Chapter Fourteen: The Bell of Civilization
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Eight o’clock in the evening, Greenwich.
The scheduled opening time of the banquet had arrived.
Duke Reinhart rose from his seat in the banquet hall and lifted his glass.
“Ladies and gentlemen, history and heritage have bestowed upon us the glory we possess today.
“But for that very reason, when we crown those former glories, we also take upon ourselves the corresponding responsibilities of nobility.
“The disasters brought by the ruins and the frontier of the Abyss, together with the transformation of the world order caused by supernatural powers—
“No one can stand apart from it. We have only one choice: to move forward.”
The next second—
Just as he was about to announce the theme of the banquet,
gunshots rang out.
The joints supporting the great crystal chandelier in the banquet hall began to sway violently. It was about to come crashing down.
Danger had arrived.
Sophia was seated at Table Three, very close to where the danger had emerged.
Suppressing her fear, she prepared to leave.
At that moment, the inconspicuous interpreter beside the table silently drew a gun and aimed it at her back.
Feeling the cold touch of the killing weapon behind her, Sophia recalled the disaster reports she had once seen in the archives.
The fear of death instantly enveloped her as well.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
Sophia felt no pain.
Instead, the gun pointed at her back slipped helplessly from its wielder’s hand.
The girl turned toward the source of the muffled pistol shot.
A handsome gentleman stood there.
After dispatching the killer beside Sophia, he did not stop.
With swift, practiced movements, he raised his pistol and shot down another assassin disguised as a waiter in the distance.
Finally, at the instant the enemy was about to stab the Duke of Bavaria, the handsome stranger stepped in front of him without the slightest hesitation.
The final two assassins were eliminated.
That scene would later be given a prominent place in the Times, where it received extensive coverage.
Sophia gradually recovered from the terror of standing at death’s edge.
She had never imagined that she would encounter a supernatural assassin beneath the heavily guarded clock tower.
Nor had she ever imagined that she would be saved in such a manner.
As heir to a ducal family, Sophia Reinhart was no stranger to the increasing number of supernatural phenomena occurring throughout the world.
After all,
among high society and in the finest scientific laboratories,
the active dark-matter streams produced by changes in cosmic background radiation were no secret. Compared with the description “field of weakly interacting massive particles,”
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perhaps the “magic” of Celtic legend, or the “psychic force” of scientific research, was more accurate.
Sophia stood at the edge of the room.
She watched the handsome young man who had shielded her father.
Silently, she committed his name to memory.
The Night Watcher.
The duchess’s daughter stood at the edge of the banquet hall, watching the two men converse calmly.
On one side was the handsome Mr. Night Watcher; on the other, her father, Duke Joseph—the Lion of Bavaria.
The subject that ought to have been discussed at a grand evening banquet had instead continued amid the burning banquet hall.
“You want the justice established by the statute.
“Then do you believe the disaster at the scene was not caused by a supernatural being?”
“Supernatural beings are not a single, unified group.”
Su Wen answered with a smile.
“In other words, Your Grace, do you truly wish to turn this opposition into an identity war resembling racial discrimination?”
Whether it took the form of “privilege” or “discrimination,” either would breed opposition.
“To treat everyone equally beneath the law, with fair judgment as the standard—that is the greatest respect.”
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Elizabeth Tower, formerly known as the Clock Tower and commonly called Big Ben.
It stands beside the River Thames in London, an attached clock tower of the Palace of Westminster, the seat of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and one of London’s most iconic landmarks.
At that very moment,
as the Equality Act was signed,
the solemn bells marking a pivotal moment in civilization began to toll.
Their sound rang along the Thames and reverberated throughout London.
And in that day’s edition of the Times appeared a vast headline:
“THE BANQUET HALL IN FLAMES: ON THE EVE OF THE SUPERNATURAL DAWN”
The report had been written personally by Mr. Ted, England’s most authoritative editor in chief, and it pronounced the opening of the Age of Origin.
Within it,
an unfamiliar Night Watcher became the key figure second only to Duke Reinhart.
His cold, handsome profile as he executed the assassins was printed on the front page of the newspaper as its cover image.
“Dawn Amid the Flames. Not a bad report.”
Su Wen sat in the reception room of the Psychic Review Bureau and smiled as he folded the newspaper shut.
“I bought the Times casually from a street vendor. As a researcher, one must not limit oneself to what lies immediately before one’s eyes. One needs a global perspective.”
Su Wen was well aware of the Psychic Review Bureau’s extremely stringent enforcement procedures.
That fire-breathing fellow from before had been locked up directly by the New City Enforcement Bureau.
Now,
compared with the severe scrutiny of the formal process,
he could probably spare some thought for which bookstore he and Miss Jiang should browse that afternoon.
“Mr. Su Wen, first, allow me to express the gratitude of the Binhai City Psychic Review Bureau for your courageous actions.”
“Officer Zhu Yu, I merely did what I was capable of doing.
“Do you know how many millennia humanity spent discovering fire, fearing fire, and finally using fire to survive the winter?”
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“I don’t.”
“The people of Xihoudu lived a million years ago. That is the earliest surviving record of a human civilization making use of fire.
“Of course, after the beginning of the Age of Origin, you could also imagine fire as the wisdom stolen by Prometheus.
“But it was not until 1805 that the renowned French chemist Louis Jacques Thénard invented the safety match that extended modern civilization to where it stands today.
“Humanity took more than a million years to accept fire as a science.
“Do you know how long society took to accept supernatural beings as part of everyday life?
“Until today.
“Five years and seven months.”
Su Wen spoke calmly.
“That is the progress of civilization.”
Across from him,
for reasons he could not explain, the special operations captain of the Review Bureau could not shake the feeling that the young man before him was not the indolent university student described in his background investigation.
He was even more difficult to see through than certain criminals deeply versed in psychology.
“Mr. Su Wen, I invite you once again to join the Psychic Review Bureau.”
“I am only an ordinary person. I have no interest in joining the Review Bureau.
“By the way, Officer Zhu Yu, the news also made special mention of the ‘Night Watcher’ on the cover.
“The Night Watcher organization—would you regard it as an organization on equal footing with yours, or as your superior?”
“The Night Watcher Accord was jointly established by nations across the world. It is a highly capable guardian organization with independent adjudicatory authority. In general, yes, it is a superior organization.”
“An interesting structure. I understand.”
Half an hour later,
after Su Wen had left,
a team member approached the special operations captain, who was still seated in the same place.
“Brother Zhu, the results of Su Wen’s examination are out.”
“What are they? Is there a problem?”
“Why do you ask that? Did he display any signs of mental abnormality during questioning?”
“No. Quite the opposite.
“He is far too clear-minded.”
Only then did Zhu Yu realize that the clothes on his body had been soaked through with sweat at some unknown point.
He took the rating sheet from the team member.
Printed unmistakably upon it were the words:
“Mental Clarity: Immaculate. Spiritual Contamination Deviation Index: 0.0001 (Beyond Measurement).”
After ignorance had been burned away in the flames of that night,
the mark of the “Ascension Lineage: Knight of Justice” descended.
As the only arbiter in this world,
apart from Su Wen himself,
there was probably no one else capable of judging the man who had opened the path for civilization.
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