Chapter 119: The Notarial Certificate

Chapter One Hundred Nineteen
The Notarial Certificate

That is a very generous offer…

Klein almost could not believe what he was hearing.

Although the most valuable thing—the Beyonder characteristic left behind by a Sequence 5 powerhouse—and the special, powerful Sealed Artifact would go to them, the remainder was not bad at all!

It was impossible for a Sequence 5 powerhouse to possess only the Sealed Artifact granted by his organization. And if the Sequence 6 Living Corpse or the Sequence 7 Werewolf left anything behind, either one would be worth a considerable sum.

Klein leaned back slightly, adopting the pose of someone deep in thought, using it to suppress the greed that had suddenly surged in his heart.

“Your conditions are indeed satisfying,” he replied. Then he changed the subject and asked, “Who is Karman the Sorcerer King? What does his Book of Secrets record?”

Maric rubbed his temple and said, “Sorcerer King can refer either to a certain high-Sequence profession, or to an outstanding person who controls powers in the domains of darkness, the moon, and the strange—someone powerful beyond others of the same kind. Karman was the latter, and also the former.

“He was active on the Southern Continent in the early Fifth Epoch. Later, all traces of him vanished completely. Perhaps he was captured and killed by the Church of Death or by that secret organization of ours. Perhaps, due to old age, he died in some place no one knows.

“His Book of Secrets includes knowledge of secret pacts, rituals, alchemy, astrology, symbolism, methods of interacting with nature, and other fields. Even an ordinary person who obtained it could become an expert in mysticism. They might even, without consuming a potion, rely on their own natural spirituality to complete a small number of supernatural feats. Mm, the price would be slowly turning into a mental patient. That is the lingering consequence of spirituality being unable to bear the burden.”

Sounds very good… exactly what I need… But this mission is not only difficult in itself. It will also bring trouble afterward. That is a secret organization with a history of over a thousand years…

After pondering for several seconds, Klein still chose to obey his inner will.

“I would like a certain amount of time to consider.

“This is a very major and very dangerous matter. I cannot act impulsively.

“I will give an answer tomorrow morning at nine. Mm, come to my house. You know the address.”

He looked at Sharron when he spoke the last part. Once he finished, he suddenly felt a little anxious and tense.

The other party had revealed so many important secrets, even involving their hidden weaknesses. If he did not choose to agree on the spot, would he be silenced immediately?

Or perhaps they would follow me at every moment until I make a decision?

Then how am I supposed to divine above the gray fog?

Sharron, in her black court dress, quietly looked at Klein. Within her blue eyes, there was no anger, no suspicion, and no emotion at all.

She suddenly took a folded sheet of paper out from some concealed pocket and unfolded it into a rectangle.

The entire sheet was orange-yellow. It was covered with many symbolic signs, including those representing the sun.

Those symbols and marks encircled a blank area, making one feel warmth and steadiness.

The moment Klein saw that sheet, he remembered what it was, and his heart, which had been hanging in midair, settled at once.

This had also come from Marionettist Rosago. This was the Notarial Certificate!

When the spoils had been divided, this mystical item had belonged to Sharron.

Pale and exquisite, Sharron passed the Notarial Certificate to Klein and said concisely, “Press here.

“Promise not to reveal what you just heard.”

Hoo…

Klein exhaled and nodded solemnly.

“All right.”

Following her instruction, he accepted the Notarial Certificate, pressed his palm onto the blank area, and carefully said, “I swear not to tell anyone else what I have just learned from Miss Sharron and Mr. Maric.”

As he spoke word by word, the symbols and magical marks around the Notarial Certificate lit one after another, each blooming with bright, warm light.

When everything ended, the lights connected into an image like a seal, stamping itself onto Klein’s palm. It passed through and landed upon the blank area.

A warm current flashed and vanished. Klein instantly sensed some subtle but invisible connection between himself and the Notarial Certificate.

So the ability old Mr. Eye of Wisdom simulated back then really did belong to a Notary…

He suddenly associated this with a certain past matter.

“I’m done.”

Klein handed the Notarial Certificate back.

Sharron nodded calmly. Without saying anything more, her indifferent figure rapidly turned illusory and vanished inside the carriage.

Maric still suppressed the malice hidden deep in his eyes. He bent a finger and lightly rapped the wooden wall of the carriage.

The carriage immediately slowed to a stop, and the carriage door opened by itself.

Using a living corpse to drive the carriage and a shade as an attendant… That really is Maric’s style…

With spirit vision activated, Klein understood. He removed his flat cap, pressed it to his chest, bowed slightly, then jumped down from the carriage.

Around him was a quiet street. Quite a few gas streetlamps had already broken, but no one had repaired them.

Klein first went to the one-bedroom apartment in the East Borough, then returned to 15 Minsk Street. There, he pretended to perform two divinations in the sitting room.

One asked whether he should accept this commission. The other asked whether the commission was dangerous, and to what degree.

But he did not even examine the answers closely.

Beyonders of the Mutant pathway’s Wraith Sequence could transform into Spirit Bodies, directly contacting the spirit world and obtaining information. In other words, they naturally possessed the ability of divination and anti-divination. Because of that, whether it was Sharron or the target Steve, either could make the revelation Klein obtained false and deviated.

