"One was the Gospel that founded the Evangelical Church. The other was the Revelation that gave birth to the Demon-Hunting Order."
Inside the study, Arthur lowered his gaze to the words written across the page. The information had come from Lloyd, though the man was, at the end of the day, only a demon hunter. Even as a member of the Metatron faction, he was little more than a watchman standing guard. The truly classified truths lay far beyond his reach. Yet even these fragments were enough for Arthur to discern the outline hidden beneath the countless mysteries.
A brief silence lingered.
Arthur's eyes settled heavily upon a single word.
The North.
What existed in the North?
Vikings. Frozen seas. Endless winds. Polar nights and midnight suns.
To ordinary people, that was all there was—a forbidden land where life itself struggled to survive, a place only the fearless or the desperate would willingly enter.
But Arthur knew better.
He knew exactly what waited there.
The ascetics known as the Secret Keepers.
What surprised him was not their presence, but the possibility that the origins of the Evangelical Church might also trace back to those frozen lands.
After a long moment of contemplation, he abandoned the thought entirely. Anything involving the Secret Keepers inevitably became impossibly complicated. The Purification Agency's last contact with them had been years ago, when Merlin personally journeyed north. The Secret Keepers had refused to see him, and the unfortunate alchemist had nearly frozen to death upon the ice fields.
Arthur rubbed his temples with a weary sigh.
"A single book," he muttered. "Honestly, hiding one book across a continent this vast is the easiest thing in the world."
Ever since Lawrence's death, the Purification Agency's highest priority had been locating the Revelation. Yet they had found nothing. As time passed, the delegation from Florence, Cardinal Michael's flight from the Church, and countless other incidents all seemed to point toward the same object.
A book no one had ever laid eyes upon.
And yet it had somehow become the center of the storm.
"You look like you need some rest."
Blue Emerald approached from the side and placed a cup of tea before him.
After Lawrence's first appearance, everyone had finally understood the horrifying combat potential of demon hunters. They were strategic weapons capable of walking on their own two feet. Assassinating important targets was effortless for them. Since then, Arthur had assigned bodyguards to every major figure within the Agency.
Against a demon hunter, such protection remained painfully inadequate.
Still, it offered at least the illusion of safety.
This rotation happened to be Blue Emerald's turn. Yet rather than serving as Arthur's protector, she often felt more like his caretaker.
"Oh, you're far too thoughtful!"
Arthur accepted the tea with exaggerated gratitude.
Blue Emerald's words carried concern, but her expression remained utterly indifferent. According to her own career plans, she should have already seduced some wealthy magnate to death, inherited his fortune, and spent her days sunbathing on a distant beach.
Instead, she was stuck here taking care of Arthur.
"Ah, the company of a lady makes time pass so quickly."
Arthur glanced at the clock. Eve should be getting off work soon.
"I find every minute painfully long," Blue Emerald replied flatly.
The remark left Arthur visibly embarrassed.
"Come on now. You're making me sound like an unbearable boss."
"Aren't you?"
Unlike most people around him, Blue Emerald hadn't followed Arthur willingly. She had been dragged aboard midway through life. Refuse to work for him, and prison would have been her destination.
"Do you really need protection anyway? You're the famous Captain of Ingelvig, aren't you?"
She showed absolutely no restraint around him.
Still, despite her sharp tongue, every task Arthur assigned was carried out with ruthless efficiency.
As one of the products of the Ranger Program, Arthur possessed physical capabilities that could be described as a diminished version of a demon hunter. He was nowhere near their level, but among ordinary humans he stood among the exceptional few.
Sometimes Blue Emerald wondered who would actually be protecting whom if disaster ever struck.
"I've already given you an easy assignment. Red Falcon and the others are still working overtime searching for clues. All you have to do is stay beside me."
The disgust on her face only deepened.
"Stay beside you? So I can experience your aging male hormones firsthand?"
Arthur looked genuinely wounded.
Never in his life had he imagined Blue Emerald could be this vicious.
