Part 1. The Joker Chapter One Hundred and Four Mr. Z
One pocket, two pockets, three pockets …… Klein quickly rummaged through and found a blood-stained wallet, a library card for the De Vere Library, two brass-colored keys hanging together, a pipe with nothing stuffed in it, a sheathed dagger, and several sheets of neatly folded letterhead.
After placing all but the letter paper on the ground aside, he stood up straight and glanced twice at the wallet in passing to make sure that it contained only a dozen soule bills and a handful of copper pennies.
”This wallet is quite well made, it’s a pity ……” Klein sighed silently, his thoughts somewhat scattered.
If he hadn’t spent too much of his personal money today, purchasing a wallet would have been on his agenda.
Shaking his head, Klein unfolded the letterhead and flew through it in a skimming fashion:
”Dear Mr. Z:”
”Allow me to defend myself, it was not foolishness or betrayal for Heinas and I to resell the notes of the Antigonus family, it behaved not a little peculiarly while it was in our possession.”
”I suspected it of being alive, of being an evil object possessing some life and intelligence, a dangerous thing that must be sealed.”
”It does not present itself in the same way at different stages and to different people!”
”This I have confirmed from the Lamb within the Police Department.”
”While that notebook is true enough each time it is presented, backed up by a lot of corroborating evidence, I think it is only in the hands of a descendant of the Antigonus family that it reveals itself in its full form.”
”When Linus and I got it, we could only see some of the minutiae of the Antigonus family, the general condition of that Land of Night on the main peak of Hornachis, and the three recipes for the Sequential Magic Potion that were presented to you last time.”
”As you know, the Mithraeum holds the ‘Diviner’ Pathway, with its extreme tracking abilities, so both Hynas and I thought it would be very risky to continue to hold on to that notebook, and at the time, it didn’t reflect enough value to warrant us taking that risk. ”
”In the event that it was too late to wait for your reply, we talked it over and sold the note to Welch, who was in the same neighborhood, and who liked to collect artifacts and antiquities and could afford to pay a great deal, and then came those things you know about.”
”That is the first thing I wish to state, and while I was writing this line of text, Hayners died, the cause of death being a sudden attack of the heart in his sleep, which must have been the Lord’s gift to him to prevent him from falling into the hands of the heathen.”
”I had to move to a safe, secluded place, afraid to even leave my house, and fortunately, the lamb told me that it was not because of the notes of the Antigonus family that Haynas was targeted by the pagans, or because he had revealed his identity, but that he had foolishly taken on a female apprentice, wanting to slowly develop the other into one of us.”
”His female apprentice peeked at his secret spells, tried magic mirror divination with a pagan on night duty watching, and I’m sure you can guess what happened next without me describing it any further.”
”Unfortunately, the Lamb wasn’t high enough to figure out the exact details.”
”From all feedback, the pagans didn’t suspect me, and their investigation was cut short by the timely death of Hainus.”
”So, I returned to the streets with the intention of borrowing a few more journals from the Devereux Library first to look for more clues.”
”As a power that also holds the pathway to the ‘Diviners’, the Antigonus family should have had some anticipation of their own demise, and they must have left behind secret treasures for their revival!”
”There’s enough reason to believe that that treasure is on the main peak of the Hornachis Mountain Range, somewhere in the ruins of the Kingdom of Night!”
Upon seeing this, Klein’s pupils contracted so sharply that he almost let the letter paper flutter from his hands.
”That sequence mastered by the Antigonus family is the ‘Diviner’ pathway?”
”This is quite a coincidence!”
……
A single thunderbolt exploded in Klein’s mind, causing him to be mentally disorganized and have the feeling of predestination again:
”The notes that made the original owner die and indirectly helped me cross over originated from the Antigonus family that mastered the ‘Diviner’ pathway, and the one that made me ultimately choose the ‘Diviner’ magic potion was the diary of Rossel the Great, which leaned towards the ‘Diviner’ sequence because of the mysterious Mr. Charatou, the head of the Order of the Secret Doctors who also holds the ‘Diviner’ pathway!”
”…… It’s almost as if fate has woven a breathless web.”
”And what exactly is hidden behind all of this?”
Klein took the letter paper and paced back and forth a few times, trying to find corroboration of what he had just read from other sources.
”Well, the Mistery under the control of the Charatu family is chasing and searching for what’s left of the Antigonus family …… If you look at it from the point of view of both sides belonging to the same extraordinary pathway, the reasons and motives are sufficiently good: maybe it’s to make up the sequence, maybe it’s to obtain the rare materials for the promotion of the higher sequences, or maybe it’s to covet the other side’s accumulated of experience in avoiding loss of control ……”
”When you think about it like that, it’s fairly plausible that the Antigonus family is in possession of at least part of the sequence chain of the ‘Diviner’ pathway.”
