Part 1 The Joker Chapter 202 Confirmation of the Situation
Folding the letter paper, Klein pulled out his brass whistle, brought it to his mouth, and blew hard.
Noiselessly, he saw the illusory and hazy white bones on top of the desk were thrown out one by one, transformed into a fountain, and put together a huge monster, which was still close to four meters, still covered with a pale light, and still drilled its head out of the roof, which didn’t seem to have any difference with the past.
With a flick of his wrist, Klein threw the letter up, and saw the white-bone monster grasp it steadily.
He then blew the brass whistle and saw the “messenger” disintegrate into illusory white bones, one by one falling like rain and disappearing onto the surface of the desk.
After all this, Klein was much more settled, but he didn’t stop trying. He moved his chair back, stood up, and took four steps counterclockwise into the gray mist.
The majestic palace and the old, mottled tables met his eyes, as if they had remained unchanged for millions of years.
Kraven sat down in the high-backed chair belonging to the Fool, and silently unclasped the pendulum in the cuff of his left wrist and materialized a tawny parchment and a round-bellied fountain pen.
He was going to divine the captain’s condition for the night!
After a moment’s thought, Klein wrote down the first divination statement:
”Dunn Smith’s anomaly will put me in danger.”
–In the occult, divination involving one’s own well-being is the most difficult to be interfered with by external forces; it belongs to spiritual instinct.
In other words, as long as it wasn’t a particularly powerful interference, Kline could get a more accurate result in divination involving his own well-being.
This was also the reason why he had to divine whether there was any danger for the mission before, knowing that Mrs. Sherron possessed the ability to interfere with divination; he knew very well that Mrs. Sherron wasn’t strong enough to influence this type of divination.
And now, in order to ascertain the situation of Captain Dunn Smith, he decided to exclude all interference and divine above the gray mist.
Holding the Spirit Pendulum in his left hand, Klein murmured the divination statement seven times and closed his eyes, entering a meditative state.
After a few seconds of stabilization, he opened his eyes, and the color of his darkened eyes had returned to normal.
He looked at the citrine pendant, a heart sinking downward as the spirit pendulum was making a clockwise rotation, not small and not slow.
That meant the answer was yes.
It meant that Dunn Smith’s anomaly would put him in danger!
And the danger was not low!
Closing his eyes, Klein “erased” the previous content and wrote a new divination statement:
”The cause of Dunn Smith’s anomaly.”
He placed the citrine pendant and leaned back in his chair, reciting the divination statement as he meditated and entered the dream world.
In that gray, illusory world he saw nothing, found nothing, except grayness, or grayness.
”This means that there is not enough information, divination fails ……,” Klein opened his eyes and looked at the parchment on the long bronze table, and whispered bitterly and helplessly.
Suddenly, he felt an intense exhaustion, understanding that it was the result of the combination of intense fighting, continuous use of rituals, and multiple divinations.
Wrapping himself in spirituality, Klein fell into the gray mist and returned to the real world.
Throughout the night, he had several nightmares that ended with either Kornleigh, who had vomited her guts, or Dunn Smith, who had dark red blood all around his mouth.
……
Early the next morning, Crane, who was about to take his turn at Charnis Gate, arrived early at Blackthorn Security.
At this time of day, neither Roxanne nor Mrs. Oleanna nor any of the other clerical staff were yet at work, and Klein looked through the partition into the open door of the room and saw Dunn Smith in the captain’s office.
Dunn had taken off his coat and had only a white shirt and black waistcoat on top; he was sitting in his seat with a cup of coffee in his hand and was staring blankly at the wall in front of him.
His hair was slightly dry, his gray eyes were dull, and his hard-lined face was visibly haggard.
Even for a captain who has experienced similar things many times, losing two teammates consecutively in a short period of time is unbearable …… Klein’s heart sank, and the broken mirror appeared again in his mind in a flash, and Dunn’s half downed body and face stained with dark blood appeared.
Klein gritted his teeth violently, turned his head sideways, and looked away.
Ten seconds passed before he controlled his expression and reached out to knock on the door to the captain’s office.
Knock, knock, knock.
Dunn set down his coffee cup, his gray eyes resuming their darkness.
He took a silent breath and said:
”I’ve reported the matter to the Holy Church, and they’ve made a preliminary response.”
”Compensation of £3000 from the church to Coenley’s family, and a pension of £1000 from the police department ……”
That’s a total of £4,000, a fortune that most middle-class people would never be able to save in a lifetime …… Cornley’s weekly salary was £7, his annual salary was £364, and with bonuses and extras it would have amounted to at least £380, and £4,000 was the equivalent of ten years’ worth of his income… …Such a fortune, with a minimum return of £200 a year, would be considered barely enough to make up for the damage that Coenley’s death had done to his family …… Although money was no substitute for affection, and no substitute for Coenley, it was the only way that was relatively effective at the moment… …Klein flashed through a number of ideas, and what finally exited was a sigh:
”There’s only so much we can do.”
