"….."
Edward had no intention of continuing such a pointless conversation. He simply pretended not to hear and said, "I have a theory I'd like to verify. Thanks for the intel today—I owe you one."
Akasha raised two fingers.
"You owe me two!"
As she spoke, she stood up and stretched.
"I'll tag along too. I've got a feeling this whole thing's going to be a lot of fun."
There were dozens of newspapers and publishing houses across Backlund, big and small, but only a few were truly well-known.
The Backlund Daily was one of the larger ones in terms of scale.
Edward had once asked Fors to help publish the story about Ince Zangwill and the Quill of Alzuhod in the Backlund Daily.
But before he could follow up, he was swept into a whirlwind—returning to Tingen, dealing with the meteor, Numinous Episcopate, Lanevus, and the Aurora Order's Saints. Then he was dragged into the spirit world by a messenger for days, and after that, he returned to the Harry Potter world—so the newspaper article had long slipped his mind.
The reason he came here now was because the Fool still hadn't replied. If he couldn't get an answer from Fors directly, then the publishing house she submitted her work to might provide some clues.
However, what he saw left him stunned:
Only ruins remained—charred debris from a fire.
Apparently, the publishing house had caught fire late one night a while ago. The blaze quickly spread, engulfing the entire building, including the offices and the nearby printing workshop.
The fire resulted in seven deaths—one being the chief editor of the publishing house, and six more from the night shift print workers.
All the printed materials—newspapers, novels, magazines—and even the printing templates were reduced to ashes.
Investigation concluded that the cause was due to old gas lamp piping, which leaked gas that ignited—an accidental fire, they claimed.
The new Backlund Daily had since relocated and reorganised, leaving the wreckage untouched.
An "accident"?
A "coincidence"?
That was never a good word.
Edward then asked nearby residents for the exact timing of the fire. It seemed to have occurred shortly after the Tingen Incident—coincidentally, right after the Quill went missing.
That was suspicious.
If this so-called "accident" was caused by the Quill, then…why would it do that?
"Lady Akasha…"
"Just call me Akasha."
Edward went along with it.
"Alright, Akasha, do you usually read the newspaper?"
She puffed up her chest with pride.
"Nope!"
...What's there to be proud of?
"But if something important or interesting appears in the paper, someone always tells me about it."
"Then do you remember if, about a month ago, the Backlund Daily ran a report on someone called Ince Zangwill?"
Akasha shook her head.
"More clues, please."
"It was written like a short story—a report about a Beyonder and a Sealed Artifact. The artifact's trait was: If you know about it, it knows about you."
Her eyes widened.
"If you know about it, it knows about you? That's crazy!"
She pinched her smooth chin, thinking hard.
"Nope! If something like that had been published, someone definitely would've told me."
She paused, then added:
"Is this important? I can help you verify."
Before Edward could even answer, she summoned a bat messenger and sent it out with a letter.
Edward trusted a demigod's memory. Which meant—before the article could be published in the Backlund Daily, the entire publishing house had burned down, and everything related to the report had been destroyed.
That made sense.
To prevent another Tingen disaster, the Quill had wiped out the Backlund threat in advance.
And Fors—was someone who had read that article.
That…was likely her unique trait.
Just then, Akasha received a response.
"Yup, confirmed. That short story you mentioned? It was never published. Not just in the Backlund Daily, but not in any newspaper."
"Got it. Thanks!"
Edward took a step forward.
"I'm going to the new Backlund Daily office."
Akasha followed him lazily, hands behind her head.
"I think you're looking in the wrong direction. A normal book becoming a mystical item? That's not something that just happens."
"Well, I don't have any better leads right now anyway."
Truth was, if the Psychology Alchemists or the Quill were behind this, it wouldn't be difficult for them to deliberately turn a novel into a mystical object.
A few minutes later, they located the newspaper's new office a few blocks away. With a simple Confusion Spell, they easily got in to meet the new editor-in-chief—a stern, balding middle-aged man.
"Hello. I'd like to ask, did Fors used to submit her works here?"
The editor frowned, clearly annoyed.
"Yes. Why?"
"Yesterday was the manuscript deadline, and she's completely disappeared! Utterly irresponsible! These damn fiction writers—each one worse than the last! They'll come up with any excuse to dodge deadlines!"
…Yeah, you really misunderstood Fors this time.
"Did Fors ever write a follow-up novel after Stormwind Mountain Villa? Something like Blizzard Mountain Villa or Snowstorm Town?"
The editor scoffed.
"I might dislike Fors' laziness, but she'd never write something as low-quality as that. Not even a knockoff of her own work."
Edward nodded.
"Understood."
"However…" the man continued, "someone did submit a piece related to a blizzard town. Let me see…"
He bent down and rummaged under his desk, digging through a pile of clutter. After a moment, he pulled out a crumpled handwritten manuscript.
