Chapter 32: Gift

Chapter 32: Gift

On a night with pale moonlight, inside the garden of 160 Böklund Street.

A gray rat rustled out from its hole and ran beneath the balcony of the master bedroom.

A very small lump of black, paste-like matter then drifted down and was balanced by the rat on its head like an acrobatic performance.

It quickly turned around, ran out of 160 Böklund Street, and reached the entrance of a nearby sewer.

At that moment, the gray rat raised the front half of its body and extended its two claws.

Its claws suddenly and strangely lengthened, and clearly visible lumps of muscle appeared on its forelegs!

Then, relying on those mutated front claws, it forcibly moved aside the manhole cover, making almost no sound!

Without stopping, the gray rat slipped into the sewer and traveled all the way to the place where the Demoness Trissy had once hidden.

It scratched and dug in the corner, unearthing a fragment of mirror from the soil.

Having finished this, the gray rat flung the paste-like black matter on its head to a relatively clean place beside it, then retreated into the corner. Its body slowly lengthened and widened, as if pulled by invisible hands, transforming into a middle-aged man wearing a dark-red coat and an old tricorn hat. It was unmistakably the Blood Admiral who had once been active at sea.

However, this Senor, including both body and clothing, was only a thin layer, like a paper figure cut out with scissors.

“This rat was fairly fat…” The paper-like Blood Admiral raised a hand and rubbed his chin. Blown by the cold wind inside the sewer, he nearly floated up.

The one speaking was Klein. Inside the master bedroom, he had manipulated Spirit Body Threads, turned a rat into a marionette, and sent it carrying ritual materials to the sewer to attempt contact with the Demoness Trissy.

Senor, his arms twisting back and forth in the wind and with his movements, bent down and picked up the paste-like black matter. This was what remained after Trissy used black flames to burn a strand of hair. It could be used as material for a contact ritual.

Immediately afterward, he wiped the mirror fragment clean and smeared the material in his hand across it.

After finishing this step, Klein had his marionette hold the “mirror” and step back twice, then stick itself with a slap against the moss-covered wall like a realistic oil painting.

…

In the East Borough, inside a room with thick curtains and almost no light.

One dark, slippery “tentacle” after another wound together in layers, forming a giant sphere.

At the ends of those “tentacles,” some were inlaid with clearly black-and-white eyeballs, while others had grown into poisonous snake heads, their mouths slightly parted and tongues flicking out. Each was grotesque and frightening.

Suddenly, they either rose or withdrew, and the sphere unraveled layer by layer.

In the center wrapped by the sphere was a young girl curled into a ball. She had an extraordinarily sweet face, with her brows tightly knitted and her expression slightly twisted by pain, making her appear especially pitiable.

The slippery, disgusting “tentacles” had all retracted by now, rapidly shrinking and finally returning to their original form:

Strands of glossy black hair.

The girl covered in smooth, long hair gradually relaxed her expression. Moving somewhat slowly, she rose, walked to the bed that had been cut into small pieces, picked up the nightdress that had fallen to the floor, and put it on.

Then she gathered her black hair, came before the full-length mirror, extended her right palm, and wiped it across the glass surface.

A layer of black flame instantly rose, silently burning the air before rapidly vanishing without a trace, leaving behind a mirror that had become dark and deep.

Inside the mirror, light and shadow floated. The filthy, muddy environment of the sewer rapidly appeared, and a middle-aged man in an old tricorn hat and dark-red coat was thinly pasted against the wall, looking down at the young girl separated from him by an unknown distance, like a famous painting that had come alive.

The young girl with a relatively round face and slender eyes quietly looked at him for two seconds, then suddenly laughed.

As her smile bloomed, the room, which had almost no light, seemed to brighten considerably in an instant.

She then parted her lips and said teasingly,

“Mr. Gehrman Sparrow, is this the madness and coldness of the strongest adventurer?

“Or perhaps the person I truly know is a clown?”

Klein felt no surprise that the Demoness Trissy could recognize his identity as Gehrman Sparrow. After all, when he had met her, he had used the appearance of Blood Admiral Senor, and that pirate admiral had long since become Gehrman Sparrow’s prey.

Back then, Trissy had hidden in the sewer because of her injuries. Before that, she had also been focused on investigating matters of revenge. It was perfectly normal that she had not known various pieces of sea news, or about what had happened to Blood Admiral. But once she recovered and left that place, if she still did not clarify the recent news about her collaborator, then one could only say that both her Assassin and Instigator stages had been wholly unqualified.

Clearly, Trissy’s past performances proved that, although she was bad, there was nothing wrong with her brain.

Klein did not argue. Manipulating the paper-figure Senor, he smiled and responded simply,

“Why can a clown not be mad and cold?”

Without waiting for Trissy to answer, he changed the subject and asked,

“How far has your investigation of that Chief Equerry progressed?”

Trissy’s expression darkened slightly.

“I’ll need at least one more month to obtain results. Possibly two.”

“If you need any help, you can look for me.” Klein emphasized again.

Trissy gave a “heh.”

“In Backlund, in this game, power cannot solve every problem.

“Of course, I have never been one to waste opportunities to use others.

“Mr. Gehrman Sparrow, since there is no longer any need to conceal your identity, can you give me a more convenient method of contact?”

Why does this feel like I’m being asked for my phone number… Klein thought for a moment, then calmly described the steps for summoning Miss Messenger, not forgetting to emphasize that a gold coin was an important ritual material.

