Lord of the Mysteries

Above the gray fog, in the palace with the towering dome.

The Fool Klein glanced at The Sun, who had been pulled up ahead of time, as well as The World who had been conjured in advance. Emanating a little bit of his spirituality, he made contact with the crimson star representing Justice, The Hanged Man, The Magician, The Moon, and The Hermit.

Beams of light rose up as relatively blurry figures appeared on the two sides of the long bronze table.

Justice Audrey, who had just returned from a tree farm leading to the castle, had already changed into a dress. Her sleeves were layered in laces that were filled with lustrous pearls.

Like clockwork, she stood up, lifting the corners of her skirt as she curtsied.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Fool~”

Klein instantly felt better as he nodded with a smile in response.

Meanwhile, he couldn’t help but sigh.

To act like a tycoon costs so much money. I wonder how huge the expenditures are for a noble like Miss Justice…

After all the members exchanged greeting nods, he looked at The Hermit, as he knew that this pirate admiral would likely provide him with new Roselle diary entries.

As he had expected, Cattleya spoke out:

“Mr. Fool, I only managed to find one page of Roselle’s diary.”

Just one page? Shouldn’t Queen Mystic be able to produce an entire book anytime she wants? Klein, who had been met with repeated tribulations recently, remained composed as he nodded.

“That won’t be a problem.”

Cattleya immediately conjured a yellowish-brown diary page. It then seemed to tear through the spirit world and enter Mr. Fool’s hands.

Klein deliberately looked down, and he was surprised to discover that the beginning of the diary entry didn’t have a date.

That means that it’s a second page from another diary page… Why didn’t Bernadette give me the first page? She should be able to figure out dates. After all, Old Neil succeeded… Did she not? Or were the diary pages thrown into a mess, and she wasn’t able to restore them to the correct order? Does this mean that Emperor Roselle’s belongings were vied for by various factions after his death? Some were lost, and at that time, Bernadette was unable to stop them. Only when she became Queen Mystic did she have the ability to get involved… As Klein guessed, he quickly began reading the content on the piece of paper.

“How surprising. The Fourth Epoch history divulged by Mr. Door is getting more and more interesting.

“This unlucky b*stard who’s trapped amidst the storm and lost to the depths of darkness told me that the Black Emperor died once and had revived again.

“Surprisingly, this matches what was said in that ancient secret organization. Back during that gathering, they said that the nine secret mausoleums of the Black Emperor weren’t all destroyed. Even if this deity who walked the land were to perish, ‘He’ could resurrect.

“Even if all nine mausoleums were destroyed, as long as the order left behind by the Black Emperor remained, ‘He’ had the ability to strangely resurrect. Only with the birth of a new Black Emperor would he be completely obliterated, never to appear again.

“According to Mr. Door’s description, the Black Emperor had three stages in the process of ‘His’ resurrection. First is that the Uniqueness leaves the person possessing it, turning into an abstract concept. Second is when the subjects of the Black Emperor hear ‘His’ mighty voice again. The third is that, when fused with the Uniqueness, the Black Emperor would reappear in the astral world. The three Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics would automatically be returned into the emperor’s hands. This is an order that other true deities are unable to distort or prevent.

“This way, the Sequence 1 Prince of Disorder of this pathway, Blood Emperor, and Night Emperor would be in a rather awkward situation. They might instantly perish, falling back to Sequence 2. Mr. Door said that back then, the Lord of Storms and the Evernight Goddess had chosen the Night Emperor. They helped ‘Him’ switch to a neighboring pathway—the Judgment pathway. As such, the Tudor-Trunsoest United Empire fractured.

“And Blood Emperor Alista Tudor, who was pushed into a corner, made a crazy decision. It was to switch to a non-neighboring Beyonder pathway. He paid the cost of losing his reasoning, becoming a lunatic so as to forcefully advance and become a true god.

“I have to say that this decision is filled with irrationality. It’s almost impossible for it to happen, but Mr. Door told me that Alista Tudor eventually succeeded. The craziest true god was born!

“It’s truly fascinating, but Mr. Door didn’t go into the details since he kept it from me.

“I asked him which was worse—lunacy or death. ‘He’ said that it was an obvious choice, death, because as long as one was alive, it wasn’t impossible to recover even if one was completely mad.

“‘He’ laughed and gave an example. A crazy true god could use ‘His’ instinct to mate with all kinds of living beings, giving birth to all kinds of descendants. Through this process, if ‘He’ was lucky enough, the conflicting Beyonder characteristics would be purged. The lunacy would slowly disappear with time as ‘He’ improves bit by bit.

“Mr. Door deliberately didn’t say if there would be any remnant problems, nor did he explain why almost no one made such a choice, but I could tell that there was definitely some huge hidden risks.

