Chapter 52: Reputation Takes a Hit

Chapter 52: Reputation Takes a Hit

Madam Willis glanced at Dawn Dantes’s face and laughed, not minding at all.

“Your past—your experiences in Desi Bay and the Southern Continent—are more exciting than every novel I have read. They make one wish to experience the same things.”

Of course. This is adapted from a true story. Thanks to Anderson Hood, a hunter who is always running around everywhere…

As Klein shifted his gaze toward the small cream cake, he laughed softly and said, “That is because I have only told the interesting parts. There are still many things within them that I do not wish to recall.”

He said only that brief sentence, then began enjoying dessert. But after hearing those words, Madam Willis and the other ladies inexplicably thought of the title of a bestselling novel: A Man with a Story.

In their eyes, Dawn Dantes was precisely such a person. On the surface, he was like a tranquil lake, but in truth, one could not see its depths. It hid many surprises, and buried no small amount of pain.

At 9:40, the dinner ended. Some gentlemen and ladies went together to the card room, preparing to play two hours of Texas hold’em. The remaining men headed toward the sitting room, intending to chat for a while. This did not forbid young ladies or married women from joining, but because there were many smokers and off-color topics were difficult to avoid, no ladies participated. Instead, they either went down to the first floor, gathered around the piano, listened to volunteers perform, and sang softly along, or formed groups of two or three to play chess and other games.

Klein chose to go to the second-floor sitting room. A smaller private conversation would help him be accepted into this circle sooner.

After entering, he observed the environment, went straight to the window, opened it, and pulled over a nearby high-backed chair to sit down.

Klein had just completed this series of actions when Portland Moment, the host of tonight’s dinner, laughed loudly while holding his pipe.

“Men always need a little space of their own.”

He was a loud-voiced old man with a tall build and a ruddy face, around sixty years old. His hair was still fairly thick, though already entirely white, and his features were very typical of an ordinary Loen man, without any particular distinction.

“Yes. When the ladies are present, we must care about our image and consider their feelings. I wanted to kiss it an hour ago,” Councilman Macht, Hazel’s father, said, taking out an ornate silver metal case and drawing a cigarette from it.

The other men who had entered the sitting room did the same. Pipes or cigarettes appeared in their hands like magic tricks.

Amid flickering flames, wisps of smoke curled outward, giving the room the feeling that yesterday’s smog had not yet dispersed.

After enjoying it with eyes closed for several seconds, Portland Moment turned toward the guest beside the window and asked, “Dawn, you don’t smoke?”

Klein clenched his fist and pressed it to his mouth, coughing twice.

“I have not yet recovered. The doctor instructed me not to smoke recently.”

To be honest, he was already about to choke. Fortunately, he had cleverly chosen the seat by the window.

These heavy smokers…

Klein bent the index finger of his right hand and rubbed it beneath his nostrils.

He badly wanted to use a Magician’s Beyonder ability to create an invisible air tube that extended outside, bringing in fresh air and freeing him from the harm of secondhand smoke. But considering that one of the gentlemen present might be a Beyonder, he rationally abandoned the idea.

Hearing his answer, Portland Moment laughed heartily.

“I heard from Bishop Elektra that there is a reason you fell ill, Dawn. You lack a wife!”

The full professor himself was a believer of the God of Steam and Machinery, but his wife believed in the Evernight Goddess. That was why the family had settled on Böklund Street near Saint Samuel Cathedral, where bishops often came to visit and converse.

Is he teasing that I was sick yet still thinking about women? I really couldn’t tell that Bishop Elektra was the sort of man who spreads rumors… This is all Magic Mirror Arrodes’s fault!

After a few inward grumbles, Klein shook his head and smiled.

“I respect marriage very much. If there is no suitable target, I would rather remain single.”

At that moment, Mr. Willis, a senior employee at Backlund City Hall, exhaled a smoke ring and said, “I actually quite envy Dawn’s current bachelorhood. That means I could pursue any type of lady.”

He deliberately stressed “any type,” causing everyone in the sitting room to laugh ambiguously.

Has the matter of Dawn Dantes having broad tastes and being unwilling to reject any type of charming woman already spread through this neighborhood?

Klein controlled his right hand, preventing himself from unconsciously rubbing his forehead. He felt that his image as a new wealthy gentleman with depth, refinement, good looks, and eloquent speech had undergone a subtle change.

His first suspicion fell on Bishop Elektra and that loose mouth of his. Then he felt that his butler Walter might have deliberately had the servants spread the rumor.

After all, a man with few flaws, considerable wealth, and strong charm would always be unconsciously rejected by other men in the circle. Once he had a blemish and a topic that could be joked about, it was easier for others to feel close to him.