After completing the divinations, he read newspapers and books as usual, practiced his Beyonder abilities in the living room, then washed up and went to bed without showing the slightest abnormality.

At four ten in the morning, Klein suddenly woke, rolled out of bed, and got up.

He found a candle, created a wall of spirituality, and silently conducted the ritual of summoning himself.

Then he took four steps counterclockwise and entered above the gray fog, though he did not rush to answer the request.

Sitting in the high-back chair belonging to The Fool, Klein looked down at the surface of the bronze long table and saw the All-Black Eye, Azik’s copper whistle, and the Black Emperor card. He saw the image of Roselle holding a scepter, dressed in pitch black, august and imposing.

The corner of his mouth suddenly twitched. Klein extended his right hand and flipped that Card of Blasphemy over, turning it face down.

Out of sight, out of mind!

After manifesting paper and pen, he removed the yellow crystal pendant and repeated the two divinations he had performed earlier.

The first result was that the spirit pendulum rotated clockwise, neither quickly nor slowly. In other words, he should accept the commission, but it was not compulsory.

The second result was that the yellow crystal pendant rotated counterclockwise at a rather fast speed and with a relatively large amplitude. Klein interpreted it as: there was danger, and the danger was quite great, but as long as he responded properly, it had not yet reached the point where it would threaten his life.

Hoo…

After pondering for several seconds, Klein recalled one of his previous guesses.

Perhaps every Magician needed to perform.

Otherwise, the potion’s name should be Mage, not Magician.

The key to “not performing without preparation” is both being prepared and the act of performing itself… And this may not simply be expressed through combat… The two hypotheses of “directing the enemy’s attention” and “making the audience applaud” likewise both require performance as their premise… As long as the method is appropriate, the disguise good enough, and all loose ends properly handled, the Rose School of Thought should find it very difficult to trace matters back to me…

Thought after thought flashed through Klein’s mind.

Combining them with the revelations he had just obtained from divination, he quickly made his decision. Leaning back against The Fool’s high-back chair, he lifted his head to look at the majestic, ancient palace and the endless gray fog, then revealed a faint smile.

“Then let us put on a grand performance.”

After saying that, he took the All-Black Eye and Azik’s copper whistle, and answered his own request.

The next day—Thursday morning.

Klein, who had gone out early to buy ingredients, prepared a self-made Feynapotter noodle dish closer to spaghetti with meat sauce. Then he took today’s newspapers from the mailbox by the door.

As he ate and read, he obtained information about a Beyonder gathering from the Backlund Morning Post.

As expected, once the tense situation eases, the gathering convenes…

Klein smiled and muttered to himself.

At nine o’clock, he took out his gold-cased pocket watch, clicked it open, and glanced at it. Then, facing the empty sitting room and the bow window there, he said, “I am willing to provide help.

“The conditions are as you stated.

“But the premise is that you give me a few more days.”

He paused, smiling faintly.

“I need to make some preparations.”

Inside the sitting room where no one but Klein existed, a drifting, illusory voice suddenly sounded:

“Good.

“When your preparations are complete, go to the bar once.”

…

Inside Viscount Glaint’s study, Audrey sat in a chair, reaching out to tidy the fur behind Susie’s head. She looked at Fors, who was savoring a glass of Aurmir wine, and Xio, who sat quietly nearby.

“Why were you in such a hurry to have me come here?”

Although this was the first time she had seen Fors and Xio since the Lanevus incident, she had long since used Susie to pay them their compensation.

Mm. After joining our Tarot Club, Fors seems outwardly unchanged. She is still languid and still likes teasing Xio. But certain things hidden inside her are completely different. Before, she would occasionally seem dispirited, melancholic, as though she held no hope for the future. Now, that part of her has disappeared entirely…

Audrey the Telepathist smiled on the surface while calmly observing Miss Magician’s condition within her heart.

Fors drained the rest of her wine and said, “As expected of Aurmir wine. As expected of the most famous wine. It’s so much better than what I’ve drunk before. Its layers are very distinct, and every layer has a different feeling.”

She set down the glass.

“The gathering where the Spectator formula and clues regarding the Psychology Alchemists may appear is about to be convened. It is this afternoon.”

“So that is it. Why so sudden?” Audrey asked, slightly puzzled.

Fors smiled and explained, “Because that serial killer delayed too many people’s affairs. And that place is in the northern suburbs. The moment when the Nighthawks are most relaxed is afternoon.”

“Mm.”

Audrey nodded lightly and did not ask further.

At the same time, her gaze swept across them, and she silently sighed.

Compared to the past, compared to Fors now, Xio has become much more silent…

Just then, Viscount Glaint, standing nearby, also chuckled.

“Audrey, I will go with you.”

“Why?” Audrey knowingly asked.

Glaint cleared his throat.

“I have already obtained the Apothecary formula, and I need to trade for some materials. My family’s treasury does not contain the two corresponding ingredients.

“Mm. Fors sold it to me for three hundred pounds. She guaranteed it is real.”

Three hundred pounds… I remember you bought it from Mr. World for only two hundred and thirty…

Audrey could not help glancing at Fors.