Volume 7: The Hanged Man Chapter 59: More Than Six Months Later
Inside a rented house with gas wall lamps in the “City of Generosity”, Bayyam, Virdu Abraham, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, was reading carefully with a thick stack of materials in the not-so-bright light.
Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, Verdoux Abrahams held a thick stack of information, reading carefully in the not-so-bright light, occasionally drawing a symbol with a pen to note down what he felt would be useful.
He left Rune and came to the Rothschild Islands, his main purpose was to get rid of the sight of Dorian and other family members, to study the occult at ease, and to look for an effective way to save his ancestor, Bertram Abraham, or, rather, a reliable knowledge to reduce the difficulty of that ritual.
However, after more than half a year, he still did not have a clue, and it seemed that there was no other choice but to hunt and kill “Trickster”, “Parasite” and “Secret Mage”.
This made Verdoux quite frustrated, but he was also aware of how dangerous the level 0 seals were, and even if he was willing to sacrifice himself, he couldn’t really manage them, and it was hard to guarantee what the end result would be.
And more importantly, he simply could not find the “Trickster” and “Parasite”, both of which are known for their secretive movements and bizarre styles of saints.
Hoo…… Verdoux put down the stack of information in his hand and muttered almost silently to himself:
”Can we only hope for that ‘Fool’ like Dorian and the others?”
Thinking of the “Fool”, Verdoux couldn’t help but frown, because the number of half-giants propagating the belief of the “Fool” within the city of Bayam was increasing, so much so that he, a person who seldom went out, had even heard about it.
It made him wonder if he was near the headquarters of the Church of the Fool.
If it weren’t for the fact that there was more occult knowledge circulating in the Rothschild Archipelago than Verdoux could ever have expected, and much of it was extremely useful that the House of Abraham had not yet grasped, he would have left Bayam for the southern continent months ago.
”Can’t stay any longer, book a ship ticket to East Byram as soon as possible ……,” Verdoux had just made a decision in his heart, when a hint of wavering arose, “Dorian and the ‘Fools’ ‘ Church shouldn’t even be able to imagine that I’m hiding within the area where their headquarters can radiate, Rossel the Great once said that the most dangerous place is also the safest place ……”
Hesitantly, Verdoux put away the information, extinguished the wall lamp, and walked towards his bedroom with the help of the moonlight from the window.
At the corner of the balcony of his room, a figure suddenly leapt out of the darkness and leapt over the fence.
The silhouette was like a feather, light and weightless, and when it landed on the ground from a height of more than ten meters, it didn’t make a single sound.
Immediately afterward, the figure sneaked along the shadowy part of the street, all the way to the vicinity of the Church of Neptune, and climbed up to the bell tower.
Then, “he” took out a pen and paper, wrote a report on tonight’s surveillance situation with a brush, and stuffed it into a certain crack.
When the figure left, about a quarter of an hour later, the sound of the wind suddenly sounded in the bell tower.
That report was pulled out of the crack by an invisible hand, and in the gale that blew through the place, it stumbled and flew into the distance, just like a bat spreading its wings in the dark night.
It was not long before the report plummeted as if tied to a rock and landed on a hand reaching out from the darkness of the garden.
The hand belonged to Cardinal Alger Wilson of the Church of the Storm.
He then unfolded the report and read it carefully in the night, not troubled at all by the lack of light.
–Even in the lightless deep sea, Alger could see things around him clearly.
”Verdoux’s idea of leaving Bayam is getting clearer and clearer ……” Alger nodded his head slightly unnoticeably and made a summary in his heart.
In the past half a year or so, he had been monitoring that member of the Abraham family according to Mr. Fool’s instructions, but he had never found any unusual movements on the other side.
When Verdoux left from the Rothschild Islands, his mission was complete.
However, Alger didn’t want to end it like that, he didn’t think he had contributed enough, just very simply monitoring a nothing special Sequence 7.
–The “Hidden One” had already obtained the extraordinary characteristics of Sequence 3 from the “Queen of Mysteries”, and had gathered all the corresponding auxiliary materials, and was busy preparing for the ceremony. This gave Alger a lot of psychological pressure. Of course, in addition to monitoring Verdu, he also followed the intentions of Mr. “Fool” to do a lot of things, but even he himself felt that there is still a small gap between this and the identity, status and power of the “Sea God”.
For a moment, Alger wanted to indirectly force Verdoux Abrahams to reveal his problems through various means, but eventually gave up on this idea, because he could not be sure whether Mr. Fool had good or bad intentions towards that target.
–When Silver City and Moon City sold off their extraordinary properties and magic potion formulas, Alger had purchased some from the Tarot Club to train a team of extraordinary people who were independent of the Storm Church, loyal only to him, and hidden in the darkness, and that was the source of the people who were monitoring Verdoux.
Currently, most of this squad of less than ten members were Sequence 9, with only a few promoted to Sequence 8.
