Chapter 357: Chapter 357 Refusing the Death Flag_1
An hour later, Aiden sat in the office, connecting with Qiqimora once again.
This time there wasn’t a blurry projection emerging from the mist; Abigail permitted only an audio communication, explaining that she was conducting experiments in her workshop and that a witch’s research must never be leaked.
To Aiden, this was not inconvenient at all, he merely treated the Great Witch’s Credential like a cellphone or a walkie-talkie.
"Have you found his den?" Aiden asked.
"Found it, that guy isn’t living in the city. He’s moved to the outskirts, to another nearby village. He’s temporarily renting a house there," Qiqimora said indifferently. "Though it’s a bit far, because it’s situated on higher ground, he can directly see that villa from here."
"He really is a qualified stalker," Aiden commented.
"Not just qualified. One should say an outstanding, exceptional stalker," Qiqimora corrected.
"What do you mean?" Aiden didn’t quite understand.
"I think you should come over and see for yourself... The impact here is not something that can be simply described with words," Qiqimora replied.
After Qiqimora finished speaking, she took another careful look at the room she was in.
It was indeed astonishing... she thought to herself.
Several exhibition and drawing boards were placed against the wall, covered with pictures and newspaper clippings like mind maps created from images and information collected by detectives or spies.
Newspaper clippings, stage photos, magazine covers, promotional posters, portraits... Sophie Carter’s face was on every picture, and standing in the center of the room felt like being surrounded by the woman in the photos.
The window on the sunlit side was perfectly aligned with the direction of the neighboring village. From here, one could see the villa Sophie Carter was hiding in, and next to the window, there was a telescope mounted on a stand, its purpose self-explanatory.
Then, she turned her gaze to the room’s owner.
Joey Lawson was sitting at the desk with a mirror in front of him, which reflected a window. Inside the window, Sophie Carter was pacing around in her pajamas, holding a cat.
He was using magic to monitor Sophie Carter’s every move.
"It gives you the creeps," Qiqimora mused internally.
This terrifying level of obsession was undoubtedly pathological.
How could a former witch and alchemist, who once pursued power by any means, become so depraved for a woman?
As one of the top three witches in magical proficiency within the witches’ assembly, Qiqimora completely failed to comprehend Joey Lawson’s psyche.
It was as if he had been drugged with some kind of love potion...
However, she had no interest in the witch’s emotional journey; she just wanted to kill this man as soon as possible and seize his divinity.
Should she make a move directly? The thought flashed through her mind.
If she killed Joey Lawson before the warden, there would be no need to share the spoils.
With their intelligence, Joey had at least enough divinity to control two minor powers... If she monopolized it all, she could become a saint.
And now Joey’s attention was entirely on the mirror. If she attacked from behind—
No, better not.
Qiqimora abandoned the idea of a sneak attack. The divine words and black magic she commanded all lacked sufficient attacking power; she wasn’t confident she could kill Joey Lawson in an instant, and even if she could, it wouldn’t be of much significance. Spellcasters have a strong home-field advantage on their own turf, and as soon as Qiqimora entered the room, she faintly sensed that black magic traps had been set up—simple, but enough to respond to a sneak attack.
Should the attack fail, Joey would retaliate using the power of "All-Encompassing." Although Qiqimora could protect herself with the power of "Suspension," she had already used the power of the divine words several times that day. Recklessly starting a battle with Joey might put her at a disadvantage.
More importantly, the consequences of acting on her own had made her much more cautious; she dared not take such risks again.
For some reason, every time she took independent action for maximizing benefits while collaborating with Aiden Galahad, it would backfire for some inexplicable reason—yet as long as she maintained cooperation from beginning to end, all would be well.
If her actions caused more trouble leading to a rift in her partnership with the warden, the loss would be insurmountable.
Having made up her mind, she reached out to Aiden: "Warden, the stalker is now in his house, using familiars to spy on the maid-disguised megastar. Shall we act today?"
"Good, I’ll arrange a carriage right away," Aiden decided decisively, "If he’s asleep, then we’ll make our move during the night."
"His room is rigged with black magic traps, which doesn’t seem very conducive to a sneak attack," said Qiqimora. "But with your power and unique authority, there’s surely no——"
"Don’t say that; it sounds ominous," Aiden, sitting in his office, promptly interrupted Qiqimora.
Indeed, by using the power of "Order," or suppressing the black magic traps with the Wordless Code, and with the help of Qiqimora’s abilities to infiltrate the room, they could easily render Joey powerless in his sleep.
But Qiqimora’s line, akin to raising a death flag, still filled Aiden with a sense of crisis.
No risk at all—the more one clings to such a thought, the easier it is to become complacent. Every person who has capsized in a ditch must have harbored the idea of being invulnerable to some extent prior to their failure.
"Why?" Qiqimora couldn’t understand Aiden’s thinking at all.
"Just keep an eye on the scene; I’ll be there shortly." Aiden glanced at the clock, realizing he needed to leave soon.
If it got completely dark, finding a carriage willing to go to the village outside of town would be rather troublesome.
Just as he was about to stand up and end the call, an ear-splitting explosion echoed from the Great Witch’s Credential.
Aiden was startled and instinctively called out, "Qiqimora?"
But almost simultaneously, he heard Qiqimora’s voice: "What happened?"
Both of them paused for a moment, then fell silent.
It seemed that neither of their locations was the source of the problem.
"Abigail?" Qiqimora spoke up, "What experiment are you running?"
"A new Magic Potion experiment... it accidentally exploded," replied Abigail calmly, "Luckily, it’s just my hand that got blown off."
"Oh, then take care of yourself," Qiqimora responded lightly.
"The daily life of you Great Witches really is an eye-opener..." Aiden didn’t know what to say.
It seemed the research that Daili and the others conducted in the prison was already quite restrained.
