Chapter 56: Secret Passage

Chapter 56: Secret Passage

“It is nothing.” Klein smiled gently.

On the surface, he seemed to have perceived nothing. In truth, his thoughts were turning rapidly, considering what exactly the instantaneous change just now represented.

Previously, those internal caretakers all used the nearby staircase to go upstairs. It can be preliminarily determined that they live up there, matching the place where the change just appeared… The internal caretakers’ states are not quite right, so the probability of them losing control is higher than that of ordinary Beyonders. Would they suddenly flare up with malice and evil thoughts?

And that was then forcefully suppressed or soothed by the sealing core behind Chanis Gate, deep underground?

If that is true, there are two possibilities. First, the sealing core behind Chanis Gate can sense all abnormal changes within Saint Samuel Cathedral and respond instinctively. Second, during their long years of duty, the internal caretakers have been continually eroded by the core’s power and, to some degree, have become a part of it—or have carried the corresponding special trait. Once they undergo an abnormal change, the main body immediately intervenes.

If it is the former, that means when I knock out an internal caretaker to impersonate him, the sealing core behind Chanis Gate may detect it and create a change like earlier, causing the operation to fail just as it begins. If it is the latter, then when entering Chanis Gate, the internal caretaker I impersonate will inevitably be rejected…

I must first understand the true cause before devising a targeted solution…

Stealing sealed artifacts from inside the Churches really is difficult. No wonder almost no one is willing to do it…

While thoughts surged within Klein, he outwardly listened attentively to Bishop Elektra describe Saint Samuel’s life and the letters he had left behind. Only when the time was about right did he politely take his leave.

Upon returning to 160 Böklund Street, he had just handed his hat and cane to Richardson when he saw his butler coming forward.

“Sir, do you intend to host a ball or dinner next weekend and invite the neighbors nearby?” Walter did not use a tone of suggestion, as though he were merely asking a simple question.

However, Klein knew very well that since the butler had raised the matter, it meant the time had come to do so.

He nodded lightly.

“Saturday night, then. A ball.

“I will have to trouble you and Taneja to make preparations in advance.

“Does the household still have enough money?”

When he asked the final question, Klein turned his head toward the housekeeper.

Taneja nodded with serious propriety.

“Enough.

“The various alcoholic beverages in your cellar are already sufficient to handle several banquets.”

When he had moved into 160 Böklund Street, Klein had given her 1,000 pounds in cash for household expenses. Judging from the present situation, even if they had to replenish fine wines, tea leaves, coffee beans, and other items, it would certainly not be used up within a month.

The pound is still quite strong…

Klein nodded and said with a smile, “For the first occasion, do not open wines that are too expensive. Loen custom values subtlety.”

“Yes, sir.” Although Walter knew perfectly well how to arrange a ball, he still listened very seriously to his employer’s instructions.

After a pause, he changed the topic.

“There are only two things you need to do. First, with our assistance, draw up the guest list and prepare a short greeting for each person, appropriate to their identity and experience. Second, order another set of formal evening dress for the ball.”

How troublesome…

While inwardly sighing and grumbling, Klein gave a slight nod.

“No problem.”

When I greet Hazel, can I say, The sewers here are cleaner than the squares of the Southern Continent?

…

Deep into the quiet night, the crimson moon hung high in the sky. Backlund, with much of its smog thinned, revealed a tranquil beauty.

Inside Dawn Dantes’s master bedroom, Klein arranged a ritual and summoned himself.

Tonight, he intended to enter the sewers, confirm whether Trissy had already left, and go to the fork she had described to explore that so-called secret passage and see what he could discover.

Klein did not expect any additional gains. He merely worried that the secret hidden in this stretch of sewer was a latent danger that might one day be triggered. And that could easily implicate Dawn Dantes, who lived nearby, disrupting his operation to steal the Antigonus family notebook.

In such matters, one cannot act like an ostrich, burying one’s head in the sand and pretending not to have seen anything… Discover the problem as early as possible. Before it completely erupts, destroy what should be destroyed and report what should be reported. That is the most effective approach… Of course, one must also be cautious enough not to let one’s own exploration become the fuse…

Klein’s spirit body emerged from the candle flame. With Azik’s copper whistle providing enhancement, it possessed the Dawn Dantes body before him and controlled it to walk to the edge of the wall of spirituality, where it sat down in the easy chair.

From the outside, this would look like the wealthy man had fallen asleep while reading the newspaper, forgetting to go to bed.

A summoned soul possessing my own body really does feel different from directly returning to my body. There is an obvious sense of separation…

Comparing the experience, Klein floated back to the desk and tidied away most of the objects on the altar, leaving only the candle that maintained the summoning to burn quietly.

After completing all this, wearing Creeping Hunger and merging Azik’s copper whistle, Death Knell, and the Senor gold coin into himself, Klein flew out of the master bedroom. From midair, he left 160 Böklund Street and entered the sewers.

