"Do you know why you cannot move, High Priestess? It's because your brain has been continuously proliferating to resist the effects of [Redundant Knowledge Intrusion]. There is no more computational power available to control the body."
"Until the effects of this White Cup second-category secret art fade, we can remain so intimate… Please keep anticipating it?"
Sines wanted to scream, but she couldn't. Because her vocal cords had already been removed…
The rate at which this heterodox High Priestess's flesh and blood proliferated couldn't compare to the speed of Fran's dissection. Her [Anatomy] Parsing Rate was a full 79%, leaving all other technologies in the dust!
Soon, Sines became a set of stark white bones. Her various organs were neatly arrayed beside her, like some sinister exhibition.
Fran's white coat was already soaked through with blood, but she didn't care. Because she had found the source of the flesh proliferation—half of a miniature, beating heart.
The scalpel blade neatly pierced this half-heart and peeled it off.
"Oh, please forgive my misstatement. Earlier, I said you were a heterodox High Priestess. Clearly, I was wrong… You are only a 'Half-High Priestess.'"
Fran sighed with pity and indifference, seeming to have lost all interest in Sines.
She threw this heart aside like trash. Her thick-soled leather shoe crushed it, turning it into a puddle of dissolved residue.
Afterwards, Fran, nearly bathed in blood, took a deep, satisfying breath, feeling refreshed and cheerful, her smile like a flower. She then turned her gaze to Haida.
"Solani is still alive. It's not yet time for a victory feast. Would you accompany me to find her, Sister Haida?"
Even with Haida's solid mental fortitude, the scene of the live dissection of a heterodox High Priestess moments ago had still given her a tremendous shock.
"…Hmm, let's set off." It took Haida a little time to regain her calm.
She sighed lightly, came before Fran, rolled up her own travel cloak, and began wiping the blood stains from the other's face.
Fran maintained her original posture, slightly narrowing her amber-like, deep golden eyes. Like a feline enjoying being stroked.
——
Solani wandered among the vagrant settlements at the city's border. She was wrapped in tattered robes, walking unsteadily, but her expression was unusually excited.
She looked at her own pale palm with immense joy. The veins and palm lines there had twisted together into the Red Cup's inverted triangle holy emblem.
This represented her promotion from the ranks of ordinary believers and followers… to a glorious heterodox Deacon.
After receiving the appointment from High Priestess Sines at the Sated Club, she felt an unprecedented sense of mission. It was so sweet it was nearly melting. Never in her life since birth had she been happier than at this moment.
What could be more enjoyable than climbing step by step up a grand staircase constructed from jagged bones?
Perfecting oneself, enriching one's own being, after making this fleshly body shed its mundanity and reach perfection… offering everything to the supreme Master, becoming an affiliated being in His kingdom.
Just contemplating these thoughts made Solani frantic to the point of uncontrollability.
"The Plum Moon ritual is approaching. The Sated Club's ritual array still needs more live offerings… We can finally act a bit more freely. I wonder which affiliated being will respond to the [Summon the Blood Kin] this time?"
She envisioned so expectantly that she couldn't help but kneel on the ground, her body trembling incessantly. Among the scattered group of vagrants, she stood out quite noticeably.
From an outsider's perspective, Mrs. Solani appeared to be breaking down in tears or perhaps stumbling and falling from hunger. But no one came forward to pay her any mind.
Which vagrant here didn't have a tragic background, driven to a dead end? As long as one had normal working ability and wasn't wanted, absolutely no one would willingly linger at the North District's border where shadows lurk.
"Hello, Madam, are you alright?"
A concerned female voice sounded beside Solani.
Solani, intoxicated by her own fanatical visions, felt someone supporting her and couldn't help but feel even more overjoyed. A living, fresh sacrifice… delivered so easily right to her doorstep.
Suddenly, Solani's expression turned somewhat strange. Her fervent emotions solidified in an instant.
The person supporting her addressed her as "Madam"? But she had already undergone [Transfiguration]; her appearance was that of an ordinary woman in her twenties.
Shouldn't the usual address be "Miss" or "Ms."? How did this person before her know she was married?
Solani's thoughts in her mind rapidly cooled. Her gaze looked directly at the woman holding her forearm.
The other wore the common robes of travelers, with pale white hair, a few strands of braids faintly visible at the temples. And her eye color was like flawless, translucent amber… Solani had an extremely deep impression of this.
Dr. Fran!
…But how is this possible? How could anyone find her? The High Priestess had clearly examined her; there should be no secret art markings on her body.
She had changed her appearance all the way; even the Secrets-Hunters absolutely could not have tracked her.
