Chapter 62: Distribution

Chapter 62: Distribution

A few minutes later, Klein, in the appearance of Gehrman Sparrow, and Miss Justice Audrey walked out of 39 Böklund Street and headed toward the homes of the other parasitized people.

After walking a few steps in silence, Klein suddenly looked ahead and spoke.

“Situations like this are not uncommon among wild Beyonders. Without proper guidance, it often means they have always been walking along the edge of a cliff and might fall at any moment.”

Audrey gave a soft “mm.” After several seconds, she said,

“I know. I am no longer as, as…”

She considered her words briefly, then curved the corners of her mouth faintly, as though laughing at herself, and found a suitable word:

“Naive.”

“Whew…” She then let out a breath without concealing it and likewise looked ahead. “If I returned to June of last year, and if I knew that the mysterious world was this cruel and terrifying, I very likely would not ask to become a Beyonder again.”

Klein tilted his head slightly and glanced at this noble young lady’s face. As though casually, he asked,

“If you were now given a chance to completely break away from the mysterious world, would you accept it?”

Audrey froze for a moment, then slowly pursed her lips.

“No…”

After giving that answer, she seemed to relax a little. She smiled and spoke to herself:

“Under the premise of knowing that the mysterious world is cruel and terrifying, the me before June of last year would have given up becoming a Beyonder. But the me of this year would not.

“This is perhaps the price of growth.”

“I understand what you mean.” Klein continued forward at an unhurried pace, then changed the subject. “After those parasitized people are thoroughly purified, some will spit out Worms of Time. These can be used to make Luck Stealer charms. They are at the demigod level and can swap the fate of enemy and ally for a short period of time. When the time comes, I will give you one as today’s consultation fee.”

Audrey was just about to refuse when she suddenly fell silent. Then she nodded lightly.

“All right.”

No sooner had she spoken than she suddenly stopped. She tilted her head and glanced at Gehrman Sparrow. With a somewhat complicated expression, she smiled.

“I understand why you asked that question just now.”

Klein gave a low laugh and did not answer directly.

Audrey withdrew her gaze, and her mood seemed to become much lighter all at once. As if chatting idly, she said,

“At noon, I participated in the punishment operation. In the afternoon, I came to handle the aftermath related to Amon. Today truly is ‘Tarot Day’…”

Her words carried a double meaning, expressing a very subtle sigh.

In her view, at noon, five members of the Tarot Club—The Moon, The Star, Justice, Judgement, and The Magician—had acted together in different ways. In the afternoon, the Tarot Club’s The World and Justice had participated in clearing out Amon’s avatars from different angles. This day was indeed quite memorable, and in some sense counted as “Tarot Day.”

Klein nodded, agreeing with Miss Justice’s words. However, he did not tell her that in the afternoon’s operation, The Star, Leonard, had also participated and had been one of the main forces.

“Amon’s avatars must have been very hard to deal with, right?” Audrey finally found an opportunity to ask this question.

She looked at Gehrman Sparrow, her emerald eyes openly filled with curiosity.

Klein smiled.

“If I had only relied on myself, then the Gehrman Sparrow you see might essentially be Amon right now.”

“Stealing fate and identity?” Audrey asked, realizing something.

Klein gave a soft “mm.”

“I will explain the details later. In short, in order to clear away all of Amon’s avatars in Backlund, we mobilized angels this time.

“If you encounter Amon’s avatar in the future, absolutely do not think you have a way to handle it yourself. Immediately look for an opportunity to pray. Mm, His traits are that He likes wearing monocles, and He likes performing horror-style pranks…”

Angels were mobilized… I wonder whether it was that Death Consul, or an angel of the Fate domain, or… Audrey raised her head and glanced at the sky, only to see the clouds frozen, not moving in the slightest, like props set against the dark background.

Like a student listening to a teacher, she nodded solemnly and earnestly.

“I will remember.”

The two did not stop walking. They were sometimes silent and sometimes chatted as though casually until they entered 160 Böklund Street.

Several more minutes passed. Inside the sitting room of Hazel’s home, Member of Parliament Macht and the others suddenly felt an intense urge. Sitting where they were, they lifted both hands, interlocked them before their mouths and noses, and began praying devoutly, reciting the Evernight Goddess’s honorific name.

After an unknown length of time, they all coughed. They coughed violently, so hard that both tears and mucus flowed out.

Cough! Cough! Cough!

Before they realized it, each of them had coughed up a worm with twelve translucent segments.

The moment the worms fell to the ground, they vanished, so no one noticed them.

The same thing happened elsewhere on Böklund Street, but everything soon returned to normal. At some point, the darkness in midair had faded, and the clouds once again flowed with the wind.

Amid the sounds of her parents coughing, Hazel slowly woke.

She was very confused as to why she had fallen asleep on the sofa during afternoon tea.

She felt that her mood today should be very good, yet no matter what, she could not squeeze out a smile. It was as though some indescribable grief and pain lay across her heart.