The Church of the Dark Goddess was still very conscientious in that regard.
Dunn tugged at his collar and said in a low voice:
”Go underground and replace Loyal out.”
”Okay.” Klein nodded slightly.
He turned his body toward the door and heard the captain add almost to himself:
”We’ll send Cornley home later ……”
Sending Cornley home …… How would his father, his mother, his siblings, his fiancée, react …… Klein’s heart tightened, and he was actually a little glad that he didn’t have to deal with that kind of grief.
He knew that this was the psychology of avoidance, but he was really afraid to see the grief-stricken eyes of Cohen Leigh’s parents and his fiancée’s lost-soul-like performance, afraid to witness their expressions that hid their grudges, and afraid to hear that sound of sobbing.
Footsteps quickening, Klein arrived at the door of Charnis and completed the handover with Loyal in silence.
He sat in the watch room, pulling out his silver pocket watch every now and then, seeing the time pass by.
After an unknown amount of time, the sound of illusory cascading voices suddenly rang in Klein’s ears.
He looked at the back of his hand, which was highlighted with four black dots, and realized that this was the “justice”, “hanging man” or “sun” praying to himself.
But he had no way to respond in time, he could only endure until the end of the prompting, until there was another prayer afterward, and until he returned home early the next morning.
Just as he pulled out his key and opened the door to his house, Klein saw Bella, the maid, wiping down the dining room table, while his sister Melissa and brother Benson walked down the stairs in their respective outfits.
”Didn’t you guys just go to mass last week?” Klein asked in a slightly odd way.
Benson chuckled:
”I can understand the memory of someone who’s been up all night.”
”Huh?” Klein was even more bewildered.
”Today is the first day of open booking for The Return of the Count.” Melissa took the initiative to explain.
Klein slapped his forehead and removed his hat in passing:
”I’ve been so busy for a while that I forgot about this matter.”
Especially these three days …… he added with a sigh.
Melissa gave him a concerned look and said:
”Your breakfast is in the kitchen, eat it and go to bed soon, Benson and I thought we’d stop by St. Selena’s for mass since we’re going out.”
”Okay.” Klein waved goodbye to his brother and sister, had a brief breakfast, and returned to his bedroom.
Making his preparations, he took four steps backward into the gray mist, and saw the crimson stars corresponding to “Justice” and “The Hanged Man” both expanding and contracting illusorily.
Extending his right hand and spreading his spirit, Klein saw a blurred image in front of his eyes, and the prayers of Ms. Justice were ringing in his ears:
……
”I pray for your hearing.”
”Because of what happened to Zylingus, my father has hired an Extraordinary to protect me, and there is surveillance in the shadows that I don’t know about, and it’s been hard for me to find the opportunity to pray to you, and I’d like to take time off from work for next week’s party, and I’m sure that these will soon fade away.”
Crane subconsciously glanced at the blurry image and saw the mist, the giant bathtub that seemed to be rippling with water, and Ms. Justice wrapped in a towel.
He withdrew his gaze and began to listen to the prayers of the “hanged man” again.
The other party’s description was different from “Justice”, but the prayer was the same thing, he also wanted to take a leave of absence because of the residual effects of the Zilingus incident.
Klein nodded slightly and answered their prayers separately:
”I know.”
Immediately afterward, he sent a thought to the Crimson Star corresponding to the Sun:
”The upcoming party is temporarily canceled.”
……
Silver City.
Derek Berg was listening to the instruction on the training ground, the sky above him was still dark, and every now and then there was a lightning bolt that illuminated everything.
Suddenly, he saw the thick fog, the ancient palace that was the residence of giants, and Mr. Fool sitting high up in the depths of the gray fog.
”The upcoming party is temporarily canceled.”
The voice still echoed, and everything before Derek’s eyes had returned to normal.
He wasn’t surprised by the magic, because that was what Mr. Fool had told him before every party.
Derek subconsciously looked up at the woman in front of him, Lovia “The Shepherd”, a member of the Silver City Council of Six.
The fearsome powerhouse shifted between a smile and a grimace, and told each of the teens in the room that they would be joining the patrols to rid the neighborhood of the dark monsters, and that it was no longer a training exercise.
Elder Lovia didn’t notice anything unusual …… Her state is getting stranger and stranger, is it because there’s an evil spirit equal to a high sequence powerhouse in the soul she’s grazing? Derek thought furiously.
……
Klein returned to his bedroom and lay to his bed, quickly falling asleep and dreaming about the events of the past few days.
Suddenly, he felt himself being rocked by someone, and was instantly awake.
His eyes opened and Klein saw a giant hand of white bone.
This giant hand paused for a moment and threw the letter paper it was holding onto the bed, itself then disappearing.
Mr. Aztec’s Reply …… Klein picked up the letter paper with some daze.