"Fine. Fine. I'll admit it. There's another reason I asked you here."
For once, the usually commanding Arthur sounded uncertain, almost as though he were asking a favor.
"What reason?"
Blue Emerald narrowed her eyes.
"You remind me of Eve."
Arthur closed the file before him. It seemed today's work was finally over.
He commanded the Purification Agency, an institution of overwhelming violence. With a single order, countless artillery batteries could be unleashed across entire battlefields. Arthur was powerful beyond measure.
Yet even a man like him had limits.
Particularly when it came to his daughter.
The thought alone brought another headache.
"Wait a second..."
Blue Emerald's expression darkened immediately.
"Not like that," Arthur hurriedly said. "I mean your personalities are similar."
He hesitated, searching for the right words.
"She's like an adult who never completely grew out of being a child. You're similar—except the childish part is gone."
"You mean someone who hasn't been beaten up enough by reality?"
Blue Emerald replied with pinpoint accuracy.
"...More or less."
To her astonishment, Arthur nodded.
"The Phoenix family is almost gone. At this point, only the two of us remain. The Purification Agency isn't exactly a safe profession either. When I die, she'll be alone."
His voice grew quieter.
"Eve doesn't understand these things. She's desperate to discover what she truly is. But some truths only lead people into danger."
A shadow crossed his face.
As a military noble house, the Phoenix family had lost countless members during the Radiant War. Eve's brothers had all fallen near its end. In that war, Arthur had lost every one of his children.
"Like Lloyd?" Blue Emerald asked.
After all, everything seemed to have started with Lloyd. His arrival had dragged everyone into disaster.
But Arthur shook his head.
For once, he did not blame the detective.
"No. It isn't his fault. Just as Merlin said, Eve survived because of her connection to demons and darkness. But that connection existed long before Lloyd appeared. All my efforts ever accomplished was delaying the inevitable."
He looked exhausted.
"Even without Lloyd, someone else or something else would eventually have led her back into darkness."
Blue Emerald could feel the worry radiating from him.
This wasn't the Director of the Purification Agency speaking.
This was simply a father.
"I wish my father had been like you," she said softly.
The memory felt strangely heavy and light at the same time.
"He was a good man," Arthur replied. "War simply changes people. Even the strongest will can shatter beneath endless artillery fire."
Blue Emerald looked genuinely surprised.
"You know about my father?"
"I do."
She grimaced.
"Shrike told you, didn't he? He's the only one I've ever mentioned it to."
Back in Ender Town, surrounded by demons and facing certain death, they had shared their final confessions. That was when she revealed the past she had hidden from everyone else.
"Not Shrike."
Arthur smiled faintly.
"Did you really think the Purification Agency wouldn't investigate your background?"
The smile held none of the dignity expected from a man of his position.
"We recruit capable people, certainly. But background checks are still standard procedure."
Blue Emerald fell silent.
She had killed her own father.
At the time, she believed she had done the right thing.
Now, after all these years, she no longer knew whether it had been right or wrong.
"That was my mistake," she said quietly.
"Everyone makes mistakes," Arthur answered. "Some can be corrected. Others cannot."
Certain mistakes never truly leave.
They follow like shadows, forever reminding you of what you've done.
"I don't want Eve to become one of my mistakes."
Since his wife's death, every scrap of warmth he possessed had been devoted to his daughter.
"You could simply tell her the truth," Blue Emerald suggested.
She had heard enough rumors over the years to piece together fragments of the story.
"How would I tell her?"
Arthur laughed bitterly.
"Should I tell her that her mother died because of her?"
He shook his head.
"No. That's not how it should be, Blue Emerald."
Normally he never smoked.
Yet now he opened a drawer and withdrew an old pack of cigarettes. The paper was yellowed and wrinkled with age.
"I haven't smoked since she died. Well... almost never. Only times like this."
The tobacco, decades old by the look of it, crackled weakly as he lit it.
The smoke was harsh.
