Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 379 Name Taboo
The shadow has already vanished.

After the bloodstains on the ground were completely washed away by the rain, there was no trace of them left in the prayer square.

Milo never figured out what it was.

He didn't know if that was the Shadow he had been tracking recently, but he didn't see the black wings or the so-called burning eyes split into three pieces.

But Milo wasn't in a hurry, because Daisy would provide the answer.

……

...

This must be the most humiliating day since the church was founded.

The most humiliating day before that was when Neferenka descended upon Nanwei City. The church bells were blocked, the view was obscured, or rather, the church members themselves hid.

But in any case, the man who looked like an Egyptian pharaoh never stepped onto the church's high bridge, nor did he enter a holy place like the prayer square.

This time, Shadow entered.

Not only that, it also drove away wild animals that blocked the church bridge.

This was an act that was infinitely more outrageous and arrogant than that of Nephren Ka, yet it still did not encounter any form of resistance from the Church.

No one appeared in the square or on the bridge platform with a golden tree totem tattooed on their hand.

While Milo was locked in fierce combat with another "Milo," the clergy and scholars hiding in the church's high-rise buildings didn't even dare to draw back the curtains to peek out.

The reason is easy to explain.

Regardless of who wins the confrontation in the square, it has little to do with the church's own stance, because the victor ultimately represents a more terrifying force.

The church's doctrines, its high-level covenants, and the theories of the schools of thought they follow all solemnly demonstrate the ironclad rule that the Old Gods are inviolable. Even the proverb they often utter is the same—fear the blood of the Old Gods.

Furthermore, the Monsis school, represented by Raven and his teacher, was expelled from the Covenant simply for attempting to understand and learn the knowledge of the Old Gods.

These mystical individuals may have long since abandoned the thirst for knowledge that scholars should possess. The Old Gods don't even need to make a statement; the scholars of the Contract Organization will automatically consider certain of their actions as crossing the line and thus punish themselves.

They had long since become servants groveling at the toes of the old gods; indeed, in the doctrinal texts of the Golden Rule, they did refer to themselves as servants of God.

This is the most fundamental difference between the Golden Rule Church and the scholars at Miskatonic University.

This is why Milo is more inclined to contact the University of Michigan in comparison.

……

Of course, the University of Michigan is not without its drawbacks.

The downside is that their investigators are mostly older men, and Investigator C is considered young, so it's even less likely that they'll have young, beautiful, and exceptionally elegant nuns and contract scholars like the church.

In fact, in Milo's mind, someone like Enid should be studying at the University of Michigan. Staying in a small law enforcement agency would only waste her talents. But then again, she does seem to have some talent in law enforcement...

……

Previously, Isabelle had been strictly forbidden from leaving the Star Clock Tower.

Because all indications have shown that someone of higher status, or a shadowy figure, visited the church's prayer square, and that they came with malicious intent.

It donned a human skin.

Moreover, it was a shell of someone the church was acquainted with, attempting to enter the church's territory to claim that it had brought back the medicine needed by the Eye of Thinking.

But the church is just ignorant; they are not stupid. At least they can distinguish between good intentions and malice.

……

For Isabelle, this was a deeply painful and enormous loss.

She didn't witness the confrontation of supernatural and mysterious forces in the Prayer Square, nor did she get to see the so-called shadow's oppressive aura. She felt as if she had missed something, and her heart was itching with desire.

On a slightly clearer day, one might be able to peek into some corners of the Prayer Square through the cracks in the windows of the Starry Clock Tower. But this was a rainy day, with large, dense raindrops filling the air. To the naked eye, one could see nothing but a gray haze.

No one was more eager to witness true, mysterious power than Isabel.

After learning about Milo and his abilities, she realized that she had spent the entire past ten years under the control of the Contract Organization. For those ten years, she could only see what the Contract Organization showed her and learn what the Contract Organization allowed her to learn.

They never had the chance to witness the true power contained within those classic texts.

Milo's sudden appearance was like opening a window to her previously closed-off academic career, giving her the opportunity to glimpse things that were closer to the truth.

This man, disguised as a law enforcer, possessed a mind brimming with mysterious knowledge far exceeding that of a contract scholar. Moreover, his hands were stained with the blood of the Ancients and even the Old Gods. His image was almost exactly what Isabel aspired to be.

Therefore, after meeting Milo, she was unable to calm down for a long time.

