The Faceless Man Chapter 43: Goodbye to the Apothecary
Before leaving the house, Klein flipped a coin and asked if today was not a good day to go to the Braveheart Bar.
After receiving a negative answer, he looked around the room and whispered into the air:
”Is anyone monitoring me today?”
After a few seconds of silence, Ms. Bouncer’s disembodied, fluttering voice suddenly came from behind him:
”No.”
Klein subconsciously looked back, still failing to spot Miss Bodyguard.
His attention quickly shifted to the answer, and he couldn’t help but let out a mental hey:
This is MI9 not putting me on the suspect list at all!
After confirming that Rosago has not looked for me, it has completely cast me aside.
Should I feel honored, or insulted?
Yes, a detective who is busy looking for cats and catching adulterers can’t be associated with things like assassinating a country’s ambassador and taking out a Serial 5 powerhouse. ……
And MI9 more or less monitored me for a while, my panic, my helplessness, my efforts to struggle to save myself were all seen by them, obviously unable to cause substantial harm to the ambassador ……
In the midst of his thoughts, Klein put on his half-height silk bowler hat, put on his black silver-encrusted cane, and stepped out of No. 15 Minsk Street, where he arrived at the “Brave Man’s Bar” on Iron Gates Street in the Birkeland Bridge area in a rented carriage at a cost of two sous-présentations.
He entered with familiarity, passed through the drinkers who were gathered around the boxing ring shouting cheers, went to the bar, and knocked on the table:
”A Southwell ale.”
The bartender looked up at him and grunted:
”Casper’s in card room 3.”
Klein flashed a smile, laid out five one-penny coppers, and pushed them over to the other man.
Then, with a wooden cup and a sip of his white, fine-foaming Southwell ale, he walked around the two most crowded, busiest and sweaty-smelling arenas and knocked on the door of Card Room 3.
Kaspers was playing unlimited stakes Texas with a bunch of guys, bills stacked high in front of him, yellow coins piled up to the eyeballs.
Noticing Klein’s gaze, the black market weapons dealer with the huge scar on his face twitched his big red nose and said casually:
”I don’t like using chips, it makes me feel unreal, it’s still the texture of the bills and the weight of the coins that is intoxicating and just as good as fucking a woman!”
After muttering this, Kaspers frowned slightly:
”What are you doing here again?”
Klein didn’t answer directly, nudging his mouth to signal to speak outside.
”Damn! I’m clearing them out this handful of times! Shit, I’m not following!” Kaspers threw the two cards in front of him into the center, then limped to the door and said to Klein, “You better have a good reason!”
Exiting the card room and coming around the corner, Klein lowered his voice:
”I’d like to know when the latest party was, the same kind as the last one.”
Kaspers scrutinized him suspiciously, “Didn’t Maric make a deal with you?”
”It’s not about hiring a bodyguard, it’s that I’ve gotten very interested in that kind of, huh, you know.” Klein was telling the whole truth.
Kaspers said hesitantly:
”There’s a party tonight, the organizer is still the same one from last time, but you need to wait for more than half an hour, I’ll go over and inform them first, you showed credibility last time, I don’t think it’s a big problem.”
”No problem, I’ll pay you a fee.” Klein felt the bills in his coat pocket.
”Only a pound this time.” Kaspers looked like I was being generous.
”Well worth it.” Klein said as both corners of his mouth turned up at the same time.
Having paid, he found a seat and sipped his wheat-flavored Southwell ale as he took in the fight in the ring.
”I can fuck them both up at the same …… time,” was the conclusion Klein quickly came to.
After ten minutes or so, Kaspers returned to the bar, looked around and lowered his voice:
”It’s promised over there.”
”We’ll be over there in half an hour, Storm on top, I hope you haven’t forgotten that mask.”
To this, Klein replied in the affirmative.
He slowed down his drinking, taking small sips, and it took him half an hour to finish the large 500-milliliter mug of Southwell ale.
Still on the same road as last time, still in the same house with no lights shining out of it, Klein put on the iron mask that covered only the upper half of his face and watched as Kaspers knocked on the front door quite rhythmically.
Unlike last time, the knocking has been changing ah …… Klein listened carefully for a while and saw the small wooden panel on the door open and eyes looking out.
After a process that made little difference, he donned his hooded robe and hid his entire face in the shadows.
It was the same sitting-room, with the same flickering candle of dim light, and Crane found a seat at random and sat down quietly.
But unlike before, he was no longer oppressed or tense this time; instead, he looked around leisurely.
-The chilly breeze that blew on the back of his neck made him certain that Ms. Bodyguard had followed him in, unnoticed by anyone.
The members of the gathering here really don’t have any Sequence 5 powerhouses, and there might not even be any Sequence 6’s …… Klein thought wistfully.
After listening for a while, he saw that the round-faced “pharmacist” changed his sitting position and seemed to want to speak.
Sure enough, the pharmacist with half of his chubby face raised his hand quickly and said:
”‘Black Snake’ seems to have died in the sewers ……”
”Those beasts are still ravaging.”
”Black Snake” is dead? Hearing this news, Klein was rather stunned.
