The world controlled by dice [Western Fantasy]

Detective Jon patted his face to wake himself up, but couldn't help but yawn.

Last night, there was a heavy rain in La Mifa City, and the whole city seemed to be soaked in the rain.That temporarily relieved the hotness in people's hearts.However, the amazing thing is that after this rain, the weather quickly returned to its original warm appearance, as if the sun likes this city so much.

...Perhaps the residents of Lamifa would rather the sun not like themselves so much.

Anyway, Jon didn't sleep very well last night.The sound of the rain is disturbing, but perhaps even more disturbing is what they are going to do today.

It took a little effort for Jon to find a way to sneak into the Fillmore Family Museum-this museum will welcome a group of visitors on Saturday, so more guards and security guards are needed to maintain order.

Jon changed his identity and cleverly placed himself in this team.The reason why he is so sleepy now is because from five o'clock in the morning, their new batch of guards started five hours of training, and they didn't leave for lunch until ten o'clock in the morning.

From eleven o'clock, they had to be scattered around the museum to complete their tasks according to the arrangement of the Fillmore family.

Jon's position is outside a room on the side of the second floor, and he has to guard the door here.

The third floor of this museum is not open to the public. Both the first floor and the second floor have a large number of collections. The difference lies in the collection time-the first floor was collected by the family after they came to the Duchy of Constance, and the second floor It was before.

There are some sculptures in the room inside the door beside Jon.On a small notice board next to him, a text explains the relevant history of this room.The collection here is all from a man named Everett Fillmore.

Jon stared at the sign for a while, then looked away with little interest.

He now assumed the identity of a thin, serious-eyed man of about thirty - he must say, to a certain extent, he imitated Professor Noel's serious and cold look - which seemed to be credible. A member of the Fillmore family.

He successfully joined the team of these new guards, but...

He looked left and right, and then showed a very playful and meaningful smile.

Among these new guards, it seems that he is not the only one with ulterior motives.

The guards were in place one after another.Around noon, the visitors who will be visiting today arrived one after another.There are not many of them, and the noble families basically have the whole family together.That also means that they can't travel together at the same time, they must act separately.

Many people from the Fillmore family also appeared.I am afraid that one of them will be responsible for hosting a family.Everyone is gathering in the living room on the first floor at this moment, making loud and never-ending noises.But when those voices reached the second floor, there were only whispers left.

Jon listened intently for a while, but couldn't hear clearly.He shook his head bored.

His position is very far back, is a corner.If no one specially ran to him to take a look, then no one would know what was happening on his side.

He set his sights on the notice board in the room he was guarding again.

Everett Fillmore.Born in the late Silent Period and died in the early Fog Period.Once the patriarch of the Fillmore family.He loves sculpture and has collected several sculptures in his life, all of which are extremely expensive and cherished masterpieces.

But that's not what Jon cares about.He just noticed the dates of Everett's birth and death, and was very surprised to realize that this seemed to coincide with the time when the Fillmore family came to the Duchy of Constance.

In other words, if Everett didn't lead the matter, he must have been involved in the process.

The room's location on the second floor suggests that, at least within the Fillmore family, they classified Everett as "before the Duchy of Const."

Therefore, Jon was somewhat curious, would the collection in this room hint at the reason why the Fillmore family left the Sardinian Empire?

During the moment of his contemplation, the nobles on the first floor seemed to have been divided into different teams and began to tour this huge family museum.Some voices were already coming towards the second floor, and Jon heard many people complimenting the Fillmore family.

A group of people walked towards Jon's room, and Jon heard the leader of the Fillmore family call another person Mr. Grant.

...Grant?

The group of people walked around the corner and appeared in Jon's vision.Jon glanced over thoughtfully and saw the figure of a familiar young lady.

…When the Grayson incident broke out, Jon, as a detective, met Dorothea Grant in the back kitchen of the palace dinner.They had a relationship once.

Of course, Jon has recognized Dorothea at this moment, but he is not using the detective's appearance now.

He pondered for a moment, and did not do anything for the time being, but silently took a step aside when the Fillmore family member came to open the door.

But this step made him just block the light from the window.The man held a key, tried several times but failed to insert the key into the keyhole, so he squinted his eyes to find the position of the keyhole, and didn't notice any problem for a while.