When she saw her father and mother cast concerned looks at her, not only was she not moved, she instead shrank back slightly and trembled, as though she had become a withdrawn, closed-off person unused to contact with others.

Hazel knew this was not her personality, but she could not control her reaction.

However, she did not find it strange or confusing. She simply continued enjoying the snacks of afternoon tea.

Member of Parliament Macht and Madam Liana were the same. They always felt that certain things were vague and blurry, impossible to recall.

…

At 160 Böklund Street, inside the master bedroom whose curtains had been drawn open.

A figure suddenly outlined itself opposite the tea table. It was the leader of the ascetics, abbess of the Cloister of Evernight, first among the thirteen archbishops of the Church of Evernight—Arianna. She wore a simple robe, a bark belt, and walked barefoot.

In this lady’s eyes, Dwayne Dantès, whose temples were graying, was leaning slightly forward and rising from the sofa. On the tea table before him lay exactly nine transparent, segmented worms.

“Good afternoon, Madam Arianna.” Klein bowed solemnly. “Thanks to the assistance you provided, Amon’s avatars in Backlund have all been cleared out. You may choose the share of the spoils that belongs to you.”

Earlier, he had arranged one marionette beside every parasitized person, using illusions to retrieve these Worms of Time.

Hearing his words, Arianna tapped her chest four times clockwise and answered devoutly,

“Praise the Goddess.”

She neither declined nor spoke politely. She extended her right hand, making two Worms of Time fly up and land in her palm.

“Amon will certainly make certain guesses. You must be equally careful afterward.” After briefly saying this, Arianna’s figure vanished inch by inch, as though erased.

Watching this archbishop leave, Klein sat down and, taking advantage of the motion, picked up paper and pen to write a letter to Leonard Mitchell.

He wanted to ask what other effects could be produced from Worms of Time besides making Luck Stealer charms!

He believed he could not make every remaining Worm of Time into Luck Stealers. That would be too monotonous, easy to counter, and unable to handle different situations. Therefore, other methods of application had to be fully considered.

Using the Worm of Time as a carrier, and using patterns and symbols different from The Fool’s corresponding symbols to draw out power, the resulting effects would most likely differ from a Luck Stealer charm. And in this area, Pallez Zoroast was an expert.

After finishing the letter, Klein took out the adventurer’s harmonica, brought it to his lips, and blew.

Reinette Tinekerr, holding four blond-haired, red-eyed heads, walked out of the void. After her eight eyes paused slightly, they all looked toward the seven remaining Worms of Time placed on the tea table.

This Miss Messenger looked for a full three seconds before withdrawing her gaze and biting the letter and gold coin Klein handed over.

“Still 7 Pinstor Street,” Klein said concisely.

Reinette Tinekerr’s remaining three heads answered one after another:

“In the future…” “For this sort…” “Of matter…”

“You can…” “Also…” “Come to me…”

“The remuneration…” “Will be…” “The spoils…”

Klein froze briefly.

“All right.”

Only after Miss Messenger returned to the spirit world and vanished from the room did he faintly furrow his brows and silently mutter:

“Since she recognizes Worms of Time, she should understand that this kind of battle might develop to the angelic level…

“She is not afraid at all…

“Is Miss Messenger stronger than I imagined?”

…

At 7 Pinstor Street, Leonard accepted Klein’s letter from Reinette Tinekerr’s mouth.

A little excitement still lingered in him. He could hardly wait to unfold the letter and read it rapidly.

After the messenger left, he immediately lowered his voice and said,

“Old Man, there should be other methods of making charms, right?”

Just now, Pallez Zoroast had given him two Worms of Time from Amon as today’s reward for taking the risk.

Inside Leonard’s mind, the slightly aged voice answered with a smile in its tone:

“Of course. After I sleep for a while and digest this harvest, I will teach you. It will not take long. Also, do not go to Böklund Street again in the near future.”

“Why?” Leonard asked in some surprise.

Pallez Zoroast chuckled.

“All of Amon’s avatars in Backlund have been destroyed. This is no small matter. And those capable of doing such a thing could only be one of a very small number of suspects. Tell me, will He make certain guesses?”

This… Leonard’s mind tensed again.

Pallez continued,

“However, there is no need to worry too much. His main body cannot possibly enter Backlund, and now that I have recovered quite a bit, I am not that worried about His avatars. In addition, from the memories of a small number of His avatars, I found a piece of information that Flora Jacob mentioned: somewhere in Backlund, a treasure of the Jacob family is hidden.

“When the end of the year comes, at that gathering, we will seek out another descendant of the Jacob family, cooperate with them, open that treasure, and split the items inside evenly. At that time, even if Amon gathers a large number of avatars and raises Himself to nearly Sequence 1 level, He still will not be able to truly defeat me. Heh. For balance, we can also have Dwayne Dantès participate in this matter.”