CHAPTER 2083: CHAPTER 304: THE MASKED ONE

A figure clad in a black robe and wearing a white mask squeezed into the barrier.

It was a previous incarnation of the Sin Bearer who handed the contract, burning with a golden flame, back to the Black Cat, and then walked towards the Sin Bearer inside the barrier. The two made contact and quietly merged back into one.

The Black Cat didn’t raise a paw to accept the contract but instead cast a magic power that wore it away to nothing. Then, it turned to look at Mammon, the Wizard wearing the Fox Mask, who nodded politely to the Black Cat and disappeared silently into the shadows of the moonlit woods.

"Think positively."

The newly unified Sin Bearer seemed to be in a better mood, comforted the Black Cat kindly, and reminded it: "...You only used one gold bean to pass Mammon’s neutrality test. As far as I know, this is the best deal any Sin Bearer has ever made. Moreover, they are indeed devils... those cute animal masks just hide their true appearances. Devils aren’t philanthropists... they won’t easily converse with you calmly, fairly, or rationally... If you think everyone is as easy to handle as Samael, you’re gravely mistaken!"

Samael, who wore the Wolf Head Mask for ’Wrath’, conducted a battle assessment. At that time, the Black Cat only spit out half a Cat Orb, and that guy turned and left, making it the simplest test the Black Cat had encountered.

"And what about the Sin Bearer?"

Suddenly recalling the ’position’ it was preparing for, the Black Cat immediately complained: "Arrogance, Jealousy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, five of the Seven Sins have gone by, at least I should know what the position I’m testing for is about... I’m a respectable family’s cat, not wanting to become a devil."

When this masked guy first appeared to recruit the Black Cat, he was evasive, and it was inconvenient to talk about the duties of a Sin Bearer. Nowadays, the Black Cat’s patience was reaching a limit.

The masked wizard obviously knew this too.

"Sin Bearing, Sin Bearing, how does one bear such sins... What do you use to endure their wickedness?"

He paced within the small barrier, weighing his words, and spoke very slowly: "As I’ve told you before, the only intersection of this position with devils is that you’ll be in the same meeting room with them... We are the fair arbitrators, the objective observers, we convene club meetings, balance internal transactions, collect devils’ requests, and then communicate with other forces... You won’t turn into a devil, but you’ll have the opportunity to observe them. It’s a rare experience."

Although this answer somewhat satisfied the cat’s curiosity, it couldn’t fully appease it.

Perhaps sensing the Black Cat’s current mindset.

"Observation is a good word," he suddenly chuckled and offered a different phrasing: "It’s also a very subtle identity. You can use this pretext to maintain a detached attitude, wandering between light and shadow... the Seven Sins is one of the deepest shadows of them all."

As he spoke, the Sin Bearer had already lifted the sound insulation barrier, made a slight bow to the Black Cat, and retreated out of the moonlight, into the shadow of the trees, his figure gradually darkening.

"I remain skeptical of this." The Black Cat watched his disappearing figure, flicked its tail, and muttered softly.

Considering the previous encounters with the members of the Seven Sins—Mr. Arrogance was indifferent and skilled at mental manipulation, the Wrath guy cowered faster than anyone, the Sloth student wanted nothing but someone to write homework for them, and the Greedy Fox lent money to his companions at high interest—only Miss Jealousy seemed to have seriously prepared a test project.

Just comparing it with the companions from Absolution, and one could see how unreliable this club was.

The Black Cat felt it might have placed too much expectation on this small organization before.

...

...

After leaving the Black Cat’s sight, the wizard wearing the white mask crossed through a hidden dark door beneath the Jiuyou Academy’s wall, and upon exiting, his figure split into two, one going left, the other right.

The two figures each passed through different dark doors and then split again, two turning into four, heading in different directions.

In this way, his figure continually entered secret passages located in various corners of the school, some figures, after several instances of ’desensitization’, removed their masks, smiling as they greeted the night patrol janitors; other figures, wearing masks, descended stairs back to the Seven Sins’ office; and some silently passed through the fences erected by the School Guardian Array, crossed the Silent River, and disappeared into the deep nightly shadows of the Dark Forest.

Of course, more figures, after passing through a certain secret passage, silently dissipated into a wisp of light air under the moonlight.

The figure entering the Silent Forest skillfully navigated the dark and serene world and soon arrived under a half-withered old locust tree.

The old locust tree seemed to have been struck by lightning, one side charred black, the other lush and green, and between them was a narrow slit, like a half-open eye, less than fifty centimeters at its widest and over ten centimeters at narrow points.

The wizard wearing the white mask paused briefly before the slit and then stepped in without hesitation, landing not in the crevice of the old locust but on a winding stairway leading underground.

On either side of the staircase were rough textures belonging to the wood, with not a glimmer of light between the steps, making each step feel like moving into the abyss.

When he descended the stairway, the pure white mask on his face disappeared, replaced by a pitch-black Raven Mask.

In the corner of the mask, there was a small number.

Zero three.

Below the stairs was a long passageway flanked by tightly closed doors, none with windows, but each marked with different numbers.

As his light steps passed several doors, a sudden intense banging and manic howling emanated from behind the doors.

Crow No.3 walked straight ahead, his stride unaffected.

At the end of the passageway was a half-open giant iron door, and upon reaching the door, Crow No.3 couldn’t help but slightly shake his head, raising a hand to cast a ’Preparing The Window’.

The iron door closed with a bang behind him.

Beyond the door was a spacious hall, in the center of which was a large experiment table, placed in the brightest spot, with a dozen figures clad in black robes and wearing Raven Masks bustling alongside it.

At the sound of the door closing, one of the Ravens turned around.

"Nicely done!"

He praised with a somewhat schadenfreude tone: "You’ve locked the professor outside... the professor just went out to get something... it’s been less than three minutes."

Crow No.3 touched the long bird beak, turned around, and quickly cast an unlocking spell:

"Under the measureless gate, the door and window have no defense!"

Bam!

The iron door was forcibly pushed open.

A professor with prominent cheekbones and gray hair, holding a stack of materials, kicked the door and entered. Unlike the other Ravens, he didn’t wear a mask.