No one objected to Mr. Hood's proposal, so he continued:
"I imagine you've all read those so-called knight novels. Perhaps you've noticed that most of those stories revolve around a certain person or a specific place—the stage, with its setting and characters. And aren't the events unfolding in Nolan City quite similar to those strange tales?"
He let out a sound that might have been a derisive chuckle.
"Ha, exactly. A stage set by destiny, where every participant thinks they're the protagonist, oblivious to the fact that the script has already been written. Do you believe it? When the next epoch arrives, Nolan City will become part of a legend, perhaps even earning itself an interesting title."
"Did your friends tell you this as well?"
Silver Flute Miss retorted. Mr. Hood's latter words sounded a bit like the ramblings of a madman.
"No, this is all my own speculation. You can choose to believe it or not."
Mr. Hood's mood had soured, but no one knew what was wrong with him. After a moment of silence, the group chose to ignore his last words, and Magic Miss started a new topic:
"Regarding the new god... I mean, the followers of the new God of Lies. The Church has now confirmed that the infamous Miss Fabry is one of them. I know you may have heard this news through other channels, but that was all speculation. Only now has it been truly confirmed as fact—though I doubt anyone is surprised."
Jenkins was the one who asked the question. He noticed Hathaway, standing opposite him, staring intently at his chest, and only then did he realize that the magically disguised clothing there was constantly writhing.
He reached out and patted Chocolate, who immediately stopped moving.
"Perhaps her goal was never money at all, but simply the pure enjoyment of the fraud. I even suspect that taking the ten thousand gold pounds was just to cover her own expenses from the scam. After all, mailing out so many letters costs money."
Magic Miss offered. She seemed unaware that the Church had already discovered that all the stamps Miss Fabry used were near-perfect forgeries.
In fact, if the supernatural traces on them hadn't been detected, the deception would have been very difficult to uncover.
"But in any case, she is likely the first female follower of the God of Lies to become known to the public."
"How can you be sure Miss Fabry is a woman?"
Hathaway asked again.
"Because the fanatical followers of the God of Lies never do anything without a reason. With such an elaborate fraudulent scheme, it would have made no difference whether the protagonist of the story was a pitiful female university student or a handsome, impoverished male art student. She wouldn't have needed to pretend to be a different gender."
Magic Miss's reasoning was quite sound; even Jenkins couldn't refute it.
More than half a month had passed since he had personally exposed the Fabry fraud. This short period of time, far from diminishing the incident's impact, had only allowed it to continue to ferment.
Now, every day, the newspapers were filled with opinions from various figures on the scam, new regulations the Kingdom was drafting for the banking industry, and more. Even the tabloids were full of it; it seemed that any news, so long as it was connected to the affair, suddenly became significant.
And, of course, no one was able to find the so-called "Miss Fabry." Just as the tabloids speculated with their vulgar stories about Miss Fabry's age, identity, profession, and even her bedfellows, no one could have imagined that 'her' only companion in bed was a cat.
After the topic of the fraudster concluded, Hathaway became the fourth participant to share information. Like Jenkins, she had been away from the city for a week, so her news was also about events that had occurred earlier in the month.
"A friend of mine at the police department told me that the number of deaths from accidental drownings this winter, especially from falling through the ice, is many times higher than in previous years. And for most of those who fell in, their bodies were never found. I'm sure you can all guess what that means..." The rıghtful source is novel{f}ire.net
"Something strange in the water?"
Mr. White Cat guessed, subconsciously leaning a little closer to Hathaway to hear better.
"It's not that simple. Mr. White Cat, do you remember what happened during the first gathering you attended with us?"
Hathaway's voice was disguised, but Jenkins could still recognize his friend from her manner of speaking. He wasn't worried that she could identify him in the same way, because he always spoke by mentally translating his thoughts into a completely foreign linguistic structure and then back again.
It was truly exhausting.
"Of course I remember. Just as the gathering was about to end, we saw a small boat approaching from the open sea..."
Mr. White Cat's masked face turned to look at the others one by one. He had already understood what Skylark Miss meant—
"You're saying that what's under the water is the Pirate King, Femishue the Destroyer?"
Everyone standing there, except for the newly joined Silver Flute Miss, clearly remembered the incident. The Pirate King who had appeared back then was obviously in a state of extreme madness; otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to repel him even by working together. But absolutely no one would underestimate his power because of it.
"Are you really sure that madman is under the city's frozen river?"
Mr. White Cat confirmed again, asking the question that was on everyone's mind.
"Of course. I have a unique item. On the night the God of Lies fought the vampires, I heard strange sounds from the depths of the river. I can assure you, no one else knows this information—not even the Orthodox Church has likely completed its investigation. You don't need to keep this a secret. Tell as many people as you can. Hopefully, the Church can drive that madman out of our city as soon as possible."
As she mentioned the "special item," the woman subconsciously raised a hand to touch her ear, but then remembered that such a gesture was out of character for her current persona.
The thought of the earring brought Jenkins to mind, and her thoughts began to wander, wondering what he was doing on this deep winter's night. Whatever it was, she was certain it couldn't be as interesting as what she was facing.
"A Pirate King... Although Femishue is one of the lower-ranked of the Seven Pirate Kings, it probably won't be easy for the Nolan diocese to deal with him alone."
Mr. Hood was quite worried about this.