"Sir, do you need my help?" Jon asked politely.

Then the man looked at Jon, he suddenly realized, and said angrily: "Aren't you the one who blocked the light? Stand aside!"

Jon apologized in a low voice, and then took another step aside.The visitors were already scattered around the door, and Jon's step brought him to Dorothea Grant's side.

Dorothea glanced over subconsciously because of Jon's actions, and Jon happened to take out a brooch from his pocket at this moment—the eight-petal rose brooch, and quickly showed it to Dorothea, and then Put it back in your pocket.

Dorothea subconsciously paused, her gaze fixed on Jon for a moment, and she retracted it before others noticed the strangeness.

The Fillmores opened the door and let the visitors in.He asked Jon to guard the door.

Jon heard the conversation and exclamation of the people inside.Curiously, he glanced sideways into the room, and couldn't help feeling a little surprised.In the slightly dimly lit room, gray and white sculptures that are almost like real people stand there.

They have different appearances and vivid expressions, but most of them are painful and desperate.Their body language seems to indicate that they are in a state of extreme distress or confusion, struggling unbelievably.

The suffocating extreme pain that hit the face made everyone present silent for a moment.

"...that's impressive," murmured one of the visitors.

Dorothea frowned, she obviously didn't like the atmosphere of this room.When everyone dispersed to watch, she and her grandfather walked near the door.

So she took the opportunity to ask: "Grandpa, can we only visit one room at a time?"

"It is not good?"

"But it's so hot," sighed Dorothea. "Even the air is stuffy and stale here."

"It's only two hours at most," said Adolphus Grant reassuringly. "We'll be on the third floor in a moment."

Dorothea just nodded.

third floor?

Jon, who heard their conversation outside the door, couldn't help but feel moved.

The third floor of the Fillmore Family Museum is not open to the public. It is said that it houses some quite private materials and too precious collections.

These nobles are going to the third floor later?For that possible private sale?

At three o'clock at the latest, they'll be there.Jon thought.I don't know what's going on with Professor Noel... Is it too late?

In fact, in time.

At 01:30 in the afternoon, Captain Bunyan, together with other knights of the Church of the Past, subdued two painters who suddenly went crazy and wanted to use their own blood to paint on the wall of the main castle of La Mifa University.

The other painters who were still in shock, as well as the professors of La Mifa University, were also supported by the priests of the Church of the Past to sit down and slowly ease their emotions.

During the whole process, Siles and Qindo only dealt with some details secretly.

For example, Qin Duo caused the two crazy painters to confuse the directions, and turned around on the spot without actually smearing blood on the wall; for another example, Siles greeted Nolan Hirst in advance and moved Some people's attention, lest they be polluted.

After Bunyan appeared, they retired without attracting more attention.

The group of painters arrived at the main castle of Ramifa University at one o'clock in the afternoon. They were received by the president of Ramifa University, the deans of different departments and so on.

Things seemed very peaceful at the beginning. They walked around the university and talked about the opening of the Academy of Fine Arts in the university.Some students and professors who are still at school also cast curious eyes on this group of visitors, and occasionally some people followed them for a while.

Siles and Qindo were mixed in, not eye-catching.They just watched the movement of this group of people from a distance.

So far at least, things are going pretty well.

But for some reason, when they were about to enter the main castle, two painters seemed to go crazy suddenly, yelling at the same time, and took out knives from their pockets and slashed at themselves.

That scene terrified the others.

They took out small clay bowls, filled them with their own blood, and then probably dipped a paintbrush into the blood to paint.

It was at this time that Bunyan and the others arrived.

He claimed that he came to a small church near Ramifa University today for some things—there is indeed a church nearby—but he heard chaotic screams in Ramifa University, so he came to have a look .

He didn't expect to actually catch the crazy follower of the old god here.

The people present looked at each other in blank dismay.

In fact, they were taken aback and had no idea if they were making too much noise or even screaming.All of them are decent people, who would have thought that such a scene would happen today.

Among them, the most feared one is probably Nolan Hurst, the dean of the Academy of Literature and History.He stared in astonishment at the two weak and excited painters who fell to the ground, completely dumbfounded.

