Part 1. The Joker Chapter 108 – Late at Night
In the early hours of the morning, in the well-ventilated but silent and claustrophobic underground, the haloed glow of the gas lamps, blessed by the glass, steadily and without wavering, illuminated the deserted, peaceful aisles.
Crane sat in the watch room, casually thumbing through the newspapers, magazines and books stacked in front of him, and dividing a small half of his mental attention to the outside, in case someone broke through the Charnis Gate.
His coat and bowler hat were hanging on the coat rack at the entrance location, and his cane was leaning quietly against the wall in a conveniently accessible place.
The rich aroma of coffee filled the room and Klein couldn’t help but inhale it, pinching his temples as a way to combat the heaviness in his head and the exhaustion in his body.
Although he was a fierce man who often went to bed at five in the morning and got up at twelve in the afternoon when he was in college on Earth, and he also stayed up late from time to time during the past two to three years of work, and he was still able to go to work the next day in good spirits, but this all had to be attributed to the fact that the games were too much fun, the novels were too good to read, and the movies, variety shows, and TV dramas were too much fun to watch.
And this world obviously didn’t have these stay-up-night necessities.
”Rossel the Great is also, if you want to pretend to be complete, you have to devote your limited life to an infinite cause, and you have to lead the people of the other world to enter the information age with small steps!” Klein muttered silently, and could only console himself with the fact that at least there were still newspapers, magazines, and an increasing abundance of novels.
His original thought was to overcome sleepiness with focused study, but practice revealed that this contradicted its own duties, for once in the zone, it was easy to lose sight of the commotion outside and the situation at the Charnis Gate.
Whew, Klein lifted his coffee cup and carefully blew on it.
He pursed, letting the flavor linger in his mouth and letting the liquid flow slowly through his esophagus.
”Felmer’s Coffee from the Pas Valley, bitter, but refreshing.” Klein sighed in admiration and set down his cup.
The Pas River Valley was located in the Southern Continent, a high-quality production area for coffee beans, and was currently in the midst of a battle between the Republic of Intis and the Kingdom of Ruen – they had established colonial regimes on the left and right banks of the Pas River Valley respectively, overthrowing the original Kingdom of Pas.
In the mind-numbing silence, Klein picked up a magazine at random and found that it was Ladies’ Aesthetics, which talked about clothes and matching.
”This must have come from Roxanne ……” he whispered in amusement, flipping through it with interest.
Perhaps influenced by the rapid advancement of camera technology in the last decade or so, Ms. Aesthetics magazine not only made extensive use of illustrations, but also mimicked newspapers by using black and white photographs as content.
They were quite fashionable in enlisting famous theater and opera performers to show the glamour of the costumes and the wonders of matching, and in just seven years had grown from a regional new magazine in Bakerland to a mainstream periodical with outlets all over the country.
”That’s a nice dress and a good looker ……” Klein flipped through it leisurely, not hiding his own desire for beauty.
He is a man with normal development of both body and mind, and has always been very appreciative of beautiful girls, except that he has long set a goal to find a way to go home, which is why he tries to keep a distance from the opposite sex, not wanting to hold up the other side, not wanting to leave a debt of affection behind.
As for the matter of finding a streetwalker, he had a small cleanliness fetish in this regard.
Benson and Melissa are already existing bonds that can t be lifted, and can only be made up in the future by finding ways to make …… up for it Klein suddenly felt heavy and couldn t help but sigh.
The longer he was away from home, the more he could feel the melancholy in the dead of night.
He instantly lost his interest in admiring the beautiful lady, putting down the magazine in his hand and picking up a novel instead.
”Stormy Mountain, by, Forsyth Wall.” Klein read the main content of the cover.
The peaceful late night, the halcyon glow, a book with a cover that reminded him of the days when he rented books to read as a child, and he read on rather nostalgically.
The novel, Stormhill, was about Lady Sissy, who stood at 5’65” and weighed 98 pounds, and who entered Frius Hills as a governess.
”1 pound is about 1 pound …… This is the otherworldly version of Jane Eyre?” Klein rubbed his fingers over the comfortably tactile paper, speculating on what was to follow.
However, when he thought it was a romance novel, “evil spirits” appeared in the back, and when he believed it was a psychic novel, Ms. Sissy revealed herself as a detective and gave a magnificent deduction.
When Klein feels that there is nothing wrong with this being a detective novel, the hero receives a hard blow to the head and loses his memory, beginning a tearful drama.
”…… It ended up being a romance novel.” Klein closed the book and took a sip of coffee with a headache.
Dang!
Dang! Knock! Knock!
A fierce knocking sound rang out ho-hum, echoing through the dimly lit, quiet corridor, echoing through the ground where there was hardly anyone else.
Klein was startled, and his spirits tightened violently.
Instinctively, he removed the revolver from the gun pouch under his armpit, adjusted the chamber and trigger, and leaned slowly toward the door, searching for the source of the sound.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Thud! Thud! Thump!
