Mystery: Good Witch

Chapter 698: Manipulator

A crimson light flashed, and "Admiral of the Stars" Cattleya returned to her captain's room.

Looking at the setting sun and the endless deep blue sea outside the window, she sighed softly, picked up the pen and letter paper on the table, pressed the tip of the pen on the paper, but did not start writing immediately.

If Mr. Fool disagrees with me passing the information to the Queen, He should have stopped me from doing so. So far, it seems that He has tacitly approved of this matter... But it could also be another situation. This deity feels that "no secrets should be disclosed" is an unspoken rule. His lack of verbal consent means that He does not allow it...

The desire to help the "Mysterious Queen" and the memory of the punishment she suffered last time were entangled in her mind. After a moment, Cattleya bit her lower lip, waved the pen, dragged a mark on the paper, and quickly wrote:
"The two symbols you asked about mean hometown, which is the final destination of the heart and spirit."

This was the question that came with the three pages of the Emperor's diary that the other party sent. After submitting the diary at the Tarot Club, Cattleya asked the Fool and got the answer.

The short message ended there, but after a moment, she continued writing and added a sentence:

"What do you know about Trier's 'Man in the Mirror'?"

Cattleya believed that the other party could understand her meaning from this slightly different wording.

Folding the letter, she summoned the messenger of the "Mysterious Queen" and watched it take the letter away and return to the spirit world. Then she stood up from the desk, walked to the window on the sea side, and looked out.

All the ships of the "Star Pirates" were moving at full speed in a single column towards the venue of the Pirate Conference.

I'll be able to see her in a few days...

A smile appeared on Cattleya's lips.

----

Returning to the third floor of his villa in Hillston District, Angel immediately jumped up from the comfortable recliner and quickly scanned the surroundings and even the entire villa with his naked eyes and the world in the mirror.

Fortunately, there is no "audience"...

After finding that there was no outsider except the servants and the butler, Angel breathed a sigh of relief and sat back in his chair.

No, if I continue like this, I will develop a phobia for "audiences", and I will also be afraid of "Justice" Audrey and her big golden retriever... Angel muttered, and decided not to wait for the information that Audrey would gradually find out, but to "take a shortcut" directly.

She went to the dressing table in the bedroom and drew a mixed symbol of "peeping" and "secret" on the mirror with an eyebrow pencil.

Soon, layers of spreading water waves appeared in the mirror, and the interior scene originally reflected inside disappeared, and turned into a line of Rune words composed of silver light:
"Beautiful and intelligent mistress, your obedient servant Arrodes has come as summoned!"

Why does it feel like there's a new adjective every time... Angel's mouth twitched, and just as he was about to speak, the silver text changed its shape again:

"Before you ask, I want to tell you that last night, the Mechanical Heart activated my body and asked questions about you. Do you want to know the details of the questions?"

Last night, it was about me... Angel immediately thought of Baron Sindras.

This was different from what she had guessed. The Mandated Punisher was actually willing to bring the Mechanical Heart along for the investigation, which meant that they took the incident very seriously. Otherwise, they would not have handed over the case of a noble who believed in Storm being suspected of being affected by Beyonder Abilities to an outsider.

"think."

She opened her mouth to answer.

A line of scribbled, random words quickly appeared on the mirror. This was the way the Mirror of Arrodes usually asked questions. Of course, it had never seemed so "rude" in front of Angel and Klein.

"Dear Arrodes, my question is, what happened to Baron Sinderus at 8 Birningham Road on Sunday afternoon?"

As expected, it was a question directed at Sindras... Angel's guess was confirmed, and then he found a vivid image emerging in the mirror.

The baron, dressed in formal clothes and with a red face from drinking, bowed and was about to leave through the door of the reception room, but his expression kept changing. Then he stopped as if he had made up his mind, turned around, and rushed towards the two women with a ferocious face. The scene shifted, and Angel's purple eyes under his black hair widened in fear. Audrey beside him seemed to be stunned and pressed her forehead. Then, Sindras, who was about to rush in front of the two, tripped over himself and fell straight down.

After a moment's pause, the image in the mirror showed the Baron's depressed and desperate face again. He stood on the balcony on the third floor, looking into the distance, then turned back and secretly glanced at the two victims who were sitting on the sofa and comforting each other. He gritted his teeth, took off his coat that made him inconvenient to move, resolutely turned over the stone railing, and jumped down.

However, his exposed belt accidentally got caught on the bulge on the railing, causing him to hang sideways outside the railing. Too ashamed to call for help, he could only struggle with his limbs, and was eventually dragged up by two women who noticed the abnormality.

