Lord of the Mysteries

Above the gray fog, inside the palace that looked like a giant’s residence.

The Moon Emlyn thought hard about what part of the Sanguine’s history that he should tell The Fool.

He and the Ancestor are old friends, so “He” must know what happened before the Cataclysm, so I don’t need to repeat it… In the Fourth and Fifth Epoch, the glory of the Sanguine wasn’t rare, and there was a lot of history to talk about, but there was only one most important point… Emlyn quickly came up with an idea.

From what he knew, The Fool was likely an ancient god before the Cataclysm. Due to certain reasons, he didn’t perish and had slept till today, gradually in the process of recovering.

This explained why no such secret existence had appeared in the Sanguine records, that had a history spanning millennia, until ‘His’ honorific name suddenly spread.

After some deliberation, Emlyn straightened his back and said, “After the Cataclysm, the Sanguine left the center of the historical stage of the Northern and Southern Continents and became nobles of different empires and dynasties as individuals instead of as a race. They either governed a territory or guarded a castle in a key area.

“This continued until our queen, Blood Moon Queen, Auernia, who led us out of the era of darkness, became the wife of the Trunsoest Dynasty’s Night Emperor. She gathered all of the Sanguine together and the Sanguine became important supporters of the dynasty. At that time, Loen’s Augustus and Feysac’s Einhorn had to politely address our queen as ‘Her Majesty.’

“In that era, Queen Auernia was the symbol of beauty. If there was a magic mirror that could answer questions, then the answer to ‘who is the most beautiful of them all’ would be her…”

The more Emlyn spoke, the prouder he became. He went from being reserved and serious to becoming extremely talkative.

A magic mirror that can answer questions; isn’t that Arrodes? I wonder if there are any members of the Machinery Hivemind who were so bored out of their minds to ask the question, ‘Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all’… I wonder how Arrodes will answer. Klein sat in the same posture, smiling as his thoughts wandered.

After droning on and on, Emlyn’s expression turned serious.

“All of this shattered in the War of the Four Emperors. The Night Emperor perished, along with the queen. The Sanguine suffered a terrible blow, and while trying to reap the final fruits of victory, the four noble families—Augustus, Einhorn, Sauron, and Castiya⁠—split the empire, destroying the royal family which was lacking in high-level beings. The Sanguine had no choice but to retreat to an uninhabited mountain to hide in the shadows so as to maintain the continuation of our race.”

Just as I expected… The seven gods were already the seven gods during the War of the Four Emperors… Klein thought of the statue of the six gods in the Tudor ruins.

“Fortunately, the seven gods were fractured back then and the four countries attacked each other. After paying a certain price, we finally escaped the disaster.” At this moment, Emlyn was in a rare state of being roused.

He looked at Klein and said, “Honorable Mr. Fool, do you have the time to listen to my description of Blood Moon Queen’s deeds and the glory the Sanguine used to have? That will be a heavy tome formed by pages of glorious expositions. I can repeat everything in them.”

It looks like you can continue on indefinitely… I used to think that you were a vampire who liked puppets and didn’t know much history. I didn’t expect you to be so professional and academic… No wonder you always believed the Sanguine to be noble and are proud of it… This kind of guy who doesn’t like going out really will delve into deep research into a topic he’s interested in. Furthermore, vampires have a sufficiently long lifespan… Klein hesitated, prepared to decline Emlyn’s offer in a euphemistic manner.

Although he had no lack of interest in the history, time didn’t allow him to listen to them all.

“It’s enough.” Klein smiled and said, “I like a fair and equal exchange, so I won’t let you say anything without reaping rewards. In the future, when you have the chance, you can use your relevant history to trade for what you want from me.”

“… Alright.” Emlyn felt lost for a moment.

This was the first time he had the opportunity to tell someone else about the glory of the Sanguine.

Normally, in order to hide his identity, he wouldn’t be able to show off to the humans. As for the members of the Sanguine, all of them knew what needed to be known, and he wasn’t in charge of educating the newborns.

Klein didn’t say anything else and resumed his supercilious attitude.

“Alright, you can go back now.”

A dark red light immediately lit up in front of Emlyn White’s eyes, quickly devouring him.

After a short period of dizziness, he found that he was still sitting in the rental carriage.

Soon after, he saw an illusory goatskin parchment and gained the knowledge of how to request help from The Fool via a secret deed ritual.

When I’m free in the afternoon, I’ll immediately hold the ritual at home and ask Mr. Fool to dispel my psychological cue… Emlyn was suddenly excited.

He waited until the carriage arrived at the Harvest Church before calming down and paying for the ride.

After entering the cathedral, he was relieved to see that Bishop Utravsky was there preaching to the few believers of the Church. He no longer felt as vexed as he usually felt and felt rather relaxed.

In this state, he suddenly thought of something.

