Chapter 8: Self-Recommendation

Chapter 8: Self-Recommendation

“Moon Puppet…” Fors’s heart stirred. She withdrew her drifting attention and turned toward the gathering member who had just spoken.

The gentleman wearing an iron-black mask had already taken out a small puppet and was displaying it to everyone.

“A friend of mine discovered a small burial ground deep in the Paz Valley on the Southern Continent. This puppet was inserted into the right eye socket of one of the dead.”

Fors, like the other gathering members, carefully examined the puppet. She found that it was long and thin, more like a small carved wooden stake with crescent-moon-like eyes and mouth, embedded with dried grass and flowers.

It doesn’t look special… Fors muttered inwardly. Her spiritual intuition produced no reaction. The fountain pen in her hand still hovered over a bronze-green notebook.

The gentleman in the iron-black mask continued introducing it.

“Neither my friend nor I have been able to confirm what this puppet does. We only suspect it is not that simple, and that it may hide no small secret.

“Sixty pounds. Only sixty pounds, and you can take it away. This price is extremely fair. Even if it truly has nothing to do with the mysterious domain, it is still a decent antique, worth forty or fifty pounds.

“In other words, you spend ten pounds to buy a chance at surprise. For all of you, that is a very small amount of money.”

A very tempting pitch. This gentleman should be a successful salesman. Unfortunately, I don’t even have ten pounds… Fors laughed self-mockingly while believing no one present would buy the so-called Moon Puppet with unknown origins and unknown function.

That thought had just appeared when she suddenly heard a deliberately lowered female voice.

“Fifty pounds.”

Is she too rich and willing to gamble on luck? Fors subconsciously turned toward the gathering member who had spoken and saw that the lady was wearing a hooded robe, her face hidden in shadow.

At that moment, the owner of the Moon Puppet laughed aloud.

“In that case, I’m more inclined to keep it myself. Perhaps someday I will discover what makes it special.”

As he spoke, he discovered that no one else raised the price, so he changed direction and said, “Of course, as a gentleman, since you have expressed such desire and the price is fairly reasonable, I am willing to satisfy your wish.”

“Deal,” the hooded lady answered in a low voice.

Very soon, the gathering host’s attendant helped them complete the transaction. Fors noticed that when the lady obtained the Moon Puppet, her hand trembled slightly.

She values this item greatly… Perhaps she really knows what makes the puppet special… Moon Puppet… Moon… from the Southern Continent… Fors suddenly made an association and remembered that Mr. Moon wished to find several believers of the Primordial Moon. She somewhat suspected that the hooded lady just now was one of them, or at least connected to them.

Of course, she had no evidence. Even the reason for her guess seemed insufficiently strong.

Phew… Fors silently exhaled and decided to think of a way to verify it.

Appearing casual, she flipped through the hard-covered notebook in her hand, revealing a yellow-brown sheet of parchment.

On the paper were various markings, some deep and some shallow. They formed a strange picture with unclear imagery, ancient and mysterious.

This was one page of Leymano’s Travels, and it recorded a Beyonder ability.

It was not one of those Fors had later found chances to record successively, but one of the five pages that had originally existed.

Fors raised her head, pretending to observe other people’s transactions, while taking in everything beside the hooded lady.

She discovered a dark-brown spotted mosquito clinging to the nearby wall, while an unknown insect slowly crawled across the ground.

Fors’s finger naturally and lightly slid over the dark patterns on that yellow-brown parchment. Inside her mind, a complicated symbol swiftly took shape.

Silently and without the slightest abnormality, she felt that she had “understood” that spotted brown mosquito. Her own thoughts connected with its will.

The spotted brown mosquito flew up, keeping very low.

It circled beneath the hooded lady and cautiously stuck itself to the area in front of her.

The vision of a spotted brown mosquito was different from a human’s. Within Fors’s mind, it formed an incomprehensible image. However, it quickly collapsed, reorganized, and outlined a corresponding normal picture:

The hooded lady had soft facial contours, darker skin, long thin eyebrows, and the corners of her mouth drooped rather severely.

Fors immediately recognized her. She was Windsor Behring, one of the Primordial Moon believers that Mr. Moon wanted to find!

One effective clue is 100 pounds, and directly locking onto the target is 500 pounds! Fors recalled the contents of the bounty, and her heart suddenly burned.

Her first reaction was to drive the spotted brown mosquito to bite Windsor Behring normally and suck her blood. In that way, she could later rely on astrology to directly lock onto the other party’s movements.

However, after struggling for a while, she still abandoned that idea. This was one of the greatest taboos at a Beyonder gathering. If discovered, she would definitely be attacked by all gathering members until she died.

Moreover, gathering hosts were always quite capable. If she did too much and went too far, the other party would easily notice traces!

