Chapter 39: Winter Gifts Day

Chapter 39: Winter Gifts Day

The cloud hanging in midair scattered as abruptly as it had gathered, and everything inside Saint Wind Cathedral returned to normal.

In a nearby corner, Klein raised a hand and rubbed his forehead, the corner of his mouth twitching as he muttered, “Fine, if You’re not giving it to me, then You’re not giving it to me… But why did You have to strike my marionette dead…”

He immediately breathed out, and his figure swiftly faded and vanished. The image from the gaps of history was close to reaching its limit anyway. After all, there was a clear difference between a Scribe’s reproduction of high-level abilities and the original. For a Sequence 6 to summon a Sequence 3 placed an extremely heavy burden upon Forsi, even if an Ancient Scholar could transfer his consciousness over and reduce the consumption.

…

In the outskirts of Backlund, downstream along the Tasok River.

Leonard had hidden away his Red Gloves and was walking slowly toward a certain place.

Suddenly, inside his mind, Pallez Zoroast’s slightly aged voice sounded.

“How has that former colleague of yours been recently?”

Remembering the exchange at the previous Tarot Gathering, Leonard lowered his voice.

“He just avoided another trap set by Amon’s avatars. He is currently pursuing certain truths in the Forsaken Land of the Gods.”

After hearing this, Pallez Zoroast did not speak again and simply let Leonard continue onward.

…

After setting up the special coordinates, Forsi was thrown back into the real world by Gehrman Sparrow’s messenger.

“I feel so tired, but I only woke up a short while ago… It must be that high-Sequence Beyonder abilities consume too much spirituality…” Forsi covered her mouth with one hand and yawned, her face haggard as she looked at Xio.

“That is possible,” Xio agreed with her friend’s judgment.

Her intuition told her that the Gehrman Sparrow projection that had been summoned was definitely not simple. It might even have been equivalent to a saint.

After hesitating briefly, Xio said, “Sleep a while longer. Don’t attempt advancement in this state.

“In one of the cases I judged before, the murderer had a perverted mind. He deliberately made his friends, his students, and the homeless people he took in consume potions while under all kinds of negative conditions, watching them lose control and mutate into every kind of monster—disgusting, terrifying monsters.”

“…What was that guy’s goal?” Forsi listened blankly for a second.

“Two goals. First, to observe whether the loss of control caused by the same potion was identical in different people. Second, to record the corresponding scenes in oil paintings. He believed that kind of madness, pain, and distortion possessed unmatched beauty and could stimulate his strongest creative passion.” Xio recalled the trial from back then, feeling both hatred and a strange lingering fear. “He was an utter lunatic.”

“A person like that deserves humane destruction!” Forsi shivered merely from imagining it, then bared her teeth and asked, “Was he a cultist?”

“Perhaps, but there were no clues… On the surface, he was an outstanding painter with an international reputation. If more than five of his students and friends hadn’t disappeared over the past few years and drawn our attention, the matter might not have been discovered until he went completely mad and lost control as a monster.” At that point, Xio suddenly paused. Then she continued, “When the law-enforcement team arresting him opened his hidden basement, all of them vomited. There were terrifying mutated corpses placed one after another, and oil paintings hanging one after another—horrifying, yet possessing an uncanny charm…”

“A hateful fellow, but also a very compelling story.” Forsi thought about it and pressed, “Was he a Demon?”

“No. He was a Psychiatrist,” Xio denied her friend’s guess.

“…You sentenced him to death?” Forsi asked expectantly.

Xio shook her head.

“His defense lawyer convinced me that he was more suited to become a sealed artifact researcher.”

“There was a lawyer? Your Extraordinary Affairs Tribunal has lawyers? Don’t you just hand down judgments directly?” Forsi asked in surprise.

Xio smoothed the blond hair that had grown a little longer.

“We have some Beyonders of the Lawyer pathway internally. They also need to act. Of course, they do not know they are acting.”

“All right.” Forsi yawned again and pointed to the armchair by the fireplace. “I’ll sleep for a while first. Hm? Don’t you have to go to work?”

“I can ask for leave,” Xio answered simply.

Forsi asked no more. She walked near the fireplace and collapsed into the chair.

Two or three hours later, she woke and meditated for fifteen minutes.

Then she found the Traveler Beyonder characteristic and supplementary ingredients given to her by her teacher, Dorian Gray Abraham, and prepared a bottle of potion.

The potion was pale but transparent, like snow water that had only half melted. From time to time, shallow-green bubbles rose from within.

Holding the potion, Forsi glanced at her friend standing guard beside her and smiled.

“If I lose control, don’t hesitate. Chop off my head directly.

“No, pray first. There may still be a chance to save me.”

“…” Xio slowly nodded. “Keep your current state.”

Forsi silently exhaled. Without further hesitation, she raised the bottle and gulped the potion down.

