Chapter 76: Speculation and Investigation

Chapter Seventy-Six
Speculation and Investigation

Audrey, believing she had grasped the truth, could not stop herself from imagining the scene Viscount Glaint had described:

Lanevus lying in darkness, in filth, his body covered with tarot card after tarot card. There would be The Fool, Justice, The Hanged Man, The Sun, The World, other major arcana, and numerous number cards. Some would be reversed, some upright, some not yet turned over and showing only their backs, as though it were an enormous, eerie tarot divination.

The image must have been shocking!

I wonder where the Justice card landed…

How will MI9 and the Church’s Beyonders view this? Will they think a new secret organization has appeared?

Lanevus carried the True Creator’s divinity. Whatever he and the Aurora Order had been plotting certainly could not have been small. If it had succeeded, it would surely have brought terrifying disaster to Backlund, to the Kingdom. Yet such a scheme was stopped so lightly, so quietly—stopped by a simple mission issued by Mr. Fool!

Is this what a battle at the level of gods looks like?

Are Mr. Fool and the True Creator mortal enemies?

No wonder He calls the other party the Fallen Creator…

…

Thought after thought flashed rapidly through her mind, and Audrey’s body faintly trembled in a way difficult to detect.

“What are you thinking about?” Viscount Glaint, seated across from her, finally could not help asking in confusion.

Audrey abruptly came back to herself. Tilting her head slightly, she smiled.

“Were you not asking me to imagine the scene of a corpse covered in tarot cards?”

“Haha.”

Glaint laughed awkwardly, then sighed with emotion. “I wonder which secret organization’s member killed Lanevus. It fits my imagination of such things so perfectly. It’s just, just so spectacular!”

It was our Tarot Club!

Audrey answered silently. With a faint smile, she said, “Perhaps it was a powerful Beyonder acting alone, without any organization.”

“Either way, I like that style! Hurry Xio and Fors a little. Ask them when they can find my Apothecary formula,” Glaint said, still rather excited.

Audrey’s eyes widened slightly. She looked around, lowered her voice, and said, “Be quiet. Lower your voice.

“How can you speak about potion formulas here?”

Glaint laughed without much concern.

“Relax. It is fine. I already checked just now. Apart from you and me, there is only a dog here.”

The golden retriever Susie subconsciously shifted her sitting posture.

…

Backlund, North Borough. A room beneath Saint Samuel Cathedral.

Daly, wearing a black hooded robe, blue eyeshadow, and rouge that gave her an eerie, cold, bewitching beauty, casually found a seat and picked up the document on the table.

Her eyes swept over it. Her gaze suddenly froze. Immediately afterward, her brows knitted tight. Suppressing something, she asked, “Lanevus?”

“Why did I not know about this?”

“Why was I not informed of last night’s operation?”

Seated at the head, Crestet Cesimir, who had once again hidden his chin and lips inside his upright collar, spoke in a deep voice.

“I was worried you would be unable to control your emotions, which would bring unnecessary risks to the operation. That is why I did not have anyone tell you.

“I understand your feelings very well. One Nighthawk from the Tingen squad is currently receiving guidance and training at the Sanctuary in preparation for joining the Red Gloves. His reaction was similar to yours. But as the person in charge of the operation, and as a senior deacon of the Nighthawks, I had to remove unstable factors from the field.”

Daly glanced at the other Nighthawk captains and deacons who had been summoned. She gave a heh and said, “Why do you think I would be unable to control my emotions? I am very calm. I would not act recklessly!”

“My anger would only explode after Lanevus had been captured! That is the professionalism of a veteran Nighthawk and a deacon!”

“If I had caught Lanevus, I would have made him understand that men are very fragile too! I would have placed a cold, rotting, yet stiff corpse behind him. I would have placed a skeleton full of barbs and stench before him. I would have let those chilly little things enter and exit every single place on his body that could be entered and exited!”

“Damn it! And you just let him die like that!”

Crestet Cesimir calmly looked at Daly and silently listened to all of her words. Only then did he sigh and ask, “How long have you been holding that in?”

Daly froze for a moment. Suddenly, like a deflated ball, she lowered her voice in dejection.

“A very long time…”

Cesimir withdrew his gaze and looked toward the other deacons and squad captains.

“What have we gained?”

“We have preliminarily confirmed that the person who killed Lanevus was a member of the Secret Order. His level was Sequence 8, and the potion’s name is Clown. He is adept at using cards as flying knives,” one deacon reported truthfully. “However, we cannot confirm this guess. The tarot cards scattered over the corpse do not look as though they were meant to conceal anything. After all, that Beyonder did not also deal with the cards stuck in the walls or the ones in Lanevus’s head. We all believe the final scene more closely resembled a ritual, or perhaps a symbol. Therefore, we suspect that Beyonder might belong to an organization we do not yet understand. Of course, that scene may also simply be his personal habit.”

