Part 1 The Joker Chapter 100 Interpreting Symbols
”Clues to the ‘Joker’ magic potion.”
……
At the top of the long, ancient, patinated bronze table, Klein read the “divination statement” several times, leaned back, and fell into a deep sleep.
His surroundings soon became peaceful and silent, and what he saw in his “eyes” was misty and hazy, with countless distorted and unrecognizable images flashing by, like drops of dew on the soft petals of a flower in the morning.
Gradually, Klein grasped his own spirituality and recovered a measure of perception.
He saw a fireplace in front of him, and in front of the fireplace was a rocking chair, on which sat an old woman in a black and white dress.
Though the other woman’s head was bowed so that she could not be seen, Klein felt from the bottom of his heart that she was an old woman, and was quite sure of it.
Directly opposite the old woman was a table with newspapers and tin cans inlaid with silver.
”This is ……” Crane, who felt the scene to be unusually familiar, quickly recognized what he saw before him:
This is the residence of Riel Bieber and his mother!
It was the place where he had first seen the “Giant’s View” live!
”There’s a clue to the Joker’s Potion here?” Klein’s thoughts had just flashed by when the scene around him changed.
It was a grayish-white warehouse, which was hidden in the innermost part of the same building;
It was strewn with bone after white bone, and there were several clumps of bloody sludge that looked like they had been flattened by boulders;
In the very center of the warehouse was a fist-sized mass of something grey and white, its surface covered with grooves that gave it a soft, textured feel, as if it were a brain dug up alive.
Just as Klein recognized what this place was, just as he remembered what it was, the image in his eyes distorted and shattered as if his reflection on the water had been stirred, creating a new hazy scene:
A naked body lying on a long table covered with a white cloth, and a blood ball with a slight blue color floating in front of his body.
Klein frowned instantly, panning and muttering:
”Just now it was Rell Beebe’s hideout and his residue, and now it’s the tuxedoed clown’s wrist branded into something?”
Just as he was trying to surmise what exactly these images symbolized, the shifting of the scene intensified steeply:
A marble coffee table, a leather sofa set with a primary and secondary layout, and a chandelier hanging high from the ceiling;
The dark-haired, brown-pupiled, bookish Klein Moretti, the round, fair-skinned, affluent man, the muslin-gloved, delicate-looking young lady;
A middle-aged man in black robes with thick, stiff, rooted brown hair, a rich man with a round figure and fair skin, a half-hundred year old man with straggly eyebrows, thinning brown hair, and grayish-blue eyes, and a deep black notebook, with an ancient and distant scent, placed on the round table between them.
The notes of the Antigonus family!
Klein sat bolt upright, not a trace of the dream lingering any longer.
Looking out at the infinite gray mists and crimson stars beyond the magnificent temple, he thought with a mixture of astonishment and puzzlement:
”I was divining the clues of the ‘Joker’ magic potion ah …… How did the notes of the Antigonus family appear?”
”Let’s see, let’s see, that guy with the round figure is Welch, yes, Welch, the unlucky guy who purchased the Antigonus Family’s notes and triggered the subsequent series of events …… The young lady wearing muslin gloves and with a delicate appearance is Naya… …”
”Come to think of it, that marble coffee table and leather sofa combination is the symbol of the Welch residence, where I met ‘psychic’ Daley.”
”In other words, I just saw the living room of the Welch residence, and saw the scene of the original owner discussing her notes with her two classmates.”
Klein’s mind settled and he regained his composure, his fingers rhythmically tapping the edge of the long bronze table:
”And what does that last image represent? The appearance of the notes, the appearance of Welch, could it be the scene when he purchased that ‘antique’?”
”The other two people present, one of them looks familiar, that middle-aged man in the black classical robe seems like he’s seen him somewhere before …… Spiky brunette hair, heavy dark circles under his eyes …… Yes, I know who he is, Heinas Vicente, of the Divination Club, the one who died ‘peacefully’ after being infiltrated into the dream world by the captain because Selene had stolen a secret spell!”
”Hiss, he sold that notebook to Welch?”
”In a roundabout way, I can’t believe it’s connected like that… it’s a small world… no, Tingen is really small! Come to think of it, it’s really possible, Hainas Vansant is no ordinary soothsayer, obviously delving into the mystical realm and getting the watchful eye of a certain ancient evil god, he has the channel and the ability to have access to the notes that were accidentally leaked by the Secret Society ……”
”No wonder the captain and the others never found out where Welch bought the notes from, because the direction was completely wrong, they were trying to line up the antique market …… later on with the exact whereabouts of the notes, and even more so, they gave up their attempts in this regard.”
”It’s a pity, Haynes Vansant had just died not long ago, otherwise surely we could have found out something about the notes from him …… As a person who had delved into the mysterious field, he should have studied the notes …… his death. It’s really a coincidence!”
”But there was another person present, an older man in his fifties, who might know quite a bit as well.”
Klein’s fingers tapping on the edge of the table paused, and went over all the images he had just seen in the “dream divination”:
”Rell Beebe’s home; Rell Beebe’s hideout; Rell Beebe’s residue; the Tuxedo Clown’s wrist branded into something; Welch’s home; the scene where Welch, Naya, and the original owner interacted; the ‘group photo’ of Welch, Hyannis Vansant, and the notes of the Antigonus family …… Hey, all but the branding of the Tuxedo Clown are directly related to the Antigonus Family Notes!”
