Chapter 172
172: The Mask Under the Cloak
Returning to the view inside Noren's mansion, Lina at this moment was unaware of what was happening at the orphanage. Right now, she was completely absorbed in studying the Recording Orb found at the Christian Orphanage.
Lina had originally thought that the records she saw in the secret room were all the Recording Orb contained. But Lola, who clearly knew more about elven technology, told her that elven Recording Orbs were like human MP3 players; they contained many different folders.
And what Lina had seen back then was merely the content stored in the system's default folder.
Now, after Lina's tinkering, she had discovered dozens of differently labeled folders stored in the Recording Orb. The folder names included not just basic experimental conditions, but also detailed experimental records such as "experimental parameters," "project progress," "individual status," and more.
The time span they covered was even as long as nearly twenty years!
In other words, even before she and Jasmine were born, their adoptive father Howard, as well as that legendary Cardinal Zophi Gregory who was very likely still alive, had already deliberately begun such an unknown experiment.
For this, Lina had even specifically checked the corresponding Church records from those time periods. She discovered that the earliest record in this Recording Orb could be traced back exactly to the day when, according to Church archives, the legendary Cardinal Zophi Gregory first inherited the Spear of Destiny [Longinus]!
And the content of that initial record was also quite simple.
Just one sentence.
『My teacher told me that he witnessed the truth of the [World].』
A sentence that made one's skin crawl.
Lina had always thought that the magic and mysticism that the Watchers and the Church had been striving to conceal could already be considered the truth of the [World]. After all, for ordinary people, such matters were secrets they could go their entire lives without ever touching.
But now, this Recording Orb left behind by Howard was telling her that this world possessed an even more hidden [Truth].
A truth that Howard dared not mention even within the Recording Orb's records.
Lina's curiosity was thoroughly piqued.
For this, she didn't even care about her daily cuddles with Noren anymore. She just locked herself in her room, thoroughly studying the records in the Recording Orb.
The only regrettable thing was that Howard often used some proper names she didn't understand when making records, leaving Lina to only guess the secrets hidden behind them through wild speculation.
However, based on her guesswork, someone certainly knew more about Howard and Zophi's experiments. But unfortunately, due to last night's events, Lina was currently in a foul mood and had neither the desire nor the heart to confront that person face-to-face.
Of course, you could also say she was afraid to face the truth directly.
Because it would certainly be extremely cruel.
"Miss Lina."
Just as Lina was intently studying the images before her, her bedroom door was suddenly knocked on, and Lola's voice immediately came from outside.
"The matter you asked me to investigate has some leads."
Hearing this, Lina's heart stirred at once. She temporarily paused the image before her, then turned and hurried to open the door for Lola.
"Here, this is what you wanted."
The moment she entered, Lola handed a thin stack of documents to Lina. Lina took the materials and couldn't help but pause slightly.
This amount of information, wasn't it a bit too little?
"Don't think about it! It was already quite impressive that I could find any records about that cloaked figure! And most of them were recorded and kept by the Church. Even from the branch's archive room, swiping things from inside isn't that easy."
At this point, Lola's expression also wasn't very good.
"The Choir kept practicing hymns nonstop up there, making so much noise I was annoyed to death! I almost wanted to just tear down the Wangyou Grand Cathedral!"
Lina heard this and awkwardly scratched her cheek. Although the Blood Clan wasn't as terrified of hymns as demons were, hymns symbolizing holy attributes would still have some effect on them. And as a Blood Clan noble who had inherited the bloodline of one of the Thirteen Clans, [Ventrue], the effect hymns could have on Lola was even weaker. Something like the basic hymns practiced here in Wangyou City would at most just make her feel noisy and annoyed.
"There are indeed some very strange points in the records about last night's cloaked figure. According to Church records, that cloaked figure using Death Magic first appeared about five or six years ago. Back then, he only did one thing, which was assassinating a Church Bishop using Death Magic. Quite coincidentally, that Bishop happened to be your adoptive father Howard's opponent while he was alive."
Perhaps not a coincidence...
Lina thought to herself with a dark expression.
"After the first appearance, about a year passed, right? That cloaked figure appeared again. Same pitch-black sword wounds, same Death Magic. But this time, the one who died at his hands... was a Watcher."
"According to the Watchers' subsequent investigation, that Watcher back then seemed to have accidentally discovered some secret matter, and had been investigating this matter ever since. Then, when he made some huge progress, he was silenced by that cloaked figure."
"In the following three months, four more Watchers wanted to carefully investigate this matter, but their outcomes were all the same. Every single one was killed by this cloaked figure."
"However, among them, one Watcher didn't die on the spot. He used his unique transfer magic to shift part of what would have been a fatal sword wound, and in the end, feigned death to deceive the cloaked figure and managed to survive."
"Most importantly... this Watcher accidentally saw the cloaked figure's true face."
At this point, Lola paused briefly before continuing.
"According to him, the cloaked figure's true face... was a black-haired, red-eyed girl with an extremely beautiful appearance."
"Mmm..."
"Oh? You're actually not surprised?"
Contrary to Lola's expectations, Lina didn't appear very surprised when hearing this news. Instead, she looked as if she had expected it all along.
"During the fight with that person before, when I was close to her, I accidentally touched her chest. It was soft, definitely a girl's texture."
Lina kept her expression blank, casually making up a reason to brush it off.
"...Then you'd better not let Her Highness know about this matter."
"Don't worry, it was just accidental, not intentional."
Lola looked at Lina quite helplessly, while Lina blinked her eyes, giving her a "rest assured, I'm a pure love warrior" look.
"Sigh, forget it. Let's get back to the main topic."
"That Watcher who saw the cloaked figure's true face still died in the end. Do you know how he died?"