Chapter 368

Chapter 368: Chance Encounter and Reunion

Agatha checked the hidden compartment that held the Queen’s profile statue. It was just as her subordinate had reported—it was only a private spot for secretly commemorating the Frostholm Queen, with no trace of any supernatural power left behind.

She looked at the things that had been taken out: the plaster statue, the commemorative coins, and the booklet.

Fifty years ago, this would have been worth a noose.

But that terrifying era that kept everyone’s nerves taut had already passed. The Frostholm authorities now had to think about the city-state’s long-term stability and their own image of fairness. They could not launch a big purge just because of secret public acts of remembrance. These harmless commemorations usually only earned a warning now, at most a fine.

And even warnings and fines were matters for the constables—the secular regulations and laws were not the Cathedral’s responsibility.

“This is not something we should interfere with,” Agatha shook her head. “Sort out this part of the situation and notify the public security authority. Let them handle the follow-up. But we need to take these souvenirs back and examine them, in case something… is hidden inside.”

“Yes.”

After she gave a few more simple instructions for wrapping up the scene, Agatha rose from the sofa and let out a quiet breath.

There were too many matters waiting to be handled. She could not keep wasting time here.

“Remember to keep tracking the investigation at the sewage treatment center and to monitor the pipe system in this area at all times,” she told her subordinate at last, then turned and walked out of the room.

Outside was a narrow corridor. The old staircase stretched forward under dim lights. Two other households had quietly opened their doors, peeking at the commotion here, several pairs of slightly panicked eyes watching from the crack.

Agatha waved at those eyes.

“Go back inside, pack a few things, and wait for instructions. This area needs to be evacuated for a while. Don’t worry, we will solve the problem here as soon as possible. You will be able to come home again very soon.”

After saying this, Agatha did not bother about the residents’ reactions. She started down the stairs toward the exit on the first floor.

She did not use Ashen Wind to hurry along, even though she usually liked doing that. Today her thoughts were in a mess. All kinds of tangled matters filled her mind. She felt she needed to sort them out, and walking slowly would help her think.

At the same time, she also wanted to sense the traces left in this whole building, to see if she could detect any other spots stained with elements corruption.

Lost in thought, she walked down the old stairs to the exit and stepped out into the open space in front of the residential building.

The stale, moldy smell vanished at once. The fresh, icy air lifted Agatha’s spirits. For a moment she even felt an illusion—as if she had just walked out of some dark, damp burrow and into the sunlight.

The crowd that had gathered in front of the residential building had already scattered. Only a few curious passersby lingered at a safe distance, pointing and whispering. When Agatha appeared, those onlookers quickly left as well.

No. Someone was still here.

Agatha frowned. She saw a young woman with long blond hair and a veil over her face, clutching a large bag in her arms, still standing in the open space in front of the building. She looked like she was spacing out.

“This area is sealed off. Please do not linger,” Agatha walked over and reminded her in a slightly stern tone. “Are you a resident here?”

The veiled blonde seemed startled, jolted awake, and turned to look at Agatha. She pointed at herself in confusion: “Are you talking to me?”

“Of course. Who else is here?” Agatha frowned. For some reason, she could not help paying attention to this stranger. She was sure she had never met the woman, yet her features looked a bit familiar, as if Agatha had just seen her not long ago. “Are you a resident here?”

“Ah, no, no,” Alice quickly waved her hands and pointed into the distance. “I live over there, pretty far away. What happened here? I heard someone died?”

“The Guardians are handling it,” Agatha said casually, still puzzled. The blonde woman’s reaction was a bit odd. Had she really not recognized the city-state’s Gatekeeper standing in front of her?

Alice, however, did not notice any change in the eyes of the black-clad, bandage-wrapped woman before her. She only thought this outfit looked very interesting.

It looked a lot like how the captain dressed now.

But the captain had told her not to comment lightly on other people’s appearance, and not to say too much about herself to strangers—the first was not polite, and the second was not cautious.

Alice still could not spell those two words, but she felt sure the captain was right.

It was time to say goodbye.

So she waved at Agatha and said in a cheerful tone: “Then I’ll be going! Thank you for answering my questions!”

The veiled blonde left just like that, looking delighted, but Agatha felt only strangeness as she watched her back.