Trissy said nothing more. Once again, she extended her right hand and lightly touched the mirror surface.

Black flames rose and vanished, and the full-length mirror returned to normal.

Inside the sewer, the paper-form Blood Admiral Senor reburied the mirror fragment in the soil. Then he rapidly shrank, returning to the form of a gray rat, and rushed deep into the underground world, offering himself as food to some carnivorous creature.

At 160 Böklund Street, Klein drew the curtains closed and returned to the easy chair.

To be honest, he somewhat regretted cooperating with Trissy.

He felt that this person carried some of the Primordial Demoness’s will. And for revenge, she could ignore anything. She was like a moving bomb that might lose control at some unknown time.

If Trissy mutates, there’s a high chance she’ll create a terrifying disaster… I shouldn’t have let her go back then… Klein sighed, then began arranging a ritual. He brought the paste-like black matter above the gray fog and tried to use it to divine Trissy’s current location and her recent condition.

Twenty or thirty seconds later, the result he obtained was failure.

This made him even more worried, because this result showed that Trissy had, to some extent, already become a favored one of the Primordial Demoness.

…

The next morning, after breakfast, Klein began guiding Butler Walter and his newly appointed assistant butler Richardson in distributing the gifts he had brought back from the Southern Continent.

There was a full suitcase of them, including Fermo coffee beans, East Balam tobacco, River Valley grape wine, human-bone statues, and other specialties.

They would be delivered separately to different neighbors in the neighborhood, representing Dwayne Dantès’s sentiments and also announcing his return to social circles.

“Mm, when you give this bottle of River Valley grape wine to Member of Parliament Macht or his wife, remember to mention that it is suitable for making sour cocktails and is a perfect partner for lemon juice,” Klein instructed Butler Walter.

Of course, which gift went to which person involved some thought. It had to be matched to the recipient’s interests. Naturally, the currently hottest product of the Southern Continent, Donningsman hair-growth water, was not suitable as a gift, because that was more like mockery.

Walter nodded solemnly.

“Yes, sir.”

After his employer had no further instructions, Richardson swept his gaze over the remaining pile of gifts and asked on his own initiative,

“Where are these to be sent?”

“These are for the staff of the Charity Bursary Foundation. I will deliver them myself.” Klein smiled.

He then pointed to the golden amulet in his hand.

“I missed the birth of Dr. Allen’s child, so I need to personally visit and express my apologies. Heh, I will go this afternoon and give this Southern Continent-style amulet to the child.”

Of course, the baby Will Auceptin Ceres probably won’t like it… Compared to this, He—no, he—would rather have ice cream… After speaking, Klein muttered inwardly.

After Mr. Butler and Richardson left one after another, bringing gifts and footmen to different neighbors’ houses, Klein boarded his own carriage and traveled all the way to 22 Phelps Street, where the Loen Charity Bursary Foundation was located.

After stepping down from the carriage, he walked in front, with his personal valet Enuni behind him carrying a large pile of gifts. Whenever they encountered a staff member along the way, he would go over, greet them, and present a gift.

In this way, Klein made his way to the second floor and arrived before one of the directors’ offices. Curling his finger, he lightly knocked on the half-open door.

“Please come in.” Audrey Hall’s gentle voice came from inside.

As a relatively experienced Spectator, she had discovered earlier that Mr. Dwayne Dantès had come to the Loen Charity Bursary Foundation and had been waiting patiently.

Klein pushed the door open and entered. From the inner pocket of his clothing, he took out a small gift box and smiled warmly.

“I have returned from the Southern Continent. Mm, this business trip was very successful, so I brought everyone a small gift. I hope to share my joy.”

He deliberately mentioned this, indicating that he remembered Miss Justice’s request.

“Then I cannot find a reason to refuse.” Audrey smiled lightly, filled with anticipation.

This was not because she cared what gift Mr. World would give her, but because she was curious what kind of gift Mr. World would give.

Taking the gift box, she opened the wrapping in front of Dwayne Dantès and discovered an ornament whose main body was a white feather painted with pale-yellow patterns.

“This is a hat ornament,” Klein explained. “People of certain social status in East Balam enjoy inserting all kinds of white feathers into different parts of their clothing as accessories. Among them, the feather placed on the hat is the most precious and carries the greatest meaning. This is said to come from customs related to feathered serpent worship. Heh, over there, the feathered serpent is a symbol of Death.”

The feather Klein had asked a Southern Continent craftsman to turn into a hat ornament came from a byproduct of the artificial Death plan. It could be used for sacrifice.

Klein had once obtained three of them. One had been used in Bayam, together with the corresponding copper-whistle messenger, to summon a monster that had mutated after being polluted by the artificial Death. Another had been sacrificed to the artificial Death on the Southern Continent, allowing him to receive a revelation that Ince Zangwill was possessed by an evil spirit. This was the final remaining feather.

Because the current “artificial Death” was, to a certain extent, already equivalent to the Evernight Goddess, Klein, who had been clearly identified as a favored one, no longer needed to operate in the old way when conducting rituals. He could use other materials to replace the feather. Therefore, he simply had the last remaining feather made into a gift for Miss Justice. After all, she was also a believer of Evernight. Perhaps at a critical moment, she could even rely on this feather to contact the “artificial Death.”

Audrey held the gift, a smile at her lips, and quietly listened to Dwayne Dantès’s explanation. For no reason, a thought flashed through her mind:

Mr. World couldn’t have actually plucked a feather from a feathered serpent to make this hat ornament, could he…