Mm. I’ll just earn 100 pounds. If there are extra opportunities later, I’ll consider directly locking onto her position… I need to leave this gathering early and smear blood onto Leymano’s Travels, so I don’t get lost. That would be very dangerous… Fors suppressed her disappointment and reached her final decision.

In fact, what she had done just now had already crossed the line somewhat. That made her unwilling to linger any longer.

…

Hillston Borough, inside a high-end hotel.

Klein stood behind the oriel window, quietly admiring the red moon high in the sky and the thin layer of clouds.

After an unknown length of time, he smoothed the white hair at his temples and reached out to draw the curtains.

Then he busied himself moving the radio transceiver back to the real world, dispersing most of its aura in advance.

This time, after waiting only a dozen seconds, he felt the room turn cold and gloomy, and heard the radio transceiver produce a tapping sound.

Klein approached and saw an illusory slip of white paper being spat out. Written on it in Loenese was:

“Great Master, please look to your right!”

To the right… Both amused and puzzled, Klein turned his head toward the side.

Where his gaze landed, there stood a full-length mirror. Its surface had already become deep and dark, as though someone had painted it over with ink.

Just as the thought flashed through Klein’s mind, the full-length mirror suddenly brightened. Inside, illusory fireworks shot into the air one after another, blooming and falling, splendid and gorgeous.

At the same time, a line of golden Loenese words appeared at the center of the mirror:

“Welcome back, my great Master!”

At that moment, although Magic Mirror Arrodes made no sound, Klein somehow felt that it was shouting itself hoarse.

The fireworks calmed. The golden words twisted and reorganized, forming new text:

“Great Master, your humble and loyal servant Arrodes wishes to ask: is there anything I may do for you?”

Klein was already extremely accustomed to this and skillfully said, “Answer my questions.”

The golden words reorganized again:

“Thank you for your answer. You may ask.”

Klein had prepared long ago and said, “Where did the evil spirit inside Williams Street’s underground ruins go?”

On the full-length mirror, the golden words froze for several seconds, then slowly vanished. Meanwhile, the fireworks-filled background first blurred, then grew clear, switching to another scene.

The scene was an abandoned chapel, covered everywhere in withered vines, with gray stones and droppings left by birds and beasts scattered across the floor.

Klein was quite familiar with it. This was precisely the place where he and Miss Sharron had once spoken with the evil spirit.

The image drew closer. Klein saw a small, shallow pit appear in a half-collapsed corner of the chapel. Clear traces of fingers digging were visible along its inner side.

Miss Magician once mentioned this… As Klein’s thoughts surged, a cold, smiling voice came from within the image:

“Happy cooperation!”

As those words came out of the soil, the scene immediately blurred and twisted, turning into a disturbed water surface, and finally shattered completely.

Happy cooperation… Who was the evil spirit saying happy cooperation to?

For an angelic convergence from the Hunter pathway to speak in such a tone, the person opposite it must not have had a low status. They may even have reached the angelic level. But why would they dig a pit by hand? They should have had many easier methods that wasted less time…

Was that angel also restricted in some way? Mm. Like the old grandpa inside Leonard? Right, Leonard was in Backlund at the time! That is one clue, but there are many other possibilities. Being angelic does not necessarily mean an angel…

Who exactly did the evil spirit contact while controlling Viscount Pound? From the looks of it, the Intis and Feysac spies were smoke screens the evil spirit released on purpose. As expected of a Conspirer… One thought after another flashed through Klein’s mind before he turned to Magic Mirror Arrodes and said, “Second question. I currently have three butler candidates. Which one do you think is more suitable?”

Golden Loenese words emerged one by one.

“If you choose Riback or Walter, there will be some additional developments. Asnia is the most professional and the most ‘ordinary.’”

Mm… The two from the Duke Negan family and Viscount Conrad’s household do indeed have additional developments… Klein nodded thoughtfully.

“It is your turn to ask.”

At that moment, a pile of golden words suddenly surged out:

“Great Master, what do you think of me as a butler? As long as you can bring me out from the Church of Steam, I can become the most outstanding butler in the entire world!”

…Klein hesitated for one second before answering tactfully, “For now, it is not suitable.”

The golden words on the full-length mirror instantly turned dim. Then they brightened again with renewed spirit, wriggling and reorganizing:

“Very well.

“Your loyal and humble servant Arrodes will patiently wait.”

Immediately afterward, a complicated pattern appeared on the full-length mirror, accompanied by explanatory text:

“This is a rune composed of corresponding symbolic signs and magical marks. Great Master, as long as you are still in Backlund, writing it on paper is equivalent to notifying me to come.”

A fused symbol representing concealment and spying… Klein identified it briefly and said, “All right.”