In an instant, she felt ray after ray of light rise inside her body and before her eyes. They rampaged wildly, opening illusory doors one after another.

Forsi’s consciousness was uncontrollably drawn into one of them. Her entire body turned transparent and vanished from where she stood.

In that chaotic state where her thoughts floated and drifted, Forsi nearly lost her self-recognition. Fortunately, she had been thoroughly tormented recently, and her will had grown rather firm. Moreover, from time to time, she could still sense those four special coordinates in the spirit world. Bit by bit, she finally regained clarity.

After an unknown length of time, she realized she had already entered the depths of the spirit world. She could not tell where she was, nor could she find the “road” back.

Using those four special coordinates, Forsi slowly “traversed” back toward a familiar place. She broke free of the rich, overlapping blocks of color and the faint, spreading mist, stepping out of the spirit world.

Those four special coordinates did not merely help me find the way back. They also effectively maintained my self-awareness… Teacher is only Sequence 7 and lacks direct experience, so some gaps in his knowledge are unavoidable… As these thoughts moved through Forsi’s mind, she looked toward Xio and smiled faintly.

“I am now a Traveler.”

Xio sighed in relief and asked curiously, “What Beyonder powers did you gain?”

“The main addition is Teleportation. There’s also Invisible Hand. Additionally, the number of demigod-level Beyonder powers I can Record has increased to four, and their actual effects should now be close to Sequence 4…” Forsi examined herself and answered.

She immediately raised her hand and, from the tarot deck in the room used for divination, drew a card through the air.

It showed a person holding a wand in the right hand pointing toward the sky, the left hand pointing toward the ground, with a cup, wand, sword, pentacle, and other objects placed before them.

The Magician card.

…

The longest night of every year was the birthday of the Evernight Goddess, commonly called Winter Gifts Day.

On this day, all believers of Evernight would go to nearby churches, witness the sun set and night descend, participate in Mass, receive communion, listen to the choir, and join all sorts of activities.

The year 1350 was a heavy one for Loen’s Evernight believers. The intensity of war and rising prices had together stripped them of much of their good mood. Yet for this Winter Gifts Day, they still left their homes, because the Church of Evernight would hold an enormous open-air Mass in every major square to comfort the souls of those who had passed away.

At the same time, several foundations would distribute food vouchers at the Mass venues. Those who received them could exchange them at any relief station or church for corresponding goods. This caused some believers of Storm and Steam, who normally did not celebrate Winter Gifts Day, to head to the nearest square as well.

West Borough, Memorial Day Square—the place where George III had been blown to death.

Audrey wore a black cloak and brought along the golden retriever Susie, who carried a leather satchel on her back. With a plain, unadorned face, she walked among the nobles. Her expression seemed no different from usual, yet hidden beneath it were traces of pain and guilt.

She had already obtained the blood of an elderly mind dragon and prepared the Manipulator potion. It was now inside the leather satchel carried by Susie.

Susie was already a Sequence 6 Hypnotist, and Audrey believed that few people at the scene could detect anything abnormal about her, much less steal something from her.

The blood of the elderly mind dragon had come from The Hermit Cattleya, supposedly obtained from the Queen of Mysteries. Audrey had paid a full three thousand pounds to purchase it.

This aligned well with her hopes, because she did not particularly wish to obtain materials from the Psychology Alchemists. After all, her direct superior, Hvin Rambis, had died only a few months earlier. If she were already collecting the materials needed for advancement, it would inevitably invite suspicion—and the other members of the Psychology Alchemists had sufficient ability and wisdom to notice this point.

Once I become a demigod, I will have to interact with the Psychology Alchemists’ council members. According to Mr. World, an angel in the domain of the mind is very likely hidden among them. I should make further preparations first, and only consider raising my status within the organization when I have a suitable opportunity and excuse… I will conceal my strength for a while… Audrey, her blond hair pinned up, lifted the hem of her dress and slowly walked toward the designated spot.

Along the way, many nobles extended friendly hands toward her, hoping to help this beautiful, noble, yet seemingly delicate young lady through the crowd and past obstacles. All of them were blocked by Earl Hall.

He had his eldest son Hibbert take charge of his youngest daughter, while he himself walked ahead with his wife on his arm, from time to time turning back to watch over Backlund’s most dazzling gem.

Not long after their family arrived at the destination, the Archbishop of the Backlund diocese of the Church of Evernight, Saint Anthony Stevenson, walked onto the high platform wearing a black robe with red patterns.

He swept his gaze around, raised his right hand, and tapped his chest clockwise four times.

“Praise the Goddess!”

Once the believers below responded, the saint spoke in a deep voice that nevertheless let everyone hear him clearly.

“Today is a celebration of the night, yet what the Goddess answers is mercy.

“She has mercy for every mother who has lost a child, mercy for every lonely child, mercy for every person enduring immense pain.

“She says that all of this will one day end. All suffering shall return to silence and restful sleep.”