Chapter 168: Speculation

Chapter 168: Speculation

With a flash, the early winter night was lit by a silver-white bolt of lightning shaped like a branching tree.

It did not strike downward. It merely pierced across the sky, illuminating the area around the spot where Klein had just stood until it was as bright as day, revealing every minute detail.

The “Singer of God,” Ace Snake, withdrew his gaze. His face darkened as he muttered, “The Rose School of Thought?

“Not a Wraith, and not a true undead creature…”

The mature middle-aged gentleman with the golden eyes turned his head and glanced at Capim’s corpse.

“The target’s body was covered with tarot cards…

“This is the second similar case to occur in the last two months.”

“When was the first?” Cardinal Snake asked in a low voice.

The mature middle-aged gentleman in the crisp formal suit gave a slight cough.

“The time the True Creator attempted to descend through a swindler.”

“Then it isn’t the Rose School of Thought,” Cardinal Snake judged with certainty.

Although organizations that believed in evil gods found one another displeasing, they would not deliberately sabotage such matters. On the contrary, they usually had the attitude of being happy to watch it unfold, waiting for the other side to muddy the waters first.

“I think so as well. Perhaps it’s a newly emerged secret organization, and their hallmark is scattering tarot cards over their targets.” The mature, handsome middle-aged gentleman smiled. “And the different arrangements of the tarot cards seem to express different meanings… This corpse’s face only has two cards on it: Judgment and the Emperor. Judgment represents the motive and purpose, while the Emperor is that person’s codename within the organization? Of course, it could also be a ritual.”

Cardinal Snake did not answer. He looked around and said, “Let us see what exactly happened here.”

Only then did the first group of Mandated Punishers arrive at Capim’s villa.

…

Above the gray fog, Klein, who had only used Paper Figurine Substitute three times and had not yet reached his limit, was using divination to confirm Daisy’s subsequent safety.

“Daisy can return home safely.” Holding the pendulum in his left hand, he closed his eyes and recited the statement silently.

After seven repetitions, Klein opened his eyes and saw the citrine pendant rotating counterclockwise, though with an extremely small amplitude and at a very slow speed.

This indicates that Daisy’s journey home will still have a few minor complications, but they can almost be ignored… After interpreting the revelation, Klein finally set aside his last worry.

He then looked at the two items placed in front of him. Both gave off comparatively strong spiritual radiance.

One was a light-blue, translucent hexagonal prism. Threads of light occasionally slid through it, as though they were lightning from the depths of consciousness. This was the Beyonder characteristic left behind by Ms. Katy.

The other belonged to Parker, who had failed to play any role in the earlier battle. His Beyonder characteristic had condensed into a lump the size of a child’s fist.

This “fist” was composed of three colors: iron-black and dark red coiling around a large expanse of silver-white.

Klein did not hesitate. He immediately conjured paper and pen, preparing to divine the corresponding potion formulas with the help of these two Beyonder characteristics.

Before advancing to Sequence 7, because the Beyonder characteristics that had been left behind contained too many additional influences, he had almost no way to divine the formulas from them. Even with this mysterious space eliminating interference and enhancing his divination ability to a certain extent, it had still been impossible.

Therefore, in the past, Klein had only one method: spirit channeling.

Only after becoming a Magician did he initially gain the ability, above the gray fog, to use Beyonder characteristics left behind by the dead for divination—though the chance of success remained very low.

This time was no exception. Klein shamefully failed.

However, he did gain something: he figured out the sequence names corresponding to the two Beyonder characteristics.

“Parker was a Sequence 8 Sheriff. Katy was a Sequence 7 Interrogator… Isn’t this the Arbiter pathway? This pathway is controlled by the royal family, the military, and the small number of relatively ancient noble families in Loen. They maintain extremely strict control over any leakage of formulas and Beyonder materials… Could it be that among the girls Capim abducted, some were to be sent to the manor of a particular noble?

“But they wouldn’t need to send four Beyonders to help Capim just for pleasure. That’s obviously disproportionate… Heras was quite a bit more formidable than Katy. Perhaps he was a Sequence 6 of this pathway. After putting on that glove, he might even have reached Sequence 5… Could this involve some bloody, evil ritual, with a target whose identity cannot be exposed?

“Outside the kingdom, Feneport’s Castiya family also controls this Beyonder pathway, and they have passed it on to their army and intelligence system… Is this another espionage case involving something unknown?”

Klein tried divining several of his guesses, but once again he obtained the result of failure.

For the time being, he cast the matter to the back of his mind. He gently tapped the edge of the long bronze table and muttered soundlessly to himself:

“As long as there are formulas and the corresponding supplementary ingredients, these two Beyonder characteristics can allow people to become a Sequence 8 Sheriff and a Sequence 7 Interrogator, respectively… Miss Magician’s friend named Xio seems to be lacking the Beyonder material for Sheriff…

“Next time, I can have The World sell Parker’s portion to Miss Magician and quickly accumulate the money I’ll need for the materials of the subsequent Faceless sequence… But always using The World doesn’t seem too appropriate. This time, I deliberately left behind tarot cards. If Miss Justice hears about this matter, she’ll definitely think it was done by one of my Blessed… Then I’ll have Mr. Fool help him sell it on commission…”

Klein swiftly settled on a plan and allowed the Beyonder characteristics of the Sheriff and Interrogator to fly to a corner on their own, hiding themselves among the pile of miscellaneous items.

