Chapter 145: The Sun’s Concern

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Five
The Sun’s Concern

Inside the luxurious carriage leaving Earl Hall’s residence.

Luke was casually chatting with Madam Mary about the distinguished guests they had just met: the chairman of the Atmospheric Pollution Investigation Committee and director of the National Weather Service, Sir Des Shaw; committee member of the Atmospheric Pollution Investigation Committee, president of the Royal Meteorological Society, and Member of the House of Commons, Mr. Keff; and the Midsea County medical and health administrator, the famous Doctor Hawksley.

Every one of them possessed broad influence within the government, royal family, or Parliament. The final report produced by this committee would become the most important basis for the planned Anti-Pollution Bill and Smoke Emissions Reduction Bill.

And Cowim Company, whose main products were smokeless coal and charcoal, intended precisely to promote and accelerate that process, leaving their aged but enormous competitors no time to transform.

“They certainly will not be stingy with gold pounds. They will definitely lobby those heavyweight Members of Parliament to interfere with our investigation. We must have a clear response plan. Just as Mr. Hibbert Hall said, we must seize public opinion, make newspapers and magazines repeatedly publicize the horrors of smoke pollution…” Luke was a senior manager of Cowim Company and an important assistant through whom Madam Mary, a major shareholder, controlled the company. He himself was also quite capable.

Amid the idle conversation, Luke suddenly noticed that his wife sat beside him without saying a word, as though she had lost her soul.

“Stelyn, did something happen?” Luke asked with concern.

Stelyn returned to herself and forced out a smile.

“Nothing. I am simply a little tired.”

“Yes. After meeting so many important people, your mind must have stayed tense the whole time. Now that you can finally relax, it is normal to feel tired. In fact, I am the same.” Luke smiled.

Stelyn did not respond. Instead, she stared blankly out the window, toward the park with the lake.

By her ears, the noble young lady’s earlier careless words seemed still to echo faintly.

“Four hundred and fifty pounds.”

“A well-trained hound costs between four hundred and fifty and seven hundred pounds.”

…

The City of Silver, at the bottom of the round tower.

Derrick Berg had remained trapped inside the cramped room, eating and taking medicine on schedule. His mental state had improved rapidly. The auditory and visual hallucinations no longer appeared.

In another day or two, I should be able to leave… Staying in this kind of environment all the time really is suffocating… That former exploration team captain next door has been locked up for a full forty-two years, yet he is still so clearheaded and rational. If it were me, I would surely have gone mad already… Still, the exploration experiences and strange monsters he described are very fascinating, even a little frightening…

Derrick sat at the edge of the bed and looked at the candle that had nearly burned to the end.

Before the guards brought the next serving of food and medicine, he would be left in true darkness.

Just then, gray fog suddenly spread before his eyes, and in his ears rang Mr. Fool’s low voice:

“Prepare for the gathering.”

That change disappeared in a flash. Derrick withdrew his attention and instinctively began counting his heartbeats.

But he quickly discovered that it was unnecessary, because his current situation counted as being alone. There was no need to avoid anyone else.

Once he stopped counting his heartbeats, Derrick soon thought of a problem:

He was currently within the sealed range of the magical item at the bottom of the round tower. Would Mr. Fool’s later act of drawing people above the gray fog be discovered or detected by it?

This was one of the two magical items that, in several critical moments, had prevented the City of Silver from being utterly destroyed!

Amid fear and unease, Derrick—who had still failed to make a decision—saw boundless crimson radiance surge from the void. With a single rolling wave, it drowned him completely.

Inside the narrow, sealed room, everything was quiet. Even his breathing grew faint to the extreme.

Suddenly, the metal wall separating Derrick from the former exploration team captain produced a soft knock.

This was the signal the two used when they wished to chat.

Knock!

Across the wall, someone bent a finger and knocked again.

After that, the third knock that should have followed quickly did not come for a very long while.

Only after quite some time did another knock sound hesitantly. Then both rooms sank into silence, and no more movement came from either side.

…

After the luncheon ended, Audrey practiced piano for a while, then returned toward her bedroom while keeping track of the time.

As she passed by her father, Earl Hall’s, study, she saw the door half-open, with a thick stack of documents placed on the desk.

“Those were not there before…”

Audrey’s curiosity was stirred. She slowed her pace and gave the golden retriever Susie a look.

After becoming a Spectator, Susie often needed only the slightest hint to understand what her owner wanted her to do. Of course, she would occasionally pretend not to understand, only wanting to lie there without moving.

Receiving the signal, Susie silently trotted into the study, then stretched her two front legs against the edge of the desk and stood upright.

She swiftly glanced at the cover page of the documents, returned to Audrey’s side, and lowered her voice.

“Investigation into the Living Conditions of Every Class in the East Borough, Dock Borough, and Factory Borough.”

“Audrey, what does that mean?”

An investigation into the living conditions of every class in the East Borough, Dock Borough, and Factory Borough? Why would Father suddenly commission this kind of investigation? I remember I never mentioned anything like this to him… Audrey felt a burst of puzzlement and had no time to answer Susie’s question.

