Chapter 54: The First Querent

Chapter Fifty-Four
The First Querent

Seeing Klein’s surprised expression, Angelica immediately wavered a little.

“Is that not true? Mr. Glacis said that you relied only on observation to discover a hidden illness in his lungs…”

Her voice grew quieter and quieter, until she finally closed her mouth.

Observation? Darkness between the brows?

Klein abruptly understood. Shaking his head, he laughed.

“I believe Mr. Glacis misunderstood.”

He had originally intended to brush the matter off with that one sentence. But then he suddenly remembered that no one had asked him for a divination yesterday afternoon, which had made his attempt at acting as a “Seer” terribly unsmooth. His thoughts began turning rapidly, and he offered a brief explanation.

“In truth, that was a form of divination.”

“Divination? But Mr. Glacis only mentioned that you observed his face. Does that also count as divination?” Angelica asked back, both astonished and confused.

Klein smiled calmly.

“As a member of a divination club, surely you know of palmistry?”

Palm reading was not a specialty of the great foodie nation alone. Even on Earth, India and old Europe had each developed their own systems—let alone in a world like this one, where extraordinary power genuinely existed.

“I know. But you did not seem to read his palm. Or did you secretly observe it?” Angelica asked with curiosity.

“What I read was his face,” Klein said, shamelessly inventing. “Its principle is not essentially different from palmistry.”

“Truly?” Angelica’s eyes were filled with disbelief.

For the future development of his “Seer” career, Klein gave a soft laugh and pretended to think. He raised his hand and lightly tapped the space between his brows twice.

Concentrating, he looked over and saw Angelica’s aura appear in his eyes: purple at the head, red at hands and feet, blue at the throat… There were no health problems. The colors were simply a little dim, but that was only the normal appearance of fatigue.

Klein then looked at her emotions. Orange was mixed with traces of red and blue—warmth, with some excitement and some thought.

Good…

After discovering that there was nothing abnormal, Klein prepared to close spirit vision. Just then, he suddenly noticed, deep within Angelica’s emotional colors, a thick gray darkness hidden away.

“And she also lacks a little of the white that represents positivity and upward drive…”

Klein nodded thoughtfully.

“Mr. Moretti, are you reading my face?”

Seeing the young gentleman in black formalwear suddenly fall silent and examine her seriously, Angelica keenly sensed something. Half curious and half worried, she asked.

Klein did not answer immediately. He lightly tapped the space between his brows again, as though concentrating further on his examination.

Just as Angelica was becoming somewhat uneasy, he spoke gently.

“Miss Angelica, some grief, some pain, should not be sealed away in the heart.”

Angelica’s eyes widened at once. Her mouth opened, yet no words came.

She looked at Klein, who wore a half-top hat and possessed an obvious scholarly air, and heard him continue in a low, soothing voice that felt warm to the ear.

“You need a mountain climb, a tennis match, or a sorrowful play. Let your body grow exhausted through movement. Let tears flow without needing to hide them. Then cry, shout, and release those emotions completely.

“It will be very helpful to your physical health as well.”

His words flowed gently into her ears. Angelica seemed to have become a statue. She stood there without moving at all.

She blinked hard, lowered her head in a sudden fluster, and said in a muffled voice, “Thank you for your advice…”

“There seem to be quite a few members today?” Klein said no more. As if the divination had never happened, he turned slightly and looked toward the meeting room at the end of the corridor.

“Sunday afternoon… at least fifty members…”

Angelica’s voice was still a little hoarse, and her description came out only in fragments.

She paused, and her speaking speed gradually returned to normal.

“Would you like black tea or coffee?”

“Sibe black tea.”

Klein nodded slightly. As a courtesy, he briefly removed his hat, then walked slowly toward the meeting room.

Only after he vanished beyond the doorway did Angelica slowly exhale.

…

The Divination Club’s meeting room was extremely large, almost twice the size of Klein’s high school classroom.

Usually, with only five or six members present, it felt very empty. Now, several dozen “diviners” were seated in groups of two or three at different places, filling most of the space at once.

Sunlight entered through several bay windows. Some members discussed matters in soft voices. Some gathered around Hynas Vincent to seek guidance. Some bowed their heads over exercises, attempting divinations. Some sat alone, drinking coffee and reading newspapers.

The scene made Klein feel as if he had returned to his student days on Earth. Only back then, things had been livelier and noisier, without this flavor of tranquility.

He looked around and did not see the two familiar faces, Glacis and Edward Steve. So he casually took a public divination textbook, found a corner, and leisurely began leafing through it.

Before long, Angelica came in carrying a cup of black tea and set it down on the table before Klein.

She was just about to leave quietly when she suddenly saw Mr. Moretti unwind a uniquely shaped silver chain from inside his left sleeve. From it hung a pure citrine crystal.

What is he going to do?

