Chapter 259: Hidden Danger

Chapter 259: Hidden Danger

Inside the sitting room, Countess Caitlyn sat on the sofa. Before her stood the deputy butler, the butler’s assistant, and the stewards responsible for corresponding affairs.

Calmly and methodically, without the slightest disorder, she gave instructions concerning all manner of details for tonight’s dinner, until her daughter Audrey came to her side.

“Mother, there is something I need to tell you.” Audrey’s gaze swept over the other people inside the room.

On her way to the sitting room, she had felt the floor tremble lightly twice, but had discovered no other abnormalities.

The countess looked around and gave a small nod.

“You may come back in later.”

The sitting room swiftly became quiet. Even the large golden retriever Susie was sent outside by a look from Audrey.

“You should often remain by my side and learn how to handle affairs. Although your family lessons do not lack such content, how to combine them effectively with reality is still a profound subject.” The countess, already past fifty yet looking barely in her early thirties, smiled as she offered a few words of instruction. “All right, my little angel. What is it?”

Audrey wanted to reveal the elegant smile she had practiced again and again in etiquette lessons, but she discovered that, heavy and tense as she was, she could not raise the corners of her mouth.

She pressed her dry lips together and spoke directly.

“Mother, there is something I have been hiding from you.”

“Mm?” The countess tilted her head slightly, waiting for the explanation to follow.

Audrey’s words were halting at first, then quickly became smooth.

“I am already—I am already a Beyonder. That is, someone with supernatural powers, obtained by consuming potions.”

The golden-haired, blue-eyed Countess Caitlyn raised her brows lightly and responded without surprise.

“I know.

“Your father and I both know.”

“Ah?” Audrey suddenly did not know how to continue.

The countess covered her mouth and laughed softly.

“You took so many magical materials from the treasury. Do you still naively believe your father and I did not notice?

“By your father’s side, inside this villa, and on the family estates, there are quite a number of Beyonders. Some come from simple employment arrangements, some are dispatched by the Church of the Goddess, and some are members of the Hall family themselves. His Majesty the King has tacitly permitted such matters, and we, too, tacitly permitted your little adventure. Sigh. You will grow up eventually, and mature. Your father and I cannot shelter you beneath our wings forever. There will always be moments when you need to face certain matters alone. Extra magical powers can make the cards you hold better.

“Mm. According to the common knowledge I possess, the initial stage should not be very dangerous, while advancement requires one year, two years, or even three years. Therefore, your father and I are in no hurry. We planned to wait until you formally came of age before giving you a few words of warning, asking you to remain at your current position.”

No, Mother. Your common knowledge is wrong. You do not know of the acting method. If the materials are gathered, I can become a Sequence 7 Psychiatrist before the New Year… And I do not want to stop. Duke Negan’s death made me understand that this world is not as stable and peaceful as I had imagined. I want to possess the strength to protect all of you at critical moments…

Mr. Fool is gradually recovering. One evil god after another is attempting to descend. Although I am not mature enough and still lack necessary knowledge, even from these matters I can detect the indescribable crisis hidden beneath the surface… Audrey had always known very clearly that the Beyonder materials she had taken from the treasury were an issue she could not evade. Yet, with a certain fluke mentality, she had believed her parents did not know those objects’ specific uses, and at most suspected she was sinking deeper and deeper into occult enthusiast circles.

After unloading the burden in her heart, she avoided her mother’s warning and said, “Mother, afterward, I joined a secret organization. It leans toward academia and does not worship evil gods. Please forgive me for being unable to say its name or reveal the details. I have already sworn an oath regarding that.”

Without waiting for the countess to ask questions, she hurriedly stepped into the main topic.

“Today I received a piece of news. The commoner girl Prince Edessak fell in love with is a Demoness. They are planning some unknown conspiracy.”

The two things she spoke of before and after were not necessarily connected. The former referred to the Psychology Alchemists, while the source of the latter information was actually the Tarot Club, from Mr. Fool.

Through such ordering of her words, every sentence she said was true and could pass confirmation through divination, yet it would make others believe that her information came from the secret organization known as the Psychology Alchemists.

The smile on Caitlyn’s face gradually vanished. She asked solemnly, “Demoness?”

She did not understand much about the mystical world, but that term alone made her sense evil and unease.

Audrey quickly nodded.

“Yes. A Pleasure Witch.

“And what frightens me even more is that her name is Trissy Cheek.”

“What is wrong with that?” the countess asked in confusion.

“Within that organization, one member once saw the name Cheek in an ancient book.” Audrey spoke the lie she had just composed. Whether in tone, wording, expression, or body language, there was not the slightest flaw. “In the Fourth Epoch, or earlier, it belonged to the Primordial Demoness.”

Immediately afterward, she added solemnly, “That is an evil god!”

Countess Caitlyn did not understand what the Primordial Demoness represented, but she knew very clearly what an evil god meant.

She immediately became somewhat unable to sit still, and her speech quickened as she asked, “Are you certain?”