The clapping grew more violent, and Klein looked to the sound and saw the black iron folio door painted with the seven sacred emblems.
”The sound coming from behind Charnis’ door?” His eyes narrowed and his heart beat like a drum.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Klein saw the Charnis Gate swaying slightly and felt the majestic force it was bearing.
”It can’t be …… I’m only on my first day of guarding this place and I’ve encountered something? Did I have extra bad luck constitution after crossing over?” Klein’s right hand, which was gripping the handle of the gun, seethed with cold sweat.
But soon, he remembered the captain’s instructions: no matter what sounds he hears, no matter what happens, don’t open the Charnis Gate unless it’s opened from the inside.
Eh, could this be normal? Klein calmed down a lot at once.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Clunk! Clunk! Clang! The movement behind Charnis’ door grew louder and louder, but the heavy black iron folio door just shook and did not show any other abnormality.
”What a normal phenomenon, scaring me to death ……” Klein whispered and was about to return to the watch room.
Just then, he heard an ear-splitting scraping sound and saw the Charnis Gate heavy outward, cracking open!
Za!
In a sound so raw as to make one’s teeth sink, Klein’s almost frozen eyes saw a figure that was roughly the height of an adult, average man’s small arm, and wore a black, elegant, miniature court gown with a distinctly stained hem.
It had a not-so-refined face, with deep black eyes and a tightly pursed mouth.
It was a Muppet, a toy Muppet!
Almost the instant Klein subconsciously raised his gun to take aim, the Muppet in the black court dress pressed tightly and forcefully against the outwardly open door of the Charnis and unfolded the paper held in his hand.
Above the paper was depicted a multitude of cryptic symbols, some that Klein recognized and others that he had yet to grasp, and together they formed a vertical eye!
Before Klein had time to ponder what was going on, the courtly ragdoll was suddenly pulled back behind the Charnis Gate, pulled back behind the Charnis Gate with all the force of an invisible object!
Clang!
The Charnis Gate closed back up, and there was no more banging, no more flapping movement.
The earth returned to its usual peace and silence, as if nothing had happened.
”The Charnis door was opened from the inside, we have to report it to the captain …… but it’s closed again ……” It was at this time that Klein found his way back to his thoughts, startled, frightened and puzzled.
After a few seconds, he remembered exactly what the ragdoll in the black court dress just now was, because he belonged to the official members of the Nightwatchman, he had long been qualified to know about the “3” level items sealed behind the door of Charnis in Tingen City.
”Number: 0625.”
”Name: Doom Muppet.”
”Danger level: ‘3’, somewhat dangerous, need to be used with care, only operations with three or more people can apply.”
”Confidentiality level: full members of the Night Watch and above.”
”Sealing method: isolation from humans only.”
”DESCRIPTION: This Muppet wears a court dress popularized around 1300, and there are traces of dirt on the hemline that are difficult to wash away, and it is impossible to confirm if it was there in the first place.”
”In several tragic cases in the city of Tingen due to the financial crisis of the family, the police noticed the presence of this muppet, which was always placed in the children’s bedrooms, on a cabinet next to the bed.”
”Several night watchmen were commissioned to investigate this muppet.”
”Initially, it was confirmed that it brings bad luck, causing those around it to gradually fall into bad luck and crisis, eventually dying one by one, with the subject on the verge of bankruptcy after only two weeks.”
”This Muppet does not possess the characteristic of being alive, and has no tendency to attempt to escape the seal.”
”After a long period of experimentation, we have found that as long as one enters within ten meters of it for a cumulative total of no more than half an hour a day, one will not be infected with bad luck; and if one is already jinxed, the situation will improve if one transfers it to another owner.”
”APPENDIX: The earliest occasion on which this muppet appeared was at the home of old Mrs. Tess in Lower Iron Cross Street in the West End, a toy-making craftswoman who had to move to Lower Iron Cross Street because of her old age, her husband’s serious illness, and the untimely death of her two children.”
”It was the last toy she sold, and she traded the muppet for some poisonous cordial juice that ended her and her husband’s lives after more than three days of starvation.”
More doubt and horror flooded Klein’s mind as he recalled the information on the sealed object “3-0625”:
”Didn’t it say that this Muppet doesn’t possess the characteristic of being alive? Didn’t it say that it has no tendency to try to escape the seal?”
”Then what did I just see!”
”And what was the thing that finally pulled it back?”
”What exactly does the pattern drawn on the paper it unfolded represent?”
”That scene just now, it really looks like there’s a psychopathic murderer in there dealing with the victim, and the victim tries hard to beat on the door, trying his best to call for help, but he’s being pulled back again ……”
Between the flurry of thoughts, Klein decided not to take matters into his own hands.
He returned to the watch room and pulled a rope.
The rope was pulled, the gears went into motion, and a sharp bell rang out in the Blackthorn Security Company located on the second floor.
Leonard Mitchell, who was playing cards in the recreation room, and other sleepless people immediately put down their poker and rushed to the ground floor.