Volume 7: The Inverted Man Chapter 52: The Seven Commissioners
Audrey’s right hand paused slightly, then returned to normal and picked up the personality mask known as “Arrogance”.
”Fifty percent probability isn’t bad.” She responded briefly to Paulie Delrau.
This was to say that picking the personality mask that Hwyn Lambeth had once worn in a two choice situation was not a surprising coincidence.
With that said, Audrey slipped the cold, gray mask onto her face.
Almost instantly, she felt an additional “virtual personality” within her psychic island.
This did not originate from the outside world, but was an amplification and polarization of her perception:
”They are poorly educated and must be guided by me to make the right choices.
”Not everyone is intelligent enough; on the contrary, the vast majority are stupid.
”The workers who act on impulse rather than reason, who are easily seduced by small advantages, who are short-sighted, can only be saved by my thinking, my guidance, my decision.
”They are worthy of pity, but not of communication.
”……”
This one thought echoed within Audrey’s mind, making her almost think it was the truth; after all, it was part of the feedback she had received from her previous observations and experiences, not something made up out of thin air.
With a sweep of her eyes, Audrey saw her current self through the smooth surface of the long table:
The cold, gray mask, with two eyes moving upward and fixed to the forehead, seemed to be gazing only at the heights and not caring about anything else, giving a funny, grotesque and darkly frightening impression.
Audrey was silent for a moment, and it was several seconds before she spoke in a low tone:
”Is this ‘arrogance’?”
If it wasn’t for the fact that she had long since gotten rid of her misconceptions through her exchanges with Mr. World, Mr. Hangman, and Ms. Hidden Man, she might have been caught by the I think I might have been affected by the virtual personality of the “Arrogant” mask just now.
As for what would happen after being affected, she was currently unable to judge.
”You returned to normal much faster than I thought, it seems that you didn’t get lost in the experience of ‘manipulating’ others.” Delrau said approvingly.
Audrey responded thoughtfully:
”Mr. Hwyn Lambeth has always come across as a bit arrogant ……”
Delrau said as he crossed his hands that were resting between his chest and stomach:
”You can observe that?”
”Only occasionally, in some detail.” Audrey responded in two phrases.
Delrau sighed and shook her head with a smile:
”Hwyn Lambeth is more severely affected by this personality mask than I anticipated, and, well, he’s usually well disguised.
”With that in mind, I’m not surprised he disappeared; arrogance can blind him to the path beneath his feet and can cause him to look down on the extraordinary who are weaker than himself, and that can often be extremely dangerous.”
Audrey restrained the urge to recall the death of Hwyn Lambeth and asked with deliberation:
”These seven personality masks can amplify the corresponding perceptions and emotions, helping us to realize our problems so that we can target them, and at the same time, it also brings certain negative effects, unknowingly changing the personality of the wearer?”
Delrau nodded slightly:
”In the realm of the mind, it is difficult to have pure, harmless external help; there must be enough endogenous power to avoid the corresponding negative effects.
”The fact that you are cognizant of this shows that you are on the right path.”
Audrey was about to take the opportunity to discuss some issues in the realm of the mind when she suddenly saw one of the personality masks on the table disappear.
She subconsciously turned her head and looked at the entrance of the church, seeing a figure pass through the door and walk in.
The figure was dressed in a formal three-piece suit, holding a half-height silk bowler hat in his hand, and wearing the personality mask that had just disappeared into thin air on his face.
The mouth of this mask had a wide grin that went all the way down to near the base of the ears and was always open, as if it was trying to swallow everything it saw with both eyes.
”This is one of the members of our Psycho-Alchemy Society panel, Mr. ‘Overeating’.” Delrau made the introductions for Audrey.
Next, the rest of the Psycho-Alchemy Council members arrived, namely Mr. Lust, Ms. Greed, Ms. Sloth, and Mr. Jealousy. “Mr. Jealousy.
As an experienced “audience”, the first thing Audrey notices is the difference in the masks of their personalities:
”Greed” was similar to “Overeating” in that the mouth grinned up to the base of the ears, but did not open, and the eyes were closed;
”Lust” is similar to “Pride”, except that the eyes, unlike those of ordinary people, are sunk to the middle of the bridge of the nose, as if they were looking at the person from below;
The eyes, ears, mouth and nose of the “Jealousy” mask are skewed and have a somber air about them;
The eyes of the “Lazy” mask are tightly closed and the mouth naturally droops, giving the impression that the wearer is sleeping.
Seeing that the original members of the panel had all arrived, Delrau smiled and said:
”We are waiting for one more friend, he will be the seventh member of the Convocation, heh, eighth, I forgot to count myself.”
No sooner had he spoken than a figure entered at the main entrance of the church.
The figure, wearing a shirt and vest on the inside, a black trench coat, and a half-height silk bowler hat, was, at a glance, a gentleman of considerable fashion.
But after a little observation, Audrey realized that under the human clothing was a giant rabbit with two bright red eyes and snow-white fur.
This rabbit took a step in and stopped at the side of the long table, right next to Audrey.
