Chapter 195: Klein, “Lockpicking Expert”

Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Five
Klein, “Lockpicking Expert”

After taking several seconds to recover, Klein activated spirit vision and looked around the room. Beneath the crimson moonlight, Madam Sharon’s bedroom appeared luxurious and gorgeous.

Thick carpets. Broad space. A velvet quilt cover. A dressing table crowded with all sorts of skin-care and cosmetic products. Jewelry and ornaments shining with different lights. A half-open walk-in closet. Light clothing and garter stockings casually thrown onto a rocking chair. Numerous decorative objects inlaid with gold thread. One by one, they entered Klein’s eyes.

But the most eye-catching thing in the entire room was an unfinished oil painting. Upon it was Madam Sharon herself, her body bare. Her brown hair fell like a waterfall, and her brown eyes were like those of a deer in the forest—pure and moist. Yet her arched brows, upturned eyes, high nose, and delicate lips outlined a mature woman’s charm. The two qualities had been kneaded together in contradiction, yet gave off an astonishing allure.

Below the neck, Klein only glanced once and did not examine closely. This was not fake propriety. He had already seen that “slightly indecent film” involving her. Why would he be afraid of a mere risqué painting?

His attention was drawn instead to the pigments, palette, brushes, and the silver-plated full-length mirror beside the oil painting.

This combination, this placement, this position relative to one another gave him a strange thought: the author of the oil painting might be Madam Sharon herself, not some painter she had seduced.

A beautiful woman with an outstanding figure, both seductive and pure, removing all her clothes, painting herself while looking in the mirror, recording her own beauty… This scene feels rather odd… Is Madam Sharon not a little too narcissistic?

Klein silently muttered. Then he withdrew his gaze and began searching for possible evidence of crimes.

Following Leonard and Frye’s teachings, he wore black gloves throughout. Before searching any place, he first remembered its original appearance, so that it could be restored afterward.

For a Seer, this was not at all difficult. If he forgot, dream divination techniques could easily help him recall it.

Of course, before going out that night, he had also performed a divination for himself: no danger, very smooth.

This is what a qualified charlatan should do… even if I am already a Clown…

Klein jabbed at himself inwardly. He spent nearly twenty minutes searching Madam Sharon’s bedroom, but did not find anything worthy of attention, nor did he see the slightest glow of spirituality.

Finally, he stopped before the safe in a corner of the room.

It was iron-gray, a meter tall, thick and heavy, giving off an exceptionally solid impression. It looked as though even explosives might not break it open.

“This really has the characteristics of the steam age… Inside, there must be an extremely complex mechanical combination…”

Klein attempted to pick the lock and shamefully failed.

He temporarily pushed the safe matter to the end, removed the glove from his left hand, and took down the citrine pendant wound around his wrist.

Holding the silver chain and letting the pendulum hang down, Klein excluded the heat and agitation brought by the fragrance in the room, entering a meditative state.

His eyes darkened as he murmured in a low voice, “There is a secret room or hidden compartment in this room.

“There is a secret room or hidden compartment in this room.

“…”

After seven repetitions, Klein’s eye color returned to normal. His gaze fell upon the citrine pendant and saw it rotating counterclockwise.

That indicated denial.

Klein nodded almost invisibly, left Madam Sharon’s bedroom, and followed the same procedure to quietly search the study, sitting room, solarium, and other areas. Still, he failed to discover any useful or valuable clues.

The reason he did not use dowsing was that he did not know what object he was supposed to find.

Taking out his silver pocket watch decorated with vine patterns, he snapped it open, confirmed the time, then turned back toward Madam Sharon’s bedroom.

After carefully closing the wooden door, Klein took out the ritual silver dagger, poured spirituality into it, and let it combine with natural forces to seal the entire room.

He intended to “summon” himself.

He intended to use his Spirit Body to enter that heavy safe and examine the things inside.

“I do not need to know lockpicking!”

Klein muttered in Chinese.

Since he was praying to himself, all procedures could be simplified. There was no need to be excessively particular. Klein took out a candle mixed with sandalwood, lit it casually with spirituality, and considered the altar complete.

“I!

“I summon in my name:

“The Fool that does not belong to this era;

“The mysterious ruler above the gray fog;

“The King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck.”

The incantation echoed inside Madam Sharon’s bedroom. Klein’s spirituality poured out, fusing with the candle flame into a palm-sized gray-white light screen.

Immediately afterward, he walked four steps counterclockwise, passed through the roars, and entered above the gray fog.

After glancing at the “summoning door” behind the high-backed chair at the head of the ancient long table, Klein was just about to respond when he suddenly paused.

“Since I am already here, I might as well perform a divination and see whether I can discover any clues… In this place, aside from interference being eliminated, my abilities are enhanced to a certain extent… And the environment my body is currently in is equivalent to using items that Madam Sharon carries with her…”

He sat down and manifested parchment and a round-bellied fountain pen before him.

What should I divine?

Klein fell into thought.

“Madam Sharon has problems?”

No. Everyone has committed wrongs. Everyone has some problems.

“Madam Sharon is involved in crimes?”

…That is also not rigorous enough. As a famous socialite mixing in political circles, it would be normal for her to be involved in certain dirty matters that could not be proven… And by what should crime be defined? The laws of the Loen Kingdom? The laws of the Intis Republic? Or my own personal judgment?

