The Avalon Kingdom, Glass Island, White Queen District Inspection Bureau.
The Inspection Bureau was still exceptionally busy this morning.
Men and women in light or leather armor hurried by, looking smart and brave. On the wall of Director Kent's office still hung the silver-white majestic head of the Silver-Crowned Dragon—constantly watching over them.
Now in his forties but still physically robust, Director Kent sat in his leather seat.
He sat with a straight back, his round shoulders, and big arms filling out his loose clothing. His bronze skin and the flesh on his face gave him the look of a fierce and tough man. A deep scar ran from above his left eye to the corner of his mouth, and with his black eyepatch, he resembled a one-eyed pirate.
As a matter of ritual and etiquette, even though it had been more than ten years since Director Kent had taken part in front-line combat, he still had to wear armor in the office and maintain a proper posture and demeanor. His arms, abdomen, and calves—areas less burdened—were covered in metal silver-white armor, while the rest was adorned with shiny armor plates.
If he were not a Transcendent of no low level, he would probably be exhausted just by sitting there all day.
Four hundred and twenty years ago, the founding Monarch Lancelot I of the Avalon Kingdom established three major judicial institutions.
The Supervisory Bureau, which was responsible for "inspecting and protecting the people"; the Supervisory Court, which oversaw "inspection of knight officials"; and the Arbitration Hall, which decided "the righteousness and evil of affairs." At their inception, these three judicial institutions had equal status among each other, all manned by Knights of the Round Table who could enter the Senate to take on important responsibilities.
The national emblem of the Avalon Kingdom is a green eye set within a silver-white triangle that symbolizes power.
The eye signifies the royal family, representing the still healthy, nearly eighty-year-old Queen Sofia I of today.
Protecting the royal family, the silver triangle refers to the Supervisory Bureau, the Supervisory Court, and the Arbitration Hall.
But with the progress of the times, the affairs that the Supervisory Bureau needed to handle became more and more numerous: taxation, safety, health, firefighting, public order, censorship, imprisonment... As a result, the Supervisory Bureau gradually subdivided into many departments within itself, establishing branches everywhere, recruiting a large number of apprentice inspectors, Inspectors, and Chief Inspectors to be responsible for local affairs, and thus, their power was also disseminated.
The Supervisory Court and the Arbitration Hall, because they dealt with more difficult and specific issues, did not expand in scale. The former evolved into an organization similar to a special service agency—responsible for scrutinizing the loyalty of officials, the moral integrity of hereditary Knight Families, the disciplinary transgressions of grassroots inspectors, as well as monitoring spies from other countries, or independently collecting intelligence abroad; while the latter became today's courtroom.
The common point is that they are now both one level higher than the Supervisory Bureau.
As a result, in the Supervisory Bureau, anyone with the strength of the fourth energy level had to be transferred to the Supervisory Court and the Arbitration Hall. Attractively termed "after all, you don't need such talent anyway." Even in the White Queen District, a core area adjacent to Glass Staircase, its Director Kent only had the third energy level.
The young girl named Hayna who was recently transferred in was just over twenty years old, and her strength was already nearly on par with Director Kent, who was heading straight for his fifties.
Kent didn't even need to think about it to know that the Supervisory Court would definitely come for her.
This was an era of producing geniuses. Hayna, Sherlock... these new-generation prodigies were far stronger than those old-timers who grew up in an era of peace, like himself.
This boded ill, Kent thought to himself.
Perhaps it was a prelude to the coming of chaotic times...
He picked up the telephone on the desk and started turning the dial. 0—1—2, the call connected.
"Have Hayna come to my office," Directive Kent instructed.
"And have someone fetch our counselor as well."
After hanging up the phone, he tossed the Glass Staircase Daily onto the desk and walked over to the bookshelf.
The front page of this newspaper headline featured a portrait of Hayna with the young master of the Moriarty Family.
The handsome young man with the kind smile sat confidently in an elf-styled wheelchair, a blanket draped over his knees, hands folded in front of him, speaking genially and naturally about something. Hayna, standing behind him, was upright, hand on her sword hilt, muscles tensed.
It was as if he noticed the photographer, as though he was greeting someone familiar around the photographer.
The young man's gaze suddenly shifted from the reporter to the direction of the camera lens.
He revealed a sunny, tender smile, raised his hand to wave toward this side. It gave the impression that he was smiling and waving at the reader looking at the newspaper.
The next moment, the picture jumped back to the beginning. Aiwass continued sitting in his wheelchair, talking earnestly to the reporter.
—This was an ability of the "Path of Beauty," known as "Demonic Painting."
In theory, the Path of Beauty was a path legislatively banned in Avalon, but Master Yanis was the exception. This world-renowned Elf Painter and founder of Glass Daily News Agency, Avalon's largest and only news agency that could be called official.
