Chapter 17: The Authority of the Moon

Chapter 17: The Authority of the Moon

After entering the house, the first thing Klein saw was an entrance hall.

It was extraordinarily spacious, furnished with multiple chairs and umbrella stands, arranged with elegance and decorated with propriety. Had he not known the layout in advance and inspected the place in person, Klein might even have mistaken it for a drawing room.

Through the second set of doors, the view before him suddenly opened up, revealing a hall large enough for dozens, even a hundred guests, to dance in.

At the center of the hall lay a thick, soft carpet in vivid colors. Around it stretched bright, clear marble tiles. A piano, stone sculptures, and other objects had been placed about the space, while stone columns inlaid with decorative details rose upward to support the second floor.

On the left side was a row of French windows, beyond which lay a green lawn and a garden in full bloom. On the right were walls, wooden doors, and corridors leading to lounges, storerooms, washrooms, the kitchen, the butler’s room, and other areas.

The hall reached two stories high. Crystal chandeliers hung down from the ceiling, allowing one to easily imagine how the place would look once night fell.

At the far end, staircases on both sides led up to the second floor.

The corridor there formed a square, leaving the central space open precisely above the carpeted area of the hall. As long as Klein took a glass of wine and stood behind the second-floor railing, he would be able to leisurely admire the ball below.

There were many rooms on the second floor: parlors, sitting rooms, dining rooms, washrooms, a billiard room, and a large number of bedrooms. If guests needed to stay overnight, they would be lodged here.

Likewise, two staircases on the second floor led to the third, which was where Dawn Dantes himself would live. There was an exaggerated master bedroom, a semi-open room with a small bar where one could bask in the sunlight and admire the view, a study that could almost be called a small library, two dressing rooms, small bedrooms for the personal valet and the night-duty maid respectively, as well as rooms for family members and washrooms. At present, however, Klein was still alone.

As for the other servants, they lived in the row of single-story rooms behind the main building. In another direction stood the stables.

The basement of the house was equally spacious, with a large storeroom and a wine cellar.

Having taken off his coat, Klein stood straight-backed on the large balcony of the semi-open room on the third floor, gazing over the surrounding neighborhood. He could not help sighing inwardly.

“Expensive things really do have their reasons for being expensive. The 315 pounds of rent doesn’t feel entirely wasted…”

He had already paid a full year’s rent the previous afternoon, so he could only force himself to find the place more and more pleasing to the eye.

At the same time, he had also paid Walter an entire year’s salary—115 pounds—in one go, because once he obtained the Antigonus family’s notebook, he would very likely have to flee and cause his butler to lose his job.

With the same principle in mind, that morning he had also paid the housekeeper, Taneja, her annual salary of 42 pounds in a single payment, allowing the lady to gain an initial understanding of Mr. Dawn Dantes’s generosity and bearing.

Through the consultation and busy efforts of the two managers of the household, the servants had already been fully hired: a male household property manager at an annual salary of 30 pounds; a personal valet, Richardson, at 35 pounds; two footmen responsible for receiving guests and waiting at table, each at 25 pounds; two first maids at 18 pounds each; two second maids at 12 pounds each; and two rough-work male servants, also at 12 pounds each.

Beyond these, there was a cook at 30 pounds a year, a kitchen assistant at 15, a kitchen maid at 13, a storeroom maid at 11, a household nurse at 25, an odd-job man at 10, two coachmen at 25 each, two gardeners at 20 each, and two laundry maids at 10 each. In total, this came to 413 pounds—almost 8 pounds per week.

Including the salaries of his butler and housekeeper, Klein would have to pay 570 pounds each year, roughly 11 pounds per week. This still did not account for the costs of providing food, clothing, and all manner of daily necessities.

Every Monday, the moment I open my eyes, before a single bit of income has come in, I’ll already have to spend ten or even twenty pounds… Klein casually calculated in his head, then forced himself to shift his gaze toward the garden.

After paying the rent for the two carriages at noon, distributing the servants’ first week of wages, and handing housekeeper Taneja 1,000 pounds in cash for daily household expenses, he had only 1,286 pounds in banknotes and eighteen gold coins left on him. Fortunately, the payments from Miss Justice and Madam Hermit would arrive one after another within the week.

I wonder how long the 1,000 pounds with Taneja can last. Just stocking enough wine and beverages for balls and dinners will cost at least several hundred pounds, won’t it… The tycoon Mr. Dawn Dantes sank into thought, unable to free himself.

To calm his emotions, he decided to take advantage of the time while the butler and servants were busy dealing with the new household’s affairs and make a trip above the gray fog to study the strange puppet Emlyn White had sacrificed.

After the blood moon appeared, Klein had had no choice but to return to that mysterious space and pull Fors in. Fighting off sleepiness, he had listened to her ramble on about Backlund’s daily life until everything finally calmed down. By the time he accepted Emlyn’s sacrifice and confirmed that there were no abnormalities, he had been so sleepy that he returned to the real world and fell straight asleep.

Klein straightened the stylish dark vest he wore, walked to the entrance, opened the door, and said to his personal valet Richardson, who was standing outside, “I am accustomed to napping for three quarters of an hour at this time. Do not allow anyone to disturb me.”