“I have to say, Mr. Door’s understanding of true gods far exceeds my imagination. Before ‘He’ was exiled, ‘He’ might’ve made an attempt to reach Sequence 0… It’s no wonder ‘He’ shows such contempt to Zaratul, and he has zero respect for the various true gods.

“This only makes me more unwilling to let ‘Him’ return to the real world.”

There’s plenty of information… It’s no wonder that Bernadette deliberately chose this diary page… Wait, why did she choose this page? What important meaning is there behind it? Did problems begin to slowly happen to Emperor Roselle from that day until he eventually went mad? Mad…

Could it be… No way… Roselle’s situation back then was similar to Blood Emperor Alista Tudor. His pathway was severed, and the neighboring pathways were blocked by either people or items, making it difficult to reach them… C-could it be that under the immense stress, he made an irrational choice like Blood Emperor, and he had attempted to switch to a non-neighboring pathway?

This way, the craziness in his later years was a result of him truly losing his reasoning, not a result of the defamation from others. It’s no wonder Bernadette hated and betrayed him but is also trying to figure out the truth… From this angle, certain things have become very interesting. Roselle forcefully ascended to the throne and declared himself emperor, his declaration of the Civil Code, using the order from Earth’s 18th and 19th century to replace the existing order. He wantonly spread his speeches and promoted his sense of aesthetics…

Heh heh, I really belittled this “senior” of mine. I always thought he was cosplaying Napoleon or Caesar for his own entertainment. So it was him making preparations to become the Black Emperor… No, I saw a few pages of his diary back then. His thought processes were clear, and his emotions were stable. He could even communicate with various noblewomen of different ages…

Hmm, he might not have made the final decision back then but was subconsciously leaving a way out for himself?

The Civil Code probably wasn’t deliberate. As a usurper to the throne, declaring new laws is necessary, and from what he could use for reference, the Civil Code was what matched the situation and flow of history…

The actions of him declaring himself emperor later on must be something Bernadette found incomprehensible. She found it difficult to accept… As Roselle’s most beloved child, she probably noticed certain abnormalities with her father before he declared himself king. Hence, she chose the longest diary page during that period of the emperor’s life to give to Admiral of Stars… Klein couldn’t help but make connections, as though the heavy history hidden deep in the fog was being turned over to reveal a page filled with blood and iron.

This made him curious about the final trigger that made Roselle go mad.

Meanwhile, he also resolved some of his puzzlement.

So the resurrection of the Black Emperor is done this way. It’s very similar to my previous guess…

In the Fourth Epoch, there was actually a Tudor-Trunsoest United Empire which was supported by the six deities like the Lord of Storms and the Evernight Goddess… The two thrones in the ruins in Williams Street can be explained then, as it belonged to the United Empire…

According to Mr. Door, the six deities chose the Night Emperor, resulting in the United Empire fracturing. Then, who helped the Blood Emperor capture or kill the three Sequence 1 Hunters? Among them, Red Angel Medici was likely stronger than the Blood Emperor from back then… Primordial Demoness? Death? Primordial Moon? Dark Side of the Universe? Mother Tree of Desire?

Klein tried listing possibilities for his guesses, but he had nowhere to begin.

He quickly made the diary disappear as he smiled at The Hermit.

“What’s your request?”

Cattleya frankly answered without holding back, “Is there someone else apart from Emperor Roselle mentioned in this diary entry?”

This question made Audrey turn to look at Mr. Fool. Her eyes sparkled as they were filled with curiosity. Even her ears seemed to prick up.

Alger was also very interested in the matter. That person definitely wouldn’t be an ordinary person to be mentioned in Emperor Roselle’s diary!

Klein could guess at their thoughts as he couldn’t help but lampoon inwardly.

It’s only because this diary entry was specially selected by Bernadette. If it were any other entries, I’d have to tell you that the other people mentioned are Demoness A, Demoness B, Hunter A, Hunter B, some aristocratic ma’am, some aristocratic lady…

After two seconds of consideration, Klein, who was leisurely leaning back into his chair, replied with a smile, “Mr. Door.”

Mr. Door… To be addressed by Mr. Fool in such a manner, it must be an existence that’s close to a god, right? Audrey figured out Mr. Door’s status from the tone and words used as she obtained an affirmative answer.

Cattleya and company also had similar ideas, but no one knew who Mr. Door was. They looked at each other only to be met with the shaking of heads.

Seeing Fors and the other members have a uniform reaction, Klein deliberately looked at the lady and chuckled.

“You shouldn’t be a stranger towards ‘Him.’”

“Ah?” Fors wore a confounded look.

She didn’t feel like she knew a so-called Mr. Door.

This person seemed to be of a very high level!