Chapter 349

Chapter 349: Snow, Fog, and Secrets

In the dark coffin, the old bishop wrapped in bandages like a mummy finally told the secret he had hidden for half a century. After that came a long silence.

Agatha’s voice broke the stillness: “But it is obvious this matter is not over.”

The old bishop did not answer, so Agatha asked again: “In your view… the strange signs that keep appearing in the city?state now, and the Shadows on Dagger Island… were those also inside the Queen of Frostholm’s calculations?”

“The Queen was not a god. She might have predicted ahead of time that rebels would try to stop her ‘mad’ actions, but she could not have predicted what would happen here fifty years later,” Bishop Ivan shook his head. He was still trying to recall the details of that night, but the time was too far away, and many things were blurred. “I honestly no longer remember everything the Queen said to me that night. During the soul?sending ritual she seemed to keep talking to me, but you know, a ritual needs full focus, and you also have to inhale incense beforehand. I… really cannot remember what she said.”

He paused and spread his hands in a helpless way: “Under normal conditions, the dead lying on the platform do not chat with the priest performing the ritual about how the ritual feels.”

Agatha stayed silent, thinking for a while before she suddenly spoke: “Can you tell me more about what it was like back then? Before the Abyssal Trench Project ended completely… what else did you see in that Cathedral?”

“…In my memory, that day it also snowed heavily, just like this year. And for a long time, all kinds of snowfall almost never stopped. The snow often covered the streets around the small Cathedral so much that people could not see the edges of the roads. Many people fell because of that,” Bishop Ivan recalled quietly. His low, dull voice seemed to pull the mind straight back to that winter half a century ago. “People who slipped and got hurt often came to the Cathedral for help—because the clinics in the district were already packed full.”

“At that time, the Abyssal Trench Project had already caused great unease in the city. It was not yet a taboo subject like it is today. The core parts were secret, but ordinary people still knew there was this ‘exploring the sea’ plan. So people who came to the Cathedral often told me about the ‘strange things’ they thought they had seen…”

“Strange things?” Agatha could not help asking.

“Yes, strange things. Some said they saw lights in houses that had been empty for a long time. Some said a familiar neighbor went out one day and suddenly looked like a different person. Some said they saw the cemetery gates open at midnight, and people who had been buried in the day walk right out of the graveyard at night. All kinds of stories like these, frightening and bizarre, came both day and night. At the time, the most ominous thing in the city was the Abyssal Trench Project, so people threw all these abnormal signs onto that Project. And then… they began to throw them onto the Queen of Frostholm as well.”

“People who were buried in the cemetery calmly walked out,” Agatha repeated. She frowned as she listened, as if it reminded her of the present. “And lights appearing in empty houses, this… this sounds…”

“It sounds a lot like that forged corpse in Cemetery No. 3, and the room you saw at 42 Fireplace Street, doesn’t it?” the old bishop said slowly. “But unlike back then, you have clear evidence now. You even collected evidence that might be elements. Back then, the city had only rumors. Every day someone came to tell me about some eerie thing they had met, but the Guardians ran all over the place and always came up empty.”

“Always came up empty?” Agatha asked.

“Yes. When residents filed a report, of course we had to send people to investigate. Even fifty years ago, we already had strict procedures like that. I sent many people to look into those horror stories. The Gatekeeper of the Great Cathedral even went to investigate in person, like you do now. But we never found anything. Aside from the citizens being nervous, the city?state itself was actually running as normal. In contrast, the test site of the Abyssal Trench Project was being fully sealed off step by step. All the terrible things were happening inside that sealed zone.

“As for what exactly happened there… you must have seen it in the archives. replicant Submersibles that kept appearing. Unregistered strangers coming and going. Explorers who died in the Deep Sea.”

Agatha fell silent for a moment. Her thoughts raced. For some reason, she felt a trace of wrongness in the old bishop’s story, something… off that no one had noticed for half a century.

