BLOODY LOVE'S
Episode 148's

When Xavier calmed down, Jose changed his tactics. They will not be able to advance from the status quo if they are both insistent on their respective terms.

Xavier doesn't want any story if his life isn't guaranteed, but Jose himself knows he's not a god. He is aware of his own limitations and feels it is impossible to carelessly give promises to protect people based on the lure of information that is not yet clear. Jose didn't want to change his mind, but he was willing to try to compromise by listening first to Xavier's problems. The man was willing to lose face to meet him for help, so whoever was chasing him, they definitely could not be dealt with the Hastings brothers' plentiful money.

"You said you were being chased by someone. Do you know anyone who's after you?" ask Jose. "Do you have any guesses about who has a grudge against you?"

Xavier laughs. "Yes guess, hmm .. This is not a guess .. I'm sure who's after me. Those Scholomance guys."

"Scholomance?" Jose repeated.

"Ah," Xavier glanced over, not looking surprised. "So you already know that name. Sure oes. You also know those who captured Marquis Argent? I mean, technically it's not them, but—"

The door is knocked from the outside.

"Come in," said Jose, his eyes could not be separated from Xavier who snorted irritatedly because his words were always cut.

The door swings in and Rolan walks in, carrying the dashing Nolan in Marco's blue coat.

Jose raised both his eyebrows high. He had asked Rolan to take Nolan, but the point was to bring him to the bedroom that was located right next to the reading room. There was a door connecting the place with the reading room, so the sound of this place would be heard.

"I know what you want to say" Rolan whispered to Jose as soon as he arrived. "But he did not want to hide, insistent on wanting to come here to try shouting. I don't want his voice to be completely broken. He even wants to walk on his own. It was my fault for giving him painkillers. You can scold me later."

Jose observed Nolan sitting on the sofa beside him, wearing an oversized coat that sank his hands out of sight. Margie had washed the coat and intended to keep it in Marco's room, but Jose requested that Margie leave it in the room with Nolan. The girl seemed to like Marco's overcoat.

Xavier watched Nolan for a bit longer, then patted his own thigh and froze loudly. "I think I should have seen it! She was Marco's servant who was with him yesterday! Why is he here? Robert said he was dead!"

Jose turned to Rolan, giving him a brief blink. Rolan replied with a slow nod. Jose was right about Robert. The inspector is intent on saving Nolan by hiding him in a cell.

A cruel way to help the wounded, Jose thought. But I can't blame her too much, she probably couldn't think of anything else when Nolan suddenly showed up in her office.

Nolan frowned at Xavier's words. A second later his eyes were puffed up. He recognized the voice that spoke to him during his time in prison. Nolan got up quickly from his seat to attack, but then took it off as still too weak. Rolan forced her to sit down, nagged her, and stood guard behind the child's chair.

"I see," Xavier hid a smile, still staring at Nolan with a astonished face. "You're using this waitress to see if I'm telling the truth or not."

The plan was so, Jose thought annoyed. Nolan had always been acting out of his plans, and it made him a little dizzy rebuilding all tactics from the start again.

Nolan himself was no less upset. He glared at Jose for a very long time with a cruel look.

Jose turned his face away, pretending not to look. He knows Nolan is angry that no one has denied Xavier's accusations and explains that Nolan is not a servant. But Jose felt there was no need to open an information card without a proper reply. Everything has to have a price. Any information should only be shared if it is profitable. Let Xavier think that Nolan is a servant if it can make things shorter.

"What did he tell you?" xavier asked while moving his chin at Nolan.

Jose didn't answer that question. It will start from another point. "So the one chasing you is Scholomance? I know that's the name of the school held by the devil?"

Both Rolan and Jose remember the case of Wallace's death. The Director of the Archive Center also mentioned about him.

"You're also one of them?"

"Of course not!" Xavier denied it hard. "Scholomance is a bunch of freaks! They took the name from the demon school myth but considered themselves religious, that alone was already strange! We met them in Romania—I mean, me and Charles. They say they're after the gates of eternal truth or something. You know the story of Creation, right? Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of the Good and the Evil?"

Jose nodded cautiously, trying to gather all the puzzles in his head. He wondered why all this chaos always led to religion. Their initial allegation was also religion: between the old religion in Bjork or kakure kirishitan. But the allegations are all wrong. They're dealing with something worse: Scholomance.

"They believe there's a gate back to Eden" Xavier continued. "They claim to have the knowledge of the people who once made it out of scholomance, the knowledge to open the way to that gate."

Jose laughs. "Then if the gate is open, what do they want? Eating fruit of knowledge again?"

Xavier nodded seriously. "They want to eat the fruit of the other tree, Argent."

Tree Life.

In Genesis, there are two forbidden trees in the Garden of Eden, the only type of tree whose fruit Adam and Eve could not eat. The Tree is the Tree of Knowledge of the Good and the Evil and the Tree of Life. Eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge will make man have reason and understand what is good and what is evil, what is wrong and what is right, making man different from other creations. The tree carries knowledge that humans should not have. As soon as Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, God drove them out of the Garden of Paradise and in case the other tree was safe, immediately put a cherubim angel complete with a flaming sword to guard another forbidden tree.

"You know that in the book, God is almost always written to call yourself by plural pronouns, right? We're. Our. They are not just one, and this is the foundation of the faith of the Scholomance people. Do you remember what they said after they kicked Adam and Eve out of Eden?" Xavier did not even need to remember when he quoted, "Surely the man has become like one of us, knowing about good and evil; so now let him not stretch out his hand and take also from the fruit of the Tree of Life and eat it, so that he may live forever."

Jose realized what Scholomance was aiming for. "They want to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life and become God?"

"Bingo." Xavier flicked his finger. "They think all men are God, just trapped in a pseudo-body. If they eat one fruit, they can be a perfect God. Ridiculous, right? But they have a lot of followers. Very much. And they have a way of opening the gates to Eden. Crazy way, I think. They'll open it here in Bjork."

"Why is it here? Is Eden here?"

"Okay, maybe. But all I heard was that the reason was a solar eclipse" Xavier replied. "They need an eclipse, the closest solar eclipse ring will be clearly visible from here. But for what, I don't really understand. I didn't go too deep to know. They don't believe me either ..."

"Then what do you mean Golem?" chase Jose. His hand gripped the arm of the chair, still remembering the beginning of all this. If what they had all been calling a black ghost was a golem, had Higgins killed a golem? Was Sir William not involved?

"That golem," Xavier cleared his throat softly. His expression turned restless. "It .. I don't know, but we used to make it to keep their rituals or meetings. Beings are made and given certain commands, and then disappear when their orders are done. But if that makes him unskilled, then the golem will instantly melt or break down and turn back into its main ingredient."

"What's the main thing? Land?" Jose frowned. "You're being chased by clay?"

"Corpse."

The answer was reflected in a terrible hoarse voice. That's not Xavier's voice.

***