Chapter 341

Chapter 341: Threefold Questioning

The Gatekeeper’s words carried great power. With the thunderous echo of the tin Gatekeeper’s cane striking the floor, her voice spread in layers through this strange, chaotic depth of the Spirit Realm.

In a moment, the unseen Whisperers in the room fell silent again. The whole world sank into a brief stillness. Only a few seconds later, a deep rumbling sound came from far away, as if a huge body were walking toward her with heavy steps.

Agatha raised her hand and turned her eyeball to face the direction of the sound. There, in her line of sight, was the window nailed over with layers of boards. Pale light shone in the cracks of the window. Suddenly all the light trembled and then dimmed, as if something huge had come to stand before the window.

The next second, the crisscrossing boards shattered without a sound. Countless gray-black splinters flew out silently, then stopped in midair near the window, as if frozen in amber. A giant appeared outside the window.

The giant wore a black robe that stood for death. The body under the robe was wrapped in bandages. Only the eyes in his head gave off a dim yellow glow. He stood outside the building, his size almost equal to the whole house. Then the giant bent down slightly so that his head was level with the second-floor window. He turned his head. No expression could be seen on the face covered by bandages. Then he raised his hand and held out three fingers to Agatha.

“Threefold Questioning.” The giant’s voice sounded like thunder.

Agatha froze for a moment when she saw this giant.

This was not the Gatekeeper she knew. The Gatekeeper she usually spoke with did not have such a huge body. The one before her was clearly a higher Envoy. Why would this Envoy answer her call?

But she soon pushed down her doubt. All the goings and comings of the Envoys followed the will of the God of Death Bartok. There was no need for her to dig into this. The most important thing now was to find out what had happened here.

“I am looking for the soul that last lingered in this house,” she said, pointing with her Gatekeeper’s cane at the empty desk not far away. “He may have been corrupted, but now his whereabouts are unknown.”

“That soul has left. He has already entered the realm of rest. A great power has erased his debts. corruption is no longer a problem.”

The death Envoy outside spoke in a thunderous voice, then folded down one finger. Two questions remained.

Agatha paused and at once caught the word “great power” in the Envoy’s answer. She quickly weighed her thoughts and asked her second question: “Where did that great power come from? Who erased that soul’s debts?”

“The Flame Usurper.” The Envoy’s eyes, murky and yellow, seemed to flicker. When he spoke this term, there was a clear tone of warning. Then he folded down another finger.

As Agatha heard the words “Flame Usurper”, a wave of dizziness hit her. At once she realized that she was touching some kind of “knowledge” from the deep layers of the world, something never revealed to the mortal side.

But she did not lose her composure. When one spoke with the Gatekeeper on the other side, it was normal to brush against dangerous knowledge now and then. She might be young, but she had experience in this. Since the Envoy outside chose to tell her this word, it meant the term was at least within what she could bear.

If it had truly been a taboo-level question, the Envoy would have warned her.

Agatha steadied herself and took a light breath, then asked her third question: “Who is the Flame Usurper?”

“Humans.”

The Envoy outside said this, then folded down his last finger. His figure vanished in a roaring gust of wind, giving Agatha no chance to speak further.

The wooden splinters that had been scattered and frozen in the air suddenly flew again and in a flash rejoined into their original shape. The window was sealed once more. The hazy pale light spilled through the cracks and fell on the slightly stunned Agatha.

The young Gatekeeper stood there in a daze. For the first time in her life, after speaking with the Gatekeeper on the other side, she felt at a loss. The answer to her last question still hovered clearly in her mind, but she had no idea what that strange answer meant at all.

Humans? What kind of answer was that? Did it mean the Flame Usurper was a human? That a power the death Envoy called “great power” came from a human?

What kind of “human” would that be?! Was that still a “human” at all?!

The noisy sounds rose again. In the air beyond the triangle, countless unseen watchers seemed to be stirring. The noise broke off Agatha’s thoughts. The eyeball in her palm turned, and she saw strands of pitch-black matter like hair spreading outside the triangle, growing thicker like ink dropped into water.