Every day, the Glass Daily News Agency was responsible for compiling the most important intelligence of the Avalon Kingdom for the royal family and the ministers in the Round Table Hall. The three major judicial institutions also provided free copies of the Glass Staircase Daily for their staff to read.
Perhaps it was a trend-following move, or to keep up with upper-level policies, or maybe just to show one's concern for the kingdom's politics. Some wealthy individuals, neither involved in politics nor serving as officials, would also join the excitement and buy the Glass Staircase Daily. Subsequently, a number of university students would purchase it too, as a talking point among the young scholars.
Although each issue included a "Demonic Painting" with a duration of fifteen seconds, the cost of the materials for each newspaper alone amounted to a Red Coin, its price was not considered high. As Master Yanis did not rely on it for profit. The retail price of each issue of the Glass Staircase Daily was only two Red Coins and five copper coins—the five copper coins were the profit margin left for the distributors, and sometimes there were discounts. Even those of modest means could afford it.
Such newspapers that featured animated images were a novel experience. Even though they lacked sound and were in black and white, the pictures moved—at the very least, it was the most cost-effective way for ordinary people to truly experience the power of the Transcendent.
For this issue of the Glass Staircase Daily, the header featuring Aiwass Moriarty alone took up a full twelve seconds. Only three seconds were left for a bicycle advertisement.
Director Kent strongly suspected that it was because Aiwass was too handsome and his smile too charming that Master Yanis had allotted him a full twelve seconds.
"Such a pleasant smile... It's never a sign of anything good."
Director Kent, with his beast-like intuition, curled his lip and murmured under his breath, "Who knows whose daughter he plans to ensnare..."
...However, he saw very clearly.
Being able to handle such a significant case alone at this age, he would undoubtedly become a much higher-ranking individual than himself in the future.
This time they had stumbled upon a great accomplishment by chance, and it was only right to give sufficient reward—they normally wouldn't have gotten such a significant task, as that would have been the domain of the Supervisory Court.
Moreover, it was an opportunity to establish connections with Professor Moriarty.
Therefore, the selected reward must be substantial; otherwise, it would be considered garbage to the Moriarty Family. Presenting something deemed unworthy would instead disgrace the Supervisory Bureau.
...What a hassle.
"A Priest on the Path of Devotion... a student from the Theological Seminary..."
Director Kent murmured to himself as he searched through the bookshelf.
Suddenly, his movements came to a halt. He looked towards a corner.
There lay a book with a dark cover, its spine bearing no name.
The director picked it up with one hand, while the other gently flicked the cover. Sparks scattered from the pages, like a hammer striking an anvil.
"This one might do," he murmured to himself, reading the title: "Nurturing Secret Sequel"... Judging by the name, it ought to relate to 'Priest'."
This entire bookshelf was filled with contraband seized by those below during book raids, valuable items.
The Kingdom of Avalon strictly prohibited accepting bribes in any form, as that act could undermine "Authority." Conversely, profiting appropriately within the scope of one's official capacity was tacitly permitted. This was meant to prevent officials and ministers from being bought by foreign spies—especially spies from the Kingdom of Star Antimony—or from selling important intelligence and internal resources to the public, both actions that could also undermine "Authority."
One of the tacitly permitted methods of profiting included selling confiscated banned books to the Knight Family—from that perspective, this bookshelf could also be considered Director Kent's personal property.
Kent was not a forerunner on the Path of Devotion; he was certain he couldn't open the book.
But judging by the name and the burst of sparks, this was in every way a mystical tome belonging to the Path of Devotion.
After the death of a Transcendent, their soul would fall into the "Ninefold River" of the Dream Realm, flowing into the Path they had traveled the farthest on. The power therein would become "Path Traits" obtained by followers during their advancement rituals, while their memories and knowledge would scatter across the land, chaotically drifting amidst the flora, fruits, sea of clouds, and tides of the Dream Realm, becoming part of the materials that constituted the Dream Realm.
The Dream Traversing Monks of the Path of Wisdom could capture and collect these fragmented, scattered secret teachings from the Dream Realm.
They would compile them into books. These mystical tomes filled with magical knowledge were called "Primordial Texts."
The writing in "Primordial Texts" was in Juntu script, a language long extinct, and incomprehensible to most people. Typically, a local translator from the Path of Wisdom was needed to forcibly translate it into understandable language.
As per the conventions in the translation community, such primordial texts capturing knowledge from the Dream Realm and recorded in Juntu script were uniformly translated as some sort of Secret Sequel. The prefix depended on the translator's understanding of the contents of the primordial text.
Usually, one could acquire a complete mystical skill from a Secret Sequel—while it might be possible for it to have been replicated by others in later times, there was also a significant chance that the skill had been lost.
Though not necessarily useful, the skills were nevertheless lost.
In other words, they were something that couldn't be acquired through normal means...
"As a prize and 'gift,' it would be prestigious enough," Director Kent said to himself.