Leaving Lebius’s office, Bologue and Palr rested for a while in the activity room. The snow outside was heavy, and conditions inside the Great Rift would only be worse. They planned to wait for the snow to stop before heading out.
"What do you have in that box?"
Palr noticed Bologue had brought a box to work. Ever since Bologue acquired the Deceitful Snake Scale Liquid, he had an endless supply of steel to utilize, and he rarely carried a bunch of weapons with him anymore.
Being fully ard felt good, but over ti, it inevitably seed cumberso.
"Just so daily necessities."
"Huh? Are you planning to stay long at the outpost?" Palr asked.
"Not sure, just preparing in advance. The weather’s horrible. If possible, I don’t want to experience this awful commute again," Bologue said.
The wind today was so strong that Bologue truly felt the hardship of going to work.
Palr’s gaze revealed suspicion. From Bologue’s previous words, it seed more like he was preparing to wait for the opportune mont in the outpost hut, gathering strength.
"But... the mission..." Bologue murmured.
He fiddled with the black key in his hand. From now on, Bologue would keep this key close, with an underlying tension in his heart. It was like a silent bomb, ready to explode at any mont.
"Feeling pressured?" Palr noticed the doubt in Bologue’s eyes.
"A bit... I love the feeling of controlling the whole field, but this mission is shrouded in uncertainty. I don’t even know where we’ll act, nor do we have a concrete image of the enemy we’ll face."
Bologue’s tone carried a hint of threat as he spoke to Palr. "Imagine, Palr, you open a door and find yourself in an unknown land, surrounded by a group of fully-ard Negative Power Users."
"Alright, stop, I’m feeling the pressure now." Palr imdiately felt a headache.
The two had to delve into the heartlands, but what lay there was unknown. Lebius understood this, so their primary task was to send signals, expose the location of the gathering, and, before the Sixth Group arrived, cause as much damage to the Void Realm as possible to facilitate the invasion.
"If we’re lucky, we might be able to complete the mission without conflict," Bologue pondered. "Until we’re exposed, we’re just a group of custors here to buy goods."
"Lucky? I don’t think so."
Palr really couldn’t trust his luck, and with a pleading look in his eyes, he asked Bologue, "Do you have any plans, expert?"
Bologue looked into Palr’s eyes, saying nothing, but smiled aningfully, a smile that sent a chill down Palr’s spine.
"Speaking of, Palr, as an ancient Extraordinary Clan, your family should know many secrets, right?" Bologue asked.
"Don’t think about it, there’s nothing to say."
Palr crossed his arms and suddenly beca firm again, then he deflated, "The secrets are guarded by the old folks. I’m the successor but haven’t taken over yet, right?"
Palr knew exactly what Bologue wanted to ask. His partner rarely showed interest in certain matters, but once he did, he would beco particularly invested, like slaughtering enemies or exploring his own secrets.
Since knowing Bologue’s fate, the two debtors often talked about these matters. Palr was quite free about it; he didn’t care about bad luck or complete denial of the soul. If it could help him avoid that blood-colored nightmare, Palr didn’t mind maintaining the status quo until death.
On this point, he was just like Bologue. Since becoming a debtor, Palr had never interacted with the Crimson Queen again. He was terrified of that existence.
Palr said that sotis he would hear strange whispers, but drinking a little alcohol helped him sleep through it. This guy’s slight penchant for alcohol was sowhat related to this.
Bologue was envious of Palr in a way. He wanted to communicate with his own Devil but didn’t even know where it was or who it was.
"What’s with what Geoffrey said?" Bologue and Palr chatted about other topics to pass the ti.
"What do you an?"
"What does ’co to the platform’ an?" Bologue asked with curiosity.
Sotis Bologue felt a strange sense of disparity. He had beco a field staff for the Order Bureau, the top enforcer of this vast violent organization, fighting on secret battlefields invisible to ordinary people.
He had learned secrets that ordinary people couldn’t comprehend in their lifeti. But when truly imrsed in it, he felt his own ignorance. Despite knowing so much, he still felt incredibly small in this Extraordinary World.
Palr fell silent, his rarely serious face appeared, followed by a helpless sigh.
"Well... this counts as black history for our Extraordinary Clans."
"What black history?"
"Bologue, do you think we’re still ordinary people?" Palr asked in return.
