Chapter 38: Children Should Act Like Children

Chapter 38: Children Should Act Like Children

Mr. X is looking for people whose luck is abnormal?

Above the gray fog, Klein pondered the information Miss Magician had provided, trying to analyze something useful from it.

After thinking for a while without inspiration, he decided to approach the matter from another angle: recalling the people around him whose luck was abnormal and seeing whether there was some inner connection.

Mm… Anderson Hood, the strongest hunter of the Fog Sea, counts as one… Dr. Aaron Ceres counts as one… Huh. Both were affected by one of the “Snakes of Fate”… Angel of Fate Ouroboros is one of the founders of the Rose Redemption, a secret organization that supports and believes in the True Creator… The Aurora Order is equivalent to the True Creator’s Church…

A string of circumstances surfaced in Klein’s mind and quickly formed a conclusion.

“This is the Angel of Fate Ouroboros looking for the Mercury Snake Will Auceptin!

“He is driving the Aurora Order’s members to help Him search for the Mercury Snake Will Auceptin!”

And this meant that behind Mr. X, somewhere in Backlund, there existed a King of Angels!

Under such circumstances, going to assassinate Mr. X would be equivalent to courting death… No wonder this Mr. X is not wary of Backlund’s special nature at all… At most, the official forces would assume there was a saint backing him. Mm, in official files, the high-level members of the Aurora Order are only the five saints. That would lead to an incorrect response…

After reaching this judgment, Klein’s first thought was to reject Miss Magician’s commission and warn her not to provoke Mr. X.

If reporting the matter would not drag out the Mercury Snake Will Auceptin—and if the Evernight Church’s Beyonder case files had not clearly recorded Dr. Aaron Ceres’s luck—Klein would have wanted Miss Magician to report both the Angel of Fate Ouroboros and Mr. X to some Church!

He calmly thought for a few more seconds, manifested the World Gehrman Sparrow, and had him pray within the gray fog:

“…I will confirm the situation and give an answer tomorrow.”

He did not refuse directly, because he planned to first ask the Mercury Snake Will Auceptin.

Immediately afterward, he returned to the real world, carefully removed the now extremely fragile paper crane from the interlayer of his wallet, and gently unfolded it.

Klein did not begin writing at once. Instead, he first recalled what questions he needed to ask, seriously organizing a draft in his mind. Only then did he find a pencil and sharpen it with a knife until its point was extremely fine.

Moving his muscles to loosen them, Klein began writing:

“Members of the Aurora Order are searching for people whose luck is abnormal.

“Do you know how to use a Worm of Time to make a charm?

“Does your umbilical cord blood count as the blood of a mythical creature? If it does, and if I wish to obtain a drop, what price must I pay?”

Klein had originally wanted to ask Will Auceptin how He maintained His reason. After all, Church documents showed that there was no publicly known faith worshiping the “Snake of Fate.” In the end, however, he restrained himself, afraid that the unborn fetal Will Auceptin might answer in some highly improper way:

“When did you develop the illusion that I possess reason?”

If that happened, he would not know whether to take it as a joke or as truth.

Mm, although no organization worships the “Snake of Fate,” existences similar to “Gods of Luck” are present as traditional customs in certain regions… Perhaps They are actually aliases of Will Auceptin or Ouroboros…

Klein silently muttered a couple of sentences and used the full ability of a Clown to finally fold the paper crane back into shape and place it beneath his pillow.

Only after finishing all this did he have the time to calculate how much cash he currently possessed.

17,046 pounds, plus 5 gold coins, 3 soli, and 8 pence in change… If I also had assets such as houses, estates, or company shares, this much liquid capital would already make me a wealthy man in Backlund… Of course, I’m still very far from the top tycoons. Their standard is a million pounds in total assets…

While delighted that he now had quite a lot of money, Klein also remembered that he still had debts and needed to make large investments to display his preset identity properly.

He then drank a mouthful of water, lay down in bed, pulled the light yet warm blanket over himself, and gradually entered a dream.

In a muddled, dazed state, Klein suddenly became lucid and saw that barren black plain.

He entered the pitch-black tower at the center of the plain, passed through its chaotic and abnormal layout, and arrived deep inside, where a ring of tarot cards lay scattered as always.

However, on the raised ground in the center of the tarot ring, no silver words appeared.

Will Auceptin did not answer… Then why did He pull me into this dream?

Amid Klein’s confusion, he suddenly saw a black baby carriage slide out from the shadows. Inside lay a baby wrapped in silver silk, its appearance impossible to make out.

“…Mr. Snake of Fate?” Klein asked politely and cautiously.

The baby immediately replied in a clear voice, “Why are you certain I am a mister?”

