Chapter 11: A Page of Diary

Chapter 11: A Page of Diary

Above the gray fog, inside the lofty-domed palace.

Klein, the Fool, glanced at the Sun, whom he had pulled in ahead of time, and at the World, whom he had manifested in advance. Then, right on schedule, he extended his spirituality and touched the crimson stars representing Justice, the Hanged Man, the Magician, the Moon, and the Hermit.

One beam after another rose up. Blurred figures appeared on either side of the long bronze table.

Justice Audrey had just returned from the lumberyard to the castle and changed back into a dress. Layered lace trimmed her cuffs, pressing against strings of round, lustrous pearls.

Lightly and skillfully, she rose to her feet, lifted the hem of her skirt in a practiced gesture, and curtsied.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Fool~”

Klein’s mood improved quite a bit. He nodded with a smile in response.

At the same time, he could not help sighing inwardly.

Even a newly established tycoon is this expensive to maintain. Just how much must a noble like Miss Justice spend in her daily life…

After the members exchanged greetings, he leisurely turned his gaze toward the Hermit, knowing that this pirate admiral would most likely present another batch of Roselle’s diary.

As expected, the Hermit Cattleya took the initiative to say, “Mr. Fool, I only managed to collect one page of Roselle’s diary this time.”

Only one page? Shouldn’t the Queen of Mysteries be able to casually pull out an entire notebook? After being tested repeatedly over the past few days, Klein did not reveal the slightest abnormality. He gave a gentle nod.

“That is not a problem.”

Cattleya immediately manifested a page of yellow-brown diary paper and watched as it crossed the spirit world and landed in Mr. Fool’s hands.

Klein lowered his head as if casually glancing at it, only to be slightly stunned when he discovered that the page did not begin with a corresponding date.

In other words, this was the second page of a continuous entry… Why didn’t Bernadette bring the first page as well? She should be able to make a preliminary distinction. Even Old Neil could do that… Did she not have it? Or were the diary pages completely scattered and mixed together, making it difficult for her to restore the correct order?

Does this mean that after Emperor Roselle fell, his belongings were plundered by different powers and scattered, while Bernadette was not yet capable of contending with them? Only after becoming the Queen of Mysteries did she begin searching for them again…

As Klein made his guesses, he quickly read the content on the paper.

“This is truly beyond my expectations. The Fourth Epoch history revealed by Mr. Door is becoming more and more fascinating.

“This unlucky fellow, trapped within storms and lost in the depths of darkness, told me that the Black Emperor had once died and then returned to life.

“This matches, to an astonishing degree, certain matters mentioned within that ancient secret organization. At that gathering, they said that if the Black Emperor’s nine secret mausoleums were not all destroyed, then this god who walked upon the earth could awaken and be reborn from one of them even after true annihilation.

“And even if all nine mausoleums were destroyed, as long as a certain remnant of the order established by the Black Emperor remained, He could still return in a bizarre resurrection. Only the birth of a new Black Emperor could make Him vanish completely, never to reappear.

“According to Mr. Door, the resurrection of the Black Emperor is divided into three stages. First, the Uniqueness separates from its holder and becomes conceptualized and abstract. Second, the Black Emperor’s subjects once again hear the majestic voice of this deity. Third, the Black Emperor, having fused with the Uniqueness, reappears in the Astral World, and the three Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics automatically return to the hands of their emperor. This is an order that even other true gods cannot reverse or obstruct.

“In that case, the Blood Emperor and the Night Emperor, both Sequence 1 Princes of Abolition of this pathway, found themselves in an extremely awkward position. It was very likely that they would instantly fall in level, regressing to Sequence 2. Mr. Door said that at the time, the Lord of Storms, the Evernight Goddess, and the others chose the Night Emperor and helped Him transfer to a neighboring Beyonder pathway—the Arbiter pathway. Thus, the Tudor-Trunsoest United Empire split apart.

“And the Blood Emperor Alista Tudor, driven to the brink, made a mad decision. He would transfer to a non-neighboring Beyonder pathway, paying the price of losing His reason and becoming a lunatic, forcibly advancing to true godhood.

“I must say, that decision was full of irrationality and almost entirely impossible to realize. Yet Mr. Door told me that Alista Tudor ultimately succeeded. The maddest true god was born!

“That is truly unbelievable, but Mr. Door did not describe the specific details. He held something back.

“I asked Him which was harder to accept, madness or death. He said death, of course, because as long as one lives, even complete madness is not without hope of recovery.

“He laughed and gave an example: a mad true god can, by instinct, mate with all kinds of living beings and produce all kinds of descendants. In that process, if He is lucky enough and all conflicting Beyonder characteristics are expelled, then His madness will slowly improve with the long passage of time.

“Mr. Door deliberately did not say what problems would remain, nor did He explain why almost no one makes a similar choice. But I could tell that there must be enormous hidden dangers.

