Chapter 104: Mr. Z

Chapter One Hundred Four
Mr. Z

One pocket. Two pockets. Three pockets…

Klein quickly searched out a bloodstained leather wallet, a Deweyville Library borrowing card, two brass-colored keys hanging together, an empty pipe with nothing stuffed inside, a sheathed dagger, and several sheets of letter paper folded with meticulous neatness.

After setting everything except the letters aside on the ground, he straightened and, while he was at it, cast a couple of glances at the wallet, confirming that it contained only a dozen or so soli in banknotes and a small number of copper pence.

“The workmanship on this wallet is actually quite good. What a pity…”

Klein sighed silently, his thoughts drifting a little.

If he had not spent so much private money today buying supplies, purchasing a wallet would already have been on his schedule.

Shaking his head, Klein unfolded the letter paper and began reading at a swift, scanning pace.

“Honored Mr. Z:

“Please allow me to defend myself. Hynas and I transferring the Antigonus family notebook was neither stupidity nor betrayal. While it was in our hands, it displayed nothing special.

“I suspect it is alive. I suspect it is an evil object possessing a certain degree of life and intelligence—a dangerous thing that must be sealed away.

“At different stages, before different people, the contents it presents are not the same!

“I have obtained confirmation of this from a lamb inside the police department.

“Although the contents that notebook reveals each time are sufficiently real and supported by much corroborating evidence, I believe that only in the hands of a descendant of the Antigonus family will it reveal its complete appearance.

“When Hynas and I obtained it, we could only see trivial matters concerning the Antigonus family, a general account of the Nation of Evernight on the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range, and the three Sequence potion formulas previously submitted to you.

“As you know, the Secret Order controls the Seer pathway and possesses extremely powerful tracking abilities. Therefore, both Hynas and I believed that continuing to keep the notebook was an exceedingly risky action, and at the time, the value it displayed was not enough for us to take on such risk.

“Under circumstances where there was no time to wait for your reply, we discussed the matter and sold the notebook to Welch, who lived in the same district. He liked collecting cultural relics and ancient texts, and could afford a high price. After that came the matters you already know.

“This is the first matter I wished to explain. And as I write this line, Hynas is dead. The cause of death was a sudden heart disease in his sleep. This must be the Lord’s grace upon him, allowing him to avoid the fate of falling into the hands of heretics.

“I had no choice but to move to a safe, concealed location. I did not even dare go outside. Fortunately, that lamb informed me that Hynas was targeted by the heretics not because of the Antigonus family notebook, nor because he had exposed his identity, but because he foolishly accepted a female student and intended to slowly develop her into one of us.

“His female student secretly read his hidden incantation and, while under the gaze of a Nighthawk heretic, attempted magic mirror divination. I believe you can infer the later developments. There is no need for me to describe them.

“Regrettably, that lamb’s rank is not high enough to discover the exact details.

“Judging from all feedback, the heretics have not suspected me. Their investigation was interrupted because of Hynas’s timely death.

“Therefore, I have returned to the streets and intend first to go to Deweyville Library and borrow several more journals, searching for more clues.

“As a force that likewise grasps the Seer pathway, the Antigonus family should have possessed some expectation of their own destruction. They must have left behind a secret treasure through which they could be revived!

“There is sufficient reason to believe that this treasure is on the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range, somewhere within the ruins of the Nation of Evernight!”

Reading to that point, Klein’s pupils contracted violently. He nearly let the letter paper slip from his fingers.

“The Sequence controlled by the Antigonus family is the Seer pathway?

“That truly is a coincidence!”

Thunderclaps exploded one after another in Klein’s mind, shaking his thoughts into disorder and once again giving him the sense that fate itself was closing around him.

“The notebook that caused the original owner’s death and indirectly helped me transmigrate came from the Antigonus family, who controlled the Seer pathway.

“The reason I ultimately chose the Seer potion was Emperor Roselle’s diary.

“And the reason Emperor Roselle leaned toward the Seer Sequence was the mysterious Mr. Zaratul, leader of the Secret Order, which also controlled the Seer pathway!

“…This is practically like fate weaving a suffocating net.”

“What exactly is hidden behind all this?”

Holding the letter paper, Klein paced back and forth several steps, trying to find corroboration from other angles for what he had just read.

“Mm. The Zaratul family’s Secret Order is pursuing and searching for what the Antigonus family left behind… If both sides belong to the same Beyonder pathway, then there is sufficient reason and motive. Perhaps they need to complete their Sequence chain. Perhaps they want rare materials for advancing to higher Sequences. Perhaps they covet the experience the other side accumulated in avoiding loss of control…

“Thinking this way, it is quite reasonable that the Antigonus family controlled at least part of the Seer pathway.