Father Utravsky has never seemed to stop me from finding a way to dispel the psychological cues… What exactly is on his mind…

…

East Borough, in a greasy coffee shop.

Klein, who arrived at the scheduled time, was enjoying wheat bread with fresh pea lamb stew while he listened to Old Kohler’s report of the information he had gathered over the past week.

It was a pity that there was no valuable information inside.

When Old Kohler was done, Klein thought for a moment, then he pulled out two pounds worth of bills and pushed them over.

“You already paid me just now!” Old Kohler jumped in shock and waved his hands in front of him.

Klein chuckled and said, “Within this week, I’ll be heading south for a holiday. After a year of hard work, it’s time to rest for a while.

“I might take two to three weeks before I return, so I’ll pay you in advance. Heh heh, don’t forget to help me gather information.”

“Okay, okay!” Old Kohler accepted the notes with a mixture of joy and gratitude.

At this moment, he had already thought of how to spend the New Year.

He planned to buy the cured ham he had been reluctant to buy and match it with his bread.

I really can’t stand the wait… Thank you, Detective Moriarty! He swallowed his saliva without realizing it.

Klein picked up his hat, hesitated for a moment, and said, “You should’ve noticed that East Borough has been a bit chaotic recently.

“Don’t take risks just to find out more information. If you notice anything wrong, immediately hide and avoid getting yourself involved.”

He was rather worried about the matter surrounding Prince Edessak, so he wanted to give Old Kohler a reminder.

“I understand.” Old Kohler patted his chest and said, “I’m very timid. I won’t take the risk.”

“Very good,” Klein praised.

Then he remembered the laundry maid, Liv, and her two daughters, Freja and Daisy, who loved to read, and wanted to change their fates before he said whilst in thought, “Watch out for Liv’s family. Don’t let them be bullied. If there are any outbreaks in East Borough, take them to a safe place.”

“Outbreaks… You mean the workers’ resistance?” Old Kohler asked, puzzled.

“More or less,” Klein answered vaguely.

This was the limit of what he could reveal; otherwise, it would be very easy for him to be suspected by others or the Sealed Artifact itself.

…

In a room with large and small dolls, Emlyn White came home at noon and sat in his chair, enjoying the gloom created by the curtains.

He looked around and clenched his fists.

“I’ll cheer for myself!”

With that, he rummaged for materials with spirituality and began to write the honorific name of The Fool, as well as the corresponding symbols and magic labels.

After some hustling and bustling, he tried the secret deed ritual. His spirituality gradually dissipated, as if he had arrived at an immeasurably high place.

Vaguely, he saw countless shadows of ineffable shapes, seven colors of light that seemed to contain immense knowledge, and the grayish-white fog that stood above everything.

Above the boundless gray fog, there was an ancient palace that was impossible to see clearly. Seated inside the palace was a person shrouded in gray fog.

Then, Emlyn saw a figure of golden majesty and holiness, as well as black wings that blotted out the sky behind it.

He didn’t even have time to count the number of pairs of mysterious wings before he felt himself quickly floating upwards, making contact with that golden figure.

“Ah!”

He screamed miserably as he held his head and rolled on the ground, emitting green smoke from his body.

It took a while for Emlyn to calm down, and then he heard the deep voice of The Fool echo in his ears.

“Your psychological cue has been lifted.”

Is this what it feels like to dispel a psychological cue? It’s really painful… Emlyn sat on the floor, panting, his neatly combed hair falling in disarray.

Atop the gray fog, Klein thoughtfully nodded and said to himself, “Indeed, the Sun Brooch’s purifying and dispelling effects can also harm vampires.”

He had calculated in advance that the “sunlight” needed to remove the weakened psychological cue wouldn’t severely damage Emlyn, so he couldn’t be bothered switching to a more complicated approach. And now, the result was indeed consistent with his expectations.

After taking care of this matter, Klein took off the topaz pendant on his left wrist and planned to perform a divination.

“It is suitable to head to the Red Rose Manor this afternoon.”

After chanting seven times in his mind, he opened his eyes and saw the spirit pendulum standing still and not spinning.

The difficulty of divining something that involves a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact or a corresponding powerhouse is too high. I’m unable to obtain any effective revelations… Klein sighed, knowing the gist of the matter.

Then, he started to divine if it would be suitable to head to Red Rose Manor tomorrow afternoon, but he received the same signs of failure as an outcome.

It’s always said that divination isn’t omnipotent, and it has now been proven… I have to decide on my own… I have to take this step; otherwise, there’s no way for me to leave the stage unnoticed so as to go behind the scenes… The earlier the better, I can’t delay it; otherwise, this matter might become completely impossible to recover from… As his thoughts churned, Klein came to a decision.

He immediately returned to the real world, put on his double-breasted frock coat and half top hat, and he walked out of 15 Minsk Street, heading for Prince Edessak’s Red Rose Manor.