Volume 7 The Inverted Man Chapter 69 “Me”

　　I sat in a chair at the police station and watched the two men across from me in black and white checkered uniforms with their mouths alternately open and closed as if they were saying something.

　　The one on the left had a cold face, as if he had already seen too many misfortunes, and the one on the right was still a little green, with a hint of pity in his gaze.

　　I don’t feel pain, and I don’t regret that I stabbed that knife, at that moment, I even feel that I got relief, that the warm blood sprayed on me is just like the salvation given by the gods.

　　I only regretted that when I was young, I chased after money with such fervor, sacrificing my dignity, body and freedom.

　　During the last few days in the police station, I got enough peace to think deeply about this issue, more thoroughly than I had thought about it in the past years:

　　A lack of will and a lack of mental maturity were at the root of that mistake I made, but that doesn’t mean they were the whole story.

　　I’ve been taught since I was a child that hard work and struggle are for big houses, floor-to-ceiling windows with plenty of light, more than three servants, a garden and lawn all to myself, silver or gold-encrusted cutlery, dinner parties filled with good food, dances echoing with lively music, and so on and so forth.

　　The newspapers and magazines I read also told me over and over again that only by acquiring enough decency could one be called middle class, the pillars of the kingdom, the refined, the good, the not vulgar, the men of character, the men of compassion and knowledge at the same time.

　　At the same time, they tell me what decency is, and decency is a beautiful dress, clothing that matches according to different occasions, expensive skincare and cosmetics, a delicate and fashionable lady’s handbag, a concert, a meal of afternoon tea, a party full of style.

　　And all this translates into golden pounds, golden pounds, and golden pounds.

　　It must be admitted that the quest for a better life is the instinct of every human being, but when every aspect of a girl’s access to the world is telling her so, and when the prevailing mindset of the whole society is one of decency, sophistication, and refinement, it’s hard not to be influenced in her thinking.

　　I’m not sure what such a phenomenon is called, all I know is that if this doesn’t change, tragedies like mine are bound to continue to occur, more and more.

　　And at that time, there will surely be people raging:

　　”Look, these gold-digging ladies, they’ve sold their souls!”

　　Subconsciously, I turned my head to look out the window, and saw the wonderful and prosperous world, and the bright red blood flowing through it.

　　”Ms. Tracy, are you listening to us?” A voice pulled me back into my thoughts, from the somewhat youthful Mr. Policeman.

　　I smiled at him, not telling him that I had just been thinking about something philosophical.

　　It was ridiculous that a gold-digging girl who sold her soul would be thinking about something so boring while being questioned by a police officer.

　　The police gentleman nodded and said to me:

　　”Ms. Tracy, you’ll have to prepare for court next, and we’ll arrange a lawyer for you.”

　　”I’m sorry that there was not that witness left, only the statement, which is rather unfavorable to you.”

　　”That’s okay.” I told him calmly.

　　I would work hard to defend myself, and I would openly repent for the crimes I had committed, and I could only hope for a new life in the future.

　　I thought for a moment, cocked my head, and told the two officers:

　　”While waiting for court, could you check out a couple books from the library for me?”

　　”Well, Social Thought and Educational Phenomena ……”

　　In this moment, I saw the two officers a little bewildered and a little, well, awestruck.

　　……

　　I sat at the bottom of the long, mottled table and heard Ms. Judgement talking about Utopia.

　　When she finished, I looked around the room and whispered:

　　”It’s a ritual.”

　　Unsurprisingly, I saw Miss Judgement’s gaze freeze, and felt Mr. Hangman and Miss Justice look over, with a hint of speculation.

　　At this moment, I seemed to be able to guess what they were thinking:

　　They must have suspected that this was the Sequence 1 ceremony of “World” Germaine Sparrow, and they had already known through the internal communication of the Tarot Club that Sequence 1 could not exist in the presence of Sequence 0 True God.

　　I had already prepared an explanation for this matter, which was to ask them to think about the ancient sun god and the eight angelic kings of K.

　　Unfortunately, no one asked the question, they may have already thought of the angelic kings, or they may have thought that the rituals involved in Utopia were mainly to help Mr. Fool to recover further.

　　……

　　I looked at the beautiful woman who was quietly lost in thought, and asked after a moment of deliberation:

　　”Ms. Tracy, where do your parents live?”

　　”They have passed away ……” replied the beautiful woman whose soul no longer belonged here, her voice wavering a bit.

　　I looked down and recorded the words:

　　”Do you have any other relatives?”

　　The woman answered casually as she turned her head to look out the window:

　　”No. ……”

　　My coworker and I looked at each other and raised our voices:

　　”Ms. Tracy, are you listening to us?”

　　The woman across the room withdrew her gaze and smiled at me.

　　She wasn’t sure what she was thinking, quiet like a flower blooming alone at night.

　　The analogy came from a book of poetry, which my brother had told me that reading poetry made me more attractive.

