Late at night.
At the moment when the starlight was at its most brilliant, Hastur, who had descended into the Divine vessel and was roaming the Spirit world, felt Bernadette praying to the Stars.
This forced him to temporarily return to the Hall of Stars, giving up his wandering for the night.
Within the Hall of Stars, with a thought, Hastur saw Bernadette alone in her room.
He did not speak, merely watched her quietly.
"Sovereign of the Stars, I need guidance. Can you point me in the right direction?"
Hearing this, Hastur immediately understood that she was once again asking about Roselle.
And right now, he absolutely would not allow Bernadette to find Roselle, the Mother Goddess of Depravity had been waiting for him all along.
"Only at the right time can one receive the right guidance." Hastur directly poured cold water over her.
Bernadette froze for a moment. After hesitating for a while, she still spoke, "Is there anything the Stars cannot accomplish?"
Tch, that line really hits hard.
Hastur sighed inwardly, but said calmly, "Your urgency will only hasten his death."
"Is that really so?" Bernadette's eyes grew unfocused, no longer as bright as before.
For her now, uncovering the truth of the past and saving her father were the only reasons she continued forward.
Hastur let out a light chuckle. "A mere Sequence 2, your ambitions are too great."
"..." Bernadette fell silent. She knew her father's predicament involved deities, yet she simply couldn't wait calmly.
She was already Sequence 2; advancing further was unimaginably difficult, perhaps an opportunity she might never have in her lifetime.
Without waiting for her to say more, Hastur cut off the connection.
It seemed he needed to find something for Bernadette to do. Her behavior tonight clearly showed she had too much idle time lately.
After thinking for a while, Hastur decided to place his hopes on the Mother Tree of Desire and the Supernova Dominator.
Once they stirred up major disturbances in Intis, he could send Bernadette off to handle proper matters, better than letting her remain idle all day.
With that thought, Hastur turned his gaze toward the largest point of light beside the star of the Mother Tree of Desire. The Abomination Suah was directing people to construct something resembling an altar, likely intended to for the Mother Tree of Desire's descent.
As for the shattered "egg" of the Supernova Dominator, it was currently repairing its cracks, striving to restore itself.
Given its condition, if it encountered another divine descent soon, it would likely be beaten it was completely in pieces.
After making a round of observations, Hastur left the Hall of Stars.
....
The next day, afternoon.
Alfred Hall arrived punctually, bringing many specialty gifts from the Southern Continent.
Hastur warmly welcomed such generosity. Even Ariella came over to the pile of gifts, sniffing them, seemingly catching the salty scent of goods that had crossed the seas.
"You are even more young and accomplished than I imagined. At your age, I was still quarreling with my elder brother and behaving childishly."
Alfred Hall did not hide his admiration for Hastur at all.
Hastur politely returned the compliment, "You are also more gentlemanly than Miss Audrey described in her letters."
"Gentlemanly… Audrey still sees me as I was before leaving Backlund." Alfred Hall smiled faintly, then sighed. "The Southern Continent doesn't care for our Loen-style manners, it's rough and uncultured. Afternoon tea isn't a thing there either. At night, people prefer to open their hearts and dance around bonfires, like primitives with one foot just stepping into civilization."
'Alfred, that's a bit prejudiced.'
Miss Sharon is also from the Southern Continent, and her elegance is in no way inferior to Miss Audrey's. This shows that the upper ruling class of the Southern Continent still maintains a certain level of refinement.
Hastur did not refute him, simply listened quietly as Alfred described various aspects of the Southern Continent, occasionally asking questions about things that interested him.
Most of the time, it was Alfred speaking. He was quite talkative, Hastur even suspected that Alfred's profession in the Southern Continent was that of a successful merchant.
After chatting for about half an hour, Alfred rose to leave. Before departing, he invited Hastur to attend a banquet he would host three days later.
He did not mention anything about his intention to remain in Southville County to establish his career.
Not bringing up personal matters during a first visit, perhaps this was the unique subtlety of the Kingdom of Loen.
"Meow." Ariella jumped onto Hastur's right thigh, waving her little paw twice, then stared intently at the gifts Alfred had brought.
"He even sent dried fish from the Southern Continent, quite thoughtful."
