The thing that slithered out of Deputy Padre Michel Garrigue's mouth was slender and covered in scaly brownish-green skin, like a diaphanous and fuzzy lizard.
As soon as it left Michel's body, its dark green vertical eye darted left and right, vigilantly sizing up its surroundings.
While doing so, it even peered out the window but didn't detect White Paper. Instead, Lumian and Aurore sensed the coldness and indifference in its eyes.
"What's this?" Lumian asked.
Aurore shook her head.
"I don't know. It looks like a special spirit."
Lumian immediately judged, "It sure doesn't look like something good!"
Even through White Paper and the mirror, the lizard-like creature still made him feel uneasy, and his hair stood on end.
Aurore glanced at him and reminded, "This lizard seems to possess an ability that leads to a degree of mental corruption. Just looking at it from afar makes one feel uncomfortable. If you stare at it for too long, you might end up with mental problems. You must be careful. If the discomfort is serious, immediately close your eyes and try Cogitation. Get your mind right before looking again."
"It's fine for now," Lumian tersely acknowledged. "What about you? Don't you feel uncomfortable?"
Aurore smiled and replied, "As a Mystery Pryer, I've seen things more corrupting than this. My resistance is much higher than yours.
"Besides, don't I go crazy occasionally? It doesn't seem to matter even if I go crazier a little more intensely and frequently."
"I think it's necessary to check your mental state when you said that last sentence," Lumian said, half concerned and half joking.
Aurore chuckled. "That's called being self-deprecating.
"Sometimes, it's not as if I can stop looking just because I want to. The Mystery Pryer's eyes are special and can't be completely sealed. I can only barely prevent it from affecting my daily life."
As the siblings spoke, the blurry lizard-like creature crawled along the wall and floor at an extremely fast speed to the bottom floor of the house.
A few animal skulls hung on the wall opposite the door on the first floor. They were from wolves, deer, and wild boars. The deputy padre, Michel Garrigue, wasn't a Cordu native. He ought to have lived in the cathedral, but Guillaume Bénet had prevented him from doing so using an excuse. He could only rent a place from the hunter, Sabaté.
The lizard burrowed into the wolf's skull and kept entering and exiting the socket.
Not long after, it switched to the wild boar's skull and continued doing the same thing.
After coming out of the deer's pale-white skull, the "lizard" crawled out of the house at a speed several times faster than a galloping horse. White Paper quietly floated in the night sky and followed it.
The "lizard" crawled all the way out of the village and finally arrived at the square.
It circled around the cathedral and arrived at the cemetery before plunging into a grave.
Ten seconds later, it crawled out and entered another tomb with a tombstone.
Just like that, the strange lizard-like creature moved through different graves. Lumian could even imagine the scene of it entering and exiting different human skulls in the coffins.
That scene made Lumian's skin protrude with tiny goosebumps. He couldn't help but ask, "What is this guy doing?"
Incomprehensible!
Aurore slowly shook her head. "It's a blind spot in my knowledge."
After "touring" the cemetery, the lizard-like diaphanous creature returned the way it came and entered Michel Garrigue's room.
It burrowed into Michel's mouth and disappeared.
After 20 to 30 seconds, Michel Garrigue opened his eyes and sat up. He gulped down water from the cup on the bedside table, looking extremely parched.
He put down the cup, wiped his mouth, and fell back to sleep.
Aurore turned her head and looked at Lumian.
"How is it? There's indeed something wrong with him, right?"
"How is this a problem? This is a huge problem!" Lumian didn't hide his emotions in front of his sister. "Pierre Berry, who grazes humans, the padre whose key to the time loop, Madame Pualis, who makes men give birth, Naroka, who went to Paramita, an owl who has lived for countless years, and the deputy padre who has a lizard living in him. Aren't there too many extraordinary individuals in Cordu?"
During the loop, Lumian had griped about how little help Ryan, Leah, and Valentine, the three official investigators, had been. In hindsight, how could he blame them? The abnormalities in Cordu were truly exceptional!
They might have taken action, but the results were probably unsatisfactory.
Aurore glanced at her brother, half-warning and half-teasing, "You haven't mentioned the most remarkable person yet.
