Chapter 39: Epilogue

Chapter Thirty-Nine
Epilogue

The instant Klein’s fingers touched the entirely black eye, auditory hallucinations rang in his ears, and throbbing pain pulsed through his head.

At the same time, however, strange things appeared within his field of vision.

They were countless illusory black threads, extending from Miss Bodyguard and from himself—from every part of their fleshly bodies—spreading outward, piercing through the void, and leading into some infinitely distant place.

It was a terrifying sight that could make someone with trypophobia faint on the spot.

Klein abruptly bared his teeth. No longer able to endure that sensation of being corroded and contaminated, he put the entirely black eye into the iron cigarette case.

Everything returned to normal. The negative state he was in eased.

Only then did Klein have the spare energy to speculate.

Is that the essence of a Marionettist’s Beyonder ability?

To see and control certain lines on every person’s body and spirit?

What a pity. It has been contaminated. The side effects are too severe; there is no way to treat it as a mystical item…

For now, I will not consider trying to purify it above the gray fog. That would count as provoking the True Creator there a second time. There is a very real chance that He, now prepared, might find me there… If that happens, I doubt even resurrection will work… I should first learn and master knowledge related to this area before making a decision…

Hoo. He exhaled a breath of turbid air. After Miss Bodyguard chose the crude paper figurines and corresponding materials, he bent down once more and picked up the thirteen pounds, five soli, and eight pence in cash.

Then he looked toward Rosago’s headless corpse and the bloodstains covering the floor, feeling a wave of headache.

“Let us clean the scene.”

Miss Bodyguard, pale-gold hair and pale face, floated beside him and said in a flat voice, “I will.”

You will?

Half stunned and half puzzled, Klein stopped moving and turned his head to look.

Miss Bodyguard half drifted and half walked to Rosago’s side. She crouched, then lay upon the corpse.

She slowly sank into it. She and the corpse became one.

Rosago’s corpse twitched its fingers twice. The blood, brain matter, and fragments scattered around it all flowed backward, reassembling at the neck to form a head.

But this head was covered in countless crisscrossing cracks, like a disgusting toy pieced together from tiny shards.

It was like glass that had been cracked but had not immediately shattered. Inside, one could faintly see blood and brain matter flowing, and the bullets fired by the revolver faintly reflecting light.

Klein could not help taking a step back. He felt this image could rank highly among the most terrifying sights in any ghost story.

Rosago’s corpse climbed to its feet, picked up the police soft cap, and used it to half conceal its face. Around him, the murder scene had become spotlessly clean, with not the slightest trace left behind.

Unparalleled professionalism!

Klein praised inwardly.

He watched as Miss Bodyguard controlled that corpse, soft cap hiding its face, its steps steady as it walked toward the doorway. Without thinking, he gave one reminder:

“Do not ride in a carriage. Do not walk in places where the streetlamps are bright.”

You will frighten coachmen and pedestrians!

Miss Bodyguard did not pause at all, completely ignoring his words.

Suddenly, Klein thought of something—something he had overlooked earlier—and hastily added, “When you return, go to Rice Police Station, Sergeant Fassin’s home, or somewhere around Minsk Street. Search for Rosago’s original clothes.

Rosago had come here wearing a police uniform, while the abilities of Faceless clearly affected only himself. Then where were the clothes he had worn before? It was impossible that he had spent the entire night wearing a police uniform. If MI9 or the police found Rosago’s clothes nearby while I suffered no obvious harm, the matter would become troublesome… Miss Bodyguard is not a powerhouse belonging to a legal Beyonder squad. For an ordinary detective to produce one thousand pounds to hire a bodyguard is suspicious enough…

Klein kept thinking, trying to plug every possible loophole in advance.

Just as he planned to use divination to help Miss Bodyguard find Rosago’s original clothes, and then send back the missing police uniform, Rosago’s corpse stopped. In a voice like rusted iron scraping together, it answered, “I know.”

Eh. She sounds quite confident… Ah, right. Miss Bodyguard’s state is between flesh and Spirit Body, while the principle of divination involves the Astral Body roaming the spirit world… So by instinct alone, she can perform divination…

Klein came to a realization. He said no more, handed her the spent shells from the revolver, and then watched as Rosago’s corpse opened the door by itself, left by itself, and very gently, very politely, shut the front door behind it.

The spoil of war I chose is a Beyonder characteristic contaminated by the True Creator. I believe no one can divine it. Even if someone can, they will sense danger in advance and not dare to proceed…

As Klein reviewed matters, he walked back to the sofa area and sat down, feeling a lingering fear.

The battle just now had taken no more than one minute from start to finish and had not been intense enough to damage anything, but the hidden turbulence and danger within it had been second only to his experience facing Megose and the baby in her belly.

Even with an impressive Miss Bodyguard, even with Words of Filth, he had nearly been controlled by Rosago and killed without any power to resist.

The abilities of a Marionettist truly were eerie and powerful.

