Almost soul-rending roars echoed incessantly in his consciousness, disorienting and uncontrolled senses stirring his reason. As time passed, this "storm" gradually subsided, and only then did the registrar suddenly realize the existence of "self."

He heard the frantic pounding of his own heart. Reason struggled desperately to return to the "human" side from the edge of losing control. He belatedly realized what had just happened and instinctively raised his head, looking in the direction of the unfamiliar voice.

Duncan stood before him, ethereal flames that had not yet fully dissipated floating behind him. His tall figure was like a dark cloud falling from the sky, exuding an unspeakable sense of oppression.

The registrar thought for a moment, then suddenly recalled a sentence the girl named Nina had said to him earlier: "...Just don't be afraid later."

He recognized the tall figure before him—for an elf, a hundred years wasn't that long ago.

But before he could exclaim in surprise, a gentle force suddenly poured into his mind. At the same time, a familiar voice came from not far away: "I'll take over here."

The registrar turned to look in the direction of the voice.

A middle-aged man wearing a dark blue academy robe, his hair slightly graying, and with a thick book tucked under his arm, walked into the room, looking over with a calm but weary gaze.

"Lord Truthkeeper!" The registrar felt as though he'd been rescued. He instantly stood up from the desk and moved away from Nina and Duncan as quickly as possible.

Then he opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to report something, but before he could speak, the middle-aged man called "Truthkeeper" raised his hand to interrupt him: "I already understand the situation here. The City-State University is taking over this matter now, so don't ask any further questions. Your work is done for today. After you leave here, immediately go to the psychological counseling room for a mental evaluation. Go."

The registrar left with a belly full of guesses and a head full of confusion. Duncan's gaze fell on the middle-aged elf, whose face was etched with weariness. After carefully studying him for a moment, he asked curiously, "Who are you?"

"You don't recognize me?" The middle-aged elf frowned in confusion, but quickly nodded in understanding. "Oh, right, I heard your memory was affected by the subspace..."

He seemed weak as he spoke, his tone revealing a weariness from the bottom of his bones. He didn't even show much change in tone when expressing surprise. In the end, he sighed, raised his finger, and pointed at himself: "Tede Riel, the 'Truthkeeper' of Seawhisper, responsible for the city's security in the transcendent realm. We met a hundred years ago. You used to often buy me drinks, and we exchanged many things related to the border."

Tede Riel? Truthkeeper?

Duncan frowned. Of course, he had no memory of this name, but this kind of "meeting an acquaintance" situation was not unexpected. Before coming to Seawhisper, he knew that there must be many people in this city who could recognize his face—after all, a hundred years was not too long for an elf, and the Forsaken frequently haunted the edges of the civilized world back then, dealing most often with border cities like Seawhisper.

So after a brief thought, he came up with his prepared excuse: "Sorry, I don't remember. Subspace took away most of my memory. Please forgive me."

Tede Riel waved his hand: "It doesn't matter, forget it if you've forgotten. 'Forgetting' is Rahm's greatest blessing. Anyway, I'm already used to dealing with 'forgetting.'"

Used to dealing with "forgetting?"

Duncan was stunned as he listened, feeling that there was a hint of resentment and deep meaning in the other party's words, but it didn't seem to be directed at him. But before he could ask, the "Truthkeeper" continued: "I heard Ms. Lucretia and the field team leader roughly explain what happened. Is that Miss Nina behind you?"

Nina had already risen from her chair at this time. She hid behind Duncan, curiously sizing up the stranger across from her. Hearing the other party call her name, she came out generously and greeted him politely: "Hello, I'm Nina."

Then she looked up, somewhat embarrassed, at Duncan: "Sorry, Uncle Duncan... Did I cause you trouble?"

Duncan laughed and reached out to ruffle Nina's hair: "It's all small stuff, don't worry about it."

As he spoke, he was marveling at other things—trying to report an anomaly to the guards and being accidentally caught up in a transcendent event was better than leading a bunch of ghost sailors rampaging through the city center and being caught by the sheriff…

Compared to the commotion that Lawrence caused back then, Shirley and Nina's little troubles were quite harmless.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask, "Where's Shirley?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard footsteps suddenly coming from the door. Immediately afterward, Lucretia walked into the room with Shirley: "Dad, Shirley's here."

Shirley had a nervous and uneasy look on her face. After entering the room, she carefully observed Duncan's expression, and then quickly explained as she came over with small, thief-like steps: "I didn't do anything bad! Nina and I were originally going to report the situation to the guards, but I don't know how a weird thing suddenly popped out, and as a result, those guards were overly sensitive and insisted on putting us…"

"Oh, I apologize to the two ladies on their behalf," Tede Riel turned to look at Shirley, "But this is a necessary safety procedure."

