Part 1 The Joker Chapter 203: “The Fae”
Expectantly and apprehensively, Klein unfolded the letterhead and read up on Aztec’s reply:
”The scenario you describe at …… made me think of some possibilities, of vampires and fae.”
”Natural vampires were close to extinction before dragons and giants retired from the stage of history, and they can only be found occasionally afterward; the vampires we usually discuss, and in folklore, are closer to the Extraordinary Ones, and I recall the name of a certain sequence of magical potions in one of the pathways being called ‘vampires’. ”
”If your boss is already in a state of semi-insanity, then he probably took this magic potion by mistake, and a mix of magic potions from two different pathways and semi-insanity is the inevitable result, hmmm, I vaguely remember that the ‘darkness’ pathway, or as you call it, the ‘sleepless one’ ‘ pathway, can be interchanged with the ‘Death’ pathway, and the ‘Giant’ pathway in the higher sequences, but that doesn’t include the pathway that the ‘Vampire’ is in. ”
”Of course, that does not exclude the possibility of your superiors consciously accepting it; after all, a ‘vampire’ can have a long life, an excellent physique, and a remarkable appearance, and compared to those benefits, a state of semi-insanity is not unacceptable.”
Klein looked stunned for a moment, not realizing that Mr. Aztec had provided such useful information.
”The “Necromancer” pathway refers to the “Corpse Collector” pathway, which can be interchanged with the “Sleeper” pathway in the High Sequence, that’s a secret I learned from Roselle’s diary before, but I never imagined that they could also be interchanged with the “Sleeper” pathway. They are also interchangeable with the “Giant” pathway at sequence 4 and beyond. …… The “Giant” pathway is the one held by Silver City, which is now the “God of War” pathway. I’ve always suspected that Ormil the Giant was an ancient god of war.
Well, Rossel the Great’s diary describes the Church of the Goddess of the Night and the Church of the God of War as being incompatible …… Could it be that the sequences are interchangeable at higher levels?
Taking this speculation as a premise for reasoning, the three oldest churches, the Church of the Storm Lord, the Church of the Eternal Sun, and the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, hate each other to some extent can be explained, because their respective masters of the “Sailor”, the “Chantor” and the “Reader” can be used as the basis for their mutual enmity. “Reader” pathways are interchangeable in the High Sequence!
Well, I’m afraid that in the “Pale Age” at the end of the last era, the main driver of the fall of the Grim Reaper was the Goddess of the Night and the God of War. ……
The captain’s usual state is normal, except for his bad memory, and there’s no sign of insanity, so we can rule out the possibility that he’s taken a ‘vampire’ magic potion!
Mr. Aztec has been recalling a lot of things lately. …… Did the “writhing hunger” really stimulate him?
Klein nodded gently and continued reading:
”‘Fae’ is not the name of a race, but a description of many similar creatures, who in normal times are no different from humans, but in their hearts there is always an instinctive, twisted, and repressed desire lurking, and as soon as they encounter the stimulation of a specific scene or a specific thing, they will explode, and they will become monsters, and will wantonly fulfill desires such as bloodlust and killing.”
”When everything calms down, they will return to normal again, and with each outbreak, they will become a little bit colder and more ruthless, and eventually the mind will be completely twisted.”
”The most common and only example of this that I can recall are werewolves, who are normally equivalent to humans and cannot be recognized with most extraordinary abilities, but during a full moon the twisted desires of the mind will intensify and certain changes in the body will follow.”
”Your boss may be a latent ‘fae’ whose nature was galvanized by the death of a teammate.”
”All of the above are guesses I have personally made, and since the memories are not complete, I cannot assure you that there are no other possibilities, and perhaps the precursors to the loss of control you speculate on could explain it.”
”And whether one has taken a ‘vampire’ magic potion or belongs to the ‘Fae’ themselves, there is no way to save them, but of course, it was once speculated that the ‘Fae’ ‘ were originally normal humans, but were contaminated by strange curses or evil demons, which is why they would turn into different monsters under certain conditions.”
”Also, I’m not sure if a loss of control with only precursors can be cured, I suggest you report directly to your supervisor’s superiors, and hopefully it’s not too late.”
Putting down the letterhead, Klein looked at his desk with a stony expression and thought for a long moment.
He had to admit that the possibility of the “Fae” existed, but the element of an out-of-control precursor could not be ruled out.
”We can only wait for Ms. Daley’s feedback …… The letter I sent the night before last, she should have received it yesterday morning, and if she replied in time, I would have seen it last night or this morning …… It’s almost noon! …… Is the little messenger afraid to go near the Charnes Gate? Or has Lady Daly been delayed by something else?” Klein shook his head, feeling still tired, and leaned into his meditation, forcing himself to sleep again.
In a dazed world, he was suddenly awake and knew he was dreaming.
