Chapter 232: 232
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Whoosh!
Suddenly, the book disappeared!
"Put on your masks!" Valentine quickly yelled, which the others did as told without question.
Their faces were now covered with their own masks and the yellowish mist with illusory snakes slithering about.
In the doorway, a figure slowly emerged from a yellowish mist that quickly dissipated, walking from the path to the room where they were in. The mist, which looked identical to Valentine's own, had illusory birds surrounding it and now covered only her feet, causing her footsteps to be silenced.
"That one is ours," the figure, which turned out to be a woman in her mid-forties, said. She sounded rather angry.
The woman had blonde curly hair that was tied up and a smart short dress that was typically worn by office workers, dark brown in color.
"Be careful! That must be an enemy!" Johann reminded.
The four of them raised their guard. The spider, that was standing near where she was, looked rather intimidated, however. It quickly ran back to its master's side.
"You of all people to speak in that manner! How dare you break into someone's place without permission, and taking away our books to boot!" she replied, sounding even more irritated. Her eyes were looking straight at Johann's eyes right through his mask.
Valentine was alarmed by how she could hear the man perfectly and even knew where the man's eyes were. Then, he noticed that there was some line made of illusory birds that had connected itself into Valentine's Concealment, eating away the illusory snakes one by one.
"Shit!" he cursed.
Focusing on the birds, Valentine tried to sever the link that the woman had established without him knowing. The illusory snakes then fought back against the illusory birds that looked like tiny eagles. However, his snakes were outnumbered and the birds easily pecked them to death, causing his effort to fail.
Having no other choice, he lifted the Concealment on himself and the others because he didn't know what would happen if the woman's birds finished eating all of his illusory snakes. Besides, the woman was able to see and hear them anyway because of the link, so there was no point in maintaining it.
"You're a cautious one, I must give you that," she said, sounding like a fierce teacher complimenting her student. In fact, it wouldn't surprise Valentine if she turned out to be a teacher in reality.
The book that had been in Agatha's hand before had suddenly appeared in her hand instead, holding it easily with one hand despite its size.
"Young man, there is nothing impossible. If you contract the right Deity, the range of your Theft can be increased. You should know at least this much if you're a Thief that is," she lectured Luuk.
"But there must be a trade-off," Valentine quickly said, which got her reaction. The woman frowned for a second, but he clearly saw that.
Valentine's mind was racing to find out what the downside of having the range of Theft increased to that extent. Even the unfashionable woman from Hoorn couldn't seem to steal unless she was close enough to him. That would mean that probably the strength of her Theft ability might be compromised, or she might not be able to steal multiple things at once, unlike Luuk.
"I don't like smart alecs," she said shortly and then clapped, "Consider this a warning from me, do not ever come here again or look into us,"
Suddenly, the ground beneath them trembled violently. Slowly, the ground became mud, capturing them in its grasp. Without being able to do anything, they sunk deeper and deeper into the ground. The bookshelves, which were their only hope of getting out, also turned liquid and melted into the ground along with the books on them. The room was now a giant quagmire without anything to hold on to.
Having been attacked, Valentine's Illusion Substitute was triggered. However, there was nowhere safe for him to reappear after his body turned into countless tiny snakes. The moment his real body took shape, he began sinking again. He had to deactivate the ability in order not to waste it.
Their body sank deeper and deeper into the liquid ground, covering almost all of their heads. The spider had disappeared into who knew where while Valentine's ears, being the tallest in the group, were still above the surface.
Using his Boosted Hearing, he overheard the voice of the woman talking to someone else, the voice of whom was unfamiliar to Valentine.
"Why don't you kill them?" asked the other person, who sounded like a man. The sound of the liquid ground moving muffled their voices somewhat.
"There is no use. They might be useful in the future. Just make sure to protect our secret bases better in the future," she replied sternly as if blaming the other person for the breach in security.
"But they have learned of our secret if they've read that book!" the man retorted.
"That is impossible. Only the woman has read it, and unless she's a Divinator, she won't understand a thing. Our secret is still safe," the woman replied, sounding offended.
After that, Valentine completely sank into the ground, his vision blurred. Besides the sounds of the sound of his own heartbeat and breathing, it was complete silence around him.
