Part 2 The Faceless Man Chapter 267 – Honest Returns

　　Inside the hall where the stone pillar was broken, a group of night watchmen in black trench coats and silk bowler hats appeared around the altar that was still in ruins, led by none other than Holy Anthony Stevenson, the Archbishop of the Church of the Goddess of the Night’s Diocese of Birkeland.

　　”Vandalized?” He whispered a sentence, and without stopping any longer, he came directly to the stone door leading to the inner side.

　　Thick darkness emerged, the stone door opened noiselessly, and St. Anthony led some of the night watchmen inside, moving forward into the depths.

　　Along the way, they did not find a single guard or anything of value; it was as if the place had been powerfully cleared.

　　Finally, they reached the deepest room, but there was still nothing there but walls and stone pillars, and the ghostly blue light door that Klein had come out of had long since disappeared.

　　The horse lamps in the hands of several night watchmen suddenly lost their light, and darkness enveloped the room.

　　When everything was back to normal, they realized that the walls around them had melted away at some point, but there was no such thing as a secret door or tunnel in the back, it was either thick dirt and stone, or the corridor they had come from.

　　St. Anthony was silent for a dozen seconds before speaking:

　　”Attempt divination.

　　”Search the neighborhood.”

　　……

　　Achoo!

　　Crane threaded his way through the pathless crags and woods, sadly realizing that he seemed to be really sick.

　　The residual effects of Mr. A’s extraordinary abilities combined with his winter state of being soaked to the bone had given him a shameful cold.

　　However, he didn’t dare to stop to collect dead branches, light a fire, bake clothes, and dry bills because he was afraid of being found by the church’s extraordinary people.

　　Even though he had already obtained a semi-official status with the Mechanical Heart, through the endorsement of Stanton Eisinger, he was involved in the awakening of the Primordial Witch and the coming of the True Creator, two cases of the highest order. Two cases of the highest level, he will certainly be subjected to rigorous investigation, for example, take turns to the “mechanical heart”, the substitution of punishment, the night watchman to taste black tea, active or passive recount all the process.

　　There are two major pitfalls, one is that he has acquaintances within the night watchman, although the great detective Sherlock Moriarty looks and the death of Crane Moretti has a considerable difference, almost impossible to distinguish by photographs, but really face to face, but he has little confidence, and the second is because of the reason of the similarity of the pathway, Goddess of the Night Church is not very friendly to the God of Death related to the people and things, dating back to the end of the Fourth Age of the Pale era, the God of Death is the fall of the seven God of Death, the God of Death is the God of Death. Back to the end of the fourth era of the Pale Age, the God of Death fell under the siege of the seven gods, and Sherlock Moriarty detective “summoned” at the critical moment to help is a powerful descendant of the God of Death, this is how to wash away the problem.

　　”Just now that bit of extremely high power may be rushing to deal with Ince Zangwill and ‘0-08’, do not have time to pay attention to such a small role of a friendly party like me, but I can not be careless, should run or have to run!

　　”Well, if you have the chance, you can write a letter to the ‘Mechanical Heart’, expounding on the second reason why I had to leave Berkland temporarily, in this way, in the future, there may still be a chance for cooperation, of course, you must first secretly observe whether the ‘Mechanical Heart’ is interested in the Death God’s descendants or not. ‘ whether it holds strong hostility towards the Descendants of Death …… I wonder how Mr. Aztec is doing now ……”

　　”Oh, maybe in the official announcement, Sherlock Moriarty died in a meteorite skyfall, kind of living up to the identity, the name ……”

　　Klein endured the alternating states of fever and cold, trying to find a town and get into a crowd as quickly as possible.

　　Only in a human society could the Faceless Man’s abilities be utilized to their fullest extent.

　　The woman who worked with Mr. A, er, should be a witch, went to the Eastern District …… From the situation of the ceremony, I’m afraid that there is a large-scale death over there, I don’t know …… Klein, who has the spiritual intuition of a soothsayer, suddenly had a heavy heart.

　　Just then, all the colors in front of his eyes became dense, as if they were splashed with oil by the gods.

　　The sensation flickered, and Klein found himself far from where he had been, seeing the bronze-complexioned, soft-featured Azik Aegis appearing next to him.

　　”Mr. Azik, you’re not hurt?” He could hardly contain his relief.

　　”Yes.” Azik replied matter-of-factly, whirling around to chuckle, “But it’s not a big deal to the ‘undead’.”

　　Klein let his heart drop and turned to the question:

　　”What about Ince Zangwill and ‘0-08’?”

　　”Ince Zangwill is still alive and still in charge of that ‘0’ seal.” Azik said as he walked.

　　Klein struggled to keep up and couldn’t help but sigh:

　　”What a shame.”

　　”Don’t worry about it, he’s badly injured.” Azuk said solemnly, “And more crucially, we know that he’s working with the royal family in secret, so we don’t have to worry about not being able to find him afterward, this way, you can focus on improving yourself, and I can try to go to the few places I’ve already recalled first, and jog more memories, huh, you’re in luck, I’ve been secretly observing MI9 and the royal family, and want to use this to determine Ince Zangwill’s whereabouts, and within that, the Red Rose Manor was a focus, so I was always hovering around there, otherwise I wouldn’t have rushed to your rescue so quickly.”

　　Speaking of this, Klein was a little embarrassed:

　　”Mr. Aztec, don’t you wonder about the question of why I’m not dead?”

