Dorothy’s Forbidden Grimoire

Traveling by carriage under the cover of night, Dorothy and Vania made their way back from the mountains to Igwynt, finally reaching a crossroads on the outskirts of the city where they had to part ways.

Vania bid farewell to Dorothy, as she was heading back to the hotel arranged by the local church in Igwynt. Before she left, Dorothy called out to her, suggesting they divide the spoils before parting. Hearing this, Vania couldn't help but feel a bit flustered.

"Miss Dorothy, please mind your words. We were on a mission of salvation, a righteous act blessed by the Lord. How can you use such a base term as 'dividing spoils,' like some common thieves?" Vania adjusted her glasses and raised her hand, earnestly admonishing Dorothy. Dorothy could only laugh and apologize.

"Haha, sorry, I was just joking. Don't take it so seriously. So, let's not call it 'dividing spoils,' but rather, let's share the results of our efforts."

"Results... hmm... can I really take some?"

After correcting Dorothy's choice of words, Vania began to consider Dorothy's suggestion. To be honest, it surprised her. Usually, when she participated in archaeological recovery missions, any findings were automatically handed over to her superiors. She never expected to keep anything for herself, and sometimes even her research on ancient scrolls would end up being credited to others.

During this mission, Vania had also regarded Dorothy, who seemed closer to Them, as her superior. The primary goal had been to save children who might have been harmed by a cult. She hadn't expected any rewards or thought about the "results" of their efforts. So, she was taken aback when Dorothy suggested sharing the spoils.

"Of course, you put in a lot of effort too. I believe in fairness—everyone gets their share. Let's take our time and divide things properly," Dorothy said straightforwardly, though Vania still seemed hesitant.

"Well... Miss Dorothy, my original intention was to follow the divine will and save those children. It feels a bit wrong to take something now. Shouldn't we prepare a ritual and offer these things to Them instead?"

Vania, who revered the Holy Mother and had been influenced since childhood by the stories of selfless saints in the Radiance Church's scriptures, believed that noble acts should be selfless. To ask for a reward after performing a noble deed would make the original motivation seem less sincere, tainting the purity of that nobility.

"Come on, there's nothing wrong with it. You work, you earn—it's only natural. We're all just ordinary people, don't hold yourself to such high spiritual standards. It's exhausting. Some of these things are rightfully yours. No need for any rituals. They would surely approve of us using these things as rewards after all the hard work we put in tonight."

Dorothy spoke with a cheerful laugh, and Vania was momentarily stunned, finding it almost unbelievable that a fellow believer could say such things.

Finally, after some persuasion from Dorothy, Vania reluctantly agreed to accept her share of the spoils.

Dorothy then opened her bag, revealing the loot they had gathered, and began dividing it with the still somewhat dazed Vania.

Based on their contributions, Dorothy took the larger share while Vania received a smaller portion. Dorothy gave Vania around a third of the money, totaling over 400 pounds. As for the sigils, Vania received several Devouring Sigils and a few others. She also received two Shadow silver coins as spiritual storage items. Dorothy also gave her one of the two mystical books they had found, suggesting they could swap after reading.

Finally, there were the three mystical items: a cane, a candle, and a bracelet. Dorothy wasn't entirely sure of their uses, but through her passive appraisal skill, she could determine their spiritual attributes. The cane was of the Chalice attribute, the candle was Shadow, and the bracelet was a mix of Shadow and Revelation.

Just by looking at the attributes, Dorothy could roughly guess the functions of these items, especially the Shadow and Revelation bracelet, which was clearly the item the cult leader had used to counter divination. Since Dorothy, with her system, had no use for it, she handed it directly to Vania.

After dividing the items, Vania suddenly realized that many of these things were considered contraband by the church. She couldn't take them back with her, as they might be detected by the Illuminating Beacons in the church. She was due to return to Tivian soon, and carrying these items would be risky.

Faced with Vania's concerns, Dorothy offered to help by mailing the items to Tivian, as long as Vania provided a safe address for delivery.

Vania then wrote down an address on the spot, and after saying their goodbyes, Dorothy drove her carriage home. After parking the carriage and settling the corpse marionette, Dorothy carried her bag back to Southern Sunflower Street. As she walked up the stairs to her front door with a lantern in hand, she noticed an envelope placed at the entrance.

Opening it, Dorothy found that it was a letter from Gregor, informing her that he had to work overtime unexpectedly and wouldn't be home for dinner. He advised her to eat early and get some rest. Igwynt had an efficient postal system, so whenever Gregor had to work overtime, he would send a letter to notify Dorothy. The Serenity Bureau seemed to have a direct connection with the post office and telegraph office, making it easy to send letters. Dorothy had received such letters more than once before.

“Thinking about it, there's no way they wouldn't be working overtime tonight... this whole situation is unprecedented. But since the letter arrived, it means the Bureau has successfully dealt with the mutated Viscount Field. Gregor should be fine...”

After reading the letter, Dorothy let out a sigh of relief. Once inside, she quickly made her way to her room, locked the door, turned on the desk lamp, and sat heavily in her chair, exhaling deeply.

Finally, after sitting for a while to catch her breath, Dorothy began to review the day's successes. First, she placed her share of the loot on the table and started calculating her recent resource gains and losses.

Starting with money, after looting the Buck Mansion, she had 335 pounds. She spent 170 pounds on having Aldrich appraise some sigils and gather information about beastman, then another 50 pounds on purchasing a Tracking Sigil and learning how to eliminate scents, leaving her with 115 pounds.

This time, at the Field Manor, Dorothy hastily gathered 1,209 pounds in cash. She gave 403 pounds to Vania, leaving herself with 806 pounds. Adding the 115 pounds she had earlier, Dorothy now had a total of 921 pounds.

“As expected of a viscount's household. Just grabbing a bit yielded so much. This can be considered payment for eliminating a threat to their family. If the first Viscount Field knew about this in heaven, he'd probably understand. He might even have offered more.”

Looking at the stack of nearly a thousand pounds in her hands, Dorothy couldn't help but smile. Since her transmigration, this was the first time she had so much money at her disposal.

Next was her spirituality. Dorothy hadn't experienced any significant spiritual losses recently, except for using a bit of Chalice spirituality to activate the Devouring Sigil in the Field Manor. The Corpse Marionette Ring had just reached its overload limit of controlling five marionettes, requiring 2 points of Chalice spirituality to recharge. Earlier, Dorothy had gained 2 Chalice and 1 Revelation from the complete version of the Song of the Lamb, so she only ended up losing 1 point of Chalice spirituality, which she could recover after some reading.

Then there was Revelation, the spirituality Dorothy had expended the most. Precise control of the Corpse Marionette Ring, increasing the marionette limit, and divination all required Revelation. Her original 5-point Revelation reserve had been completely drained, forcing her to draw 2 points from her experience bar. After offsetting the 1 point of Revelation gained from the Song of the Lamb, Dorothy ultimately lost 1 point of Revelation from her experience bar.

As for the other spirituality, there were no changes. Dorothy's current spirituality status was as follows.

11 points of Chalice, 1 point of Stone, 2 points of Shadow, 1 point of Silence, and 7 points of Revelation. Of the 7 points of Revelation, 5 were part of her reserve bar, which was now empty and would take some time to recover.