"How did you find me? My disguise had no flaws whatsoever… The High Priestess clearly meticulously stroked every corner of my body. There cannot be any Secrets-Hunter markings or brands present!"
Fran took off the traveling robe's hood, then stepped back slightly, maintaining a certain distance from Solani.
Currently, she had taken off the doctor's coat soaked with massive amounts of blood plasma and changed into the Secrets-Hunter Cult's standard-issue nun's habit.
The purge forces happened to have a Burial Attendant with a build similar to Fran's, so logistics prepared replacement clothing. She thus didn't have to go out all sticky. After briefly washing up, she changed into the Secrets-Hunter attire.
Fran was shorter than Mrs. Solani, but for some reason, Solani could sense from the other's gaze… she was looking down at her from a superior, condescending position.
"First, your disguise isn't sophisticated to me. [Transfiguration], as a Red Cup third-category secret art, can only be called basic knowledge. And your modification of flesh and blood is too crude; it's still that evaluation… devoid of any aesthetic appeal."
"Secondly, you indeed don't have a Secrets-Hunter Cult marking on you. But you have my mark."
As Fran spoke, she slightly spread her hands. One of Solani's eyeballs then crawled out of its eye socket as agilely as a spider and jumped into her palm.
Flesh nerves constituted the eyeball's four pairs of limbs, endowing it with mobility.
"When it was on you, it could perfectly integrate with your own flesh and blood, absolutely without any abnormality. Even a High Priestess, without conducting destructive examination, couldn't detect anything amiss, let alone… Sines, strictly speaking, doesn't count as 'one' High Priestess."
Solani felt as if she had fallen into an icy abyss. Her upper and lower jaws couldn't help but chatter. Her entire body, every limb and bone felt an unprecedented cold.
"You are not a Secrets-Hunter! A Secrets-Hunter couldn't surpass us in fleshcraft… You… what exactly are you…"
Her perspective was now split in two. One side was staring at Fran, while the other… was in Fran's hand, gazing at herself!
Solani slowly, dazedly reached out to touch her neck. Although there was nothing there, she seemed to see the Death God's scythe hanging there in the air, ready to decapitate her at any moment.
"Madam, politeness is your greatest virtue. I hope you maintain it. What do you mean, 'what are you'?"
Fran raised an eyebrow slightly, seeming somewhat dissatisfied.
"I am Dr. Fran Herschel from Fog Street Clinic, North District 13. Currently, I am contracted to concurrently serve as the Secrets-Hunter Cult's Medical Examiner."
Solani retreated step by step. She stopped when the back of her head bumped against something cold and hard.
That was the muzzle of Haida's gun. A deathly, chilling aura spread silently.
She stiffened all over, somewhat helplessly turned to look again at Fran, who was walking closer at a measured pace with her hands behind her back.
"Secrets-Hunter hound. You can utter High Priestess Sines's name, meaning you have already gone to the Sated Club? Mr. Sines… she…"
"Sines. You mean her, right? She is already dead."
Fran took out a few strands of soft silk ribbon from the nun's habit's storage pouch and lightly flicked them with her fingertips.
That was the streamers that had swirled around Sines during her dance.
Solani's face was full of disbelieving shock. But soon her nearly collapsed expression stabilized again somewhat. She seemed to have found an explanation she could convince herself with.
"High Priestess… No, these are just her clothes. You are beguiling me! Yes, the High Priestess must have already escaped the siege."
Vivian beside Haida subtly dry-heaved.
She remembered Sines's skeleton-only body, the internal organs neatly arrayed, the excised tree-like network of blood vessels…
Although Confidential Division members often deal with these bloody matters beyond ordinary acceptance, witnessing Fran's live dissection in its entirety was still somewhat too horrifying.
"If thinking that way makes you happy, then please hold firmly to your own conjecture."
Fran was clearly accustomed to such self-deception. She took out a quartz vial with a needle from her medical kit and then came before Solani.
Her movements were extremely fast. A blur passed by, and the medication had already been injected from the neck area into Solani's skin.
"What did you do to me? Don't come near me!"
Solani covered her neck, staggering as she fled toward the other side.
"Professor, do we need to stop her?" Child, concealed among the vagrants, asked the nearby Professor Terence.
"No need. Even a High Priestess couldn't escape. A newly promoted Deacon even more has no chance of escape whatsoever. Although that High Priestess couldn't move at the time because of your [Redundant Knowledge Intrusion]… Sister Haida's strength is beyond doubt."
Terence gave him a look, stopping his somewhat rash assistant.
Originally, the White Cup sect's assistance should have ended after the Sated Club was cleansed. But out of curiosity about Dr. Fran, he still followed the group and joined the hunt for Solani.
