“What is this place?” Audrey asked without much change in her expression, as though she was asking about the location of the ball tonight.
Pauli Derlau, who claimed to be the president of the Psychology Alchemists, cast his gaze out the window as well. He smiled and said, “This is the city in everyone’s heart.
“It’s present wherever there are people.”
Audrey nodded in thought.
“In other words, you can enter this place from any corner of human society?”
Derlau stroked his wheelchair and said, “That’s right.”
He didn’t explain further and instead pointed at the pedestrians outside the carriage.
“Everything here has a corresponding psychological symbol; they are called ‘Bestial Desire.’”
Bestial Desire… Audrey repeated the word silently. As she maintained her dignified posture, she cast her gaze even further.
Among the pedestrians, there were werewolves, as well as walking upright bears. There were cats with lazy expressions, and there was a strange man with a face of a spotted spider, a huge mouse with red eyes, a python with its tongue sticking out, and a canine creature that studied every creature that passed it by with eyes filled with the desire to mate…
They were either wearing a top hat and trench coat or an exquisite and complicated long dark dress, doing their best to imitate humans in every detail, but they were unable to truly resemble a human.
The carriage traveled through the darkness of the night, traveling between pedestrians and all kinds of Gothic buildings. Soon, they arrived at a cathedral in the middle of the city.
The cathedral was more than eighty meters tall, propped up thanks to the numerous black columns. Each pillar was embedded with a certain number of skulls. Some of them came from humans, while others came from different creatures. However, their empty eye sockets were tilted downwards, as though they were observing at every living creature that entered the cathedral.
Just like most buildings here, every detail in the cathedral could be said to be exquisite, but they formed the elements that leaned towards nightmare, horror, terror, and mystery.
After getting off the carriage, Audrey saw a grand but empty hall through the main door.
In the depths of the hall stood a huge cross. Curled around the cross was a grayish-white dragon statue.
Unlike ordinary cathedrals, there were no pews for believers to pray, nor were there places for candle stands. However, in front of the dragon statue, there was a small long table. On both sides of the long table were five seats, and the seats at both ends were empty.
Pauli Derlau wheeled himself to the end of the long table where the seat of honor was. Then, he pointed to his left.
“Please take a seat.”
Audrey slowly followed behind him. She looked around and casually pulled out a chair before sitting down.
She wasn’t too close to the president of the Psychology Alchemists, nor was she too far away. She perfectly showed her vigilance and didn’t show any signs of guilt.
Pauli Derlau raised his hands and clasped them together before placing them on the surface of the long table.
“Miss Audrey, I have something to ask you.”
“Please speak.” Audrey turned her head slightly and responded with her green eyes.
Derlau nodded slightly and said, “I would like to know how you advanced to Sequence 4 Manipulator. Where did you get your potion formula and Beyonder characteristic?”
Audrey replied frankly, “It was from a deal.
“A client wished to receive the help of a Spectator demigod, and had paid the Manipulator potion formula and Beyonder characteristic as an advance.”
Derlau immediately laughed.
“That actually happened? These generous conditions resemble a father finding an excuse to give his daughter a present.
“Can you tell me exactly what kind of help you provided?”
“Kill another demigod. In this matter, control of one’s mind was rather crucial.” Audrey simply explained.
Her attitude was very calm, as if she was talking about the homework given to her by a teacher.
Derlau’s long and fluffy eyebrows twitched as he said, “And you succeeded?”
“The results are obvious enough.” Audrey gave an answer rather tactfully.
Derlau sized her up and realized that the noble girl on his left was a Manipulator who could kill other demigods.
Audrey read his thoughts and added, “I was just one of the participants.”
Derlau nodded and said, “Do you know where the client’s Manipulator potion formula and Beyonder characteristic came from?”
“He didn’t tell me straight with regards to this question.” Audrey gave an answer with a sentence she had long planned out.
“He? Can you tell me who he is?” Derlau asked after some deliberation.
Audrey had been guarding against the other party’s Virtual Persona from infiltrating her mind island. However, she had yet to notice anything abnormal since the beginning.
This made her suspect that the other party didn’t need to infiltrate her mind. All he needed to do was observe the fluctuations of the surrounding sea of collective subconscious to understand her true thoughts.
She didn’t make any attempts to hide and calmly replied,
“This concerns an agreement between us. I believe honoring one’s promise is a moral standard that the entire world approves of. And in mysticism, this comes into play at a deeper level.”
Having said that, Audrey took the initiative to say, “If you can’t really trust me because of my inability to mention this, I’m willing to accept this.
