Thus, from Euphemia’s perspective, Fufu, who had just been sitting next to her eating breakfast, seemed to skip a frame the moment she put down her food bag. One second she had brown hair, but the next, her hair turned white, and her black stockings vanished, leaving her with bare legs and feet.
After a brief moment of daze, Euphemia quickly reacted. “Fufu, you used your ability again. So we are in 【future】 now, right? And every time you use your ability, you can freely choose a clone to enter 【future】? You chose the Earth Pathway clone this time?”
A question mark slowly materialized over Freya’s head. Wait, she hadn’t said a single word yet. How did Euphy manage to finish her entire train of thought for her?
Euphemia continued, “So, are we going to investigate the case of the out-of-control extraordinaries now? Should we go straight to the empire’s official personnel?”
Freya nodded. “Mhm.”
The two left the room and knocked on the door next door. Soon, a flurry of footsteps echoed from inside. Victor called out, “Coming, coming!” as he ran to pull the door open. However, when he saw the two people standing outside, especially Life Freya, he couldn’t help but freeze in confusion. “Uh, who are you?”
The same person before and after makeup could look completely unrecognizable to a close acquaintance, let alone Life Freya right now. Her change wasn’t just a matter of ‘makeup’; her lifeform itself had undergone a qualitative evolution. Her voice, height, hair color, and clothes had all changed. Aside from her facial structure having some resemblance to Freya’s, there was practically nothing else in common.
Because of this, no normal person would ever connect Life Freya and Freya as the same person.
In one of her previous simulations, Freya had been her normal self in the morning, but when she met Euphy as Rank Four Life Freya at noon, even Euphy hadn’t recognized her at first. It was even less likely for Victor to do so now.
Life Freya spoke in an ethereal, slightly airy voice. “I am the friend Freya mentioned to you before. You can call me... Columbina. Aren’t there some out-of-control extraordinaries causing trouble in this city? I want to investigate this case, and Freya said I could ask for your help.”
Victor scratched his head. “Uh, so this is the favor Freya wanted to ask of me?”
Euphemia cooperatively nodded. “Yes.”
Life Freya added, “Of course, I won’t have you help for free. I can give you these white flowers as a reward.”
As she spoke, Life Freya opened her right palm, revealing a beautiful white flower blooming gracefully upon it.
Victor said, “Deal! I already promised Freya, so I’m definitely helping! But where is Freya herself?”
Life Freya casually replied, “This matter is quite dangerous, so she, being an ordinary person, won’t be joining us.”
This explanation was highly reasonable, and Victor didn’t think twice about it. And so, the ‘trio’—which seemed to have swapped out a member but was actually still the exact same group—set off, heading toward the city’s largest police station.
Upon arrival, Euphemia directly declared her identity as a great noble from the neighboring Kingdom of Tarapaca. She claimed to possess some information regarding the current 【extraordinary out-of-control case】 and requested to speak with the official extraordinaries.
It was worth noting that the official extraordinary organization of the Kingdom of Tarapaca was called the 【Special Service】, but the empire’s official extraordinary organization went by a different name: the 【Shadow of the Empire】.
By a stroke of sheer luck, before the police officer could even head inside to report their arrival, four individuals with pink hair entered Freya and the others’ line of sight. It was Captain Joan and her squad, who were just about to set out to investigate the case.
The officer immediately went up to Captain Joan and whispered a few words. The pink-haired lolita raised an eyebrow, then walked over to Freya’s group and asked straightforwardly, “What information?”
The task of negotiating naturally fell to Euphy. Freya tilted her head slightly. She had only heard Euphy mention this pink-haired lolita in the previous simulation, but had never seen her in person. Seeing her now for the first time, Freya’s immediate reaction was... She’s so short. Honestly, this was the first time Freya had ever met an adult shorter than herself.
Aside from Joan, her three teammates were all tall women around 1.7 meters with elegant temperaments. If one didn’t know beforehand, who would have ever guessed that this tiny lolita was the captain?
Euphemia didn’t speak immediately. Instead, she suggested, “The situation is rather complicated. How about we find a suitable place to sit down and chat?”
Joan curled her lip. “Fine.”
Before long, the lolita brought the three of them into... an interrogation room. She hopped onto a chair, her legs not even touching the ground. Crossing her arms, she said, “Alright, spill. This room is exceptionally soundproof. Absolutely no one else will hear us.”
Victor’s mouth twitched slightly as he complained, “We clearly came here to cooperate. Why do I feel like we’re being interrogated?”
Euphemia got straight to the point. “Regarding this case, on the surface, the prime suspect is Thorne, the branch president of the Mind Research Association. As the strongest Mind Pathway extraordinary in this city on paper, he is the most capable of pulling this off.”
Joan wore a thoughtful expression. “I did suspect him indeed. After all, in the latest case, the out-of-control extraordinary belonged to the Mind Pathway. In the empire, only the Mind Research Association has access to Mind Pathway potions. But this isn’t exactly groundbreaking information. Surely this isn’t the key intel you wanted to share with me?”
Euphemia said, “No. As I just said, Thorne is the prime suspect on the surface, but precisely because of that, his actual suspicion is lowered. However, before I explain in detail, could Captain Joan tell us about the Rank Four abilities of the Mind Pathway?”
Since it was a very common pathway within their country, the empire’s official personnel were highly knowledgeable about the Mind Pathway. Joan thought about it and said, “Sure. It’s not some major secret anyway, there’s no harm in telling you.”
“The Rank Four Mind Pathway, Mind Reader, has only one ability, which is called 【Heartscape】. As the name suggests, it allows a Mind Reader to enter another person’s inner world.”
