Chapter 153: The Hanged Man’s Ambition

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Three
The Hanged Man’s Ambition

After inspecting the White family’s home from top to bottom, Klein confirmed that there was nothing strange about it. The couple had not even left behind a single strand of hair, clearly on guard against anyone tracking them by means of divination.

He returned to the bedroom filled with dolls, took four steps counterclockwise, and entered above the gray fog, intending to make one final confirmation through divination.

But before turning to the proper matter, he rather curiously manifested the young-girl doll that was almost as tall as himself. Then, just like back in Tingen when he had divined the illusory image of the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem, he picked up the dark-red round-bellied fountain pen and wrote a sentence on yellowish-brown parchment:

“Its origin.”

Setting down the pen and gripping the paper, Klein leaned back against his chair, quietly repeating the statement while slowly adjusting his mind into meditation.

After seven full repetitions, his pupils darkened, his eyelids drooped, and he entered sleep.

In that gray, fragmented world, he saw a doll artisan working with exceptional concentration. He saw the red-eyed “girl” placed into a dollhouse. He saw Emlyn White unable to look away as he pulled out his wallet.

Finally, the scene froze upon the bedroom where Klein currently stood: Emlyn White, the proud vampire with hair combed back diagonally, handsome yet faintly delicate, sitting at the edge of the bed, gazing at that doll—and every other doll of varying sizes—with deep affection.

He really is a fanatical doll enthusiast…

Klein opened his eyes and covered his face with one hand.

Immediately afterward, he waved, causing the manifested life-sized doll to vanish from above the gray fog.

After that, he once again picked up the round-bellied fountain pen and wrote a new divination statement:

“The scenes of deaths at 48 Riverbay Avenue over the past ten years.”

According to the statements of nearby residents, the White family had lived here for no more than ten years. Therefore, Klein could lock onto a specific range. He also believed that if the White family were merely good monsters on the surface, while secretly manufacturing disappearances all along in order to drink warm, delicious blood, it would be impossible for them to keep anything from ever happening inside their own home.

Across a long span of ten years, there would inevitably be a few accidents, provided they had not already stopped!

After carefully checking the divination statement, Klein repeated the silent recitation and meditation, swiftly falling into a dream.

In the gray world, his vision alternated between pitch black, specks of static snow, and fractured, shattered pieces. Yet no scene ever appeared.

This was the result of the divination:

Nothing at all!

No one had died at 48 Riverbay Avenue in the past ten years!

Combining this with the other information, it can be preliminarily judged that the White family are law-abiding vampires who, at most, engage in petty theft…

Klein gazed at the mottled bronze long table before him, wrapped himself in spirituality, and dropped into the gray fog.

After returning to the real world, he cautiously dealt with the traces he had left behind, then departed 48 Riverbay Avenue by the original route.

He did not make his final decision right there. Instead, he took a detour to the Riverbay Police Station. Against a backdrop of thieves and drunkards being led inside one after another and handcuffed to pipes, he very easily slipped into the archives and boldly lit the gas lamp inside.

Then Klein found the missing-person records from the past ten years and began flipping through them with a rustle.

From time to time, officers on duty passed by the door, but in their eyes, no lamplight leaked from the archives at all.

“Nothing suspicious…”

After who knew how long, Klein, wearing black gloves, returned the files to their original place.

Then he turned off the gas lamp. In the deep darkness, he removed his hat, pressed a hand to his chest, and gave a bow toward the police station’s main hall.

Returning to Minsk Street, Klein took a bath, changed clothes, sat before his desk, and spread out the Backlund map he had bought on the steam train when he had first arrived.

First, he located Rose Street in the South Borough of the Bridge. That was where Harvest Church stood, and Father Utravsky was the bishop of that church. It was there that Emlyn White had been imprisoned in the basement.

After that, Klein shifted his gaze and clarified the names and layouts of the surrounding streets.

A performance cannot be too impatient or too eager for success. It must, bit by bit, draw the audience in…

Klein murmured once, unfolded a sheet of stationery, and set his fountain pen down:

“Dear Detective Stuart:

“I wonder whether you have already found that Emlyn White? I have recently been keeping an eye out for him on your behalf. One of my informants told me today that he once saw this person on Tutwa Street in the South Borough of the Bridge. Of course, he only said that the man resembled the portrait.”

…

Setting down the fountain pen, Klein folded the letter neatly, placed it inside an envelope, and attached a black one-penny stamp.

…

On the boundless, rolling Sonia Sea.

The Blue Avenger sailed smoothly forward without the slightest rocking.

Inside the captain’s cabin, The Hanged Man, Alger Wilson, held a brass-colored sextant, but his eyes were closed.

Silently, a smile suddenly appeared on his face.

“At last, it is digested…”

Alger opened his eyes and lifted both hands, causing specks of azure blue to appear all around him.

Those points of blue converged with a rush, turning into a great wave that swept forward.