“I can only remain an ordinary member and use my contributions in exchange for the psychological research materials that are available to me.”
Derlau smiled when he heard that.
“Everyone has their own secrets. This is very normal. What I need to assess is whether your secret will affect the safety of the entire Psychology Alchemists.”
He looked deeply at Audrey and said, “Then can you tell me how you got to know such a client?”
“I remember that I once reported that, before joining the Psychology Alchemists, I’d already come into contact with some people in a mysticism circle and got to know a few Beyonders,” Audrey said a truth that couldn’t be any truer.
As for what the real logical order to the answer was, it was another matter.
Furthermore, the matter regarding Hvin Rambis’s “disappearance” which stemmed from the investigation of Fors and Xio was something both parties had never talked about but had definitely acknowledged.
Derlau retracted his hands from the table and placed them by his chest.
“There’s another thing I would like to ask: when was the last time you met Hvin Rambis?”
Audrey frowned slightly and said, “I remember that I’ve been asked before.”
After Hvin Rambis’s death, she didn’t immediately cut off any contact with the Psychology Alchemists. She continued to maintain a certain connection with the upper echelons through Hilbert, Stephen, and Escalante. Only when the war reached Backlund did she realize that she couldn’t contact the members of the Psychology Alchemists cell for various reasons.
“I need to confirm it in person,” Derlau said calmly.
Audrey nodded gently and said, “The last time I met Hvin Rambis was in Viscount Glaint’s mansion. At that time, I hypnotized my two Beyonder friends I knew, as per his instructions, and asked them why they were investigating Viscount Stratford and who the mastermind behind this was.
At that time, Councillor Hvin Rambis was nearby, ensuring that nothing went wrong with the hypnotism. After he received the answer, he quickly left.
“After that day, I never saw him again.”
As she answered, Audrey was still guarding against the invasion of her mind island. However, it was calm there, and nothing happened.
This didn’t make Audrey feel relaxed. Instead, she became even more wary. She didn’t even dare to think about anything related to Mr. Fool and The World Gehrman Sparrow.
She was only certain of one thing: As long as she was exposed to danger, Mr. Fool would definitely provide her with protection.
“It’s identical to your previous answer.” Derlau nodded slowly.
He then looked into Audrey’s green eyes and said frankly, “I can’t use mysticism methods to trace the origins of the Beyonder characteristic in your body. This means that the person who provided it has an unimaginable existence behind him.”
Audrey nodded slightly but forcefully, expressing that she agreed with his assessment.
“I can’t force you to not cooperate with other Beyonders or make deals. It’s unrealistic. I just hope that you can promise not to reveal anything about the Psychology Alchemists to anyone. At the very least, when you wish to entrust certain missions to others, you have to package them and hide the secrets,” Derlau said calmly as he retracted his gaze.
Audrey replied without hesitation, “I promise not to tell any living creature that isn’t qualified to know about matters regarding the Psychology Alchemists.”
She took the initiative to amplify the concept all the way to that of a living being to make up for any loopholes in her promise.
As soon as she finished speaking, she felt her thoughts surface from her mind island.
These thoughts intertwined, turning into an illusory net that seeped into Audrey’s mind island, turning into her subconscious.
As this “restriction net” came from Audrey’s spirituality, she would be incapable of removing it even if she became an angel. She would lose the intention of talking about the Psychology Alchemists when she faced non-members of the Psychology Alchemists or people who didn’t qualify to know about them.
And she wouldn’t realize this.
He didn’t invade my spiritual island. Just my words alone made the promise turn something substantial… While Audrey was alarmed, her expression didn’t show.
Of course, she didn’t completely restrain herself, as being surprised by such means was an instinctive reaction from a Manipulator.
Based on this point, she suspected that either there was something wrong with this city that existed in the heart, or that Derlau, the Psychology Alchemists president, wasn’t just at the level of a saint.
Seeing Audrey make her promise, Derlau pointed at the long table in satisfaction and said, “From now on, you are a councilor of the Psychology Alchemists.
“You can choose a persona mask as your codename.”
As he spoke, seven grayish-white masks appeared on the long table. They were rather illusory and abnormally cold. Five of them were placed in front of the corresponding seats, as though they already had a master.
“The remaining two persona masks are Wrath and Pride,” Derlau introduced. “They come from the Holy Bible of the Creator from the Third Epoch.”
Audrey thought for a second before reaching out her hand to the mask that didn’t contain any anger.
“I choose Pride.”
Derlau looked at her and chuckled.
“That was the choice Hvin Rambis made back then.”
