In the present era of this world, belief in a deity was common. The difference was which deity they believed in. Therefore, even if Roy, Pasha, and company didn’t understand the meaning of angels in mysticism, they had more or less heard of legends about angels from the priests, bishops, and seniors around them. They knew that they were the servants of deities, and were powerful creatures that were qualified to be addressed as “Him” or “Her.” Every action of theirs could create miracles. They were definitely not something ordinary people could compare with.
In the hearts of these four Beyonders, angels were of a whole different level, holy spirits of another world. Under normal circumstances, “They” lived in the divine kingdoms and wouldn’t descend into the real world. “They” could be treated as true legends without considering the meaning “They” had in reality. Just like the battles they had experienced in the past, although they would occasionally encounter Beyonders today who struck terror in their hearts, like today, them being angels was the last thing on their mind.
The two weren’t on the same level!
But today, a wandering and mysterious “magician” had informed them that the chief shepherd of the Church of the God of Combat was an angel who walked the land.
Phil and the others believed in the mysterious gentleman, who had shown all kinds of amazing feats, from the bottom of their hearts. Firstly, he had granted their wishes and was friendly enough. Secondly, they didn’t believe that they were qualified enough to be deceived in such matters. To them, the chief shepherd was an angel or an abnormally powerful Beyonder. In essence, there was no difference between the two.
The reality of this world far exceeds our imaginations… The words that Pasha often said flashed through her mind.
Roy made further connections.
He remembered that the lady, whom Mr. Magician had invited from thin air, mention that she was pursuing the chief shepherd of the Church of the God of Combat. Furthermore, she seemed to be qualified to see the Evernight Goddess’s revelation.
The only person who can track an angel is probably another angel… With Mr. Magician’s performance in front of that lady, his level can’t be that much lower… Roy hurriedly retracted his gaze from Klein’s back and didn’t dare to look at him directly.
He looked left and right and realized that Phil had come to a similar guess as well. A complicated feeling emerged from his pale face, one that was a result of his blood loss.
Biles held his breath and only spoke after a few seconds.
“No wonder there’s such an inexplicable change in Belltaine…”
“It’s not the time to feel poignant about this. Let’s hurry up and leave. The curfew is about to take effect,” Klein reminded with a smile without any signs of nervousness.
Pasha quickly looked at the noticeboard and imprinted the contents into a brand in her mind.
“…From eight at night to eight in the morning. Free movement and assembling in the streets are forbidden…”
“Where should we go?” she blurted out.
Under the double restrictions of the curfew and the no trespassing clause, it appeared as though they could only await punishment.
Klein smiled and said, “Only movement and assembly in the streets are forbidden.”
As he spoke, he pointed at a nearby manhole which led to the sewers.
Biles’s eyes lit up.
“Yes, it didn’t say that we can’t pass through the sewers!
“When curfews were in place previously, the tramps hid in the sewers or abandoned buildings.”
Roy and the others didn’t hesitate any longer. They immediately went forward and used the advantage of their strength to push open the manhole cover and climbed into the sewers.
In the pitch-black darkness, a dim yellow light lit up as a lantern appeared in Klein’s hand.
As they followed the mystical “magician,” Phil said thoughtfully, “We can head to a hotel next.
“Biles is a local. He won’t be attacked, so he can get a room. Then, we can climb through the window and enter from the outside. As we have gotten permission from the owner, we wouldn’t be considered as trespassing on private property.
“In that case, we can stay until dawn and wait for the curfew to end.”
“It’s a very interesting idea, but our goal isn’t to survive until dawn,” Klein replied with a smile as he walked ahead of them with the lantern in hand.
Roy nodded and said, “If we don’t do anything and stay in the hotel, the rules will increase one by one, becoming so detailed that guests aren’t allowed to stay in hotel rooms.”
“Actually, the most interesting thing about that proposal isn’t the finding of loopholes to the restrictions, but that it reminded me of something.” Klein turned his body slightly and looked at Biles. “As a local from Belltaine, he actually didn’t attempt to capture us foreigners.”
In other words, he wasn’t affected by the yellow paper’s orders.
This… Pasha and the others all turned warily to look at Biles, clearly showing suspicion on their faces.
Their encounter earlier had made them certain that the citizens of Belltaine City had lost their minds in the foreigner-arresting affair.
“I don’t know why either…” Biles also murmured in confusion.
“Are you still a Belltaine citizen?” Klein asked casually as he slowly walked in the damp and smelly sewer.
Biles followed behind him and answered with some certainty, “Of course.”
Klein thought and asked, “On the one hand, you are a citizen of Belltaine. On the other hand, you are a standard foreigner. Two of your attributes overlap, causing a contradiction. Under that order, you will neither be attacked, nor will you have your rationality affected.”
