It had been some time since Adam last visited the church.
However, as soon as he stepped down from the carriage, he found himself chatting effortlessly with the passing monks, his familiarity with them evident. There was no sense of strangeness, and the monks themselves remarked on Adam's likable nature.
Word of Adam's status as a sorcerer had begun to spread, though in the Holy Sound Kingdom, it was uncommon for sorcerers to gain the favor of the monks. For most, sorcerers were seen as a troublesome occupation.
Yet, for Adam, this had not become an obstacle. The monks continued to treat him with warmth, some even asking why it had been so long since he last visited.
Not in any particular hurry to attend to business, Adam leisurely gathered information through conversation as he made his way to the mural section. There, he found Alva, lounging on a chair and drinking wine.
"Teacher Alva," Adam greeted with a smile, but received no response.
Unperturbed, Adam continued, "It seems that Anthony has not been feeling well lately. Selene told me not to interfere, but I wanted to ask…"
No sooner had Adam spoken Anthony's name than he felt an overwhelming force envelop both him and Alva.
Alva rose and glanced briefly toward the room where Shaya was, before turning his full attention to Adam.
"Anthony isn't feeling well? Has he been doing anything unusual lately?" Alva's voice was filled with urgency and concern. "And don't mention Anthony's name outside!"
"There seems to have been some investigation into the Central Bell Tower," Adam said.
Afterward, he had asked Doug for more details and learned that one of the individuals sent to investigate had gone missing during the search.
It wasn't surprising—this likely involved either Anthony or Selene, and it seemed that Anthony's recent condition had something to do with it.
"Is that so?" Alva froze, his expression stunned.
"I thought…" Alva muttered to himself, then looked at Adam, exhaling heavily before saying, "You don't need to concern yourself with this. Anthony has his own reasons."
As Alva turned away, seemingly ready to dismiss the matter, he suddenly stopped. "Wait. Go to the Ratu family and ask for a painting called 'Past,' and deliver it to Anthony."
With that, Alva said no more, withdrawing the power that had enveloped them both and taking another swig of wine.
"Goodbye for now, Teacher Alva," Adam replied respectfully. From the brief conversation, he had gathered an interesting detail—Alva referred to the Ratu family, not his own, which was unusual. Considering Anthony's surname, Adam realized that this likely had something to do with him.
When Adam finally entered the room, he saw Shaya, who was lounging in a chair, absorbed in a document. He seemed genuinely pleased to see Adam.
However, when Adam reported his findings, Shaya's mood shifted, his expression growing more serious.
"I saw a man who might be a monk at the dried fruit shop," Adam said. The Head Monk immediately became cautious.
"What did this person look like?" Shaya asked, his unease palpable.
The last known trace of Poldo was on his way to Roya, and after that, he had disappeared. This wasn't normal.
"Hmm," Adam pondered for a moment, then grabbed a pen and paper. As he described the encounter from the previous evening, he quickly sketched the man's general appearance.
Before the wanted notice for the defector monk had been issued, Adam had heard Poldo's name when Shaya had mentioned it in passing. Shaya had even found a bag of dried fruit and casually mentioned that Poldo had given it to him.
Adam was familiar with most of the monks in the South District, and even if he didn't know them personally, he had likely seen them around. The man he had encountered the evening before, with the intense joy he expressed while eating the dried fruit, strongly suggested that he was a monk. This was why he had been so surprised to see Adam—he likely noticed the effect of Adam's disguise from the Tears of God ritual.
Although the wanted poster depicted an elderly man, most defector monks no longer adhered to the ideology of enjoying the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, returning to the embrace of the gods.
In other words, most surviving defectors underwent some form of transformation to restore their youth and acquire long-lasting vitality.
The immortality formula was something many sought but few could obtain, but for those with great power, finding a method of attaining immortality wasn't difficult.
Shaya, as an older monk, had aged because he refused to forsake his faith.
"Has Poldo completely abandoned his faith?" Shaya murmured before Adam had even handed over the sketch. He had already pieced it together—the man Adam had encountered was Poldo.
They had shared a dark and difficult childhood, though their paths diverged afterward, leading to different choices.
"The border wall is guarded by General Goral; Poldo couldn't have crossed easily. The problem now is within the city," Shaya said, his expression clouded with concern. He turned to Adam and added, "The information you've provided is invaluable. Go back for now, but be cautious these next few days. Stay inside and avoid wandering."
"I understand," Adam nodded, making a note of the information.
The general guarding the border wall, Goral, was someone Shaya trusted greatly. He believed that even a rejuvenated Poldo wouldn't be able to breach the wall easily.
"This just got interesting," Adam thought. His purpose in reporting his encounter with Poldo was twofold: to gather more information at the church and direct the Church's attention to Poldo, diverting suspicion away from his own actions; and to undermine Mansira.
Mansira's business was largely sustained by smuggled goods, and only through smuggling could he continue to secure achievements.
Rube, his greatest competitor, was also a major obstacle.
If anyone was unhappy about the martial law in Roya, it was undoubtedly Mansira.
Poldo's arrival had already caused the imposition of martial law, and now news of Poldo regaining his youth had rendered the previous wanted poster obsolete.
"This means the martial law in Roya will be further tightened," Adam thought. With the city's escape routes blocked, Mansira's business would take a heavy blow.
"Moreover, the smuggled goods coming into the city from outside will become even more important," Adam recalled the information Gold had shared with him the previous night.
Poldo's arrival had already sealed off most of Mansira's escape routes, driving him to rage. His focus now lay entirely on the caravan returning from the Loken Kingdom.
Only by ensuring that the goods from that caravan arrived safely could Mansira maintain his finances and keep his family business afloat.
"Whether we ultimately ally with Rube or Mansira, we must weaken both sides as much as possible to gain the upper hand."
Adam was clear on this point—smuggling was Mansira's lifeblood, and he wouldn't allow outsiders to interfere unless he was desperate, just like when he had asked Gold for help in the past.
Rube, on the other hand, was ambitious and sought to build his own empire. While he was currently no match for Mansira in the smuggling business, if he succeeded, his power in Roya would make him independent of non-human assistance.
Adam's goal was to ensure that both Rube and Mansira would end up weakening each other, forcing them to rely on the hidden power of non-human organizations.
"Only then can we safely navigate through the border wall using their channels," Adam thought. Though his actions today had been aimed at strengthening the martial law, they were ultimately for the future escape from the city.
Among the two, Adam leaned more toward Rube.
"Mansira has connections in the Loken Kingdom, and if he defeats his competitors and stabilizes his smuggling operation, he might abandon his cooperation with non-humans."
"Rube, on the other hand, needs to establish new smuggling routes in the Loken Kingdom. This gives me an advantage," Adam mused. Though he was born in the Holy Sound Kingdom, his paternal ancestry traced back to the Loken Kingdom.
"Mansira has the upper hand with Gold's backing, but Rube is driven by raw ambition. If I can influence him, we might tip the scales in our favor."
Adam, filled with schemes, boarded the carriage and set off for the Ratu family to retrieve the painting.