“…Not certain.” Audrey trusted Mr. Fool without the slightest doubt, but on the surface she could not say that. “In any case, I believe it is necessary to ask the royal family—no, to ask the Beyonders of the Church of the Goddess—to make a certain level of confirmation. Matters involving evil gods are never wrong to treat with the utmost caution.”

Caitlyn looked up at her daughter with some astonishment.

“…Audrey, you have grown up.”

Had the matter not been urgent, Audrey, upon hearing such praise, would certainly have pretended to be reserved, first responding modestly and acting spoiled, then returning to her room in delight, perhaps even spinning in a little dance.

But now, she had no attention to spare for such things. She hurriedly let emotions such as worry and tension appear clearly on the surface.

“Mother, can you help me conceal this? I heard that the Church’s and royal family’s Beyonders are extremely hostile toward secret organizations not belonging to them. Mm, you can say that it was—that it was Father who obtained the news. He should have many channels.”

Caitlyn stood and gave her daughter a hug.

“Do not worry. Your father and I will not let you be drawn into this matter.

“Your father will not return until dusk. I will first have the hidden guards appear and pretend that he passed on the news. Then I will go find the Beyonder dispatched by the Church of the Goddess to protect our family.”

“All right!” Audrey answered joyfully.

At that moment, she finally breathed out, suddenly tired and weak from maintaining a high degree of tension for some time.

…

Watching several flaming meteors plummet at high speed, enveloping the entire woods, Klein actually had the thought of being powerless to resist and only able to wait for death in despair.

Even if he continuously used “flame jump,” he had no way to leave the woods, to leave the core danger zone before the “meteor shower” struck the ground. And with the fragile body of a Beyonder from the Seer pathway, there was no possibility of enduring meteor impacts head-on.

Even a living corpse that a handgun could not injure would be directly turned into fragments or meat paste under such an “attack,” and scorched black at that… Flame jump… Yellowish-white light reflected in the depths of his eyes, and Klein, who had not given up, rapidly formed an idea.

In a scene calculated by seconds, he did not hesitate. As soon as the thought appeared, he decided to act.

Snap!

After mentally calculating the distance, Klein snapped his fingers, igniting the remaining flames inside his matchbox all at once.

A scarlet burst of fire rose and swiftly wrapped his figure within it.

Silently, Klein vanished from where he stood and appeared inside the flame above a meteor.

Whoosh!

The meteor fell rapidly. The instant he leapt from the flame, he had already left the meteor and entered the surrounding air, which was terrifyingly hot.

At the moment he used his Beyonder ability to jump, Klein was not afraid of ordinary flames, even if their temperature was somewhat high. But after leaving that state, he could only do his utmost to manipulate the flames away from himself. He would still be burned, would still be burned to death.

Furthermore, superheated air was not within the scope of his “jump.”

Snap!

Klein snapped his fingers again, making air on the verge of ignition suddenly explode into flames.

He flashed into another flame, intending to dodge the first wave of impact produced when the meteor struck the ground.

But no matter how he tried, no matter how he took risks, he still could not escape the danger. Only two choices remained: either jump into part of the woods that avoided the direct strike and endure the aftermath of the meteors’ descent, or perform acrobatics in midair, jumping back and forth until the “mushroom cloud” swallowed him.

At that instant, Klein seemed to see himself torn apart, his body charred black, with lingering flames still burning.

A thought flashed through his mind. His surroundings suddenly changed: red became redder, yellow more yellow, white more white. Various colors grew thick and overlapped, outlining a strange oil painting!

The “oil painting” seemed to have separated from the real world, allowing Klein to watch from the side as the meteors “slowly” descended and smashed into the ground.

That entire patch of woods was instantly destroyed. The earth visibly trembled several times, while smoke mixed with firelight rose upward, forming a strange mushroom-shaped cloud.

The impact did not affect Klein, because it could not enter this “world of oil painting,” where color blocks overlapped and everything seemed still.

…Klein was first stunned. Then he saw an additional figure beside him.

That figure was of medium build, with bronze skin. He wore a black formal coat and a half-top silk hat. His brown eyes carried a sense of vicissitudes. His features were rather gentle, and beneath his right ear was a small black mole.

“Mr. Azik!” Klein cried out in delight.

He finally understood which scene the revelation from his earlier divination had corresponded to.

It corresponded to this very moment!

The “sea of blood” represented a certain-death situation. “Being pulled up by Mr. Azik” meant that he would be saved because of him!

No sooner had the words left Klein’s mouth than Azik waved a hand, grabbed his arm, and walked toward the depths where all sorts of thick colors overlapped!

…

That quill, ordinary in appearance, stopped writing by itself. Its surface seemed to have dimmed somewhat.

The stern middle-aged man with only one eye held it and, in a state resembling spirit channeling, swiftly wrote:

“Azik Eggers has clearly not yet recovered all of his memories and strength. At this very moment, the hidden danger in this regard happened to affect his attempt to travel with the aid of the spirit world and the astral world. Thus, he and Sherlock Moriarty landed not far from Ince Zangwill and his friend.”