Chapter 41: “Clearance Sale”

Chapter 41: “Clearance Sale”

After the salutation ended and everyone took their seats, Justice Audrey’s gaze swept over the three Cards of Blasphemy placed to Mr. Fool’s right. She suddenly realized that she had forgotten to ask the Psychology Alchemists for Roselle diary pages this week.

I’ve been too troubled over Hvin Rambis’s matter… Audrey, who had already more or less adjusted her state of mind, immediately sank into gloom again.

At that moment, The Hermit Cattleya lowered her head toward the highest seat of the mottled long table and said,

“Honorable Mr. Fool, I still have not received any Roselle diary pages this week.”

The Mystery Queen hasn’t provided the Emperor’s diary for two weeks in a row. Did something happen? The Fool, Klein, who sat leisurely in the high-backed chair, felt a little puzzled and could not help forming a bad guess.

But he quickly denied the possibility, because Madam Hermit did not appear anxious or worried at all.

Given Star Admiral’s fledgling-like attachment displayed in the dream at night among the ruins of the battle of gods, if the Mystery Queen had truly failed to answer for two consecutive weeks, she absolutely would not be this calm. She might already be preparing to pray to The Fool for help… In other words, she has received replies from Bernadette over these two weeks. It is only that they did not contain Roselle diary pages… The Fool, Klein, nodded gently and replied to The Hermit Cattleya in a calm tone:

“There is no need to be anxious.”

After saying this, thoughts flashed rapidly through his mind as he analyzed the Mystery Queen Bernadette’s purpose in doing so.

First, Klein ruled out the possibility that she no longer had Roselle diary pages. Based on how frequently the Emperor had recorded things in the early and later periods, Klein inferred that all the diary pages combined definitely exceeded ten notebooks. Even if Bernadette did not possess one third of them, surely she could still gather one or two notebooks’ worth. The pages she had previously provided could only count as a small portion of that total, though they were a relatively crucial portion.

Second, Klein did not believe that the Mystery Queen had already clarified every truth from the answers he had given.

Third, he was similarly certain that she could not have grasped how to read Simplified Chinese from those limited pieces of feedback, because he had never provided a detailed translation. He had only vaguely given one or two sentences of answer.

Combining those three points, he suspected that the diary pages Bernadette was going to provide next might be even more important, even more crucial—pointing directly at certain secrets, or being extremely special, to the point that one would not know whether to seek an answer. That was why this Mystery Queen was hesitating!

That should be it… I wonder what the Emperor wrote, and from what place or angle Bernadette is judging the value… I need to remember to ask Madam Hermit later to pass on my request for a meeting… While The Fool, Klein, was deep in thought, The Hanged Man, Alger, turned his head toward Star Leonard.

“I’m sorry. I still do not have any news of a mystical item matching your requirements.”

“That is very normal. Mystical items corresponding to, uh, Sequence 6 and Sequence 5 do not circulate often in the first place.” Leonard nodded in understanding.

He had originally sat very upright, but after discovering that Moon, Magician, and the others were not especially restrained, he quietly eased the pressure on his waist and back.

Seeing this, Klein controlled The World, Gehrman Sparrow, and had him speak hoarsely:

“I have a mystical item whose abilities in every aspect match your requirements rather well. It only has many negative effects, and they are difficult to avoid. Would you consider it?”

He was referring to the Sea’s Word cane.

Klein had previously never intended to sell this item—which practically required sealing—to Leonard…