Chapter 263: Familiar Faces — Meeting Old Acquaintances After Years
As the SAI investigator had said, the rest of the journey went very smoothly. Aside from one member developing a fever due to an infected wound, nothing else bad happened.
After two days of trekking, the group of thirteen finally walked out of the forest and reached the end of the hiking route, where they met the SAI agents who had been waiting there for quite some time.
What was a coincidence was that the reception team sent by SAI this time included someone Everly already knew—Gregory and Remia, who had visited the gas station six years ago during the investigation of “Megan Clinic” and the “Butterfly Fall Incident.”
Everly had previously heard someone say that SAI was an organization with extremely rapid personnel turnover and very high risk—working there for one year already counted as senior experience, and those who could last five years were considered elite among elites.
Yet Gregory and Remia, this pair of partners, had actually survived in SAI for over six years with all their limbs intact. Everly would not believe they weren’t the protagonists of some movie!
It should be noted that unlike branch investigators like Dees, the two of them were from SAI headquarters. Only incidents assessed as posing a severe threat to federal security would warrant their deployment.
In that case, did this mean that the danger posed by the Black Goat cultists was actually more serious than the Golden Anchor cruise incident back then?
No, that couldn’t be said.
In the cruise incident years ago, the SAI investigation team that interviewed Everly and the other survivors was indeed from the SAI branch in Yalijifu State. However, the investigation also involved personnel from SAI headquarters, not just branch staff. It was simply that the headquarters agents arrived later, and by the time they appeared, the branch team had already nearly solved the case, so the headquarters investigators only came in to “pick up the results,” leaving little impression.
Seen that way, the severity of the two disasters was actually about the same.
As for why the investigators sent from headquarters this time were Gregory and Remia, Everly already had a guess after reading Dees’s diary—perhaps SAI had discovered through other channels that the Black Goat cultists were connected to a suspected underground research facility known as the “Megan Biological Laboratory.”
Megan Biological Laboratory, the Megan Group—both names contained “Megan,” and both were involved in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. Everly would bet there was absolutely a connection between them.
Gregory and Remia had been investigating cases related to the Megan Group six years ago. Since this Black Goat case might also be linked to the Megan Biological Laboratory, it made sense for this pair to show up.
After the two groups met, Everly immediately handed over the pocket watch and the diary found in Dees’s bag to the investigators.
She didn’t want to keep such a hot potato in her possession.
As for the remaining weather sphere… Everly shamefully found herself tempted to secretly keep it. I mean… she had contributed both effort and merit on this journey—keeping one item shouldn’t, shouldn’t be a problem, right?
She decided to leave it to fate. If the investigators asked about the second weather sphere, she would return it; if not, she would pretend she had forgotten its existence and quietly keep it.
The group of thirteen students and teachers were taken onto a bus that looked very much like a sightseeing coach.
The windows were covered with privacy film, thick curtains were drawn inside, and there was even a partition curtain separating the passenger area from the driver’s seat to prevent anyone from observing the route. After several more hours in the dim and bumpy vehicle, they finally arrived at an old-looking estate.
Remia explained that this was one of SAI’s safe houses, and told the thirteen of them to settle in comfortably. She also arranged for a doctor to treat the injured and feverish students.
Once everyone was settled, the two investigators finally began interviewing the thirteen survivors one by one.
Unexpectedly, Remia even remembered Everly.
Of course, there was another possibility: before coming to meet this group of survivors, the two SAI investigators had already done a background check on everyone involved. Everly’s personal information wasn’t encrypted anyway—it could be found with just a bit of searching.
In any case, during the questioning, Remia’s attitude was very friendly. She didn’t act like a police officer handling a case in a condescending, purely procedural way. Instead, she chatted casually, starting from their first meeting six years ago, then moving on to the Golden Anchor cruise incident Everly had personally experienced, and only afterward circling back to the current case.
In the Black Goat incident this time, Everly was a complete victim. She had been trying to save herself the entire time and hadn’t done anything that needed to be concealed. So she simply answered everything truthfully.
Before Everly, the two investigators had already questioned several students. Through their different accounts, they had already pieced together how everyone had encountered danger, how they discovered and destroyed the ritual array, and how they eventually escaped.
What Gregory and Remia were mainly focusing on were the following points:
First, how Everly had come to understand the concept of “cognitive distortion.”
This wasn’t difficult to explain. Given how often Everly had been unlucky since childhood, it was only natural that she would take precautions and deliberately consult psychic practitioners to learn about information that was basically “common knowledge” among professionals.
“Then how did you overcome the hallucinations caused by the Black Goat’s offspring and regain your sanity?” Remia continued.
Everly looked confused. “Black Goat’s offspring?”
Gregory interjected, “The sheep-hoofed monster you encountered. It’s a servant of the Forest Black Goat—you can think of it as an earthly proxy of a god’s will.”
Everly nodded to indicate she understood, then—after obtaining permission from the two investigators—she reached out and began fiddling with the various trinkets and pendants hanging on her body. Of course, she did not touch the canine tooth bracelet or the banyan wood bracelet.
“Probably because of these items I carry,” she said. “Rebecca—she’s the fortune-teller I mentioned before, the one I’m close with—told me these things have some level of mental defense effect, so I’ve always carried them for protection.”
“These things…?” Remia took the pendants Everly handed over and examined them in her palm. A strange expression appeared on her face.
“What’s wrong?” Everly asked.
