met free Page 635
Page 635
A wisp of smoke, carrying a uniquely spicy aroma, rose and blurred the sharp gaze behind her glasses.
“You still remember…” Her voice came through the smoke, with a deliberately drawn-out tone that evoked memories.
"...The 'fusion beast' that El-Melloi II and I dug out of the city before?"
She exhaled a smoke ring, the white smoke ring slowly deforming and dissipating in the air. "I remember mentioning it to you afterwards."
Matou Ike's gaze did not leave the document, but the movement of flipping through the pages paused very slightly, indicating that he had diverted a portion of the processing thread to receive Orange's information.
He didn't even look up, his voice flat and emotionless, as if stating data that had already been archived:
"I remember." His answer was as concise as a cold confirmation.
"That was a mutated creation that had been forcibly fused with a fragmented spirit core."
His words were precise and ruthless, directly revealing the true nature of the "monster"—an unnatural product of fusion.
"Hmm." Aozaki Touko seemed satisfied with his answer, took another drag of her cigarette, and a spark suddenly lit up the cruel, playful smile on her lips.
“That ‘thing’…” she deliberately used this inhuman reference, “…is that infamous ‘restorer’ who has left a stain on the history of the Clock Tower, yet whose methods are undeniable—Ashburn’s wife.”
She paused, letting this identity connection, so full of dramatic and tragic undertones, settle down.
Smoke swirled in front of her.
Her gaze pierced through the smoke, landing as if it were a tangible object on the document in Matou Ike's hand, or rather, on the name the document pointed to.
“And in this document…” she casually pointed her cigarette-holding finger toward the file, ash falling in a flurry, “…that guy who’s been repeatedly mentioned, marked as a key figure—Tokito Jirobo Seigen…”
Orange took a deep drag of her cigarette and slowly exhaled, a large cloud of grayish-white smoke spreading out, temporarily obscuring her expression, leaving only her eyes, still sharp as knives behind the smoke.
"...It's that 'thing's' child."
As the smoke cleared slightly, she added, her tone carrying the almost cruel precision of a researcher facing anomalies:
"...Well...to be precise, it's more like...'half'."
"Half?" Matou Ike asked.
“That’s right.” Aoki Touko’s cigarette burned a bit of ash, the crimson flame flickering in the dim light as she exhaled smoke.
"Based on the intelligence we uncovered later, and through cross-referencing the dusty, forbidden files inside the clock tower..."
She flicked her cigarette ash, and the grayish-white fragments fell silently.
"That man named Tokito Jirobo Seigen..." Orange's gaze behind his glasses was as sharp as a scalpel.
"...His name was prominently recorded in the client list of those who had received 'restoration' services from that 'restorer'."
She deliberately emphasized the word "repair," giving it an ominous connotation.
“And ever since that so-called ‘repair’…” Orange’s voice deepened, carrying a certainty that revealed the dark nature of things.
"...a man named Granid Ashburn—his memories, his emotions, the very core imprint of his existence—no longer belonged to himself."
Her fingertips unconsciously ground against the cigarette filter, as if crushing the remnants of a departed soul.
"They were peeled off..." Orange's voice was like a cold declaration.
"...It was used as the finest 'material' by that 'restorer' and forcibly mixed and fused into the magic crest of Jirobo Seigen!"
She paused for a moment, allowing the true nature of this shocking operation to settle.
"And so..." Her conclusion fell like a heavy hammer.
"...Grand Ashuborn's 'existence' thus became a part of Jirobo Seigen's body in this most distorted and inhuman form...and 'survived'."
The air in the living room seemed to freeze under this cruel truth.
“Then…” Matou Ike’s voice broke the brief silence. The document in his hand had been closed at some point and was casually placed on his lap.
"...What is the connection between this and the Butterfly Magic?"
Aozaki Touko seemed to have been waiting for this question. She took a deep drag on her cigarette, and only after a long section of the cigarette had burned away did she slowly exhale. Amidst the swirling smoke, a cruel and sarcastic smile curled at the corner of her mouth.
“A connection?” she countered, her voice carrying a knowing tone that said, “The answer is right here.” “Do you remember… why I accepted the commission to investigate that gloomy, coffin-like city of peeling away layers?”
“Of course.” Matou Ike answered without the slightest hesitation. “That authority on Butterfly Magic… Orlock West Salmond, he secretly lived in the Stripped Castle for several years. I know the source of this information.”
"Hmm." Orange nodded slightly, acknowledging his level of intelligence.
Her next words, like a stone thrown into a stagnant pond, instantly created ripples:
“Now, I’ll tell you…” Her voice wasn’t loud, but it carried an absolute power to unleash the truth, “…this guy who was used as material to be forged into the magical seal of Jirobo Kiyoshi—Granid Ashburn…”
Orange paused deliberately for half a second, making each syllable imprinted clearly in the air:
"...He is not the child of old Ashburn and his wife at all!"
A deathly silence filled the living room. Even the hum of the refrigerator seemed to have vanished. The speed at which the eerie light swirled in Matou Ike's deep blue eyes suddenly plummeted to freezing point, like a icy pool.
Meeting that frozen gaze, Aozaki Touko dropped the final, devastating bombshell, clear and deliberate, word by word:
“He is the absolute authority on Butterfly Magic—Orlock Sissamond…” Her voice was resolute, carrying a cold insight that pierced through the fog of blood ties, “…and the child born to Ashburn’s wife…”
Chapter 661 Seigen and Shirou (4k)
“Is that so…” Matou Ike’s voice rang out in the dim light, not as a question, but as a cold, settled understanding.
