Chapter 25: Social Finesse

Madness was one thing, but Eliana understood the weight of priorities better than anyone.

The previous tip from “The Omniscient Being” had provided invaluable intelligence. This time… though the volume of reports was overwhelming, it likely signaled the onset of an even more severe crisis.

Before long, she arrived at the nearest branch of the Tribunal.

By now, the communications room had been sealed off. Even the Storm Priests stationed at the Tribunal didn’t dare venture too close.

Fortunately, the madness afflicting the victims was not contagious; it was strictly confined to those who had physically laid eyes on the script.

With practiced ease, Eliana tore open a report. She fought off the encroaching haze of insanity, only to fall into a heavy silence once she processed the contents.

A location? And… a headcount?

Eliana’s brow furrowed.

It looked familiar.

…Wait.

As realization dawned, her pupils suddenly constricted.

If her memory served her correctly, that exact location had just reported an incident of civil unrest. It was highly probable that the Dream Sanctum was stirring up chaos there to distract the Enforcement Guards.

It was real-time intelligence!

Not daring to waste a second, Eliana opened the next envelope.

The same format: location and numbers.

It appeared that every single one of these letters was a coordinate for cultist activity.

Recognizing the strategic importance of this live data, Eliana stood up and marched toward the door.

Several Enforcement Guards were standing watch nearby, looking tense. They immediately straightened as Eliana emerged. Beside them, a Storm Priest stationed at the Tribunal peeked curiously into the communications room.

“Notify your Church of Storms,” Eliana commanded in a low, cold voice as she walked past. “Tell them to send men to decipher these letters.”

“Use whatever means necessary,” she added. “Even if they go mad one by one after reading a single page, I want every letter decoded and the results sent to the front lines immediately!”

The Storm Priest hesitated, his expression dubious. “Perhaps we should wait for the Bishops to hold a meeting and discuss—”

“This is an order, not a request,” Eliana snapped, casting a sharp side-glance at the priest. “Tell them the Church of Storms has been making far too much profit lately. Kolun County’s gas streetlamps are still missing a few ‘ornaments’ to brighten the night.”

“If my work is delayed, I won’t mind hanging the lot of you up there myself.”

“…….”

The Storm Priest lost all desire to argue. He beat a hasty retreat to notify the Bishops. If an Inquisitor like Eliana truly decided to purge the Church of Storms, there was very little they could do to stop her.

Just then, an Enforcement Guard approached to report to Eliana.

“Inquisitor, ma’am, we’ve tracked the source of these reports. They seem to be following a specific route, and it’s still moving… should we dispatch a team to intercept?”

Eliana hesitated for a moment, then shook her head.

“No. Abandon the pursuit of ‘The Omniscient Being’.”

Given the current circumstances, the entity was clearly siding with Kolun County. The madness it inflicted was merely the weight of its vast power—something mortals simply couldn’t handle—rather than an intentional attack.

With this stream of real-time intelligence, the Enforcement Guards could handle this riot with ease. Eliana didn’t even need to rush the breach of “The Assembly” anymore. Instead, she could use it as bait to draw in and systematically dismantle the Dream Sanctum’s forces.

Even if the “Assembly” wasn’t the Sanctum’s true “Shelter,” today’s harvest would be more than enough.

But… what exactly does this ‘Omniscient Being’ want in return?

The thought brought a flicker of unease to Eliana’s heart.

Nothing in this world came without a price, especially when dealing with… Deities. When They demanded payment, Their greed was often bottomless.

***

“Farewell, Lord Mura.”

Luo Wei performed a polite, standard Dream Sanctum prayer gesture toward Mura.

“No need for such formality, Lady Claudia. It has been a true pleasure speaking with you.”

Mura wore a pleasant smile, though a shadow of regret crossed his face. He sighed. “It’s a pity… those hyenas from the Enforcement Guards are relentless. Even I have to personally take action now. Otherwise, we could have discussed the mysteries of the Thirteenth Day of Dreams further.”

“Yes, those detestable guards…”

Luo Wei clenched her fist, her face a mask of indignation. As soon as his back was turned, she wrote down Mura’s exact physical location and sent it straight to the Enforcement Guards.

This was the final piece of intelligence, as Mura was among the last group of cultist Priests to be deployed.

Because Luo Wei had essentially provided the guards with a “map hack,” the Dream Sanctum had suffered catastrophic losses. Three Sequence 8 Priests had already been cornered and executed, and eighteen Sequence 9 Priests had met their ends. The number of ordinary cultist casualties was too high to count.

The Dream Sanctum had finally realized they had walked into a quagmire. They stopped trying to incite further chaos and instead began concentrating their strength, desperate to carve out a path of retreat for the elder, Hume.

Losing Sequence 8 Priests was painful but survivable. However, if High Priest Hume were to fall… the Sanctum’s power would be crippled, shattering the delicate balance they held against the Enforcement Guards.

As it stood, Eliana was the strongest individual among the guards. Her Transcendental Path was that of the “Swordsman,” a sequence built for extreme close-quarters lethality.

If she piloted that Abyssal Sealed Artifact, the “Steam Armor,” almost no one in the Dream Sanctum could stand against her. It would take at least three High Priests working in perfect unison just to hold her at bay.

After seeing Mura off, Luo Wei started counting on her fingers to figure out how much money she had made from this excursion.

Let’s see… a single tip ranges from fifty to a thousand Krones. If I go by the median… wait, I sent so many, let’s assume they only pay out a fifth of them. Even then, eighty-nine reports should be close to twenty thousand Krones. And that’s not counting the bounty from last time.

She had effectively struck a small fortune.

Based on purchasing power, one Krone was roughly equivalent to ten dollars in her previous life. Twenty thousand was two hundred thousand—a sum that fluctuated with local prices, but the math held up.

…That’s basically four years of my usual salary.

Luo Wei felt a surge of secret glee, even if she wasn’t quite sure how she’d spend it yet.

But how do I actually get my hands on the cash?

She began sifting through Claudia’s memories, eventually finding an anonymous account tucked away in a dusty corner of her mind.

The Royal Bank of York. Established by the royalty of the Kingdom of York—once the world’s premier trading superpower—it was rumored to be the most reputable bank in existence. They never leaked client information.

Many “shadow” organizations kept accounts there, including the Dream Sanctum.

Perhaps there were powers in the world that could force the Royal Bank to compromise, but the Enforcement Guards of Kolun County were certainly not among them, even if the county technically owed its loyalty to the Yorkist Crown.

Luo Wei scribbled Claudia’s anonymous account number onto the back of yet another Wanted Poster, specifically labeling it as belonging to “A Well-Informed Source,” and sent it off.

Done. Now I just sit back and wait for the deposit.

Luo Wei dusted off her hands and headed toward the “Shelter’s” library.

She hadn’t forgotten her primary goal: finding a way to treat Claudia’s brain death.

It’s not going to be easy to find a book that doesn’t make my head explode…