Arrodes is quite good at "editing"... He gave a few close-ups of Sindras's ugly appearance at that time, but deliberately ignored the abnormality of Audrey and me... Angel was relieved a little and continued to look at the second question of the "Mechanical Heart":
"…Is there any supernatural factor affecting this incident? If so, what is it?"

Here comes the point.

She held her breath, leaned forward slightly, and moved closer to the dressing mirror. Last night, the "Mechanical Hearts" that activated Arrodes must have had the same feelings and actions. Of course, the victim who was asked a question after the previous question was excluded...

The mirror flickered, the text disappeared, and the dynamic picture reappeared. Two figures sat down in a spacious room where the details were unclear. One of them was Baron Sindras, who was wearing a top hat and had graying temples. The other was hidden in the black mist, as if he could not be seen or revealed.

As the two talked, a few lines of text appeared in the corner of the mirror:

"Your Excellency Baron, you are usually too repressed at home and in social situations. Although this is related to your several experiences of falling into lows, you no longer need to be like this...

"When you are alone with a beautiful lady, you can try to have a deeper communication with her, which may leave you with good memories. Even if she is not so willing, you can give her some compensation in exchange for her understanding. This is very common among the nobles and will also help you integrate into Backlund's upper class society."

This, this is completely different from the Baron's "encounter". It seems that these words were just to persuade him to "play a little more colorfully", rather than a hint that he would suddenly lose his self-control and pounce on Audrey and me... Angel frowned at the words, and then thought of another possibility.

This "audience" who could not see the details in the image, while speaking peaceful words, used "hints" to implant more distorted instructions into the Baron's mind.

"In-depth communication" was replaced by "forced relationship", and "compensation and understanding" was replaced by "self-termination"!
The Baron will only remember that ordinary conversation from beginning to end, until the condition of "being "alone" is met, then the real instructions in his mind will appear, making him do irrational things, and finally end his life because of guilt... No, jumping from the third floor into the muddy ground in the garden really won't kill people. The "audience" may just want to make a big fuss and make the Baron socially dead, or investigate some secrets hidden by him, causing a major blow to the Conservative Party, but not causing bigger waves... Is he an extraordinary person hired by the new party, or the royal family's "balancer"?
If the Baron had not come to my house and sent the servants away for a private conversation, I am afraid that the series of events would not have happened at all, and when he was alone with a real lady, it would have been regrettable, and then the Baron would have tried to commit suicide due to another order, causing chaos because no one guided him to go to the church for help, and the whole thing might have been regarded as a "scandal" that he had suppressed for a long time and broke out...

As Angel thought about it, the image in the mirror disappeared, and the third question that concerned both her and the Mechanical Heart emerged:

“…Who is that hidden Beyonder?”

This time, Arrodes did not answer with a picture, but reorganized the silver dots into a new line of text:
"A high-sequence Beyonder of the Audience Path."

This is simply correct nonsense... Angel muttered in his heart, knowing that it was due to the opponent's anti-divination measures that Arrodes could not lock on the specific target.

Unexpectedly, the text changed again the next moment:

"Dear wise hostess, I can answer this question accurately. Do you want to know the answer?"

What was going on? It knew the answer, but deliberately didn't answer the Mechanical Heart? Was it "playing dumb" because it was worried that its abilities would be re-evaluated and it would be shoved deeper into the church's underground?
Thinking of this, Angel chuckled and said:
"You said."

"His name is Hvin Rambis, a Sequence 4 'Manipulator', a member of the Royal Family's advisory group, and a member of the Psychological Alchemist Council."

Along with the text, a color picture appeared. It was a photo of Hvin Rambis wearing a shirt and vest, a dark red bow tie, and gray hair on the upper body. There was a gleam of wisdom in his blue eyes, and his temperament was elegant and easy-going.

It is hard to imagine that this kind old man is the "audience" demigod who hid the suicide order in Baron Sinderas's mind without changing his expression, a "manipulator"...

Angel breathed a sigh of relief. He remembered that after two rounds of conversation, Arrodes still owed him a question, so he asked:

"Are there any other secrets hidden in him?"

The words in the mirror were reorganized to form two lines of jumping words:
"He is closely connected to the Backlund Great Smog and the human trafficking case hidden behind it, but the power of anti-divination and 'secret-keeping' is too strong, so I can't get a glimpse of the full picture.

"However, he has crossed paths with you before. The 'suicide' of Jason O'Neill and his wife was related to him."

(End of this chapter)