13 Mink Street

After checking their watches, all three captains all fell silent.

Even Kassel, who had been the most irritable before and clearly harbored the deepest hostility towards Nio, showed a grave expression at this moment.

Of course, he might not even be prejudiced against Nio, but have an accurate understanding of the man.

“Three hours. We’re off by three hours.” Anthony immediately turned and shouted to the people behind him, “Check your watches! Calibrate against the stars!”

Kassel also shouted, “Do the same!”

Nio looked up to glance at the night sky, and then tapped the blue shell by his ear. “Fannie, calibrate.”

Very quickly, the results were returned from all sides. Anthony and Kassel’s side showed that it was a little past one, while Nio’s side showed a little past four.

Despite the two groups standing face to face, they differed by three hours in time, and even the night skies above them were not the same.

“What’s going on?” Anthony looked at Nio.

Kassel, instead asked, “Nio, what did we do during the next three hours?”

As captains of Whip of Order squads, neither man lacked either basic professional competence or adequate experience. Naturally, they would not stand there babbling, “That’s impossible! That’s impossible! This is all a sham...”

Having already encountered a strange situation, what they needed to do next was solve it as best they could.

Nio said, “You entered Arles Castle. A little more than an hour later, you left again. I sent people to intercept your convoys, only to find your vehicles, but none of you. When I led my squad back and returned to this place, we saw you driving this way in your cars.”

“So that means we already entered the mission target?” Anthony’s eyes showed a thoughtful look.

Kassel asked, “What exactly is inside the manor?”

“I don’t know.” Nio shook his head.

“You don’t know?”

“I never entered the castle. I felt danger, so I decided to abandon the mission.”

“So only my squad and Anthony’s entered the manor?”

“Yes.”

Kassel licked his lips. “If we take you as the point of reference, then we’re ourselves from three hours ago. Does that mean that no matter what we do now, we can’t change the fixed outcome?”

Nio raised a hand to cut him off. “I don’t think we should be discussing philosophical questions right now. We should focus on what is practical.”

Anthony asked, “Nio, what do you think happened?”

“I suspect that something mysterious is inside Arles Manor, and it affected you.”

Kassel was caught off guard. “A holy relic that can manipulate time?”

Nio glanced at Kassel and asked, “Do you know what a temporal holy relic would mean?”

Though holy relics and divine artifacts related to time had long existed in stories, no one had ever confirmed one truly appearing. In the ecclesiastical world, it was not as though there had never been churches that worshiped or believed in deities related to time, but without exception, they had all been minor churches, and it was entirely possible that the deities they worshiped were false or had never existed at all.

That was because time could not be reversed, nor could it be mastered. Epoch after epoch, the gods had researched and explored time, but all had ultimately failed.

A god would never step forward and say, “My research failed,” of course, but when one looked across the various epochs and saw how many deities and orthodox churches had gone to be obliterated, that alone was enough to prove that to this day no deity had ever truly mastered time.

So a temporal holy relic had always been nothing more than a concept that was familiar to many people, and which had long since appeared in works of art and fiction, but of which no trace could be found in reality.

Anthony asked, “Then what do you think it is?”

“My guess is that you may have been deceived, or perhaps lured into some delusion, and that is what caused the current situation.”

“Us?” Anthony immediately pressed him. “Why are you so certain that you haven't been deluded yourself?”

“Because my squad never entered the castle.”

“How do you know you didn’t enter it? What if you did, but were deceived into believing that you haven’t?” Kassel pressed.

Nio stopped speaking.

“If only we were deceived or deluded, why would you appear before me where I’m standing now?”

Anthony reached out and caught Kassel by the arm, signaling him to stop talking, and then addressed Nio, “We’ll follow your command. My squad and Kassel’s will both follow your command.”

“On what grounds...” Kassel was clearly dissatisfied. He now understood the situation; From the start, Nio had been belittling the plight of their two squads while carefully keeping his own out of everything. It was obvious he wanted to lead the three squads as the “rescuer.”