"Mr. Hymes!" came Luuk's voice, bringing him back to reality.
Valentine opened his eyes and saw that they had been transported outside. He was lying in the middle of a secluded alley not far from the house, but it was a different one from the one that they had been before. He took off his mask after making sure that no enemy was in the vicinity in order to breathe better. The others seemed to have taken off theirs as well.
Noticing that Johann was missing, he asked Luuk, "Where's Johann?"
"Mr. Bockhorst went to check the house," the young medical student replied.
The detective then tapped his coat to clean the dirt off it and went out of the alley to quickly check things out. They were still under the effect of his Concealment, so their sudden appearance shouldn't have attracted anyone who just happened to walk past the alley, but he just wanted to make sure.
"Things look safe around here, G, but I don't think we should dilly dally any longer. We need to get a move on once Johann is back," he decided.
Just as he said that, the other detective returned with a complicated expression on his face. There was repressed anger, confusion, and regret all mixed together on it. Johann walked back into the alley after gesturing at Valentine to follow him to where the others were.
"What did you find, Mr. Bockhorst?" asked Agatha.
Heavily, Johann said, "Nothing."
"What do you mean by nothing?" asked Luuk confusedly.
"I couldn't even get close to the house. They've set up an invisible barrier that I don't think any of us can break..." explained the man rather impatiently. It seemed that his mood was sour.
"So did we come here for nothing then?" said Luuk dejectedly. Although he wasn't personally involved in the Pravitatem business, he still wanted the commission money for successfully completing the job.
Valentine stepped forward and spoke, "Not really, but for now, we need to leave this place. We don't know what might come for us."
After saying that, the four people quickly left the alley, following the tall detective with blue eyes. Johann sent his spider familiar back to its realm once he got the chance and after that, they all got into Agatha's parked motor carriage.
"Where should we go, Mr. Hymes?" she asked.
"Home. We'll talk on the way," Valentine replied and checked his watch. It was still
Vroom!
The expensive motor carriage ran fast in the late cloudy morning. The mood inside the vehicle was heavy like the dusk. They had just been defeated very easily by the strange woman and it left a bad taste in their mouths. Only Agatha and Valentine seemed not bothered by that fact. The former was driving cheerfully and honking maniacally as usual while the latter stayed quiet in the front seat while watching the streets went by.
Once they were far enough, Valentine's Concealment got dispelled on its own.
"So what did you mean back then?" asked Johann finally. He seemed to have calmed down.
The detective, although prone to emotional fluctuations, appeared to be able to recover quickly as well, which Valentine applauded. He was completely the opposite of Agatha who never showed any other strong emotion but a polite smile and friendliness. Although she did sometimes express her anger with her action, her face still showed the same warmth.
"We have actually learned about their plan. At least Agatha has," Valentine explained vaguely.
"You mean the book, Mr. Hymes? But I did not understand any of what was written in it," she replied regretfully.
A meaningful smile surfaced on Valentine's face, although those sitting at the back couldn't see it.
"Did you forget that I can read memories?" he finally replied, shortly but it was enough for her to put things together.
Luuk and Johann also understood what Valentine meant.
"I totally forgot about that! You are right, Mr. Hymes! That way, you can help me interpret what was written there. There must be a secret hidden for that lady to take it away like that," Agatha replied merrily. Her eyes were still locked to the road ahead while her hands were skillfully steering and switching gears as needed.
They arrived at the Vakbond apartment building a little less than five minutes later. The four of them quickly went upstairs to the Hymes Detective Agency. After locking the door, Valentine activated his ability.
"The sounds coming from this room are a secret!"
"The location of this room is a secret!"
A yellowish mist descended and enveloped the room, covering its walls, windows, ceiling, door, and even the floor. The room was now a safe space for the four people to convene without their secrets leaking out. Although Valentine wasn't sure his Concealment could block a Deity's intervention, he at least knew most Contractbounds would have a hard time doing so.
"Just make sure we are careful in extracting the information from the book. There might be a Deity's name mentioned there, and we shouldn't say it out loud," explained Valentine, "I once did by accident."
"And what happened?" asked Johann curiously.
