Chapter 68: Clues

Chapter 68: Clues

“You should all try it as well.” Klein handed the long iron-black skewer in his hand to the other Moon City residents.

Their throats moved. They could not help swallowing again, but they did not immediately respond. Instead, they all turned their gazes toward High Priest Nim, waiting for him to nod.

From the beast-hide clothing wrapped around his body, Nim took out an item that seemed to be a magnifying glass with a handle.

At first glance, Klein nearly mistook it for a monocle, so frightened that his heart almost stopped beating. Fortunately, he controlled himself in time and confirmed the details.

Holding the thin metal handle, Nim brought the glass item before his right eye and examined Rus through the lens for several seconds.

After a brief silence, he lowered the item and nodded gently to the rest of Moon City’s residents.

Only then did the others reach out. Carefully and in orderly fashion, each took one mushroom from the long iron-black skewer and placed it in their mouth.

The texture, containing not the slightest disgusting odor or filthy taste, instantly intoxicated them. Ignoring the scalding heat in their mouths, they swallowed the mushrooms in a few bites and instinctively reached out, wanting another.

But all the mushrooms on the skewer had already been divided up.

Nim withdrew his gaze from the iron-black skewer and waited for Gehrman Sparrow to continue recounting his experiences and Mr. Fool’s teachings.

Klein looked around and repeated what he had already said before:

“The mushrooms around you may be picked freely, except for the pure black ones. In addition, they must be fully cooked before eating, or you will suffer a curse.”

Moon City’s residents no longer hesitated in the slightest. They immediately stood and chose the mushrooms they had long had their eyes on.

Klein glanced at them and added, “Those pure white mushrooms split open easily once cooked, and liquid will flow out. You will need to prepare some kind of vessel, or drink it in time.”

Without waiting for Rus and the others to respond, he picked up the topic he had interrupted and continued all the way until he spoke of hearing voices chanting Mr. Fool’s honorific name inside the grayish-white fog.

Seeing that even High Priest Nim was listening intently and had been deeply moved, Klein considered his words and said, “There should be many ways to make the grayish-white fog react, but all of them are connected to my Lord.”

This was a reasonable guess. After all, there was more than one person hanging from the strange door of light, and there was more than one way to enter the space above the gray fog. If Emperor Roselle came here holding the mysterious silver medallion he had copied, there was a high chance he could also cause this invisible barrier to mutate. Of course, the prerequisite might be that the Emperor belonged to one of the three pathways: Seer, Apprentice, or Marauder.

Seeing that Nim and the others did not raise questions, Klein said warmly, “From what I have observed, Moon City does not possess only one Beyonder pathway.”

Nim, with gray-white hair, did not hide anything. He replied simply, “Yes. When we were selected to come to Moon City, the divine envoy deliberately made sure the pathways were comprehensive. Unfortunately, after so many years and so many disasters, many potion formulas and Beyonder materials have already been lost.”

“Which pathway do you belong to?” Klein watched Moon City’s residents use monster bones to turn the mushrooms over the fire and asked casually.

“I am a Nightwatcher,” Nim said frankly.

Sequence 4 Nightwatcher of the Evernight pathway? Klein nodded gently, then changed the subject. “Have there been any abnormalities near this stretch of grayish-white fog?”

Nim, whose face was deeply lined, thought for more than ten seconds.

“Yes.”

Klein’s heart stirred, but his surface remained calm as he followed that topic. “What kind of abnormalities?”

Nim glanced at the fragrant mushrooms and considered his words before saying, “A small hill suddenly vanished. In its place, only a deep pit remained.

“There were no traces of explosion in that region, and there was no soil scattered around.”

What kind of situation is that? It sounds rather eerie… Klein tossed the mushroom roots into the campfire to use as fuel while asking, without the slightest change in expression, “Did you investigate further?”

“Yes.” Moon City’s High Priest Nim nodded. “An investigation team encountered a demonic wolf there. Not a rotting or mutated monster wolf, but one of the original kind.”

A demonic wolf? Klein had not expected to hear such information. His pupils changed slightly as he pressed, “What did that demonic wolf look like?”

Nim unconsciously inhaled.

“It was like the demonic wolves described in ancient records, but much larger. Even with all eight legs on the ground, it was as tall as two or three people combined.

“Its fur was not pure black, but gave off a feeling of deep gloom. Its eyes were strange. Most of each eye was pupil—black pupil. Also, on the top of its head was a tuft of short gray-white fur…”

This… isn’t this the Dark Demonic Wolf, Kotar? It actually came to the easternmost part of the Forsaken Land of the Gods, and was involved with an abnormal event? If the power that made the Western Continent disappear truly came from Sefirah Castle, then attracting a mythical creature corresponding to Miracle Invoker would not be strange… Klein’s brows furrowed in a way almost impossible to notice.

“It did not attack your investigation team?”

Klein deliberately used “it” rather than “He” to avoid frightening the people of Moon City.