”But what I divined was the clue to the ‘Joker’ magic potion ah …… This is not scientific, no, this is not occult!”
After becoming a “Diviner”, Klein had once tried to divine where Welch bought the Antigonus family notes, but at that time, he didn’t take into account the special nature of the gray mist and failed to obtain a revelation, but now, when he divined another matter, he even brought out the truth seemingly by chance.
After calming down for a dozen seconds or so, Klein combined the contents of Roselle’s diary and began to try to decipher the dream just now:
”The first possibility is that Charatu, or the Mistery, is searching for and chasing the relics of the Antigonus family, so the symbolism of this dream is to lure the Mistery into appearing with the help of something related to the Antigonus family, so as to obtain the formula of the ‘Joker’ magic potion. ”
”The second possibility, that the recipe for the ‘Joker’ magic potion was recorded directly in the notes of the Antigonus family …… The fact that the Charlatan family was searching for lingering traces of the Antigonus family suggests that there was a deep connection between them. Perhaps they are friends, perhaps they are enemies, so it would be normal for the Antigonus family to have mastered part of each other’s sequences, and it goes without saying that friends needn’t be said, but enemies are even more so the ones who know each other’s existence the best ……”
”But the second explanation of the symbol has no way to connect with the branded thing of the tuxedoed clown, hey, I wish it was the second one, when the Holy Church gets an expert to decipher the notes, I’ll be able to obtain the ‘clown’ magic potion without risk.”
”At the moment, the first interpretation seems the most likely, but my intuition as a soothsayer tells me that there should be a deeper symbolism.”
Thinking about this, Klein rubbed his forehead, suddenly deeply impressed with the limitations of Diviners.
Unless faced with very simple, intuitive symbols, soothsayers had to be careful in their interpretations, as if they were walking on the edge of an abyss, on the surface of a thin ice lake, and once they made a mistake in interpretation or failed to decipher the most crucial meaning, the tuxedoed clown was a living, bloody example!
At this instant, Klein had the illusion of grasping the true meaning of the Diviner himself, as if he was just one more step away from that critical step, and he would be able to digest the magic potion completely.
”Thank you for lifting me up with your life …… Praise the Goddess!” He whispered a sentence and drew a Crimson Moon on his chest.
Immediately afterward, he divined about whether or not Azuk was kind and whether or not he was an Awesome Extraordinary, both of which were answered in the affirmative.
At this point, the continuous divination and the exertion of being on top of the Grey Mist was starting to make Krynn feel tired, and he had to stop his thoughts from fizzing out and finalize the key things he was going to do after that:
”Find the old man who appeared in the same picture as Welch, Haynes Vansant, and the notes of the Antigonus family as soon as possible!”
”This can start with the Divination Club.”
”Run to Mr. Aztec more often when you have something to do, well, he may be a member of the Middle Sequence’s School of Life, but that lacks certain information to divine ……”
Huffing, Klein exhaled, allowing the portrait of the half-hundred year old man with straggly eyebrows, thinning brown hair, and gray-blue eyes to protrude from the steeply embossed parchment before him.
This was the third person present when Welch and Hyannis Vansant traded notes on the Antigonus family!
Looking at the portrait, Klein suddenly fell into a dilemma:
”…… I don’t know how to draw, I’ve always been the target of my teacher’s criticism in art class in elementary school.”
”Use ritual magic, like old Neil? But this is to pray to the goddess ah …… thing then with the help of the gray mist above the special …… If the gods found out the end, I can not be a person!”
”Wait, maybe I can pray to myself! Transmitting images is similar to transmitting voices. …… Although I can’t pry the mysterious power above the gray mist for the time being, this kind of small matter shouldn’t be a problem!”
Having an idea, Klein immediately spread his spirituality and wrapped himself to simulate the sensation of falling.
Back to the bedroom, he casually lit the gas lamp and whispered “prayer”:
”O fool who does not belong to this age;”
”You are the mysterious lord of the gray mist.”
”You are the yellow and black king of good luck.”
”I pray thee for revelation; I pray thee to let me paint the picture of what I have seen.”
After reciting these incantations, Klein didn’t sprinkle essential oils, didn’t burn herbs, didn’t draw on their power.
Praying to himself was just so casual!
There was a sudden murmur in his ear, and he saw the four black dots that made up the square emerge on the back of his hand.
Taking four steps counterclockwise, chanting the incantation as he did so, Krynn re-penetrated through the madness, through the frenzy, and back above the gray mist.
This time, he didn’t notice any of the crimson stars contracting or expanding, but he did notice the odd symbols behind the high-backed chairs at the top of the bronze table, made up partly of “Pupiless Eyes” and partly of “Twisted Threads,” shimmering faintly and swirling with illusory supplications.
Klein listened for a moment, and after confirming that he was right, he recreated the image of the Third Man, and cast it into the flowing light in the same way as he had done in response to the prayer.
After doing so, he immediately left the mysterious world above the gray mist and returned to his bedroom.
Just as he had a chance to stand still, Klein immediately saw the portrait before his eyes, and felt an illusory and faint power added to it.
He picked up a pen, found a piece of white paper, and gave out the expressed will.
To Klein’s amazement, his right hand moved uncontrollably, tracing the lines rapidly.
It wasn’t long before he saw a vivid portrait of the Third Man.
After writing down his hair color, pupil color and other characteristics, Klein, whose right hand was twitching slightly, breathed a long sigh of relief.
The “vision” he saw before his eyes was fading fast.