"Nothing, fortunately, and I know why. The Deity whose name I mentioned out loud was in hiding according to this book, so I guess He couldn't afford to react to just every minor thing. But things won't end well if we mentioned some other Deity's true name," he replied while holding the book about the Deities.
After placing the book on the desk and asking the others to wait, Valentine went to the bedroom and lied down, closing his eyes. He fell asleep not long after and Graham woke up in his place, ready to perform the Memory Reading and Divination all in one.
Upon returning to the room, Johann was looking at the man intently. Back then, when they were in the dark, the grieving detective was using his night vision, so every color looked the same to him. This time, he noticed that the fellow detective's eye color had changed. His aura had also completely changed like he was a totally different person. However, he quickly brushed away the thought because it wasn't what he needed to do right now.
"It's just impossible," he thought to himself.
Sitting in his office chair leisurely, Graham beckoned at Agatha to sit across from him and the others to watch.
"Are you ready, Agatha?" he asked gently.
Johann then noticed again that the man's confidence was different from before. If the man before was emanating an aura of cold and mysterious confidence, the person sitting at the desk now sounded more outgoing and somewhat charming, for the lack of better words.
Nodding politely, Agatha replied, "Yes, Mr. Hymes,"
The tall and slender woman relaxed her seating a little bit, although she was still sitting gracefully like a lady.
With a thought, Graham summoned an illusory flame that hovered just in front of his face. He then started chanting while focusing on the kind of information he wanted to get while watching the gently burning flame. Since he could only read memories related to the target's interactions with another person, Graham had to improvise a little bit.
"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, hereby ask to read the memory of Agatha van Nostrand!"
The illusory flame flickered a little bit, and after a while, an image began to appear just like when he used divination. It was the interactions between Agatha and Valentine in the underground passage! Scenes after scenes appeared, which made him slightly embarrassed because looking at himself-- or rather, his other half-- from another person's point of view was a different kind of experience. He turned out to be slightly different from his own expectation.
The scene then reached the one in the underground library, where Agatha had opened the book and was about to show it to the others. It was stolen right after, but from Agatha's point of view, the content of the book was very clear. Graham memorized every single detail of it before the scene change again, which happened shortly after.
The others, getting a glimpse of the content of the book, was amazed by the man's creativity in using his ability, especially Luuk.
"It's a shame that you were alone when you read the book, otherwise we would have been able to see it as well," Johann said, "But that is good enough. I've got it memorized in my brain."
"I also still remember it, but it does not make sense to me," Agatha replied.
"It does make sense to me," said Graham once the image disappeared. His tone was grim.
The detective then turned his attention to Luuk, who was standing on Agatha's left, "Luuk, do you remember this name?"
With a pen and a page from his notebook, Graham wrote a name that made Luuk raise his eyebrows. Agatha and Johann didn't seem to know what it meant, but Luuk and Graham knew very well.
"Are they... are they trying to summon that?" he asked, his tone was now heavy as well.
"I think so," replied Graham shortly and nodded slowly.
On the brown paper, just one word was written.
It was Cherub.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the book disappeared!
"Put on your masks!" Valentine quickly yelled, which the others did as told without question.
Their faces were now covered with their own masks and the yellowish mist with illusory snakes slithering about.
In the doorway, a figure slowly emerged from a yellowish mist that quickly dissipated, walking from the path to the room where they were in. The mist, which looked identical to Valentine's own, had illusory birds surrounding it and now covered only her feet, causing her footsteps to be silenced.
"That one is ours," the figure, which turned out to be a woman in her mid-forties, said. She sounded rather angry.
The woman had blonde curly hair that was tied up and a smart short dress that was typically worn by office workers, dark brown in color.
"Be careful! That must be an enemy!" Johann reminded.
The four of them raised their guard. The spider, that was standing near where she was, looked rather intimidated, however. It quickly ran back to its master's side.
"You of all people to speak in that manner! How dare you break into someone's place without permission, and taking away our books to boot!" she replied, sounding even more irritated. Her eyes were looking straight at Johann's eyes right through his mask.
Valentine was alarmed by how she could hear the man perfectly and even knew where the man's eyes were. Then, he noticed that there was some line made of illusory birds that had connected itself into Valentine's Concealment, eating away the illusory snakes one by one.
"Shit!" he cursed.