…

As thoughts rolled, Klein did not wish to waste time. After all, his physical body was still in the real world. Therefore, he decided simply to confirm a few related divinations he had made earlier.

Picking up the fountain pen, without needing to write, a divination statement appeared on the parchment before him:

“John Maynard’s death was influenced by extraordinary factors.”

This was the divination Klein had performed when he went to Councilman Maynard’s home to assist the police with spirit channeling. At the time, the answer had been negative.

Holding the silver chain and letting the citrine pendant nearly touch the words on the parchment, Klein half closed his eyes and silently recited the divination statement:

“John Maynard’s death was influenced by extraordinary factors.

“John Maynard’s death was influenced by extraordinary factors.

“…”

After repeating it a full seven times, he opened his eyes and looked at the pendulum. His pupils suddenly contracted.

The citrine pendant was turning clockwise.

And clockwise rotation indicated affirmation.

John Maynard’s death had been influenced by extraordinary factors.

Klein stared at the slowly calming pendulum, waves surging violently through his heart.

“My divination at the time was influenced. Interfered with…”

“Madam Sharon is a Beyonder? A rather impressive Beyonder? Or is there someone like that behind her, helping her, jointly planning Councilman Maynard’s death?”

“To remove this strong competitor for the mayoral seat? To remove the New Party’s future member of the House of Commons?”

Thought after thought flashed past. Klein wrote a new divination statement:

“Madam Sharon is a Beyonder.”

Once again, he recited it seven times. Once again, he used the pendulum method. Relying on his current environment and the portions of information related to Madam Sharon, Klein completed the divination and saw the answer.

The answer was the citrine pendant rotating clockwise.

The answer was yes.

Madam Sharon is a Beyonder…

Klein’s heart tightened. He delayed no further and immediately responded to his own “summoning,” pushing open that mysterious door.

After chaos and dizziness, he saw Madam Sharon’s bedroom. He saw himself.

Half floating, half flying, Klein arrived before the heavy safe. Extending his right hand, he carefully reached inside.

Since Madam Sharon was a Beyonder, he had to guard against the possibility that she had set up traps inside the safe.

And in this Spirit Body state, mixed with a little power from the mysterious space and most of his own spirituality, Klein no longer needed divination. Merely approaching danger would bring him a warning. The essence of most divination was relying on the Astral Body roaming through the spirit world to receive revelations. Put simply, it originated from one’s own spirituality.

His nearly transparent palm passed through the thick metal door, and Klein sensed no abnormality at all.

After sweeping up, down, left, and right, he suddenly lunged forward, sending his entire Spirit Body into the safe.

He saw that the interior was divided into three layers. One held standardized gold bars, thick stacks of banknotes, and even more valuable jewelry. Another held many documents without covers. Klein puffed out his cheeks and blew several times, but failed to turn them open and see their contents.

Mm. I can try again later while carrying Mr. Azik’s copper whistle…

Klein had previously tested it. If his Spirit Body completely wrapped around the Sunflame Charm or Azik’s copper whistle, then those two objects could pass through obstacles with him, as if becoming half-real and half-illusory.

The lowest layer of the safe was rather strange. It held only one black-and-white photograph.

In the photograph was a young man with clear brows and refined features.

“Madam Sharon’s former lover? They were forcibly separated, and Madam Sharon had no choice but to marry the old baron. From then onward, she sank into decadence, drifting from one man’s bed to another, yet deep within her heart, she still preserved one pure corner. Whenever night was deep and all was quiet, she would take out this photograph and stroke it with tears in her eyes…”

In an instant, Klein filled in an entire tragic romantic drama inside his head.

But the more he looked, the more he felt something was wrong, because the young man in the photograph seemed—probably, perhaps—to look a little like Madam Sharon…

Madam Sharon’s younger brother? She is a Beyonder… Damn it, she cannot also be from the Demoness pathway, can she? Just like Instigator Tris!

A flash of inspiration suddenly crossed Klein’s mind, frightening even himself.

Why had Tris previously lingered in Tingen? Was it because she had companions here?

Klein carefully observed the photograph and increasingly felt that the young man looked quite similar to Madam Sharon.

His nearly transparent face made a grimacing expression. He felt he could no longer view that earlier “slightly indecent film” in the same way.

Restraining his emotions, Klein began feeling around the safe, checking whether anything else had been hidden there.

Although he currently could not pick up paper, passing through objects felt different from passing through air, and objects of different density also felt different from one another.

As he searched, Klein suddenly froze.

On the side of the safe close to the wall, he touched a hollow space—a hidden compartment.

After confirming there was no danger, Klein slipped inside. Reflected in his vision were balms, incense, herbal powders, and other items. There was also a statue carved from white bone.

The statue was palm-sized and vaguely depicted a beautiful woman. Her hair was extremely long, stretching all the way down to her ankles. Every strand was clearly defined, thick as a venomous snake.

At the tip of each strand of hair, an eye had been carved. Some were closed, some were open, densely packed together.

Klein was badly startled. He “smelled” a certain evil aura and hurriedly withdrew from the hidden compartment.

At last, he understood why his earlier divination regarding secret rooms and hidden compartments had failed.