Chapter 106: The Favored’s Gamble

The Favored’s Gamble

Ansu, City Center, Imperial Avenue, Deton House.

This five-story brick and stone building stood in Ansu’s most prosperous district. Its red brick facade matched the surrounding architecture. Classical columns flanked the entrance, adorned with exquisite pediments and reliefs.

Tall arched windows were neatly arranged. A massive gilded chip was embedded in the center of the second floor, gleaming under the sunlight.

Inside the third-floor office with the best lighting, a woman dressed in a white blouse and black vest, incredibly thin with deep dark circles under her eyes, tossed a gold pound coin in her hand, repeatedly flipping it with her thumb and catching it in her palm.

Knock, knock, knock—

A knock sounded from outside. The woman flipped the gold pound one last time but didn’t catch it, letting it land on the desk before her.

After wobbling a few times, the Queen’s image settled firmly face down on the desk, while the image of a knight slaying a dragon on the back faced the ceiling.

Ill-intentioned visitor.

The woman showed no sign of disappointment; instead, a grin spread across her face as she looked towards the door and said:

“Come in...”

The office door opened. A man wearing a silver chip mask walked in slowly. After turning to close the wooden door, he stood before the woman and bowed slightly.

“Commissioner Lucy, the boss wants you to make a trip to Berren City.” The man with the silver chip mask said respectfully.

“What, is Berren City starting to incur losses too?” Lucy looked up at the man and asked.

“Who embezzled how much this time?”

The man with the silver chip mask slowly explained, “Commissioner Lucy, it’s not about losses.”

“A message came from the Church of the Savior Goddess Holy See, saying that the Divine Advent Church members held a sacrificial ritual at Deton Manor in Berren City... It seems they summoned a divine servant, and the entire Deton Manor collapsed. The specific casualties and losses are currently unknown. The manager wants you to handle it, preferably investigate everything before the Church of the Savior Goddess does. The company’s reputation is at stake.”

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“I understand. You may leave first. Wait for my instructions.” Lucy waved her hand. Watching the man exit and close the door, she looked at the gold coin before her.

Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?

She pulled open a drawer, revealing an antique wooden box inside. Opening the box revealed a deck of exquisite black Tarot cards within.

Golden cracks adorned the backs of the black cards, seeming to shimmer with light.

She took out the cards, lit the incense and candle beside her, then skillfully began shuffling and cutting the deck.

“Will this field assignment yield any results?” Lucy silently recited in her mind.

Card after card was laid out neatly on the table. With each card placed, she would silently ask a question in her mind.

A Celtic Cross spread was laid out.

1, Wheel of Fortune.

2, Death. Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

3, The Devil...

Current situation, obstacles and challenges, subconscious influences... As each card was revealed, the questions in her mind were gradually cleared away.

This is... a turning point in my destiny, fraught with immense risk...

But at the same time...

Card number 10 was revealed by Lucy.

An reversed Sun card lay quietly in the final outcome position of number 10.

But simultaneously, there exists a small possibility, a chance to win enormous returns...

The Tarot cards offered a clear warning: this investigation would be a life-or-death choice. Success could bring rich rewards, but failure could mean a tremendous cost, including the end of her life.

What kind of reward would even make her, a “Favored,” consider it substantial?

Her nimble fingers danced, flipping a gold pound between them.

Clap—

She caught the gold pound firmly in her hand. When she opened her hand again, the gold exterior of the coin had completely faded, revealing a rust-like brown underneath. The front depicted a faceless angel stained with rust, the back a seemingly bleeding demonic eye.

Is the substantial reward gaining complete control over or freedom from this sealed artifact...

Or... advancing further?

Either option held immense allure for Lucy.

As a “Favored” who had gambled her way up to this position, if offered a gamble with extremely high risk of death but also extremely high returns, she wouldn’t hesitate to discard everything she had, going all-in.

Without this gambling nature, she wouldn’t have reached this position.

She had gambled her way up like this, and each time, she was certain she wouldn’t lose.

Because she was favored by destiny.

Lucy stood up, picked up her silver cane, and walked towards the door.

Behind her, on the windowsill, a black raven landed, flapped its wings, and began preening its feathers.

...

Clop, clop, clop...

The warhorse’s iron hooves clattered on the stone road, the horseshoes striking the flagstones with crisp sounds.

Only after entering the city did the hoofbeats gradually slow down.

At this moment, Avena withdrew her gaze from the distant Creek Hill. The three inside the carriage exchanged glances, then sighed in relief.

After a moment of silence, Avena looked towards Ciel and asked, “That just now was...”

“It’s over.” Ciel shook her head and said, “There won’t be any more Divine Advent Church people there.”

Adele: “Huh?”

Not just Avena, even Adele couldn’t help showing a puzzled expression.

What happened? What did Ciel do just now? How is it over?

