Notes

Having devoured a massive number of corpses along with the Rank Two Devourer before her, a wave of fullness washed over her.

Solana glanced at Theresa, who was collapsed to the side. She seemed to still be using vines to heal her wounds. The recent explosion had dealt her significant damage, leaving her powerless to face another Devourer.

Seeing this, Solana ignored her. She walked down the long corridor and entered a room.

The inside was empty, save for a fireplace, a desk, and a wooden bed. A notebook lay open on the desk.

Solana approached.

The open page read:

【I need to advance to the Rank Three “Apostle of Calamity.” Therefore, I need a vast amount of despair. This is the ritual required before we can advance to Rank Three.】

【I set my sights on the Saintess of the Church of Life, because the despair provided by a Saintess is far greater than that of an ordinary person.】

【I reached a cooperation with Victor, the Beyonder of the Hermit pathway. I was responsible for providing the spiritual item, the Urn of Dread, while he was responsible for helping me collect fear, which I would then personally harvest in the end.】

【...】

【Our plan was exposed...】

【Victor died on Lightless Street. The Saintess discovered our plan and even used that envoy from the Northern Territory to dispose of him!】

【Now, the Saintess is being protected by that envoy from the Northern Territory, and I can no longer get anywhere near her.】

【But how on earth did she find out? Our cooperation should have been completely secret!】

【...】

【Something is wrong, something is wrong. Lately, I feel like there's something off about my memory. Did I really cooperate with Victor? No, it feels like we never even met. Our cooperation seemed to have a middleman acting as a bridge, yet I can't remember that middleman's face at all, as if I'm being interfered with by something!】

This Devourer was likely the figure she had seen at the end of the illusion in her previous loop...

But a middleman? There was a middleman in their cooperation? Was that the mastermind behind the attempt on her life?

Thinking this, Solana continued flipping to the next page:

【The plan to absorb despair through the Saintess has failed. I can only temporarily choose other methods, but I must advance quickly, because I could be discovered by Sister Theresa at any moment. For some reason, she seems to have already targeted me...】

【Those magic stones are my backup plan for advancement. If time really runs out, I can only temporarily use this method.】

【But I really do not want to force an advancement like this. That is something we only use during experiments to manufacture more puppets... The Witch of Flame used this method, which is why she ended up in that horrific state. The Witch of Flame attack in Leytin City three years ago was forcefully built up using magic stones!】

【Right... Speaking of that incident, I do not understand what the higher-ups were thinking. Since the goal was clearly to kill Saintess Isariel, why on earth did they have to orchestrate that plague? And why did they have to pretend it was an advancement ritual for the Witch of Flame? Was it solely to lure Isariel from the Holy City and eliminate her?】

【Furthermore, they clearly knew that trying to eliminate a Saintess through such a large-scale event was far less simple than direct assassination. Our Order has so many corrupted creations; assassinating a Saintess in the Holy City is not entirely impossible. Why on earth were those people foolish enough to cause such a massive commotion in Leytin City, exposing our existence?!!】

Was the incident in Leytin City three years ago also fishy? Could it be that they didn't just want to eliminate Saintess Isariel that year?

But if that was the case, what was their true purpose in assassinating her now? Was it really as Ignis had previously mentioned?

No, it didn't seem that simple either. This only further corroborated the previous deciphering of the parchment manuscript.

They chose Leytin City as the location once again, they intentionally leaked that plan, and they were assassinating the Saintess once more... What on earth was all of this for?

The Witch of Flame, Isariel, the Abyssal Order, the true culprit behind her assassination... She realized that these events all seemed to have some faint, underlying connection.

But none of this was within her scope of consideration for now. Only if she truly couldn't find any clues would she need to understand the Abyssal Order's goals and uncover the truth behind the incident three years ago.

Right now, she wanted to know even more who that middleman was...

Flipping to the next page:

【Lately, my memory of that middleman has grown even hazier. All I can recall now is that they should possess some form of divination method, and seemingly an extremely strong power of observation. Every time, they could precisely report the Saintess's location and her situation to me...】

【No, what am I thinking? Perhaps they were deceiving me. Otherwise, how did our plan end up exposed, and how was Victor killed directly?】

【...】

【Right, I seem to have met Matthew before. At that time, he appeared to be carrying the Order's lantern, executing some task assigned by the higher-ups. Was it merely to create contamination?】

【But I remember that he later chose to strike a deal with someone, attempting to eliminate the Saintess...】

【Was that person one of our higher-ups? Was it also related to the middleman in my memory?】

【My memory is growing hazier and hazier. Many pieces of information related to that person are like a fog; I have already begun to gradually forget them. I can only try to preserve what remains in my mind for now by writing in this notebook...】

Solana flipped through a few more pages, but there was nothing written further back...

Once again, she fell into deep thought.

What on earth was going on? Was that middleman the mastermind? Was that person the reason she had suffered through the previous series of events?

Who on earth was he?

The notes mentioned that the person was skilled in divination, and Camilla was an Astrologer with a motive to kill her. Could that middleman be her?

Was she a member of the Abyssal Order? Or was she a dual-pathway Beyonder?

She remembered that a Rank Three “Apostle of Calamity” of the Abyssal Order could erase concepts. Could she have erased those people's memories?

An extremely strong power of observation... From this perspective, she might really have been monitored by those people from the very beginning!

But through what pathway were they monitoring her? Could an Astrologer truly perform divination non-stop?

She clearly remembered that after that uncle at the divination shop performed divination, thread-like cracks began to appear on his body, showing that such divination was harmful to them.

Then how on earth were they monitoring her?

Were they really observing her non-stop? Weren't they tired?!

In any case, she had to orchestrate a kidnapping to pull her main body out of the public eye. Only then could she avoid the assassination while better investigating these matters!

...