That was why he had kept saying “you,” “you,” never once mentioning any possibility that his own squad might also have a problem.

Nio smiled. “On the grounds that I won’t turn over command of my squad. On the grounds that I dislike entrusting my fate to others. You may choose to act on your own and continue down this road to Arles Castle. You can do your thing, and I’ll do mine.”

“We’re willing to cooperate,” Anthony stated.

Kassel muttered, “Thug,” under his breath, but still replied, “Fine, we’ll follow your command. What’s the first step?”

“Your squads will both remain here, while I lead mine to the railroad junction up ahead and try to catch a train back to York City.”

Kassel immediately shouted, “You want to confirm whether or not your side has a problem? And if it doesn’t, you’ll just take your men and leave?”

Nio nodded. “That’s right.”

“You!”

Anthony immediately pulled Kassel back and said, “Fine. We’ll follow your arrangement.”

Kassel’s chest heaved with anger, but he said nothing further. In a situation like this, if Nio’s squad truly could return to York City, at the very least they would be able to send word to the church and call for reinforcements for the people at the castle, stronger departments that could resolve what was happening. Only then would there be any hope for their squads as well.

It was not that Kassel could not understand the stakes; What angered him was the way Nio was handling everything without any shame at all.

Nio turned and went back to his own squad members. The conversation between the three captains had not been hidden from any of the squads. In particular, Kassel had spoken loudly the entire time. In this sort of situation, hiding things from their subordinates was completely meaningless. Letting everyone understand the situation they faced could, on the one hand, help to gather ideas for possible solutions, and on the other, make it easier to command the subordinates to carry out orders which would seem absurd under ordinary circumstances.

Most importantly, if this predicament truly was as it seemed, then no one would be able to escape it. At a time like this, open communication was another way of strengthening cohesion.

Nio’s gaze passed over his squad as he said, “I need one member to join the squads over there. If our attempt to return fails, then when we come back, that person can serve as a point of reference.

“If anyone is tired of living and wants to take the risk, step forward. If no one volunteers, we’ll draw lots, excluding me. The fifteen of you will draw to choose one person.”

Everyone knew that the person left behind would be facing a great risk. In a strange situation like this, the correct choice was clearly to get away and back to safety as quickly as possible.

Karon said nothing, not stepping forward. He would rather accept the draw.

In contrast, Richard took two steps forward on his own and shouted, “Captain, I’ll stay behind!”

For a moment, every eye fell onto Richard. He straightened his back, scuffing his boots on the ground, and put on an expression of “what’s the big deal.”

Karon looked at the newcomer, Memphis. He had also already raised a foot to step forward, but at just that moment, Marlow moved ahead of him. More precisely, Marlow stepped forward only a fraction more slowly than Richard.

Marlow reached out, caught Richard by the shoulder, and dragged him back, saying, “Captain, let me do this. I understand ritual arrays, so if it become necessary to stablish contact later on, that’ll make things easier.”

“Good. You stay. Everyone else, continue forward.”

Nio’s squad crossed past Kassel and Anthony’s squads on the road, while Marlow remained behind.

At the same time, right as Nio’s squad finished passing by, two other squad members followed in behind them; one from Anthony’s squad and the other from Kassel’s squad. Clearly, the two captains had made the same arrangement as Nio.

There were no exchanges, no introductions. Those who stayed behind stayed behind, while those following followed. The two sides simply moved farther and farther apart.

At last, they arrived at the railway junction. Everyone stood along the tracks, waiting for a train headed for York City.

York City was a major city, with the harbor at the center, so even at night, trains frequently passed.

It was not long before a freight train came through. “Get on.”

Everyone climbed aboard the train. Karon, Richard, and Memphis stood together at the junction connecting two carriages.

“This mission is troublesome,” Karon said.

Richard replied, “It certainly is.”