Shirley had only walked halfway when she was startled by the stranger's voice from the side. She turned her head and looked at this ordinary-looking, middle-aged man who had had no presence since just now: "Whoa, how come there's another person... Who are you, mister?"

"He is the 'Truthkeeper' of Seawhisper, Tede Riel," Lucretia replied. The "Sea Witch" nodded at Tede Riel, as a greeting. Then, she added, "He's like the city-state's 'gatekeeper' or 'inquisitor'."

As soon as Shirley heard this, she instantly dashed to Duncan's side.

Tede Riel was stunned by Shirley's exaggerated reaction, and then turned to look at Lucretia: "...Am I that scary?"

Lucretia spread her hands: "I guess the reason has nothing to do with you."

Duncan turned his head and glanced at Shirley, who had already dashed to his side: "I thought you usually got along pretty well with Vanna? Why are you afraid of inquisitors and the like at this time?"

"Can that be the same?" Shirley shrank her neck and glanced at the "Truthkeeper" across from her, muttering in a low voice, "Vanna's already joined the gang, this one isn't one of us…"

Duncan immediately glared at this guy: "Team, how many times have I told you, it's a team!"

"Oh…"

Duncan sighed helplessly, then shook his head. Only then did he look up at Tede Riel and Lucretia, who was walking towards them: "I've already learned the general situation from Nina, so let's skip the explanations and pleasantries—now I want to see that 'weird thing' Shirley was talking about. Is it in this facility?"

"Sample Containment Room Twenty-Four, in the Central District Underground Archives," Tede nodded. "I'll take you there."

After speaking, the weary-looking "Truthkeeper" took out the thick book he was holding under his arm, casually opened one of the pages, and tapped it with his finger.

In the next moment, a page from the book suddenly flew into the air. Duncan saw that the page depicted a large door, the surface of which was covered with countless mysterious and complex symbols—in a series of dazzling transformations and reorganizations, the door painted on the paper quickly transformed into a illusory door in the air.

The translucent, illusory door opened, behind which was a hazy scene of a corridor located deep underground in some facility.

Duncan watched this scene with amazement, immediately marveling that he truly deserved to be the faction with the highest cultural level in this world—the performance of the Truth Academy's "Truthkeeper" was indeed a bit cooler than Vanna's jump slash.

And his second reaction was curiosity, wondering what would happen if he took that page down from the air while it was unfolding—this bold idea swirled in his mind for a moment, and the next second he noticed the subtle look Lucretia was giving him from the side.

"Dad, don't mess around."

The "Witch" Miss quietly reminded him with her mouth.

Duncan turned his face nonchalantly and put away his bold thoughts.

Afterward, led by Tede Riel, Duncan, Lucretia, and Shirley and Nina, who had curious and expectant expressions on their faces, passed through the illusory floating door one after another.

The brief dizziness and disorientation quickly ended. When the light and shadows in front of them recondensed, they had already arrived in the "Central District Underground Archives" that Tede mentioned.

A deep and long corridor appeared in Duncan's vision. The sides of the corridor were lit by bright gas lamps, and one could also see relief stone slabs engraved with the sacred symbols, symbolic graphics, and scriptures of the God of Wisdom, Rahm, arranged near each lamp. In the solemn and heavy corridor, one could also see an emergency isolation gate every so often. Between the gates were small rooms with tightly closed doors.

"This is the containment area," Tede Riel glanced at the two young girls beside him, who had curious faces, and casually explained, "Suspicious samples that are temporarily discovered, anomalies with a medium or lower degree of danger, and various contaminated items that cannot be destroyed in a short period of time are all imprisoned in various rooms according to their level of danger and containment method—don't rashly approach those doors, the things inside are not very well-behaved."

As if to confirm the "Truthkeeper's" warning, various vague noises came from some of the small rooms on both sides of the corridor, accompanied by his voice. Some were the noise of iron chains rubbing, some were whispers as if people were in a dream, and there were even disgusting movements of viscous liquids surging, as well as footsteps that kept ringing behind the doors, as if they would walk out of a certain door in the next second.

Shirley and Nina immediately retracted their curious gazes, and the expressions on their faces finally became a little serious and nervous.

Duncan's gaze swept over those small rooms with ample security measures.

In the next second, the entire corridor was silent.

"Now they're well-behaved." Duncan nodded in satisfaction.

(End of Chapter)