Chapter 106: Audrey’s “Adventure”

Chapter One Hundred SixAudrey’s “Adventure”

Queen’s Borough, inside Earl Hall’s luxurious villa.

This should have been the time for practicing piano, but Audrey was still seated before her dressing table, thinking about how she would flip through and memorize Roselle’s diary that evening.

Suddenly, her surroundings blurred, and endless gray-white fog surged into being.

At the center of that gray fog, the figure of The Fool sat high above everything. He was listening to the request of a man so blurred that he could not be seen clearly at all:

“…I pray for a certain degree of assistance.

“I pray that someone may help me touch the bookmark tucked inside Roselle’s creative manuscript…”

…

How does Mr. Fool know that today, after the museum closes, I will visit the Roselle Memorial Exhibition and have the chance to touch some objects?

Audrey listened in a daze. Although she was surprised, she did not find it strange.

With Mr. Fool’s level and abilities, grasping such a minor matter would surely be very easy.

As for exactly how He had grasped it, an ordinary Sequence Beyonder had no need to understand.

Audrey was just about to respond when she heard The Fool speak in a deep, calm voice.

“You may choose to accept this commission, or refuse it.”

Uh…

Audrey considered for two seconds.

“Honorable Mr. Fool, I can try, but I cannot guarantee success.”

She was actually not particularly interested in the payment whose minimum was five hundred pounds. The reason she accepted this mission was because she was curious about what was so special about the bookmark Emperor Roselle had left behind that Mr. Fool’s blessed one valued it so highly, even to the point of offering a price without an upper limit.

In any case, I was going to flip through Roselle’s diary today anyway. I can do it in passing…

Audrey naturally thought that.

Within the gray fog, The Fool—Klein—nodded lightly and answered with a single word:

“Good.”

After that vision completely vanished, Audrey turned her gaze toward the dressing mirror, seemingly inspecting herself seriously.

She felt nervous and uneasy, yet at the same time eager and excited as she began planning the evening’s operation.

“I cannot let anyone notice anything abnormal.

“If Mr. Fool’s blessed one does something afterward, I cannot become the main target of suspicion.

“Only touching that bookmark definitely will not work. Once it disappears, every gaze will focus on me.

“Mm… Therefore, I must display the same interest and same attitude toward every item. I cannot let others see that my true goal is the bookmark. The whole process must be gentle, not abrupt, and must conform to reason and logic.

“How should I cause tiny damage that will not attract attention?

“It is only a bookmark…”

Audrey’s unfocused gaze swept over the various items arranged on her dressing table. Suddenly, it fixed on the open jewelry box, on a pair of gemstone ear studs decorated with fine needles.

The corners of her mouth lifted bit by bit, her brows and eyes curving faintly as she murmured to herself, “With Susie’s help added in, that should be enough…”

…

At six o’clock in the evening, the current season’s Backlund—where even seeing the sun was already difficult—had become dark and dim. Gas streetlamps lit up one after another.

After sending off the final group of ordinary visitors, the Kingdom Museum welcomed a new visiting party made up of people of noble standing: an earl’s daughter, a duke’s children, young viscounts, and others of similar status.

Because he knew that certain noble children were often troublemaking dandies, the Machinery Hivemind’s West District team captain, Max Livermore, who was responsible for guarding the memorial exhibition, had no choice but to disguise himself as a security guard and follow them constantly from the side to guard against accidents.

His hair was neatly combed back. He wore a monocle and had a refined, scholarly appearance, like a university professor.

That…