”Unfortunately, you only have one choice left.” Delrau smiled and pointed to the Rage mask on the table.
The rabbit made a male human sound:
”I’ve always been mild-mannered, so I’m just in time to experience the fury.”
He said as he picked up the mask of personality and put it on his face.
The mask’s eyes were wide open and its mouth seemed to be ready to roar at any moment.
Once Mr. Rage was seated next to Audrey, Delrau clapped his hands together and said:
”I’d like to formally introduce the two newest members of the panel.
”This is Miss ‘Pride’ and this is Mr. ‘Fury’, they are both demigods with deep attainments in the field of mind.
”Among them, Miss ‘Pride’ is in charge of the Becklander Region of the Rune Kingdom.”
Speaking here, Delrau looked at Audrey and said:
”As you may not be aware, we are rooted within the major groups of psychologists, psychiatrists, and corresponding enthusiasts, and our strength is mainly concentrated in the metropolis, rather than the small towns and villages, so each commissioner is in charge of a certain city, along with the surrounding area.”
Then Delrau continued:
”Mr. ‘Fury’ is in charge of Aisara, the capital of Lemberg;
”Mr. ‘Lust’ is responsible for Trier, the capital of Intis;
”Ms. ‘Greed’ is responsible for St. Miron, the capital of Forsak;
”Ms. ‘Sloth’ is responsible for the city of Feneport, the capital of Feneport;
”‘Mr. Jealousy’ is responsible for the city of Dilis in the Republic of Intis;
”Mr. ‘Overeating’ is in charge of the Rune Kingdom’s Constant City.”
After the introduction, Delrau added two sentences:
”The purpose of our Psycho Alchemy Society is exploration, discovery and research, and we don’t care about things such as our sphere of influence, the number of members, or the degree of resource possession, so we don’t have any Convocation members in the Sea of Mists, the Sea of Berserkers, and the Sea of Sounia, as well as in the Southern Continent, but of course, every now and then, there are members who go out to the sea, and explore the ruins of the Southern Continent to pursue the ancient history, hehe, I forgot that I I myself am the ‘King of the Black Seat’ above the five seas.”
Nearly half of the members of the St. Milon, Constanton, and Dilith …… Mental Alchemy Society are in the inter sea region …… Audrey is keenly aware of a problem.
She came from a noble family and received a good education from a young age, and she was not unfamiliar with the geographic location of the various cities in the North Continent, and knew that St. Miron in Forsak, Constanton in Ruen, and Dilith in Intis were all large cities along the coast of the Intermediate Sea.
Although none of them were comparable to the three major cities of Beckland, Trier, and Feneport City, each was not small in size and surrounded by many medium-sized cities, which made the coast of the Intercontinental Sea one of the most economically developed and populated regions in the Northern Continent.
Under such circumstances, it wasn’t too surprising that the Psycho Alchemy Society’s center of gravity was placed on the Middle Sea, and Audrey mainly didn’t expect that the Psycho Alchemy Society didn’t seem to have much interest in expansion.
After a few members of the Convocation recognized each other, Delrau sidled up to Audrey:
”‘Miss Pride’, affected by the war, the Psychological Alchemy Society of Bekrand has suffered considerable losses, many of its members have lost contact, I will give you the specific list afterward, and you will be responsible for ascertaining the whereabouts of those members and reorganizing them.
”During this process, I suggest that you refrain from using your real image and real name, and virtualize one or even more identities to accomplish these things, Hwyn Lambeth did not do a good enough job of that, he does have a bit of arrogance, I think.”
Audrey nodded softly in agreement.
Delrau whirled around and withdrew her gaze:
”The second matter to be discussed today is the whereabouts of the mind dragon in East Chester County of the Kingdom of Rune.
”The custom of dragon worship in the village of Hedrak has not weakened a bit in the past two years, and I suspect that the mind dragon is still influencing there in some way, so perhaps we can use this as a way to find out its whereabouts.
”I wonder which one of you would like to take care of this?”
After asking the question, he remembered that the newcomers, Miss “Arrogance” and Mr. “Fury”, didn’t have enough knowledge about the corresponding situation, so he briefly talked about the previous explorations done by the Psycho Alchemy Society and the incident where the entire subordinate archaeological team was killed.
Audrey had actually participated in some of the things in the early days, and when she saw that there was a suitable reason to intervene, she couldn’t help but be moved.
It wasn’t that she wanted to actually hunt that mind dragon, but rather she wished to do an exchange with the other party and grasp more knowledge and secrets of the mind domain.
However, she didn’t rush to raise her hand and take on the task, as a first time member of the Convocation meeting, she would rather miss out than rush to perform.
”This is Rune’s business, and it is not quite appropriate for us to intervene.” Mr. “Lust” looked around the room and said, “Unless Miss ‘Pride’ and Mr. ‘Overeating’ really don’t have the time. ”
Audrey waited a few more seconds and saw that ‘Overeating’ didn’t say anything before looking to Delrau:
”I’ll try to investigate, but I’ll need more detailed information.”