　　”I too have often gone into a coffin and awakened again, something I recalled earlier.” Azuk laughed unconcernedly, “And in my tattered memories, similar things are rare but not without precedent in others.”

　　Often in the coffin and awakened …… often? Klein suddenly realized that the problems he was worried about were nothing in the eyes of the truly great.

　　Worthy of being the “undead” of the “God of Death” pathway …… Eh, Mr. Aztec said earlier that he had stayed in this sequence for a long time, implying that he had long since been promoted …… Klein thought about it and asked with some concern:

　　”Mr. Azick, will Ince Zangwill find out that I am Klein Moretti?”

　　He was afraid that the other party would retaliate against Benson and Melissa.

　　”He shouldn’t have, at most he’ll think we’ve known each other for a long time, or that you’re simply my, my, in police parlance, my informant.” Azik said after a moment’s recollection, “But that ‘0’ seal might notice, but you don’t have to worry about that.”

　　”Why?” Klein trailed off.

　　Azuk didn’t know what he remembered, and his expression suddenly became a bit odd, as if he wanted to laugh and felt horrified at the same time:

　　”That ‘0’ level seal will always try to write off its own master, that should be its nature, it won’t change, so this kind of information that can make Ince Zangwill suffer a big loss at a critical moment, I don’t think it will voluntarily disclose it unless it involves something that can’t be bypassed and can’t be explained. ”

　　Seeing Mr. Azik speak with such certainty and justification, Klein exhaled, his cold all but seeming to get a little better.

　　Seeing this, Azik added:

　　”You’d better stay away from Beckland for the near future, Ince Zangwill may retaliate against you with that ‘0’ seal, relying on your pseudonym.

　　”As long as you’re not in Berkland, there’s no problem, that ‘0’ level seal won’t affect more than a metropolis.”

　　As I guessed, there is a range limit …… otherwise Innes Zangwill can completely hide in some small town in the southern continent, leisurely arranging the fates of all his targets without worrying about being found at all …… Klein asked with deliberation:

　　”There’s no problem with returning briefly to Berkland for a day, or half a day, is there? With a change of identity and appearance.”

　　When he finished speaking, he rubbed his face and instantly changed back to the way he looked when he was Tingen.

　　Azik’s eyebrows twitched slightly and he nodded:

　　”Not much of a problem.”

　　He glanced back at the now-invisible distance:

　　”I seem to be targeted by the powerful presence of the Church of Darkness, it would be best if you don’t follow me around to avoid the repercussions, heh, they’re interested in the extraordinary traits associated with the Reaper.”

　　”Well, I’m going to go out to sea and digest the magic potion while searching for mermaids, which is the condition I need for my promotion.” Klein elaborated on his plans.

　　Azk sidled his head:

　　”Mermaids? Can a mermaid that’s been turned into a necromancer? I can find at least four.”

　　”I don’t think, no. ……” Klein reached up and wiped his forehead.

　　His instincts told him it definitely wouldn’t work, but planned on divining above the gray mist afterward just to be sure.

　　Without mentioning the Necro-Mermaid again, Azk turned to him:

　　”If there’s anything, contact via messenger.”

　　The messenger …… Klein was suddenly weak and ashamed:

　　”It, it was killed in action in my battle with Mr. A. It saved my life.”

　　Azk gave him a look and shook his head and laughed:

　　”Don’t worry about it, as long as it wasn’t killed by an angelic powerhouse, or by special means, it can be slowly reborn there as long as the Underworld still exists.

　　”And before that, there were, there were, uh, I can’t count how many similar messengers.”

　　There was a legion of messengers that looked that strong and that huge? Klein opened his mouth, unable to speak.

　　His shame dissipated quite a bit and he asked curiously:

　　”Mr. Aztec, where exactly is the Underworld, or Hell?”

　　”The Spirit World, the accurate description is that it is a special place carved out by the ancient God of Death within the Spirit World.” Azuk did not hide it.

　　Ancient Death? That should be the ancient god, the Immortal Bird Patriarch Gracery……. It turns out that the Underworld is subordinate to the Spirit Realm, so it’s no wonder that the basic structure of the occult is “Real World – Spirit Realm – Astral Realm”, which doesn’t include the Underworld and the Abyss… …Klein was about to ask a question about it when he suddenly remembered something and said in a hurry:

　　”Mr. Aztec, I obtained a ‘Blasphemous Card’ made by Rossel the Great, it contains the secrets of the High Sequence, I think it can help you awaken more things, but you’ll have to wait for a while, it’s hidden in Berkland.”

　　Klein didn’t mention the bounty for fear of revealing the secrets of the Tarot Club, the Mystery Space Above the Gray Mist, and Miss Justice, so he had to use this euphemism to thank Mr. Aztec for his help and dedication.

　　Mr. Aztec looked at him with slight surprise, but in the end he said nothing and nodded gently:

　　”When you retrieve it, have the messenger bring it to me, and I’ll return it to you immediately after studying it, or you can just transcribe the appropriate content to me.”

　　He paused and seemed to remember something as well, so he took out a glove from his coat pocket that was so light and thin that it seemed to be made of human skin and handed it to Klein, saying:

　　”The memory in question I have already awakened, no longer need it, huh, it is the relic of that pirate lieutenant general, I have done some sealing, so that it will not normally starve, but every time you use it, you must feed it with the flesh and blood and soul of a human being, otherwise, it will devour you.”

　　…… “Creeping Hunger”? A remnant from the death of a certain “shepherd”? Klein instantly recalled what that glove represented.