“They... are they all dead?” Avena couldn’t help but verify.

Adele: “Huh??”

Wait, weren’t we just playing cards? How did all the Divine Advent Church people die?

Adele looked utterly confused, glancing back and forth between the two girls speaking in riddles.

“Mm.” Ciel nodded.

The two looked at each other for a moment, then both slowly lowered their shoulders and smiled at each other, as if a heavy burden had been lifted.

Only Adele remained completely bewildered.

“Hmm? Is it over? Hmm? No one will come arrest us later?” Adele’s questions received no answer, but seeing their smiles, Adele seemed to understand something.

Ciel smiling was one thing, but even the usually stern-faced Avena was smiling. That should mean it’s really safe, right?

Leaning back in her seat, Avena raised her hand and rubbed her temples.

No wonder Ciel suddenly told her not to report to the Church of the Savior Goddess or the Deton Group.

The organization behind Ciel actually possessed the ability to silently flip the table from behind the scenes.

With the table flipped like this, there was no need to risk exposure by reporting.

-

Deton Manor, with its venue destroyed, would be frantic. The Church of the Savior Goddess, discovering the presence of the Divine Advent Church, would also be frantic.

Most frantic would be the Divine Advent Church themselves. Having a stronghold destroyed for no reason, possibly even losing a Bishop—if identities were traced, the larger stronghold behind that Bishop might also be dismantled.

Now, it was a race to see whose personnel could reach the scene fastest to investigate or destroy evidence. Even the Redemption Society might intervene. With four parties involved, it would surely descend into chaos, leaving no time to worry about the pawn Sherlon.

By the time anyone reacted, the trail of clues would be broken beyond further investigation.

Now, Avena prepared to re-evaluate the organization behind Ciel.

Initially, she thought the organization behind Ciel was merely a deeply hidden intelligence agency, surviving by secretly selling information. But now, it seemed this organization not only had intelligence-gathering capabilities but also possessed a certain table-flipping power.

Like the terrifying earth-shattering commotion just now, killing all cultists in an instant—Avena was certain even a “Crown Guard” couldn’t achieve that.

Furthermore, besides the earthquake-like tremor, Avena also felt an intense sense of crisis and a spiritual alarm from the depths of her mind.

This seemed unrelated to the earthquake. Was it the ability of some transcendent path?

Avena pondered in her mind but couldn’t find an answer for a long time.

The warhorse’s pace grew increasingly slow. Even Adele noticed something was wrong. She looked at Avena and asked, “The carriage... is it going too slowly?”

Avena leaned forward, pulled open the small front curtain, and looked through the glass towards the driver’s seat in front of the carriage.

Knock, knock—

Avena reached out and tapped the glass window, but Nia in front gave no reaction.

They had just reached Clock Tower Alley, entering the city along North-South Stone Street. The carriage was now stopped in the middle of the street.

Fortunately, at this time of day, most workers were at work, and there weren’t many pedestrians on the street. No one noticed anything amiss here.

“Nia?” Avena jumped down from the carriage and walked to the front. The suit of armor on the driver’s seat was completely motionless, like a genuine, ornate suit of armor used for decoration.

Ciel also noticed something was wrong. She and Adele jumped down from the carriage together and helped support Nia.

Avena gently patted the horse’s flank. The horse continued along Stone Street towards home, while the remaining three dragged Nia to number 44 North-South Stone Street, Ciel’s house whose lease hadn’t expired yet.

After performing a simple spiritual healing, Avena let out a long sigh and said, “It’s fine... Just a spiritual issue... This is an old problem of Nia’s.”

Saying this, Avena looked towards Ciel and added, “Same situation as yours before.”

Same situation as mine before?

Ciel pondered, roughly figuring out the reason for Nia’s sudden loss of consciousness.

It was the spiritual being...

“Ciel, I want to ask a question, and I hope you can answer me.” Avena took a deep breath, looked at Ciel, and asked, “The people from your organization... when dealing with the Divine Advent Church.”

“Did they use transcendent items from the Other Side?”

Other Side...

This was the second time Ciel heard this term from someone else, the first being from “Radiance Bishop” Hugh.

In reality, Ciel’s understanding of the so-called “Other Side” was still partial. She only knew that entering it caused madness, all transcendent items would be distorted, and terrifying entities could be summoned from within.

“What is the ‘Other Side’?” Ciel didn’t answer Avena’s question directly but asked instead.

“You don’t know?” Avena was somewhat surprised by Ciel’s reaction.

She thought for a moment, then shook her head and said, “I’m not entirely sure what the Other Side is either. Information about it is scarce... Apart from the Churches, few people specifically study knowledge related to the Other Side.”

“I only know that the Other Side is a world overlapping with reality. Different Churches have different names for it... like ‘Spirit World,’ ‘Soul Realm,’ and so on.”

