The person who manages the archives is an elderly priest with a stooped waist and messy white hair. He wears a complex lens set on his head made of brass cranks and crystal lenses, and his body still exudes engine oil.
the taste of.
The old priest was sitting behind a dark circular table, using a lens set to study attentively a mechanical creation that looked like a Rubik's Cube. With the help of some exquisite tools, he dismantled the Rubik's Cube into a bunch of parts.
The light of the lamp shines on those parts, making them shine.
When Vanna came closer, her tall body blocked the light next to her. The old priest raised his head, removed the lens in front of his eyes with his fingers, and smiled after seeing the person clearly: "Oh, it's Your Excellency the Inquisitor——
What help do you need today?"
"Excuse me, where are the records of various disasters and accidents in the city-state around 1889?" Fanna nodded to the old priest and asked.
"Disaster record in 1889?" The old priest muttered and knocked on a tabletop on the large circular table. A slight mechanical friction sound was immediately heard from under the tabletop, and then a table board moved downwards, and a piece of paper spread all over the table.
Many cranks, digital discs and mechanical platforms for paddles rose up from inside.
Accompanied by the squeaking sound of mechanical operation, the old priest began to operate this exquisite machine with the help of those paddles and digital discs. After inputting the necessary information, Vanna heard the unique low sound of large machinery operating.
Roaring, she felt the floor beneath her feet vibrate slightly, and countless gears and connecting rods were running happily driven by the steam core. Then, she heard a crisp "ding" from the mechanical device in front of the old priest.
"With a sound, a printed paper tape was spit out from the machine.
"Going forward from this road, turn left on the third row of bookshelves. Turn right at the end. One bookshelf has been lit up. The row with lights on is there. The content is very complicated. All events that can be called disasters are recorded in
If you need help, ring the bell if you need help."
As the old priest spoke, he handed over the note - he was holding the note with a prosthetic hand. The brass palm and forearm had a delicate mechanical structure, and there was a transparent window on the back of his hand.
, you can also see the gear set ticking inside.
Vanna thought that this might be a veteran guard who had retired from the front line - such veterans were not uncommon in the civilian department of the Church of Storms.
Their bodies have been damaged, and they have proved their faith and loyalty with blood and sacrifice. With the assistance of steam engines or magical prosthetics, they can continue to serve the Holy See, and various positions dealing with archives are the final destination for some of these veterans.
destination.
In a sense, this is of course preferential treatment for soldiers. The relatively free and well-off archives department is suitable for "retirement". From another perspective, this is actually an excellent "application according to talents" - these veterans
Their bodies may no longer be suitable to continue fighting against heretics, but their will is still strong, and the work of guarding books and archives... has always required a strong will.
A trace of respect appeared in Fanna's heart. She took the piece of paper with both hands and lowered her head slightly: "Thank you."
"After reading, remember to put away the books and don't touch the books that are not in the catalog." The old priest waved his hand, "There are many books here that have been there for a long time. Don't disturb them casually."
After saying that, he returned to his "work" and ignored Vanna.
Fanna didn't pay attention. She just took the paper tape with the book list and walked towards the depths of the archives. The bookshelves that were so tall that they could be described as "magnificent" were neatly arranged on both sides of her, connected one by one to the top.
The dome is like a queue of ancient guards, looking down at the small figure below. Bright electric lights and precisely calculated gas lamps are alternately arranged between the bookshelves, making this place brightly lit, even the deepest and deepest bookshelf.
There is no shadow of darkness left in between.
Vanna found the bookshelf that the old priest mentioned - a row of small light bulbs lit up on the bookshelf, indicating the files that she could read.
The files were not placed low, but fortunately Vanna was tall and she could take down the books without using a ladder, which made her relieved.
Pushing a ladder around in such a huge library is no easy task.
She took a deep breath, found the starting point of the file on the bookshelf, pulled out the numbered file, and started flipping through it quickly.
What she was looking for was very simple, that was the fire eleven years ago, or the fire that was packaged as a factory leak.