“If we can create such a ‘contradiction,’ does it mean we will be able to escape the limitations of the rules?” Phil asked spiritedly.
Pasha shook her head.
“But such a ‘contradiction’ is very hard to create. At least I can’t think of any possibility right now…”
She suddenly paused and hesitated before saying, “The most important thing is that we’re far away from the noticeboard. We don’t know what other laws will follow. We have no way of avoiding them.”
When that happened, they wouldn’t dare to do anything!
Klein smiled and said, “Don’t worry. This mirror can help us see the new content on the noticeboard.”
He casually displayed the magic mirror that had slipped into his left palm.
Pasha heaved a sigh of relief and asked curiously, “Isn’t this a crime of peeping?”
On the surface of the silver mirror, words that resembled dripping blood appeared:
“The way I look at the noticeboard is like looking at the sun in the day. There’s no need to peep.”
Klein retracted his magic mirror and added with a smile, “Besides, this is just an item. How can it commit a crime?”
That really makes sense… Biles and Phil couldn’t help but nod.
After Roy figured it out, he exhaled and asked, “Next, the most important thing is to find that item, but we don’t have any clues. As a book, it can be anywhere. We can only carpet search the entire city, but we clearly lack the time to do that.”
“Indeed, we don’t know where 0-02 is. We don’t even have any clues, but there’s an existence that knows the answer very clearly,” Klein replied leisurely as he heard the footsteps echoing in the sewers.
Pasha’s heart stirred.
“You mean that chief shepherd?”
Klein smiled and nodded.
“0-02 is either in ‘His’ hands, or it has been hidden by ‘Him’ somewhere. And a ‘book’ is clearly unable to move on its own. This isn’t something that the current rules can help it achieve.”
“But how do we find that chief shepherd?” Biles blurted out.
Perhaps it was because the magical Mr. Magician was by his side, he wasn’t that afraid of searching for the Grounded Angel.
Klein calmly held the lantern and said, “As long as 0-02 doesn’t provide the chief shepherd immunity, ‘He’ too would have to abide by the laws on the notice.
“‘He’ was originally from Feysac, so ‘He’ is undoubtedly not a citizen of Belltaine. ‘He’ is unable to enjoy the treatment of the locals. Similarly, although ‘He’ is an angel from elsewhere and not a foreigner in the narrow sense of the word—he isn’t human, ‘He’ too will be pursued by the citizens. This can be confirmed.”
“In short, that chief shepherd has to abide by the curfew and not trespass private residences. He can’t hide in a public area that isn’t open to the public at night. At the same time, as a fugitive, ‘He’ likely doesn’t have companions who have dual traits like Biles. Tell me, where do you think ‘He’ will be?”
Roy’s eyes darted around as he gave several answers:
“Sewers, cemetery, cathedral before midnight, abandoned buildings…”
“You can’t enter the cemetery at night. The abandoned buildings are owned by someone or some group by virtue of its property rights,” Pasha reminded.
“Yes. Once the sewers are restricted, we will head to the cathedral to search for the chief shepherd or wait for “Him,” Klein said in a relaxed tone as though he was deciding on a trivial matter.
Roy, Phil, and the others were stunned. They hadn’t expected that they would be able to lock onto their target so easily.
It just took a few words of discussion to expose an angel’s whereabouts!
“However, there are quite a few cathedrals in Belltaine. We have to act in concert to save time. Also, the cathedral might be able to forcefully resist the punishment by relying on ‘His’ level as an angel and his powers.” With that said, Klein lowered his head and said to the magic mirror in his hand, “Arodes, monitor the entire city and pay attention to any anomalies.”
After giving his instructions to the mirror, Klein once again dragged Ma’am Arianna out of the fog of history and asked “Her” to be in charge of the cathedrals of the Church of Evernight.
After doing so, he turned around and said to Roy, Pasha, and company, “If we still can’t find the chief shepherd after all that is done, it means that ‘He’ has either left Belltaine, leaving 0-02 behind to attack the enemy, or he has already gained control of 0-02 to a certain extent. In short, we can proceed by means of elimination for now.”
Roy and company nodded in unison as they continued following Klein in the sewers.
After a few minutes, the ancient silver mirror reflected a scene:
On the signboard, there was another piece of paper with new rules:
“…Because of municipal maintenance works, no living being is allowed to enter the sewers from now on.”
“Content is being added at an increasing rate…” Klein frowned indiscernibly as he muttered to himself before taking out a human-skinned glove.
Immediately after, he gestured for Pasha and the others to hold hands.
Then, he grabbed one of them by the shoulder and led them out of the sewers to “Teleport” to the nearest Storm cathedral.
During this process, the four Beyonders first saw the rats and cockroaches in the sewers twitching as they died one after another. Following that, they were attracted by the strange and abstract spirit world, as though they had suffered some sort of catharsis at the mental level.
