Chapter 76: Aftermath

Chapter Seventy-Six
Aftermath

Bang!

The silver bullet crossed the distance of several meters and accurately drilled into the tailcoat clown’s neck. Blood immediately gushed out in great waves, dyeing his skin red, dyeing his bow tie red.

The tailcoat clown could not scream. Only hoarse, rattling sounds came from his throat. He wanted to raise a hand and shift away that fatal wound, yet his shoulder and elbow seemed to have been filled with glue. His movements were stiff, sluggish, and rough.

Bang!

Klein, who had entered a half-meditative state, was not frightened by the blood. He pulled the trigger again, calm as though he were doing daily practice.

A hideous hole suddenly appeared in the tailcoat clown’s forehead. Scarlet liquid welled out, dimming the light in his eyes. The power of that exquisite revolver was much greater than Klein had expected.

His knees bent. His arms fell. The tailcoat clown slowly collapsed, bewilderment frozen in his gaze.

His body twitched several times, then slowly relaxed. After that, there was no more movement.

Having landed the shot, Klein had already turned around in a very cool manner. He flicked open the cylinder, letting the empty casings fall one after another.

Then, dressed in black formalwear and wearing a half-top silk hat, he walked toward El Hassan while taking the final silver Demon-hunting Bullet from his pocket and sliding the slender round into the chamber.

The reason he did not look back at the miserable state of the tailcoat clown was purely because of the discomfort of killing someone for the first time. But there had been no choice. Klein had no idea what would happen once the other party was completely controlled by the puppet.

Moreover, he did not want to risk entering Sealed Artifact 2-049’s range of influence again. No one could say whether some bizarre change would appear this time, making the self-rescue through the luck-changing ritual fail.

As for the things on the tailcoat clown’s body, the only thing Klein cared about was whether the so-called Clown potion formula, or any related clue, was present. But that was not something he needed to rush to complete. Later, he could search together with Dunn, El, and the others. If the Nighthawks obtained it, that was almost the same as him obtaining it. They would hardly be stingy with a Sequence 8 potion formula. At worst, he would spend more time accumulating merits. In any case, he had only recently become a Seer. There was still a long time before the potion was digested.

With thoughts tumbling through him, Klein quickly reached El Hassan’s side. This gentleman in a gray double-breasted windbreaker had struggled several times to sit up, only to fail again and again, falling until he was covered in dirt and dust.

“Mr. Hassan, is there anything you need me to do?” Klein crouched down and asked. The revolver in his hand pointed diagonally toward the ground to avoid accidental discharge.

El took a breath and sighed.

“That monster was far too strong. If not for the fact that it still had a weakness…”

At that point, he pointed to a sky-blue metal vial beside him and laughed self-mockingly.

“I meant to drink the potion, but my hand shook…”

The sky-blue metal vial was roughly as thick as Klein’s thumb and no more than five centimeters tall. Its spiral-patterned cap had fallen to one side, completely soaked by liquid.

Klein reached out and picked up the small vial. Squinting as he examined it, he answered helplessly, “Mr. Hassan, only a few drops on the inner wall are left.”

“Go… search Borgia. Inner pocket. Inner pocket,” El said, panting continuously.

“All right.”

Klein stood and casually asked, “Is this a healing potion?”

An item from the mystical domain?

“No. It only has a certain healing effect. Mainly—mainly, it stimulates our mind and squeezes out our body’s… potential, letting us maintain good condition for a short time, enough to hold on until we return, hold on until we receive treatment.”

El tried to sit up, failed once more, and continued, “Its name is Goddess’s Gaze… Remember to let Borgia drink half the potion.”

Klein delayed no longer. Turning around, he quickly came to Borgia, who was groaning in pain. From the half-unconscious Nighthawk’s chest, he found the standard sky-blue metal vial.

Unscrewing the cap, he carefully brought the mouth of the vial to Borgia’s lips.

Borgia seemed to sense something and struggled to open his mouth.

Klein tilted the vial. Dark-red liquid flowed into Borgia’s mouth.

Estimating the amount, Klein stopped in time and screwed the cap back on.

The potion seemed genuinely effective. Only a few seconds after Borgia swallowed it, the light in his eyes gathered again, and he spoke in a low, hoarse voice.

“Thank you.”

After saying that, he supported himself with one hand against the ground and slowly sat up. He first handled his own injuries, then walked toward the unconscious Lorotta and Dunn, finding Goddess’s Gaze from the latter’s inner pocket.

Klein returned to El’s side and fed the remaining half-bottle of potion into the man’s mouth.

El gasped several times. His movements suddenly became agile, as though he had never been injured at all.

“I will help Borgia. You take care of your colleague.”

This charming middle-aged gentleman pointed toward Leonard Mitchell.

Klein had no objection. Turning around, he jogged to the side of the “poet” Leonard.

“No need. I can drink it myself.”

Leonard, his hair falling messily, smiled and lifted the sky-blue metal vial in his hand.

Watching the other man support himself with one hand and stand with nimble ease, Klein, who had just been about to silently mock him, suddenly froze.

Leonard’s injuries are lighter than I expected…

He was able to drink the potion from the very beginning!

Which means he may have seen my counterclockwise four-step luck-changing ritual!