Memphis nodded.

“You haven’t noticed anything strange?” Karon asked.

Richard answered, “No. Even though I’ve been paying close attention to the surroundings, I still haven’t.”

Memphis shook his head.

The train continued on. Karon suddenly noticed something odd about the distant scenery. They had clearly been moving closer and closer to the lights of the city up ahead, yet in the blink of an eye, that dense patch of light in the sky suddenly grew distant once more.

Grabbing the side of the carriage with one hand, Karon leaned out and saw that up ahead, where they were just about to arrive, was the very railway station where they had boarded the train earlier.

This was... returning back again.

“Off the train!” The captain’s command rang out, and everyone jumped down. They turned to watch the freight train continue on ahead.

“Proceed on foot!” A new order followed, and the entire squad began advancing on foot. After more than twenty minutes of walking, they returned back to the very place from which they had first set out.

Richard stated the obvious. “Looks like... we can’t get out.”

Memphis commented, “It’s possible we never moved at all.”

Karon looked at Memphis and asked, “Were we hypnotized?”

He shook his head. “It’s more complicated than that.”

At that moment, a few crows landed in front of them and began pacing about. Nio walked over and waved a hand, and all of the black crows dissipated. Clearly, they were messages that the captain had sent out, but they had also failed to get away.

It was as though all of them were trapped inside a gigantic well. There were no sharp walls hemming them in on every side, but the moss-covered slickness made despair come more easily, not less.

Richard glanced at his watch. “It’s almost five. Dawn should be coming soon too.”

Karon asked, “Richard, exactly what time is it?”

“Oh, five... hm? Half past midnight!”

The same startled cry could be heard from other members of the squad as well. Clearly, Richard was not the only one to notice the time change.

Karon looked up at the stars overhead. He was not actually familiar with constellations, yet even he could feel that the stars above seemed a bit different from before.

Very soon, the calibration results came back. It was indeed not yet one in the morning. That meant that they were trapped not only in this place, but in a specific time as well.

“They’re gone!” Fannie shouted. Everyone immediately got up and checked their surroundings. Upon counting their numbers, they found fifteen, including their captain.

Originally, their squad consisted of the captain, twelve formal members, and three attached members, for a total of sixteen. Removing Marlow, who had stayed behind with the other two squads, left fifteen.

Everyone from their squad was present, but the two squad members sent by the other two captains were gone. Karon did not know their names, but was certain that the two had been with them when they had boarded the train together.

“They got back off the train,” Gray stated. “The two of them were standing with me the whole time. I was responsible for watching for any change in them. I remember very clearly that after Captain gave the order, they got off the train with me, and they even mentioned to me their worries about our current situation.

“That is to say, they were right beside me just moments ago, and yet I have no awareness at all of how they could have disappeared.”

“Did they go back?” Paige asked. “I mean, were they sent back?”

Fannie said, “Then what about Marlow? If those two were sent back, why didn’t Marlow come back to us too?”

“Because the return points are different,” Memphis said.

Everyone turned to look at their newest member. Memphis did not act socially withdrawn. He very seriously explained, “They probably did go back, and Marlow probably did too, but the places they returned to aren’t the same. They probably went back to someplace different from where we stand now.”

“Sorry, I don’t think I understand...” Fannie said.

“The coordinates aren’t here. There may be one set of fixed coordinates, or several. When their time comes, they were sent back to those coordinates.”

“Then what about us? Why are we still here?” Fannie asked.

“Our squad may now be a set of moving coordinates itself.”

“Moving coordinates?” Paige asked in confusion. “Why?”

“I don’t know, but I have the feeling that if scattered individuals are left alone, they may be sent back to those fixed coordinates, while if a squad reaches a certain size, it becomes a moving set of coordinates. In that case, we would only be regularized in time, but not in space.”

Gray frowned. “You think time is what’s controlling this?”