Alger pressed both hands down, and the wave immediately shattered, becoming countless droplets of rain that fell onto the deck.

After nearly four months, his Seafarer potion had finally been fully digested!

During that time, he had not only spent long periods drifting at sea, completing missions assigned by the Church, but had also consciously explored new routes, searching for islands not yet discovered by others. Only after several setbacks had he finally gained a small harvest.

This, in turn, had driven the digestion of the potion and allowed him to basically grasp the “Seafarer rules” that belonged to him.

The core was being close to the sea, skillfully mastering information about sea routes and weather, and exploration and discovery!

Alger, who had always been deep and restrained, could not help leaving his chair, pacing back and forth inside the captain’s cabin as he imagined the future he longed for.

Once I obtain the Wind-blessed potion formula and gather the corresponding Beyonder ingredients, I can secretly advance to Sequence 6 behind the Church’s back. After that, I will repeat the same process and strive to become a Sequence 5 Ocean Songster within three years…

During this process, I must remain captain of the Blue Avenger and avoid entering the Mandated Punisher teams, where interpersonal relations are complicated, lest my secret be exposed…

Once I advance to Sequence 5 and gain enough strength, I will be able to secretly return there…

Alger instinctively looked toward the right.

His gaze seemed to pierce through layer after layer of ship planks and the vast sea, landing upon an ancient, hidden island.

Alger did not worry about his future advancement within the Church. Once he fulfilled his wish, he would be able to devote his full strength to pursuing a higher position!

At that time, as a Sequence 5, he would continue pretending to be Sequence 7 and drink another Wind-blessed potion!

This would increase his Beyonder characteristics, strengthen him, and slow his digestion, but it would not threaten his own safety.

By the same reasoning, after fully digesting Sequence 5, he could drink another Ocean Songster potion and walk the normal process once more. This would merely bring him close to losing control, and there was a way to resolve it.

That was to find a woman, marry her, and transfer the excess Beyonder characteristics to his child.

Once I complete that step, I can approach the level of a Cardinal, approach the high Sequences! This great era is precisely my opportunity!

Inside Alger’s mind, the image of himself dressed in a Cardinal’s robe, standing among the Church’s upper ranks and commanding numerous Mandated Punishers, had already been sketched out.

After indulging in it for a moment, he withdrew his gaze and recovered his reason.

“…Every later step is harder than the one before. Fortunately, I have the Tarot Gathering and Mr. Fool. Although danger is likewise hidden there, every path to raising oneself carries risks!

“I must collect some Roselle diary pages as soon as possible, exchange them for a chance to ask questions, and figure out what that card beside Mr. Fool—the one showing only its back—is.

“It was not there before.

“A card… Roselle’s diary… Could it be the item I am thinking of?”

Alger’s eyes narrowed, his pupils shrinking.

…

15 Minsk Street. Klein yawned, turned off the gas lamp, and slipped beneath the covers.

He had originally had another plan: to use divination to roughly grasp the origin of the Biological Toxin Bottle, and to derive the potion formulas for the first three Sequences of the Mutant pathway from the Werewolf Beyonder characteristic.

However, after spending the entire night busying himself with Emlyn White’s matter, he felt somewhat exhausted and decided to attempt it above the gray fog the next day instead.

He had only just lain down and closed his eyes when Klein suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

This was the instinctive spiritual intuition of a Diviner!

It has already been several days since I obtained the Werewolf Beyonder characteristic and the Biological Toxin Bottle. It is not as if I did not have times when my mental state was fairly good, yet I have kept delaying and never divined them. That is very abnormal!

Klein rolled over and sat up. As he carefully thought, he found a similar event:

The first time he encountered Megose, he had wanted to use spirit vision to observe her mental state directly. In the end, because he had paused for a moment, he naturally missed the opportunity. Only at the end had he learned that this was because there had been an evil god’s spawn inside her belly; a Diviner’s instinctive spiritual intuition had silently prevented him from collapsing and losing control on the spot.

It is very similar, and this time the manifestation is even more obvious…

I remember Miss Sharron said the Rose School of Thought’s control over members exceeds my imagination. Everyone’s body and soul seems to be bound by something. That is why information about the Sequences of the Mutant pathway has barely leaked…

They believe in “the Chained God”… So when divining the corresponding potion formulas using the Werewolf Beyonder characteristic, it may directly involve this evil god and bring consequences I do not wish to endure?

Klein seriously thought it over and felt there was a suspicious point.

When I previously divined the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem and the “ear” left behind by that Listener, my spiritual intuition did not stop me… Could the Chained God be even stronger than the Eternal Blazing Sun and the True Creator?

Or is it that His traits make Him restrain the gray fog more, allowing Him to effectively pierce through it?

Of course, the danger could also originate from the Biological Toxin Bottle’s source…

Thinking this, the always-cautious Klein decided that the next day, he would attempt only to divine the Biological Toxin Bottle and see whether a Diviner’s spiritual intuition would stop him.