The closed document lay quietly on his lap, seemingly carrying the lingering scent of blood. He leaned back slightly, completely disappearing into the shadows of the sofa, only his demonic eyes flickering deep within, as if piecing together countless fragmented clues.
“Then I do know… what exactly that old bastard Orlock did behind closed doors with Ashburn in the city back then, what kind of ‘research’ was it?”
His voice carried a rare, almost sentimental fluctuation, but beneath that fluctuation lay a deeper, more profound, and cold-blooded understanding of the nature of humanity and the essence of magic.
Transplantation surgery.
The cold, modern medical term exploded in his mind, creating a fatal resonance with the distorted truth before him.
Those anecdotes circulating in the corners of secular magazines, almost like urban legends—someone's personality changed drastically after receiving a heart transplant, and he suddenly showed amazing talent for musical instruments he had never played before;
After receiving an organ transplant from a stranger, someone was able to dream of fragmented memories of the donor's life...
These vague phenomena, which were met with skepticism by the scientific community, are now being given an incredibly clear and cruel interpretation by the dark logic of the magic world.
Ashburn was revered in the magic world as "The Healer"? Now it seems...
Matouchi's core thinking is like a precise gear meshing at high speed.
Magical inscriptions are the "second magic circuits" passed down through generations of magicians, embodying the wisdom and sacrifice of countless generations. They are the embodiment of bloodline and mystery.
Its core attribute is its absolute compatibility with a specific bloodline, and its exclusive nature that cannot be truly changed by any "secret method"!
Perhaps it is precisely because others are not suitable to take on this task that the Magic Mark is the Magic Mark.
This understanding is like a cold foundation.
So, when a magical mark is damaged and needs "repair," what is used to fill that fatal defect? What "material" can best deceive the mark's own stubborn rejection? What can bypass that almost cursed bloodline chain?
The answer, in the twisted collaboration between Orlock and Ashburn, has become incredibly clear, even carrying a nauseatingly bloody poetry.
--The restorer of magic markings.
--Magic markings are like "organs" of other people.
Butterfly magic focuses on the mysterious magic of caterpillars transforming into butterflies and becoming completely different creatures.
The three clues, like three venomous snakes, instantly coiled and tightened!
Using the transformative power of "Butterfly Magic," the "materials" are forcibly transformed and distorted, making them simulate and disguise themselves as part of the host's bloodline, thereby "repairing" or "grafting" the damaged magic mark!
What a blasphemous, insane, and precise exploitation of loopholes in the rules... this "fix"!
"..." Matou Ike's silence spread in the shadows, and deep within those demonic eyes, the eerie light flickered violently, like a lighthouse in the eye of a storm.
He was not morally shaken, but rather assessing the costs and feasibility of this "technology".
“However…” his deep voice rang out again, this time carrying a truly chilling emotion, almost astonishment, “…I really didn’t expect… that old bastard Orlock…”
He paused, as if digesting the weight of this realization.
"...would be willing to pay...that price."
To offer his core magic system—the supreme secrets of the Butterfly Magic—as a bargaining chip to Ashburn?
This is tantamount to handing over the art of dragon slaying to the butcher! For any magician who considers the pursuit of the roots of magic as their ultimate goal, this is almost equivalent to a betrayal of their faith!
But in an instant, a darker thought, more in line with a magician's logic, slithered into Matou Ike's mind like a venomous snake:
“No…” He slowly shook his head, the shadow swaying slightly with the movement. “…Perhaps it was because that old man… 'contributed' his magic system…”
His voice suddenly lowered, carrying a chilling intent that seemed to see through a conspiracy.
"...only when the city's master is stripped away...will he 'suddenly die'."
This is not a sentimental remark, but a cold, hard conclusion!
When Orlock relinquished the core of the Butterfly Magic, and when Ashburn mastered this forbidden technique—capable of "grafting" the existence of others and repairing crests—and was likely to use it for even darker and more uncontrollable purposes...
For Orlock, the source of the "technology," Ashburn, the ambitious "partner" who knew the core secrets, instantly transformed from a "collaborator" into a huge threat and hidden danger that had to be eliminated!
The truth behind the so-called "sudden death" is already becoming clear in Matou Ike's deduction—
This is very likely a ruthless and precise cover-up operation launched by the technology provider!
"So, where is this Jirobo Seigen at the time..." Matou Ike's voice came from deep within the shadows of the sofa, "...right now?"
“…Hmm…” Aozaki Touko let out a low moan that was unclear in meaning and had a noticeable sense of hesitation.
A wisp of smoke rose straight from the newly lit cigarette between her fingers, and her gaze behind her glasses seemed to shift briefly, avoiding Matou Ike's seemingly piercing, demonic eyes.
This brief silence itself reveals the uncertainty of the information.
“…That guy is now…” she finally spoke, her tone carrying a sense of uncertainty, as if she were reiterating a fragment of information that had not been fully verified, “…he should be at the Holy Church.”
“The Church of Christ?!” Matou Ike’s brows furrowed almost instantly, etching two cold lines in the dim light.
Even the shadows seemed to sway slightly in response to his emotional fluctuations. The light in his azure demonic eyes suddenly accelerated, revealing intense doubt and bewilderment.
"Why would he have a connection with that place?" His voice carried a sense of absurdity, as if it were completely illogical.
The Holy Church—a massive organization whose mission is to hunt down heretics and purge all “inhuman” and “pagan” people—is diametrically opposed to a magician whose name carries such obvious Eastern religious connotations and who bears the mark of twisted magic.
"Didn't you read the document?"
Aozaki Touko seemed to have her "professional pride" touched by his questioning, and immediately retorted in a slightly impatient tone, as if to say, "Why didn't you look carefully?"