“So you mean that even though the Abyssal Trench Project caused panic back then, in fact all the Anomaly events were limited to the test site. The city?state itself kept running as usual. People were under great mental pressure, and the city had trouble because of the Queen’s extreme decrees, and people kept reporting Anomaly events. But from the point of view of supernatural power, the ‘corruption’ from the Deep Sea never really crossed the cordon around the test site?”

“…At least that is how it is in my memory,” the old bishop nodded lightly, then shifted his tone. “Of course, even so, I am not trying to defend the Queen of Frostholm. Even if the city really did stay normal, her Abyssal Trench Project had already stretched Frostholm’s economy and everyone’s nerves to the breaking point. Even if the Abyssal Trench Project had stayed under her control and had never gone into a runaway state, that re… uprising was still bound to happen.”

But Agatha seemed not to care about what the old bishop said at the end. She only thought for a bit, then shook her head: “Let us focus on what is in front of us, Bishop Ivan. About the situation in the city right now, and this denunciation letter in my hand, I want to know what you think.”

“You found traces of Annihilators in the city and evidence that they were pushing things from behind. That is actually a good thing. When supernatural corruption breaks out, the most frightening thing is not finding the enemy, but not finding any enemy at all.”

Bishop Ivan spoke slowly, then lifted the letter in his hand.

“This denunciation letter you brought also mentions that. It suspects that the Annihilators in Frostholm used some secret ritual to contact the power of the Deep Sea, causing Deep Sea corruption to spill directly into the city?state. So we should find the place where those cultists held their ritual.”

Agatha’s gaze met the one eye showing from under the old bishop’s bandages: “Do you think… this ‘Visitor’ who wrote the denunciation letter can be trusted?”

“At least every matter mentioned in the denunciation letter now has some evidence behind it. Even the parts that we cannot yet prove make sense logically,” Bishop Ivan nodded. “Of course, I cannot say for sure whether the being who wrote the letter can be trusted. A higher supernatural’s moods and view of the mortal world are not the same as those of Mortals. We can never deal with Them by using human emotional logic.

“All I can say is this: when They happen to act neutral or friendly for the moment, we can work with Them or even actively cooperate. But when They suddenly feel this is boring and decide to turn on us, we should not feel doubt or surprise. Remember that in this world, the only higher supernatural beings we can truly trust and give our loyalty to are the Four Gods. Everything else is neither enemy nor ally.”

The old bishop’s words held the wisdom of half a century. Even though their ranks were equal, Agatha lowered her head slightly in respect.

“Next time that Visitor appears, I will try to approach Them and see what Their attitude is.”

“That would be best,” Bishop Ivan said with a nod.

Agatha thought for a moment, then looked again at the letter in the old bishop’s hand.

“Then for now, we only have one last hard riddle left.”

Following her gaze, Bishop Ivan’s eyes also fell on the last part of the denunciation letter.

The rest of the letter was easy enough to understand, but that last section was different. Neither the cemetery warden who had first received it, nor Agatha and Bishop Ivan now, could grasp its deeper meaning.

The two people who spoke for the Church’s highest will in the city?state leaned together. Three eyes showing from under the bandages stared hard at the end of the letter.

That indescribable, mysterious Visitor had left a puzzle in Their secret letter.

“…What do these numbers even mean?” Bishop Ivan asked, hesitating.

Agatha slowly shook her head: “I don’t understand it either.”

“…Maybe we can ask a Diviner to work it out, or invite experts in mathematics and occult studies to calculate it together. It might be a Secret Cipher pointing to the city?state’s future.”

“Makes sense.”

…

On the edge of the Upper City, at No. 44 Oak Street beside Fireplace Street, Duncan stood at the narrow window at the end of the second?floor corridor, looking out at the veil of night as it slowly came down.

After a long time, he suddenly turned his head and looked at Vanna, who was spacing out beside him: “Do you think they have sent the payment by now?”

Vanna snapped out of her daze, completely confused: “Huh… what?”

“Go to the bank for me tomorrow and see if they have sent the money,” Duncan said with a serious face. “I left an anonymous account in that denunciation letter. I use it just to collect whistleblower bounties.”

Vanna stared at him: “…Huh?”