"The only one in the village who can remember the loop and possess a unique dream ruin."
"…" Lumian was speechless and felt a headache brewing.
Aurore turned to the mirror on the table, contemplating.
"I don't expect any significant changes with the deputy padre. Although I could examine his Astral Projection more thoroughly, it could be hazardous.
"It's fine if it endangers me because I'll be another living Warlock in the next cycle, but we need more information. We should wait until we have enough before prying deeper. Starting the loop prematurely would waste time explaining and communicating."
Lumian agreed, sharing her perspective.
Aurore then suggested, "I plan on having White Paper monitor the padre now."
"…" Lumian was taken aback. "Didn't you just say we shouldn't pry deeper to avoid triggering the abnormality prematurely?"
The padre was the linchpin to the mystery. Wasn't it reckless to rush in like that?
Aurore smiled at Lumian. "I'm sure what I'm doing is safe."
Noticing Lumian's confusion and worry, she elaborated, "You heard the padre and Pons Bénet's private conversation on April 1st during the previous cycle. The padre claimed to be an ordinary person, but he had a way to deal with me, a Beyonder.
"Based on the corresponding scene and the fact that there was no reason to lie to an ordinary person like you, I believe the padre was truly powerless before April 1st. Today is March 29th, and we haven't crossed midnight, so it's safe to spy on him."
Lumian felt relieved. "That makes sense."
Aurore continued, "From their conversation, I deduced that the padre found a way to quickly gain Beyonder powers on April 1st. If he senses danger, he can become a Beyonder instantly. Maybe he has an item that can deal with me.
"Additionally, the padre's strength at the Lent celebration didn't match that of a Sequence 9. I suspect he's taking a path beyond the divine paths the mysterious woman mentioned. He's probably praying to a certain entity for a blessing. Otherwise, he wouldn't have grown so powerful in just a few days without any noticeable inclination to losing control."
Lumian listened quietly and suddenly recalled something.
"On the morning of Lent during that cycle, I had just become a Hunter when I ran into Pons Bénet. I wanted to test myself by fighting him, but he ran away as if he knew I had become a Beyonder beforehand.
"Maybe he had also received a blessing and could sense danger…"
Lumian added another crucial point.
"It was probably April 3rd when I saw Pons Bénet enter Naroka's house during her funeral.
"If he had already received a blessing, he wouldn't have failed to detect spying from an ordinary person like me, considering his keenness on the morning of Lent."
Aurore nodded. "In other words, it's highly likely that the padre's group became Beyonders between Naroka's funeral and Lent." Between April 3rd and the morning of April 5th.
"Of course, we can't rule out the possibility of them receiving blessings in batches," Aurore added.
The situation became clearer after this discussion. Lumian smacked his forehead and sighed.
"What's wrong?" Aurore asked, confused.
Lumian praised her, "I should have discussed these things with you earlier. You're much better at analyzing than I am!"
Aurore chuckled. "You sure know how to praise me in various ways. You're inexperienced and lack knowledge, so you didn't think of it immediately. You would've discovered these details sooner or later."
Although she dismissed her brother's praise, her pleased expression was evident.
White Paper flew towards the Bénet residence at Aurore's command.
The Bénet residence was the tallest and most lavish in Cordu, aside from the cathedral and the castle's modified administrator's residence.
It was a grayish-blue three-story house with a chimney on top.
As the head of the Bénet family, the padre lived in a room on the top floor's east wing. The dark gray curtains were tightly drawn, and the master of the house appeared to be asleep.
This wasn't a problem for White Paper. It slipped through the wall and blended into the darkness in the corner.
In the room, Guillaume Bénet, who had finished his affair with Madame Pualis, was sitting in a recliner, staring at the curtain in front of the window, dressed in light-blue pajamas.
Aurore's eyes darkened, revealing Guillaume Bénet's aura.
The red, green, purple, and blue colors made Lumian dizzy.
Recalling his sister's teachings, he tried to differentiate between them and realized that the padre's body was relatively healthy except for his overzealous desires.
"What's he thinking about? Which mistress to meet tomorrow?" Lumian mocked him, even though the padre couldn't hear him.
At that moment, Guillaume Bénet stood up and punched the air in front of him.
"It's all your fault!"
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