Focusing on the birds, Valentine tried to sever the link that the woman had established without him knowing. The illusory snakes then fought back against the illusory birds that looked like tiny eagles. However, his snakes were outnumbered and the birds easily pecked them to death, causing his effort to fail.
Having no other choice, he lifted the Concealment on himself and the others because he didn't know what would happen if the woman's birds finished eating all of his illusory snakes. Besides, the woman was able to see and hear them anyway because of the link, so there was no point in maintaining it.
"You're a cautious one, I must give you that," she said, sounding like a fierce teacher complimenting her student. In fact, it wouldn't surprise Valentine if she turned out to be a teacher in reality.
The book that had been in Agatha's hand before had suddenly appeared in her hand instead, holding it easily with one hand despite its size.
"Young man, there is nothing impossible. If you contract the right Deity, the range of your Theft can be increased. You should know at least this much if you're a Thief that is," she lectured Luuk.
"But there must be a trade-off," Valentine quickly said, which got her reaction. The woman frowned for a second, but he clearly saw that.
Valentine's mind was racing to find out what the downside of having the range of Theft increased to that extent. Even the unfashionable woman from Hoorn couldn't seem to steal unless she was close enough to him. That would mean that probably the strength of her Theft ability might be compromised, or she might not be able to steal multiple things at once, unlike Luuk.
"I don't like smart alecs," she said shortly and then clapped, "Consider this a warning from me, do not ever come here again or look into us,"
Suddenly, the ground beneath them trembled violently. Slowly, the ground became mud, capturing them in its grasp. Without being able to do anything, they sunk deeper and deeper into the ground. The bookshelves, which were their only hope of getting out, also turned liquid and melted into the ground along with the books on them. The room was now a giant quagmire without anything to hold on to.
Having been attacked, Valentine's Illusion Substitute was triggered. However, there was nowhere safe for him to reappear after his body turned into countless tiny snakes. The moment his real body took shape, he began sinking again. He had to deactivate the ability in order not to waste it.
Their body sank deeper and deeper into the liquid ground, covering almost all of their heads. The spider had disappeared into who knew where while Valentine's ears, being the tallest in the group, were still above the surface.
Using his Boosted Hearing, he overheard the voice of the woman talking to someone else, the voice of whom was unfamiliar to Valentine.
"Why don't you kill them?" asked the other person, who sounded like a man. The sound of the liquid ground moving muffled their voices somewhat.
"There is no use. They might be useful in the future. Just make sure to protect our secret bases better in the future," she replied sternly as if blaming the other person for the breach in security.
"But they have learned of our secret if they've read that book!" the man retorted.
"That is impossible. Only the woman has read it, and unless she's a Divinator, she won't understand a thing. Our secret is still safe," the woman replied, sounding offended.
After that, Valentine completely sank into the ground, his vision blurred. Besides the sounds of the sound of his own heartbeat and breathing, it was complete silence around him.
"Mr. Hymes!" came Luuk's voice, bringing him back to reality.
Valentine opened his eyes and saw that they had been transported outside. He was lying in the middle of a secluded alley not far from the house, but it was a different one from the one that they had been before. He took off his mask after making sure that no enemy was in the vicinity in order to breathe better. The others seemed to have taken off theirs as well.
Noticing that Johann was missing, he asked Luuk, "Where's Johann?"
"Mr. Bockhorst went to check the house," the young medical student replied.
The detective then tapped his coat to clean the dirt off it and went out of the alley to quickly check things out. They were still under the effect of his Concealment, so their sudden appearance shouldn't have attracted anyone who just happened to walk past the alley, but he just wanted to make sure.
"Things look safe around here, G, but I don't think we should dilly dally any longer. We need to get a move on once Johann is back," he decided.
Just as he said that, the other detective returned with a complicated expression on his face. There was repressed anger, confusion, and regret all mixed together on it. Johann walked back into the alley after gesturing at Valentine to follow him to where the others were.
"What did you find, Mr. Bockhorst?" asked Agatha.
Heavily, Johann said, "Nothing."
"What do you mean by nothing?" asked Luuk confusedly.
"I couldn't even get close to the house. They've set up an invisible barrier that I don't think any of us can break..." explained the man rather impatiently. It seemed that his mood was sour.