In his view, it would have been extremely easy for the Dark Demonic Wolf Kotar to wipe out an investigation team. It could have even turned Moon City into its “kingdom of marionettes” without paying too great a price. Yet who could have known that this mythical creature had seemingly let Moon City go.

If Klein had not already examined the Spirit Body Threads of Nim, Rus, and the others and confirmed their state, he would definitely have suspected that those speaking to him were only marionettes.

“No. It left in great haste,” Moon City’s High Priest Nim said truthfully.

That does not match the Dark Demonic Wolf’s suspicious, cautious personality… What frightened Him so badly that He fled in such haste, without even bothering to silence those who had seen Him? Or perhaps the people of Moon City, stationed here by the ancient Sun God’s oracle, are special in some way. Unless necessary, the Dark Demonic Wolf did not want to attack them? Klein continued asking without any change in speaking pace. “Did it leave behind any traces?”

“No.” Nim shook his head firmly. “Aside from the hill becoming a deep pit, we discovered no abnormalities.”

Thoughts raced through Klein’s mind. He tried asking from another angle.

“When did this happen?”

The better he understood a past event or object, the more easily he could touch it through the fog of history.

Nim recalled briefly and said, “Two years, two months, and ten days ago.”

He immediately added an explanation:

“There are too few things worth recording. My impression of it is very deep.”

Two years, two months, and ten days ago… The current date is September 8, 1351. Counting backward, that was June 28, 1349… This… Klein’s right hand trembled slightly.

His pupils and expression remained normal, but that was the result of the Clown’s deliberate control.

He remembered very clearly that June 28, 1349, was the day he had “transmigrated” and become Klein Moretti. It was the day he had repeated the luck-enhancement ritual and entered Sefirah Castle in the true sense!

The abnormality here, the appearance of the Dark Demonic Wolf, and this mythical creature’s hasty departure are all related to me? Enormous waves surged inside Klein’s heart.

For the moment, he could not find an explanation. Pretending as though nothing had happened, he skipped over this point, thought for a moment, and asked, “During the past two or three thousand years, have similar situations happened?”

“No.” Nim gave an extremely certain answer.

“What about two hundred and eight years ago? Did anything special happen then?” Klein asked.

That was the year Emperor Roselle had “transmigrated” to this world.

Nim hesitated for two seconds.

“I cannot give you a precise answer. I need to return and examine the corresponding records.

“Fortunately, the documents and archives from the past three hundred years have not been destroyed.”

At that point, he added, “My limited impression tells me that there should not have been anything special.”

If that truly is the case, then the source that caused this place’s abnormality and made the Dark Demonic Wolf appear was me entering above the gray fog and binding Sefirah Castle to myself? Klein nodded gently, asked no more questions, and simply said, “Tell me where that deep pit is.”

After High Priest Nim answered, the mushrooms Moon City’s residents had been roasting were ready to eat. Some took a light bite from pure white mushrooms, were scalded by the milk inside, yet could not bear to spit it out. Some chewed repeatedly, savoring that faint sweetness. Some ate one after another, unable to stop at all.

Nim watched in something of a daze, almost unable to believe these were people of Moon City.

Every single one of them carried two contradictory feelings: hunger and satisfaction. Their expressions looked distorted, yet overflowed with pure joy.

“High Priest, please try some as well.” Rus, whose two eyes were squeezed close together, handed Nim a mushroom covered in golden patches and giving off a peculiar sweetness.

Nim hesitated, then carefully examined it first with the “magnifying glass.” Only then did he accept the mushroom and place it in his mouth.

The next second, his expression shifted faintly. Slowly, he half-closed his eyes.

He had tasted something similar in certain mutated tree roots before, but none had been this pure, this endlessly lingering.

After an unknown length of time, Nim looked toward the indifferent Gehrman Sparrow and said with unusual sincerity, “Your Excellency, we wish to hear Mr. Fool’s teachings.”

I haven’t had time to make them up yet… But as I draw closer to the angel level, the corresponding matters should indeed be put on the agenda… Anchors need to be prepared in advance… While Klein’s thoughts turned, he recalled the words he had once used to deceive—no, transform—the Sea God’s believers.

His expression swiftly turned solemn. He raised his right hand, grabbed into the void, and dragged out a cross covered in verdigris and thorns.

Klein then pressed his right thumb against one of the thorns, letting blood seep into the Unshadowed Crucifix.

The verdigris on the Unshadowed Crucifix rapidly peeled away, revealing its true body, formed purely from sunlight.

“God says…” Klein opened his mouth and spoke in a deep voice, raising the radiant cross in his hand significantly higher.

Warm, bright, piercingly pure radiance surged out like a tide, instantly filling the surrounding region.

The gloom and discomfort accumulated within Nim, Rus, and the others began rapidly dissolving. Their bodies and minds seemed to be purified.

They felt faintly dazed, only hearing the divine envoy, who held the shining cross aloft and was wreathed in sacred colors, proclaim solemnly:

“God says…

“The First Commandment: You shall not conduct living sacrifices, nor use humans as offerings.

“The Second Commandment: You shall not misuse My name.”