What was this person even here for?

She had lived in this city-state for more than twenty years, yet she had never seen anyone like that—someone who radiated a simple, nameless happiness from head to toe, who spoke with no wariness at all, whose smile held not the slightest shadow.

Agatha frowned, then suddenly froze. It was as if she only noticed some odd detail after the other woman had already left.

“No breathing or heartbeat…?!”

The young Gatekeeper jerked her head up and looked toward the direction the blonde had gone. She moved to chase her almost without thinking, but just as she was about to step forward, a flurry of hurried footsteps suddenly interrupted her.

A black-clad guard came running over, holding up a sheet of intelligence. His expression looked quite anxious.

“What is it?” Agatha asked sharply before he could speak, frowning. In her heart she could not help muttering—things were chaotic enough already. Please, let nothing else happen.

“An urgent express dispatch from Cemetery No. 3,” the guard said, straightening up and speaking very quickly. “A clue about the mysterious ‘Visitor’. This is the original report.”

Agatha’s breathing clearly stopped for a beat. Then she snatched the letter from his hand, shook it open with one motion, and let her eyes race across the words.

The young Gatekeeper fell silent. She stood there without moving, frozen in place, not reacting for a long time.

The guard looked at his direct superior with some concern. After a few seconds, he could not help speaking up: “Gatekeeper, this matter…”

Agatha slowly turned her head and looked into her subordinate’s eyes: “If someone suddenly told you that a being comparable to the Elder Gods had descended to the city-state in person, and that the way He walks the mortal world is by going to the citizen Assistance Center and renting a two-story house with a terrace… how would you react?”

“…I would go to the nearest Cathedral for some counseling, or find a well-known psychiatrist,” the guard answered honestly.

“You are not wrong. Unfortunately, I am already the highest-ranked representative of the Cathedral in this city-state, and psychiatrists cannot solve the problem of an Elder God descending,” Agatha sighed, slowly folding the letter away. “Every single matter is important. Every single matter’s priority has to be at the very front… ah.”

She lifted her head and looked toward the place mentioned in the report—Oak Street.

It happened to be in the direction where that strange blonde woman with no breath or heartbeat had gone.

…

Nina ran excitedly around the whole house, then darted into the kitchen to examine the cookware, which was clearly much better than anything they had at home in Pland.

Shirley and Dog wandered all over the living room and dining room on the first floor, pretending to “inspect” the place. Whenever they stopped, they had to comment on the furnishings around them.

They had been stuck on the Vanished for so long that they were about to burst.

Ai perched on the nearby dining table, its whole body buried in a huge pile of fries. Today was its great feast day.

Duncan sat on the sofa in the living room, watching all this with a smile. All his smiles were hidden behind thick bandages, but Vanna, standing beside him, suddenly had a strange feeling… At this moment, Captain Duncan’s eyes looked like those of a kind old father.

Vanna quickly shook her head and pushed that ridiculous thought aside. She looked at the two young ladies running all over the house (and the dog).

“There is an empty room upstairs reserved for you two. Did you go look at it?”

“We did, we did!” Nina trotted over, nodding again and again. “It’s great. It’s even a bit bigger than my room back in Pland!”

“This place is really not bad,” Shirley ran over too, her smile extra bright. “If I’d known you were settled this well in the city-state, I would have come over two days ago. It’s so boring on the ship! There’s nothing to do every day…”

Duncan slowly turned his head: “The homework I leave you every day is enough to keep you busy for three hours. How could you have nothing to do?”

Shirley instantly realized she had said the wrong thing and shrank her neck at once.

“You wrote it for her?” Duncan lowered his head a little and looked at Dog, who was trying hard to hide in the Shadows.

Dog’s head almost disappeared into his shoulders: “I… I was just practicing more for myself, so I wouldn’t waste your hard work teaching me…”

Duncan laughed out loud, sounding truly pleased.

“Relax. I brought you here to have fun, not just to scold you,” he waved a hand, then looked up at the Chronometer Clock on the wall. “Alice will be back soon. There is at least an hour before dinner. Shirley… make up some homework. Start from page sixteen of the vocabulary book.”

Shirley’s wail rang in Vanna and Morris’s ears for the first time in a long while.