Without realizing it, Angelica slowed her steps and looked toward Klein.

Klein held the silver chain in his left hand, letting the citrine hang vertically above the cup of Sibe black tea, so close that only the slightest gap remained between the crystal and the surface of the liquid.

His expression serene, he half-closed his eyes. The atmosphere around him suddenly became quiet and secluded.

The pure citrine trembled lightly, drawing the uniquely shaped silver chain into a clockwise rotation.

Seeing this, Angelica felt that Mr. Moretti had become exceptionally mysterious.

“Your black tea is quite good,” Klein opened his eyes and said softly with a smile.

He had deliberately performed the action just now.

Deliberately shown it to Angelica.

If he wanted someone to request a divination from him soon, then Angelica, who handled reception and recommendations, was in truth the most crucial factor.

Since he meant to act as a “Seer,” Klein no longer had any misgivings. He truly threw himself into that identity.

“…Yes. Mr. Vernas is very particular about the quality of black tea,” Angelica said after a brief pause.

At that moment, Klein retrieved the pendulum, wrapped it back around his wrist, then lifted the white patterned porcelain cup and raised it toward her with a smiling gesture.

…

Angelica returned to the reception hall. No longer in the mood to read her magazine, she sat there in a daze, her thoughts drifting somewhere unknown.

Only when knocking sounded at the door did she suddenly wake. Flustered, she looked toward the entrance and saw a young lady in a light-blue dress.

The young lady removed a gauze hat with pink-blue ribbons. Her expression was quiet and melancholy.

“Good afternoon, honored miss. Would you like to join the club, or find someone for a divination?” Angelica greeted her smoothly.

“I would like a divination,” the young lady with lovely eyes, in which melancholy was hidden, said after biting her lip.

Angelica first invited her to sit on the sofa, then introduced the details of member divinations.

She fetched the album and handed it over.

“You may choose anyone.”

The low-spirited young lady began seriously flipping through the album. Because there were so many members at the club today, the number of choices available was simply too great, and she soon became irritated and confused.

“Could you recommend one? From these few pages.”

She pointed at the middle section of the album, skipping both the diviners priced above two soli and those below four pence.

Angelica took back the album. After looking through it for several minutes, she weighed her words and said, “I recommend this gentleman.”

The uneasy young lady focused her eyes and discovered that the diviner’s name was Klein Moretti.

“…Mr. Moretti has only just joined the club. Is his level trustworthy?” she asked with some uncertainty.

Angelica nodded with certainty.

“Both I and another member can confirm that Mr. Moretti is an outstanding diviner. If he had not joined only recently, he would not charge such a modest fee.”

“I understand.” The melancholy young lady nodded. “Then I will ask Mr. Moretti to divine for me.”

“All right. Please wait a moment.”

Angelica took the album and rose, walking toward the meeting room.

She came to Klein’s side and lowered her voice.

“Mr. Moretti, someone has requested your divination. Which divination room would you like to use?”

The effect is not bad. My first “business” has arrived…

Klein set down the cup of black tea and nodded calmly.

“The citrine room.”

“All right.”

Angelica walked slowly ahead to guide him and opened the wooden door to the citrine room.

Klein sat behind the table on which various divination tools had been placed. After waiting for several dozen seconds, he saw a woman in a light-blue dress enter, her mood low and melancholy.

Taking advantage of the moment when she turned back to close the door, he lightly tapped the space between his brows twice.

“The yellow of her stomach is a little dim… Her emotional dark colors are very heavy, mainly worry and unease…”

Klein carefully looked once, leaned back slightly, and raised his hand to shut off spirit vision.

“Hello, Mr. Moretti.”

The woman in the light-blue dress sat down.

“Good afternoon. How should I address you?” Klein asked politely, without any expectation that he would necessarily receive an answer.

As a keyboard powerhouse, he knew that many people were unwilling to use their real names when undergoing divination.

“You may call me Anna.”

The woman in the light-blue dress placed her gauze hat to one side. With expectation in her eyes, yet also much doubt, she looked at Klein and said, “I would like to divine my fiancé’s current situation. He went to the Southern Continent in March for a business matter. On the third of last month, he sent a telegram to me and his family, saying that he was about to set sail and return. But twenty days passed, and he still did not come back. At first, I thought it was due to the weather on the Raging Sea, but now more than a month has passed, and the Clover, the ship he was aboard, still has not reached Enmat Port.”

The ocean separating the Northern and Southern Continents was called the Raging Sea, famous for countless natural disasters and innumerable dangerous currents. Had Emperor Roselle not sent people to explore several relatively safe routes, the nations of the Northern Continent might not have begun their age of colonial expansion even now—let alone laid underwater cables and built the framework for wired telegraphy.

Klein looked at the first customer in the true sense of his “Seer” career and cautiously asked, “What method of divination would you like to use?”