As for Siles' statement that something would happen today, he had only half-believed before, but now he really smelled the strong smell of blood in the castle... He felt dizzy and even wanted to vomit.

A figure flashed in front of him, blocking his view of the two painters.It was Captain Benyan.

"Don't look at them anymore. Maybe you will be affected by something." Bunyan warned him gently.

"...I...I understand." Hurst nodded nervously, he took a slow and deep breath, and he asked a little hesitantly, "Mr. ceremony? I'm a little worried... Today's scene..."

He spoke vaguely, but clearly feared that he or others would be polluted.

Bunyan nodded, his tone was a little strange, he just said: "Yes, if you need it, you can come to the Church of the Past and ask."

This, he thought, was invented by that Professor Sirius Noel you know.

...Mr. Knight Commander suddenly felt that he seemed to have glimpsed Professor Noel's intricate interpersonal relationship.

He was busy for a while, including dealing with the two crazy painters and appeasing the crowd present.This kind of thing is familiar to the knights, and the two painters seem to have no intention of resisting at all.

When they were taken out of the main castle and exposed to the blazing sun, the two even let out an exaggerated scream, as if they were destined to hide in the shadows.

Siles noticed this detail, but before he had time to think about it, Knight Commander Benyan came over.

Bunyan's eyes showed that solemn and serious emotion, he said: "I didn't expect this group of followers of the old gods to be so bold... They seem to have been involved in things related to 'art', especially 'paintings' .”

Siles also nodded, and he added: "Perhaps they seem to have their eye on Ramifa University for a long time."

Bunyan couldn't help but startled.

"Yesterday, Qindo and I came to the university, and then carefully walked around the main castle." Siles said, "We found that at the end of the corridors on each floor of the main castle, there are some blank spaces. frame and canvas.

"In the morning, I found an opportunity to ask Dean Hearst, the dean of the Academy of Literature and History. He said that it was requested by the painters who came to visit. They seemed to be planning to paint on the spot as an end to this event. .

"...This approach has obviously been premeditated for a long time."

Startled, Bunyan said, "Did those two painters plan to paint on those blank canvases?"

"It seems so," said Siles. "Somehow, they went mad ahead of time."

Bunyan couldn't help frowning.He will probably ask this question carefully later.

But Siles actually knew the answer to that question.

He also knew that there was only one answer Bunyan could get: that the two painters had somehow, inexplicably, gone mad.

They just feel the world explode in their brains suddenly, so they want to explode the world too.

...Because, not long ago, Siles made a will judgment on all the foreign painters.

When the painters arrived at one o'clock in the afternoon, Siles planned to observe.

But he didn't want to delay this matter until later, that is, when the event was about to end.Therefore, at 01:30, when these painters entered the main castle, Siles immediately made a judgment.

Most of the painters are normal (at least they can pass the determination of will normally, although the will of some painters is already in jeopardy), but only those two painters, their will determination results are quite consistent: only the possibility of a big failure is provided.

In other words, they are actually on the verge of madness.

Perhaps their purpose is to endure until the end of the event, and to smear the canvas prepared for them with blood; however, this time the decision of will has already decided the future outcome for them in advance.

They went crazy in an instant, overwhelmed by the roar of the world and their own blood.They left no retreat for themselves.

Bunyan shook his head and said, "I will investigate the people behind them, as well as the cause and effect of this activity... I hope to find some clues."

He obviously found a breakthrough in the investigation, at least something that allowed him to concentrate on the investigation.This made him very excited.

Before Bunyan left, Siles considered it for a while, stopped him, and said to him, "This may be a bit presumptuous...but maybe you can talk to Ms. Elizabeth."

Bunyan was taken aback for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully."I'll think about it. Now, let's get this out of the way," he said.

Siles agreed with this approach.

Soon, Bunyan hurried away with the other knights.Siles went to have a chat with Dean Hearst, and Dean Hearst obviously hadn't recovered from his senses, so he had a few conversations with Siles in a distracted manner.

Subsequently, Siles and Cindo left Ramifa University.But he left a puppet here, just in case.

"How about the fair?" he asked Cyndo.

Yesterday, Friday afternoon, they actually did a lot.They came to La Mifa University, had club activities, and also found blank picture frames that inexplicably appeared in different places in the castle.

