"What are you going to get from that castle? Or is it a little bit of a gadget?" Esther touched the base of the compass and looked at the magpie who was crouching next to her.

The magpie regained her composure at her tone, and then flapped her wings and landed on Esther's shoulder, "I'm going to find some items left behind in the castle that can be used to drive spirit creatures...... I don't even know if it's going to be rewarded."

Noticing Esther's pensive expression, Magpie added, "If it's too dangerous, we'll prioritize escape."

Esther nodded, "Shall we split up?"

"Do you know what I'm looking for?" The magpie didn't wait for Esther to answer the question, and then he went on to himself, "And the two of them together can walk in from the front door in the open. If we invade the castle at midnight from somewhere else, we will be greeted with malice."

Esther looked in the direction of the woods, and the dense canopy of trees could not hide the spire of the strange castle, and even just looking there would make her feel chills in her back: "There will be no problem going through the main gate?"

The magpie chuckled under his breath, "That castle is a big problem, and we can't expect to confront it head-on, but it's always okay to pretend with them. You just have to keep your composure, and leave the rest to me, you don't have to speak."

Esther frowned, seeing that the ruins of the castle had not been repaired at all, it did not look like there were people in the vicinity, but Benjamin said this as if there were still people living in it.

However, Benjamin's use of the word "they", and the castle is probably not human, which makes Esther can't help but have some divergent associations: "Is it a vampire who lives in the castle?"

"It could also be a nobleman," Benjamin's tone sounded a little dissatisfied, "but you're right, this castle used to belong to a Marquis of the Blood, but after he was polluted and turned mad, it gradually fell into ruin."

Esther couldn't help frowning, even if there was Mr. "Moon" in the Tarot meeting, she was still very vague about the composition of the Blood Clan, and she didn't know much: "Marquis of the Blood Clan? That should correspond to ......."

"'The Sequence Three Extraordinaire of the Moon Path, also known as the Master of Summoning.'" Benjamin's tone gradually became serious, "Some paths are already dangerous, they will be influenced by those in high positions, and even further attract pollution from external factors......

With that, the magpie lowered her voice and quietly looked at Esther's face.

Esther seemed to understand what Benjamin had not said, and she smiled wryly at herself, "Why do you look at me like this, do you think that I am also some kind of 'pollution of external causes?'"

Benjamin quickly pondered the words and organized the language: "There is something very strange in his memory when he parasitized the rabbit, and that light has something to do with you."

"yes, it's about me." Esther confessed, but in the magpie's expectant gaze, she didn't go on.

The magpie's cocked tail feathers drooped, "Well, it looks like you don't really want to share. But I do have some clues about that light."

Esther turned her head sideways and stared at the magpie with a very calm look, but when she was expressionless, Benjamin could clearly feel that she was being scrutinized, which made him resist.

The magpie shook his head, "But I won't say that."

"Whatever you want." Esther looked away, and looked back at the spire of the castle in the deep forest.

"What were you thinking?" Magpie asked.

Benjamin didn't expect an answer, but Esther smiled, "I'm wondering how much you know, and how much I can believe."

She reached out and poked the magpie's white chest and abdomen, "After all, we are all 'thieves, and the more we tell, the more lies we tell, so why not be silent?'

That way, at least we can have more trust between us, and we won't be caught in the thread of suspicion.

The magpie quietly lowered his gaze, "The true God is the end of the extraordinary, and the old days are above the true God."

Esther's fingers froze in mid-air

"You ......"

The magpie closed his eyes, "'The Thief and the other two adjacent paths need essentia to step above the true god, and that is, 'Source Fort.' And 'the path of destiny is the essentia needed to break through the true god......

After a pause, the magpie pressed its beak to Esther's fingertip and pecked softly at her index finger, "It's the 'Key to Light.'"

Esther stared blankly at the magpie, the white feathers around her eyes surrounding her black eyes, magnifying a certain emotion that appeared in them. Esther didn't think it was pity, but more like some kind of lament that only people who are different from the other.

Why?

Her look of surprise seemed to please the magpie, so that a mocking smile replaced the momentary sigh, and the magpie slammed Esther's finger, causing her to withdraw the finger that had poked in the magpie's chest in pain.

"Why are you telling me this?" Esther's demeanor was cloudy, as if she wanted to avoid the magpie on her shoulder, but her body was too stiff to move.

