it with permanent trauma... Well, I need to have him put away all the glasses in the house in advance, especially the single-lens ones, to avoid unnecessary damage.
After putting away the glasses that Arrodes had destroyed, Angel sighed softly, took one last look at his study, and then entered the mirror world and left Backlund.
————
Due to the time difference and latitude, when Angel arrived at Bayam in the Rorsted Archipelago, the "City of Generosity" had already entered dusk. The golden sunlight enveloped the urban area, giving this strip-shaped city along the coastline an expensive color.
Haha, it goes well with the "Golden Queen"...
Angel chuckled and did not immediately go to the "Redhead" which was docked at the port. Instead, he first came to the "Sea and Fire" bar on Pelican Street and entered the small room on the second floor belonging to "Lucky Nick".
A man from the Dominican Republic with short black hair, a shirt and vest, and his collar buttons unbuttoned, was sitting on a bench, leisurely waiting for business to come. A girl with long brown hair and a floral dress was sitting in the corner, playing tarot cards by herself.
Neither of them noticed the figure reflected on the glass window behind them.
Hmm, is that Sonya? She was promoted to "Clown" a few months ago, and she's still doing divinations anytime, anywhere. It seems the habit of "acting" is hard to break... I just don't know what to pay attention to when acting as a "Clown".
Angel observed for a moment, walked out of the mirror world, and deliberately made some noise.
Surprisingly, Sonia was the first to turn around. Her gaze lingered on Angel's undisguised face. She was shocked by the newcomer's beauty at first, then froze for a moment, a hint of fear in her eyes.
"It's on the wanted poster..."
"Shh, Sonya, don't be nervous. She's someone you know... Have you forgotten? You met her in Backlund. She saved your life. Although she was disguised back then... and her appearance has changed quite a bit now."
The Dominican Federation also turned around, instantly recognized Angel, and quickly stopped the girl from screaming.
But his gaze lingered on Angel for a long time, until the latter snorted in dissatisfaction. Then he came to his senses, invited Angel to sit down, and used his eyes to instruct Sonya to lock the door. He spoke a little uncomfortably:
"I never thought that just one year after I first met you, you'd already become a demigod, own a ghost ship, and... well, a bounty of 450,000 pounds."
The bounty mentioned by Hugh Dilcha during the last "trial" has finally been made public. Now my "worth" is second only to Nast, the King of the Five Seas, and Bernadette, the mysterious Queen, making me the third pirate king... Upon hearing this amount, Angel himself was a little tempted.
"You can try to earn this reward," she said calmly, causing the Dominican Federation to look away awkwardly, then glance back furtively. "What's the latest situation in the Rorsted Archipelago?"
"The rebels seem to have a wise new leader. Their actions are more organized than before. They don't insist on attacking the heavily defended Bayam, nor do they attack civilians. Instead, they destroy railways and roads, cut submarine telegraph cables, and create trouble for the local colonial forces..."
The Dominican Federation once again broke free from Angel's beauty, used the action of drinking coffee to conceal the changes in his emotions and body, and briefly introduced the local situation.
"Therefore, Bayam's garrison didn't conduct an island-wide sweep as they had previously. Instead, they focused their attention on the pirates near the shipping lanes leading to the northern continent, engaging in repeated naval battles with those pirates hoping to make a final profit. Recently, shipping costs to Loen have doubled."
This might be related to the fact that the local rebels' original belief in "Sea God" had become Mr. Fool... Angel nodded in understanding, and was quite satisfied with what the Dominican Federation said about "increased freight rates."
She took the opportunity to inquire about the prices of various local specialty fruits, spices, and fish, and found that these products, originally intended for the Northern Continent, were difficult to sell due to rising freight costs, and the prices had dropped significantly. So, she used the Dominican Federation's channels to order some, intending to have the "Redhead Lady" transport them to Pritz Harbor, and then use the Tussock River to go north to Backlund to add to her canning factory.
But before that, she has to take this ship to the Misty Sea to look for the trace of the "Fountain of Youth".
"The Fountain of Youth?" Sonia, her brown hair in a bun, a few tarot cards unconsciously twirling between her fingers, heard this and asked curiously, "Isn't it east of the Sonia Sea? Recently, a group of adventurers set out to search for it."
"Those are all rumors spread by the Undead King, a ploy to trick adventurers and pirates into going to that sea area and rob them. Don't be fooled."
Angel replied with a smile, reaching out to grab the girl's soft hair, but she dodged it with a deft move.
Um?
Angel's face froze.
A dark light flashed through the glass window behind Sonia, and a mirror double dressed exactly like Angel appeared and pressed down Sonia's head as she happened to be in front of her.
Feeling the warm and smooth touch in her palm, the "despair" witch narrowed her eyes in satisfaction.
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