Chapter 110: Confirmation

Chapter One Hundred Ten
Confirmation

After thinking for a short while, Klein decided to go home first and confirm one thing.

Besides, he believed that if the Misfortune Puppet’s actions the previous night had not been specifically intended to show him the pattern on the paper, then when the Captain and the others conducted their follow-up inspection, they would certainly discover clues. Whether or not he reported it would not affect the overall situation.

If the opposite were true, then the matter required consideration.

That was precisely what Klein wished to confirm next.

He took a trackless public carriage back to Daffodil Street. When he arrived home, his elder brother Benson and younger sister Melissa, both in their Sunday state, had not yet risen. The living room was peaceful, dim, and silent.

Klein boiled a kettle of water, tossed in some tea leaves, ate one stick of oat bread with it, and only then took his coat, hat, and cane toward the staircase.

Subconsciously, he lightened his footsteps, avoiding any obvious noise.

He had only just reached the second floor when the washroom door suddenly opened. Melissa came out in an old cloth dress, looking sleepy-eyed.

“You’re back…” Melissa rubbed her eyes, still rather muddled.

Klein covered his mouth and yawned.

“Yes. I need a beautiful dream. Do not wake me before lunch.”

Melissa gave a soft “mm,” then seemed to remember something.

“Benson and I are going to Saint Selena Cathedral this morning for prayers and Mass. Lunch might be a little late.”

As believers of the Evernight Goddess who were not especially devout, she and Benson maintained a rhythm of visiting church once every two weeks. Meanwhile, Klein, who was a Nighthawk, had not actually entered the church again after the time he had been followed by a Secret Order member.

No, I am at church every day—just beneath the church…

Klein instinctively defended himself in his heart.

At present, he was terribly worried that the Goddess might abandon him, this false believer. If, in a critical moment, his ritual magic failed to receive a response, that joke would go rather far.

But thinking of Old Neil, the Goddess seemed quite tolerant toward Nighthawks. Mm, yes, that must be it!

Klein encouraged himself silently.

Those scattered thoughts flashed past. He looked at Melissa and smiled with a nod.

“No problem. I happen to be able to sleep longer.”

Passing Melissa, he entered his bedroom and locked the door behind him.

Immediately afterward, forcing himself to remain alert, he took out the ritual silver dagger and created a sealed wall of spirituality.

Then Klein walked four steps counterclockwise, silently recited the incantation, resisted the frenzied shrieks, and entered the world above the gray fog.

Inside that illusory and boundless realm, he was the only living creature, seated at the head of the ancient, mottled bronze long table.

After calming himself for several dozen seconds, Klein manifested parchment and wrote a divination statement:

“The pattern shown by the Misfortune Puppet.”

In that instant last night, although Klein had clearly seen the mysterious pattern on the paper, because of tension and haste, he remembered only the general shape and could no longer recall the specific details. But that was not a problem. For a Seer, as long as he had seen it, and remembered that such a thing existed, he could reproduce it.

According to mysticism theory, spirituality remembered every object it had ever seen. As long as the method was appropriate, a scene from a specific moment could be made to appear once again.

On this point, Klein even felt that the theories of the Psychology Alchemists once described by the Spirit Medium Daly made a certain kind of sense. Human memory was merely an island exposed above the sea, unable to bear too much. Thus, the majority of information remembered by spirituality became the subconscious, becoming the part of the island hidden beneath the water.

And spirituality itself, even if it was not the entire ocean, at least contained all the surrounding waters of that island.

After silently reciting the divination statement, Klein leaned back and entered sleep through meditation.

In the hazy, distorted, fragmented world, he once again saw Chanis Gate creak open. He heard the heavy, grinding scrape.

The doll in the black classical court gown pressed tightly against the half-opened gate and unfolded the paper it held.

Upon the paper were numerous mystical symbols, together forming a vertical eye.

Klein gazed deeply at the pattern, took the initiative to leave the dream, and then, with the special nature of the world above the gray fog, expressed the memory before it had faded.

Upon the brown parchment, the vertical eye “looked up” toward the sky, eerie and mysterious.

After thinking for a moment, Klein wrote beneath that eye:

“This is the key to the treasure left behind by the Antigonus family.”

Putting down the fountain pen, he unwound the silver chain from inside his sleeve and held it in his left hand until the citrine pendant hung steadily above the divination sentence and the mysterious vertical eye, no longer swaying noticeably.

Klein closed his eyes and, in a serene, ethereal state, silently recited the statement.

After seven repetitions, he opened his eyes and saw the citrine pendant leading the silver chain into a small clockwise rotation.

In pendulum divination, that meant affirmation.

“So the vertical-eye pattern really is the key to the treasure left behind by the Antigonus family…”

Klein nodded slightly, as though lost in thought.

