That lord's mastery of mory's authority was limited, aning the Finger Bone could only conduct one effective Q&A per use.
So how to phrase the question to maximize the information gained was a problem Cheng Shi wrestled with every ti he used the brooch.
Fortunately, he wasn't here to solve a case—he was here to find leads. So without hesitation, he asked the question that interested him most:
"What secret is hidden inside Redi Core's Fool-Hunting Statue?"
Green light flashed in the eye sockets of Kandert's corpse, driven by the Finger Bone. A raspy voice croaked:
"Ravings... the statue manifested divinity... bestowed upon Koshna... a divine gift..."
Its power spent, the corpse collapsed back to the ground. Both players present stared wide-eyed.
'A divine gift?!'
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened. 'Could Folly have actually cast His gaze upon this place?!'
It wasn't impossible. Object Worship was historically the most devout form of faith expression in the Land of Hope, and its ability to draw a god's attention had been proven—such as with the Mirror People and their mirrors...
But just because mory would cast His gaze didn't an Folly would. With His lofty disposition, would He really look here?
If Cheng Shi had to find a reason for Folly to turn His eyes this way, he was certain it wouldn't be the accumulation of faith. It would be because a grand foolish act was about to unfold here.
But whose foolish act? The people of Redi Core's, or the players'?
And what exactly had He bestowed?
The Prisoner was shocked too—but not about any divine gift. He was shocked that Cheng Shi could make a corpse talk!
He'd seen items like this before, but none were clearly reusable like Cheng Shi's. Even the most adept necromancers rarely had tools that could make corpses answer honestly, since that involved mory's domain.
mory's followers could utilize corpses, but they searched corpses' mories—they didn't interact with them.
Dealing with the dead was infinitely easier than dealing with the living, and Silence's followers loved secrets above all else. If this item were his, The Prisoner couldn't even imagine how much fun he'd have chatting with corpses.
'This is way too cool!'
He eyed Cheng Shi's brooch with transparent envy: "A treasure like this must co at a steep price, right?"
'Price?'
Cheng Shi blinked, suddenly realizing he hadn't made an offering to that lord in quite so ti. Being a "premium depositor" truly did co with all sorts of perks.
But seeing The Prisoner's expression, Cheng Shi knew that if he didn't say sothing negative about the Finger Bone Brooch today, the mory-retrieving brooch would beco the next topic the man wouldn't shut up about.
So he tossed out a casual deflection:
"You know why I only asked one question? Because any more and the corpse starts babbling nonsense. It's far harder to use than you'd think."
"?"
'How is that a downside? That's a feature!'
'Normal conversation doesn't excite . What I want IS the babbling nonsense.'
The Prisoner's envy only intensified.
"..."
When he noticed The Prisoner's expression growing increasingly strange, Cheng Shi knew it was ti to leave.
He stored Kandert's corpse in the Molten Coffin, then dodged the guards and slipped out.
The Prisoner followed close behind, whispering: "Is there anything I could trade you for that brooch?"
Even if Cheng Shi wanted to trade—which he didn't—he didn't dare give away an item bestowed by the lord of Death.
That lord wasn't exactly magnanimous. If He summoned Cheng Shi to the Bone Throne for permanent attendance, who would Cheng Shi complain to?
So Cheng Shi rolled his eyes: "Shut up."
The Prisoner's steps faltered. He caught up again, his expression tortured:
"Can't do that. Not speaking is blasphemy against my master."
"I can't trade my devotion for so little trinket."
"..."
'What devotion?'
'Doesn't your Benefactor find you annoying?'
Cheng Shi had gone completely numb. Apart from those monts when he used The Prisoner as a tool and couldn't help feeling a flash of appreciation, every other second of hearing the man speak made his head throb.
He said nothing more for the rest of the walk. He led The Prisoner back to the Folly Prohibition Office, and in the dying light of sunset, the two stood in the alley shadows beside the building, watching for an opening.
The Prisoner seed to read Cheng Shi's mind. He rubbed his head: "You want to find Koshna's body?"
Cheng Shi nodded:
"Exactly. All the clues now point to the statue being strange, and the only person who ever investigated the statue was the Executioner, Koshna. His death is definitely connected to that divine gift."
"It's not dark yet and there are too many people in town to approach the statue safely. I can only clear the peripheral clues first and hope Koshna's body has sothing I need."
With that, he sent The Prisoner in first, and the two slipped back into the Folly Prohibition Office.
The complex was built into the mountainside—sprawling and spacious, capable of holding many people. But at the mont it was understaffed. Beyond the extra patrols added for the jailbreak, guards were scarce—most had been dispatched into town to hunt the escaped prisoners.
It didn't take long before they found Koshna's body in the morgue beside the prison.
But when Cheng Shi opened that coffin and saw the body inside, a jolt ran through him. He froze where he stood.
The Prisoner leaned over, curious:
"Huh? Soone removed his eyes?"
Indeed—both of Koshna's eyeballs were gone!
And that was precisely why Cheng Shi was stunned.
If he'd truly been here on vacation, he might not have connected the missing eyes to anything. But he was here searching for the Eye of Mockery!
And by a twist of fate, he knew the Eye of Mockery could be removed—because Scarred Cheng Shi had personally demonstrated it for him.
So this Koshna—who'd allegedly received a divine gift from the statue—could his gift have been the very eyes he'd lost? Could they be the Eye of Mockery that Cheng Shi was looking for?!
In that mont, Cheng Shi's expression turned serious, his eyes filled with gravity.
If this was truly the case, he had to unravel Folly's puzzle. Because the Eye of Mockery may very well have appeared right here!
He desperately wanted to ask the corpse directly what the divine gift was, but he couldn't find an excuse to do so out of The Prisoner's sight. So he could only feign an autopsy, carefully examining Koshna's body.
And the examination actually did reveal sothing.
Koshna had died from a knife wound to the neck. The cut was offset to the right—a single upward thrust that pierced clean through the throat, causing fatal blood loss.
To land such a precisely angled strike on an Executioner built even larger than The Prisoner, there was almost no way to do it without first pinning the victim down and killing him at close range.
Cheng Shi had never seen the original prisoners the players had replaced, but from the townsfolk's conversations, it was clear nobody believed those prisoners had the ability to kill the Executioner.
So in all likelihood, soone had used the chaos as cover to eliminate the Executioner—and that person's objective was clear: to take Koshna's eyes.
The question was: who? And had Koshna seen the killer before dying?
That determined how Cheng Shi should phrase his question.
Just as Cheng Shi was deep in thought, a figure was quietly approaching from the other side of the Folly Prohibition Office's outer wall.
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