Chapter 111: A Missed Encounter

Chapter One Hundred Eleven
A Missed Encounter

Before long, the lecturer, a woman with high cheekbones, stepped onto the half-height wooden platform at the front of the small hall and projected her voice.

“Good morning, kind and merciful ladies. I am Seviera Hedda. Today, I will share with you my experience in arranging household expenditures. This is divided into three parts. First, how a family with an annual income of around one hundred pounds should balance spending on food, housing, clothing, and hiring servants. Second, what additional expenses a family whose annual income reaches two hundred pounds ought to add in order to appear more respectable…”

Melissa listened seriously. Without needing to calculate, she recalled the combined annual income of her two brothers.

“More than two hundred pounds…”

She thought this half with satisfaction, half with fear.

She was delighted and content with her present life, yet at the same time afraid it would vanish in the blink of an eye.

At that moment, Selena, with her wine-red hair, covered her mouth and lowered her voice to her two friends.

“She seems to be a believer of the Lord of Storms. She is wearing the Storm emblem.”

Melissa focused and, sure enough, saw a badge depicting wind and waves pinned over Teacher Seviera’s left breast.

She hurriedly explained, “Mrs. Shod, who told me about this lecture, is a believer of the Lord of Storms. I do not think it is strange that the teacher is as well.”

“Mm. I do not feel there is any problem. We are here to listen to concrete budget planning,” Elizabeth said, soothing Melissa.

“But aside from Melissa, none of us needs—or is qualified—to draw up household expenditure plans,” Selena muttered under her breath.

Elizabeth refuted her without hesitation.

“But we will eventually marry. We will eventually have families of our own.”

After the magic mirror divination incident, Selena had always been somewhat afraid of Elizabeth. She could only nod sheepishly and pretend to listen seriously.

Lecturer Seviera lifted her right hand and said, “The premise of all such spending plans is that we must respect the opinion of the male master of the household. They are the source of income, the pillars of the family. They face anxiety, pressure, trouble, and chaos in a turbid society, winning everything for us. Therefore, we must create a peaceful environment undisturbed by outside affairs, allowing them to relax after returning home, allowing their souls to be cleansed, so they may face every challenge in a better state.

“Thus, the famous philosopher, sociologist, humanist, and economist Mr. Lurmey once said: women are the angels of the home.”

Selena propped her chin on one hand, dimples appearing, and asked in a low, slightly excited voice, “Lurmey? Is that the gentleman who said, ‘Man is born free’?”

“Yes, but he was a believer of the Lord of Storms,” Elizabeth answered after some hesitation.

Just then, Lecturer Seviera continued, “Mr. Lurmey also tells us that women are born with deficiencies in wisdom and logic. Since that is so, we who lack the capacity for judgment should accept the words of fathers and husbands as religious faith…”

Those words left Melissa, Selena, and Elizabeth looking at one another. For a long while, none of them could speak.

“Shall we leave?” Selena finally suggested tentatively.

Melissa and Elizabeth nodded firmly at the same time.

“Yes!”

Taking up their gauze hats, they bent at the waist and slipped toward the side door, trying to leave without drawing anyone’s attention.

When they carefully reached the outside and straightened their backs, they suddenly heard warm applause erupt inside the small hall.

Melissa subconsciously turned her head, her gaze passing through the doorway and into the room.

She saw Mrs. Shod applauding. She saw one lady after another applauding.

Hoo. Praise the Goddess…

Melissa let out a breath and, together with Selena and Elizabeth, moved far away from that place that made her uncomfortable all over.

“Shall we go to Harrod’s Department Store?” Standing beneath the roadside trees, Selena forgot the matter from earlier and proposed brightly.

Melissa fell silent for several seconds.

“I want to go back and study.”

“Study…”

Selena blankly smoothed her wine-red hair, as though she had been pulled back into ordinary life.

“And I still need to buy bread, beef, potatoes, fruit… Klein is working today. Benson went to the municipal library. Mm-hm. I must go back!”

Melissa suddenly felt that she loved textbooks, springs, and gears so very much.

Selena decided to keep some distance from the unusually behaving Melissa today. Turning her head toward Elizabeth, she gave a flattering smile.

“Then the two of us can go to Harrod’s Department Store? Although I spent all my private money long ago, just walking around and looking at things is still wonderful.”

“Mm,” Elizabeth agreed to her friend’s proposal. Then, as though casually, she asked, “Melissa, your brother Klein works on Sundays too?”

