In just a few dozen seconds, the high temperature incinerated everything flammable in the room, and then the flames died out as quickly as they had begun.
When Lynch rushed back in, all he saw was charred remains and utter devastation.
Lynch did not pursue the mysterious individual. Several minutes had already passed, and with the servants stationed at the front of the mansion, if the culprit had wanted to escape, they would have jumped out a window long ago. Chasing them now was pointless; it was better to see if anything here was worth saving.
However, there was nothing.
A thick, acrid smell of burning filled Lynch's nose, and waves of heat washed over his skin.
The explosion of fire had not generated a massive shockwave; the walls, roof, and floor remained intact. However, the extreme heat had burned almost everything in the room to a crisp.
This, of course, included the precious documents.
Although they still maintained their original shape, every piece of paper had turned completely black. The moment he reached out to touch them, both the table and the documents crumbled into ash.
Lynch stood motionless in the room, staring expressionlessly at the mess on the floor, his expression growing increasingly grim.
He had been outplayed. The culprit's build did not match any of the individuals the Rangers had encountered. Could it be that they were not one of Howard's men?
If not, why would they go to such lengths, even risking a move inside a noble's home? That was an extremely grave offense.
Bang. A sound came from behind him. Turning around, he discovered the door had also exploded into a pile of ashes. Miss Valente stood outside, hand raised, staring blankly at the ash filling the air. She quickly regained her composure, however, and walked in with a solemn face. She handed Lynch the coat she had brought up before pursing her lips at the paper ash covering the floor.
“Is the situation outside under control?”
“Don't worry. After you went in, the smoke in the other rooms dissipated quickly. They are opening windows for ventilation, trying to clear the air as soon as possible. Was it you who made the smoke stop?”
Lynch briefly described the mysterious man he had seen: “He specifically used a wet cloth to cover his mouth and nose, clearly well prepared. He used the smoke to clear the area first, then set a trap on the documents. That must be it. Once he succeeded and withdrew, the smoke cleared.”
“Hmm, so it really was aimed at these items. Someone did not want us to see these documents.” Miss Valente frowned. “But isn't the timing just a bit too convenient?”
Indeed. The documents had been sitting there for a month, and Miss Valente had examined them repeatedly during that time. Yet, within an hour of him finding out about them, the enemy had already shown up at their doorstep.
I am starting to feel like I am in a spy thriller.
“There are no coincidences in the mystery world. The other party likely possesses a method similar to prophetic ability, allowing them to glimpse our movements in advance.” Miss Valente clutched her folding fan and said in a low voice, “I just don't know who they are or what their purpose is in stopping us.”
“Hmm? Could it have been sent by Mayor Howard?”
“Probably not. Based on your description of the explosion, I doubt what burned this room was ordinary fire.”
“Oh?”
“True fire could not have extinguished so quickly, nor would it have produced such a blinding light. What you described is less like fire and more like... scorching radiance.”
Lynch frowned, struck by a bad premonition.
“Hmm, the owner of that ring of yours, The Passion of the Blazing Lady, commands related authority. However, her followers rarely live long, so they are not common. A more frequent wielder of similar authority would be... the Church of the Sun, or specifically, a soul severer of Phil, the Lord of Fire and Crafts.”
Miss Valente scanned the room and sneered:
“I will hire an expert in the next two days to try and analyze the mystery residue left by the authority. If it is confirmed that this was indeed the work of the Church of the Sun, then this is a declaration of war against the Valente family, and our family will gladly take up the challenge.”
This was the first time Lynch had seen the usually gentle and kind Miss Valente so angry and so resolute. He looked at her with a strange expression.
“I am not angry. For a thousand years, this is not the first time our family has faced provocation. There is no need to be angry; one only needs to strike back hard enough so that the opponent never dares to challenge us again. That is the belief the Valente family has upheld for a millennium.”
The noble lady smiled proudly:
“I will return to the Church of Suffering in the next few days. I am very curious to see how the church intends to handle the fact that a believer assigned by the Pope to work in Rhine was attacked without provocation. I will also formally visit Duke Vane. He should know which side to take in the conflict between the nobility and the church. And Victor from the Watchers as well. A soul severer from the church violating secular rights and attacking ordinary people—I trust those who maintain the order of Lande will not turn a blind eye.”
Hiss. Is this how great nobles wage war? Mobilizing all their power to crush the opposition directly. Lynch thought for a moment, squinting as he smiled: “I have another idea.”
“Hmm? Do tell.” Miss Valente's eyes lit up. She still remembered that the last time Lynch said he had an idea, he had charged straight into Zur-Baha-Sahr and hammered Mordiggian into submission with three punches.
Lynch pulled out Flaming Red Lips: “What if we pull the Rangers in to help pressure the Church of the Sun and force them to give an explanation? We can take the opportunity to hand the items over to them, and at the same time, let them know the documents have been destroyed, causing them to completely lower their guard.”
“Good, we shall do as you say. Mobilize every resource we can. I want the intruder to pay the price.” Miss Valente gritted her teeth and said hatefully, “Even if he hadn't provoked our family, I wouldn't have let him off easily. To think he dared to destroy our final clue. What a pity we couldn't know in advance... eh?”
Just as Miss Valente was looking regretfully at the ashes on the floor, she saw Lynch pull a stack of papers from the inner pocket of his coat and hand them over. She instinctively took them, unfolded them, and then froze, her mouth slightly agape as she stared blankly at what was in her hands.
It was a portion of the documents that should have been burned—the exact ones Lynch had casually grabbed before they escaped when the alarm rang.
They were the very documents the two of them had just picked out, the ones left over from the first seminar.
“The appearance of that person just now proves that these documents truly hold unknown secrets, enough to make him risk setting a fire in your home just to keep them hidden.” Lynch took the documents back, flicked them in his hand, and said with a wry smile, “If our previous analysis is correct, then these are the most critical contents. The secret he wants to keep is highly likely hidden within these pages. Which means that whatever he went to such great lengths to burn was likely just a pile of waste paper.”
“You...” Miss Valente's expression became quite remarkable. Between laughing and crying, she said, “Things were so urgent, yet you didn't forget to pack these, and you even picked the most important ones?”
“I have learned the hard way too many times, my lady.”
Joking aside, based on Lynch's experience with film, he had seen too many examples of naive people being outsmarted and having their homes robbed at the last second. Thus, the moment the fire alarm rang, he had instinctively tucked the most important things he could find into his clothes and carried them out. Lynch didn't intend to explain, so he just shrugged casually:
“And after the scene he caused, I actually have some thoughts on how to interpret the information.”
Miss Valente immediately looked expectant: “Oh?”
“When I entered Donnie's house and found those photos, his home was tainted with extreme filth. The photos themselves were also heavily affected. But these do not have that, which means Donnie had already successfully interpreted the mystery information, causing those photos to temporarily become mystery documents, which in turn caused a large amount of filth to cluster on them. And in the entire room, only the wall had the highest concentration of filth, which means he had nailed the photos to the wall before he succeeded in interpreting them. If we replicate his steps, might we...”
Miss Valente felt her palms grow damp, and her heartbeat accelerated. Licking her dry lips, she pondered for a moment, took Lynch's hand, and turned to leave: “Let us first evacuate everyone in the house, and then I will accompany you to try it. I think this might actually be a viable attempt.”
Rate on N.U.