His fingers lightly tapped the edge of the bronze long table as he silently muttered:

“Because Ray Bieber died and the Antigonus family’s descendants were cut off, the notebook regarded me—a Seer who had come into contact with it and survived—as an inheritor?

“It influenced 3-0625 and left behind the key to the treasure, then made the other party show it to me while I was on rotation guarding Chanis Gate?

“There is no problem with the logic, but I still cannot convince myself.

“How would that notebook confirm that the Antigonus family’s bloodline descendants had gone extinct?

“And I am someone completely unrelated. If I truly possessed Antigonus blood, the original owner would not have been forced to commit suicide in the first place.

“Mm. It seems whether I tell the Captain and the others about this matter is not important. I will study it more first.”

Next, Klein divined the location of the Antigonus family treasure. Unsurprisingly, he obtained no detailed information. The only thing he could confirm was exactly what Sirius had guessed in his letter to Mr. Z: the treasure was connected to the main peak of the Hornacis mountain range and to the ancient Nation of Evernight.

After finishing those divinations, Klein discovered that the crimson star from which he had previously heard a prayer had once again begun producing a faint ripple.

Using the method of responding to a prayer, he touched that illusory star and again saw the brown-haired boy dressed in unique black, close-fitting clothes.

The boy still knelt on both knees. He still faced the pure crystal ball. He still quietly murmured something.

This time, after deliberately learning a small amount of Giant language, Klein finally managed to barely understand one sentence.

“Pray… save… father and mother.”

It really is Giant language… What place still uses Giant language nowadays? This is an antique counted in units of a thousand years… What a pity. I, the mysterious ruler above the gray fog, am only an empty shell. Even if I want to save him, I do not have the ability…

Klein shook his head and sighed, deciding to observe for a while longer.

Once I know enough Giant words to understand exactly what happened to his father and mother, I can decide what to do…

Klein withdrew his spirituality, wrapped it around himself, and plummeted downward.

Returning to the bedroom, he removed the wall of spirituality, changed into old but comfortable clothes, lay down on the bed, and began catching up on sleep.

Klein slept all the way until half past twelve, when Melissa, who had finished preparing lunch, knocked on his door.

After eating a fairly hearty lunch, he saw Melissa pick up the gauze hat that matched her new dress, looking as though she intended to go out again.

“What do you have this afternoon?” Klein asked in confusion.

Seated on the sofa, frowning over a grammar book, Benson answered on her behalf without even lifting his head.

“Mrs. Shod next door told Melissa that there is a lecture on household affairs at the municipal lecture hall this afternoon. Melissa intends to attend and learn how to handle everyday family matters.”

Melissa nodded along.

“I asked Selena and Elizabeth to accompany me.”

“Wonderful. I hope the lecturer tells you that a family like ours needs to hire at least one maid-of-all-work,” Klein said with a smile.

Seeing Melissa about to retort, he immediately added, “We should invest our limited time into things of greater value.”

Melissa froze. After a long while, she pressed her lips together, put on her gauze hat, opened the door, and left.

…

At two in the afternoon, Klein once again appeared at Blackthorn Security Company.

“Did you not go home to rest?”

Rozanne and Dunn Smith, who happened to be in the reception hall, asked at the same time.

Klein smiled.

“I originally intended to go to the Divination Club, but I kept thinking about what happened last night. So I came here first. Did the Sanctuary reply?”

Dunn glanced at Rozanne, fell silent, turned around, passed through the partition, and entered his office.

Rozanne made a face at his back and whispered fiercely, “The Captain is so…”

Well done!

Klein inwardly praised her, holding back his laughter as he followed Dunn into the office.

Once the door closed behind them, Dunn smelled his pipe and said, “The Sanctuary has confirmed that the issue lies with the Antigonus family notebook. They have reclassified it as a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact. Unfortunately, that means your confidentiality level is no longer sufficient for you to read it.”

Grade 1, Highly Dangerous. Only bishops and Nighthawk team captains and above are qualified to know the details? In other words, the Captain cannot understand exactly what happened either… Highly dangerous. No wonder…

Klein felt somewhat regretful, yet also considerably relieved.

Dunn gave him a glance and continued, “The Sanctuary also instructed us to check whether anything else behind Chanis Gate had been contaminated by the notebook. After confirmation, only 3-0625 showed abnormalities. We have already changed its sealing measures.”

“Were there any other discoveries?” Klein asked, pretending to be curious.

Dunn shook his head.

“No.”

Klein nodded thoughtfully. He did not continue dwelling on that topic. After exchanging a few casual words, he took his leave and headed to the Divination Club, continuing his own “journey of digestion.”

…

Inside the municipal lecture hall.

Melissa, Selena, and Elizabeth sat near the entrance, waiting for the lecture to begin.

“If she does not speak well, we will slip out,” Selena suggested cheerfully.

Elizabeth immediately agreed.

“We can go to Harrod’s Department Store.”