"So did we come here for nothing then?" said Luuk dejectedly. Although he wasn't personally involved in the Pravitatem business, he still wanted the commission money for successfully completing the job.
Valentine stepped forward and spoke, "Not really, but for now, we need to leave this place. We don't know what might come for us."
After saying that, the four people quickly left the alley, following the tall detective with blue eyes. Johann sent his spider familiar back to its realm once he got the chance and after that, they all got into Agatha's parked motor carriage.
"Where should we go, Mr. Hymes?" she asked.
"Home. We'll talk on the way," Valentine replied and checked his watch. It was still
Vroom!
The expensive motor carriage ran fast in the late cloudy morning. The mood inside the vehicle was heavy like the dusk. They had just been defeated very easily by the strange woman and it left a bad taste in their mouths. Only Agatha and Valentine seemed not bothered by that fact. The former was driving cheerfully and honking maniacally as usual while the latter stayed quiet in the front seat while watching the streets went by.
Once they were far enough, Valentine's Concealment got dispelled on its own.
"So what did you mean back then?" asked Johann finally. He seemed to have calmed down.
The detective, although prone to emotional fluctuations, appeared to be able to recover quickly as well, which Valentine applauded. He was completely the opposite of Agatha who never showed any other strong emotion but a polite smile and friendliness. Although she did sometimes express her anger with her action, her face still showed the same warmth.
"We have actually learned about their plan. At least Agatha has," Valentine explained vaguely.
"You mean the book, Mr. Hymes? But I did not understand any of what was written in it," she replied regretfully.
A meaningful smile surfaced on Valentine's face, although those sitting at the back couldn't see it.
"Did you forget that I can read memories?" he finally replied, shortly but it was enough for her to put things together.
Luuk and Johann also understood what Valentine meant.
"I totally forgot about that! You are right, Mr. Hymes! That way, you can help me interpret what was written there. There must be a secret hidden for that lady to take it away like that," Agatha replied merrily. Her eyes were still locked to the road ahead while her hands were skillfully steering and switching gears as needed.
They arrived at the Vakbond apartment building a little less than five minutes later. The four of them quickly went upstairs to the Hymes Detective Agency. After locking the door, Valentine activated his ability.
"The sounds coming from this room are a secret!"
"The location of this room is a secret!"
A yellowish mist descended and enveloped the room, covering its walls, windows, ceiling, door, and even the floor. The room was now a safe space for the four people to convene without their secrets leaking out. Although Valentine wasn't sure his Concealment could block a Deity's intervention, he at least knew most Contractbounds would have a hard time doing so.
"Just make sure we are careful in extracting the information from the book. There might be a Deity's name mentioned there, and we shouldn't say it out loud," explained Valentine, "I once did by accident."
"And what happened?" asked Johann curiously.
"Nothing, fortunately, and I know why. The Deity whose name I mentioned out loud was in hiding according to this book, so I guess He couldn't afford to react to just every minor thing. But things won't end well if we mentioned some other Deity's true name," he replied while holding the book about the Deities.
After placing the book on the desk and asking the others to wait, Valentine went to the bedroom and lied down, closing his eyes. He fell asleep not long after and Graham woke up in his place, ready to perform the Memory Reading and Divination all in one.
Upon returning to the room, Johann was looking at the man intently. Back then, when they were in the dark, the grieving detective was using his night vision, so every color looked the same to him. This time, he noticed that the fellow detective's eye color had changed. His aura had also completely changed like he was a totally different person. However, he quickly brushed away the thought because it wasn't what he needed to do right now.
"It's just impossible," he thought to himself.
Sitting in his office chair leisurely, Graham beckoned at Agatha to sit across from him and the others to watch.
"Are you ready, Agatha?" he asked gently.
Johann then noticed again that the man's confidence was different from before. If the man before was emanating an aura of cold and mysterious confidence, the person sitting at the desk now sounded more outgoing and somewhat charming, for the lack of better words.
Nodding politely, Agatha replied, "Yes, Mr. Hymes,"
The tall and slender woman relaxed her seating a little bit, although she was still sitting gracefully like a lady.
With a thought, Graham summoned an illusory flame that hovered just in front of his face. He then started chanting while focusing on the kind of information he wanted to get while watching the gently burning flame. Since he could only read memories related to the target's interactions with another person, Graham had to improvise a little bit.
