New Gods of North America

Although everyone suspected that the two letters were ciphered, deciphering them seemed to take too much time and effort. If a corresponding codebook was needed, it would probably be impossible to crack them even with a lot of brainpower.

However, if viewed abstractly, from the perspective of "character logic," some things seemed to be coming into focus.

MacKen Reeves was not a freshman in the academy. While his interpersonal relationships and family situation weren't crystal clear, his classmates had some idea about them.

The missing person advertisement and the unsolicited application sent to another state both seemed unrelated to him. Seth, who was brought in to confirm the situation, could also confirm that he had never investigated any connection between MacKen Reeves and South Carolina.

Since the information came from the 'tail', Wayne first took the two letters to Priest Tyrrell.

He wanted the leading figure among the Southern priests to confirm if these things were coded messages between their group.

He also wanted to report the progress promptly, indicating that Wayne was very sincere in cooperating with him—the 'tail' definitely wouldn't hide anything from Priest Tyrrell. At most, it was inconvenient to contact him directly, and the news would be slightly delayed, so Wayne simply took the initiative.

Priest Tyrrell's explanation matched Wayne's speculation. He couldn't understand the content of the missing person advertisement either. Among the high-ranking clergy in Georgeburg who had relatively close ties with South Carolina, it was indeed Priest Paxil.

Wayne tentatively mentioned the term "soul-swapping ritual," and Priest Tyrrell quickly made connections, believing that Wayne had found someone who was privately connected to Priest Paxil.

It seemed that this kind of ritual was not a secret to the big shots in the Exorcist Association, but it was indeed not common, at least not the "default option."

Perhaps feeling that Wayne seemed relatively reliable at this moment, or perhaps wanting to "borrow a knife to kill," Priest Tyrrell also revealed some previous inside information. For example, the reason he went to the detective agency to bail out those two peripheral members of the Exorcist Association last time was actually at the request of Priest Paxil.

However, what surprised Wayne a bit was that Priest Paxil claimed at the time that Luke Matthew was his illegitimate son, so the Exorcist Association people went secretly, originally planning to carry out a "rescue of the deceived and ignorant young master" mission.

Wayne was directly shocked after hearing this. How old was Priest Paxil, and how old was Luke Matthew now?

Even if it were true, Priest Paxil was really "vigorous in his old age."

Fortunately, this kind of thing was not difficult to disprove. Priests' positions did not change frequently, and their public resumes were clear in the church. Luke Matthew was currently a temporary resident of the detective agency.

Comparing the experiences of both sides should quickly lead to a preliminary answer.

After roughly forming an idea here, Wayne asked Sanders to quickly return to the detective agency and turned to Tom Hagen.

If keywords were extracted, the people connected to both "the previous manor" and "South Carolina" also included a Priest Norton.

Priests from other dioceses were not directly managed within their own diocese, but situations involving heresy were an exception. Tom Hagen quickly ordered people to confirm the situation. If the other party was still within Virginia, they should be controlled first.

At this point, many things seemed to have been successfully connected.

The detective agency's last escort mission, which inexplicably encountered targeting while passing through South Carolina, felt like that old Priest Paxil had been secretly exerting a lot of effort.

Returning to the case itself, assuming that the "soul-swapping ritual" existed and was indeed effective, many of Priest Paxil's previous actions could be explained.

First, he screened targets among the students and waited for an opportunity to strike, then he tried to rescue Luke Matthew after he was abducted, and finally, he might have temporarily activated a backup plan.

Thinking further, if Priest Paxil's will was at play, then MacKen Reeves' two letters at this moment would only contact people that Priest Paxil could still trust.

Contacting distant relatives was easy to understand. Even if they were unwilling to reveal secrets about the heretical ritual, simply saying that helping MacKen Reeves was his "last wish" before death would probably garner support from the relatives.

But publishing a missing person advertisement in the local newspaper seemed very interesting.

Since it was someone he trusted and who seemed to be local, the easiest approach would definitely be to contact them directly.

Unless the other party was also inconvenient at the moment—suspicion pointed to the priests who were currently temporarily "staying behind" in the church.