Then, they went to the trade fair.Qindo placed a character there, which is the same as the character placed in the Lancelot Theater before. Anyone with malicious intentions entering the underground passage, Qindo will be prompted.

This is a vigilance ritual from an ancient tribe that protects them at this moment.

"Fewer than we thought," said Cindo, fanning himself from the heat, "but there were some people."

Eric Collens was standing at the entrance of the trade fair's underpass, pretending that he was flipping through a document and occasionally writing a few words.In fact, he was looking at an eight-petal rose paper.

When maliciousness appears, Qin Duo will remind him through the eight-petal rose paper, and he will pay attention to the people who come to the underground passage at this time.In this way, they have secretly noticed the movement of those people.

"Not surprisingly, they all went to the booth of the metal blade." Qin Duo's tone carried a slow, slightly mocking smile.

Today is the last day of the Ernestine Fair, so this booth released [-] more reservations, and the delivery service will be completed within the next two days.Although it was sold out quickly in the morning, it also attracted the attention of many people.

However, it seems very strange that those with malicious intentions are also focusing on this.

"Are they planning to be angry with our business?" Qin Duo said jokingly, "That's why they deliberately want to make trouble today?"

"Perhaps," said Siles, "at least they've noticed the presence of the metal blades."

This ritual to improve the quality of life may still be expensive and may not be convenient for ordinary people, but it is indeed a real "cool breeze in summer".

That can give people a pleasant experience, and this kind of happiness is naturally more acceptable to ordinary people than the so-called "revelator's murderous intention".

People might read a lot about theater district murders in the newspapers, and they'd be amazed or panicked, but, after all, it sounded like far-off murders, not really engaging.

The appearance of metal blades has actually changed their lives.

In the past week, through the trade fair's booth, Siles sold half-sold and half-given, and sent out nearly a thousand metal blades in total.And these metal blades naturally brought a very shocking experience to the residents of Lamifa City.

Siles had even seen reports about it in the newspapers—in newspapers that were thoroughly aimed at ordinary people.People always mention the cool breeze of the metal blades when referring to the hot weather in Ramifa City this year.

...Of course, the Shadow Believers are probably out of anger.

A very interesting point is that not all followers of the old gods are clearly opposed to Anti-Nam. They may hate Anti-Nam, but they are more concerned about the possibility of resurrecting the old gods.

However, the shadow believers always seem to make some conspiratorial plans related to the church of the past and Antinam.

From the incident of the apostate Hamlin last year, to this year's incident of mocking the church in the past through the murder of the Theater District-after all, it is indeed a bit shocking that the family of the deceased Allen actually believed in Antinam devoutly. Surprising - it all proves it.

...People know that Anti-Nam is the only god in this world, but no one knows the existence of "Shadow", and even the Shadow Period named after it has disappeared without a trace in human history.

For shadow believers, they might be quite annoyed with Anti-Nam.

Even, they resented the power of the revealer.

...but they never seem to get any power from the Shadow.This is a rather unspoken fact.

Many people obtained power from Antinam Fisher, but stood against this god because of various complicated reasons.

There are also many people who have never obtained any power from Anti-Nam, but still simply maintain respect and friendship with this god, just because of their behavior of protecting human civilization.

Perhaps humans themselves are such contradictory creatures.

And they are also one of them, and they will guard their own group.

…Siles and Cindo arrived at the Ernestine Fair at around two o'clock in the afternoon.

On the way, they are still paying attention to those people with malicious intentions.Eric kept them up-to-date with the eight-petal rose paper, especially about those people.

The situation made Celes feel a subtle trance.

When he first came to this world, he was helpless because of the backward communication methods of this era, but now things are completely different.They can understand what is happening far away in real time.

...it's a very back-to-Earth feeling.

also……

"and many more."

When he got off the carriage and was about to walk towards the entrance of the Ernestine Fair, Siles suddenly grabbed Cendo.

"What's the matter?" Qin Duo asked with some doubts, "Shouldn't we hurry up and catch them all?"

Siles looked at the entrance of the trade fair from afar.It was still some distance away from them, because there were always people coming and going at the entrance, so it was not easy for the carriage to stop at the entrance, so they got off the carriage at the corner of the road.

