Chapter 125: Discovering an Abnormality

Chapter 125: Discovering an Abnormality

The washroom window was set high in the wall, and not enough sunlight shone in. It could barely disperse the darkness, leaving everything dim and hazy.

Klein’s right hand, holding the Die of Probability, had just drawn near the All-Black Eye when it suddenly trembled and flung the object it held to the other side of the washstand.

The milky-white die rolled a few times before finally settling with the red four-pip side facing upward.

With a faint, almost invisible smile at his lips, Klein took a sidestep, picked up the Die of Probability again, lowered his head politely, and asked, “You seem unwilling to listen?

“Then give me an answer. Six pips means cooperation. Anything else means refusal.”

After speaking, he tossed the Die of Probability upward and stretched out his palm to catch it.

The milky-white die fell straight down, quickly rolled once, and showed the vivid-red six-pip side facing up!

“Good.” Klein praised it with a low laugh.

After tossing the All-Black Eye back above the gray fog, he turned, opened the washroom door, and slowly walked back to the sitting room.

Under the expectant, worried, curious, and puzzled gazes of the fat Apothecary Darkwill and the owl Harry, he suddenly stopped and threw the Die of Probability in his hand.

“No!”

“No!”

Darkwill and the owl screamed at the same time, fearing that it would roll a result below three pips. The latter even instinctively flapped into the air, moving away from the fat man who might get struck by lightning.

Amid the crisp sounds of contact, the milky-white die rolled continuously across the tea table and seemed about to settle on two pips.

Just as Darkwill’s face went deathly pale, the die lazily rolled again and finally stopped with four pips facing upward.

“For the next twelve hours, it will be relatively quiet.” Klein calmly sat down and began eating his lunch, which had already gone cold.

His method really worked? Darkwill lowered his body, staring fixedly at the strange die on the tea table.

After several dozen seconds, he could not resist reaching out and deliberately turning the die over to six pips.

The moment his palm left, the die moved by itself without wind and returned to four pips.

How magical… What method did Gehrman Sparrow use? Could he really have taken a shit and soaked the die in it? Urgh… Darkwill decided to accept the result and stop thinking about the reason. Otherwise, he suspected he would vomit on the spot.

Looking up at Gehrman Sparrow, who was quietly spreading cream, Darkwill suddenly felt that hiring a bodyguard of this level for one thousand pounds and a promise was far too worthwhile.

He can absolutely be mentioned alongside any pirate admiral! If a wealthy person encountered something like me, they would not hesitate to spend half their fortune to hire him… Luckily, I only paid three hundred pounds, and the rest will be paid by my teacher and the others… Thinking that he would not have to worry about the die rolling randomly for the next twelve hours, Darkwill’s body and mind immediately relaxed. He could not help standing and stretching.

He walked to the window and pushed open the tightly shut pane. Outside, clouds were sparse, the sky high, and the sea vast.

The boundless blue swayed gently, reflecting brilliant, splendid sunlight as though countless flecks of gold had been scattered within it. Darkwill’s spirits lifted at once, and even his heart seemed to broaden.

Unlike Backlund, which would not begin warming until the end of February, the waters of the Rorsted Archipelago were already gradually shaking off the low temperature. All living things were beginning to flourish.

Facing the sea, flowers bloom in spring… Having finished his bread, Klein walked to the rear side of Darkwill and felt that, at that moment, he was like an animal newly awakened from winter hibernation.

He did not recite the line of poetry that flashed through his mind. First, it did not suit Gehrman Sparrow’s persona. Second, there was a high probability that Darkwill would sigh over Emperor Roselle’s poetic talent.

By evening, with the die still not turning, the weather changed. Fierce winds swept across the sea, dark clouds piled up, and heavy rain was about to arrive.

This was the most common danger at sea. Even while sailing along safe routes explored by earlier generations, ships would frequently encounter similar situations. They were merely relatively less terrifying.

Klein glanced at the surging waves and the gloomy sky. He saw that the ship seemed to be traveling through a valley, with towering deep-blue “cliffs” on both sides that looked as though they might collapse at any moment.

That intense pressure made even a mid-Sequence Beyonder like him noticeably heavy-hearted, and he almost wanted to pray to a deity, hoping the passenger liner would safely weather the storm.

No wonder sailors, pirates, and merchants who live long upon the sea cannot help revering the Lord of Storms, believing in Him to some extent… Klein sighed inwardly.

Although he did not believe this relatively mild storm could bury a hybrid sail-and-steam passenger liner, caution still came first. In a low voice, he began praying to his own alternate identity: Sea God Kalvetua.

What he feared was that, during the storm, the Die of Probability would suddenly erupt and roll a one, causing the ship to sink. Therefore, he simply prepared a defense in advance. Klein did trust the judgment of the Snake of Fate, Will Auceptin, and believed the Die of Probability would be quiet for roughly twelve hours after its first intimidation. But that was under conditions with no additional complications. He believed that a Sealed Artifact with living characteristics should be treated more like a person than the embodiment of rules, and that one had to guard against it seizing an opportunity to strike back.

Glancing at Darkwill and the owl, who were somewhat uneasy because of the storm, Klein said flatly, “I will go rest.

“Continue watching the die. Take turns. Do not relax.”

