June 6th, early afternoon, Port Prieze.

Esther sat at her desk in the inn room, folding the letter she had just written and stuffing it into an envelope.

She mainly mentioned the situation that Amon clone was wandering around near Beckland, gave Crane a little warning, and also informed Crane that she was going to participate in the "Thief" *** situation, leaving an indirect hint in advance - if something happened to her and suddenly disappeared, then there was a big problem within the "Destiny Hermit Society".

Esther added a special sentence in the letter, "I don't need to reply to the letter for the time being, I will visit Beckland in a few days", she believes that Klein can understand the meaning, there are other people around her, and it is not convenient to receive or write letters frequently these days.

Benjamin is not here now, and he said that he would go back to the foothold to observe the situation, and by the way, he would go to *** place to prepare in advance.

The host always has to arrive first and arrange the venue.

And Benjamin always seemed a little absent-minded, especially after seeing the Amon doppelganger, the state between the two became subtle, Benjamin faintly noticed the abnormality, but Esther never asked questions, and Benjamin remained silent about it.

The magpie stood by the window and looked at Esther, who was flipping through the newspaper, "Since his doppelganger has seen you walking with me, you can decide for yourself whether or not to parasitize others in the meeting."

Esther shook her head: "It doesn't make a difference to me, if according to what you said, the entire *** top sequence including you, all three of them are 'deceiving the mentor......

Esther didn't think she would have a long-term relationship with the members of the "Destiny Hermit Society", and as long as they were out of sight for a while, she would naturally be forgotten by each other.

According to Benjamin's introduction, the "Hermit of Destiny" is basically held once every long time, which is also to avoid frequent meetings and being caught by the wandering Amon - but Amon has long been mixed in with them, using the identity of the descendants of the Jacob family to gather these "thieves" under his nose.

Benjamin heard what Esther meant, and the magpie chuckled softly, and said maliciously, "If you are not willing to borrow the body of an ordinary person, I can offer you a few extraordinary people who live in Pritz Harbor

Esther looked helplessly, she put down the recent newspaper of Beckland, leaned over to the window and poked the magpie's head twice, "I'm going to go straight over." Anyway, I have some special tricks, they can't remember me."

Benjamin was silent for a few seconds, he knew what Esther was referring to, she would still be forgotten, but Benjamin couldn't show understanding of this, Asther had never talked to "him" about it.

Magpie nodded at Esther, "Be as happy as you like, everyone has their own secrets. But you can just put on that cloak, which has an aura of divinity on it, which can deter those who want to maliciously test you, and can also effectively reduce your suspicion."

"Because Amun was hostile to the 'true Creator, I was not like His doppelganger...... Doesn't that make them suspect that I'm a member of the Aurora Society?"

Esther was a little hesitant, because judging from Zoya's relationship with Ulorius and Halls, it didn't seem to be a mistake if she was really regarded as a member of the Aurora Society.

"I'll take care of the rest, and you just have to keep quiet." Benjamin admonished.

"I know, I'm pretty good at playing dumb." Esther smiled and sat back down at her desk.

Since Esther also had the badge in hand, Benjamin simply left first after communicating with her.

But before the magpie flew out of the window, Benjamin muttered, "Maybe it's not pretending."

Before Esther could glare, the magpie had flapped its wings and flew out of the window.

Esther thought for a moment, and not long after Benjamin left, she began to write the letter to Klein.

There was always some inexplicable apprehension in her heart, and a discordant premonition loomed, but Esther didn't know what she could do, and only hoped that Crane could protect his own personal safety.

——

Distance nine

Ten minutes to go, Esther had already arrived at the mouth of the Tasok River in advance.

As had been agreed with Benjamin, she wore a red cloak and a silver mask that she hadn't worn for a long time. In order to cover the strange patterns left by the "pale bone nails" on her hands, she even turned out her gloves.

However, in the eyes of the black-robed people, the red was so conspicuous that it seemed like a provocation.

There are also a small number of people who wear masks, or don't care about revealing their appearance at all, and Esther has reason to suspect that the latter group are "parasites", and what is exposed is the appearance of the host - they can find the next person to be parasitized at any time.

It's still the waiting time before *** starts, and no one will say anything, just the eyes under the hood or mask everywhere, always glancing in Esther's direction. Puzzled eyes kept piercing Esther's back, and she stood indifferently in place, holding the badge of the "Hermit Society of Destiny" in her hand.