“I wonder what Sequence 6 and Sequence 5 of the Arbiter pathway are called… It feels like it makes use of order and law… Judge?” Klein withdrew his thoughts, half-closed his eyes, and carefully inspected his own condition.

Once again, he felt his spirituality becoming lively, the potion being pried loose, and digestion accelerating.

This time, his intuition told him that he had summarized the majority of the Magician’s principles. It would be better to have the remaining details, but it would not matter much if he lacked them. They would not significantly affect the pace of digestion.

Conjuring a round-bellied fountain pen and parchment, Klein wrote to strengthen his memory:

“Magician’s Principles:

“1. Never perform unprepared;

“2. Challenge the impossible, even if the final result is only an illusion;”

Klein believed that these were the two core principles of the Magician’s principles. Grasping them meant grasping the key. The remaining points were supplements and refinements.

“3. Perform proactively more often;

“4. Do your best to earn the audience’s applause;

“5. Control the target’s attention.”

…

Putting down the dark-red, round-bellied fountain pen, Klein read through the list from beginning to end and judged for himself:

“Daily acting, combined with three to four proactive ‘performances,’ should be enough for me to digest the Magician potion before the new year. If there’s another ‘performance’ that challenges the impossible in the meantime, the progress can be even faster… This is more or less the speed I hope to achieve.”

At this point, there were still about two months until January 1, 1350.

After finishing all this, Klein rubbed his temples and prepared to return to the real world.

After putting away the Black Emperor card, the Biological Poison Bottle, and the other items, he suddenly chuckled and mocked himself.

“Challenge the impossible… Isn’t that just courting death?”

As his voice echoed, Klein’s figure vanished above the gray fog.

Inside a cheap inn in the Backlund Bridge area, his eyes abruptly opened, and he saw the candlelight of the ritual he had used to summon himself.

Quickly taking care of the aftermath, Klein put on the thick worker’s jacket he had just bought for 4 soli and walked to the window.

He picked up the sweet iced tea he had bought earlier, looked at his own blurred reflection in the window, and revealed a heartfelt smile. In a low voice, he said to himself:

“Cheers.”

As soon as he spoke, he clinked the cup in his hand against the glass. Then he lifted his chin and drained it in one gulp.

After that, he leisurely left the inn. Nearby, the gas streetlamps had all been lit, and pedestrians and carriages bustled back and forth, completely unaware of the explosion at the border between the Cherwood Borough and the West Borough.

Klein strolled to the vicinity of Bravehearts Bar and wandered around for a while. At 7:58, he knocked on the door to the Beyonder gathering hosted by the old gentleman, Eye of Wisdom.

He put on an iron mask, draped himself in a hooded robe, and behaved in an utterly ordinary, perfectly unremarkable manner.

…

At the same time, Xio, who went to different places every night to check certain contact marks, saw a sign that had never appeared before.

It belonged to the man with the golden mask from the gathering convened by Mr. A—the man who had used someone else as a proxy to sell her the Sheriff formula.

It was the sign for an urgent meeting!

“He never came looking for me before, and I pretended the matter didn’t exist either. Why so suddenly…” Xio thought for a moment and decided she should still go take a look.

After all, the man with the golden mask had promised to give her certain missions, allowing her to accumulate enough money to exchange for the corresponding Beyonder materials from him.

Thus, Xio changed locations and marked out the time and place for their meeting.

Half an hour later, in a secluded yet well-connected alley, Xio, who had secretly observed the surroundings for quite some time, stepped out from her hiding place and walked toward the man wearing the golden mask.

The man was still dressed in a black tailcoat. His light-brown eyes swept over the top of Xio’s head.

“I have a mission for you.”

“Difficulty and reward?” Xio asked with practiced familiarity.

The man pushed up his mask, which looked as though it had been cast from gold.

“There isn’t much danger, but it could also be extremely dangerous. It all depends on what you do.

“The initial reward is 30 pounds. If you can obtain useful information, I can even directly give you a Beyonder material corresponding to Sheriff.”

“What mission?” Xio asked, slightly furrowing her brows.

The gaze of the man wearing the golden mask darkened.

“Through your channels, find out who has recently been asking about Capim.”

“Capim? That human trafficker?” Xio asked in astonishment.

The man with the golden mask nodded.

“Yes.”

“I refuse this mission. I hate him!” Xio rejected him immediately.

The man opposite her gave a soft laugh.

“You won’t be working for Capim.

“Because he’s already dead.”

“Dead?” Xio was instantly stunned.

“He died in his own home. His body was covered with tarot cards. There were two cards on his face: Judgment and the Emperor. Also, keep an eye out for any incidents over the past few years involving tarot cards that were not reported to the police department,” the man with the golden mask added.