In Empress Borough, the opulent villa of Count Hall.
The aroma of Feynapotter’s top-quality Mount Saint Dersee coffee blended with the splendid fragrance of the Queen’s black tea to create an intoxicating symphony of smells. They lingered around the elegant three-tiered high tea tray, that served delicious and delicate desserts.
This was the high tea party organized by Audrey.
She had invited her friends of blue-blood parentage, all who were fellow enthusiasts in mysticism. They sat around her, talking and laughing.
Under Audrey’s imperceptible guidance, Jane, Murray, and the others became extremely interested in the Dark Emperor, the Hero Bandit who had appeared last night. All of them cast their eyes towards the noble-born Kance Leerhsen who had joined MI9.
“What Beyonder powers does that Dark Emperor have?” the sweet-looking Christine asked curiously.
Among the few of them, the lowest rank among their fathers was that of a viscount. It allowed them to have sufficient status and channels to understand the existence of Beyonder powers and potions in their endearing pursuit of mysticism. But just like Audrey before, they were all unwilling to join the Nighthawks, the Mandated Punishers, the Machinery Hivemind, and MI9.
Other than that, the families that they belonged to didn’t have histories that traced back to a thousand years ago, and even the ancient aristocrats that had just been established in the Fourth Epoch of the Loen Kingdom weren’t completely loyal to the royal family or to the upper echelons of the military. They weren’t bestowed with any formulas, and even if they had Beyonder ingredients, it was unlikely that they could recognize them. They wouldn’t even know how to use them even if they did recognize them.
This limited the possibility of Murray, Christine, and the others in becoming Beyonders. They could only look forward to it, but it was difficult for them to take that crucial step.
As for whether or not their elders had collected the potion formulas and nurtured Beyonders for their families, that was beyond their purview. After all, this wasn’t allowed; if the King were to find out, they could use this as a reason to strip them of their noble titles.
Of course, there were already two traitors in the living room: Audrey, who had advanced to Sequence 8 Telepathist; and Viscount Glaint, who had gathered one portion of Beyonder ingredients. It wouldn’t be long before he became an Apothecary.
The tall, thin, young gentleman, Kance, took a sip of his coffee and said, “I won’t give you a direct answer. I’ll just tell you some facts.
“Other than traces of a gas explosion in the dining room where the battle happened, various means were used to detect poison, substitutes, Specter’s Shriek, bullets condensed with holy powers, and other elements. By the way, that Dark Emperor, no—Hero Bandit was in a specter state.”
Murray, under her lead, asked one step further, “There were Beyonders at Capim’s place? Relatively powerful Beyonders? And there was more than one?”
“He’s just a trafficker…” Viscount Glaint unconsciously expressed his doubt.
Audrey maintained her faint smile and curious gaze, patiently waiting for Kance’s reply.
Kance laughed and said, “Murray’s guess is correct. I can only say this much.
“Do you want me to be locked up by Captain?”
Then, she suppressed her emotions and secretly made a confession.
…
At noon, when Klein returned to Minsk Street, he found, as he had expected, a letter from Old Kohler who had paid a carriage driver to deliver to his mailbox.
This was their agreed upon contact method during an emergency.
Of course, according to Klein’s prediction, Old Kohler, who didn’t know many words, could only use simple symbols to tell him where and when they would meet. To his surprise, it was actually written in neat writing when he opened the letter.
With a quick glance, Klein confirmed that it was identical to the handwriting in Daisy’s vocabulary book.
Only taking off his hat and cane, he leaned his cane against the wall. He didn’t take off his coat because the fireplace in the room wasn’t lit yet, and the early November cold was silently seeping into his bones.
The letter was simple; after all, Daisy didn’t know many words either.
She thanked the detective for his kindness and good intentions before telling him that she safely returned home, and she finally said, in a tactful way, that she hoped he would bring her vocabulary book with him the next time he came to East Borough.
He decided to return to East Borough the next day and return the book to Daisy, as well as reimburse Old Kohler for the cost of the letter delivery letters, paper, and fountain pens.
With this in mind, he couldn’t help but sigh and chortle.
“Captain, now it’s my turn to approve the expense claims of others…”
Without wasting any time, he went out again and went straight to the Quelaag Club, where Dr. Aaron was seen more often during Friday afternoons. Klein wanted to ask about Will Auceptin, the child who had played with tarot cards.
After entering the Quelaag Club in Hillston Borough, Klein said to the red-vested attendant, “A cup of marquis black tea and a serving of dessert. Send it to the corner seat of the main hall. Dr. Aaron, Reporter Mike, and the others are sitting there.”
Klein had already spotted the relatively cold and famous surgeon, Aaron Ceres, who was wearing gold-rimmed glasses, as well as Reporter Mike Joseph from the Daily Observer, who he had worked with twice and had a pair of charming blue eyes. He also saw the aristocratic equestrian teacher, Talim Dumont, whose frequency of appearing at the club was only second to his.
“Oh, our great detective is here, and we happened to be talking about you.” Talim stood up with a smile.
“Speaking bad things behind my back?” Klein joked.
Mike stood up and shook his hand.
“No, I want to hire you again.”
“What’s the matter this time?” Klein bowed at Dr. Aaron and sat down at their table.
Mike chuckled and said, “I’m sure you’ve read the papers? Capim has been killed off by the Hero Bandit Dark Emperor, and his crimes have been exposed. What a joyous event!
“And as a reporter, I need to have an acumen for the news. I plan to get a list of names of the girls who were rescued in East Borough from the police department to interview them. Then, I’ll paint Capim’s most cruel, most evil, and most unforgivable side to the readers of the newspaper. Of course, the victims must remain anonymous.”
He paused for a moment and suppressed his voice.
“I also have a hidden objective, or should I say, I wish to use the interview to know if these girls or their family know any relatively special friends. Who knows, that might be Hero Bandit Dark Emperor!”
He smiled at Mike and said, “We’ve already worked together on East Borough’s matters. We have sufficient familiarity and trust, so I have no reason to decline.”
“I hope for a pleasant partnership.” Mike stretched out his hand. “We’ll start tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, and we’ll be paid the same as last time for a total of ten pounds.”
At that moment, Dr. Aaron, who had been listening by the side, said, “Sherlock, I want to hire you as well. This evening, or after dinner.”
“No.” Aaron shook his head. “My luck recently has been pretty good. This makes me suspect that my bout of bad luck was because of that child’s inverted Wheel of Fortune card and the words he said. I’m very troubled and puzzled in this regard. I swear to god that I was very nice to him, and I treated him with the best of intentions. Why would he treat me that way? I wish to visit him at his place and confirm that he didn’t do it on purpose. However, I’m ultimately afraid that something similar would happen again or some accident might occur. Therefore, I wish to hire you to protect me. Just for tonight. It won’t conflict with Mike’s request. How about it?”
…
City of Silver.
Derrick Berg once again examined the translucent worm with twelve circles, the remains of Amon’s avatar.
He had originally wanted to ask Mr. Fool what this was exactly, but considering how he had already troubled this godlike figure once, he couldn’t bring himself to ask as he abandoned this plan. Now, he planned on showing it at the next Tarot Gathering and ask Mr. Hanged Man, Miss Justice, and the rest.
After hiding the worm, Derrick suddenly thought of something. It was about time for the team that had gone with Shepherd Elder Lovia, to explore the half-destroyed temple of the Fallen Creator, to return—it wasn’t too far from the City of Silver, and it was in a direction that they hadn’t set foot in before.
He decided to take a look. There were quite a few people he knew among the expedition team.