“Perhaps it’s a bit impolite to say this,” Remia replied, “but from what I can observe, their protective and defensive effects are extremely weak—far from enough to help the wearer resist a mental attack from a Black Goat’s offspring.”
Everly felt the same way, actually… those things weren’t very reliable. But there was nothing she could do about it. Rebecca wasn’t a god, after all. It was already impressive that she could occasionally find useful items; it wasn’t realistic to expect her to consistently obtain high-quality ones.
“Speaking of which, I have a charm here…” Remia suddenly changed the subject. She pulled open her collar and took out a golden, coin-shaped pendant. “If you don’t mind that it’s a bit damaged, I can give it to you.”
Everly blinked. “Give it to me?”
Remia smiled. “Yes. Although it’s somewhat damaged, in terms of protection and exorcism effects, it’s still much better than your accessories. If you don’t mind that it’s something I’ve retired, you’re welcome to take it.”
“I don’t mind, of course… I’m just a little curious. Why give me something so good?”
Remia shook her head with a smile. “If you joined SAI, you’d realize this isn’t actually anything particularly special. Our department’s work is very dangerous, but in return, we have a very rich stockpile of specialized items. Objects similar to this ‘Eye of Horus’ charm are plentiful in SAI’s technical division warehouse. I just need to submit a report for a damaged item and can requisition a replacement, so this old charm isn’t really valuable to me.”
Everly looked at the investigator seriously.
She still remembered that six years ago, when they first met, Remia had been a somewhat clumsy newcomer—someone who would even forget to tuck the hem of her blouse into her trousers when wearing a women’s suit for work. After six years of experience, she had become much more mature and capable, more polished in her interactions with others. The only lingering trace of her past self was a stray lock of hair that still stuck out near her ear.
As for her partner Gregory, he was still the same as before—silent, serious, and meticulous, with the air of an industry elite about him.
Sensing Everly’s gaze, he slightly curved his lips and gave her a polite nod across the table.
He didn’t seem like someone involved in any conspiracy… maybe they were simply doing a good deed?
Thinking this, Everly stopped hesitating and accepted the offer openly.
“Then I’ll take this charm. Thank you, Remia, and Mr. Gregory.”
“No need to thank us. Shall we continue?”
“Yes.”
After this brief interlude, Everly touched the newly added charm around her neck and continued answering Remia’s questions.
“If it wasn’t because of those protective items, then I think… it might be because my mental strength is stronger than that of an ordinary person. After the tooth incident, I started learning meditation from Rebecca. She said that as long as you persist, even ordinary people can improve their mental strength through long-term training.”
“I see.” Remia considered this for a moment and accepted Everly’s explanation. “Then you’re truly remarkable. It’s very difficult for ordinary people to increase their mental resilience—being able to reach this level speaks to your strong willpower. That’s admirable.”
Everly felt a little pleased at the praise.
She actually thought she was doing pretty well too. Occasionally receiving recognition and giving her past efforts some positive feedback felt quite nice.
“Actually,” Everly added, “I think another reason the Black Goat’s offspring couldn’t deceive me is that it was injured. Its power wasn’t at its peak.”
“Oh? Can you explain why you think that?” Gregory leaned forward slightly, showing a rare hint of interest.
Everly repeated the reasoning she had made in the forest.
“…Even though the Black Goat’s offspring was extremely powerful, the cultists didn’t let it hunt freely. Instead, they went through the unnecessary trouble of setting up ritual arrays and vines to sustain it in a very complicated way. That made me suspect the creature itself was injured. Later, I found another piece of evidence that indirectly supported this guess: Dees’s diary.”
After escaping danger, Everly had taken the time to read Dees’s diary from beginning to end.
After finishing it, she noticed something: there was no mention at all of the “sheep-hoofed monster,” or anything similar.
Before this, Everly had suspected that the monster’s injuries might have been inflicted by Dees. But if that were the case, Dees would have had no reason not to mention the creature in his diary—because for him to have wounded it, the monster must have existed before his operation.
As for the idea that the cultists had hidden the creature away, that also didn’t seem likely. After all, even their connection to the underground research facility had been uncovered. If they truly possessed a Black Goat’s offspring, Dees would have definitely picked up some trace of it and recorded it in his notes.
Another possibility was that the monster only appeared after Dees died. But if that were true, then aside from SAI, who else could have left such a lingering wound on a creature that powerful?
After eliminating all possibilities, however unbelievable the remaining answer might be, it had to be the truth.
Following this step-by-step reasoning, Everly ultimately reached a conclusion: the Black Goat’s offspring had been summoned on the very night Dees carried out his operation.
That night, the cultists had originally intended to offer a precious sacrifice to the Forest Black Goat in order to summon their mother goddess into the world.
However, Dees’s appearance disrupted the situation and ruined what had been a near-certain ritual.
As a result, the Mother of All Things, the Black Goat, failed to descend as planned. Instead, what was summoned was one of her servants—the “Black Goat’s offspring.” As for the injuries on the offspring, they might have been caused by Dees’s desperate struggle, or they might have been a backlash effect from the failed ritual itself.
In short, the cultists’ evil plan collapsed as a result, and Dees lost his life while attempting to stop the Black Goat’s descent. After his death, he was even turned by the enraged cultists into a ritual anchor point, becoming the “fertile ground” that nourished the black vines.
Everly explained this hypothesis and her reasoning process to the two investigators, earning unanimous praise from both of them.
“Excellent deduction!”
“To be able to reconstruct the truth from so few clues—you really do have a talent for being an investigator.”