Lord of the Mysteries

The visitor was a man in a dark green postman uniform. He smiled at Klein in a fawning manner.

“Are you Mr. Sherlock Moriarty?” he asked.

“Yes.” Klein could vaguely guess the purpose of the other person’s visit.

The visitor raised his right hand and handed over a palm-sized item that was wrapped in layers of black gauze.

“Please sign and accept your package.”

Klein deliberately revealed his doubts.

“Shouldn’t you give me a slip and let me go to the corresponding post office for collection?”

The Loen Kingdom’s postal system was a perfect replica of the Intis system, and even the flaws were copied quite significantly. Anything that couldn’t be stuffed directly into the mailbox, no matter what it was, would only be given a “collection slip” by the postman, making the recipient go through the hassle of collecting it himself.

“… Haha, because it’s rather precious, so I have to personally deliver it to you,” the postman said after a momentary shock.

It seems you’re not professional enough to be a real postman… Without further questions, Klein accepted the package, pen, and slip before signing them.

He closed the door and returned to the living room. He didn’t rush to open the package, but he took out a gold coin and threw it into the air.

Pa!

Klein caught the gold coin and looked down to see if it was heads or tails.

A number faced up, indicating a negative response. There’s no latent danger…Klein nodded slightly and put away the gold coin. He touched the paper figurine in his pocket and carefully opened the package.

After one layer after another of black gauze was removed, the objects inside clearly presented themselves to him. They were a pale gold-colored, elegantly patterned pocket watch; a handkerchief stained with dark red blood; seven or eight brown short curly hair tied together; and a stack of notes.

Talim’s belongings, his hair, his blood, and his daily records, are all present… Prince Edessak sure is a very efficient man. It’s not even nighttime… Klein looked at the items on the coffee table and suddenly felt that there were many people staring at him at that very moment.

An ancient Angel Family with a heritage of more than two thousand years would definitely have an unimaginable background. Being involved with the royal family’s internal strife makes it possible for me to be pulverized at any moment and anywhere… Maybe I’m already being monitored now… I have to appear mediocre and useless enough, to ensure my safety… Klein had already decided what to do, so he took his time checking the pocket watch, handkerchief, and hair.

During this process, his spiritual intuition didn’t give him any warnings, nor did it prevent him from attempting divination.

After having a better grasp on the situation, Klein took out the letter, picked up a pen, and wrote his divination sentence:

“The true cause of Talim Dumont’s death.”

He acted big-hearted and poised, as though he didn’t feel that he was being monitored at that very moment.

Picking up the curly hair and handkerchief, Klein chanted the divination sentence while leaning back against the back of the sofa. His eyes turned deep as he entered Cogitation.

After repeating it seven times, he came to the dream world and saw the familiar lobby of the Quelaag Club.

And then he saw Talim Dumon clutch at his heart, his face contorted once again.

“This revelation shows that Talim did die of a sudden heart disease…” Klein opened his eyes and muttered softly to himself.

He frowned, wearing a puzzled, confused, and thoughtful expression.

He tried several different divination statements and received the same result.

He got up and paced back and forth several times.

He punched himself in the head, as though he was angry that he wasn’t good enough to help his friend or find out who the culprit was.

In the end, he dejectedly sat down and didn’t move for a long time. In the dark room, he was like the silhouette of a stone statue.

That should be enough. I can’t go overboard… If there’s no one monitoring me, then I would’ve been fighting with the air just now… Klein shook his head in a self-deprecating manner, got up, and walked to the kitchen.

After dinner, he seemed to perk up again before he read the stack of notes carefully, including what Talim had done and who he had met on the day and the days prior to his death.

Home, Red Rose Manor, Quelaag Club, Viscount Conrad’s mansion… There’s nothing out of the ordinary about it… Klein picked up a sharpened pencil and drew circles, marking out the places he would visit and the targets he would ask about in the next few days.

After doing all of this, he let out a long sigh. Without confidence, he packed up his things, washed up, and went to bed.

In the middle of the night, when the red moon was hidden by layers of clouds, Klein suddenly opened his eyes and woke up.

He got out of bed, opened the door slowly, and went into the bathroom next door, hiding himself with a Paper Figurine Substitute in the process.

Walking four steps counterclockwise, he arrived above the gray fog and sat down at the seat which belonged to The Fool.

His eyes had become clear, no longer dispirited, dejected, and pessimistic.

Soon after, Klein took the blood-stained handkerchief from a hidden pocket in his pajamas made out of old clothes.

When he was packing his things, he had used his Beyonder powers as a Magician to hide the handkerchief on his body.

After taking a deep breath, Klein conjured a pen and paper, and he wrote down the divination sentence that was no different from the beginning:

“The true cause of Talim Dumont’s death.”