The moment Klein entered that damp, filthy environment, he immediately released the Wraith, Senor, controlling the marionette to keep a distance from him and turn into the concealed side passage where Trissy had previously recuperated.

This time, he saw that the area, once so clean it did not resemble part of the sewers, had already been stained by filth, with rats moving through it.

“Looks like Trissy really has left…” Klein, trailing far behind, silently exhaled.

As a spirit body, he did not need to breathe or walk on the ground, so he did not care how terrible the sewer environment was.

The Wraith Senor turned back out of that area and continued forward, finding the sixth left-turning fork. Klein, meanwhile, kept a distance of more than fifty meters from him at all times, fully acting as the puppeteer behind the scenes.

At the end of the fork was a wall covered in dark moss and obvious corrosion. At a glance, there seemed nothing abnormal about it. Had Trissy not mentioned it, Klein would never have made his marionette carefully search every inch of the place.

Several minutes later, Senor, dressed in his dark-red coat, suddenly straightened and stepped forward, walking into the wall.

After passing through the thick obstacle, Klein’s vision suddenly opened up. Through the marionette’s sight, he saw a half-natural, half-artificial cavern. It was less than 1.8 meters high and around three meters wide. Shovels and other tools wrapped in oilcloth lay on the ground, along with piles of dirt and shattered stone. Ahead, two secret passages extended diagonally downward.

The passage on the left was only five or six meters deep, while the one on the right was close to ten meters. Neither contained anything at all. They seemed to still be under excavation.

Was this made by Hazel? By day, a proud young lady of high society; by night, a sewer tunnel digger who has to haul out dirt and stones bucket by bucket? Her wandering was to find the precise location, and the digging was the next step? There should have been a hidden door on that wall just now…

Leaning in a concealed spot outside the fork, Klein controlled Senor to carefully look around.

Then he had the Wraith enter the secret passage on the left, walking all the way to the airtight end where dirt and stone were packed together.

Senor’s figure gradually faded, losing all sense of physical existence. In that form, he passed through the soil ahead and continued exploring deeper inward.

But even when he was close to the hundred-meter limit, he still discovered nothing worth noting, only a few ordinary insects.

Klein then had the marionette change direction and “swim” a circle through the sea of earth, but still found nothing.

The Wraith Senor quickly returned to the previous cavern and entered the secret passage on the right, unaffected by obstacles.

“Still nothing abnormal… Trissy’s judgment that a specific pathway or a specific item is needed is not without reason… Mm, she probably explored with the invisible threads of a Witch of Pleasure… What a pity. My Fire Seed glove is gone… I wonder whether the aura of the gray fog on me would work. It seems to be very attractive to Beyonders of the Marauder pathway…”

Klein muttered a few sentences soundlessly. Since he was currently in spirit body form, he felt tempted to personally explore the two secret passages suspected to have been dug by Hazel.

However, he restrained that impulse, because he was now a Marionettist. Unless absolutely necessary, letting his true body take the stage violated the principles of acting.

“If not relying on the gray fog aura, that is fine too. During tomorrow afternoon’s Tarot Club, I can ask to buy a mystical item of the Marauder pathway. It doesn’t need to be expensive. One corresponding to Sequence 9 or Sequence 8 will do… Mm, Lanevus’s badge was only a signal receiver. It is not an item of that pathway… Without knowing what is hidden deep inside the secret passage, rashly exploring it with my own spirit body might draw out some high-Sequence monster… Caution and prudence are always timeless requirements for self-preservation…”

Klein slowly sighed and withdrew the Wraith Senor.

He was not worried that Hazel would continue coming here soon. Before finding a way to deal with what had happened last time, any human with normal intelligence would not continue coming!

Setting aside whether Hazel had come into contact with Beyonder circles, even if she had, obtaining items in the Sun domain was not that simple. After all, Backlund was the territory of the Church of Storms… I do have one item on me that I rarely use. Heh. Find a chance to sell it to her, then have her use it to injure my marionette?

Klein teased himself a little and shook his head with a smile.

He then ended the summoning and returned directly above the gray fog, vanishing from the sewers.

…

Monday morning. Bright sunlight pierced through thin clouds, scattering over every corner of Backlund.

Emlyn White pulled his silk top hat down slightly. As he left his carriage and walked toward the Harvest Church, he half closed his eyes and muttered, “What terrible weather…

“Backlund’s worst season is coming soon…”

He was just about to step onto the stairs when he suddenly saw a newsboy approach and hand him a copy of the Tasok Times.

“Sir, this morning’s paper!”

Emlyn had been about to refuse, but then he noticed that beneath the boy’s fingers, where he held the paper, was a small slip of paper.

…

Without changing expression, Emlyn took out a one-penny coin, handed it over, and accepted the Tasok Times and the slip of paper.

Before entering the Harvest Church, he quickly unfolded the latter and scanned it once:

“There is a clue about the person you are looking for. Come to the Bravehearts Bar.”