“I have to admit, Mr. Door understands the affairs of true gods far beyond my imagination. Before He was exiled, He had very likely already been attempting to challenge Sequence 0… No wonder He holds Zaratul in such contempt and shows no reverence toward the true gods.

“I am even less willing to release Him back into the real world.”

That is a tremendous amount of information… As expected of a diary page Bernadette deliberately selected… Wait, why would she choose this page? What significance does it hold for her? Was it from this point onward that Emperor Roselle slowly developed problems and ultimately went mad? Madness…

Could it be… No, surely not… Roselle’s situation at the time was very similar to Blood Emperor Alista Tudor’s. His original pathway had been cut off, while the neighboring pathways were blocked by people or objects, making further ascent anything but easy… Could he, under immense pressure, have made the same irrational decision as the Blood Emperor and attempted to switch to a non-neighboring pathway?

In that case, the madness of his later years truly would have been a loss of reason, not slander by others. No wonder Bernadette turned against him, loathed him, yet still tried to seek the truth…

From this perspective, certain matters become very interesting. Roselle forcibly crowned himself emperor. Roselle issued the Civil Code. He replaced the old rules with the order of Earth’s eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Roselle widely spread his own quotations and promoted his own aesthetics…

Heh, I really underestimated this fellow transmigrator and “senior.” I always thought he was merely cosplaying Napoleon and Caesar for his own amusement. It turns out he was preparing for the Black Emperor… No. I’ve read several diary pages from around that time. His thoughts were clear, his emotions normal, and he was even still able to have “deep communication” with certain noble ladies and noble young misses…

Mm, perhaps he had not yet made his final decision then, but was consciously leaving himself a way out?

The Civil Code was probably not something Roselle did intentionally for this purpose. As a usurper, issuing new laws was inevitable, and among the models he could refer to, the Civil Code was relatively the most suited to the social situation and historical process…

His later act of crowning himself emperor was probably the part Bernadette found incomprehensible and difficult to accept… As Roselle’s most beloved child, she may have noticed certain abnormalities even before her father declared himself emperor. That is why she selected the longest diary entry from that period and gave it to the Admiral of Stars…

Klein’s thoughts wandered uncontrollably, as though he had seen a heavy history hidden deep within fog open before him to a page reeking of blood and rust.

This made him even more curious about the trigger behind Roselle’s final madness.

At the same time, he also resolved several doubts he had had earlier.

“So the return of the Black Emperor is a resurrection in this manner. It’s very close to my previous guess…

“Fourth Epoch history actually hid a Tudor-Trunsoest United Empire, supported by six gods including the Lord of Storms and the Evernight Goddess… The two parallel thrones in the underground ruins on Williams Street can now be explained. They belonged to the United Empire…

“According to Mr. Door, the six gods chose the Night Emperor, causing the United Empire to split. Then who helped the Blood Emperor capture or kill three Sequence 1 Beyonders of the Hunter pathway? Among them, Red Angel Medici was very likely stronger than the Blood Emperor at the time… The Primordial Demoness? Death? The Primordial Moon? The Dark Side of the Universe? The Mother Tree of Desire?”

Klein guessed by listing possibilities, but he had no answer at all.

He quickly made the diary vanish, then smiled at the Hermit.

“What is your request?”

Cattleya made no attempt to hide her intentions and asked frankly, “Aside from Emperor Roselle, who else is the main figure in this diary?”

Her question immediately made Justice Audrey turn her head toward Mr. Fool. Her eyes shone brightly, filled with curiosity, and even her ears seemed to perk up.

The Hanged Man Alger and the others were also extremely interested. Anyone who could be written about in Emperor Roselle’s diary could not possibly be ordinary.

Klein vaguely guessed their thoughts and could not help grumbling inwardly.

It’s only because this diary page was carefully selected by Bernadette. If it were another entry, I would have to tell you that the other main figures were a Demoness, another Demoness, a Hunter, another Hunter, some noble madam, some noble young lady…

After thinking for two seconds, Klein leaned back in his chair at ease and replied with a smile, “Mr. Door.”

Mr. Door… An existence Mr. Fool addresses in such a way must at least be close to a god, right? Justice Audrey inferred Mr. Door’s identity from the tone and wording and arrived at a certain conclusion.

The Hermit Cattleya and the others had similar thoughts, but none of them knew who Mr. Door actually was. They looked at one another and received only shaking heads in return.

Seeing that the Magician Fors had reacted the same way as the other members, Klein deliberately turned his gaze toward this lady and chuckled softly.

“You should not be unfamiliar with Him.”

“Ah?” The Magician Fors looked utterly bewildered.

She did not feel that she could possibly know this so-called Mr. Door.

The other party seemed to be of an exceedingly high level!