Embers Ad Infinitum

After taking a few steps down the stairs, Shang Jianyao suddenly exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Baimian turned her head and asked, "You can speak now."

Shang Jianyao clenched his right fist and punched his left palm. "We forgot to ask Aester another question!"

Upon being reminded, Jiang Baimian immediately recalled that Aester was involved in something else: Some of the goods that Smith's Rootless team sent to the ice ruin came from Aester!

In other words, even if he wasn't the cargo owner suspected to be an Eighth Research Institute partner, he should've seen that person or obtained some clues.

The latter two situations were more likely. After all, Aester had only provided a portion of the supplies, and Gitis had easily found this out. It didn't match the caution used to erase memories on a large scale.

Jiang Baimian immediately turned around and said to Sandro on the other side, "Please bring us up to meet Mr. Aester again. We forgot an important question; this directly affects whether Mr. Aester's regret can be made up for."

She deliberately exaggerated the latter half of her sentence and forced the communication to prevent Sandro from rejecting her and taking more effort.

In fact, if one were to delve deeper, there was nothing wrong with what she said.

That batch of goods involved the Eighth Research Institute, and Ceningmis was guarded by the Eighth Research Institute. Whether they could investigate the former would indeed affect the Old Task Force's exploration of Ceningmis. The Old Task Force's exploration in Ceningmis undoubtedly affected Aester's regret directly.

/ please keep reading on MYB0XN0VEL(d0t)C0M.

The reason Jiang Baimian forgot to ask about the goods was that she had been mentally occupied by the term 'Kalendaria's Son.'

As Jiang Baimian was the one speaking and not Shang Jianyao, Sandro deliberated for a few seconds and said, "Alright."

He was constantly wary of Shang Jianyao's words.

After turning around, Sandro led Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao back to the fourth floor.

He didn't directly go to the room where Aester was. He stayed at the last checkpoint and recounted the matter, getting his colleague to report the matter to the boss on his behalf.

The guard took a few steps to the solarium, bent his finger, and knocked thrice.

No response.

He knocked three more times.

Still no response.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

He knocked three more times and added some strength.

Finally, Aester's slightly deep and exhausted voice sounded from the solarium. "What is it now?"

Upon hearing Aester's response, Shang Jianyao heaved a sigh of relief and happily muttered to himself, "Fortunately, nothing happened. I thought a coincidence happened such that the key witness dies on the spot and is silenced."

These words attracted the attention of Sandro and the guards. Some of them even had some anger.

Don't say anything if you can't do it nicely… Jiang Baimian grumbled. Frankly speaking, she had the same worries.

Similar situations often appeared in the Old World's entertainment. The protagonist team would finally find a clue and lock onto a key witness. But due to a combination of factors, they were a step too late, resulting in the key witness being silenced by the murderer.

After the guard knocking on the door repeated Sandro's words, Aester fell silent for a moment. "Let them in."

The fatigue in his tone made Jiang Baimian feel like she was disturbing a patient.

In the solarium, Aester seemed to have already adjusted his posture. At present, he was only leaning against the recliner slightly with a blanket covering his lower body.

He looked at Jiang Baimian and said, "Same thing as before. You do the asking."

Jiang Baimian politely asked, "Mr. Aester, did you recently provide a batch of goods to Smith's Farstriders caravan?"

Aester revealed a look of enlightenment. "The batch of goods that went missing in Icefield?"

"Yes." Jiang Baimian nodded, and Shang Jianyao did the same.

Aester smiled and said, "I did provide some supplies to the Farstriders caravan, but it only accounted for a small portion of that batch of goods."

Jiang Baimian asked in one breath, "What supplies were they? Who bought them? Who got you to hand them over to the Farstriders caravan?"

She deliberately showed that the Old Task Force had never suspected that Aester was the real cargo owner in case Aester really was the one. This was to prevent them from alarming the other party and causing something unexpected to happen on the spot.

In short, they had to obtain a certain answer first before analyzing the truth. Finally, they had to consider whether they should go all out and force a friendship.

Aester smiled and asked, "Why should I answer these questions? What kind of payment can you provide this time?"

He emphasized 'payment,' indicating that it wasn't about the money.

