Chapter 54: Mind Mail

Chapter 54: Mind Mail

Susie was crouching by the door, waiting for Audrey’s return.

The moment she saw Audrey approach, the golden retriever immediately went to greet her, giving two highly performative barks and wagging her tail.

She did not ask questions on the spot. She waited until she accompanied Audrey back into the bedroom before asking with concern,

“Is it over?”

Audrey gave an “Mm,” indicating that there were no longer any problems.

“Is there anything you need help with?” Susie pressed.

“Not for now.” Audrey gently shook her head.

Because of Susie’s concern, she instinctively recalled her earlier experience, only to discover that she could no longer remember the president of the Psychology Alchemists’ appearance or name at all. Even the partial intelligence she had originally learned from The World Gehrman Sparrow required concentration before she could recall it.

To be honest, before Beyonders below the demigod level, she, as a Manipulator, could also do similar things. But to influence a Saint in the domain of the mind and make her unable to notice it was almost impossible, unless the other party had already been hypnotized, unconscious, or enslaved.

That gentleman’s level may be even higher than I expected… Audrey controlled her emotions and calmly reached a certain judgment.

She signaled Susie with her eyes, having the golden retriever stand guard outside the bedroom door. Then she outlined in her mind the personality mask representing Arrogance.

The moment she thought of it, she felt a faint ripple in the surrounding sea of collective subconsciousness.

A thought flashed through her mind. Audrey reached out with her left hand and grabbed diagonally forward, taking out an abnormally cold and extremely illusory grayish-white mask.

As long as I think seriously about it, this Arrogance mask comes to my side? Or rather, it already exists in my subconscious and has been following me all along? While Audrey carefully examined her own mind island, she issued the intent for the Arrogance mask to disappear.

The cold, illusory, grayish-white mask rapidly turned transparent and melted into the surrounding sea of collective subconsciousness.

Audrey still could not determine where the Arrogance mask had gone, or why it could appear so promptly.

This made her even more cautious. She decided that, at the first opportunity, she would pray to Mr. Fool and make a wish to seal this personality mask.

Just as she planned to conduct a few more experiments and peer more knowledge from the Arrogance mask, she saw the sea of collective subconsciousness gently sway without even needing to use her Manipulator Beyonder powers.

A speck of light “swam” from the distance. It grew larger and more obvious, until finally becoming an illusory letter.

The letter stopped before Audrey’s mind island, seemingly searching for a route to complete its “delivery.”

Audrey would naturally not let an external object enter her world of consciousness. She hurriedly extended her left hand toward the illusory letter.

Just as her fingers were about to touch the letter’s surface, Audrey suddenly halted.

Her experience and intelligence told her at the same time:

In the world of mysticism, do not rashly touch anything—especially things in the domain of the mind. Otherwise, one could easily be contaminated and develop mental problems!

Thinking of this, Audrey virtualized a personality to take the lead and put on the black gauze gloves known as the Hand of Fear.

After making the corresponding preparations, she reached out, held the illusory letter, and watched as its outer layer faded away and unfolded page by page in her palm.

These were all the materials related to the mind dragon in East Chester County.

Using the sea of collective subconsciousness to transmit information… The high-level abilities of the Spectator pathway really are wondrous… As a Manipulator, Audrey had always worked hard to preserve her original yearning toward the mysterious world—that pure pursuit of the dreamlike and magical.

This was one method she used to keep herself from getting lost in the experience of manipulation and from being gradually assimilated by the sea of collective subconsciousness.

After reading all the materials, Audrey allowed the illusory letter to dissolve into the sea of collective subconsciousness.

She still did not immediately pray to Mr. Fool. Following her earlier arrangements, she went out and busied herself with other matters.

Only at dusk, before the family dinner began, did she find a gap in her schedule and quickly pray inside her bedroom, making one wish.

The next second, Audrey saw the grayish-white Arrogance mask emerge from the sea of collective subconsciousness before her. Its illusory quality vanished little by little, and it flickered with a small amount of metallic luster.

For some reason, the personality mask gained a certain substantive quality, placing itself between illusion and reality.

This meant it had been physically isolated from Audrey’s mind island.

Of course, it also lost the ability to directly return to the sea of collective subconsciousness.

Holding the Arrogance mask, Audrey tried removing Lie, which had become an emerald necklace, and overlapped the two.

As she had expected, the half-real, half-illusory Arrogance mask embedded itself into Lie, becoming a pattern that, at a rough glance, resembled a human face.

In the future, I’ll carry it this way and prevent the personality mask from making the slightest contact with my mind or body until I need to use it… As this thought turned in Audrey’s mind, she sincerely thanked Mr. Fool.

She then left the bedroom and went to the family banquet hall.

On the way, she encountered her father, Earl Hall.