After the fair's location, the entrance has of course also been renovated to a certain extent.The originally narrow and gloomy entrance has become much more spacious and bright... like an open mouth, waiting for their entry.

"...No." Siles said, "Wait a minute. Let's go to the tavern."

Qin Duo didn't quite understand why Siles made such a choice, but he didn't ask any more questions for the time being, but obediently followed Siles and left.Of course, after going to the tavern, Qin Duo immediately asked: "Did you find something wrong?"

"You could say the same thing," said Siles. "Don't you think we're gathering information too quickly?"

Qin Duo couldn't help being startled.

"The [Invisible Pen] ceremony is quite powerful." Siles said objectively.

But in fact, he also knew that his concept from his home planet—pursuing the timeliness of information—also played the role of this ritual to the greatest extent.

In this day and age, people actually don't have this concept.

Darrell Hobbs had been quite genuine in his reaction when he had mentioned the ceremony to his companions at 18 Howesville Street.The first thing he thought of was that this ritual could be used to solve his copying assignment.

No one thought that this ritual could be used to "exchange information in real time", and people don't have this need yet.They can't imagine the kind of information flying all over the sky, even dazzling scenes.

...Of course, Siles' request for this ceremony is to be able to transmit information, and the [Invisible Pen] ceremony also achieved this purpose by accident.His companions therefore accepted the statement as a matter of course.

Therefore, he has not been aware of a problem for a long time: this efficiency of transmitting information may make other people, especially their enemies, aware of the strangeness.

Taking the situation they are facing now, it is normal to be aware of the existence of these enemies (considering Qin Duo's strength), but in the process of capturing or even killing these enemies, how do they pass on information?

A more obvious example is, after the attempted murder at the trade fair, how did Qin Duo rush to the trade fair in such a short time?

How did he know that there was an accident here?

...For shadow believers, Siles is simply "with the help of a god", smashing their plots like a bamboo shoot, and even grasping a lot of information.

From the perspective of shadow believers, they intend to paint different paintings, intending to provoke the relationship between ordinary people and revelators.However, these two plans were all blocked by Siles.

The attempted murder on the Fair's side might as well have relied on Mr. Detective's astuteness, but the latter plan hadn't even been fully developed—the papers hadn't even begun to suggest that the murder had something to do with the Revelation—it was aborted. up.

The Shadow Believers are probably in shock, completely unaware of how their thoughts were discovered.

...Just like, on the day when Siles and Cindo went to the Lancelot Theatre, Cindo found the peepers outside the window.The opponent's eyes were stabbed by thorns, and he didn't even understand what happened.

At that time, the shadow believers chose to destroy these eyes, and now, they may also choose to do so-those malicious people, are they really trying to make trouble at the trade fair?Or is it to test the methods of Siles?

…When the speed of information transmission is fast enough, or too fast, people who have grasped the information in advance may be regarded as... "prophets" by people who don't know why.

Siles was lost in thought.

The reason why he had this feeling was, in the final analysis, because everything seemed to be going quite smoothly on this day.

Jon is already guarding the museum, and they already know that the target of the Shadow Believers is the painting of the painter Leon; the problem of La Mifa University has also been resolved, and two crazy painters were taken away by the Church of the Past.

As for the Ernestine Trade Fair, they have already locked the location of those suspicious people and can capture them at any time.

As for the auction of the Graves family assets at night, they have already grasped enough clues. At most, they just don't know what the shadow believers are going to do, and they can adapt to the situation when the time comes.

...sounds like no problem, does it?

It is because their information transmission efficiency has far exceeded the limit of this world.

Generally speaking, the transmission of information in this world needs to rely on letters.

And the efficiency of the letter... Referring to his experience in the past year, and the fact that the letter he wrote to the publisher Benton some time ago has not yet received a reply, it can be found that the timeliness is really not very good.

Not generally speaking, some people can also rely on the power of the gods to transmit messages.For example, what he did in the deep sea dream.However, this problem is also the same, human beings' ability to bear determines that they cannot use this power "at any time".

But [Invisible Pen] is different.This is a ritual that can be used at any time. At most, the ritual of "self-reappearance" is needed to ensure sanity, which was also invented by Siles.

... This is a force that destroys everything.

