Chapter 162: The “Evil God’s” Unorthodox Move

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Two
The “Evil God’s” Unorthodox Move

“One, two, three, four, five… It seemed to have twelve pairs of wings… According to the descriptions in the scriptures of the major Churches, that is the highest rank of angel…”

Fors struggled to recall the scene she had witnessed while half-asleep, feeling both shocked and, somehow, not so shocked. It was as though she had encountered an earthshaking thing that she had always believed should be natural, yet had never actually seen before.

It was not surprising that Mr. Fool had angels in attendance. One could imagine it from the way Miss Justice and Mr. Hanged Man occasionally used “He” to refer to Him, and one could infer it from the way He could isolate the influence of the full-moon ravings. But my request was only to interfere a little with Mr. Lawrence’s divination. He actually had an angel protect me directly. This—this is far too extravagant, isn’t it? Or to Him, is this simply routine?

Uh, and one more question. Why were the feathers on that angel’s wings black? Does that represent fallenness, or death? What exactly is Mr. Fool’s true identity? Which great existence is He? Could He be the one rumored to have fallen in the Pale Era—Death? Is He using the Tarot Gathering to revive Himself?

Fors suddenly drew in a breath, no longer worried at all that the gentleman called Lawrence would use divination to discover that something was wrong with her.

Thinking of how she had already joined the Tarot Club, she gave a bitter smile and whispered soundlessly, “I can only do as Emperor Roselle said: take one step, and look one step ahead…”

Restraining her thoughts, Fors once again humbly thanked Mr. Fool. Then, following the normal procedure of the ritual, she extinguished the flames of the three candles and began dealing with the altar covered in various items.

…

Above the gray fog, Klein temporarily pushed the Abraham family’s matters to the back of his mind.

According to his original plan, he manifested paper and pen and wrote a new divination statement:

“Daisy’s current situation.”

After setting down the fountain pen, Klein stacked Daisy’s word booklet together with the paper containing the divination statement and gripped them in his left hand.

Then, while leaning back against his chair and entering meditation, he silently recited “Daisy’s current situation” again and again.

After a full seven repetitions, Klein fell asleep. First, darkness tinged with red appeared before his eyes, then gray fog emerged.

One scene after another flashed by, some connected, some jumping, some wholly lacking logical sequence.

Klein saw the younger daughter of the laundrywoman Liv—the thirteen- or fourteen-year-old girl who had been scalded by steam again and again yet still persisted in ironing clothes—being grabbed from behind by a man wearing a thick jacket and a gray-black flat cap. Her mouth was covered with a handkerchief, and she was forcibly dragged into a side path of the remote alley.

Another man dressed the same way caught hold of her legs. Together with his companion, he lifted her and walked quickly.

Their destination was the carriage parked outside the alley.

The entire process ended in less than two minutes. By the time Daisy’s elder sister, Freja, had turned back and searched all the way there, the carriage had already departed.

…

Inside the carriage, the dazed, muddled Daisy had a cold, sharp dagger pressed against her cheek. Filthy threats sounded beside her ear.

…

The carriage drove into Capim’s luxurious villa.

…

Daisy was placed inside a narrow, dark room. From time to time outside, the sounds of women crying, screaming, and cursing echoed.

…

Daisy woke and loudly called for help, only for someone to open the door, kick her over, and leave her in too much pain to stand.

Tears streamed down her face as she kept muttering words like “Mama” and “Freja.”

…

Klein opened his eyes and discovered that the paper gripped in his left palm had, at some point, been crushed into a wrinkled ball.

He had already confirmed that Capim was the mastermind behind many cases of missing girls, and that he was the boss of a criminal syndicate.

But the problem was that such a case should not—and could not—have involved overly powerful Beyonder forces. At most, a few Sequence 7, Sequence 8, or Sequence 9 people greedy for money would be assisting. It should not have allowed Klein to sense intense danger through spiritual intuition the moment he drew near the villa.

Could Capim himself be a Sequence 6, or even a Sequence 5 Beyonder? But for a Beyonder of that level, earning money is not difficult at all. There is absolutely no need to do something so filthy and troublesome. He could simply gather every gang together and demand protection fees one by one. That would be much simpler, easier, and would not dirty his own hands… Could there be some deeper scheme hidden behind Capim’s human trafficking?

As Klein pondered, he borrowed the power of the gray fog to restore Daisy’s word booklet to a neat, flat state.

After several seconds of silence, he manifested another sheet of parchment and wrote a new divination statement:

“Saving Daisy is a dangerous matter.”

He carefully read it twice, removed the pendulum from his left wrist, and let the citrine pendant hang down over the paper, almost touching the line of words.

After calming himself for several seconds, he closed his eyes and silently repeated the statement he had just written.

When the voice stopped, Klein opened his eyes and looked at the pendulum held in his left hand.

The citrine pendant was rotating clockwise, with considerable speed and amplitude.

That indicated affirmation. It meant that saving Daisy was quite a dangerous matter.

But not completely hopeless. There still exists no small possibility, no small chance, as long as I can grasp it…

Klein interpreted the revelation given by the spirit pendulum.