Faced with this somewhat off-color teasing, Klein did not grow angry. With considerable grace, he deliberately gave a helpless smile.

“That is precisely why choosing has been so difficult, leaving me single until now.”

“Haha!” Portland Moment and the others all laughed.

Councilman Macht then said, “What you need is a little decisiveness. A good marriage, a good family, can be of enormous help to a man.”

He stopped joking and gave a sincere piece of advice.

It seems no matter which world one is in, one cannot escape being urged to marry…

Klein nodded lightly and casually swept his gaze toward the window, admiring the night scenery of Portland Moment’s garden.

At that moment, he saw a figure. Hazel Macht, wearing a dark-green dress, was walking alone along the path toward the depths of the garden. From time to time, she paused and looked left and right, as if searching for something.

Wasn’t this young lady playing the piano just now? Why did she suddenly go into the garden?

By the time Klein withdrew his gaze, Hazel’s back had already been concealed by a cluster of flowers.

When guests attended dinners and balls, leaving the hall and entering the garden was not improper. Walking beneath the moon and enjoying the flower-scented night breeze was a refined thing to do. However, it often also meant a rendezvous.

Who is Hazel meeting? No, that doesn’t seem right. Among the people present tonight, there shouldn’t be anyone she can truly look at “as an equal.” Although the fright she suffered in the sewers earlier has made her seem less haughty, even occasionally gloomy, deep down she still appears to look down on ordinary people… Is she dealing with the negative effects of a mystical item? That is unreasonable. Finding a rest room or going to the washroom would be more discreet than going to the garden. At her family’s ball, she went to the third floor, not the garden…

After excluding various impossibilities, Klein formed an initial guess:

Judging from Hazel’s posture, as if sensing or searching for something, she seems to have discovered something abnormal and is preparing to observe and deal with it at close range.

That would mean there is a supernatural situation at Professor Portland Moment’s home?

If that is true, then this professor, or someone in his household, is not simple… The bishops of Saint Samuel Cathedral often visit, yet none of them have discovered anything!

Mm, Marauders must possess unique senses and observational abilities in certain respects…

Klein had no intention of involving himself in the matter outside. A problem Hazel could detect should not be too dangerous. Moreover, this place was very close to Saint Samuel Cathedral. If some secret truly existed here, no one would want things to escalate. They would be very restrained.

At that moment, inside the sitting room, Councilman Macht broke free from the influence of the previous vulgar joke and looked toward Portland Moment.

“I hear you are leaving Backlund University?”

Professor Portland Moment took a draw from his pipe.

“Yes. The Higher Education Committee hopes I will serve as the president of the newly established Backlund Technical University. Heh. Although most of my wealth came from those alloys, the field I am best at is mechanical engineering.

“They promised to establish better laboratories there and provide more funding. Ha, at my age, greater autonomy and better assistants are indeed more important.”

Mr. Willis chimed in with a laugh. “And Backlund University will gain one more vacancy for full professor. Those senior associate professors who have waited for over a decade—some for decades—will finally have another chance.”

In Loen’s higher education system, full professor was not merely an academic title, but also a position roughly equivalent to department chair. Therefore, each department could have only one.

Backlund Technical University…

Klein listened with a smile and did not casually speak on a topic he did not understand.

…

In the garden, Hazel arrived at a gloomy, deserted corner.

Just now, she had discovered that ants and other creatures on the ground were gathering in an abnormal manner. Her spirituality also told her that something was hidden here.

This was a talent brought by her own Sequence, and it had never failed before.

She could directly pick out the sealed box containing valuables from several sealed boxes without any additional assistance. Of course, she could not distinguish what exactly was inside. She only knew that, compared with the others, it had to be more precious.

Just like Mr. Dawn Dantes. He must be carrying something extremely valuable…

The corner of Hazel’s lips curved slightly. She focused her attention on the patch of soil ahead that looked somewhat loose.

She sensed no small amount of spirituality gathering beneath it, creating an attraction to insects and wandering spirits.

It is not a human body. It is some used, spiritual materials… They should have been discarded separately, but instead they were buried together, producing an unnecessary change…

Hazel’s eyes darkened slightly. From the undisguised spiritual characteristics and changes, she interpreted the situation beneath the soil.

Her chin lifted faintly, and she turned back to look at the small building, judging that Portland Moment’s household had at least one person with supernatural powers.

And if this problem in the garden corner were not dealt with, within a few days, this place and several nearby houses would become haunted!

Hazel withdrew her gaze, extended her left hand toward the soil ahead, gently clenched it, and twisted her wrist.

The gathered spirituality there abruptly vanished, as if stolen away.