So much so that when the church opened its doors to the real Milo, Isabel almost couldn't contain her excitement. Her face flushed, and her hands and feet trembled slightly, much like when she first encountered the mysterious scriptures ten years ago—bewildered and nervous. Even Isabel herself didn't realize that she seemed to have completely forgotten the doctrines and theories the contractual organization had carefully built for her over the years. She forgot to maintain a humble posture, forgot that she couldn't attempt to look at the glory of the Old Gods as equals, and even more so, forgot the so-called sins that Milo bore.

All of this can be attributed to the contract organization's excessive "protection" of her.

Her thirst for knowledge had been excessively suppressed for a long decade, so much so that when she saw the achievements of someone who broke free from the rules, a new way of thinking quietly spread in her mind and became unstoppable.

From a certain perspective, this behavior violates the belief system of a scholar of contracts, but putting aside the word "contract," Isabel is simply following the principles that a "scholar" should uphold.

Thus, from the moment Valrokan appeared in the Star Clock Tower, Isabel's faith had already been corrupted.

In her heart, the rules of the golden ratio had begun to fade...

Of course, all these changes only occurred in the depths of her heart, unknown to anyone.

On the surface, she remains a serious and devout scholar of contracts, a genius admired by all her peers, and a junior whom the higher-ups of the contract organization place high hopes on.

Every move she made, her expression, and her knowledge were flawless from any angle.

However, beneath this elegant and dignified exterior draped in uniform, the Golden Rule was no longer her purest belief; her mind and soul had slowly crept toward the sinful path that Milo had taken.

Isn't this a different kind of minotaur...?

……

"It is a pleasure to see you back safely, Mr. Valrocan."

Asabel gracefully represented the church in welcoming Milo's arrival.

"return?"

Milo flicked the rain off his sleeves and glanced at Isabel with a puzzled look on his face: "I'm not one of you."

He then placed the wet hat in Isabel's hands and walked straight toward the upper hall of the Star Clock Tower.

Isabel showed no sign of displeasure. She handed the wet leather tricorn hat to the nun beside her and watched Milo's retreating figure with interest.

Milo's footsteps left a long trail of dirty footprints in the church corridor. His boots trod through the mud, the carcasses of wild beasts, and the blood of Shadow, leaving behind footprints that, in a way, tainted the once pristine and magnificent church.

Isabel stared blankly at the footprint that stretched to the horizon.

……

At the Star Clock Tower, under the watchful eyes of the doctors, priests, and contract scholars present, Milo injected "Gulnd" into the semi-finished potion.

At this point, Igor's elixir was fully formed.

Milo, carrying the elixir, gently supported Daisy's head and fed her little by little. It took him a full ten minutes to get Daisy to drink all the less than one hundred milliliters of the potion at the bottom of the bottle.

As everyone held their breath in anticipation, Daisy, who had been unconscious, suddenly began to vomit violently.

Something indescribable, even more filthy than the mangled remains of wild beasts crushed by Marshall, vomited out in large clumps from her mouth. The dark brown, viscous substance, mixed with fragments, even hissed as it fell onto the stone platform.

Such a violent reaction startled many people present.

Only Milo, who was closest to Daisy, supported her frail body, turned her over onto her stomach, and patiently waited for her to vomit all the filth out of her abdomen.

Milo glanced at the serious-looking people around him and said in a drawn-out tone:

"Relax, relax, it's normal, you'll be fine after you throw up—"

Everything was just as Milo had said.

About ten minutes after Daisy finished vomiting, the eerie black aura that had been swirling around her face and other features disappeared.

There was a large puddle of what looked like mud on the ground next to the stone platform. It was hard to imagine how Daisy, with her small and frail body, could have pulled out such a lump of stuff.

Those who were also freed from the dark aura included the clergy present, including Reverend Defoe and a group of blindfolded nuns from the Star Tower.

Milo didn't understand the principle behind this; perhaps, as Defoe said, their fates were bound together by the Eye of Thinking.

If this curse is not broken today, by tonight at the latest, the nuns on the Star Clock Tower whose fates are intertwined with Daisy's will begin to die one by one.

……

As Milo was pondering these questions, he noticed that Daisy's cold little hand was grasping his hand, which was resting on the edge of the stone platform.

Then, a voice so weak it was almost imperceptible reached Milo's ears:

“Imnal”.

(End of this chapter)