Scorpio ca clean. His reasoning was crystal clear and simple.
While Cheng Shi had vanished to parts unknown and Gao Ya had slipped into the crowd to spread rumors, Scorpio had been wondering whether he could accelerate the trial's progress.
After all, nobody knew if Cheng Shi's plan would succeed, and back then there was still a Scavenger lurking outside, watching them like a tiger eyeing its prey.
So he devised a plan. At the stroke of midnight, the very instant a new day began, he used his deduction ability to travel into Dolgod's future!
His goal was to find soone — soone who knew when the life that should never have been born would arrive.
Scorpio reasoned that since Dolgod harbored a life that should never have been born, regardless of whether that life had actually co into existence, events surrounding it would inevitably have caused enormous upheaval in so version of the future. At the very least, there would be historical traces or people who knew the inside story.
So he decided to search through countless futures for that person, bring them back, and have them guide everyone to find the life that should never have been born — to stand guard over it in advance and thereby alter the future.
It was a straightforward approach, and a common problem-solving thod among Another Day Assassins who possessed special Ti-based deduction powers. However, under Cheng Shi's earlier leadership, Scorpio hadn't wanted to use it, because doing so would waste his lifesaving opportunity.
But now, the lifesaving opportunity he'd held in reserve might not actually save his life. Better to spend it and clear the trial sooner.
And so he traveled to the future. The mont thunder rolled across Dolgod, he activated his talent and set off on his path of searching through deductions.
Scorpio had expected this needle-in-a-haystack task to drain every ounce of his ntal energy. He'd even steeled himself for failure from the very start. Yet he never imagined he'd be so fortunate — after only six deductions, he found soone in one of Dolgod's futures who claid to know the whole affair.
The man called himself Aph Ros. He was a holess vagrant — face covered in scars, back hunched with age. Apart from clothes that were still more or less intact and a body odor that wasn't overpoweringly foul, he had virtually no redeeming qualities.
When Scorpio found him, he was outside a tavern, chatting up a female citizen.
Remarkably, the woman showed no disgust at Aph Ros's unsightly appearance. On the contrary, she seed to be enjoying their conversation imnsely.
Scorpio was absolutely certain he'd only paused out of curiosity — definitely not because the woman was so strikingly beautiful — but that coincidental hesitation allowed him to overhear sothing from Aph Ros's mouth that sounded suspiciously like what he'd been searching for!
The vagrant leaned against the railing by the tavern's back door, his raspy, whistling voice showering the woman before him with endless complints, his cloudy eyes making no effort to conceal their covetous appraisal of her beauty and figure.
"I should thank the Church for not driving people like
out of Dolgod. That's the only reason I had the chance to et you, beautiful miss."
The woman had been drinking. A rosy flush spread across her fair skin. She stood poised, offering a slight nod and a captivating smile that lted Scorpio's — no, that lted Aph Ros's heart.
"I feel as though I'm gazing upon tonight's most beautiful moon," Aph Ros flattered shalessly, sending the woman into a fit of delighted laughter. "I don't even know your na yet, Miss Moon."
"A tongue that sweet must have found quite a few moons for Dolgod," the woman giggled behind her hand, her tone teasing but without a trace of contempt. "Just call
Moon. I like the na."
Aph Ros straightened up with uncharacteristic composure and adopted a conspiratorial air.
"Beautiful Miss Moon, no matter who else asked
this, I'd never tell them. But you're different. You're so elegant and perceptive — I can see you're nothing like those gossip-mongering noblewon. I'm sure you'd never breathe a word of my secret. Am I right?"
The woman's smile grew even more enchanting. She studied the vagrant before her once more, glanced left and right to make sure nobody was eavesdropping, then gave a demure nod — but behind those bright eyes, excitent blazed like fire.
Clearly, she was becoming interested in this man.
Aph Ros curled his lips into a grin, stepped forward, and leaned close to Miss Moon's ear to whisper. His voice was already hoarse and deep; lowered further, it beca truly inaudible to anyone nearby.
But such tricks were useless against Scorpio. He was an assassin — one with razor-sharp senses — so even standing at a distance, he could hear every word the vagrant said with perfect clarity.
"I'm not really a vagrant. I was once part of the Church myself. You could even say that before the Church Guard was established, I too once upheld order in Dolgod."
Miss Moon gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth. "How is that possible?"
"Why wouldn't it be, beautiful lady? You look quite young — I'd guess you've never heard of a place called the Evil Infant Inquisition. Then again, that institution was probably destroyed in a great fire before you were even born."
"My father told
about that fire! Were you one of the staff there? You're really that... old?"
"Ah... beautiful Miss Moon, age is just a number. It's aningless. What truly matters is ti. Generally speaking, the passage of ti makes certain people even more attractive, wouldn't you agree?"
"Are you talking about yourself?" Miss Moon laughed behind her hand.
"Obviously." Aph Ros flicked his hair.
"Fine, I'll admit there's sothing to that. But I'm more curious about your identity. Did I guess right?"
"Correct. Absolutely correct. You're not only beautiful but astonishingly intelligent."
Aph Ros lavished praise without restraint, making Moon blush to the tips of her ears.
"I was indeed a mber of the staff there. Though a fire and internal power struggles within the Church cost
my forr position — don't look so shocked, darkness exists everywhere. Nowhere is truly clean, is it?
But my old colleagues were sentintal enough not to banish
from the city. And thanks to them, I had the fortune of eting such a beautiful and enchanting moon tonight."
"But Father told
the Church is the most sacred place. How could they..."
"Once upon a ti, Miss Moon. Your father wasn't wrong — the Church truly was a sacred place, once. But ever since heretics used the Profane Birth thod to contaminate Dolgod, the faith here has never been pure again!"
"Ah!" Miss Moon let out a startled cry and clapped her hand over her mouth. She seed to feel she'd stumbled upon sothing she shouldn't have heard, yet curiosity drew her ever closer to Aph Ros. "What is the Profane Birth?"
"The Profane Birth is... a blasphemous secret that occurred before you were born."
Seeing that his hook had been taken, the vagrant didn't continue. Instead, he simply smiled, stepped back with gentlemanly composure, smoothed out his more-or-less intact clothes, and slowly extended his hand.
"The rest of the story comprises the most unspeakable secrets lurking beneath Dolgod's pleasant facade. I can't tell it here. Beautiful miss, if you have the courage, co with
to a certain place. Once we're there, you might learn the most terrifying — and fascinating — story that has secretly unfolded in Dolgod over these past centuries...
So, will you co?"
...
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