Fran's downright gruesome dissection made Child have to find a secluded spot afterwards and dry-heave for a full five minutes… He should be grateful he didn't eat breakfast.
But in Terence's eyes, this dissection had an uncanny aesthetic beauty. That doctor was too familiar with the human body. Every scalpel cut was like a master artist sketching on canvas—breathtaking.
In his youth, Terence had served as a field medic for a short while, mastering certain clinical emergency medical skills.
Therefore, he could faintly glimpse the chasm-like gap between the two sides in terms of technical and theoretical levels.
…
Solani's escape speed grew slower and slower. She soon knelt on the ground, hands hugging her chest, curling into a ball.
"What blasphemy!… Doctor, what a lowly profession. How dare you presume to meddle with my Master's bestowed supreme art?"
She seemed to feel very cold, shivering uncontrollably. She stared at Fran, gnashing her teeth, as if wanting to devour her alive.
"Once I am completely dissolved into the Master's cup, at that time, I will rouse endless curses to entangle you…"
Fran held the black hem of the Secrets-Hunter nun's habit, pinching it elegantly, standing gracefully to one side, observing Solani.
"If such curses devoid of mystical efficacy could truly take effect, the world would never be as it is now. Look at this: a heretic like you is the only one in the family who has survived until now. Based on that alone, it proves 'retribution' is just self-deception."
Fran was waiting for the drug to truly take effect.
The next moment, Solani felt her vision somewhat moist. Her eye sockets were uncontrollably welling up with a slightly salty bodily fluid.
I… am crying?
The frantic, excited mood was gone. The overheated thinking in Solani's brain was cooled by some irresistible external force.
And an unusual feeling enveloped her, unprecedented…
That was a profound sorrow so intense it was suffocating.
She wailed heart-wrenchingly. Thinking she could never see her husband Logan again, never touch her lovely son Fice again, and that all of this was sin committed by her own hand… she almost began to despairingly repent.
"They were all live sacrifices offered to my Master! They died a worthy death!… No, but… Fice… Sob… my child… What have I done?"
The [Transfiguration] effect on Solani's face had already vanished, restoring her original appearance. She even developed abnormalities in her language function, like having two consciousnesses tearing at each other in her mind.
"I created a virtual personality and implanted it into your brain through a special preparation."
"Virtual personality? But… sob…"
She was nearly weeping uncontrollably. The unspoken words were "but why is my sorrow so real."
"She is the gentle, loving mother in Fice's eyes, the considerate, strong wife in Logan's eyes, the elegant noble lady known to outsiders, a pious White Cup believer. Her longing and attachment to life far surpasses that of you, who lost fanatical faith."
"Soon, you will be gnawed away to nothing."
The hint of a smile at the corner of Fran's lips had already faded. At this moment, she was neither sad nor happy, merely observing all this from a bystander's perspective with indifference.
This was the first time Haida saw her with this expression. Like an iron statue, devoid of any emotion.
Solani's wailing gradually stopped, turning into plaintive, low sobs.
"Those foolish acts I committed… were just for pursuing that illusory, intangible god? No… I am a thorough and utter sinner…"
She almost crawled on the ground, dragging herself forward to come before Fran, reaching out to grab her slender ankle wrapped in pure black stockings.
Solani raised her head, tearfully pleading.
"Dr. Fran… I do not accept my own despicable repentance. Please end my suffering. Bury the traces of the existence of that other me together with me in this mortal shell. Use my insignificant life to end this body of sin…"
Fran slightly nodded.
"As you wish."
"Bang!"
The firearm's blast resounded crisply. A wisp of gray-white gunsmoke drifted from Haida's gun barrel.
A black bullet hole precisely appeared on Solani's heart. Her lifted head then went limp and drooped.
Under the effects of the Secrets-Hunter prayer scripture on the bullet, her corpse then began to wither and decay extremely quickly, losing its vitality in an instant.
[Solani Lois's madness has been cured. This month's routine medical treatment mission has been completed. Completion Grade: A. Your next Monthly House Call will be triggered randomly next month.]
[Reward for this mission: Unknown Biological Technology Raw Material x1 (Common Quality. Unidentified)]
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T/N: Hey readers~! New Translator here! Before I say anything, I'd first like to thank the original author for creating this wonderful story. Without them, I wouldn't have the chance to share this adventure with you. I hope my translation does justice to their work, and that together, we can enjoy this story.
With that said, I'm happy to let you know I'll be uploading daily chapters. And for those who wish to support my work and gain early access, I've set up a Patreon where advanced chapters will be available.
[email protected]/PeakTL