She looked around and saw that the servants were each at their posts, none paying special attention to her. Thus, she slightly raised her head and turned calmly and naturally into Earl Hall’s study.

Arriving beside the desk, Audrey lowered her head and looked at the investigative report, discovering that the title was indeed exactly as Susie had described.

Mm, this is a typed document. The investigator is a reporter named Mike Joseph. Below it is the Goddess’s sacred emblem… Was this commissioned by the Church of the Goddess? But why give Father a copy? Ah, Father is a believer of the Goddess. The Church wants him to provide some support in this matter? That is a good thing…

Audrey made a preliminary judgment.

She herself had once intended to hire someone to do a similar investigation, but she had also felt that this did not fit her intention of secretly guiding things from behind the scenes. It would very easily make her presence too obvious and no longer allow her to be ignored by other nobles. Therefore, she had hesitated and never tried.

Audrey reached out and flipped through the documents, discovering that the reports on the East Borough, Dock Borough, and Factory Borough included not only Mike Joseph’s, but also quite a few field investigations conducted from different angles by other people.

Several of them even mentioned the spread of evil cults, as well as the collusion of certain Beyonders with gangs.

Hoo…

Audrey glanced at the clock in the study. Seeing that it was close to three, she abandoned the plan of reading carefully and restored the documents to their original condition.

Before leaving, she casually drew out a book, disguising it as the reason she had entered.

…

At exactly three o’clock, while the wall clock’s chimes were still echoing, Audrey appeared in the majestic, towering palace amid illusory crimson light, appearing at the side of the ancient long table.

She sketched a smile, rose, and curtsied toward the seat of honor.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Fool~”

After receiving a slight nod in reply, she greeted The Hanged Man, The World, The Magician, and the others separately, and keenly noticed that The Sun seemed a little uneasy.

“What are you worried about?” Audrey asked.

This spared Klein, who had also noticed something off about Little Sun, from needing to speak himself.

Having entered that mysterious space ahead of time, he had slightly tidied up the items on the table, throwing Azik’s copper whistle, the Biological Toxin Bottle, the Spirit Order copper whistle, and the other objects into a corner, covering them completely with dense gray fog.

Now, upon the tabletop before him, there lay only one face-down Black Emperor card.

This was an item fully worthy of matching The Fool’s identity!

The Sun, Derrick, did not conceal anything. He immediately recounted in full how he had successfully “faked illness” and had been sent to the bottom of the round tower for isolated treatment. At the end, he asked, “Honorable Mr. Fool, will that magical item discover that I am attending the Tarot Gathering?”

How would I know… I do not even know what it is… However, for now, no strange or powerful force has tried to invade this place… Mm, even the Eternal Blazing Sun and the True Creator failed to find this place…

Klein’s finger lightly tapped the edge of the bronze long table. With an air of “ease,” he answered, “Under normal circumstances, it cannot discover it.

“But certain magical items possess strange effects.”

Seeing Mr. Fool provide an affirmative answer, Derrick immediately felt much more at ease. He gave an “mm” and said, “I do not know what special effects it has either.

“This is one of the highest secrets of the City of Silver.”

At that point, he suddenly remembered what the former exploration team captain had told him and blurted out a question:

“Have any of you heard of a person named Amon?”

Amon? Klein thought briefly and remembered where that sense of familiarity came from.

But he did not rush to answer. Instead, he cast his gaze toward The Hanged Man. He knew very clearly that this mid-level member of the Church of Storms also knew of Amon, and perhaps knew even more than he did. Likewise, Justice Audrey looked toward The Hanged Man as well. The last time she had heard that name, it had been from him.

The Magician Fors listened with a blank expression, always feeling that the matter being discussed here lay outside the scope of her knowledge.

The Hanged Man Alger, meanwhile, frowned. With doubt and puzzlement, he asked back, “During the City of Silver’s exploration of the surrounding regions, you encountered someone calling himself Amon?

“Or did you discover similar records?”

The Sun, Derrick, nodded seriously.

“Yes. Forty-two years ago, an exploration team encountered someone calling himself Amon deep within the darkness. After returning to the City of Silver, they went mad and lost control one after another. Only one remained, and he was locked up at the bottom of the round tower. He is—he is right next door to me.”

“Perhaps he went mad as well, and that was only a delusion…” The Magician Fors, relying on her abundant experience in novel writing, proposed a guess.

The Hanged Man Alger glanced at Mr. Fool at the head of the table. Seeing that He remained steady and indifferent without giving any indication, he boldly said, “A delusion is one possibility, but one would not imagine the name Amon without reason.”

He turned his head toward The Sun.

“In the Fourth Epoch—er, in the lands we live in, that would be fifteen hundred years ago, or even more distant—there was once a family that controlled strange powers. They belonged to the Tudor Dynasty, and their surname was Amon.

“Even in that era filled with high-Sequence powerhouses, that family’s surname was a taboo.”