Or unless the other party's whereabouts were uncertain—suspicion pointed to Mr. Wiseman or similar heretics of light, or the murderer responsible for the extermination in the manor.

Wayne thought for a moment and put a question mark next to "heretics of light," feeling that the probability was low.

Judging from the situation in the manor, if Priest Paxil successfully completed the ritual and even burned down the main house, deliberately leaving the statue of that evil god seemed to have the implication of "achieving the goal and trying to cut off contact."

Since he himself was not a devout believer in the evil god, and Wayne had specifically asked the 'tail's' subordinates to disguise themselves as heretics of light when "assassinating" MacKen Reeves, it seemed unreasonable for MacKen Reeves or Priest Paxil to try to contact heretics of light again at this moment.

But no matter what the situation was, the letter sent to South Carolina definitely had to be detained first, and as for the missing person advertisement, it had to be published.

To avoid accidents, Wayne put the letter back as much as possible after Tom Hagen read it and had someone send it back to the previous mailbox, then secretly kept watch.

Tom Hagen also instructed his men to avoid any accidents as much as possible, ensuring that the letter could be delivered to the newspaper according to the normal procedure.

The two didn't even dare to urge people or help deliver it, because there could be many ways for people to contact each other secretly. The person they wanted to contact might be the postman responsible for collecting the mail, or it might be any link in the delivery process.

Anyway, according to the razor theory, "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity."

Now that the clues were almost broken, the safest approach was to maintain the status quo and watch quietly, and then wait for the opportunity.

...

"Teacher, Teacher, are you there now?"

In the academy's dormitory, MacKen Reeves kept calling out to his "mentor" in his heart while cautiously lifting the corner of a textbook on his desk, secretly flipping through the exorcism books placed underneath.

Although that Wayne didn't regard him as "MacKen Reeves," in MacKen Reeves' own view, eliminating those extra guys, such as "York," "Washington," "Georgia," etc., was actually a process of him constantly "perfecting himself."

The potion given by Priest Paxil in the academy was difficult to drink, but it also gave him the opportunity to become complete. If the original so-called "main personality" hadn't loosened, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to secretly deal with the extra guys one by one in his dreams.

Unfortunately, he had only recently gained a new life, but he didn't know how he suddenly became "possessed."

After inexplicably waking up outside the dormitory door, he had an extra presence who claimed to be his teacher.

The original "MacKen Reeves" was a weak believer, but he didn't dare to seek help from the church at this moment, fearing that the exorcists would be as suspicious as that meddlesome Wayne.

Then he could only rely on himself.

This "mentor" seemed to be an evil spirit or something. MacKen Reeves could feel that his daily mental consumption was significantly increasing, and his body seemed to be getting more and more tired, but he couldn't get rid of it.

There were quite a few half-true and half-false theological and exorcism books in the academy's library, and he could only secretly borrow the version he thought was the most reliable, and then try to find a solution in secret.

Fortunately, the "mentor" wasn't always by his side, which gave him a chance to save himself.

Suddenly, a sharp pain ran through his scalp, as if something was sucking his brain. MacKen Reeves' hand loosened, and the textbook fell back down, covering the exorcism books underneath.

Then he tried to pretend that he hadn't noticed and pretended to be looking for something.

An old and weak voice seemed to ring in his heart, "Did you do what I asked you to do?"

"Yes, Teacher," MacKen Reeves replied in his heart as well.

He didn't dare to disobey the "mentor" at the moment, even though he felt that acting according to the "mentor's" wishes might put him in a dangerous situation.

But he still chose to continue to obey for the time being.

"That's good..."

The "mentor's" voice seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. MacKen Reeves was about to try to ask a question when his head felt as if it was being pierced by countless steel needles at the same time.

When he opened his eyes again and sat up from his desk, the "mentor" seemed to have disappeared again.

MacKen Reeves continued to call out to the "mentor" in his heart, and one hand slowly reached for the textbook again.

His eyes felt a little blurry. MacKen Reeves rubbed them lightly a few times and found that he had wiped out a bloody red color with a fishy sweetness.