"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, hereby ask to read the memory of Agatha van Nostrand!"
The illusory flame flickered a little bit, and after a while, an image began to appear just like when he used divination. It was the interactions between Agatha and Valentine in the underground passage! Scenes after scenes appeared, which made him slightly embarrassed because looking at himself-- or rather, his other half-- from another person's point of view was a different kind of experience. He turned out to be slightly different from his own expectation.
The scene then reached the one in the underground library, where Agatha had opened the book and was about to show it to the others. It was stolen right after, but from Agatha's point of view, the content of the book was very clear. Graham memorized every single detail of it before the scene change again, which happened shortly after.
The others, getting a glimpse of the content of the book, was amazed by the man's creativity in using his ability, especially Luuk.
"It's a shame that you were alone when you read the book, otherwise we would have been able to see it as well," Johann said, "But that is good enough. I've got it memorized in my brain."
"I also still remember it, but it does not make sense to me," Agatha replied.
"It does make sense to me," said Graham once the image disappeared. His tone was grim.
The detective then turned his attention to Luuk, who was standing on Agatha's left, "Luuk, do you remember this name?"
With a pen and a page from his notebook, Graham wrote a name that made Luuk raise his eyebrows. Agatha and Johann didn't seem to know what it meant, but Luuk and Graham knew very well.
"Are they... are they trying to summon that?" he asked, his tone was now heavy as well.
"I think so," replied Graham shortly and nodded slowly.
On the brown paper, just one word was written.
It was Cherub.
Whoosh!Suddenly, the book disappeared!"Put on your masks!" Valentine quickly yelled, which the others did as told without question. Their faces were now covered with their own masks and the yellowish mist with illusory snakes slithering about.In the doorway, a figure slowly emerged from a yellowish mist that quickly dissipated, walking from the path to the room where they were in. The mist, which looked identical to Valentine's own, had illusory birds surrounding it and now covered only her feet, causing her footsteps to be silenced."That one is ours," the figure, which turned out to be a woman in her mid-forties, said. She sounded rather angry.The woman had blonde curly hair that was tied up and a smart short dress that was typically worn by office workers, dark brown in color. "Be careful! That must be an enemy!" Johann reminded.The four of them raised their guard. The spider, that was standing near where she was, looked rather intimidated, however. It quickly ran back to its master's side."You of all people to speak in that manner! How dare you break into someone's place without permission, and taking away our books to boot!" she replied, sounding even more irritated. Her eyes were looking straight at Johann's eyes right through his mask.Valentine was alarmed by how she could hear the man perfectly and even knew where the man's eyes were. Then, he noticed that there was some line made of illusory birds that had connected itself into Valentine's Concealment, eating away the illusory snakes one by one."Shit!" he cursed.Focusing on the birds, Valentine tried to sever the link that the woman had established without him knowing. The illusory snakes then fought back against the illusory birds that looked like tiny eagles. However, his snakes were outnumbered and the birds easily pecked them to death, causing his effort to fail.Having no other choice, he lifted the Concealment on himself and the others because he didn't know what would happen if the woman's birds finished eating all of his illusory snakes. Besides, the woman was able to see and hear them anyway because of the link, so there was no point in maintaining it."You're a cautious one, I must give you that," she said, sounding like a fierce teacher complimenting her student. In fact, it wouldn't surprise Valentine if she turned out to be a teacher in reality.The book that had been in Agatha's hand before had suddenly appeared in her hand instead, holding it easily with one hand despite its size."Young man, there is nothing impossible. If you contract the right Deity, the range of your Theft can be increased. You should know at least this much if you're a Thief that is," she lectured Luuk."But there must be a trade-off," Valentine quickly said, which got her reaction. The woman frowned for a second, but he clearly saw that.Valentine's mind was racing to find out what the downside of having the range of Theft increased to that extent. Even the unfashionable woman from Hoorn couldn't seem to steal unless she was close enough to him. That would mean that probably the strength of her Theft ability might be compromised, or she might not be able to steal multiple things at once, unlike Luuk."I don't like smart alecs," she said shortly and then clapped, "Consider this a warning from me, do not ever come here again or look into us,"Suddenly, the ground beneath them trembled violently. Slowly, the