”Black Snake” was the man who sold him the relics of “The Listener”, which allowed him to “successfully” produce “Filthy Words”. The man who sold him the relics of the “Listener” that allowed him to “successfully” create the “Filthy Word” was suspected to be a member of the Aurora Society.
His strength would not be low, but he died in a simple mission to clean up the beasts in the sewers. …… Klein frowned in confusion, and suddenly remembered something:
That was when he found Zeruel’s body, he heard a thumping movement deep in the sewers.
By the time he’d led Ian there, Zerrill’s body had been partially gnawed away by strange beasts.
That was at the bottom of Iron Carbon Street in the East End, quite far away from the Bakerland Bridge area, and it was not clear if there was any connection …… Klein had absolutely no urge to verify this matter.
”The news of Blacksnake’s death festered in the dimly lit living room, eliciting a number of whispers and a touch of empathetic fear.
The apothecary clapped his hands together and said:
”So, what do I do?”
The whispered voices died down abruptly, and the room was so silent that it seemed to freeze.
Because of the pharmacist’s last exhortation to not be afraid to offend, Klein thought for a moment and took the initiative to speak:
”If I were you, I think I’d give up the rest of the herbs and never go there again.”
”Why? They’ll be ripe soon enough, and those beasts are hiding deep in the sewers and don’t usually come out.” The apothecary asked rhetorically with a bit of hesitation.
Klein hissed deliberately:
”There should be an organization behind the ‘Black Snake’, his death will inevitably lead to an investigation, I don’t think you want to deal with them, right?”
Just because he possessed the relic of the Listener didn’t mean that Blacksnake was a member of the Aurora Society, but the fact that he had called the “True Creator” a great being confirmed it.
Besides, it was better to believe it was than to take a chance on something like that.
”Uh-huh.” The pharmacist nodded slightly, as if he had already made his decision.
Klein added a few more words:
”If it were me, I’d also anonymously inform the police about this.”
”What?” Many of the party members uttered in shock.
Klein explained in an unchanged tone:
”Since the beasts in the sewers can cause the ‘Black Snake’ to die, it means that they possess a high degree of danger, and since everyone lives in Bakerland, if they really cause any major disasters as a result, it’s hard to guarantee that they won’t be affected.”
”So, the best option is to draw the attention of the police and let the officials handle this matter.”
”Isn’t it great that we can enjoy a good outcome without having to take any risks?”
As soon as his words fell, old Mr. “Eye of Wisdom” applauded:
”A very good idea! We’re afraid of the official Extraordinary Persons, but we can utilize them all the same, and don’t think of handling everything on our own.”
This is because I am an official extraordinary origin, thinking is certainly not the same as you pure wild …… Klein smiled and slurred.
After the speech, he returned to his onlooker’s attitude, listening to others peddling or begging for items and materials, watching a deal either succeed or fail, with nothing in it that interested him.
He didn’t put up the extraordinary variety of materials he needed for the time being, intending to observe the circle a few more times.
Time passed by, the “wise eye” old man began to arrange for people to leave, three minutes a person.
Klein was the first to go out last time, unaware of what was to follow, but now noticed that there were at least five exits, and the Wise Eyes attendant would take different people through different passages to maximize the time it would take to get out of the way.
Half an hour later, there were three members of the party left in the living room, in addition to Mr. Wise Eyes, the other two were Klein and the man who looked like a pharmacist.
”The Wise Eye looked down at Klein and laughed in an old voice:
”Looks like you’re in luck.”
He recognized me as the person who purchased the ominous item of the “Black Snake”…… Klein smiled and said, “Yes, I won the bet.”
Hearing the reply of the two, the pharmacist stared at once, scrutinized Klein, and said after a long time:
”Could it be that you additionally have a lucky-type magical item? I already thought you were dead before.”
You can speak so directly ah …… Klein politely made a reply, “Perhaps I am lucky enough in myself.”
In fact, he would love to have a similar item.
The “Eye of Wisdom” sighed, “Young man, don’t always gamble on luck, especially in this kind of thing, even if you’ve won many times before, as long as you lose once, you won’t have a chance to turn it around.”
”I know, that’s why I’ve come to this gathering to see if I can buy any useful items, heh, I’m kind of the same kind as you guys.” Klein spoke as if casually.
”Kindred spirits?” The pharmacist sighed exaggeratedly, “I should have listened to my teacher in the first place!”
The teacher …… himself is suspected to be a “pharmacist” …… The “pharmacist” pathway is held by the Church of the Mother Earth Goddess and the School of Life, respectively …… the School of Life. School mastered by the …… Life School’s inheritance method is the master and disciple system …… Klein’s heart stirred and asked curiously:
”Why do you say that?”
The pharmacist sighed and said, “My teacher told me to choose the path that would make one lucky enough, but I ended up becoming a potion concoction, as a result, I haven’t been able to find all the main materials for the next sequence of magical potions for two whole years, and your luck makes me jealous.”
Makes one lucky enough …… This is very much like the “Monster” sequence pathway …… What a school of life… …Klein chuckled:
”What is the reason for your choice?”
The pharmacist suddenly straightened his back and said:
”It’s a man’s choice!”
”After knowing that I could concoct a potion to enhance that aspect of my ability, I chose this path without hesitation!”