“It’s an extremely dangerous place, filled with various terrifying creatures... Some Churches can communicate with the Other Side through special methods, but once directly facing Other Side creatures or items, the higher a transcendent’s spiritual vision, the greater the spiritual pollution they suffer.”

Avena hesitated for a moment, then, thinking they were all trustworthy, said, “Nia once entered the Other Side, and her potion went out of control, turning her into her current state.”

“She... is already one hundred and twenty years old this year.”

Ciel understood now why, in the simulation, the spiritual being she sacrificed didn’t directly affect the simulated Braque or Avena, yet the simulated Nia lost all ability to resist after just one glance.

“This situation now, is it serious?” Ciel asked.

“Not serious, she didn’t directly face items from the Other Side, so it’s fine...” Avena shook her head and said, “I think I need to speed up the progress of the ‘Psychiatrist’ Reconstitution Ritual.”

Previously, Avena didn’t understand why Ciel’s spirit was polluted and damaged. Knowing the group behind Ciel was connected to the Other Side, Avena roughly understood.

Judging by Ciel’s appearance, she didn’t even know her spiritual pollution was due to the Other Side.

This damned organization... truly a bunch of madmen.

Whether for Nia, who had protected her since childhood, or for Ciel, who might have also inadvertently faced the Other Side, Avena had to quickly complete the “Psychiatrist” Reconstitution Ritual.

Ciel was currently lowering her head, thinking about something.

Spiritual summoning... pollutes the spirit...

But if it’s a spiritual being summoned by myself, it seems to have a favorable impression of me, thus refraining from harming me.

Large-scale spiritual summonings like this should be done less often in the future. What if one day I summon something truly dreadful? That would be problematic.

Fortunately, the spiritual being summoned this time, Ciel had already summoned it twice in simulations and was very familiar with its abilities.

And judging by the current time, it should have already dissipated on its own.

Finally, Ciel shook her head and said:

“Regardless, it’s over now. The remaining matters have nothing to do with us.”

“Yes...” Avena nodded.

With this commotion, Berren City might not be peaceful for some time to come. Even though she was from the Roswell family, no one would come asking her questions—after all, she was only first-tier and couldn’t cause such a disturbance.

Under Avena’s spiritual healing, Nia gradually regained consciousness.

After this ordeal, even Adele lost her appetite. The group simply found some leftover ingredients in Ciel’s house and made do with a simple meal.

“Ciel, I need to continue my shifts at the private clinic,” Avena looked at Ciel and said, “Do you have any plans afterwards?”

“Me?” Ciel thought, then shook her head. “Don’t know. I just want to peacefully finish this vacation, then go to Ansu for school.”

And continue digesting potions in simulations, filling up save files... Saying peaceful, but improving strength remains urgent.

Just that the future schedule needs to include more visits to Avena and Adele for check-ups on body and spirit, to avoid situations like before.

“Will you continue being my assistant then?” Avena asked.

“If you don’t mind.” Ciel replied. Truthfully, she hadn’t decided what to do next either.

If she continued as an assistant, the pay was decent, the work was easy, and she could rent a new place with her sister. Then she could take her sister to Adele’s, let Adele see if there was any way to treat her sister’s potion-burned skin.

But all this required money. Ciel felt bad continuously freeloading off Adele. She could only take it one step at a time, see if there were other ways to earn money besides burning, killing, and looting.

“Adele, what about you?” Avena looked towards Adele and said, “The clinic still has plenty of vacant office spaces. If you need a place to put your equipment and digest potions, you can come over. You can use the empty spaces freely.”

“Really?” Adele blinked, but seemed somewhat hesitant.

Since leaving the Redemption Society, Adele had moved out all her personal belongings. Now, all this experimental equipment was piled up at home, causing Adele much distress, leaving no space even to conduct experiments.

“I can hire you as a doctor at my clinic.” Avena nodded. “15 pounds per week. Outside of clinic hours, you can arrange your own time.”

“Hiss...” Adele sucked in a breath, then after a moment, said weakly, “I don’t have that much money...”

Avena: “...”

Avena: “15 pounds is your weekly salary, not you paying me...”

Paying to work, you’re truly one of a kind.

The atmosphere among the group gradually relaxed. However, Ciel still had some things to do.

She needed to confirm Amy’s safety.

Amy might have suffered spiritual or physical injuries. Considering this, Ciel planned to visit Amy’s home, bringing Avena and Adele along. If Amy was indeed injured, she could ask Adele or Avena to treat her on credit.

Hearing Ciel was visiting a friend, Avena and Adele, who had nothing much to do and wanted to relax, readily agreed to Ciel’s invitation and headed towards Amy’s home together.

Since the warhorse had been released earlier by Avena, the group could only rent a carriage, returning together to the Sir’s Bridge District, arriving outside Amy’s villa.