"Not really."
Bologue considered carefully before replying.
According to the Golden Thesis, in a sense, Condensers are no longer considered humans. They are beings that have evolved from humans into entities that resemble but are internally superior to humans.
Even without considering this point, the indicators of a Condenser far surpass those of ordinary humans.
"Hundreds of years ago, humans divided into commoners and nobles, but this distinction was rely in terms of power and wealth. Anyone stabbed with a knife would die just the sa, but Condensers are different..."
Before Palr could finish, Bologue had already figured out what kind of story was unfolding. He spoke, "Is that so?"
"This was a conflict from many years ago, which I only learned about during my studies of history. So Extraordinary Clans felt they were above humans, like shepherds leading a flock, and aggressively wanted to control everything," Palr said, recalling Serey. "This is just like the Night Race—they wanted to create an Undead Empire, while these people wanted to create an Empire of Condensers."
"Looks like they failed."
Bologue said, the outco was evident. In today’s world, Condensers hide in the shadows, controlled by the vast entity known as the Order Bureau.
"Yes, this happened after the Dawn War. The Night Race was dealt with, and so people wanted to replace them. After another war, the radicals were buried while the victors continued to develop. Later, under the operations of the Rhine Alliance, they united to form the Order Bureau."
Hearing Palr’s words, Bologue was slightly surprised. He considered this the predecessor of the Order Bureau.
"For this reason, our collective consciousness chooses to hide, which is why Geoffrey often warns with this." Thinking of this made Palr a bit headache.
"What about those who were defeated? Were they hunted down and exterminated?" Bologue asked.
"No, the conflict between us was not as irreconcilable as with the Night Race... After all, Night Race mbers are all Undead; they can completely hide sowhere for hundreds of years, then co out to wreak havoc again," Palr explained.
"A pact was made between the two sides to hide together in the normal world, but inevitably, ti and conflicts have caused the division to grow larger until there is no contact."
At this mont, Palr rembered sothing and said to Bologue, "Rember? The Order Bureau didn’t unite all the Extraordinary Organizations within the Rhine Alliance."
"Those who weren’t united are the defeated and the neutrals, right?" Bologue said.
"That’s right. As for what those guys are doing now, I’m not sure. After being defeated, these people who wanted to rise to prominence went against their nature and instead secluded themselves. If it weren’t ntioned, I would have almost forgotten them."
Palr recalled carefully, most of his knowledge about them was learned from his family’s teachings.
"Aside from so annual exchange banquets, I almost never encountered those people elsewhere, not to ntion the Order Bureau."
Palr paused, then added again.
"All Secrets Order."
"What?"
As Palr spoke of history, a foreign term suddenly popped out midway, leaving Bologue confused.
"Their na, ever since the birth of the Order Bureau, these scattered ones began to band together and keep warm, they called their union ’All Secrets Order,’" Palr explained.
"Are they enemies?" Bologue was quite concerned about this matter.
"Not... at least not now," Palr said, "but if we defeat the King’s Secret Sword one day, then that could be uncertain."
Under pressure from the Night Race, the Extraordinary Organizations banded together. But after the Night Race was destroyed, so rushed to replace them, and it is still the sa today, with the Kagader Empire eyeing from the south and pressure from the King’s Secret Sword, forcing the Extraordinary Organizations of the Rhine Alliance to unite. Even amidst differences, until a formidable enemy is eradicated, everyone will join forces hypocritically.
"All Secrets Order..."
Bologue softly whispered.
The silence between them didn’t last long before Palr continued, "Bologue, since you got out of prison, you haven’t been anywhere else, have you?"
"No, I’ve been here in Opus ever since I got out," Bologue said, "Why?"
"Do you have any thoughts about traveling?" Palr said.
"Travel?"
"I might go ho for a while, want to join ?" Palr talked about his future plans, "Since I left ho, I haven’t been back, it’s about ti to go once."
"Why take along?"
Bologue was suspicious, but deep down, he was quite interested in the Wind Source Highlands and even more intrigued by Palr’s family.
"Well..."
Palr was montarily at a loss for words, his expression complex.
"We’ll share the blessings since we’re partners, right?"
Bologue felt that things weren’t so simple, yet Palr gave a familiar chuckle, stood up, and tidied his clothes.
"Let’s go, the snow should have lessened."
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