After he repeated it seven times with his body and mind in peace and quiet, he leaned back in his chair with the paper and handkerchief in his hand and fell asleep in the silent and empty old palace.

In a gray, separated, and illusory world, Klein saw a completely different scene from before.

Presented before his eyes was a palm-sized wooden puppet, carved with eyes, a nose, and a mouth.

There were a few drops of dark red blood on the puppet’s body, giving it a demonic appearance.

A palm stretched out. The skin was white and exquisite, smooth, and beautiful, with five slender and delicate fingers that accentuated the hand’s flesh and bones.

The most eye-catching thing was a unique ring with an inlaid sapphire on the hand’s pinky finger.

Pa!

The hand’s index finger was wreathed in black flames as it pointed at the heart of the wooden puppet.

Without a sound, the scene shattered and Klein woke up from his dream.

His initial judgment wasn’t wrong. Talim had died under a curse!

But there was a problem. He had already seen the scene of the curse happening, so why wasn’t the scene displayed in its entirety?

The mysterious space above the gray fog is able to get rid of all interference… Klein was puzzled for a moment.

Normally speaking, receiving a revelation that too abstract and easy to misread was a problem with his limited divination abilities. It meant that the difficulty of the matter he was divining was too high and that it had nothing to do with the gray fog. It was an understandable outcome, but he had clearly seen the scene of the murderous curse, but he was limited to a small scope of the situation. It didn’t provide a relatively effective revelation and was rather baffling.

Have I… encountered such a similar situation in the past? Klein dug through his past experiences.

Suddenly, he sat up straight, remembering a similar experience.

In Tingen, when he was divining the real reason behind the countless coincidences, something similar had happened!

He could clearly see the house with the red chimney, but he couldn’t reach Ince Zangwill and Sealed Artifact 0-08!

Th-this is the power of someone or something that’s at the level of a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact that’s resisting the power of the gray fog? Klein’s eyes abruptly narrowed.

No, not necessarily. There are still quite a few possibilities. I have to confirm it again!He put in a lot of effort in order to calm down.

As for the method used for confirming, it wasn’t daunting for the experienced him. The method was simple—redoing the same divination again.

If the revelation doesn’t change, it means that things aren’t so terrible, and if divination is no longer successful, then something around the target or the target is resisting the gray fog to some extent, like 0-08!

Taking a deep breath, Klein calmly repeated the previous divination.

“The true cause of Talim Dumont’s death.”

…

He leaned back in his chair and chanted in a low voice, his eyes growing darker.

In the dream, all he could see was a hazy, shattered gray fog. There were no more wooden puppets or fingers.

Whoosh!

Klein straightened his back, his expression abnormally grave.

What did Talim get himself involved in? he frowned as he muttered to himself.

There’s no question as to what I should do next. It’s to be passive and perfunctory. I’ll first lie to Prince Edessak before telling him that I’m incapable of figuring out the truth.

Phew, this world is really scary. Just the slightest bit of carelessness would cause me to come into contact with something extremely terrifying… Klein sighed. Without daring to stay any longer, he quickly returned to the bathroom in the real world.

…

Tuesday, 9 a.m. at the Crown Cemetery.

Klein stood at the edge of the crowd, wearing a black shirt, black vest, and a black tweed coat whilst he was carrying some fresh flowers he bought for 12 soli. He looked gravely at Talim Dumont’s coffin being carried over, had his soul put to rest, and was buried bit by bit into the earth.

During this process, Talim’s mother’s eyes were red and swollen. She wanted to speak a few times, but she couldn’t find her voice. His father’s hair was gray, and his expression was haggard. He just stood there, trembling slightly.

When the scene reflected in his eyes, Klein tilted his head back and closed his eyes.

He waited until the mourners had left before he walked over, bent over, and placed the white flowers on top of the others.

I’m sorry… he silently said inwardly.

Standing up, he stepped aside and was about to leave when Klein noticed Reporter Mike and Surgeon Aaron, closing in.

“What a pity. I never thought that Talim would actually… actually… Sigh…” Mike’s expression was pained as he couldn’t finish his sentence.

Aaron, who was always cold, took off his glasses and wiped the corners of his eyes. He sighed and said, “He’s a warmhearted guy. He shouldn’t have ended up like this.”

“Yes, he could’ve gotten rid of his grandfather’s bad reputation,” Klein echoed.

Just then, he saw a female figure in a thick black dress with a veil covering her face walk up to Talim’s grave. She, too, was also carrying a bouquet of white flowers.

Klein looked away, not paying much attention, just keeping watch through the corner of his eye.

The woman bent down to release the flower, revealing her left palm, which was covered by a black gauze glove.

A blue gem faintly appeared on the pinky of her left palm.

Klein’s scalp tingled instantly.

His entire body felt numb.