ground became mud, capturing them in its grasp. Without being able to do anything, they sunk deeper and deeper into the ground. The bookshelves, which were their only hope of getting out, also turned liquid and melted into the ground along with the books on them. The room was now a giant quagmire without anything to hold on to.Having been attacked, Valentine's Illusion Substitute was triggered. However, there was nowhere safe for him to reappear after his body turned into countless tiny snakes. The moment his real body took shape, he began sinking again. He had to deactivate the ability in order not to waste it.Their body sank deeper and deeper into the liquid ground, covering almost all of their heads. The spider had disappeared into who knew where while Valentine's ears, being the tallest in the group, were still above the surface.Using his Boosted Hearing, he overheard the voice of the woman talking to someone else, the voice of whom was unfamiliar to Valentine."Why don't you kill them?" asked the other person, who sounded like a man. The sound of the liquid ground moving muffled their voices somewhat."There is no use. They might be useful in the future. Just make sure to protect our secret bases better in the future," she replied sternly as if blaming the other person for the breach in security."But they have learned of our secret if they've read that book!" the man retorted."That is impossible. Only the woman has read it, and unless she's a Divinator, she won't understand a thing. Our secret is still safe," the woman replied, sounding offended.After that, Valentine completely sank into the ground, his vision blurred. Besides the sounds of the sound of his own heartbeat and breathing, it was complete silence around him."Mr. Hymes!" came Luuk's voice, bringing him back to reality.Valentine opened his eyes and saw that they had been transported outside. He was lying in the middle of a secluded alley not far from the house, but it was a different one from the one that they had been before. He took off his mask after making sure that no enemy was in the vicinity in order to breathe better. The others seemed to have taken off theirs as well.Noticing that Johann was missing, he asked Luuk, "Where's Johann?""Mr. Bockhorst went to check the house," the young medical student replied.The detective then tapped his coat to clean the dirt off it and went out of the alley to quickly check things out. They were still under the effect of his Concealment, so their sudden appearance shouldn't have attracted anyone who just happened to walk past the alley, but he just wanted to make sure."Things look safe around here, G, but I don't think we should dilly dally any longer. We need to get a move on once Johann is back," he decided.Just as he said that, the other detective returned with a complicated expression on his face. There was repressed anger, confusion, and regret all mixed together on it. Johann walked back into the alley after gesturing at Valentine to follow him to where the others were. "What did you find, Mr. Bockhorst?" asked Agatha.Heavily, Johann said, "Nothing.""What do you mean by nothing?" asked Luuk confusedly."I couldn't even get close to the house. They've set up an invisible barrier that I don't think any of us can break..." explained the man rather impatiently. It seemed that his mood was sour."So did we come here for nothing then?" said Luuk dejectedly. Although he wasn't personally involved in the Pravitatem business, he still wanted the commission money for successfully completing the job.Valentine stepped forward and spoke, "Not really, but for now, we need to leave this place. We don't know what might come for us."After saying that, the four people quickly left the alley, following the tall detective with blue eyes. Johann sent his spider familiar back to its realm once he got the chance and after that, they all got into Agatha's parked motor carriage."Where should we go, Mr. Hymes?" she asked."Home. We'll talk on the way," Valentine replied and checked his watch. It was still Vroom!The expensive motor carriage ran fast in the late cloudy morning. The mood inside the vehicle was heavy like the dusk. They had just been defeated very easily by the strange woman and it left a bad taste in their mouths. Only Agatha and Valentine seemed not bothered by that fact. The former was driving cheerfully and honking maniacally as usual while the latter stayed quiet in the front seat while watching the streets went by.Once they were far enough, Valentine's Concealment got dispelled on its own."So what did you mean back then?" asked Johann finally. He seemed to have calmed down. The detective, although prone to emotional fluctuations, appeared to be able to recover quickly as well, which Valentine applauded. He was completely the opposite of Agatha who never showed any other strong emotion but a polite smile and friendliness. Although she did sometimes express her anger with her action, her face still showed the same warmth."We have actually learned about their plan. At least Agatha has," Valentine explained vaguely."You mean the book, Mr. Hymes? But I did not understand any of what was written in it," she replied regretfully. A meaningful smile surfaced on Valentine's face, although those sitting at the back