“Right. When I divined clues to the Clown potion, nearly every image that appeared was connected to the Antigonus family. The only exception was the tailcoat clown from the Secret Order…

“So the true meaning of those symbols may be this: every image is a possible way to obtain the Clown potion. Each one hides a clue. I simply did not understand the key point and regretfully missed them.”

With those two pieces of evidence, Klein almost entirely believed the matter Sirius had mentioned in the letter. He also understood why, whenever he heard voices he should not hear, the word “Hornacis” would always appear.

“The first time a similar situation appeared was right after I consumed the Seer potion!”

His expression serious, Klein spoke silently to himself.

At the same time, he guessed that “having come into contact with what the Antigonus family left behind and still remaining alive” and “becoming a Beyonder of the Seer pathway” were two necessary conditions for hearing whispers related to “Hornacis.”

Was there truly some secret treasure left behind by the Antigonus family inside the ancient ruins on the main peak of the Hornacis?

No. I must not think about that! The notebook alone killed a whole string of people. A complete treasure would only be even more terrifying!

Klein subconsciously shook his head and shifted his gaze to the final page, to the end of the third letter.

“Honored Mr. Z, I hope to obtain your assistance. I believe you should also have sufficient interest in that treasure.

“Before then, I will make myself appear as a normal person, a normal lover of history.

“Finally, when the day of destruction descends, I shall offer all the lambs of Tingen City to the Lord.

“Your humble servant, Sirius Arapis.”

After finishing Sirius’s letter, Klein suddenly wanted to laugh.

“Heh. Why does this give me the feeling that I saved Tingen City? What on earth did this fellow intend to do? Cultists really are impossible to reason with…

“…Who exactly is this Mr. Z? His status seems fairly high. At least at the same Sequence as the Captain, probably.

“Where was Sirius supposed to send this letter? He did not write an address… It seems that is a cultist’s caution. Until the last moment before mailing it, he would not leave an address behind.

“Right. Since the Antigonus family controlled part of the Seer pathway, then among the three formulas Sirius submitted—the ones obtained from the Antigonus family notebook—could one of them include the Clown potion?

“Very likely!”

At that instant, Klein seemed to have found the clue to the Clown potion.

Although Sirius had not carried the formula on him, perhaps the corresponding records remained at his home, or at the place where he had been hiding. And within his head, within his memories, they were certainly there.

Klein turned his gaze toward the corpse before him and began considering how to make a dead man speak.

Almost without needing to think, one method immediately appeared in his mind.

Spirit channeling!

A Spirit Medium could directly communicate with a spirit that had not yet dissipated. Professions such as Seer and Mystery Pryer could also barely manage it by relying on ritual magic.

The last time he had faced the tailcoat clown’s corpse, Klein had been in a hurry to save people, had not been carrying materials, and lacked confidence. Only because of those three reasons had he not considered spirit channeling and had missed the best opportunity. By the time they returned to Blackthorn Security Company, the spirit had already dissipated by more than half. Even if a Spirit Medium came, she would only be able to obtain shallow information.

But now, Klein happened to have fully prepared ritual materials, and he had experience using dream-divination techniques to communicate with lingering resentment.

“The only fear is that channeling the spirit of a cultist may be like when the Captain entered Hynas’s dream. I might see some terrifying existence… Still, the Captain was only dispirited for two days. His injuries were not too serious. Not too serious. Mm. I can try!”

After only a dozen seconds of hesitation, Klein made his decision. He did not want to miss this opportunity.

He lifted his head, turned, and looked toward the place where the glass had shattered, toward the onlookers craning their necks to stare this way.

Taking out his identification and badge, Klein first returned to that side. Through the jagged bay window, he addressed the crowd:

“I am a probationary inspector from the Awwa County Police Department’s Special Operations Division. I have already shot and killed that criminal. Please have someone take this badge to the nearby police station and ask them to send people to handle the follow-up.

“The rest of you, please help me block off this place. Do not let anyone approach and damage traces at the scene.”

“Yes, officer!”

The librarian who had “tricked” Klein earlier immediately accepted the badge.

After the scene had been sealed off and no one else entered the lawn, Klein returned to the spot near the corner and stood beside the corpse.

While inwardly rejoicing that the innocent onlookers could not see a corpse now closer in appearance to a monster, he set down his cane and revolver. Then he reached into the row of inner pockets inside his thin black windbreaker and took out a small metal vial.

He would use a spirit-channeling ritual and the technique of dream divination to make the dead speak.