“Good news,” Earl Hall said with a smile.

Audrey did not hide her surprise.

“Alfred is coming back?”

This was her other elder brother.

“You actually guessed it?” Earl Hall said, somewhat astonished. “In the second half of the year, he will return to Backlund as a general.”

The second half of the year… Even Susie is already a Dreamwalker… Audrey thought for a moment and asked,

“Father, when are we returning to East Chester County?”

Because the war had only just ended, and the entire kingdom had far too many things that needed to be done, the nobles had not returned to their own territories for the New Year and had remained in Backlund. Now, it was already late February.

Earl Hall nodded.

“Probably April.”

…

Above the gray fog, inside the ancient palace.

“Mind mail”… Be careful of viruses. Don’t click around blindly… Klein sighed while tossing the Attendant of Mysteries Beyonder characteristic, that “curtain,” back into the junk pile and letting it cover all the items there.

What he had used to fulfill Miss Justice’s wish just now was the ability he had named Grafting. He had connected the illusory concept of the personality mask with the metallic quality of an ordinary iron mask. He had also issued instructions to the Spirit Worms that would keep watch over Sefirah Castle afterward, telling them to replenish the power on time so that the grafting could be maintained.

“From the description given by Mr. Gluttony of the Psychology Alchemists, Zaratul seems to have already tracked me to Constant City. I must be even more careful…” Klein lightly tapped the edge of the mottled long table with his fingers, causing one Spirit Worm after another to crawl out from his body.

His figure then vanished from Sefirah Castle.

…

Winter County, Amanda Mountains, inside the Cathedral of Serenity.

Leonard obtained a document from the pontiff.

This would be the first matter he would handle after becoming a senior deacon.

Returning to his room, Leonard leisurely leaned back in his chair and put his feet on the desk. Only then did he open the document in his hand and read it one page at a time.

“Merlin Hermes, a wandering magician who delights in fulfilling other people’s wishes… Constant City, rebuilt overnight… the Fully Automatic Wish Machine… Sequence 4 of the Seer pathway is called Bizarro Sorcerer, Sequence 3 is Ancient Scholar, and Sequence 2 is Miracle Invoker…”

As Leonard read, he suddenly fell silent.

After several seconds, he asked in a low voice,

“Old man, how many angels of the Seer pathway are currently active on earth?”

Pallez Zoroast clicked His tongue.

“This is acting. There should currently be only one Miracle Invoker who still needs to act.

“You should know who I’m talking about.”

Leonard looked again at the information in his hand and muttered,

“He’s having quite a good time…”

He had already decided that the main purpose of this mission was to act as a Nightwatcher and digest the potion inside him. Travel was secondary. As for handling the incidents, the key was finding a reasonable explanation.

Bored, Leonard finished flipping through the thick stack of documents, then took his feet off the desk and stood.

He was going to receive the Grade 1 Sealed Artifact that belonged to him as a senior deacon.

For other Saints of the Church of Evernight, this was quite a headache, because a Sealed Artifact’s negative effects were not so easy to endure, especially when it had to be carried for a long period of time. But choosing a holy object that suited oneself well would lead to overlapping abilities.

Leonard did not need to worry about this problem. As long as the Sealed Artifact he chose possessed the characteristic of being alive, he could ask the old man for help—parasitizing a Worm of Time inside it, making the Sealed Artifact’s negative effects significantly weaken and rendering it as obedient as Sea God’s Scepter.

So the focus is choosing the ability… Leonard whistled and walked out of the room.

…

Monday, three in the afternoon, inside the ancient palace above the gray fog.

Rays of crimson light rose and solidified into different figures.

For many Tarot Gatherings now, Derrick the Sun had no longer needed to count his heartbeats. He only needed to look at the wall clock and calculate Backlund time to know how long remained before the gathering began. At this moment, he followed Miss Justice in rising, and together with the other members of the Tarot Club, bowed toward the head of the bronze long table.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Fool.”

After everyone sat and exchanged greetings, The Moon Emlyn looked left and right and said,

“I wish to know whether the Planter and Moon pathways possess certain special traits compared to other pathways.”

After posing the question, he did not conceal anything and added quite frankly,

“I recently learned that the Church of Earth Mother’s internal system differs from the norm. It is divided into two parts: those who receive God’s Grace and those favored by God…”

After The Moon Emlyn briefly described the matter, The Hanged Man Alger, The Hermit Cattleya, The Star Leonard, and the others looked at one another but could not give a reasonable explanation.

Of course, every member present, including The Sun Derrick, could tell that something was unusual about the Church of Earth Mother’s internal system.

At that moment, they heard a soft sigh.

The sigh seemed to have come from an age more ancient than antiquity, originating from Mr. Fool at the head of the mottled long table.