Leaning back in his chair, he closed his eyes briefly and mocked himself with a smile.

“Wasn’t I searching for an opportunity to actively perform?

“This is it.

“As a Magician, in the end, one has to challenge something a little difficult. Otherwise, one ought to be called a Trickmaster, not a Magician.

“Completing seemingly impossible things, even if the result is false—that is the image of a Magician in my heart. As for whether it is one of the rules, that still remains to be confirmed…”

Klein’s finger lightly tapped the edge of the ancient long table, and he swiftly made his decision.

To him, the most difficult part of saving Daisy and dealing with Capim at present was that he knew nothing about the enemy. He did not know how many Beyonders were inside that villa, nor what pathways and Sequences they belonged to.

This left Klein unable to make targeted preparations.

And for a Magician, the first rule was “never perform unprepared.”

—Many apparently improvised performances actually had a certain degree of preparation behind them, such as long practice of techniques and deep mastery of diverting attention.

“Should I, in the name of my blessed one, have Miss Justice help inquire about Capim’s background?” Klein seriously considered a solution.

But he quickly rejected that line of thought.

“No. That will not get me detailed information. Although Capim is a wealthy man connected to many important figures, he is still someone who cannot be presented on the stage. At most, Miss Justice could inquire into which nobles, Members of Parliament, and government employees he has close relations with. She would not be able to figure out how many Beyonders there are inside his villa, what traps are arranged there, or what the layout is like…

“Following those relationships and clues, Miss Justice might be able to find out what I want to know in a few weeks, but that is far too slow. Saving someone is like putting out a fire. A slight delay could lead to tragedy.”

Klein’s gaze swept over the surface of the bronze long table, then over the corner where miscellaneous items were piled. A plan gradually formed in his mind.

“On the one hand, I will have Miss Magician and her friend Miss Xio investigate Capim’s background, figuring out which Beyonders he is involved with. They have decent connections in the East Borough, among many gangs, and within no small number of Beyonder circles.

“On the other hand, I will act myself and obtain the information I want from a servant or bodyguard leaving Capim’s villa, through spirit channeling.”

Having settled the plan, Klein was not in a hurry to have Miss Magician help. He decided to try on his own first, so that he could then have her look into certain matters in a targeted way.

In an instant, his figure vanished from the towering palace above the gray fog.

…

After lunch, a man wearing a gray-black flat cap and a thick cotton jacket carefully left through the back door of Capim’s villa. He walked all the way to a crossroads and boarded a rental carriage.

“East Borough,” he instructed the coachman, touching the dark-red birthmark on his face.

The carriage began moving. The man, bored, looked out the window, admiring ladies and young misses on the street whose skirts were beautiful.

“If only I could abduct them too…”

The man let his imagination roam and revealed a regretful expression.

After moving far away from Iris Street, he suddenly shuddered, and his eyes became slightly vacant.

He knocked on the carriage wall and said to the coachman, “Stop, stop here! I forgot something. This is far enough.”

The coachman did not dare scold this vicious-looking man, not even muttering to himself before stopping the carriage by the roadside and letting him get off.

After paying six pence in fare, the man walked backward for dozens of meters and entered a cheap hotel.

Without needing proof of identity, he paid for a room.

After entering, he merely left the door ajar without locking it.

Immediately afterward, the man sat expressionless on the edge of the bed, and a transparent, illusory figure suddenly separated from his body.

It was Klein, dressed like a worker.

Using the method of summoning himself and responding to himself, he had become a Spirit Body and possessed this man, making the man walk to a place convenient for spirit channeling on his own.

After knocking the man unconscious, Spirit Body Klein vanished from the room. Not long afterward, the door was pushed open, and Klein, flesh made solid again, walked in.

Sealing the room with a wall of spirituality, Klein swiftly arranged the spirit-channeling ritual, letting the hollow, entrancing fragrances of Amanda hydrosol and Eye of Spirit potion drift into the air.

After making preparations, he was about to begin spirit channeling when he suddenly made a soft sound of surprise and stopped.

He discovered that the Spirit Body of the man unconscious on the bed had been subjected to a mysterious, unknown restriction. If Klein forcibly performed spirit channeling, it would most likely succeed, but it would also trigger the mark and alert a certain Beyonder.

That would beat the grass and startle the snake.

A very strange Beyonder ability… Very prudent, very careful… The matter Capim is involved in truly is not simple…

Klein paced a few steps, his brow slightly furrowed.

He glanced at the unconscious man, then suddenly gave a soft heh.

“You thought this would be enough to stump me?”

He swiftly interrupted the spirit-channeling ritual and once again summoned himself and responded to himself.

A few seconds later, Spirit Body Klein flew out from the candle flame and once again hovered inside the room.

Without the slightest hesitation, Spirit Body Klein abruptly moved forward and possessed the unconscious man.

The man suddenly rolled over and sat up. He opened his eyes, his expression rather blank.

He stood straight, walked step by step to the altar, and softly recited:

“The Fool that does not belong to this era;

“You are the mysterious ruler above the gray fog;

“You are the King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck.”