When the plot-skips players into the game world

```

Hearing Aiwass's words, the old Inspector named William fell into a brief moment of silence.
Find your adventure at My Virtual Library Empire

"Ah..."

He hummed, emitting a nonsensical exclamation. It was as if he were about to recite a poem or groaning from a headache.

The elderly man stared intently at Aiwass— yet Lily felt keenly that instead of looking at Aiwass, the old Inspector seemed to be gazing at the air in front of himself.

He was lost in thought for a few seconds, then shook his head.

"...Oh, what were we talking about..."

he muttered under his breath.

After recalling for a bit, he suddenly clapped his hands as he remembered: "Jacob, right?

"Indeed, I still remember him... that was over a decade ago. Oh… about fourteen years ago. Yes, it was in winter... pretty much like now. The weather was even colder than it is today; it snowed heavily that day."

The more the old Inspector spoke, the more certain his tone became. The sealed memories gradually unlocked and took shape through his words.

"A snowy day?" Aiwass confirmed.

"Yes."

Old William nodded, sighing, "Old folk always succumb to the winter snow.

"Snow is the rain of tranquility, the water of preservation, the wind of dusk, formless yet condensed, tangible yet melting. Those that are aging, withered, and silent, they can't withstand the calling of the snow. They will all be buried within this lake of pure white."

He mumbled on, somewhat incoherently.

Suddenly, Aiwass thought of something and asked, "Were you the one who confirmed the death news at that time?"

"Yes, it was me."

"I heard that when he died, all his manuscripts were lost without a trace... What happened there? Did he leave any kind of will?"

Aiwass pressed on.

This was information from Bishop Mathers.

Although it was somewhat impolite, it made sense for Aiwass to speak so frankly in front of Old William, given the "young minister" image he had established for himself.

The old Inspector took a good while to recall before he slowly answered, "I don't quite remember... but I remember he indeed left nothing behind.

"To be precise, it's not that his manuscripts vanished into thin air. Instead, all the paper in his house disappeared. Whether it was manuscripts, newspapers, or letters. However, the books were all there.

"I once suspected he had become confused and burned them all in the fireplace, but I didn't find any remnants from incomplete combustion. So, I could only assume someone broke in before us and stole them—

"Because the thief wouldn't have known which paper was valuable and didn't have the time to check on the spot, they just took them all home to investigate closely. I think this is a reasonable speculation."

So said the old Inspector.

Hayna nodded continuously on the side.

Indeed— if she were in charge, she would have likely come to the same conclusion. There was no doubt it was the most rational explanation.

However, upon hearing this, Aiwass's brows slightly furrowed.

As if he had a vague awareness of something, he fell into contemplation.

Meanwhile, Sherlock asked on his own, "Do you remember how he died?"

"Oh, I remember... yes, I do. A few days before that, he had said he wasn't feeling well, shivering from the cold. He even borrowed some firewood from the young people to burn in the fireplace. But actually, there was no problem at that time."

The old Inspector frowned, trying hard to remember: "It was one day after that, he suddenly collapsed. We hadn't seen him for several days before that.

"Then one day, he suddenly rushed out of his house and fell to the ground. Fortunately, a young man happened to be on the road and helped him back home. He was still conscious at that time... he said he was feeling dizzy, as if he had a fever.

"His body was burning up fiercely, and his breathing became difficult. He was so distressed that he started to speak deliriously... he said he wanted to find his son, but who knew who his son was?"

The old Inspector sighed: "There was no Pharmacist in the village. The only Priest tried to help him, but it was of little use. So they could only give him a hot brandy with honey in it.

"Many people in the village know about this. You might ask the Priest's son; he might know some deeper details."

"Couldn't Illumination Art be used to dispel the Curse?"

Aiwass pursued the question.

"No use. His treatment easily made Jacob regain consciousness for a while, but he relapsed before nightfall... That likely means it was probably not a Curse.

"After that, he didn't survive many days. The old Priest is a Priest, after all; if he couldn't handle it, then the Bishop would have to be called."

```

Old William merely shook his head and asserted, "We've tried every method we could... Jacob was one of the few cultured people in our village, and the children all liked him very much. If it were possible, we would definitely have tried to save him."

Aiwass narrowed his eyes slightly.

——He finally pinpointed where the problem lay.

During Aiwass's first promotion ceremony, he had learned an important piece of information.

Aiwass's parents had died due to the curse assassination by the Cursing Sorcerer Aziz Ben Abdul, acting on Old James Moriarty's instructions.

