"..."

Silence filled the room.

After Kangdingrant knocked on the door, there was no immediate response from inside.

This outcome.

Made the temperature in the executive hall drop even further.

Among those guarding the door, Kangdingrant felt the most suppressed.

As the one with the highest status, he was also the most aware of the changes in all aspects. Just a year ago, Entrode was still recovering towards the state of a normal country, but in just this one year, everything had changed.

The personnel originally planned to infiltrate Gred covertly suffered a loss of nearly seventy percent.

Even the seemingly unbreakable order within the country, maintained by military forces, began to disintegrate in subtle changes that were hard to detect.

Undoubtedly, Entrode was in the midst of a severe internal and external crisis.

Yet, in such a situation, Entrode's four core leaders. One lost his mind in search of the former royal family's relics, effectively to be considered dead; another acts in secrecy, clearly having many of his own maneuvers.

As for the two remaining...

Kangdingrant asked himself, hoping to see this nation become better.

But the cold and ruthless reality told him—

Aside from himself, the other original text holder with this wish might already be impossible to meet ever again.

"Ah..."

Thinking of this, Kangdingrant sighed deeply.

Ronald, standing behind him, could clearly hear the voice of this original text holder. Within the trembling sigh, there was an indescribable bitterness and helplessness. Even at such a pinnacle of identity and status, facing such dire circumstances, the indifferent reality still suffocated Kangdingrant with pain.

"..."

"Oh, who is it? So late?"

Suddenly, a voice from inside the door responded.

When Ronald was about to comfort Kangdingrant, the door of the room was opened from the inside, and a man looking drowsy emerged.

Ronald recognized this guy—Batty.

Their target of visiting this place late at night, also an original text holder of Entrode and the one who took back the remnant of the saint's spirit to use.

At this moment.

The performance of this original text holder was extremely normal.

He rubbed his eyes like a person who was sound asleep and had just been woken up. Upon seeing the group at his door, his expression first showed confusion and then quickly turned clear:

"Kangdingrant, what's going on?"

"Is it that the rebels gathering outside the city have made a new move, or has some conflict erupted again on the commercial street inside the city, requiring me as the manager to handle it?"

After asking Kangdingrant these questions, Batty's gaze immediately shifted to Ronald.

He, of course, recognized this powerful Caster who had not yet left Waterfall City.

So noticing Ronald's figure, his attitude was also quite serious:

"And this isn't Mr. Ronald?"

"Why would he come to the executive hall so late? We shouldn't have anything to entrust him with, right?"

"..."

Kangdingrant's emotions were very complicated.

Batty's reaction was perfectly normal, just like his usual demeanor.

But given the intel provided by Ronald before, Kangdingrant couldn't immediately trust Batty's state just because of this extremely normal behavior.

For a moment.

The atmosphere around stiffened.

People outside the door, constrained by Batty's identity and usual authority, dared not immediately speak out words like "we need to verify your identity."

Inside the door, Batty hesitated for several breaths of time.

Finally, he spoke somewhat uncertainly:

"You all...something feels off here?"

"Just go ahead and speak; in this vast Waterfall City, it's unlikely someone would frame me with some nonexistent charge, right?"

"..."

The others maintained their silence, but Ronald couldn't hold it back.

Unlike those Entrode Agents, he didn't have a subordinate relationship with Batty and had no past bond of handling affairs together.

So he simply stepped forward and handed out the stone box in his hand:

"The origin of the matter comes from this."

"The saint's relic from some time ago should have ended up with you, right?"

Ronald led the conversation, and Kangdingrant, who had been silent just now, no longer hesitated.

He followed Ronald's inquiry and then stepped forward to show his supportive attitude:

"Batty, we are here precisely for this. Did you already use the saint's relic you previously obtained?"

"If there's still a chance to remedy everything, I would unconditionally support you!"

"..."

Silence fell at the door again.

But this time, the source of the silence was Batty standing inside the room.

A severed hand and some successfully separated core organic matter lay safely in front of him, while this guy Kangdingrant was asking about the whereabouts of the saint's relic on his end.

No matter how dull Batty was.

Even he wouldn't fail to understand the predicament he was in now.

"This thing...was brought to me by R Laurie."

"Even if you really need it, I can't provide any help here. I've completely used it within a week of acquiring it..."

"Wait!"

Suddenly, Batty, standing in the room, sharpened his gaze.

Then he quickly took several steps back as if remembering something, posing in a highly cautious stance:

"Kangdingrant, you're choosing to betray Entrode?"

With an explosive shout, Batty immediately shifted his gaze to Ronald and behind Kangdingrant, to the positions of those other Entrode Agents, urgently shouting:

"Get away from these two quickly!"

"This guy Kangdingrant has colluded with external original text holders to destroy our Entrode from within!"

"This place is dangerous!"

"..."

Seeing Batty's actions and hearing such words.

Kangdingrant and Ronald immediately confirmed one thing—this guy had been completely taken over by the core organic matter.

However, Batty's past identity was still there.

Under his impeccable performance at that moment, there were indeed some Entrode Agents behind Ronald who, feeling uncertain, took several steps backward.

After all, for them.

Batty and Kangdingrant were both top-level leaders of the same echelon.

If this issue truly involved the entire Entrode and entangled top leaders' rebellion.

Then, deciding whom to trust genuinely wasn't something they could determine in a short time!

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