“Alright.” Watching Gehrman Sparrow enter the master bedroom, Darkwill walked to the tea table and sat down heavily. While staring at the die, he said to the owl Harry, “What are your thoughts right now?”

Harry flew in a circle and muttered, “Why am I not a storm petrel?”

Inside the master bedroom, Klein entered above the gray fog and beckoned. The Sea God Scepter flew out from the pile of miscellaneous items.

Holding the short scepter topped with blue-green “gemstones,” he swiftly responded to his own prayer.

Klein did not consume too much spirituality to directly calm the storm. First, they had not yet traveled far from the waters of the Rorsted Archipelago, and such an obvious, exaggerated supernatural phenomenon could easily draw the attention of Sea King Ain Kottman or the Storm priest aboard the ship. Second, he had to preserve “power” to guard against the Die of Probability.

What he did was simple: he layered one extraordinary effect after another onto the ship, allowing it to sail steadily through the downpour and waves without capsizing.

For Sequence 5 or Sequence 6 Beyonders below the demigod level, doing something similar for a passenger liner capable of carrying several hundred people would require lengthy preparation in advance, an exceptionally complicated ritual, and almost complete exhaustion before it might be achieved. Yet for Sea God in this domain, everything was easy and simple.

“A demigod truly already has one side of a ‘god’…” Klein sighed, tossed the scepter back into the pile of miscellaneous items, and immediately vanished soundlessly from above the gray fog.

For the rest of the time, the ship rose and fell, swaying high and low like a leaf in the wind. Yet no matter how terrifying and “majestic” the surrounding deep-blue waves became, it suffered no problem and steadily reached the end of the storm.

…

Thursday morning, Backlund, Williams Street.

Fors Wall once again arrived here by carriage.

She did not sit inside the café this time. Instead, she strolled slowly along the street, examining pedestrians and surrounding buildings, and from time to time recording distinctive people as material for her novel.

“There really are many foreigners here. Mainly Feysacians and Intisians… Heh, one side is a barbaric, burly white bear, and the other is a brightly dressed, flashy rooster…” Fors muttered with a low laugh.

At that moment, she arrived at the middle section of Williams Street, where an abandoned little chapel stood. Withered vines climbed all over its interior and exterior, while gray stones lay scattered everywhere.

In the spirit of being worthy of Mr. World’s payment, Fors deliberately moved closer and checked whether there was anything abnormal.

First, she circled the little chapel once, finding nothing.

Then she entered, carefully avoiding disgusting excrement and rotten matter as she quickly examined every corner.

All of a sudden, her moving gaze paused, and her brows furrowed little by little.

In a half-collapsed corner, the ground had been dug up by someone. The pit was not large or deep, and traces of fingers remained!

This should count as an abnormality… Fors cautiously withdrew without investigating in greater detail.

After walking the entire length of Williams Street, she immediately returned home, organized the abnormality she had discovered and the materials she had recorded together, and sacrificed them to Mr. Fool, requesting that He pass them to The World. Fors did not hide anything she had seen, even if things appeared completely normal on the surface, because she knew very well that whether something was abnormal should be judged by The World, not by herself when she did not understand the situation.

…

Above the gray fog, inside the ancient palace.

Klein directly began reading the report submitted by Miss Magician.

“There are traces of digging inside that abandoned little chapel? The previous ones had already been handled by Miss Sharron and me… Who dug there again? Rafter Pound, that descendant of the Tudor family? He was possessed by that evil spirit last time and nearly died. Without helpers, it is unlikely that he would take the risk again… Who could it be…” Klein thought for a while but failed to lock onto a suspect. He could only continue reading.

Looking at those records with their elegant sense of language, he keenly noticed a problem:

“There are quite a few foreigners on this street, mainly Feysacians and Intisians…

“When I went to Williams Street before, it was not like this… Have new Feysacian and Intisian companies opened nearby?

“Feysac, Intis…”

Klein chewed over the names of those two countries and suddenly thought of something.

The Einhorn family, the imperial family of the Feysac Empire, and the Sauron family, the former royal family of Intis, both controlled the Hunter pathway, also known as the Red Priest pathway. They represented two of the three bloodlines the evil spirit had specified for breaking the seal.

Together with the descendants of the Medici family destroyed at Bansy Harbor, all three major forces holding the Red Priest pathway were now involved!

“Bansy Harbor was destroyed, causing the Beyonder characteristics of the Medici family, through some mysterious connection, to gather toward the evil spirit suspected to be the Red Angel, thereby attracting members of the Einhorn and Sauron families?

“No, that is not very realistic. If the Church of Storms had not discovered the Beyonder characteristics, they would definitely have paid attention to this issue…

“Another reason? Did that evil spirit attract the Einhorn and Sauron family members through some other method? What method? Through whom? Only a very small number of people know that evil spirit exists: me, Miss Sharron, and…” As his thoughts spun rapidly, Klein suddenly realized a possibility.

That is, after Rafter Pound, the descendant of the Tudor family, was possessed by the evil spirit once, he might have unknowingly become the other party’s servant, secretly helping it spread the information.

“And when that evil spirit asked Miss Sharron and me for help, it was only to numb us, making us believe that only we could save it. To accomplish that, it did not hesitate to betray its own descendant!” Klein was abruptly startled. He felt as though he had been fooled by the evil spirit.