"What do you want?" Jiang Baimian didn't know Aester well, so she couldn't figure out what his weak spot was.

If Aester had to get the Old Task Force to propose something, she planned on starting by offering some medical drugs and biological agents invented by Pangu Biology. After all, Aester didn't seem to be in good health at his age. Furthermore, Shang Jianyao's father's team had exchanged information using such items.

Although the White Knights were also very strong in the corresponding domain and Aester had the money and status, making it easy for him to obtain certain drugs, Pangu Biology's products still had their own characteristics. Sometimes, something foreign was better.

Of course, this would expose the Old Task Force's identity to a certain extent.

Aester seemed to have fallen into his thoughts, and his eyes lost focus. After a while, he seriously said, "My request is that you immediately leave Gesterbourg after obtaining the information you want on these two matters. Don't stay a second longer or get involved in anything. Of course, it would be even better if you went to Ceningmis after you left Gesterbourg."

This request… It's impossible for him to know that matters crop up and cause a considerable storm wherever our team goes, right? He wants to send us out of the borders as soon as possible to ensure his safety? As Jiang Baimian found it a little strange, she casually agreed. "No problem."

The Old Task Force had come to Gesterbourg to investigate Shang Jianyao's father's team and the Eighth Research Institute's secret personnel!

Without waiting for Aester to speak, Jiang Baimian added, "But during our investigation of these two matters, we can't sacrifice ourselves and only escape if someone provokes us and comes looking for us."

She meant that they would focus on their investigations and not poke their noses into other people's business. They would leave as soon as they completed the mission. Apart from that, there was no guarantee.

Aester fell silent for a moment before nodding. "Sure, I believe in your promise. At the very least, you've acted trustworthy until now. The corresponding information actually has nothing to do with me, so it won't affect me even if I tell you."

He then said, "Smith should've told you that the relevant personnel have lost their memories regarding the missing goods. Having Awakened among you, you definitely know what this means. I'm not an exception—my memories have also been wiped away."

At this point, Aester smiled. "However, this doesn't conflict with me still knowing the relevant details."

Has he found a way to avoid the influence of Memory Erasure, or rather, it was indeed deleted back then, but he later recovered the portion of memories through some means? Jiang Baimian tried to understand the meaning behind Aester's words.

She felt that if Shang Jianyao could speak, he would definitely ask, "How did you?" However, the other party would undoubtedly not answer.

Aester continued, "I provided some rare metals to the Farstriders caravan. The person who made the payment and commissioned me to do this was Mor."

"Mor? That intelligence peddler?" Jiang Baimian had been repeating these names recently.

Aester nodded. "Yes. As for where he got the money and why he bought such a batch of goods, I don't know the answer, nor do I want to know. I'm only a merchant. I provide the goods once I receive a suitable price and sufficient payment."

"Understood." Jiang Baimian nodded slightly.

According to Aester's answer, she didn't find any signs of lying. However, she had always been careful and wouldn't believe him so easily. But she didn't plan on obtaining Aester's 'friendship' now and making him not hold back. After all, the other party was clearly wary of Shang Jianyao's Thought Implantation.

Furthermore, Aester was mysterious and likely had trump cards. If they really 'befriended' him, it was difficult to say what the final outcome would be.

Caution was of utmost importance. Jiang Baimian planned on 'visiting' the intelligence peddler, Mor, first. She would then decide if she wanted to return to Aester based on his feedback.

When the time came, they would probably be sneaking in and completing the control of him by surprise.

After bidding Aester farewell for the second time, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao returned to their jeep under Sandro's surveillance. Bai Chen drove the car out of the parking lot.

"The Kalendaria's Son?" Long Yuehong repeated the term with a frown after hearing his team leader's recount.

Shang Jianyao immediately laughed. "What's strange about that? Some Kalendarium have bodies of descent, so it's normal to have human sons."

"From the looks of it, the Kalendaria's Son had really protected Ceningmis, preventing it from suffering a devastating blow when the Old World was destroyed…" Long Yuehong found the logic relatively reasonable.

Shang Jianyao glanced at him. "Wasn't Master Zhuang's hometown—Linhe Village—and the places 'He' studied—Tai City, and Dajiang City—destroyed? 'He' is a real Kalendaria, not some Kalendaria's Son."