Chapter 23: Suggestions

Chapter 23: Suggestions

Good question… The Fool, Klein, inwardly praised her, then expressed the Red Angel evil spirit’s explanation in his own words:

“The seven gods all hope for there to be a Black Emperor, but their opinions are not unified on who should become that Black Emperor.

“After George III secretly made preparations and successfully obtained that ticket, regardless of whether the seven gods approved of Him, they could only tacitly accept it.”

So that was how it was… Apart from The Moon Emlyn and The Sun Derrick, who were not fully aware of the situation, the remaining Tarot Club members all came to a rough understanding. They more or less grasped why the major Churches had shown somewhat contradictory behavior in the Backlund Great Smog, the Feysac airship attack, and George III’s “assassination.”

Immediately afterward, a question surfaced in all of their minds:

Since George III had already prepared everything, reached the final step of conducting the ritual, and obtained the tacit approval of the seven gods, why did He still fail?

They then thought of an answer:

Because Mr. Fool did not agree.

Mm… In the matter of George III’s Black Emperor ritual being sabotaged, the Churches probably didn’t try too hard to stop it. They may even have provided some help to Mr. Fool’s subordinates… Did the Church of Storms use the chaos to do something in secret? No, they probably wouldn’t have bothered concealing too much… The Star Leonard recalled all the details he had noticed earlier and gained a more complete grasp of the overall situation.

The seven gods tacitly approved… Mr. Fool voted against it and sent The World and other blessed ones to secretly sabotage George III’s apotheosis ritual… But what does this have to do with the Queen? Why did she notice that Gehrman Sparrow had disappeared? Mm, Black Emperor… Perhaps the Queen participated in the operation led by Mr. Fool and later discovered that her collaborator had gone missing… The Hermit Cattleya used her broad experience and knowledge to form a guess regarding the truth of the matter.

Only at this moment did The Moon Emlyn finally connect all the scattered points they had just discussed and understand what kind of changes had taken place in the outside world while he had been placed under protective custody:

George III had secretly plotted to become a god, obtained the tacit approval of the seven gods, but Mr. Fool sent His blessed ones to sabotage the ritual, causing Him to perish on the spot!

Seeing everyone fall silent for a moment, The Fool Klein looked toward The Hermit Cattleya and asked, “Any more questions?”

“Not this time.” Cattleya lowered her head even more than before, her reverence toward the great existence seated at the very top of the bronze long table deepening.

Although she had long since known that Mr. Fool had three angels under Him—the Snake of Fate, the Death Consul, and an Ancient Evil—and secretly controlled the Life School of Thought, she still had not expected that the power Mr. Fool could mobilize in the real world could sabotage a king’s apotheosis ritual and even frustrate the schemes of a King of Angels, the son of the Creator.

Mr. Fool’s hidden forces are far more exaggerated than I imagined… What use do we Tarot Club members have to Him? The powers behind us? Our own growth potential? Or are we merely backup plans? At that instant, The Hermit Cattleya thought of many things. For a brief moment, she almost forgot that she herself was already a Sequence 4 demigod, someone who would count as a high-ranking figure in any organization.

Only the things Mr. Fool has revealed are enough to make a saint lose confidence… Justice Audrey merely glanced at Madam Hermit and interpreted her mental state.

At that moment, The Fool Klein nodded.

“You may begin.”

Hearing this, The Star Leonard immediately turned toward the very bottom of the mottled long table and asked The World, “How is your current situation?”

Magician Forsi…