Aiwass had thought back then that he had survived the curse he suffered as a child because his father had dissipated the curse, after which his parents had lured away the Hook Demon to allow Aiwass to live...

But Aiwass had overlooked one thing.

Or rather, he had assumed that the Cursing Sorcerer's objective was to exterminate his entire family, so a curse had also been placed upon him. Or to put it another way, that the curse afflicting him had been cast by the Cursing Sorcerer Aziz.

However, the symptoms his grandfather exhibited just before death were identical to Aiwass's feverish experiences as a child...

Aziz couldn't possibly have cursed Grandfather Jacob.

Not only was his skill obviously inferior to Jacob's by a wide margin, but he also didn't possess any of Jacob's mediums.

Moreover, when Aiwass had played the role of his father, dispelling the "curse" on "Little Aiwass" had been nearly instantaneous; yet when attempting to dispel the curse on Isabel, who acted as Aiwass's mother, he met with fierce resistance.

It was as though the former didn't care about being dispelled at all.

Unlike Aiwass, who at that time could only use first energy level Strength, Julio was a Priest! He was at least of the second energy level, and possibly of a higher level but still honing his experience.

If Aiwass could do it, why couldn't his father dispel it himself?

That was the biggest inconsistency.

Prince Wolfram the Giant had emphatically stated that Aiwass's grandfather had been cursed to death by him.

According to Aiwass's Ritual Studies teacher, Aiwass's grandfather had once developed the "Typhoid Curse."

This curse embodied Jacob's "low-key" style — it didn't reveal itself as a curse but instead masqueraded as a mild case of typhoid, leaving people off-guard and disinclined to actively seek treatment or dispel the curse. Once the curse had amassed enough power within the body, it would cause the person to die suddenly in a short span of time.

That led Aiwass to believe for some time that the curse employed by Wolfram was this very one.

However, now that he had heard about his grandfather's symptoms, Aiwass immediately realized something was amiss.

It didn't match up. Not at all — Jacob hadn't contracted a cold, instead, he had been diagnosed with one by the Priest due to his fever and warmth. His real symptoms were the same as those of Aiwass!

Moreover, if Jacob had invented the "Typhoid Curse," then he could not possibly have been ignorant about how to break the curse — especially since his mind had been clear at that time.

If Aiwass had been afflicted by the typhoid curse, then how could Aziz, a foreign Cursing Sorcerer, have learned of it? He had absolutely no contact with Noble Red.

Assuming all these possibilities were considered and the information at hand was correct, Aiwass came to a peculiar conclusion —

——It was highly probable that his grandfather had neither been cursed to death by the Cursing Sorcerer Aziz nor by Prince Wolfram the Giant.

Yet his death had been widely acknowledged. This directly led to the curse assassination of Aiwass's parents by the Cursing Sorcerer Aziz and the entire downfall of the Alexander Family.

Rather than being liquidated by Noble Red as the founder of Hand of the Scaleless... it was more like he possessed something precious that brought about his demise.

And if this premise was taken as the logical foundation, Aiwass then recalled another detail that he had overlooked —

During the introductory phase of Aiwass's first advancement ritual, it was mentioned that his father "Giulio Alexander's" niece, Aiwass's cousin Lisa, had been murdered a month ago, yet the Supervisory Bureau had failed to identify the culprit.

One month after that incident, Giulio received a letter. The letter mentioned that Giulio "had not done as they demanded," threatening that Aiwass would be the next one they would kill.

Aiwass vaguely remembered that he had fallen ill with a fever before coming to Glass Island. It wasn't after his arrival at Glass Island that he had become feverish.

At the time, Aiwass had naturally overlooked this fact, considering it an excuse employed by the Cursing Sorcerer Aziz to deceive them. After all, there was a limited distance the Hook Demon could teleport, and it made sense for them to be lured in to collect the medium necessary for casting the curse.

However, if he really could ignore distance and the medium, precisely cursing Aiwass... then why didn't he just directly kill Aiwass's mother and father?

Therefore, there was only one possibility.

That the letter had nothing to do with the Cursing Sorcerer Aziz at all!

In other words, Giulio had indeed received such a letter — given that, he must have actually been blackmailed about something!

Then his visit to his teacher, Bishop Mathers in Glass Island, made sense — not because he hoped the Bishop would help him break the curse, something he could have done by finding any priest, or even by himself. He had come to Glass Island to discuss the letter with the Bishop!

Aiwass felt a chill on his scalp.

Because if that was the case...

Then, the words Prince Wolfram the Giant had said to Aiwass were actually meant to fish for information!