"Here—The Blizzard Mystery. It was submitted by some talentless woman. Rejected multiple times. She revised it over and over, but it still didn't cut it."
He paused, then added:
"That was back when we were still in the old building. I was just the assistant editor then, but I remember the chief bringing it up more than once. He got so annoyed that eventually he agreed to keep it temporarily and asked Fors to take a look, see if it could be salvaged."
"I remember…Fors's reply was something like: The plot is passable, but the characters are too flat. Fixing it would be the same as rewriting the whole thing."
"That got her cursed out by the author."
Eh?
That description…
It sounded oddly familiar.
Right—back then, after Fors had helped him contact the publishing house and returned, a woman had followed her back and launched into a bitter rant.
She accused Fors of disparaging her manuscript in front of the chief editor, leading to her work being rejected.
The woman had shown intense hatred and resentment, and even sworn that she would return the favor a hundredfold.
No way.
Could it really be that much of a coincidence?
"Oh right," said the editor, "during that fire, almost everything was burned to ash—except for this manuscript. It wasn't damaged at all. So I brought it back with me. After all, it's the last thing tied to the old publishing house."
Goddamn.
That…basically confirmed it.
So the person who created the book world and caused the disappearances—was that woman.
But wait—
Wasn't she just an ordinary person?
Not necessarily.
Most Beyonders don't display obvious traits before they use their abilities.
It's entirely possible she was used by the Psychology Alchemists or by the Quill.
Or worse—
The missing Quill might have fallen into her hands.
Which would mean…Fors, the only uniquely "targeted" missing person, was chosen because that woman wanted revenge?
"Editor-in-Chief," Edward asked, "do you know this manuscript author's name or where she lives?"
"Oh, her name's Jessica."
———
[Inside the Book World—Snow-covered town]
Klein had no memory of what the girl had said, but the hopeful glint in the dozen or so people's eyes confirmed her words—
She wasn't lying.
This wasn't his first time in the church.
But since he had chosen to leave before losing his memory, it meant—
There had been no way out from here!
All that effort…wasted.
Klein rubbed his forehead, thinking.
Then he asked, "Before I left, did I say what I was going to do?"
The girl raised an eyebrow, her tan face full of curiosity.
"You said you wanted to find the source of the monsters' resurrection—to uncover who's really controlling all this."
"And then I just…didn't come back until now?"
"Exactly."
She stepped a little closer, lowered her voice, and said, "I told you back then it was a waste of time. This church is the root of everything. The monsters won't approach it, the bell drives them away. The key is—that woman claiming to be a priest. She swore up and down that if we stayed, we'd be safe."
She cast a quick glance at the woman dressed in priestly robes, sitting under the Sacred Emblem of the Evernight.
"But why should we believe her? She was already here when we arrived. That means she's involved in everything!"
…Sorry, I really don't remember any of that.
Klein knew better than to say too much. He stayed silent and turned to look at the woman, mind racing through possibilities.
But just then, Fors seemed to recognise something.
She walked over quickly and stared at the robed woman.
"Jessica? You came in here too?"
Under the Sacred Emblem, the woman finally lifted her head.
She looked as if she were greeting an old friend, and smiled faintly, "Long time no see, Fors."
———
With Jessica's manuscript in hand, Edward had no trouble finding her residence.
She lived in a rented apartment in the East Borough.
Her life wasn't poor, but far from well-off.
She rarely interacted with others, but when she did, she greeted neighbours with a polite smile.
Overall, she perfectly fit the image of a quiet, reclusive writer.
However—
When Edward and Akasha arrived at the apartment, they found the place in chaos.
It had clearly already been searched thoroughly.
"Looks like someone else got here way ahead of me."
Edward wasn't surprised.
If groups like MI9, the Nighthawks, or the Machinery Hiveminds were working on this, it would be strange if they were slower than him, who was basically poking around blind.
Akasha strolled casually through the apartment, taking light sniffs as she circled the room.
"This smell...it's familiar."
She scratched her cheek and turned to him.
"I think I encountered this apartment's owner yesterday, when I was helping you look for your missing friend."
Edward raised three question marks in surprise:
"???"
"To be precise, I smelled her scent."
Lifting her chin thoughtfully, she explained:
"I went to the area where your friend disappeared, searched the vicinity carefully, and found a small hidden chapel."
"Inside was a high-sequence demigod. And the reason I remember the scent is because it had the strange quality you only find in…Beyonders who've lost control."
"Out of control? A demigod? Are you saying Jessica is a demigod?"
"Nope."
She grinned.
"That demigod is actually quite a big name in Backlund's mystical world—The Archbishop of the Church of Evernight..."
"Anthony Stevenson."
———
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