Chapter 563: Chapter 563 Mystery_1
"Actually, about a year ago, I had an encounter with this serial killer, who originally committed his crimes on the Northern Continent."
Only after the dishes were served did Aiden hear Deborah continue the topic they had started earlier.
Aiden did not reply, but quietly waited for Deborah to continue speaking.
"During my time on the Northern Continent, he targeted me," Deborah said. "Thanks to the ’God’s language’ my father taught me, he didn’t succeed, but I also failed to catch him..."
"Wait a minute!" Aiden immediately frowned and interrupted Deborah, "How are you so certain that person was the doppelganger serial killer?"
"Because he came to kill me in my own guise," Deborah explained.
"Are you serious?" Aiden asked again for confirmation.
"This... Why would I lie about this matter?" Deborah looked genuinely puzzled; she couldn’t understand why Aiden suddenly became dubious about it.
"..." Aiden fell silent.
Veronica had reported to him that Deborah’s appearance couldn’t be replicated with the "substitute" God’s language, and he had verified this himself.
He refrained from immediately questioning Deborah about it, suspecting that it might involve some secret the other party wished to hide. Pointing it out could lead to a change in Deborah’s attitude or even result in her avoiding contact with him.
Therefore, he decided to hold on to his question, intending to probe after having sufficient interaction with her.
Yet now, Deborah casually brought up the topic of someone else successfully imitating her appearance...
Logically, Deborah might not know he also possessed the "substitute" power, so perhaps this was a lie she fabricated.
But another possibility came to Aiden’s mind: Was Deborah aware that her appearance couldn’t be copied?
After all, it’s something one cannot verify alone.
After some thought, he asked directly, "Miss Deborah, there’s something I want to ask you, and I hope you can answer me straightforwardly."
"Sure!" Deborah suddenly replied earnestly.
"Not that!" Aiden laughed helplessly. "I wanted to ask, do you have a method that prevents others from replicating your appearance?"
"Huh?" Deborah was taken aback.
"Actually, my subordinate, the one you met, also has the power of ’substitute.’ After meeting you, she tried to recreate your appearance for me, but failed," Aiden explained.
"Eh? There’s such a thing?" Deborah looked puzzled; after thinking for a moment, she said, "Without evidence, I wouldn’t dare to speculate rashly, but... other than the policewoman lying, I can’t think of any other possibility."
"What if I told you that her God’s language came from me?" Aiden pressed on. "You can trust me, I’m not capable of doing that either. So, I’ve had my doubts about you."
"How could that be?" Deborah’s eyes widened. "My mother definitely replicated my appearance before."
"She could be duplicated by the Master Thief?" Aiden furrowed his brows.
"Yes, when my mother taught me how to use God’s language, she demonstrated it for me. At that time, she transformed into my likeness!" Deborah explained anxiously. "Please believe me, you can use ’The Codex’ to confirm with me!"
The likelihood of lying seemed very low at this point, Aiden thought.
Still being cautious, he took out the "Wordless Code": "Then please excuse my rudeness."
After writing down the rule against lying on ’The Codex,’ he again confirmed with Deborah the content mentioned earlier, and the result was as expected—neither of them was lying.
"What on earth is going on?" Deborah fell into confusion.
Aiden pondered seriously as well.
Even Deborah herself was unaware of the fact that her appearance couldn’t be replicated.
But according to Deborah’s description, before a certain point in time, others could still use the "substitute" God’s language to copy her appearance.
If there’s a plausible explanation, it’s that at that point, a higher-order authority interfered.
Was it the Hound, Duboman? But if the Hound, Duboman, was far away on the Northern Continent at this time, his power couldn’t reach such a vast distance, because saints are, after all, limited to human extremes.
At this moment, another suspicious individual came to Aiden’s mind—the mysterious person who had overshadowed Duboman with threats in the past.
This mysterious person possessed the power of "existence," which "substitute" belongs to, and their rank was definitely above that of a saint.
Had he quietly interfered with Deborah?
"Miss Deborah, your father... does he have any trustworthy friends?" Aiden suddenly asked.
"What do you mean by ’trustworthy’?" Deborah sensed a deeper meaning in his choice of words.
"I mean the kind that possess authority power, abnormally strong, probably no less than your father," Aiden said.
"That... I haven’t heard of any," Deborah shook her head somewhat hesitantly. "I’ve only heard him mention his old team, where my father always played the main and central role. I’ve never heard of a member who was his equal."
"The Hound Mercenary Group? I’ve heard of them too—they’ve now become a security company," Aiden nodded.
The Hound Mercenary Group, once led by Duboman, wasn’t large but fairly notorious. It was said that later Duboman left the team, focusing solely on chasing the Master Thief, and the remaining members established a security company within the Empire, which developed into a substantial business today. But by now, the initial members have all passed away.
Aiden believed that the mysterious person was likely not among them.
In other words, Deborah was unaware of the existence of that mysterious individual.
No, wait, maybe Duboman himself wasn’t aware that a mysterious person had once shielded him?
The mystery only seemed to deepen.
"Guessing blindly before finding concrete clues is useless," Aiden steered the topic back. "Let’s return to the matter of the killer."
"Hmm... okay," Deborah still looked troubled. "After that skirmish, I’ve tried to capture him but couldn’t find any clues. In desperation, I contacted my mother for help."
"You haven’t considered asking your father for help?" Aiden asked.
In terms of catching criminals, the former Bounty Hunter, Duboman, would obviously be more professional.
"After my father devoted himself to the anti-Empire revolutionary cause, he cut off contact with me, fearing he might bring harm to me. So, I could only reach out to my mother, who had started living in seclusion, and then, she taught me a secret technique of divination," Deborah slowly said.
