Chapter 133: Money-Burning Charms

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Three
Money-Burning Charms

Hearing Klein’s answer, Elizabeth immediately became nervous. Her speech unconsciously sped up.

“Can you help me divine what exactly caused it? It would be even better if you could divine a solution…”

At most, divination can give a direction for the solution—and even then it will be symbolic, vague, and easy to misinterpret… Of course, you are lucky. I am not merely a simple diviner. I am also a true mysticism scholar…

After silently criticizing the girl’s question twice, Klein said with grave professionalism, “Since it is related to dreams, I suggest we use the corresponding divination method.”

“Okay, okay.”

Elizabeth nodded like a chick pecking at grain.

Maintaining his serious, professional air, Klein said, “I need you to sleep here and reproduce that dream. Will that be a problem?”

“No problem. I trust you,” Elizabeth answered without hesitation, pressing her lips together.

But very soon, she stammered and added, “But, but I— I cannot guarantee that I will definitely have that dream.”

“This is only an attempt.”

Klein soothed her with a gentle smile.

Then he pointed toward the long sofa at the side of the Red Agate divination room.

“Please.”

“No, no need. I will sleep here.”

Elizabeth lightly shook her head, crossed her arms, and said, “When I am tired at school, I sleep like this for a while during the break between classes.”

As she spoke, she used her arms as a pillow, leaned her upper body forward, and rested against the edge of the table.

“All right. You may pretend I do not exist.”

Klein smiled and began observing her aura and emotional colors, using them to judge whether the girl had successfully fallen asleep.

“Mm.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes, buried her face in the crook of her arms, and tried hard to make her breathing even.

Klein stopped speaking. He leaned back in his chair, and the room suddenly became exceptionally peaceful.

It was the kind of peace that calmed the heart and made one forget the outside world.

After a while, having confirmed that Elizabeth had entered sleep, Klein took a semicircular silver sheet from the pocket of his clothes. The thin sheet was covered in Hermes words ordinary people could not understand, as well as symbolic signs, numbers, and markings.

This was the Dream Charm Klein had successfully made the previous morning.

At the same time, he had also completed two Slumber Charms and two Requiem Charms. The former were made from rectangular silver sheets, the latter from triangular ones, so that during intense combat, he could distinguish them by touch alone.

“Crimson!”

Klein spoke in a low voice, uttering a word in ancient Hermes.

This was the activation incantation he had set. Since the following step still required him to pour in spirituality, there was no need to make it different from others. It only needed to suit his memory and be brief enough.

As the mysterious voice echoed through the room, Klein felt the Dream Charm in his palm suddenly grow weightless, as though it had briefly lost its mass.

Once spirituality had poured into it, he immediately placed the charm on the table before him.

Transparent flame soundlessly rose, wrapping around the charm and burning into a deep, tranquil black.

That black spread swiftly and at once enveloped both Klein and Elizabeth.

Seizing the chance, Klein entered a state of meditation and, with his spirituality, saw before him a hazy, illusory oval sphere of light.

Around that sphere of light lay nothing but boundless deep black, making it seem exceptionally lonely.

Klein dared not delay. He immediately extended his spirituality and touched the unreal sphere of light.

Without sound or warning, the scene around him began to invert and flicker. Very soon, it fixed itself into a yellow-brown plain. Across the plain lay many collapsed horses and human bodies. Blood and weapons were scattered everywhere.

Elizabeth wore a court dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves and a hat from which thin gauze hung down. She looked around in blank confusion.

She caught sight of Klein and instantly revealed a surprised, delighted smile.

“Mr. Moretti, we meet again! When Selena and I went to the Divination Club before to find someone for a divination, I suspected that the Klein Moretti on the register might be you. Later, I went several times more, but because I had classes on ordinary days, our schedules always missed each other…

“When summer vacation finally came and I had free time, Father and Mother took me to Lamud Town for vacation…”

“You will definitely be able to help me, right?”

Listening to the girl’s chatter, Klein was briefly stunned.

So Elizabeth had already suspected I was working part-time at the Divination Club, and she even came specially to look for me several times…

Yet just now, she had not shown the slightest abnormality!

Mm. Her surprise was entirely genuine, and it happened to conceal her true thoughts…

As expected, everyone is honest in dreams—except me, Mr. Fool…

While those thoughts tumbled in his mind, Elizabeth’s dream changed. A tall knight over 1.9 meters in height appeared, dragging a greatsword that nearly scraped the ground as he approached step by step.

The knight wore black full-body armor. As he moved, faint metallic clinks rang out. Two flame-like red lights shone from the slits of his visor, staring fixedly at Klein and Elizabeth.

A wraith’s intent… It has not reached the level of an evil spirit yet…

Already in a spiritual state, Klein did not need to activate spirit vision now.

According to the Nighthawks’ internal categorization, residual resentment and unwillingness were the weakest and easiest-to-handle soul-type phenomena. After them came shadows and wraiths in order. Evil spirits, meanwhile, belonged to very troublesome soul-type monsters. The most terrifying evil spirits were said to be no weaker than high-sequence powerhouses.