”By the way, when I divined the clues to the ‘Joker’ potion, almost all of the images that came up were related to the Antigonus family, with the only exception being the Tuxedoed Joker of the Order of the Secret Doctrine …… So the real significance of those symbols is that each of the image is a possibility of obtaining the ‘Joker’ magic potion, all hiding a clue that I just didn’t understand the key and regretted missing.”
With this twofold corroboration, Klein was almost convinced of what Cyrus had mentioned in his letter, and understood why the word “Hornachis” was always there when he heard voices he shouldn’t have heard.
”The earliest time I had a similar situation was when I had just finished taking the ‘Diviner’ magic potion!” He said to himself in his mind with a serious expression.
At the same time, he guessed that “having come into contact with the legacy of the Antigonus family and still being alive” and “becoming an extraordinary person in the way of the Diviner” were the two necessary conditions for hearing the whispered word “Hornachis”. The two conditions are necessary to hear the whispered words of Hornachis.
Is it true that in the ancient ruins of the main peak of Hornachis there is a secret treasure left by the Antigonus family? No, one must not think about that! A bunch of people had died from that notebook alone, and the complete treasure would only be even more terrifying! Klein subconsciously shook his head and turned his gaze to the end of the third and final piece of letter paper:
”Dear Mr. Z, I hope to get your help, I think you should have enough interest in that treasure as well.”
”Until then, I will make myself like a normal person, a normal history buff.”
”And finally, when the Day of Destruction comes, I will offer to the Lord all the lambs of the city of Tingen.”
”The Lord’s humble Cyrus Arepis.”
After reading Cyrus’ letter, Klein suddenly wanted to laugh a little:
”Hey, why does it feel like I saved Tingen City? What the hell is this guy trying to do, huh? Cultists are unbelievable ……”
”…… Who’s that Mr. Z? He’s pretty high up in the hierarchy. …… He’s at least a captain.”
”Where did Cyrus send this letter? He didn’t write an address ah …… It seems that this is the caution of the cultists, not leaving an address until the last moment of sending it out ……”
”By the way, since the Antigonus family holds part of the ‘Diviner’ pathway, did the three recipes that Cyrus submitted and obtained from the Antigonus family’s notes contain the ‘Joker’ magic potion? ”
”Very likely!”
In this instant, Klein seemed to have found a clue to the ‘Joker’ magic potion.
Although Cyrus did not carry the formula with him, his home, the place where he hid, might have kept the corresponding records, while in his head, his memories, there was definitely one!
Klein turned his attention to the body before him, pondering how to get the dead man to talk.
Almost without thinking, a solution popped up directly within his mind:
”Psychic!”
”Psychics can communicate directly with spirits that have not yet dispersed, and professions such as “soothsayers” and “secret peepers” can also do so with the help of ritual magic.
Last time when facing the corpse of the tuxedo clown, Klein was in a hurry to save people, secondly, he didn’t bring the material, and thirdly, he lacked certainty, so he didn’t consider the “psychic” and missed the best time, and when he returned to the Blackthorn Security Company, the spirit had already dispersed for most of the time, and even if the psychic came, he could only get some rough information.
Now, Klein will be the material configuration complete, and have the “dream divination” techniques and residual resentment with the experience of communication.
”I’m afraid that communicating with the cultist’s spirit will be like the captain’s dream of entering Hainas, seeing a horrible existence……. However, the captain was only depressed for two days, his injuries weren’t too serious, not too serious, well, we can try!” After only a dozen seconds of hesitation, Klein made a decision, not wanting to miss this opportunity.
He lifted his head and turned around, casting his gaze to where the glass had broken, to the onlookers who were looking this way.
Pulling out his credentials and badge, Klein returned there first, addressing the onlookers through the jagged, convex-bellied window of the glass:
”I’m a trainee inspector of the special operations department of the Ahova County Police Department, I’ve already killed the thug, please find someone to take this badge to the nearby police station and ask them to send someone over to handle the follow-up.”
”The remaining few of you, help me seal off this place, don’t let anyone else get close and destroy the traces of the scene.”
”Yes, Officer!” The administrator who had “punked” Klein immediately took over the badge.
Once the scene was cordoned off and no one else entered this lawn, Klein rejoined his position close to the corner and stood on the side of the body.
Thankful that innocent people couldn’t see the body that looked closer to the monster, he put his cane and revolver away and reached into the row of pockets on the inside of his thin black trench coat and pulled out a metal vial.
He was going to use a “psychic” ritual and a “dream divination” technique to make the dead man talk!