Unable to use Beyonder means to determine if I'm lying—.
Lorne frowned slightly, and the Robot's abilities began to operate at high speed.
His fingers subtly curled within his sleeve, twisting out the ring he had kept hidden there, then silently slipping it onto his finger. He needed the passive effect of "Forced Calm."
Lorne wasn't sure if she had noticed his small movement, but since she didn't stop him, it might indicate a certain attitude.
"Madam," Lorne broke the stifling silence, "Emperor Rosell—is he really dead?"
The moment the words left his mouth, he felt the oppressive aura from the opposite side.
"Why do you think he isn't dead? What do you know?"
Bernadette's tone showed a clear fluctuation for the first time. It was evident that when it came to her father, even this mysterious and powerful Queen Mystic couldn't maintain complete detachment.
"No," Lorne met her suddenly sharp gaze, stating calmly, "I simply believe that a formidable figure like Emperor Rosell wouldn't fall so easily. This is my honest opinion."
Meeting Lorne's candid eyes, Bernadette lowered her head, offering no comment.
If Rosell had only disappeared, Lorne would have assumed that this senior might have found the secret of Time travel and successfully returned, and his so-called "death" might just be a trick to escape.
However, judging by the chaos and power shifts in Intis after his death, this possibility was unlikely. Given Rosell's character, if he could truly return, he would never leave things messy behind him. "Madam, what exactly do you want from me?" Lorne threw the question back.
"Everything about Emperor Rosell." Bernadette's tone returned to calm. "Also, I hope you can share with me the method for deciphering the script Emperor Rosell created himself. Name your price."
So confident? The Queen Mystic is a Pirate King with a bounty of hundreds of thousands of pounds; money is probably just a number to her. But—
Just as Lorne was pondering how to respond, an invisible force suddenly descended. The ancient coin pendant on his neck abruptly flew out from his collar, as if dragged by an unseen hand, landing in Bernadette's fair, jade-like palm.
This—is this a display of power to me—?
"A Mystical Item corresponding to the Winner Pathway." Bernadette merely glanced casually at the pendant in her hand before accurately stating its origin.
She looked up at Lorne and offered her bargaining chip:
"I can tell you the subsequent formulas for the 'Fate' Pathway."
"All of them?" Lorne asked tentatively, his heart involuntarily speeding up.
"All of them. As long as you tell me everything you know."
—Lorne fell into a long silence. All the formulas! From Sequence 4 to Sequence 0! That was truly priceless—.
"You've heard of the Blasphemy Slate, haven't you?" Seeing Lorne remain silent, Bernadette threw another bombshell.
"You have—a Blasphemy Slate for the 'Fate' Pathway?" Lorne's voice was a little dry.
"Mhm." Bernadette nodded lightly.
"Phew—" Lorne took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
"Madam, I admit, I do have a channel to decipher rosell's diary. But this—is related to a huge secret I carry."
"This secret is very troublesome. Believe me, there are some things I truly cannot say. Otherwise, we will all be finished."
Meeting Bernadette's scrutinizing gaze, he said word for word: "Even if you torture me, interrogate me, what cannot be said still cannot be said. Because once it's spoken, we can only, together, even drag all of Backlund, into destruction."
Lorne was bluffing, but what he said wasn't entirely a lie. The secret he carried was indeed terrifying.
The Queen Mystic before him was indeed formidable, but Lorne believed she was definitely not as powerful as the giant hand he encountered at sea, nor as powerful as the terrifying lightning that instantly repelled that giant hand—and he could attract that terrifying lightning by howling at the sky.
Although the probability was low, to some extent, he did possess the ability to go for broke.
—Bernadette's eyes narrowed slightly. She could feel that the man before her wasn't simply lying. Moreover, she had been trying to glimpse his fate and secrets, but until now, her Beyonder abilities hadn't yielded any useful information from him.
As the leader of a secret organization, she knew very well that there was much knowledge in this world where merely thinking about it or mentioning it would bring great danger. He probably truly had some unspeakable reason.
"What are your demands?" Bernadette asked in a low voice, her tone less demanding and more scrutinizing and negotiating.
Lorne secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He knew he had bluffed her, at least temporarily bringing the situation back to a level where he could bargain.
"I don't know the meaning of Rosell's script," he began to present his proposal, "but I can, through my channels, help you translate rosell's diary—"
She cared so much about Rosell but didn't understand the meaning of Chinese. From this perspective, the reason she knew the diaries he had fabricated earlier were fake was only because those fabricated diaries had never appeared in history, not because she could read Chinese.
