"Mrs. Sharon's aura is similar to Trissy's. I have reason to suspect she's also a Witch."
As soon as Silas said this, the others all showed surprised expressions.
"Are you certain?"
Dunn asked, his eyes deep and probing.
"I can't guarantee it, but it's very likely."
Silas didn't speak in absolutes. Being too certain would make him seem suspicious.
"Besides, speaking of Mrs. Sharon, her most famous trait was her beautiful appearance and how she was sought after by high society... Trissy's appearance improved greatly after becoming Sequence 7.
So I suspect this pathway might enhance one's looks across the board."
Klein and Frye exchanged glances after hearing this.
That actually makes some sense. But how can we verify it?
Dunn thought for a moment before speaking:
"How about this? Let's first recover Mrs. Sharon's body, then go investigate her residence.
If she's a Witch, we should be able to find clues where she lived. Perhaps we can also obtain intelligence related to Trissy."
With the captain's orders, the Nighthawks naturally complied.
They helped Frye place the body in a bag and load it into the carriage.
Intelligence on Trissy... She might very well be Mrs. Sharon's subordinate.
Silas thought to himself. Just then, he suddenly remembered something.
"By the way, Captain."
Silas spoke up.
"That day when dealing with Trissy, you didn't let Klein participate, saying he was support personnel... but he's already advanced to Sequence 8 and has combat capabilities now, right?"
After passing the review, Klein had already consumed his potion and advanced to Sequence 8 of the Seer pathway: "Clown."
According to his own introduction, "Clown" possessed agile movements, could turn playing cards into throwing knives, predict others' actions, and so on... Based on these descriptions, Silas highly suspected that the sealed artifact 3-169 he carried was related to the "Clown" potion.
Hearing Silas ask this, Dunn was also stunned.
After a moment, he slowly shook his head and said, "You're right. I forgot he had already advanced..."
Huh?
Silas was immediately speechless.
Forgot?
That actually works...
Klein was also nearby at the time. After hearing Dunn's words, he was also somewhat dumbfounded.
"Captain, when you didn't let me go, I thought you had other considerations. Turns out you simply forgot."
Dunn's eyes shifted, and he said nothing more, instead quickening his pace toward the carriage.
It was clear he seemed somewhat embarrassed, too.
"Isn't the Captain's forgetfulness a bit severe?"
Left behind by him, Silas didn't rush to catch up. Instead, he spoke to Klein.
"That's because the Captain is currently a 'Nightmare.'
Sometimes he can't distinguish between reality and dreams, so he seems a bit confused... The day his memory becomes normal, that's when things will be most dangerous."
Klein explained in a low voice.
Later, the Nighthawks group entered Mrs. Sharon's room to search and indeed found a bone statue of the Primordial Witch in her safe.
From this, Dunn determined that Mrs. Sharon was indeed a Witch. Under Silas's guidance, the case was ultimately characterized as infighting between cult members.
As soon as they heard that Mrs. Sharon's background was problematic, the high society figures who had been clamoring for justice on her behalf immediately fell silent.
Although the Church wanted to search for relevant clues, they ultimately found nothing due to numerous obstacles.
From the conclusion's perspective, Silas had easily cleared himself of suspicion.
Of course, all of this came later. For now, Silas had only avoided the risk of working overtime at night.
After leaving Mrs. Sharon's residence, he didn't return to the company.
Instead, using the excuse that he was running low on mystical materials and needed to go to the underground market to purchase some as supplements, he bid farewell to Dunn and the others and boarded a carriage to the dock area.
The "Evil Dragon Bar" in the dock area was as lively as ever, with the underground market crowded with people.
Silas tried to find traces of the "Monster" Ademisol inside but wasn't successful. After asking around, he learned that due to excessive fear, Ademisol hadn't dared to leave his home recently.
Silas had wanted to ask him for details about the "disaster" he had mentioned.
Seeing the situation, he could only give up. He could only wander around the market, buying all the auxiliary materials his sister needed for advancement while also replenishing his own supplies.
Klein had once suggested that he could use the "reimbursement" system invented by Emperor Roselle to cover the cost of purchasing materials.
But Silas found the paperwork for reimbursement a bit troublesome, and since buying materials didn't cost much anyway, he had never tried it.
After finishing his shopping, Silas took the trackless carriage back to his home at 6 Daffodil Street.
By this time, it was already dark.
"Silas, welcome back."
Cecilia came to greet him at the door as always.
"Cecilia, don't come over yet. I smell a bit."
Silas quickly stopped her. After examining Mrs. Sharon's corpse in the afternoon and helping Frye move the body into the carriage, he had gotten covered in the stench of decay.
This smell wasn't easy to remove. All afternoon, he could smell the faint odor lingering on himself.
He put his things on the table and went to the bathroom first, washing thoroughly for a while until he had barely suppressed the smell to something very faint before coming out.
After leaving the bathroom, Silas first went upstairs to his bedroom.
He retrieved the suitcase from under the bed.
Inside were Mrs. Sharon's organs preserved by ritual, several of Mrs. Sharon's personal belongings (a dagger, jewelry, and the like), as well as two Beyonder characteristics: one black spike, which was the Sequence 9 Assassin characteristic; the other a purple crystal, which was the Beyonder characteristic extracted from Mrs. Sharon, likely from the mid-sequences of the Assassin pathway.
Silas carefully took out the black iron-colored spike, then closed the case and sealed it again with a wall of spirituality before carrying this "Assassin" Beyonder characteristic downstairs.
Ma'am M and Cecilia were already waiting for him in the living room.
"Cecilia, wash our pot clean and bring it over."
Silas suppressed the unease in his heart and said to his sister.
To be honest, he hadn't been this nervous even when making potions for himself to drink.
While his sister went to get the iron pot, Silas laid out the auxiliary materials one by one on the table.
80 milliliters of pure water, 5 drops of white datura juice, 5 grams of evening primrose powder, 10 grams of powdered whiskers from an adult Night Spirit Cat... He once again recalled the potion formula.
After confirming it was correct, Cecilia brought over the iron pot.
"Alright, I'm going to start."
Silas smiled at Cecilia, as if comforting his sister but actually encouraging himself.
He poured 80 milliliters of pure water into the pot, then successively added the evening primrose powder and white datura juice.
The color of the liquid in the pot turned a dull green. After the two materials had mixed evenly, he threw in the "Assassin" Beyonder characteristic.
With a "plop," the black iron spike submerged into the liquid.
The originally solid characteristic rapidly dissolved, causing the entire pot of liquid to begin rotating, occasionally producing sharp, blade-like protrusions that looked like spikes from the outside.
Only after Silas poured in the final ingredient, the spirit cat whisker powder, did the potion finally calm down.
At this point, the potion had become a transparent pale blue, like semi-solid jelly.
By the looks of it, it should have succeeded.
Silas thought to himself.