Then he saw Dunn Smith appear before him in a thin black trench coat.
Following the normal reaction to dreaming, Klein belatedly called out a summons:
”Good morning …… Captain ……”
Dunn nodded gently:
”Leonard has found a lead in his pursuit of the Lanlus case and needs your help.”
”The snooper sent by the Sanctuary won’t be arriving until tomorrow morning due to a faulty steam train.”
”Okay ……,” Klein replied in a fluttering tone.
Dunn added after a moment’s thought:
”You don’t have to return to Zotland Street, but go directly to 62 Howells Block, where Leonard will be waiting for you.”
”Tough luck.”
As soon as his words fell, Klein’s dream world shattered inch by inch, and his eyes subconsciously opened.
Howells Neighborhood …… Isn’t this the neighborhood where the Divination Club, my classmate Welch, and that Aurora Club member from before are located? There’s been quite a lot going on lately, one thing after another, as if something were brewing …… Klein got up slowly and thoughtfully, went to the washroom to clean himself up, then changed into his going-out white shirt, brown vest, and thin black trenchcoat, grabbed his half-height silk bowler hat, and went downstairs to the living room.
It was not yet eleven o’clock at this hour, and Benson and Melissa had not yet returned, and Crane gave an account to Bella, the maid, that there was no need to think of his lunch.
Then he took the public carriage to the Howells neighborhood, where he saw Leonard Mitchell, the Midnight Poet, with his messy hair, in front of the door of house number 62.
Leonard, still wearing only a thin white shirt and beige pants in the cold September weather, said with a sweep of his green eyes:
”This is most likely the house that Llanerus rented under his alias.”
”How did you find out?” Klein asked back with mild curiosity.
Leonard pointed down at his head:
”Since you guys got a clue from Hood Organ that suspected Llanerus was probably related to that member of the Aurora Society, well, cloth merchant Cyrus Arbites, I had no choice but to change my mindset and look for it through the Aurora Society line when my normal investigation didn’t yield any results.”
”Previous reports showed that Cyrus had dealings with quite a few of the residents in the Howells neighborhood, so I checked them out one by one again, and found that there’s something wrong here.”
”What kind of problems?” Klein said with a slight nod.
Leonard raised an eyebrow, “The obvious problem, the tenant here rarely shows up during the week, claimed to be going to the southern continent on business after the death of Hainas Vansant and never came back, and his profile was so real that the police didn’t find anything.”
”That can only be a bit of a coincidence.” Klein frowned.
”Just a coincidence, of course, but when I questioned the surrounding residents with Llanerus’s picture, there was an older gentleman who felt that it was very similar to the tenant of number 62, except that the glasses weren’t quite the same.” Leonard pulled a black and white photo out of his pants pocket.
Why didn’t you say so earlier …… Klein made a ventriloquist remark and followed Leonard into the Howells neighborhood at number 62 and began to divine whether there was a hidden compartment or secret room, as he had requested.
And the result was that there was!
”This house has a dark compartment or secret room.”
Klein wrote down a new divination statement, sat down on the couch, and closed his eyes as he meditated.
Seven times later, he entered the dream world, a haze before his eyes.
In the gray world, Klein saw oak bookshelves, saw rows of books, saw one of the books being withdrawn, and saw the wooden surface next to it open with a flourish and a dark compartment appear.
The image quickly faded away, and Klein opened his eyes and addressed Leonard:
”In the study.”
He wrapped the citrine pendant around it and followed Leonard into the study, seeing the oak bookshelf he had just dreamed of.
”Pull out that book, there are secret compartments where it covers.” Klein pointed to the book furthest to the side and said.
”Here it is… …… I searched the entire house earlier and found nothing and had to go back to Zoltan Street to ask for help.” Leonard grunted as he walked over and drew out the book Klein had pointed to.
He fumbled around for a while before finally finding the mechanism and snapping open the dark compartment.
A letter was sitting quietly inside the dark compartment.
A letter? Lanlus hid a letter here? Klein was very surprised by this.
He had divined whether the letter hid any dangerous items, and after receiving a negative answer, Leonard reached out and grabbed the letter, opening the envelope that had no address or recipient written on it.
Pulling out the letterhead, Leonard shook it off and unfolded it.
Klein leaned over and gazed at it, only to see the first few paragraphs of the letter read:
”Hahaha, congratulations, congratulations on finally finding this letter!”
”It shows that you are not too stupid, not too slow, and qualified to participate in this game of life and death that I have devised.”
”The child laborers who keep dying young, the factory workers who rarely live past ten years due to circumstances and hard work, the female workers who risk serious illnesses and are only paid a meager amount of money, I see countless grievances looming over every factory, making the surroundings depressing and dim, it’s the worst of times, and it’s the best of times, and it’s against this backdrop that we’ll begin our game. ”
”Prepare yourselves, fools, I’m going to give you a hint!”