“Yes, sir,” Richardson replied humbly.

He was a mixed-blood illegitimate child. His father was a Loen man, the manager of an estate; his mother was an East Balam native, a slave on that estate. After his birth, he had suffered discrimination and bullying, which shaped in him a timid and obedient temperament. Because his appearance was quite good and made him suitable for receiving guests, the master of the estate selected him as a footman and brought him to Backlund.

After the upper and lower houses of the Loen Kingdom passed the bill abolishing slavery, Richardson was abruptly dismissed. He had no choice but to seek assistance from the Metropolitan Helping Household Servants Association.

Before Klein, he had served two families, made some mistakes, and accumulated a fair amount of experience. Butler Walter had taken a liking to him and made him Dawn Dantes’s personal valet.

Looking at Richardson, who was tall and straight, nearly the same height as his current self, Klein gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head and sighed inwardly.

“A fellow with the kind of looks that could make him a star in another era can only be a servant in this one. And despite being so tall and strong-looking, he’s timid and weak. Still, I suppose that counts as a virtue: obedient, silent, compliant. Whatever his master orders, he does, and he absolutely won’t act on his own initiative…

“If I had only one personal valet and needed him to handle all sorts of matters, Richardson would definitely be unqualified. But I still have Butler Walter and so many other servants. As for the remaining duties, his experience and ability are sufficient.”

Without saying more, Klein closed the door, locked it, returned to the easy chair, took four steps counterclockwise, and entered above the gray fog.

He sat down in the seat belonging to the Fool, beckoned with his hand, and made the charred-black Moon Puppet fly over and land before him.

After repeatedly examining it, Klein found nothing unusual. He then manifested paper and pen and wrote down a divination statement:

“Its origin.”

Setting down the fountain pen, Klein waited a few seconds before picking up the paper and leaning back against the chair.

Mm, my spiritual intuition did not stop me from divining it. That means the danger hidden in the Moon Puppet is not as great as the Beyonder characteristics from the Rose School of Thought… Klein muttered to himself, then skillfully recited the divination statement in a low voice.

In a gray and hazy world, he saw an altar surrounded by a ring of torches.

The altar was covered with something that looked like human skin, and bloody traces were everywhere. At its center stood three candles and several thin, elongated puppets shaped like wooden stakes.

Their eyes curved, and their mouths curved, as if corresponding to the crimson crescent moon in the sky.

Because of this, they were all frozen in strange smiles, their bodies embedded with withered grass and dried flowers.

A priest in dark-red robes was circling the altar with heavy, forceful steps, as if dancing a dance invented by someone suffering an epileptic seizure.

At some unknown point, moonlight gathered and shone down upon the puppets, growing brighter and brighter until, in the end, it seemed as if waves of water were gently rippling there.

The ritual soon reached its conclusion. The priest picked up one of the slender puppets and walked to a human being tied to a frame beside the altar. Then he thrust the puppet directly into the person’s eye socket.

Amid a shrill scream, the scene changed rapidly. The dead, with Moon Puppets lodged in their eye sockets, were buried in a particular area according to a pattern.

The vision began to develop in leaps. Whenever a full moon or blood moon came, radiance would fall upon that burial ground and seep downward like water, while the surroundings remained dark and deep.

Klein opened his eyes and adjusted his sitting posture, roughly understanding the origin of the Moon Puppets.

They came from a ritual that prayed to the Primordial Moon—a ritual that had lasted for centuries!

Across those centuries, they had absorbed the power of the red moon, mutating bit by bit until they were excavated by certain colonists.

Under ordinary circumstances, they would show nothing strange. Only believers of the Primordial Moon, using the correct method, could activate them. As for what their effect was, Klein did not know.

In a certain sense, these puppets are equivalent to the favored of the Primordial Moon… After I struck one to death last night, that evil god grew furious, and that caused the blood moon? Klein tapped the edge of the mottled long table with his finger and reached a preliminary judgment.

Mm. The Primordial Moon’s anger directly changed the lunar phase, manifesting as a blood moon… If that conjecture is correct, it means that in the domain of the red moon, the Goddess is inferior to the Primordial Moon. She might even only possess the title and be in charge of a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact…

Klein gave a small nod and attempted to divine the Moon Puppet’s weakness.

This time, he saw sunlight and lightning.

In other words, Beyonder abilities in the Sun domain and lightning from the Storm domain are most suited to dealing with it… While interpreting the revelation, Klein tossed the Moon Puppet into the pile of junk and returned to the real world.

One hour later, the impeccably dressed Walter, wearing white gloves, knocked and entered the room. He bowed.

“Sir, I will next have some of your calling cards printed and deliver them to the neighbors nearby together with small gifts.

“They will observe for a few days and confirm your circumstances. If they are willing to accept you, they will return a gift and invite you to visit.

“What title should be added to your calling cards?”

Title… The Fool that doesn’t belong to this era? Klein silently mocked himself and replied with a smile, “Dawn Dantes, merchant from Desi, will be sufficient.”

Walter nodded, then continued, “In accordance with your intentions, I will immediately arrange etiquette lessons for you, with emphasis on dancing. I will invite a professional private tutor.”