Hastur immediately saw through the greedy cat's thoughts. Picking her up, he walked to the table piled with gifts and had a maid bring out the box of dried fish Ariella had taken a liking to.
Perhaps finding the maid too slow in opening it, Ariella leapt onto the table and began tearing at it with her paws. Soon, she clutched a fragrant dried fish and started eating happily.
Hastur shook his head with a smile. "Ariella, you should learn to control your eating manners, be elegant."
Holding the dried fish with both paws, Ariella slowed down, licking and nibbling for a moment, then cast Hastur a disdainful glance before returning to her original eating style.
....
"We haven't made any progress recently. We can't even enter that Hastur Campbell's castle. If this continues, we won't be able to report back to the Church."
In a second-floor room of an inn, four members of the Red Gloves team were discussing their next steps.
Ever since Ms. Ilya had taken Leonard to the sea, quite some time had passed, yet their investigation had yielded no results.
Their original plan had been to directly visit the castle, but every attempt ended in failure, they couldn't even enter, let alone meet Hastur.
"There's nothing we can do. We've already tried our best."
As soon as this was said, silence fell again.
Yes, they believed they had worked hard, busy all day, exhausted by the time they returned to rest.
But when it came time to write a report to the Church, they were shocked to realize that despite all their efforts, they had made no actual progress.
"Let's first think about how to reply to the Church," someone said, breaking the silence.
Knock, knock, knock.
A knock sounded at the door. The member closest to it gestured for the others to stay quiet and stepped forward to open it.
Standing outside was an elderly man, dressed in a shirt, vest, and formal suit, wearing round glasses and a silk top hat. His hair, visible beneath the hat, was completely white, yet he appeared energetic, not at all inferior to a young man.
"Sir, is there something you need, knocking on our door so late?"
The old man nodded. "I've come to help you escape your current predicament."
"Predicament? Sir, are you joking?"
"I'm speaking to you quite seriously."
"But we don't know each other. It's hard for us to believe what you're saying. It's already late, you should go back and rest."
Facing their doubt, the old man did not get angry, his tone remaining calm. "Have you recently been encountering frequent coincidences? Doing things that seem busy but ultimately achieve nothing?"
"How do you know that?!"
"I came to help you resolve this predicament. Listen carefully, if you want to escape, … ah, it's here, so fast."
The old man slightly raised his head to look at the sky. Soon, his body burst apart like a string of bubbles, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Inside the room, the Red Gloves members were shaken. Just as they were about to act, the world before their eyes suddenly cracked and shattered.
....
"Huff… Huff… it was actually a dream!"
Each person, asleep in their own room, suddenly woke up, glancing at the dark surroundings and wiping the cold sweat from their foreheads.
Their hearts still pounded rapidly, as if they had yet to recover from that dream.
"Was that really just a dream?" The same thought arose simultaneously in all four Red Gloves members.
They didn't dare go back to sleep. Quickly getting up, they contacted the others.
Once gathered, they were shocked to discover that all four of them had shared the exact same dream.
Every detail in the dream, even the old man's appearance and words, was identical.
If they still treated this as an ordinary dream, they wouldn't deserve to be Red Gloves.
After realizing this, they felt a deep sense of fear.
If that old man who pulled them into the dream truly came to help them, then it meant they were trapped in a massive predicament.
Even the old man himself had seemingly been driven away, or erased.
"We must save ourselves!" This became their first consensus.
"Suspend all investigations. From now on, whether eating, lodging, or sleeping, we stay together, no one acts alone."
"Find a way to contact the Church and inform them of our situation."
"And finally, no reckless actions!"
After reaching this agreement, they began writing letters, preparing to send them back to Backlund through spirit world messengers.
But when the letters were ready and they blew the copper whistle to summon the messengers, none came, no matter how long they waited.
Fear and helplessness began to spread, like the dark, lightless world outside the window.
Tonight, the crimson moon's light did not shine upon them.
They anxiously discussed various ways to escape, some suggested leaving Puning Port immediately, others proposed creating chaos and slipping away in the confusion.
In the end, they realized that doing nothing was the only way to maintain temporary safety.
The night would eventually pass. Only when sunlight finally streamed through the window did they, having not slept at all, feel a slight sense of relief.