As Iconser looked up, Silas took a step back and used his psychological invisibility to erase all traces of himself once more.
The pale text on the surface of the silver mirror Arrodes faded away as well, leaving only the normal mirror surface before him, with Klein standing at the table.
"Sigh..."
Iconser's condition seemed somewhat improved.
He straightened up, and after a long sigh, picked up the silver mirror.
Stroking its surface three times, he continued to ask, "Respected Arrodes, I wish to know: who is the Beyonder that killed the 'Desire Apostle' Jason Beria?"
It was me.
Silas thought to himself as he stood beside Iconser, looking at the mirror surface together with him.
Silas was somewhat curious how Arrodes would answer, because judging from the earlier situation, the magic mirror Arrodes seemed extremely afraid of him.
So would it risk offending Silas to give Iconser the correct answer?
The result was negative.
The watery light on the mirror's surface rippled for a while but reflected nothing.
It didn't even question Iconser before actively retreating and returning to its normal state.
"Arrodes didn't answer..."
Iconser said, half surprised and half puzzled. "This is the first time I've encountered such a situation."
"Could it be because the other party's level far exceeds its own?"
A team member frowned in analysis.
Seeing Iconser pick up the magic mirror, the Machinery Hivemind team members stopped pretending to be busy and gathered around together.
"Anyway, there are such obvious signs of flesh and blood magic at the scene.
We can just directly conclude it was the Aurora Order's doing," another team member said impatiently.
"After all, Beyonders of that pathway are all believers of the True Creator."
But Iconser clearly didn't agree with this assertion. He simply stared at the silver mirror, lost in thought.
The members of the Machinery Hivemind lingered in Klein's house for a while longer.
Ultimately unable to find any clues, they could only leave.
"We'll continue following up on this matter."
Before leaving, Iconser said this.
What he meant was: unless some new development occurred, this matter would end here. They wouldn't devote more energy to it.
"They gave up too quickly."
After seeing them off, Klein couldn't help but say.
In his view, this case involved the death of a Sequence 5 Devil and should be considered a fairly important beyonder case, yet they'd casually tossed it aside.
Although from his standpoint it was best if they didn't investigate, he still couldn't help feeling surprised.
"It's a very reasonable choice, because it didn't cause much impact."
Isengard said, stroking his pipe.
"A dangerous Devil attempted to instigate some incident but was directly eliminated by force from an unknown entity in the initial stages. The matter can end there."
"You may not know this, but in Backlund with its population of five million, numerous beyonder incidents occur every day. Official Beyonders are always overwhelmed.
Therefore, they'll abandon cases that have no obvious impact and focus more energy on malicious incidents, like that serial murder case."
He continued.
"But wasn't that serial murder case also left unsolved?"
Silas said.
Hearing his voice, both men looked over simultaneously.
Although he'd been standing in the living room the entire time, sharing the room with them, their gazes only turned toward him now, as if they'd just noticed him.
"That only shows their abilities are insufficient, not that they didn't try hard enough."
Isengard laughed helplessly.
"Of course, if we told them Jason Beria was planning to assassinate Duke Negan, they might have a different attitude."
"Let's forget about that then."
Klein immediately shook his head.
"I thought as much."
Isengard said, "Duke Negan is a devout believer of the Lord of Storms. I'd rather not deal with the 'Tyrant's' subordinates."
The Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom and the Church of Storms had always regarded each other unfavorably.
"Well then, since the matter is basically resolved, I'll take my leave for now."
He stood up to bid farewell to Klein and Silas.
Klein hurriedly stood as well, seeing him to the door.
"Also, Mr. Anderson."
Isengard Stanton turned back when he reached the hallway and said to Silas, "I believe I should express my gratitude to you.
Thank you for killing him and avenging my assistant.
That poor young man, he was still looking forward to returning to Lenburg for the New Year's Mass..."
With a lonely and melancholy expression on his face, he bowed slightly to Silas, then turned and pushed open the door to leave.
At this point, only Klein, Silas, and a cat remained in the living room.
What an absurd farce this was.
Originally, Silas had only come to find Klein because the little black cat had consumed a Seer potion, wanting to consult him about whether anything would go wrong.
But instead, he'd encountered a Devil ambush, killed the Devil, and then witnessed a peculiar mirror...
"Finally some peace and quiet."
Klein said with relief to Silas, "Would you like something to drink?"
"Plain boiled water is fine."
Silas replied.
"Heh heh, all right."
Hearing this, Klein couldn't help but smile knowingly.
This was a habit only from their homeland. For Loen people, hot water was only used for brewing tea leaves or coffee and would never be drunk on its own.
While Klein went to the kitchen to boil water, Silas walked to the broken window in the living room and drew the curtains, somewhat blocking the cold wind blowing in.
The two sat down before the fireplace.
"That mirror called Arrodes is very strange."
Klein brought up the topic first.
"Mm."
Silas answered, "It seemed to really want to please you, yet was also very afraid of me."
The two exchanged a tacit glance, once again confirming that they both had secrets.
Actually, Silas had earlier considered directly seizing the mirror from the Machinery Hivemind members to study it properly.
But the consequence of that might lead to him being noticed by the Church's higher-ups. After consideration, Silas decided against it.
If there's a chance to encounter it next time, I'll make plans then.
He thought to himself, then looked at Klein again. "Also, my cat should be fine, right?"
"Don't worry. Even if it's an animal, it should instinctively know how to act."
Klein recalled Miss Justice's situation at the time and said, "Animals can lower people's guard and accomplish some covert things.
Moreover, it can also use its own abilities to help you..."
A cat that can divine?
Silas looked at the little black cat lying by the fireplace warming itself, imagining for a moment the scene of it wagging its tail while stroking a crystal ball.
Finding it both incongruous and comical, he couldn't help but smile.
"It doesn't matter. I don't really expect it to be of much use. As long as it can live well."
Yes, live.
As he said this, the smile on his face couldn't help but fade.