Esther only realized at this moment that she seemed to have been cheated by Benjamin again. Letting Esther wear a red cloak to attract attention is clearly to put her on the bright side and attract the attention of various members.

It's the same routine as taking her to the castle and making the Marquis of Kailar particularly interested.

Esther couldn't help but raise her hand and pull the red cloak down for some distance, so that her face would completely fall into the shadows. She didn't have a problem with that, if the people who had infiltrated the group did have an Amon clone, they would have recognized the strangeness of her cloak and made her the main target.

Maybe the doppelganger will expose himself and give Benjamin a chance to catch the tail.

Esther sighed, he didn't even consult me at all this time, didn't he treat me as an outsider?

A few more people came from the woods or the edge of the riverbank, and even two people appeared out of nobody, and Esther could only guess that they had been hiding in the shadows and stealing the distance before coming to the clearing.

As promised, Benjamin didn't show up here and should have arrived at *** in advance. According to Benjamin's own statement, he will not put any disguise on his appearance, and only the "host" will be asked to fix the image, so as not to confuse the participants.

Last minute.

Esther felt the badge in her hand getting hotter, and when she looked down, she saw a circle of silver threads emerging on the back of the badge, which was constantly outlining the round, shadowed dial.

Most of them were moving in unison, or at least clenching the badge in their hands, but there were four or five others holding a piece of paper that Esther suspected was the same as the back of the badge.

At nine o'clock, a distant and ethereal bell rang, as if from a long distance, and a black hand appeared on the dial, pointing vertically downward.

At the same moment, all the figures gathered near the mouth of the Tasok River, carrying the same symbol, disappeared in place.

The scene around her changed in an instant, and in the blink of an eye, Esther was already in a wide, dark rotunda.

Everyone else was standing here, even though the hall was wide enough, it seemed a little narrow.

A large, graduated dial is carved into the ground, and countless shadows of the hands of various lengths and thicknesses are scattered across the surface, pointing irregularly around. The dial pattern extends to the edge of the hall, and stone chairs are arranged in a circle, towards the center of the dial.

Each stone chair has a soft cushion, which is the only sign of hospitality.

There were many chairs around the hall, arranged in three circles in a circle, and as Esther looked around, she roughly estimated that there were far more chairs than there were people in the hall.

Most of them felt uncomfortable with each other because they were closer to each other than they were in the open space outside, and they subconsciously opened up their distance from others and sat down on the stone chairs, with more people picking the stone chairs in the back than sitting in the front row.

Perhaps during the heyday of the "Thieves" families, the halls here were also full. Even just the Jacob family

The stone chairs were filled, and now, with the addition of foreign "thieves", there were at least half of the empty seats here.

And the reason for the withering of this pathway...... Esther sighed, and casually walked to a stone chair in the front row, and sat down quietly under the prying and questioning eyes of the others.

But when someone approached her location, Esther's perception was slightly touched.

She looked out from under her low-hanging hood and saw a man in a long brown trench coat seated on an empty stone chair next to Esther.

Esther raised her head a little more, a middle-aged gentleman without any disguise, who was taking his hat off his head, revealing his gray hair.

The middle-aged man's appearance seemed familiar to Esther, with her towering hooked nose and deep eye sockets, all of which she could easily recall, and she had met this extraordinary person in the hotel.

Noticing Esther's gaze, the middle-aged man tilted his head and smiled politely at her, "Hello, you're dressed in a special way, at least I've never seen anyone wear such a brightly colored cloak."

"Thank you, I'll take it as a compliment." Esther responded gently, at least after she replied, the middle-aged man might have recognized her, and Esther didn't try to hide her voice.

The Extraordinary will remember her more clearly and for a longer time than the average person, and Esther was vaguely aware of this a long time ago.

The middle-aged man looked inexplicably happy: "Let me guess, it's the first time you've participated in this ***?"

"Yes, otherwise I wouldn't have been so reckless as to dress up like this, too conspicuous." Esther whispered, knowing that there were a lot of people eavesdropping on the conversation, and Esther had no doubt about the other "thieves".

The middle-aged man stopped there, laughing and not chatting with Esther anymore, not giving them more opportunity to listen to the news, which disappointed them to a certain extent.