couldn't see it. "Did you forget that I can read memories?" he finally replied, shortly but it was enough for her to put things together.Luuk and Johann also understood what Valentine meant."I totally forgot about that! You are right, Mr. Hymes! That way, you can help me interpret what was written there. There must be a secret hidden for that lady to take it away like that," Agatha replied merrily. Her eyes were still locked to the road ahead while her hands were skillfully steering and switching gears as needed.They arrived at the Vakbond apartment building a little less than five minutes later. The four of them quickly went upstairs to the Hymes Detective Agency. After locking the door, Valentine activated his ability."The sounds coming from this room are a secret!""The location of this room is a secret!"A yellowish mist descended and enveloped the room, covering its walls, windows, ceiling, door, and even the floor. The room was now a safe space for the four people to convene without their secrets leaking out. Although Valentine wasn't sure his Concealment could block a Deity's intervention, he at least knew most Contractbounds would have a hard time doing so."Just make sure we are careful in extracting the information from the book. There might be a Deity's name mentioned there, and we shouldn't say it out loud," explained Valentine, "I once did by accident.""And what happened?" asked Johann curiously."Nothing, fortunately, and I know why. The Deity whose name I mentioned out loud was in hiding according to this book, so I guess He couldn't afford to react to just every minor thing. But things won't end well if we mentioned some other Deity's true name," he replied while holding the book about the Deities.After placing the book on the desk and asking the others to wait, Valentine went to the bedroom and lied down, closing his eyes. He fell asleep not long after and Graham woke up in his place, ready to perform the Memory Reading and Divination all in one.Upon returning to the room, Johann was looking at the man intently. Back then, when they were in the dark, the grieving detective was using his night vision, so every color looked the same to him. This time, he noticed that the fellow detective's eye color had changed. His aura had also completely changed like he was a totally different person. However, he quickly brushed away the thought because it wasn't what he needed to do right now."It's just impossible," he thought to himself.Sitting in his office chair leisurely, Graham beckoned at Agatha to sit across from him and the others to watch. "Are you ready, Agatha?" he asked gently. Johann then noticed again that the man's confidence was different from before. If the man before was emanating an aura of cold and mysterious confidence, the person sitting at the desk now sounded more outgoing and somewhat charming, for the lack of better words.Nodding politely, Agatha replied, "Yes, Mr. Hymes,"The tall and slender woman relaxed her seating a little bit, although she was still sitting gracefully like a lady. With a thought, Graham summoned an illusory flame that hovered just in front of his face. He then started chanting while focusing on the kind of information he wanted to get while watching the gently burning flame. Since he could only read memories related to the target's interactions with another person, Graham had to improvise a little bit."I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, hereby ask to read the memory of Agatha van Nostrand!"The illusory flame flickered a little bit, and after a while, an image began to appear just like when he used divination. It was the interactions between Agatha and Valentine in the underground passage! Scenes after scenes appeared, which made him slightly embarrassed because looking at himself-- or rather, his other half-- from another person's point of view was a different kind of experience. He turned out to be slightly different from his own expectation.The scene then reached the one in the underground library, where Agatha had opened the book and was about to show it to the others. It was stolen right after, but from Agatha's point of view, the content of the book was very clear. Graham memorized every single detail of it before the scene change again, which happened shortly after.The others, getting a glimpse of the content of the book, was amazed by the man's creativity in using his ability, especially Luuk."It's a shame that you were alone when you read the book, otherwise we would have been able to see it as well," Johann said, "But that is good enough. I've got it memorized in my brain.""I also still remember it, but it does not make sense to me," Agatha replied."It does make sense to me," said Graham once the image disappeared. His tone was grim.The detective then turned his attention to Luuk, who was standing on Agatha's left, "Luuk, do you remember this name?" With a pen and a page from his notebook, Graham wrote a name that made Luuk raise his eyebrows. Agatha and Johann didn't seem to know what it meant, but Luuk and Graham knew very well."Are they... are they trying to summon that?" he asked, his tone was now heavy as well."I think so," replied Graham shortly and nodded slowly.On the brown paper, just one word was written. It was Cherub.
