Chapter 18: A Loophole in the Restrictions

Chapter 18: A Loophole in the Restrictions

In the current era, in this world, faith in deities was widespread. The only difference lay in which deity one believed in. Therefore, even if Roy, Pasha, and the others did not understand what the term angel meant in mysticism, they had more or less heard stories of angels from priests, bishops, and the elders around them. They knew angels were the attendants of gods, powerful beings qualified to be addressed as “He,” beings whose every movement could create miracles, absolutely not something ordinary people could compare to.

In the hearts of these four Beyonders, angels were holy spirits of another level and another world. Under normal circumstances, they lived in divine kingdoms and would not descend into reality. They could be regarded as true legends, with no need to consider their practical significance. It was like the wars they had experienced earlier: although frightening Beyonders had occasionally appeared and still terrified them to this day, those people had absolutely not made them think of angels.

The two were not on the same level at all!

Yet today, a wandering, mysterious “magician” had told them that the Patriarch of the Church of the God of Combat was an angel walking the earth.

As for the gentleman who had displayed many miraculous abilities, Phil and the others sincerely believed him. First, he had fulfilled their wishes and was friendly enough. Second, they did not believe people like themselves were worth deceiving in matters of such a level. To them, whether the Patriarch was an angel or an abnormally powerful Beyonder made no essential difference.

The truth of this world far exceeds our imagination… The phrase Pasha often repeated once again flashed through her mind.

Roy, however, thought of more.

He remembered that the lady Mr. Magician had invited out of thin air had said that She was tracking the Patriarch of the Church of the God of Combat, and that She seemed qualified to look upon the Evernight Goddess’s oracle.

Only another angel could track an angel… Judging from how Mr. Magician behaved before that lady, his status cannot be much lower… Roy quickly withdrew the gaze that had instinctively moved toward Klein’s back, no longer daring to look straight at him.

He looked left and right and found that Phil seemed to have made a similar guess. On Phil’s face, pale from blood loss, extremely complicated emotions surfaced.

Byers held his breath for several seconds before saying,

“No wonder Belltaine would undergo such incomprehensible mutations…”

“Now is not the time to sigh about such things. Hurry along. The curfew decree is about to take effect,” Klein reminded them with a smile, as if he were not nervous in the slightest.

Pasha hurriedly looked again at the noticeboard and imprinted the complete contents of the curfew decree into her mind.

“…From eight at night to eight in the morning, it is strictly forbidden to walk outdoors or gather outdoors…”

“Where should we go?” she blurted out.

Under the double restriction of the curfew decree and the crime of trespassing, they seemed to have no choice but to accept punishment.

Klein smiled.

“It only strictly forbids walking and gathering outdoors.”

As he spoke, he tapped the sewer manhole cover nearby with his foot.

Byers’s eyes lit up.

“Right. It didn’t say we couldn’t move through the sewers!

“In places that implemented curfew before, vagrants hid inside sewers or abandoned buildings.”

Roy and the others no longer hesitated. They immediately stepped forward, used their advantage in strength, pushed open the manhole cover, and climbed into the sewers.

In the darkness, dim yellow firelight lit up. A lantern had appeared in Klein’s hand.

As they followed this miraculous magician forward, Phil thoughtfully said,

“Next, we can go to an inn.

“Byers is a local and won’t be attacked. He can rent a suite, and then we can climb in through the window from outside. Because we have the owner’s permission, it shouldn’t count as trespassing.

“This way, we can remain there until dawn, when the curfew decree automatically ends.”

“An interesting idea, but our goal isn’t merely to survive until daybreak.” Klein, walking ahead with the lantern, responded with a smile.

Roy nodded.

“If we do nothing and stay in the inn the whole time, the decrees will increase one by one and become so detailed that even hosting outsiders overnight inside an inn room will be forbidden.”

“In truth, the most interesting part of that proposal just now wasn’t that it found a loophole in the restrictions, but that it reminded me of something.” Klein half-turned and looked toward Byers. “As a local resident of Belltaine, he actually did not attempt to capture outsiders.”

In other words, he had not been affected by the command on the yellow paper.

This… Pasha and the others looked toward Byers with faint vigilance, unable to hide the doubt in their expressions.

Their earlier experience had confirmed for them that the citizens of Belltaine had already lost reason in the matter of capturing outsiders.

“I don’t know why either…” Byers whispered, equally confused.

“Are you still a citizen of Belltaine?” Klein asked casually as he walked slowly through the damp, foul-smelling sewers.

Following behind him, Byers answered with certainty,

“Of course.”

Klein said thoughtfully,

“On one hand, you are a citizen of Belltaine. On the other, you are also a standard outsider. These two attributes overlap and produce a contradiction. Under that command, it makes you both free from attack and unaffected in reason.”