According to the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Conservation, the Beyonder characteristic Rosago left behind should contain all the main ingredients of Sequence 5, Sequence 6, Sequence 7, Sequence 8, and Sequence 9 potions. If not for the contamination from an evil god, then paired with supplementary ingredients, it could make an ordinary person directly become a Sequence 5 Beyonder. Of course, this luck-based method of advancement had long been abandoned by history. It was the most primitive and most dangerous approach.

Advancing step by step through the Sequences is the best method verified by the lives of countless predecessors… If, in the future, the True Creator’s contamination can be removed, then I must and can only use Rosago’s Beyonder characteristic when advancing from Sequence 6 to Sequence 5. The excess characteristics, meanwhile, can make me even stronger, like the Captain…

Klein recalled what had just happened, lifted a hand, and pinched his forehead. Then he began considering the more important side of the matter.

Rosago’s appearance means the fight over the Helmosuin manuscript has already ended… He had no charms on him. Was that because he used them during the earlier battle? To come here at such an important moment means he likely intended to divert attention… Heh. MI9 probably never expected that, under those circumstances, he would dare come take revenge. They did not even send people to monitor me, and could only passively wait for Rosago to give a “signal”…

Rosago was Bakerland’s assistant. His actions should have been directed only by Bakerland. After he died, as long as Bakerland dies as well, this whole matter will have no hidden danger left… I wonder whether the assassination has begun, and whether it succeeded…

Mm… Tonight, because of the struggle over the Helmosuin manuscript, Bakerland’s protective forces should be at their weakest. If I were Mr. A, I definitely would not let this chance slip by. Bakerland surely never imagined that someone would come assassinate him!

With nothing else to do, Klein pulled out a coin and recited quietly:

“Bakerland is already dead.”

…

Cling!

The one-penny coin tumbled into the air, then fell back down into Klein’s palm, portrait side up.

That represented affirmation.

Bakerland is dead? It succeeded over there?

Joy rose in Klein’s heart. The state of tension he had been in abruptly relaxed.

Without Rosago’s interference, he believed the result to be correct.

This matter is finally, finally over…

Klein inhaled and slowly exhaled.

Leaning leisurely back against the sofa, he gazed tiredly and lightly toward the crimson moon outside, appearing and vanishing in the night.

…

Inside the Intis Republic’s embassy, two military attachés half crouched beside Bakerland’s corpse, examining the cause of death.

Their companions and superiors had already chased after the assassin, trying to capture that person, but everyone understood that it was already too late, with no real hope left.

“There is severe damage to the lungs. Suspected disease… The fatal blow was extremely powerful, stronger than any attack from a Sequence 5 Beyonder that I have ever seen,” one military attaché said in a low voice.

“Disease? There are obvious traces of flesh magic on the floor and bed, but not on the wall. The sounds and disturbances of the battle failed to transmit outside. Add the corrosion and annihilation traits of the fatal strike, and there are at least four rather unrelated Beyonder abilities involved…”

The other military attaché stood and described the scene as if muttering to himself.

He suddenly paused, exchanged a glance with the other attaché, and spoke at the same time:

“Shepherd!”

After several seconds of silence, the crouching military attaché frowned.

“Perhaps it was a group. At least four different Beyonders…”

“Then we can simply wait to be tried!” the standing military attaché refuted the guess. Hesitating, he said, “It is normal that we failed to discover a lone Rose Bishop using secret arts to get close to the ambassador. But how did the other three slip in? That is impossible! However, I have heard of another Sequence that can create similar effects. I think—I think it is called Recorder. I do not know which pathway it belongs to, nor which organization controls it.”

The crouching military attaché nodded.

“The suspicion around Shepherd is greatest. The Aurora Order are all madmen anyway. Nothing they do would be strange. We will investigate starting from the identity of the woman who lured the ambassador. Damn it. The Loen Kingdom definitely will not let us investigate on our own!”

“Those damned lunatics of the Aurora Order, those donkey-violated lunatics!” the standing military attaché said, shaking his head in frustration.

With the ambassador assassinated, they would inevitably face punishment.

…

15 Minsk Street. Klein pretended nothing had happened, enduring fatigue as he flipped through the newspapers.

After more than twenty minutes, he suddenly saw Miss Bodyguard in her black court dress and pale-gold hair appear on the oriel window.

“Finished?” Klein instinctively asked.

Miss Bodyguard nodded lightly without speaking.

Hoo…

After thinking for a moment, Klein said, “Thank you for your protection. This matter ends here.

“The remaining nine hundred pounds will be paid over two days. You know—there are withdrawal limits.

“Should I still give it to Maric?”

The pale-faced lady opened and closed her mouth. Her voice seemed to pierce through illusion, drifting as it echoed.

“Give it directly to me.

“What I promised was to protect you for three days, not once.”

Miss, you truly have a spirit of contract… But that is very inconvenient for me… Are you going to follow me tomorrow while I catch someone having an affair? Three days—from Thursday to Sunday afternoon. Mm. It will not affect the Tarot Gathering, so that is fine…

Klein rubbed his forehead.

“All right. Then how should I address you?”

“You do not need to know.”

Miss Bodyguard lifted the hem of her Gothic court dress, curtsied slightly, and vanished from the oriel window.