Cesimir nodded slightly.

“We may begin there and conduct further investigation.”

“El, did the investigation into the informant yield anything?”

The charmingly middle-aged El Hassan flipped through the papers in his hand.

“We investigated the informant and discovered his actions came from a bounty hunter’s instructions.

“During the process of searching for the wanted criminal Lanevus, that bounty hunter’s companion was killed by a member of the Aurora Order. To avenge him, she secretly investigated and eventually locked onto the target at the Workers’ Union Tavern in East Balam Dock. By following the target’s activity patterns, she discovered Lanevus.

“Her actions are basically corroborated by witnesses from the side. There is nothing strange. We also used supernatural means to confirm that she has no connection to the person who killed Lanevus.

“She is currently hiding, and it will be very difficult to find her.”

Cesimir added, as though thinking aloud, “This matches Lanevus’s description. A radical and insane Aurora Order member became an aid to his escape.

“What about the reporter who went to the workers’ association that afternoon for an interview? Any issues?”

Another Nighthawk captain reported, “He was a fake reporter. According to information sent over by the police department, he is actually a private detective. Earlier, he was helping Mike Joseph, a reporter from the Daily Observer, investigate Sibel’s murder. We guess he obtained some clue and traced it to the dock union, then disguised himself in order to make contact with every suspected murderer.

“This guess has already been confirmed by Isengard Stanton.”

Cesimir gave an acknowledging sound, then asked about the other people who had recently come into contact with Lanevus. One after another, he received answers that there were no issues.

Near the end, he weighed his words and said, “The Lanevus murder lacks sufficient motive, which greatly puzzles me. The mysterious killer is worth paying attention to. Continue following up on this matter.

“In addition, judging by common sense, in a metropolis like Backlund, the Aurora Order definitely will not have only Beyonders at the level of Rose Bishop and Hermit. There should at least be a Divine Envoy, and perhaps even a Saint.

“Their scheme to welcome the True Creator’s descent has failed. Given their madness and irrationality, I worry they will carry out a series of retaliatory actions. Recently, all of you must remain highly alert. I will also stay in Backlund.”

“Yes, Your Excellency Cesimir,” the deacons and squad captains answered solemnly.

Crestet Cesimir paused for a few seconds, then added, “The Megose incident in Tingen and last night’s Lanevus incident both reveal a problem: the Factory Borough, the Dock Borough, and the East Borough have become hotbeds for evil gods to descend or gestate.

“Assign personnel to investigate and gather the truest conditions there.

“If the situation is indeed like Lanevus described, I will raise this matter at the Cardinal Council, formally pressure the Kingdom and the government, and push the corresponding reforms to be realized as quickly as possible.”

…

Klein slept until very late before getting up, yet outside, the world was still not bright enough. A faint haze lingered, and the air was dark, damp, and cold.

This does not suit my rather radiant mood…

He muttered once, changed clothes, took his keys, and returned to Minsk Street without attracting attention along the way.

After changing out of the worker’s uniform into a household shirt and sweater, and confirming that no one had come to investigate him, the private detective, he finally relaxed completely. Leisurely, he went out to the butcher and vegetable seller, buying food and preparing himself a rich lunch.

Backlund gained a little sunlight in the afternoon. Klein lazily basked in it and, for a moment, seemed unwilling to do anything at all.

At two forty-five, he finally took out his gold-cased pocket watch, glanced at it, returned to the bedroom, and entered above the gray fog.

After manifesting the fake person, The World, and familiarizing himself with the control technique again, he sat upright in the high-backed chair at the head of the table and sent Student Sun the reminder to prepare for the gathering.

At three o’clock Backlund time, beams of crimson light rose inside the magnificent, ancient palace, outlining different equally indistinct figures.

Justice Audrey immediately looked toward the seat of honor and spoke cheerfully.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Fool.

“The ‘simple’ mission You entrusted has been completed.”

She deliberately put stress on the word “simple,” wanting to confirm from Mr. Fool whether Lanevus had been eliminated by His blessed one, and whether the death scene covered in tarot cards was the Tarot Club’s symbolic mark.

Klein smiled, deliberately calm.

“I already know.”

After saying that, he gave an unhurried sigh.

“Such an era, such a Backlund, such an East Borough, Dock Borough, and Factory Borough—they truly are hotbeds for evil gods to descend.”

What?

The Hanged Man Alger was stunned, suspecting that something was wrong with his ears.

How did a simple mission end up connected to hotbeds for evil gods to descend?