　　Of course, up to now, that book of poems has brought me more ridicule than anything else, and my colleagues at the police station think it’s worthless.

　　After telling the woman across the street about the court appearance, I saw her give a light smile and request that we help her borrow some books from the library that I found difficult to read by their names.

　　The combination of that smile and the names of the books was unspeakably beautiful.

　　After returning Ms. Tracy to the temporary holding cell, I gathered up the case materials and prepared to visit the attorney, something that had been scheduled long ago.

　　……

　　I leaned back and listened to Emlyn “Moon” describe his dream.

　　According to Father Utravsky, the dream did not originate from the divine inspiration of “Mother Earth”.

　　This makes one look at the moon with suspicion, at the “fallen mother goddess”, and then encounter pollution …… I was almost amused by my own thoughts.

　　As a veteran “soothsayer” and master dream interpreter, I was not modest and frankly stated my own knowledge:

　　”Three possibilities, one is that this dream is inducing you to explore something, chase something, and in some way interfering with your destiny, two is that this dream wants you to go deeper to decipher it, to understand it, and then use it to little by little, imperceptible erosion of you, three is that you are too worried about the matter of the ‘beauty of God’ yourself , and so dreamed the most fearful scenes.”

　　”There is no need to speak of the third possibility; the response to the first two is the same; not to think about it, not to inquire into it, and needlessly not to leave Beckland.”

　　When I finished, I saw Emlyn nod without hesitation.

　　I knew this was his preferred way of dealing with the situation.

　　……

　　”A murder case?” I skimmed through the case information in my hand, expressing the question with a change in my trailing voice, “You should hire a barrister.”

　　I was only a solicitor, and technically not qualified to be in court at all.

　　Of course, this is only the strictest case, and does not actually exist; as long as the case is not too big and does not involve the criminal courts, solicitors are allowed to go to court to provide assistance.

　　The police officer in the black and white checkered uniform across the street piled on a smile and said:

　　”Utopia is only a small town, there are no barristers, you’ll have to hire them elsewhere.”

　　”Moreover, this case is prosecuted for self-defense, the sentence is very short, the amount of money involved is less than 400 pounds, can be placed in the magistrate’s court first, and then transferred to the criminal court when the judgment of self-defense is not established.”

　　Very understandable, are you trying to change your career to become a solicitor? However, normally, a homicide case prosecuted as a case of overdefense must also be handed over to the Crown Court, huh, this is the benefit of a small town, many things are not so strict …… I thought about it, “hmmm” a sound:

　　”Then I’ll try a not guilty plea.”

　　”Also, please arrange a time for me to meet that Miss Tracy as soon as possible.”

　　After going through the information just now, I already had a pretty good grasp of the case, and now the biggest question was whether or not that Miss Tracy’s image could trigger sympathy.

　　Well, even though my solicitor’s license was forged out of state, that doesn’t negate my professionalism, it just happened to be a mistake on that exam.

　　……

　　Banshee? Verdoux wants to go to Banshee? I sat at the bottom of the long, dappled table, looking at the “hanged man” reporting to Mr. Fool, wondering how things were going to work out.

　　Obsessed with the occult, want to use this to save Mr. “door” Verdoux does have a certain reason to explore the abandoned port of Bansi, moreover, he also lived in Bayam for almost half a year, access to the information of Bansi is really normal……. The main question is. The main problem is that the monitoring of the “inverted man” did not provide the corresponding signs, making Verdoux’s behavior seem a bit sudden …… This matter must raise the attention …… I nodded in my heart, the I heard Mr. “Fool” command:

　　”Continue monitoring.”

　　……

　　I played the seven-stringed zither by the fountain in the town square, I used a knife and fork to cut a steak, I spoke to the faithful in a church about the teachings of the Goddess, I stretched out my right hand and left the carriage with a gentleman’s help, I got my new dress that I had been waiting for and couldn’t wait to change into it, I was chased by a child on all fours, I laughed out loud, I stumbled, and played with a dog. ……

　　Suddenly, we all shook and looked up into the sky, seeing an illusory, thin thread burrowing out of ourselves, stretching to infinite heights, stretching above a grayish mist, stretching inside an ancient palace, and falling into the hands of a tall, insignificant figure shrouded in mist.

　　For some time now, Klein’s state had been marvelous, seeming to completely split into thousands of beings, each bilocation having its own will, thoughts, perceptions, and destiny.

　　However, above this multitude of consciousnesses, there existed a dominant main consciousness that was constantly subjected to all sorts of impacts, seemingly ready to be assimilated into the ocean of consciousnesses formed by itself, but in the end, they all persevered, allowing Klein to maintain a certain degree of lucidity.

　　His body had been lying in the ground of St. Arianna’s Church, and his consciousness had sometimes risen to the interior of the “Source Castle”, and sometimes sunk into his body.

　　Images of the experiences of the Secret Puppets continued to flash in his mind, like a dream made up of a large number of fragments.