The Spirit Realm had begun to push this unwelcome guest out.

She shook her head and lifted her hand to put the eyeball back into its socket. At the same time she picked up the Gatekeeper’s cane and gave it a gentle sweep, scattering the pale flame that traced the triangle on the floor.

In an instant, the Spirit Realm faded. Sound returned. Color and light filled her vision again. She was back at the busy scene with the Guardians, and her subordinates were still working around her in tense, orderly fashion.

Agatha rolled her eye a little, then reached into her coat pocket and took out a small bottle. She pinched open the cap, tipped back her head, and dropped two drops of eye medicine into her eye socket.

The dry, uncomfortable feeling quickly faded.

A subordinate came over. He waited until Agatha put away the bottle before stepping forward to ask: “Did you find any clues?”

“The soul has already left. The Gatekeeper on the other side confirmed that it passed through Bartok’s gate and entered the place of rest,” Agatha said calmly. “…That is all. There are no more clues.”

For safety’s sake, she did not mention the term “Flame Usurper” to the subordinate.

This word clearly held power and even pointed straight at extremely dangerous deep layers knowledge. She did not know what might happen if she spoke it aloud. It would be better to go back and study the texts carefully first.

The subordinate clearly noticed that Agatha was hiding something. But as an experienced Guardian, he asked nothing, just nodded and went back to his work.

Just then, footsteps sounded in the corridor outside, interrupting Agatha’s thoughts.

A Guardian in charge of watching over the downstairs came in and said: “Lady Gatekeeper, that lady has woken up.”

The young Senkin had woken up?

Agatha at once put her thoughts aside and quickly went downstairs, where she saw Galina, now awake from her sleep.

The strong lady with stone-like skin sat on the sofa, holding a cup of calming herbal tea the priest had mixed by hand. Her eyes looked a little blank as she stared at the table in front of her. Only when Agatha sat down across from her and lightly tapped the table did she slowly react.

The young Gatekeeper said: “Hello, my name is Agatha. You should know me.” At the same time she carefully watched the state of the person across from her. “Do you know what happened?”

The apprentice holding the herbal tea spoke a little slowly: “I… my name is Galina.” Her eyes were still a bit unfocused, as if she had not fully shaken off her sleep. “Sorry, Lady Gatekeeper, my head is still a mess. I feel like I had a very, very long dream. In the dream I kept doing math problems without stopping, proving them again and again. All the studying I did growing up put together was never this tiring…”

“Doing math problems?” Agatha paused, then asked with a thoughtful look: “Do you remember how you fell asleep? Before you fell asleep, did you receive anyone, or do anything in particular?”

Galina frowned slightly and seemed to be trying hard to recall. But after a full half minute she still shook her head in apology: “Sorry, I don’t remember. I don’t even remember anything from yesterday afternoon until now. If these Guardians hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t even know… that something happened at home.”

Agatha frowned deeply.

Memory being covered, deep layers sleep, and “doing math problems” – this sounded rather like the power used by the Clergy of the God of Wisdom.

But the God of Wisdom was also one of the four True Gods. Why would that God’s priests do such a thing?

They were not heretics.

There were simply too many things today to feel confused about.

Agatha rubbed her temple, a little headache creeping in.

All sorts of tangled lines knotted together in her mind.

The strange and suspicious battle marks in the alley outside, the recent cultist activity in the city-state, the elements and the suspicious accidents in the mines, the weird events in this house, the message brought by the death Envoy…

Galina looked at the Gatekeeper in front of her with some nervousness and said: “Excuse me…” Although Agatha looked very young, she was still the highest-level Church Herald in the city-state, and Galina could not help feeling uneasy. “My teacher, is he all right?”

“Your teacher?” Agatha looked a little puzzled.

“He should be upstairs. His name is Brown Scott,” Galina explained quickly. “I was a bit confused when I woke up and forgot to say. He needs quiet…”

Agatha froze at once.