On August 8th, Ebenezer Const arrived in Ramifa City.

And today is August 8th.Only 17 days have passed.

This cannot be said to be a very long time for Siles or the Shadow Believers.But Siles "accidentally" collected too much information.

On the one hand, he is familiar with the city, on the other hand, the speed of information transmission is incredible.

For a long time, Siles has been thinking about what the Shadow Believers are going to do.The strange thing is, hasn't he already investigated it clearly in these 12 days?

...He even has to worry, don't scare away the shadow believers at this speed.

Siles couldn't help pinching the bridge of his nose with some headaches, and he said to Cendo: "How do you think we have progressed in the past period of time?"

Qin Duo blinked and said, "Very good."

"Then will the shadow believers think that we are doing a good job?" Siles asked, and then he answered the question himself, "Of course, although their ideas are just the opposite of ours. They will think, too bad - inexplicable bad.

"We have blocked almost all their roads, except for the successful murder in the theater district. Afterwards, from the trade fair to the University of Ramifa, they all failed. If the actions of the museum and auction later One defeat, they feel incredible."

"...But, we can't let them go." Qin Duo said.

"Yes." Siles murmured in a low voice, "It's just that...the most important problem is that we haven't found their hiding place."

If they find it, they can now be aggressive and bold.

However, it was precisely because the group of shadow believers had a retreat—if the operation failed again, the group of shadow believers could sneak out of Ramifa City—that's why Siles was worried.

Of course he hoped to wipe out this group of shadow believers.Anyone who slips through the net is not safe for future development.But precisely because of this, they can't startle the snake.

After all, relying on the efficiency of information transmission, they can crush this group of shadow believers.They can completely prevent each other's actions.

Even if there are any omissions, Siles can go to the long river of history to find out... Although it may be quite dangerous, it is also a way.

... Siles finally realized that when they understood the actions of the shadow believers, their goals changed naturally.One problem has been solved, they need to solve the next problem.

The key question now is that they need to find the hiding place of this group of shadow believers.They have to "catch the turtle in the urn".

Cendo twisted his fingers around his braids, he thought for a while, and then said, "You mean, we already have a lot of information, which is our advantage.

"And if our actions today are too radical, making the shadow believers realize that we have so much information, it will turn the advantage into a disadvantage. Maybe the shadow believers will want to back down instead, and the loss outweighs the gain.

"After all we don't know where they're hiding, which is a real problem.

"...So, now we have to strike a good balance, to prevent the actions of the shadow believers, but also not let them find out that we already know so much...Is that so?"

Siles nodded, and he said: "In addition to the possibility of retreating, they may also choose to slaughter wildly and recklessly, or pollute. I don't want the situation to go to these two extremes."

Qin Duo frowned, and he asked, "Are we going to tie our hands and feet instead?"

He obviously didn't like this approach.

They already know many practices and plans of this group of shadow believers, including thirteen paintings, including the possibility of poisoning.However, in order not to startle the enemy, do they have to watch the shadow believers carry out these plots?

"No." Siles said, "It's just that we can't take any action on the trade fair side for the time being."

Qin Duo was taken aback.

"They're looking at the Metal Blade booth, right?" Siles asked.

"...Yes." Cindo said, he didn't quite understand...Of course this wasn't the first time he couldn't keep up with Siles' train of thought.So he calmed down and just listened carefully to Sirius' words.

"Why do you think they care about metal blades?"

"It's because they want revenge, and they think we're trying to stop them..." The words were quite convoluted, but halfway through, Qin Duo suddenly realized.He stopped there with a thoughtful expression.

"'They think us'." Siles still said in that calm and calm tone, "What if they want us to think so? What if they are testing our purpose instead?"

From Siles' point of view, he let the metal blades be rolled out for trial at this point in time, indeed to deal with the conspiracy of the shadow believers to sow discord.

But standing on the side of shadow believers, they will wonder, is this really the case?

After all, the Ernestine Fair was going on.From the perspective of shadow believers, they would doubt whether Sires simply wanted to take advantage of this trade fair to promote his subject products, or did he really want to deal with them?

How can they be so sure?

The key issue is that if Siles wants to know the conspiracy of the shadow believers, he needs several prerequisites: two murders happened 34 years ago and not long ago