Empress Borough, Count Hall’s home, dining room.
As per usual tradition, Audrey was saying grace with her father, mother, and elder brother before dinner.
“Praise the Goddess!” She tapped her chest in four spots in a clockwise manner to end the prayer.
However, before she finished speaking, her vision was covered by a thick gray fog. A distant figure that seemed to be looking down at everyone and everything opened his mouth with dominance.
“That was a Card of Blasphemy made by Roselle.”
However, she quickly made a guess. She had always known that Emperor Roselle had made a secret deck of cards representing some unknown force which had twenty-two cards in total. It was believed to have been referenced from tarot cards.
Furthermore, she had also heard from The Hanged Man that the secret to the deck of cards was that they hid the paths of the divine, the path to becoming a god!
As her body trembled faintly, Audrey once again saw a figure praying inside the thick fog, an extremely blurry figure.
He was saying respectfully, “The Great Fool, please convey my gratitude to the authenticator. This allowed my operation to go smoothly.
“For that, I’m willing to raise the reward to 3,000 pounds which can be deducted from the 5,000 pounds that haven’t been paid yet. This is the share that the other party deserves.”
Audrey controlled her excitement as she felt longing and pride. She allowed the dining maid to help her spread out a napkin before her gaze shifted to Count Hall, who habitually read the newspapers while having breakfast.
“Father, is there anything worth paying attention to today?”
Count Hall sighed and said, “That devil has killed another innocent person. It’s the 12th case. She’s a fashion designer who had just become famous. She had only been a street girl a few times due to her desperate need for money, but she ended up encountering such a terrible situation.
“Thankfully, there was an eyewitness. The person witnessed the devil at the crime scene. Heh, he was really scared out of his wits. He constantly shouted on the streets ‘murder’ and ‘save me.’ Heh heh. I have to say that his cries for help did bring acceptable results. The devil didn’t chase after him.
“As a result, the police have locked onto the suspect and are hunting him down.”
Audrey drew the crimson moon on her chest once again and said, “May their operation succeed.
“Father, from what you just said, it sure was a horrible but funny scene.
“I hope that eyewitness won’t have nightmares because of it.”
…
Royal Museum, in the restored study.
“Are you sure that only two bookmarks were stolen?” the Machinery Hivemind squad’s Captain Max Livermore asked his team members.
As he spoke, he stole a glance at the important figure standing in front of the desk with his back facing him.
It was an old man wearing a white clerical robe and a clerical cap. He was the head of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery for the Backlund diocese. He was a member of the Divine Council, Archbishop Horamick Haydn.
This important figure wasn’t only a clergyman, but he was also a very famous scientist, a distinguished professor of physics at Backlund University.
“Yes, only two bookmarks were stolen,” The team member being questioned answered with certainty.
Max nodded slightly and looked at Horamick Hayden. After some thought, he deliberated and asked, “Your Excellency, after the closing of the museum yesterday evening, some aristocratic children came to visit. They had touched parts of the exhibited items, including one of the two bookmarks that were stolen. Do I need to get them to cooperate with the investigation?”
“I know about that.” Horamick’s hands naturally drooped down as he turned around and said in a calm tone, “I’ve already confirmed that those aristocratic children are not related to the thief who stole the bookmarks, so there’s no need to get them to cooperate with the investigation.”
“Yes, Your Excellency.” Max himself didn’t think there was anything wrong with the aristocratic children, not to mention that Archbishop Haydn had enough mysticism knowledge and Beyonder techniques to confirm it.
Horamick’s gentle and benevolent face didn’t show the slightest trace of anger. He looked around and said, “There was more than one person here last night, at least two of them. They were divided into two opposing groups.
“One of them might even be of a higher Sequence than me, while the other had somehow escaped mysteriously.
“Although I’m unable to reconstruct the entire scene, there are still some things that I can ‘see.’
“This matter is more complicated than we thought.”
At this point, he sighed.
“I also know why they wanted to steal the bookmarks.
“We’ve been tricked by Roselle for more than 150 years…”
…
As a precaution, he temporarily left his Dark Emperor card above the gray fog, on the surface of the long bronze table facing the seat of The Fool. He did so for Azik’s copper whistle as well.
When he returned to the real world, he held a ritual again and summoned himself to throw the Master Key, a Sealed Artifact which was an amalgamation of getting lost and having bad luck, above the gray fog. Although it didn’t seem to have huge negative effects, it was enough to cause one to encounter life-threatening situations. He planned not to use it unless necessary.
Klein took a bath with the water that had already turned cold before walking out of the bathroom, refreshed. He went downstairs to enjoy the corn pancakes he had bought on his way back. They were local delights of the Feynapotter Klein’s Highlands—crispy, fragrant, and sweet.
After he had eaten his fill, he went through his experiences from last night to see if he had left any clues behind.
Of course, he had dared to return home because he had divined it in advance. It was just like he was unafraid that the museum contained traps that he found completely unsolvable.
The letter was from Isengard Stanton.