Isn’t that because of your name? Don’t pay attention to details like that! Klein grumbled inwardly. Owing to the other party’s casual attitude, he relaxed quite a bit.

“Then how should I address you?”

Will Auceptin, in baby form, gave an “Mm” and said with some difficulty, “I have not decided yet…

“You know—oh, you do not know. Every time I begin again, I try to make myself a little different in order to maintain a healthy mental state. At the stage of a child, one should act like a child.”

Klein’s heart stirred.

“Is this a method used by the Monster pathway to maintain reason and resist madness?”

Lying in the black baby carriage, Will Auceptin answered in a cheerful tone, “Yes. Every new beginning washes away madness. However, this still requires a certain degree of faith-based positioning; otherwise, I cannot maintain the state of Sequence 1 for too long.

“Heh. Compared to before, you know more and more.”

Mm, apart from positioning through faith, there are other ways to resist madness. However, “restarting” is clearly an ability unique to the Monster pathway’s Sequence 1, Snake of Fate. Other Beyonder pathways cannot imitate it… Does Mr. Azik’s repeated loss and recovery of memories carry a similar meaning?

Klein nodded thoughtfully and seized the time to ask, “I suspect Ouroboros is using members of the Aurora Order to look for you.”

Will Auceptin gave a disdainful laugh.

“He and I have been playing hide-and-seek for a very long time. He is not skilled at this kind of thing. One can see that He had no childhood. Every time He restarts, He grows up beside the True Creator and lacks the experience of different mental states at different stages. This causes Him to be rather mad sometimes. Of course, He does not care.

“I instructed Ricciardo to use the Die of Probability to leave certain marks in specific places. This will confuse Ouroboros’s judgment, and He will soon leave Backlund once again.”

In other words, there is still an opportunity to assassinate Mr. X… Mm, when the time comes, I should first divine the level of danger above the gray fog…

Klein did not continue the topic. Instead, he asked, “Do you know how to use a Worm of Time to make a charm?”

Will Auceptin, from inside the baby carriage, did not answer directly. Instead, He asked in return, “You obtained the Worm of Time from Pallez Zoroast?”

“How did you know?” Klein froze for two seconds before asking back.

What surprised him was not that the other party knew the Worm of Time’s origin. After all, there were not many demigods of the Marauder pathway capable of making clones with such a thing. What puzzled him was why the Mercury Snake did not guess the Blasphemer Amon, who had likewise left behind a Worm of Time!

Will Auceptin laughed.

“Pallez Zoroast’s condition is not quite right. He is parasitizing your former colleague. Ah, right—your former colleague is investigating Sherlock Moriarty and entered my home in the middle of the night.

“I sensed something was off about him, so I gave him a brief bout of misfortune and let him have a chance to run into another demigod hiding in Backlund. When he was in danger, Pallez Zoroast took action. Haha. In truth, it would not have mattered even if He did not. This was only a prank. At the critical moment, I would have made your former colleague lucky enough.”

Leonard is investigating Sherlock Moriarty? The old grandpa inside him is called Pallez Zoroast…

Klein frowned slightly, not knowing where exactly the problem had arisen.

Will Auceptin continued, “Making a Worm of Time charm will not be too difficult for you. You can pray to the special thing on you, use a mixture of mercury and pure silver as the carrier, and engrave the corresponding symbolic sign.”

Not too difficult… Pray to the Fool? That makes sense. The mysterious space above the gray fog clearly has an attraction to the Marauder pathway as well…

Klein listened with excitement, vaguely grasping something.

Just then, Will Auceptin smiled and added, “As for what the corresponding symbolic sign is, I do not know.”

…What a sharp turn…

The corner of Klein’s mouth could not help twitching.

Seeing that Will Auceptin did not speak further, he quickly piled on a smile and said, “One more question. Your umbilical cord blood…”

Before he could finish, Will Auceptin abruptly opened His mouth and cried out:

“Waa!”

He began wailing like a real baby.

…Talk properly… Klein stood there, stunned.

If he had not already confirmed it, he would truly have suspected whether the one before him was a Sequence 1 existence and the chairman of the School of Life.

“Alright, alright. I only wanted to ask whether it counts as the blood of a mythical creature.” Klein half raised both hands.

Will Auceptin immediately stopped crying and said with a smile, “Of course it does. However, I will replace it in advance. Otherwise, everyone present would die.

“Still, if you can offer a suitable item, it is not impossible for me to give you a drop.

“Alright. Goodbye!”

The moment Will Auceptin finished speaking, Klein felt the tower begin to shake. The dream rapidly shattered.

Soon, he woke up.