“The demon told you that himself?”
Ms. Cecil’s eyes narrowed slightly, a trace of suspicion still lingering within them.
While this intricate conspiracy theory involving Wayland Capital, the Mist Veil Society, and an abyssal demon sounded logically consistent on the surface...
As an investigator, her sharp intuition told her that Elias’s words were definitely watered down with lies.
“He told me himself.”
Elias met her gaze without flinching, his answer firm and unwavering.
The two stared at each other in the dim light of the corridor for a full ten seconds.
Finally.
Cecil let out a soft sigh, seemingly accepting this somewhat absurd explanation for the time being.
“I’ll believe you for now.”
She straightened her posture and smoothed out the slightly ruffled hem of her trench coat, her tone returning to its usual cold composure.
“Since you killed the mountain of flesh in the cemetery tonight and took out Luke during the subsequent pursuit...”
“I can temporarily lift my suspicion of you.”
She paused, her eyes turning sharp again as if warning Elias not to get ahead of himself.
“But remember, Mr. Rockland.”
“This does not mean your hole-riddled explanation has completely convinced me.”
Elias nodded cooperatively.
He knew Cecil wasn’t that easy to fool.
As long as he could smooth over the current situation, he could leave the rest of the mess for time to handle.
In any case, Luke was as dead as could be, and Guss had long since returned to the Abyss with his final payment.
This was a case where all the witnesses were dead. Even if the Seventh Agency wanted to investigate, they would have nowhere to start.
“So, I can simply understand it as...”
Cecil rubbed her throbbing temples, trying to untangle a clear thread from the chaotic mess of intelligence.
“That infernal demon killed Luke on the spot to collect a debt, and then made off with him.”
“And that high-risk containment object—the Soul Pendulum.”
“Is it still on Luke’s body, or... did the demon take it as well?”
Cecil continued, her eyes fixed on Elias’s micro-expressions.
“Exactly.”
Elias nodded in agreement without hesitation, his expression as natural as if they were discussing what to have for dinner.
“However...”
He changed his tone, his voice suddenly becoming heavy.
“As for the current whereabouts of the Soul Pendulum, I truly do not know.”
“But before Luke died, he did reveal some interesting information to me in exchange for his life.”
Elias decided to throw out a chip.
He knew perfectly well that his nonsense hadn't convinced Cecil. The shrewd investigator was likely eighty percent certain the Soul Pendulum was hidden on his person.
But that didn't matter.
Whether Cecil trusted him, doubted him, or didn't believe him at all, it was more important to maintain a strategic understanding where both sides knew the truth but couldn't speak it openly.
By releasing some heavy-hitting information beneficial to her and the Seventh Agency as a whole, he wasn't just protecting himself—he was also keeping Cecil in check.
“What information?”
Cecil’s expression turned serious instantly.
“He said...”
Elias lowered his voice, as if afraid of disturbing some ghost in the corridor.
“That within the high-ranking members of your Seventh Agency, there is a protective umbrella for Wayland Capital.”
Cecil froze for a moment, a flash of bewilderment crossing her grey eyes, but she quickly regained her composure.
She didn't panic.
Instead, she let out a long breath, as if a certain suspicion had finally been confirmed.
“I guessed as much.”
Cecil’s voice was cold, carrying a deep sense of exhaustion and helplessness.
“Therefore...”
She turned her head to look at the deep night sky outside the window, her tone becoming incredibly resolute.
“I will report to my superiors that during tonight’s apprehension operation, the containment object ‘Soul Pendulum’... was confirmed lost.”
As she spoke, she turned back and gave Elias a deeply meaningful look.
That gaze was heavy with unspoken information.
Elias instantly understood her meaning.
It was exactly what he had thought!
Cecil had indeed guessed, or rather was almost certain, that the pendulum was in his hands.
However.
Due to the capital infiltration within the Seventh Agency and the bombshell of a high-level mole Luke had dropped before dying, she didn't dare trust anyone now.
She absolutely did not want this extremely dangerous high-level containment object to reappear in the sight of Wayland Capital or certain individuals at this sensitive time.
“This containment object is best left lying quietly in the depths of the Inferno,” Cecil said with a double meaning, her voice cold as iron.
“I do not wish to hear one day that this object has caused some irreversible chaos somewhere.”
“Even if it does...”
She stared intently at Elias.
“It must absolutely not be in the material world.”
Elias met her gaze without flinching.
He understood that this was Cecil’s final warning and her final test.
“Elias, can I trust you?” Cecil asked again, her gaze incredibly earnest.
“Of course,” Elias promised without hesitation.
At this moment, Cecil truly had no better choice.
If she forcibly searched Elias now and confiscated the Soul Pendulum, then as the actual pursuer of Luke and the one who handled the high-level containment object, she would become the target.
Wayland Capital, the Mist Veil Society, and even those high-level moles within the Seventh Agency would focus all their attention and hidden daggers on her alone.
It was predictable that as long as the pendulum was in her hands, every place she went, every person she met, and every action she took would be watched by countless eyes. She would have no secrets left.
Even if she had extraordinary skills to hide it, the object would never be safe.
She was facing a behemoth that could mobilize almost the entire resources of the Empire.
She had made her decision.
From tonight onward, she would no longer trust any high-ranking officials in the agency, including her own mentor.
If the pendulum had truly been taken into the bottomless Inferno by a demon, as Elias claimed, she would still have to worry day and night.
She would fear that the greedy demon might sell the terrifyingly powerful item to the Mist Veil Society or other evil forces for a few soul coins.
So, to be safe, she would need to find a way to obtain enough information on the Inferno's movements from the Dawn Church to indirectly confirm the object's final fate.
Even though she was almost one hundred percent certain it was with Elias, hidden in some way.
In this tightrope-like situation, it was better to be extra cautious.
She didn't want to see a tragedy like tonight's repeat itself.
She didn't want five excellent Seventh Agency investigators to die and a dozen Life Scholars from the Lily of the Valley Convent to be slaughtered because of leaked intelligence and high-level power plays.
That was a weight of lives she could not bear.
As for why she didn't just hand the pendulum over to the Dawn Church? The reason was simple.
The tracking mark originally left by the Storm Judge on the pendulum had completely failed. It was as if it had vanished from the face of the earth.
Handing it to the Dawn Church might truly be worse than leaving it with Elias—a free transcendent who was full of tall tales but seemed to have a clear bottom line.
At the very least, as far as she knew, official agencies like the Dawn Church or the Seventh Agency had tedious paperwork and handover procedures.
Where there was a procedure, there would be a trail. And where there was a trail, Wayland Capital and the high-level moles could follow it to the source.
Instead, letting this high-level containment object remain in a state of being "unaccounted for" was its best fate.
To her, a high-risk containment object whose whereabouts were unknown was truly a good containment object.
As long as it wasn't triggered, it was equivalent to not existing. Ideally, she wouldn't even know where or how it was hidden herself.
That way, even if she were interrogated in the future using spells like Detect Thoughts, the other party would never get any substantial breakthrough from her.
It was a perfect closed loop.
Now, for Cecil, the biggest problem—and the only lingering concern—was whether Elias could actually keep the thing safe.
While Cecil stared at Elias, silently weighing the pros and cons in her mind...
Beep—beep-beep-beep—
Suddenly, the frantic, high-pitched chirping of a brass medical instrument alarm echoed through the quiet corridor.
It was coming from Charlotte’s room!
Both were startled and immediately turned to look.
Through the glass observation window on the ward door, Elias saw it clearly.
Charlotte, lying on the hospital bed, had moved.
She slowly opened her eyes.
Rate on N.U.
