At this mont, Isabella's entire body went cold.
What made her so uncomfortable was not that the system had flaws, but that everyone took those glaring flaws for granted.
The sense of alienation was simply too overwhelming.
Isabella primarily resided in Sky Spring City. Perhaps because the city boasted several churches and a grand cathedral, she had never encountered such a localized issue before.
The villages she had visited previously did not have large populations.
Even the largest among them only had a little over a thousand residents, requiring just a priest or two to manage everything.
She had only been to Tail Fin Town once before, during her journey to Finback Village with Jacques.
She had traveled from Sky Spring City to Tail Fin Town in search of bloodline powers.
It was during that trip that she ran into Jacques and recognized her childhood playmate.
Back before the Dartnerly family had completely withdrawn from Sky Spring City, Isabella and Jacques had attended the sa theological academy. As a result, they had a fairly decent relationship.
Since Isabella did not hold an official position during her previous visit to Tail Fin Town, she remained unaware of the local situation. Once she received information about the old priest from Jacques, she left the town with him.
It was only now, having truly stepped into the official departnts of Tail Fin Town, that she realized the town was nothing but a glamorous facade hiding profound decay beneath.
At the very least, that was the reality of the Redemption Departnt.
"No wonder people say the doctors in Tail Fin Town are highly skilled," Isabella remarked with a smile, showing no signs of an outburst.
The male priest, who had been acting rather smug monts before, briefly froze. For a fleeting second, he could not tell whether Isabella was complinting him or delivering a veiled insult.
However, seeing the genuine smile on her face, he convinced himself that Isabella was not the type to resort to sarcasm.
Declining to converse further with the male priest, Isabella briefly flipped through the schedule. At present, the Redemption Departnt's donation records were outstanding, filled with an innurable queue of superficial nas.
Yet, there was not a single person who genuinely needed dical treatnt.
If any of these wealthy rchants or nobles actually showed up, she was certain that sycophants like this male priest would imdiately fawn over their major clients. There was simply no need for Isabella here.
With that thought in mind, Isabella stopped wasting her ti in the Redemption Departnt.
She headed straight for the church's archives.
The church housed a public archive room where most non-confidential knowledge could be easily found.
Isabella had previously visited this very archive to research her own bloodline.
Upon entering the room, she imdiately began investigating the recent changes in Tail Fin Town.
It did not take long for her to find what she was looking for.
After all, while Tail Fin Town had indeed undergone changes recently, they were not as drastic as she had imagined.
As for the surge in individuals possessing ntal power, a simple search yielded imdiate and relevant results.
"The Construct Protocol!"
"The multiform unity of the Fictional God."
"Special Berserk Accessories."
'What exactly is going on in Tail Fin Town?' Isabella felt a numb shock wash over her as she read the docunts. 'To think that an incident of this magnitude remains unresolved, brushed off as nothing more than an ordinary heretical religious order?'
However, Isabella quickly realized that her ability to sense emotions was a unique bloodline trait derived from a combination of her heritage and the ntal power of a cleric.
An ordinary cleric would never possess such acute perception.
Therefore, to most people, the Construct Protocol still appeared to be a minor religious order. Perhaps there were only a few dozen—at most, no more than a hundred—mbers in the South District who had obtained Berserk Accessories, possessing a ntal power attribute value of around four or five.
These individuals were incapable of casting spells and were thus considered incapable of achieving anything significant.
'No, that is completely wrong!' Isabella carefully reviewed the information on the Berserk Accessories. The docunts claid, for instance, that the accessories caused ntal power to beco unstable and frenzied.
Yet, just walking here, a cursory observation had revealed over a dozen commoners carrying similar items, and their ntal power was perfectly stable.
'The information collected by the Church has been intentionally misled.' That was Isabella's instinctual deduction.
'The number of Construct Protocol mbers and their level of technological advancent are absolutely far higher than anyone imagines!'
'I probably need to find the person in charge of this.' As Isabella ticulously scoured the files, she discovered that over the past few months, a Holy Knight nad Gabriel had been steadily capturing Construct Protocol mbers.
Furthermore, several others had been using these captures as a trail to uncover the mastermind behind the Construct Protocol.
Brent, the man who had received her on the trade route earlier, was one of them. The other was...
"Intern Holy Knight—Arsey Kia," Isabella murmured, continuing to read through his file.
Arsey was one of the victims from a few months ago when the Construct Protocol first began revealing its presence in the South District.
He had fallen into a near-death state after taking the brunt of an alchemical weapon's attack to protect Brent.
On the verge of death, his ancestral bloodline had awakened.
While such occurrences were not incredibly common, they were certainly not rare either.
The Kia family possessed a trace of elven bloodline. Although elves were not innately a supernatural species,
they were undoubtedly much closer to the supernatural realm than mankind.
If a human adult's base attribute value was only a one, an adult elf would naturally possess an attribute value of three to five.
Given the chance to pursue cultivation, an elf's probability of advancing to the Iron Rank was vastly superior to that of a human.
After all, elves boasted significantly longer lifespans, granting them ample ti to increase their attribute values.
The awakened bloodline had been a blessing in disguise for Arsey. Not only did it allow him to survive long enough to receive a cleric's healing, but it also awakened his attribute value alongside specific elven traits and abilities.
Following that incident, Brent chose to recomnd Al for entry into the Church out of gratitude for saving his life.
Currently, Al had already beco an intern Holy Knight.
Rumor had it that over the past few months, apart from recovering from his injuries, he spent virtually all his free ti scouring the South District for mbers of the Construct Protocol.
'I need to find ti to et these people,' Isabella thought to herself. She set down the docunts in her hands, preparing to look up information regarding Nemus.
Nemus had been in Tail Fin Town for half a year now. He must have done quite a bit during that ti, actions that would undoubtedly leave so trace in the archives.
Even if the records were incomplete, she could at least glean a general understanding of what Nemus had been up to over the past six months.
"Isabella, it has been a long ti." Perhaps speaking of the devil truly summoned him. Isabella jolted in surprise and looked behind her. Nemus, dressed in standard clerical robes, was standing just a short distance away.
Throughout his entire approach, Isabella's acute perception had been completely useless.
Had Nemus not spoken up on his own accord, Isabella would never have realized he was there.
Furthermore, even now—even as Isabella stared right at him and actively tried to sense his presence—she could not detect the slightest trace of his aura.
"I have been anticipating your arrival for a long ti," Nemus said with a warm smile, his tone brimming with utter sincerity.
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