No. That part is still all right. My recitations were silent, and the luck-changing ritual has no obvious external manifestation. Otherwise, the tailcoat clown could not have been fooled…

But even so, Leonard, who had recovered early yet chose to watch from the sidelines, must have seen quite a few things—for instance, that I was not affected by 2-049, and that I tricked the tailcoat clown…

Just as Klein’s eyes narrowed slightly, Leonard, walking toward him, stopped at his side. Looking straight ahead, he gave a soft laugh.

“I meant to save you, but I discovered that you did not need it.”

“Do not mind it. There are many special people in this world. They can always do things others cannot. For example, you…”

“…and for example, me.”

The corners of Leonard’s mouth lifted. He passed Klein and walked toward the awakened Dunn and Lorotta.

Narcissist…

Klein silently grumbled, yet his heart relaxed considerably.

It seems Leonard Mitchell is hiding quite a few secrets as well…

Thoughtful, he rejoined the main group and watched Captain Dunn put on gloves and pick up the Antigonus family notebook, which was stained with yellow-brown filth and blood.

The notebook’s cover was made entirely of deep-black hard paper. It gave off an ancient and distant aura, showing not the slightest sign of softening or rot. It was almost identical to the way Klein had seen it in his dream, so much so that he began suspecting—suspecting that once it was opened, he might see a Fool in a magnificent headdress.

But he quickly knew he had been overthinking it, because Dunn cautiously opened the notebook and made a final confirmation.

From Klein’s angle, he could not clearly see the words on the page. But he was certain there was no Fool in splendid clothing and a radiant headdress.

“Cough. No problem.”

Dunn closed the notebook and gripped it firmly. Then he looked toward El and the others.

“For the next few days, it and Sealed Artifact 2-049 will be kept together behind Tingen’s Chanis Gate, until you recover or Backlund sends another escort.”

Hearing this, Klein felt both disappointed and relieved. He very much wanted to look again at that Antigonus family notebook and understand the cause of the original owner’s death, as well as Welch and Naya’s. Yet he also felt this ancient item was full of misfortune, always bringing calamity, and so he did not dare touch it.

Turning it over to Church headquarters and sealing it tightly away counts as the best option…

He secretly exhaled.

“All right.”

El Hassan, Borgia, and Lorotta nodded one after another. They then turned and came to Sealed Artifact 2-049.

Awakening one another repeatedly, they stuffed the puppet, which had at some unknown point regained the ability to move, back into the cracked iron-black box and monitored it closely.

“Everything is normal,” El said, his tone containing a few more shades of relief.

Inside the iron-black box, where only a faint gleam remained, the puppet wrapped in oil-stained cloth strips creaked and rolled over, turning its clown-painted face toward the light source.

On that bizarre face, beneath those pure-black eyes without pupils, two tiny dark-red cracks appeared—cracks not easily noticed.

At the same time, Dunn, Leonard, and Klein, who had mustered his courage, searched the tailcoat clown’s corpse. They found paper flowers, handkerchiefs, playing cards, glass shards, and all sorts of strange and unusual objects.

But apart from those, the other party carried nothing valuable, or rather nothing capable of providing a clue.

Mm, except for a wallet containing seven or eight pounds and more than ten soli…

Klein sighed silently.

Thinking of money, he immediately lowered his head and examined himself. His expression nearly collapsed.

His formal suit, worth several pounds, now had five or six places that needed mending because of all the rolling and friction. It was also covered everywhere in muddy, dusty stains.

Dunn glanced at him. The corners of his mouth lifted almost imperceptibly.

“Losses suffered during missions can all be reimbursed.”

Reimbursed… Hearing that word “invented” by Emperor Roselle, Klein’s mood instantly brightened.

Mm. If this formal suit is properly cleaned and mended, it can still be worn. It will still be decent enough…

Once the reimbursement money comes through, I can buy another set and rotate between them!

Mm. I am absolutely not the sort of person who would divert reimbursement funds for other purposes…

Still, I should consider “combat clothes” in the future, like the Captain’s black windbreaker. If the material is slightly worse, it will be far cheaper than a tailcoat suit… Hiss. Is the reason Leonard rarely wears formalwear precisely because he has thought of this?

“Have Frye handle the corpse and see whether he can identify the man’s original appearance and find any related clues.”

Dunn touched the greasepaint on the tailcoat clown’s face with his gloved hand.

After that, they searched the innermost warehouse. Inside, they saw several lumps of bloody, rotten paste that looked as if they had been flattened by giant stones. Stark-white broken bones were scattered everywhere, one after another.

“Ray Bieber should have been using an ancient ritual to absorb the power contained in the notebook, much like directly consuming a Sequence potion of a higher grade. It is full of danger. It requires an undisturbed environment and a certain period of sleep. That is probably why he never left Tingen until now.”

After examining the scene once, Dunn guessed at the possibility.

Hearing such a description, the black-haired Madam Lorotta, still pale-faced, gave a laugh.

“Unfortunately, we woke him up early. The rage of getting out of bed was truly memorable.”

“This is one form of loss of control,” Dunn said to Klein, half explaining, half teaching.

“Then why did he not simply leave Tingen and try absorbing it somewhere else?”

Klein asked in puzzlement.

El Hassan smiled and pointed at his own head.

“A fellow influenced by ancient power, by evil power, often does not have much use left here.”

At that moment, Dunn inhaled. Pain was hidden in his voice as he said, “Leonard, your condition is still good. Stay here and keep ordinary people from coming close… The rest of us will immediately collect Ray Bieber’s remnants, bring them, the Sealed Artifact, and the Antigonus family notebook back, and have Frye, Royale, and the police come over.”