“Just a different expression of time. I don’t believe that time itself has actually undergone any changes. The real time certainly hasn’t changed; What has changed is our cognition of time.

“Our watches, the starry sky above us, they may all be part of the deception. I don’t know what exactly is causing all of this, but whatever is producing this phenomenon seems to be deliberately guiding us to the notion that time has been fractured.”

Nio spoke up, “Memphis is right. Don’t talk about time. Don’t deepen that concept in your own minds. I don’t believe that anything such as a temporal holy relic exists in this world, and I don’t believe that any such thing like the power of time exists either.

“We can’t follow that sort of guidance in recognizing and exploring things along those lines, or else we’ll never get out of here.

“Now, since we can’t get out, we’ll go back, back to the hillside where we first stopped to observe the castle. I hope that Marlow will arrive ahead of us, and will be waiting to rejoin us.”

Nio did not say that the other two squads would meet them there too. Karon felt that Nio likely believed that they would not appear in the same place, even though they would certainly keep to the arrangement and remain there.

The group began retracing their route. As they moved, Richard quietly asked Karon, “Is there really no such thing as a temporal holy relic?”

“There isn’t,” Memphis answered first. “According to one account, the God of Light disappeared precisely because he pursued the power to master time.”

Hearing that explanation, Karon paused. He then asked, “That’s one of the explanations?”

There had always been countless speculations regarding the fate of the God of Light, and in different periods, different schools of interpretation had dominated. That was normal. After all, even the study of a single novel could splinter into multiple schools arguing endlessly with one another, much less something like the God of Light.

At present, one relatively unified view held that the God of Light had disappeared at the end of the previous epoch or the beginning of the current one. That disappearance also included the possibility of the god having fallen.

“There are many explanations. It depends on which one you’re more willing to accept,” Memphis continued. “Time is a power even gods are fascinated by.”

Because only by mastering time could one persist through epoch after epoch without fearing obliteration.

Karon could not help but think of what the golden retriever at home had said the other night. Kevin had described the God of Eternity as having grown disappointed.

However, if time truly was a power that even gods were unable to obtain, yet also could not resist longing for, then what exactly was the power currently acting on their squad?

Karon did not know the answer. The captain’s attempts to contact the outside world had all failed, and the earliest effort, having Marlow send a distress message to the Church, had likely failed as well.

If the cat and dog at home were present, they would likely be able to offer a better analysis and speculation regarding the situation.

At last, the squad arrived at the place where they had last met with Anthony and Kassel’s squads. The unsurprising surprise was that the two squads who had been ordered to remain there with Marlow, had all vanished without a trace.

Richard ran over to the roadside and examined the ground. Karon asked, “What are you looking at?”

“When I volunteered to stay behind, I scuffed out a little pit here with my boot. I’m certain I was standing in this exact spot at that time, but the pit is gone.”

Karon then remembered that, when Richard had stepped forward to take on the task and was trying to project calm indifference, his feet had indeed been doing rather a lot.

At that moment, Karon heard Fannie suggest something to the captain, “Captain, since we can’t get out anyway, I think we should go take a look at Arles Castle.”

“Yes, Captain, things are already like this, so we might as well go and see what exactly is inside the castle,” Gray suggested as well.

Nio shook his head. “On the contrary, I think the fact that we never entered Arles Castle is currently our greatest advantage. I refuse to believe its effect can last this long.

“Everyone, gather and make camp on this spot!” The captain ordered them to make camp. Karon and Memphis started walking back toward the group. At that moment, Karon noticed that Richard had not followed them. He was still there looking for his little pit.

“Richard, let’s move. We’re making camp,” Karon called to urge him.

Memphis also stopped walking and looked back at Richard.

“Oh, right, coming, Karon.” Richard slapped the dust from his hands and stood up. Then, as both Karon and Memphis watched, the young man suddenly started running in the opposite direction. As he ran, he shouted, “Hey, don’t go so fast! Wait for me, Karon!”