In fact, this is not the first time she has investigated this matter - as a judge, she is already very sensitive to all "unusual phenomena", including what happened to herself. After knowing
After she was the only one who remembered the fire in her childhood, she privately investigated some information from that year, but those superficial investigations yielded little results.
At that time, she quickly put the matter behind her.
Because no matter what, she was only twelve years old when she encountered that accident. She was neither a believer of the goddess nor had any outstanding mind. It was not a big deal for a child who was panicked and inhaled poisonous smoke to have some wrong memories.
It was impossible. She really didn't need to get too involved in this matter, so after checking some public files, she put it down.
But now, she suddenly discovered that there were still people in the city-state of Puland who had experienced the fire in her memory.
Doubts and countless speculations that had been put in the back of her mind suddenly came to mind, and her "professional vigilance" as a judge was buzzing crazily in her mind.
It was precisely because of this professional vigilance that she rejected Heidi's suggestion to "go back to the antique shop" at that time, and waited quietly until today, and went directly to the archives, which was favored by the goddess, to investigate those items that were not open to the public.
original data.
The reason is simple. There is an air of danger in this matter - erasing a fire sounds easy, but in fact it involves the cognition and memory of thousands of people, and this incident also involves a large number of cultists.
In the sabotage activities back then, if all this was really done by a "mastermind", then this mastermind would never sit back and let anyone discover the truth.
The remaining memories in my mind, the remaining memories in the mind of the girl named Nina... These "residues" are most likely the omissions of the mastermind behind the scenes. The "person" hidden behind the scenes may not have discovered these omissions yet.
, but if he finds out... he is not afraid. Nina, her uncle, and the girl named Shirley are all ordinary people.
So she rejected Heidi's suggestion at that time, and asked Heidi not to mention this matter again in the future - on the one hand, she didn't want to alert the snake and wanted to conduct the investigation in secret; on the other hand, she wanted to avoid
Injuring innocent people.
Before you have certain information, you must not show any more attention than necessary to that antique shop.
Slowly flipping through the files in her hands, Fanna's mood kept rising and falling.
For some reason, when she noticed a shadow, she had the illusion that she was being watched and watched from everywhere. The terrible feeling of being watched in the dark was like a ray of light on her back, which made her feel a little irritated.
She put down the file and picked up the other one next to it.
At the same time, she was also thinking about what happened in the city-state recently.
Currently, many of the Sun Heretics operating in the city have been arrested. It seems that the city-state's resolute actions have effectively deterred those heretics, or it may be that all the channels through which they have penetrated have been destroyed. In short, the number of Sun Heretics in the city has been greatly reduced.
The number of heretics in the underground prisons of various cathedrals has been reduced, and the heretics prisons under various cathedrals are full to capacity.
The purpose of those solar heretics operating in the city-state has long been discovered.
Looking for the "solar fragments" that briefly appeared eleven years ago and may still be hidden somewhere.
Sun fragments...the fire eleven years ago...
The "phantom" Heidi had glimpsed in the museum before.
Vanna's hand stopped while flipping through the files, and some clues that had not attracted enough attention to her before suddenly connected together, and became more and more prominent as she began to look at the fire in her memory again.
"There is a connection behind these events... The fire eleven years ago is definitely real..." The young judge took a breath, and at the same time, her eyes inadvertently glanced at some of the records in the file.
Word:
"...On X month, X, in XX block, a vicious heretical worship incident occurred. Three residents built altars at home, sacrificed blood and prayed to some evil object that had never appeared in the records, causing panic and panic among a large number of nearby residents.
After a nightmare, the sacrifice ceremony was reported and destroyed, but the clues left at the scene could not point to any known evil god or evil spirit...
"Theoretically, the sacrificial ceremony is unlikely to have any effect. It should be a blind attempt by ignorant fools for their own selfish desires. However, local residents' mass panic and nightmares did occur. Follow-up investigations confirmed that the area was indeed subjected to supernatural attacks at that time.