“This world is woven from the other person’s state of mind, condition, and past memories. Everyone’s inner world is unique. Once inside this special inner world, a Mind Reader can modify the target’s memories much more easily. Furthermore, they can modify not just surface-level memories, but even the target’s subconscious.”
The so-called subconscious referred to the body’s automatic, instinctive reactions. For example, when a person tripped, their hands would automatically reach out to brace themselves against the ground. The result would be scraped palms, but it effectively reduced the risk of injuring the torso or head.
A Rank Four Mind Reader could modify this subconscious reaction. They could make it so that when the person tripped, they would no longer brace themselves with their hands. Instead, their center of gravity would shift down even faster, causing them to fall headfirst. The consequence of doing so was that the person would become incredibly prone to falling to their death.
It was worth noting that while a Scholar’s Hyperdimensional Brain was highly effective at countering a Mind Pathway’s memory-modification abilities, it was quite powerless against this kind of subconscious tampering. No matter how intelligent a person was, they could not detect whether there was a flaw in their own subconscious.
In addition, by continuously influencing the subconscious within the 【Heartscape】, one could subtly alter a person over time. They could turn a gentle person violent, make a good person evil, or make a complete stranger... deeply trust or even become loyal to someone.
This was not a modification on the memory level. The person’s memories would be completely intact and normal, but their logical thinking and behavioral patterns would have changed. They would remember everything from before and wouldn't feel like there was anything wrong with themselves.
This was actually the reason why Joan was willing to explain. Knowing about it didn’t really make a difference; the ability was simply too difficult to defend against.
After listening, Victor couldn’t help but click his tongue. “No way, isn’t that way too broken? That’s literally turning someone into a completely different person.”
Joan nodded. “You could put it that way, but it takes a very long time—potentially months or even years. So it’s not quite as terrifying as you might think.”
Euphemia said, “I see. I understand now. In conclusion, mind extraordinaries are exceptionally skilled at hiding themselves in the shadows. As long as the culprit is a smart person, they wouldn't put themselves in plain sight and make themselves the prime suspect. Therefore, the real mastermind is highly likely to be someone else.”
Joan curled her lip. “So after all this back and forth, what exactly are we doing? First you tell me Thorne is a suspect, and then you tell me he isn’t. Isn’t that the same as saying nothing at all? Did you guys come here just to waste my time?”
Euphemia said, “I suspect the mastermind might be someone named Luna or Ansel within the Mind Research Association.”
Joan was taken aback. Euphemia’s jump in topic was a bit too fast, giving off the feeling of being at the starting line one second and reaching the finish line the next. “Why do you say that?”
Euphemia shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I cannot share the specific process of my deduction.”
Joan said, “If you won’t explain the process, how do you expect me to believe you? Who knows if you were sent by the mastermind to mislead me?”
Euphemia said, “We are definitely on the side of good. You can absolutely trust us on this.”
As she spoke, Euphemia looked over at Freya, who had been sitting quietly beside her without saying a word the entire time. “This is Miss Columbina. She is the Saintess of the Earth Pathway. Surely this identity is enough to prove our intentions?”
Joan clicked her tongue. “Earth Pathway?”
Victor, on the other hand, was shocked. “Holy crap, a Church Saintess?!”
The empire was a state where church and state were integrated, and the mainstream faith here was the Moon. Thus, to the empire, the Earth Pathway was undoubtedly a heretical faith. As an heretical Saintess, Life Freya should normally have been met with hostility.
However, the reality was quite the opposite. In this world, there were four extremely widespread churches: Earth, Moon, Sun, and Ocean. All four of these churches shared a common rule: they must not show hostility toward members of the other three churches and should avoid conflict with them as much as possible.
Therefore, when members of these four churches met, the atmosphere was surprisingly amicable. Moreover, the Church of the Earth was universally known for being full of exceptionally good people. Believing that someone from the Church of the Earth would deliberately commit evil deeds was harder than believing that one's boss would offer overtime pay next time. The latter at least had a marginally higher probability of happening.
Well, in truth, neither of those things was likely to happen.
And Life Freya was even a Saintess of the Church of the Earth. Joan sized her up from head to toe, her gaze finally landing on the holy emblem worn on her chest. She remarked, “To be honest, this is my first time seeing someone from the Earth Pathway in person. I only heard before that you people like to run around barefoot without shoes. Looks like that’s actually true.”
“By the way, doesn’t it hurt your feet when you walk?”
Freya replied, “Not at all~”
Only then did Joan look back at Euphemia. “Alright, I believe you guys are really here to help and do some good. So what’s the plan? Do we set off right now, arrest Luna and Ansel directly, and ask them what’s going on?”
Euphemia was stunned. “But we don’t have any decisive evidence yet. Is it really okay to just go and arrest them?”
Joan said, “Why wouldn’t it be? I do whatever I want. Let’s go, we’re heading out!”
Just like that, Joan’s squad of four, along with Freya’s group of three, set off in a somewhat bewildered fashion, heading straight toward the Mind Research Association.
Along the way, Freya couldn’t help but whisper to Euphemia, “So, why do you suspect Luna and Ansel?”
Euphemia said, “One piece of information we can be certain of right now is that the version of me in the previous false future was definitely affected by a mind ability. This means the mastermind must have approached me at some point.”
This was also the reason why Euphemia had said ‘no comment’ when Joan asked for her reasoning earlier. She continued to explain, “Furthermore, when the mastermind used their mind ability on me, you definitely weren’t by my side, Fufu.”
Otherwise, it would be impossible for that culprit to only use their ability on Euphemia while completely ignoring Freya beside her. If the two of them had been together, the ability would have certainly been used on both of them. Yet, judging by the results, all of Freya’s protective amulets were completely intact. This meant Euphemia had encountered the mastermind alone.
So, when exactly had Euphemia acted alone?
...
Rate on N.U.