He inhaled anyway.
"Eve is naive. Childish. She has this strange sense of justice."
A faint smile touched his lips.
"Honestly, it sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud. But that's the problem with this damned world. The honest ones are always the ones being mocked."
Perhaps exhaustion had finally caught up to him.
Perhaps he simply needed someone to listen.
"The schemers and liars live the longest."
He sighed.
"But it shouldn't be that way. The world shouldn't work like that. And yet sometimes I find myself thinking that Eve wanting to become a detective and uphold justice is foolish."
His words dripped with contradiction.
"With that realization came fear."
His gaze drifted somewhere distant.
"I've spent too long in the dark. I've become one of those people myself."
He looked toward Blue Emerald.
"I've been corrupted too. My thoughts have become filthy. Even the idea of justice seems childish to me now."
His voice carried both shame and regret.
"That isn't who I should be."
For some reason, Lloyd came to mind.
The lunatic never stopped talking nonsense, yet occasionally those ridiculous remarks contained a strange kind of wisdom.
"I've become one of those boring adults too."
Arthur laughed.
If Lloyd didn't keep dragging Eve into life-threatening adventures, Arthur might have genuinely liked the detective.
No matter how hopeless the situation became, Lloyd always found a way to crack a terrible joke. Somehow, even death felt less oppressive when he was around.
Blue Emerald spoke quietly.
"When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back."
Arthur shook his head.
"It goes beyond that, Blue Emerald. We're already inside the abyss. Beneath mortal flesh, our hearts have become hard as iron."
The cigarette went out.
Perhaps years of storage had dampened it.
Arthur tossed it to the floor and crushed it beneath his heel.
"But Eve can't walk into the abyss."
His voice sharpened.
"She can't. She's a good kid. Naive, childish—fine. Those things belong to her. I won't let those filthy monsters touch them."
Blue Emerald regarded him for a long moment.
"You're like a giant tree," she finally said. "You've shielded her from every storm, allowing her to grow beneath your protection."
Then she asked softly:
"But what happens when the tree falls?"
The question struck like freezing rain.
The anger that had briefly flared within Arthur vanished instantly.
He slumped back into his chair.
Defeated.
"Yeah... what happens when I die?"
His voice was barely above a whisper.
"Everyone dies eventually."
He stared into nothing.
"When I'm gone, who will look after her?"
The man who commanded armies and controlled devastating firepower was, at his core, still just an ordinary old man.
"My family is gone. My friends are gone. Everyone I ever knew died in the Radiant War or beneath demon claws."
He laughed bitterly.
"The only people I can even call confidants are people like Merlin. And alchemists have hearts of stone. They want nothing except truth."
Another sigh escaped him.
"I suppose it's been a long time since I let myself talk like this."
Age had a way of making certain feelings impossible to explain.
He turned toward Blue Emerald.
"So... would you help me?"
"I don't know how."
She had never expected to receive a commission involving family problems.
"You're similar to her. Just talk to her occasionally. Eve doesn't have many friends."
A pause.
"Sometimes status becomes its own prison."
Blue Emerald remained silent.
Then Arthur added:
"I'll count it toward your performance review and bonus."
The silence grew even deeper.
After a long while, she finally asked,
"Do you think she'll understand?"
Arthur never wanted Eve to learn the whole truth.
He could not bear imagining what it would do to her.
Perhaps the cruel reality would turn her into another person with a heart of stone.
The world had no shortage of flowers like Eve.
But to Arthur, there would only ever be one.
"She will."
His answer came without hesitation.
"Eve will understand."
Then he smiled.
"It's only a matter of time."
Arthur looked directly at Blue Emerald.
"Haven't you come to understand your father too?"
She froze.
For a moment, she had no answer.
A strange ache seeped from beneath the stone shell surrounding her heart.
Suddenly she was back in that snowstorm long ago.
The drunken man collapsed in the snow.
Her mother pleading desperately.
And herself standing there in silence.
"Perhaps," she finally said.