As for where the money came from for Alger to purchase extraordinary traits and magic potion formulas, the answer was very simple:
As the cardinal of a diocese, Alger can casually “save” a sum of money for his own spending, and in the previous period of time, the mines, plantations, spice estates and factories on the Rothschild Archipelago are sold at a price lower than their own value, as long as you have the strength to buy, every now and then you can make a big profit.
More importantly, the headquarters of the Storm Church was also notably interested in the extraordinary properties and magic potion formulas sold in Silver City and Moon City, providing a large sum of money for purchase. As for the handler, there was no doubt that it was Cardinal Alger Wilson of the Rothschild Diocese, and it was understandable that some attrition was inevitable in a similar process.
Retracting his thoughts, Alger decided to fish for Verdu Abraham by selling some occult knowledge through his shadow guards in some of the extraordinary circles in Byam, delaying the other party as long as he could.
”The main reason lies in the fact that the preaching in Silver City scared that gentleman ……” Alger shook his head and mentally muttered to himself.
He whirled around and destroyed the report in his hand and walked back inside the church.
……
A young man stepped out of the inn at the crack of dawn, leisurely enjoying the early morning scenery of Bayam.
He had just bought a “Teyana” drink in a fruit shell from a vendor when he suddenly felt a large shadow appear beside him.
The young man turned his head and looked upwards a little to find a half-giant of nearly two and a half meters approaching.
”This gentleman, can I have a moment of your time? I would like to tell you a little bit about our Taoist standard and savior, Mr. ‘Fool’.” The half-giant bent his back and tried to make his smile seem amiable.
The youth took a sip of his “Tejana” and pointed to the side, smiling and nodding:
”Good, but not here.”
He then walked over to where he wasn’t blocking anyone else, and the oppressive looking half-giant followed mildly.
”You may speak.” That youth didn’t hide his curiosity at all.
The tall and physically imposing half-giant’s expression became solemn all of a sudden:
”My Lord calls himself ‘The Fool’, in the past, in the present, and in the future, he is the great lord who dominates the spirit world, the yellow and black king who reigns over good fortune, and the Dao standard that every living being pursues for eternity.
”My Lord dwells above the real and spiritual realms, and mercy is shed over heaven and earth, and there are six angels serving beside the seat of k ……
”‘The Angel of Mercury’ is the embodiment of destiny, and is My Lord’s favorite angel; ‘The Angel of Death’ is the being who has followed My Lord the longest, and is the consul of the underworld; ‘The Angel of Redemption ‘ is my Lord’s trumpet, the conveyor of k oracles; the ‘Angel of Life’ is the crystallization of wisdom, the never-ending spirituality within every human being.”
Hearing this, the youth gave a laugh:
”Your Lord is truly awesome, to have so many title angels serving him.”
”More than that.” The half-giant responded mildly, “Next to the Lord’s divine throne are the ‘Angels of Punishment,’ k being the Lord’s Thunder, the Lord’s Wrath, the Lord’s Hand, the Judge and Executioner of all the fallen and the unclean.
”Opposite the ‘Angel of Discipline’ are the ‘Angels of Time,’ k being the ‘kings’ of the ancient ages, who ultimately submit to our Lord and ring the heavenly of the bell.”
”Awesome, awesome.” That youth exclaimed heartily.
Hearing such a response, that half-giant couldn’t help but smile, and then described the various miracles that Mr. “Fool” had descended in as concise a manner as possible, and finally said:
”It’s already been a quarter of an hour, so I won’t waste your time, if you’re interested, you can go to the ‘Fool’s’ church at 16 Phillips Street to learn more about it, this is the largest church we have in the city of Byam, hehe, the others are still in the planning stage.”
The youth nodded:
”If I have some free time, I’ll take a look.”
After watching the half-giant turn and walk away, the youth smiled and pulled out a crystal-ground monocle from his coat pocket, putting it onto his right eye position.
……
The half-giant made his way back to the family restaurant and changed into his chef’s uniform.
”Badr, you’ve been preaching again?” The restaurant owner asked with a smile.
When the Guild recommended this half-giant to learn the art of cooking, he was still relatively resistant, always feeling that the other party could kill himself with a casual fling of his arm, and didn’t look like he had a talent for cooking.
But now, he was very satisfied with Badr, this half-giant was not only honest, obedient and able to suffer, but also had a strong deterrent effect, so that the villains on the street did not dare to hit the restaurant’s idea again.
The only problem was that Badr went out once a day in the morning to preach the “Fool” faith.
Of course, since this was outside of working hours, the owner couldn’t say anything and didn’t mind.
Smiling broadly, Baldur walked into the back of the kitchen and said to his best friend Boone, who had come to join him in the Moon City:
”I can teach you how to make grilled fish today.”
Boone, who looked more normal, except for his two eyes that looked awkward with one up and one down, and belonged to the type of Moon City people whose deformities were not too severe and who had the courage to communicate with people from the outside world, nodded at his words:
”I’ll have to say a prayer later. Mr. ‘Fool’ sent down an oracle for all Moon City people to wish to k at nine o’clock this morning for no more deformities.”