“Yes. He rests on Mondays. It is different from ordinary work,” Melissa answered, unconsciously lifting her head a little.

…

After leaving Blackthorn Security Company, Klein took a rail public carriage to the Howes Street area.

He worked hard to gather his thoughts, no longer thinking about the Antigonus family treasure, returning his attention instead to the matter of “acting.”

Digesting the potion as soon as possible and improving myself as soon as possible is important no matter when!

“Acting as a Seer… Heh. I am still not professional enough. Fortune-tellers in my great foodie nation consult the almanac before doing anything…”

Holding his cane, Klein sat inside the carriage.

He decided to divine in advance whether today was favorable for going out—favorable for going to the Divination Club.

That was what a qualified Seer should do!

Taking advantage of the moment after alighting, Klein took out a half-penny copper coin. His gaze turned inward, his pupils swiftly darkening, and he silently recited:

“Today is suitable for going to the Divination Club.

“Today is suitable for going to the Divination Club.

“…”

Ding!

Klein flicked the coin upward without watching it tumble. He merely held his palm out flat.

Pap! The half-penny copper coin fell and landed steadily in his palm.

This time, the “1/2” figure surrounded by wheat ears faced up.

“The number facing up means I would encounter something bad if I went to the Divination Club today…”

After thinking briefly, Klein turned and walked toward the opposite side of the street, waiting for the public carriage headed toward Daffodil Street.

He felt that he was becoming more and more like a charlatan.

…

At the entrance of Harrod’s Department Store in the Howes Street area.

Selena was just about to go in when she suddenly froze and turned toward the side.

“Did something happen?” Elizabeth asked in confusion.

Selena puffed out her cheeks.

“Elizabeth, I thought of my mysticism teacher, Mr. Vincent. He passed away just like that, in the morning on the day after my birthday…

“Could it have been because I secretly read and used his hidden incantation? I keep feeling guilty and uneasy… And during this period, my luck has not been very good.”

“So?” Elizabeth asked with perfect tacit understanding.

Selena lightly bit her lip.

“I want to go to the Divination Club next door and have a divination done—to see whether Mr. Vincent’s death really had anything to do with me.”

To see what exactly happened that night at the birthday dinner… I always feel Elizabeth is hiding something from me… I remember the back of a gentleman wearing a tailcoat…

“Do you not know divination yourself?” Elizabeth asked in surprise.

Selena deliberately imitated her father’s sigh.

“Ah. My current state is not suitable for divining for myself.”

“All right. Then let us go to the Divination Club next door first,” Elizabeth agreed to her friend’s proposal.

They walked over and climbed the stairs to the second-floor Divination Club.

“Hello, good afternoon, Miss Angelica. I am very glad to see you again,” Selena greeted brightly in the reception hall.

Angelica smiled.

“As long as you come after lunch, you should always be able to meet me.”

Selena exchanged pleasantries with her, mourned Hynas Vincent briefly, and only then said, “I need a divination.”

“You know the club’s rules. This is the album of members willing to perform divinations… Today is the weekend, so quite a few of them are present,” Angelica said, running through the process smoothly.

Selena and Elizabeth leaned their heads together and swiftly flipped through the list and corresponding introductions.

“Before, I always went directly to my teacher. I did not expect that compared with last year, the club would have so many more members willing to help people divine,” Selena said with interest.

Suddenly, she paused for a few seconds and murmured in confusion, “Klein Moretti. Klein Moretti? That is the same name as Melissa’s elder brother.”

Elizabeth froze. After looking over the words Klein Moretti several times, she nodded thoughtfully.

“Yes…”

“Miss Angelica, is this Mr. Klein Moretti here?” Selena asked, eyes bright.

Angelica shook her head.

“I am sorry. Mr. Klein Moretti did not come to the club today.”

“All right. We will choose someone else.”

Selena had not truly intended to insist on meeting him. She only snickered to Elizabeth and said, “I know this cannot be Melissa’s brother. But when I saw the name, I naturally thought of a newspaper headline. A headline like something from the Intis Post.”

Founded by Emperor Roselle, the Intis Post was famous for sensational headlines and was one of the best-known newspapers in the Northern Continent.

Rather distracted, Elizabeth asked, “What headline?”

Selena cleared her throat and said, “Is it the decay of morality, or the problem of society? A history-department university student has fallen so far as to tell fortunes on weekends to survive!”

Note:
The lecture passage in Chapter One Hundred Eleven adapts ideas from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Émile.