“If we can create that kind of ‘contradiction,’ can we escape the rules’ restrictions?” Phil asked, his spirits rising.

Pasha shook her head.

“But that kind of ‘contradiction’ is very difficult to create. At least, I can’t think of any possibility right now…”

At this point, she suddenly paused, then hesitantly said,

“Most importantly, we are far from the noticeboard. We have no way of knowing what decrees will be added later, so there is no way to avoid them.”

At that point, they would not dare do anything!

Klein smiled.

“No need to worry. This mirror can help us see the newly added contents on the noticeboard.”

He casually displayed the Magic Mirror that had slipped into his left palm.

Pasha immediately breathed out in relief. Then she asked in doubt,

“Isn’t that voyeurism?”

On the surface of the silver mirror, one word after another, seemingly dripping with blood, appeared.

“Looking at the noticeboard is like looking at the daytime sun. There is no need to peep.”

Klein put away the Magic Mirror and added with a smile,

“Besides, this is only an item. How could an item commit a crime?”

That really makes sense… Byers and Phil could not help nodding.

After Roy understood, he exhaled and asked,

“Our most important task is to find that item. But we have no clues at all. As a book, it could be anywhere. We can only search the entire city, but there is clearly not enough time for that.”

“Indeed. We do not know where 0-02 is at all, not even a single clue. But one existence knows very well,” Klein answered leisurely, listening to the footsteps echoing through the sewers.

Pasha’s heart stirred.

“You mean that Patriarch?”

Klein nodded with a smile.

“0-02 is either in His hands or hidden somewhere by Him. And a book clearly cannot move on its own. Nor is that something the current rules can help it accomplish.”

“But how do we find that Patriarch?” Byers blurted out.

Perhaps because the miraculous Mr. Magician was by his side, he was not that afraid of searching for an angel walking the earth.

Holding the lantern steadily, Klein said,

“As long as 0-02 did not grant that Patriarch immunity, He must also obey the decrees on the noticeboard.

“He was originally a Feysacian and unquestionably not a citizen of Belltaine. He cannot enjoy the treatment of a local. Likewise, although He is an external angel and not an outsider in the narrow sense of the term, He will still be hunted by the citizens. That much is certain.

“In short, that Patriarch must obey the curfew decree. He cannot trespass into private residences, cannot hide in public areas that are not open to the outside at night, and, while being tracked, He likely has no companion with double attributes like Byers. So, where do you think He might be?”

Roy’s eyes moved slightly as he named several answers.

“The sewers, the cemetery, churches before midnight, abandoned buildings…”

“Cemeteries cannot be entered at night. Abandoned buildings themselves have property rights and belong to someone or some organization,” Pasha hurriedly reminded him.

“Mm. Once passage through the sewers is also restricted, we will go to the churches to search for that Patriarch or wait for Him,” Klein said lightly, as though deciding a minor matter.

Roy, Phil, and the others were a little stunned. They had not expected the target to be locked down so simply.

With merely a few sentences of discussion, the whereabouts of an angel had been exposed!

“However, Belltaine has several churches. We must split up to save time. Also, that Patriarch may rely on an angel’s status and power to forcibly resist punishment.” At this point, Klein lowered his head toward the Magic Mirror in his palm. “Arrodes, monitor the entire city and pay attention to abnormalities.”

After instructing the Magic Mirror, Klein once again dragged Madam Arianna from the fog of history, asking Her to take charge of the Evernight Churches.

Once he finished, he half-turned to Roy, Pasha, and the others.

“If we still cannot find that Patriarch this way, it means He has either already left Belltaine and left behind 0-02 merely to obstruct His enemies, or He already controls 0-02 to a certain degree. In short, for now, we can only use the method of elimination.”

Roy and the others nodded at the same time and continued following Klein through the sewers.

Several minutes passed. Waterlight rippled across the ancient silver mirror, reflecting an image:

An additional white sheet of paper had appeared on the noticeboard, and a new rule was written upon it:

“…Due to municipal maintenance needs, from this moment on, no living being may enter the sewers.”

“The speed at which new contents are being added has increased…” Klein frowned almost imperceptibly and murmured. Then he took a human-skin glove from the air.

Immediately afterward, he signaled Pasha and the others to hold hands.

Then he grabbed one person’s shoulder and led them away from the sewers, “teleporting” to the nearest Church of Storms.

During this process, the four Beyonders first saw the rats and cockroaches in the sewer convulse and die one after another. Then they were drawn into the bizarre, abstract spirit world, as though undergoing some kind of cleansing at the level of the mind.