Thinking this, Klein stepped forward and blocked Elizabeth behind him. Then he stamped his right foot heavily, shattering the dream in an instant.

Countless firefly-like specks of light scattered everywhere. Klein’s spirituality returned to his body, allowing his eyes to once again see the dimly lit Red Agate divination room, the table set with various divination tools, and the Dream Charm that had finished burning and left behind only a little ash.

Looking at that scene, and thinking of the fact that charms belonging to the Evernight Goddess’s domain were all made of pure silver, Klein could not help feeling a stab of pain.

This thing is literally burning money! Even without counting my labor, if I only calculate the materials, each one costs six to eight soli on average!

Mm. Thinking about the Beyonders of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun makes me feel quite a bit more balanced. After all, they burn gold…

The corresponding metal of the Sun domain was gold.

At that moment, Elizabeth softly gave an “mm” and slowly woke, sitting upright once more.

She looked away from Klein a little awkwardly and said, “Mr. Moretti, did you obtain a result from the divination?”

“Yes.”

Klein nodded very seriously.

“In no more than a week, the nightmare will disappear on its own.”

I will report it to the Captain and have him send people to Lamud Town in time to handle it…

Klein added silently in his heart.

“Truly? Wonderful! Thank you, Mr. Moretti!”

Elizabeth immediately became excited and moved. Then she suddenly furrowed her brows.

“What is wrong?” Klein asked with concern.

“Nothing. I only thought that I must go home,” she said.

Moving somewhat slowly, she took out the one-soli note she had prepared beforehand and set it on the table. Then, carrying her hat, she bade Klein farewell with reserved politeness.

After leaving the Red Agate divination room, she walked with light steps toward the staircase outside the main door. Only after confirming that no one could see her did she hurriedly shake both arms and cry softly in pain.

“So numb, so numb…”

…

Inside Blackthorn Security Company, Dunn rubbed his forehead and fixed his gray eyes on Klein across from him.

“You came back so suddenly. Did you encounter some supernatural incident again?”

Hey, Captain, why does your tone sound so disgusted…

Klein cleared his throat and answered without hesitation, “Yes.”

“What kind of incident?”

Dunn Smith rubbed his forehead again.

Klein gave a clear, organized answer.

“Two matters. The first is that when I went to the underground market earlier to buy materials for charms, I discovered that ‘Monster’ Ademisaul was curled in a corner, trembling with fear.”

Here, he desperately hinted that the cost of materials required reimbursement.

As for the detective fees spent on finding Daxter Guderian, because they involved the red chimney matter, he could not bring them up. He also deeply regretted not having entrusted the two commissions to two different detective agencies.

Dunn seemed not to catch the hidden meaning in Klein’s words. He nodded lightly and asked, “What happened to Ademisaul?”

Klein silently exhaled and described it in detail.

“Ademisaul had a dream. In the dream, there was blood everywhere and corpses all over the ground, including himself. He was terribly frightened.”

Dunn seemed to be thinking as he slowly asked, “As a Seer, what do you think this symbolizes?”

“A disaster. A disaster affecting a fairly broad area. But aside from that, there is no other information. And not every one of Ademisaul’s dreams necessarily carries symbolic meaning,” Klein answered after some consideration.

“I will submit this to the Sanctuary and see what opinion they give.”

Dunn shook his head and laughed self-deprecatingly.

“This is not something I am good at.”

Klein had no other ideas either, so he turned to Elizabeth being entangled by the wraith’s intent.

“Lamud Town… That young lady is a believer of the Goddess, yes?”

Dunn asked thoughtfully.

“Yes,” Klein answered affirmatively.

“Then there is no problem. You and I will go to Lamud Town now and try to enjoy dinner there. Mm, also bring Frye. In incidents related to corpses and ghosts, his abilities are very useful.”

Dunn rubbed his temples, trying hard to remember whether he had forgotten anything.

If Elizabeth had not believed in the Evernight Goddess, then the matter would have had to be transferred to the Mandated Punishers or the Machinery Hivemind according to her specific faith. If her faith lay outside the three major Churches altogether, then it would belong to the Machinery Hivemind, which was responsible for the suburbs.

Klein said nothing further and quietly waited for a while. Finally, he heard Dunn add, “Also, since three of us are moving together, we may apply to use Sealed Artifact 3-0782.”

3-0782?

Klein thought hard for a while before remembering that the corresponding Sealed Artifact was the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem.

This Sacred Emblem’s extraordinary effect seemed able to persist for a very, very long time. Its function was to continuously purify corpses and ghosts within a fifteen-meter radius. The drawback was that it also purified the souls of normal people. Research data showed that if an ordinary person stayed within fifteen meters of it for one hour, they would turn into an idiot who knew only how to “praise the Sun.” A Beyonder’s limit was six hours.

As for ghosts and corpses, if they were within its range for more than one minute, they would collapse.

Huh. The Captain actually remembered this Sealed Artifact’s serial number… Wait, I feel like my memory is not even as good as his…

Klein abruptly froze and nearly wanted to hang himself with noodles.

At that moment, Dunn Smith leaned back. His gray eyes deep and calm, he asked, “You went to the Divination Club again? Have you felt any changes these last two days?”