Part 1: The Joker Chapter 121: Leonard’s “Guess”

　　Hearing Klein and Fry’s speculations, Leonard tugged at his shirt collar and paced back and forth a few times, saying:

　　”Then we have to investigate everyone Sols came into contact with in the poorhouse, and everyone he met after he went bankrupt and was kicked out of the house, which is very troublesome …… Let’s hurry up and split up to do a sweep here, then go straight to the third death in the West End and leave the rest to the police. ”

　　”Okay.” Klein replied without hesitation.

　　Frye had no objections either and turned towards a few of the paupers who had slept near Soles last night.

　　Klein was about to find another target when he suddenly saw Leonard give himself a wink and point his chin toward the side hall of the Poorhouse.

　　What did it mean? Confused for a moment, he pretended nothing had happened, circled halfway around the Mass hall, then, when Frye wasn’t looking, followed Leonard’s footsteps into the side hall and through the partition to the secluded, unoccupied corner.

　　”I have a guess.” Leonard stopped in front of the window with the broken glass and spoke suddenly and directly.

　　Klein glanced around quizzically and said, “What guess?”

　　Leonard’s green eyes asked rhetorically:

　　”How do you think Mrs. Lovis would have ended up without the influence of the transcendental factor?”

　　Klein thought for a moment and said rather heavily, “The same end, except that it would have been delayed by a week, a fortnight, or a month, and for a family of their kind they certainly wouldn’t have gone to a doctor until they couldn’t support themselves, and as soon as a heart condition becomes serious, death can come at any time and leave no room for salvation. ”

　　”And what of Soles? What end would he have possessed if he had not been abetted?” Leonard asked again.

　　Klein spoke with deliberation:

　　”From what the information presented, Sauls has long been resentful of the bankruptcy, and unusually indignant at not having been rescued, and I think that sooner or later he will retaliate, but the target will not be the person who was on the dole, but rather the owner of the company that caused him to go bankrupt, the bank clerk who repossessed his home.”

　　”And what will happen after he retaliates?” Leonard pursued.

　　”There is no doubt that he has planned to terminate his life, and he will die whether his revenge is successful or not.” Klein made an affirmative reply.

　　Leonard nodded slightly, revealing his trademark flippant smile:

　　”Then may I say that both Mrs. Lauwers and Soles are destined to die in the near future?”

　　Klein, a keyboard powerhouse who had “seen it all”, immediately had a guess after hearing this question:

　　”Are you saying that their deaths were artificially advanced by transcendental factors? And why is that?”

　　”A more accurate description would be that the ‘life’ they were supposed to have was artificially shortened and stolen away by the Transcendent Factor, and ‘life’ has always been the best material for summoning evil gods and demons, and for carrying out terrifying curses. ” Leonard corrected Klein’s guess with a slight curl of his mouth.

　　”Summoning evil gods, demons, and performing terrifying curses …… ” Klein stared into the other party’s turquoise eyes, half questioning, half speculating, “You seem pretty sure? But our investigative samples are only two for now ……”

　　Leonard smiled cynically, “Klein, there’s no need to pretend between us, I’ve witnessed you escaping from the control of the sealing object ‘2-049’ and know that you’re special, and you should have a vague sense that I’m different from the average Extraordinary.”

　　He tightened his smile and met Klein’s gaze:

　　”I once told you that there are a lot of special people in this world who can always do things that others cannot, such as you and also me.”

　　”This world has a long history, there exist such or such magical items, there will always be someone who gets them, masters them, and becomes the protagonist of different dramas, there won’t be too many people like that, but there surely can’t be only one or two.”

　　”I don’t think that extraordinary people who hide secrets are necessarily bad guys, villains, and don’t think it’s necessary to figure out what their specialness stems from and what it manifests itself as …… As long as your actions don’t jeopardize me, the Nightwatchmen, and Tingen City as a whole, then you’re still my teammate, and likewise, I I hope you look at me with a similar attitude, of course, this kind of thing is best not to tell the people above, those guys are all ancient and conservative, always think that our kind of special people will inevitably lose control, will inevitably be tempted by the evil gods and demons and fall.”

　　But I am afraid I have more secrets than you think …… Klein muttered to himself silently and said frankly:

　　”I do have such an attitude, only looking at your behavior and purpose, not caring about your specialness, not trying to pry into your secrets.”

　　After saying this, he silently added in his heart: no, actually I still care more and am quite curious, but I can only force myself to endure it, hmmm, Leonard thinks he’s the protagonist of a drama? What kind of wonders did he get and what kind of magical items did he possess?

　　Leonard unbuttoned his shirt collar and nodded with a light smile:

　　”I’m glad we agree.”

　　”In those adventure novels, it’s called the two protagonists meet and the wheels of history start rolling forward.”

　　Shameless! Klein smiled perfunctorily.

　　He knew full well that “the wheels of history began to roll forward” from Russell the Great ……

　　At that moment, Leonard paced twice in a quick circle, his green eyes bright and his mouth curled:

　　”Well, I frankly have no small degree of certainty in suspecting that the protagonists of all these deaths were due to die one after another within three months, but have been brought forward to the last two weeks by various means, and that the other party’s purpose was to summon evil gods, demons, or to carry out a dreadful, widespread curse.”