It seemed that only a transmigrator could truly understand rosell's diary.
Therefore, rosell's diary was an absolute seller's market for Lorne. Selling all the information at once would only rapidly decrease his value. A steady flow was the wisest choice.
"As for the remuneration," Lorne proactively made a concession, showing his sincerity, "how about we determine it based on the value you perceive in the diary?"
If the Queen Mystic could provide some rosell's diary entries containing high-value information, he could also gain related hidden knowledge for free, so there was no need to ask for an exorbitant price from the start and cause her displeasure.
====
"Alright."
After a long silence, Bernadette nodded in agreement.
Having pursued her father's secrets for so many years, and finally having a clear clue, she didn't want this clue to be cut off due to her excessive coercion.
A step back for both sides was good.
"You should know that this item corresponds to Sequence 5 of the 'Fate' Pathway, the Winner, right?" Bernadette asked, picking up the pendant.
"Mhm." Lorne nodded.
"Do you have a way to restore it to a Beyonder characteristic?"
"Yes," Bernadette's tone was calm and unwavering, "and, as a welcome gift for our cooperation, I can help you once for free."
"Now?" "No, I need to take it with me."
Directly restoring a Mystical Item to a Beyonder characteristic was something only Angels could do. Although she was powerful, she hadn't reached that level yet and could only achieve it with the power of a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact.
"Alright then—"
"You seem to trust me a lot?" Bernadette asked, surprised by his straightforwardness.
"Of course, I trust your character." Lorne forced a smile.
If you wanted to just snatch it, I couldn't stop you anyway. I'll just consider today my unlucky day and that I lost it, he grumbled inwardly.
"I seemed to hear you complaining about being unlucky recently?" Bernadette suddenly asked.
"Yes." Lorne didn't deny it. If he wasn't unlucky, he wouldn't have met her here.
Contact with the Queen Mystic, in Lorne's opinion, definitely had risks far outweighing the benefits. He had the Tyrant card himself, and he could figure out how to get the subsequent formulas with effort, so there was no need to take such a huge risk.
And now, he was being targeted by an even larger force, which was completely contrary to his long-standing approach of developing discreetly.
Since his transmigration, he had always tried to avoid various risks, but risks always seemed to find him.
"Have you finished digesting your Sequence 6?"
"Mhm—"
"This might—be an opportunity." Bernadette said to herself. She knew all the details of the 'Fate' Pathway's advancement ritual, and Lorne's current state of continuous "bad luck" might actually be a rare opportunity for him—.
However, was his bad luck due to a woman?
Bernadette thought of Fors, who had been with Lorne at the museum earlier.
She put away the pendant, staring at Lorne thoughtfully.
—Lorne felt a shiver run down his spine under her scrutinizing gaze.
Doesn't quite look like it—Bernadette commented inwardly.
"After I've processed the pendant, I'll come back to you. And I'll also give you some of rosell's diary entries—"
"Okay."
After she finished speaking, an illusory, seemingly living pea vine suddenly descended from the sky and came to Bernadette's feet. She stepped onto the vine, preparing to leave.
"Oh, right," she seemed to remember something else, turning back to explain, "Cattelya didn't betray you. That letter contains the answer to your previous question."
—
"You don't believe me?" Bernadette asked, seeing his silence.
"Do you want to hear the truth?"
"Mhm."
Phew—Lorne took a deep breath and said in an unprecedentedly calm tone: "If Cattelya thought this transaction was beneficial to me, she should have written to ask me first if I was willing to meet you. If I agreed, then arrange the meeting. Instead of, like now, directly telling you my location and letting you come block me on the street."
"Without my consent, to expose my location and put me in such a passive situation, if this isn't betrayal, then what is it?"
"You are pirates; you should be clearer than I am about the consequences of exposing your location."
—Bernadette fell into a long silence.
His logic was flawless. Ultimately, it was because she was too eager to meet this person connected to her father, which led to this misunderstanding.
From his perspective, he was betrayed, his identity and location exposed, and his desired hidden secrets revealed face-to-face. Undoubtedly, he was a complete victim.
Thinking of Cattelya's unrequited crush, Bernadette suddenly felt that she might have done something wrong.
Her actions seemed to have infinitely lowered Cattelya's favorability in his eyes.