The magpie didn't answer her, but clasped Esther's shoulder with his paws, as if he was ready to take off directly after losing his foothold.

The silence between the two didn't last long, and Esther suddenly laughed again, "Forget it, my gut tells me you don't mean anything. Although I don't know your purpose......

"I don't want to hurt you." The magpie whispered.

Esther blinked, Benjamin's words were sincere, which made her a little confused: "Well, since you say so, then I will believe you. The premise is that my gut tells me that you are not lying, that you are just hiding something, but I am also hiding something, and it is flattened."

Instead, the magpie looked dissatisfied: "I don't think you're the 'key to light, or not exactly, the most direct proof is that you're too weak.'" Whether it's the Key of Light or the Source Castle, they can all exert the power above the True God themselves, but you only seem to have the Ability to Steal the Thief to be stable.

"I see those rays in the memories of rabbits, they don't have the power above the king of angels, they just have special personalities, this is my judgment based on many aspects."

Esther lowered her head and thought, "I've been proven to have a special relationship with the Extraordinaire of the Destiny Path. But above the true God? He doesn't look like ......."

"Him? Who are you talking about?" The magpie stared at Esther's expression and shaved her shoulder twice, scraping a thread into her dress.

"Nothing, just some questions." Esther frowned and smoothed the thread so that the magpie would not sit idle, and continued to pull at it with the tips of her paws.

She was a little curious about the true relationship between the "Fool" and Zoya.

If the "Fool" is an ancient god awakened and a true god level, then how can Zoya, as the attendant of the "Fool", be the "Key of Light"? Or is the "fool" actually a thing of the past?

If the "Fool" is really the old days, then Amun is just the king of angels, how dare he chase Zoya to ask for the "Source Fort......

Esther always felt that she had a "no" answer in her heart, but her respect and trust for the "Fool" made her not think deeply, after all, the tarot meeting held by the "Fool" and the rescue of the "Fool" made Esther reluctant to think more about him.

But the words Amun had spoken seemed to be getting closer and closer to her ears, as if he were whispering to her—"Don't be fooled by the appearances they show you."

Benjamin talked about the existence of those points of light, considering the origin of Zoya, and made Esther subconsciously put her fingertips on her forehead.

Tiny dots of light swirled between her hair and fingers as she poured out with her emotions and thoughts, and when they converged, they would turn into a flowing stream of light that passed back and forth between her fingers.

Soon, Esther calmed down, and the points of light returned to her hair under the drive of her thoughts.

The magpie watched as the points of light poured out and retracted, "Looks like you can control them well?"

Esther's brow furrowed more and more, what Benjamin said today made her feel very uneasy, and she looked at the compass in her hand that turned the pointer, "I don't know, but most of the time it's under my control. They sometimes give me a 'feeling of being alive......

"They may really be some kind of spirit," the magpie's right eye was wriggling with darkness, but it was not visible at all from Esther's angle, "there is no substance when it appears, and there must be ......attachment to it when it is silent."

Esther rubbed the top of her head twice, "Then what if I'm bald, where are they to stay?" On top of my head?"

She imagined it, and it was probably like a glowing light bulb.

The magpie opened its mouth for a moment before shaking its head, "You're not going to be bald."

"A lot of people in Rune tend to be bald when they get older, maybe that's the kind of thing."

「…… You're extraordinary."

Esther twisted a strand of bangs, the dots of light on which shimmered slightly, as if in response to her touch: "I've also seen extraordinary people with very high hairlines."

"You're still a demigod!" The magpie sighed vigorously, "Well, why the hell are we wasting time on such a topic?"

"Okay, let's get down to business." Esther immediately restrained her previous casual smile and changed her face quite quickly, "You haven't talked about your plans for the evening, are you going to surprise me with anything?"

The magpie quieted down.

Esther squinted at it, and when she saw that the black-and-white bird was squatting on her body for a long time without moving, she reached out and poked it several times, causing the magpie to stretch out its wings impatiently and sweep her hand to the side.

Benjamin, after a moment's thought, decided it was okay to tell Esther, "Anyway, you need to be prepared for a feast."

Esther's face instantly turned strange, "You don't still hold a grudge against that 'prom rejection, do you?"

「…… I'm telling the truth, you'll know when we get to the main entrance at midnight. Besides, I'm not that stingy."

Probably.

Benjamin silently added a word in his heart.