　　”Having people who show signs of death die early can easily be covered up, won’t quickly attract the attention of the police department, and won’t be sabotaged by the Night Watcher, the Substitute Punisher, and the Mechanical Heart during the preparation stage ……” Klein whispered to himself, analyzing the one behind the curtain’s thinking.

　　Leonard echoed with a smile:

　　”Yes, if there are sudden and inexplicable deaths of healthy, normal people, as long as there are more than three of them, they will definitely be noticed and routinely investigated.”

　　”And how do we find the altar where the ritual was performed? Whether it’s summoning an evil god, a demon, or creating a terrible curse, it requires an altar, it requires a ritual, and those ‘lives’ that are harvested in advance must have a similar place to be stored.” Klein tentatively believed the other, after all, he hadn’t found any other clues to make another judgment.

　　It wouldn’t hurt to try!

　　Leonard hemmed and hawed twice and said, “Klein, shouldn’t this be your area of expertise? Can’t you imagine what kind of conditions would be around an altar for a similar ritual?”

　　Without waiting for Klein to answer, he grabbed the first description, “The aura of death is thick, with the altar as the center of the sphere and a radius of 10 meters, there will be no living creatures except for the presiding officer of the ceremony……. The surrounding temperature is at least 5 degrees Celsius lower than normal, and there is constantly a gloomy wind blowing over the …… Among the altars sealed by the wall of spirituality, there are also the ‘lives’ of Mrs. Lauwers and others that have been taken away from them ……”

　　At that, he looked at Klein, teasingly:

　　”I’m sure you can divine the approximate location of the altar that possesses these characteristics.”

　　Klein frowned slightly and replied in a hushed voice:

　　”As long as it doesn’t go beyond the city of Tingen, in addition, I need an absolutely quiet, undisturbed environment, such as my home, and, well, the belongings of Mrs. Lauwers and the others.”

　　At the same time, he mentally muttered, thinking that Leonard was not too knowledgeable about this kind of black magic and black witchcraft.

　　”No problem.” Leonard let out a laugh and took a bold step, crossing over Klein and heading towards the Mass Hall, not even shivering anymore.

　　This guy’s style of doing things is really unique …… Klein slandered a sentence and followed the other party back the same way.

　　Finding Fry, who was seriously inquiring and taking notes, Leonard said with a serious expression:

　　”I have a guess, and I’m going to let Klein try it out.”

　　”What guess?” Fry asked in a seemingly icy manner.

　　”I’ll let you know when I have the results, I don’t want to be the object of Roxanne’s girls’ ridicule.” Leonard casually made an excuse to gloss over the matter.

　　Frye didn’t ask any more questions and, as instructed, went to the nearby police station to borrow the belongings of Soles and Mrs. Lauwers, then met up with his teammates at Klein’s house.

　　”You guys wait in the living room and don’t let anyone disturb me.” Klein pulled out his pocket watch, snapped it open and looked at it.

　　It was close to six o’clock and Melissa could be back any minute.

　　”You can trust us.” Leonard walked around the modest living room with his hands in his pockets while Fry sat quietly on the couch.

　　The guy was ADHD, wasn’t he? Klein skimmed his lips and returned to his bedroom located on the second floor, unlocking the wooden door and sealing the room with a wall of spirituality.

　　Immediately afterward, he set up the altar and prayed for the goddess’s help to initially remove the disturbance.

　　Then, Klein wrote the corresponding “divination statement” on a piece of paper:

　　”Location of the altar.”

　　He gave broad limits so as not to make mistakes or omissions.

　　Taking the paper and the dead man’s belongings, Klein half-lying on the bed, first recalled the scene described by Leonard, and then silently recited the “divination statement” seven times.

　　–He did not try to use the gray mist above the special to complete, firstly, because Leonard this strange and mysterious guy is downstairs, who knows whether he will notice something, secondly, he belongs to the magic potion is about to be digested “soothsayer”, coupled with the ceremony of The second is that he is a “soothsayer” who is about to finish digesting the magic potion, and with the aid of the ritual, it should be enough.

　　After all, summoning evil gods and demons will threaten Benson, Melissa, and himself if there is no result, then Klein will consider finding another opportunity to go above the gray mist!

　　With the help of meditation, he quickly entered the dream world and “saw” a scene that was blurred, hazy, illusory, and fragmented.

　　Soon a picture floated before his eyes.

　　It was a two-story, gray-blue house bathed in the glow of dusk, with closed windows on the first floor and dark curtains that did not show the slightest gap, but expanded and contracted from time to time.

　　The soil near the house was dark brown, not a blade of grass or a flower grew, and the garden around it seemed shadowed, shabby and dim.

　　Not far from the house, a river ran silently.

　　……

　　After a while, Klein, who saw no more images, exited the dream.

　　”Leonard’s guess is true …… Where could that house be? There are so many places with rivers in Tingen, such as the southwestern part of the West End, such as the Docklands, such as the University District ……” He opened his eyes and rubbed his temples with a rather serious expression of thought.