Audrey decided on a gorgeous frilly dress for the outing, and the maidservants began to hurry to get her ready. Arrodes being a gentle-mirror promptly skipped the process of dressing up as the protagonist of the scene was a young lady and it wasn't appropriate to show her body to men and women alike.
The scene skipped to the part where Audrey and Earl Hall walked hand in hand next to each other while chatting happily to the carriage.
"Miss Justice has a good relationship with her father." Roselle said with a smile, looking like he was reminiscing a fond memory.
Audrey politely added to the small talk with the emperor like an experienced noble.
The scene changed to the sea as it seemed that the journey of father and daughter would take a while.
After Alger returned to the sea, he saw the shattered antique glass bottle.
He turned around and headed to the cabin, on the way he met another man wearing the same robe as himself and greeted him with the standard salute of the church of the storms.
After that he did not encounter any sailors on the way. In the cabin, behind the desk sat the captain who said to Alger as he walked towards him, "I will not give in!"
"I believe you can do it," Alger said calmly.
Then he grabbed the man, his right hand choking the captain's neck, illusory fish scales appeared on Alger's arm as he smashed the other guy on the wall. The wall cracked open from the impact and rainwater poured in.
Alger flung the man out of the cabin, straight into the giant waves of the ocean. He calmly wiped his hands with a handkerchief.
Everyone: "…"
Derrick: "That was a nice throw Mr. Hanged Man!"
Roselle wondered whether this guy was right in the head.
The man from before rushed in and asked, "What happened?"
"The 'captain' has escaped," Alger replied in annoyed manner as he panted. "I didn't know he still had some of his Beyonder powers."
"Damn it!" the guy cursed softly.
Klein smirked seeing that he's not the only one who's life will revealed. Alger tried not to look anywhere else except the screen. Over the years, he's been quite successful; he almost forgot he had his rookie days where he had to rely on acting to hide his actions.
The man tried to brush off the disappointment and be optimistic, "Forget it, we will still be rewarded for finding this ghost ship from the Tudor Era."
Benson and Melissa, the civilian kind of people, this was their first time seeing someone getting killed. It was a shocking to have a murderer sitting with them but seeing nobody batted an eye… The siblings wondered if these people considered it normal to react like nothing.
Bennet stood up and asked Alger who sat in the second row, right behind where Audrey and Susie were seated. "Why did you throw that uncle in the water?"
She looked up at him with shiny eyes and was genuinely curious.
Alger opened his mouth, but he didn't know how to start. He has a soft spot for kids but doesn't know how to handle them.
It was Klein who answered on his behalf, "Because he wanted to kill him."
Alger wished that Klein would just shut up. 'If you don't know then shouldn't you just keep quiet!'
Bennet turned to look at Klein and walked over to her seat between Will and Klein. Klein continued to speak after she was settled down.
"Sometimes, adults kill other people for many different reasons. Some kill for their own benefits while some have genuine reasons to do that, like, to protect themselves or others. Of course, everyone who kills have their reasons and we can't control that. Are you afraid?"
He asked the child who was only 6 years old but was old enough to understand the concept of killing. Bennet tilted her head and replied like she didn't understand why she should be afraid.
"Not really, he isn't killing anyone right now so I'm not afraid."
Klein wondered if there was anything amiss in his niece's moral compass. He laughed dryly, "If you know that someone killed someone, then you should stay away from them and tell a trusted adult. Every adult in this room except that weird guy with monocle is a trusted adult. They will all help you, alright?"
He was talking to Bennet, but the end sounded like an order to others to babysit his niece… Whatever, she's adorable so they'll protect her. They would do that even if she wasn't his niece anyway.
Bennet nodded and turned to look at the monocle uncle when Klein mentioned him. She saw he indeed looked weird sitting beside the pretty goddess sister.
Melissa and Benson wondered what kind of shit Klein was telling to a 6-year-old! But then they heard him say that everyone else is a trusted adult, trusted enough to tell if someone murdered anyone- didn't that imply that everyone else has killed too!
The oldest and youngest of the siblings looked at each other, their expressions like their previous worldviews were changing.
In the meantime, Alger's part was over and the scene shifted to Audrey once again.
At the imperial naval base, Pritz Harbor.
A crowd was gathered at the port, looking at the gigantic warship. Audrey, along with everyone else present were looking at the miracle of the mankind with awe.
The King's family and the special black armored cavalry appeared. The ceremony began and the prime minister Aguesid started his speech-
"Ladies and gentlemen, I believe you have witnessed…" etc. etc.
Emlyn was sleepy and the movie seemed boring to him. It wasn't exciting enough anymore, he yawned and seeing nobody paid attention to him, he leaned back and rested his head on the soft cushion.
Will raised his small and chubby hand and called out Arrodes' name, "Can I ask for a fast-forward?"
Fors looked at Will and also nodded her head discretely. And this was such a huge event back then that everyone in Backlund knew of it, so it didn't matter if this wasn't shown.
Arrodes the tablet was still on the table in front of Klein. Instead, it appeared on the screen, pausing the speech by the prime minister.
The text was a standard script in solid black font, two sentences appeared first.
"Based on the principle of reciprocity, you should answer my question for me to grant your request."
"If you lie then the request will not be fulfilled and you will lose your right to request."
New sentence appeared few seconds later, "Between Ice-cream and my dear master, Lord Klein, who would you choose?"
Will: "…"
"I'm a child, can't I choose both?" Will spoke with gritted teeth. He may look like a child but he is wayyy older than his looks! What's with teasing-the-child type of question!?
Another sentence appeared on the screen, "No. You can choose only one."
"Then I choose Klein." He said, indignant. "Because, he can provide me with ice-creams and other tasty food that's why I chose him." His voice grew softer as he spoke.
'Tsundere' thought Roselle and Klein.
With Will's answer the scene changed to the Moretti apartment.
Klein was woken up by hunger pangs. He rubbed his temples and sat up. Looking at the time in his pocket watch, he had slept for 3 hours.
He couldn't think about anything right now, mysticism, rituals, the grayish world, nothing. His mind was occupied by one thing– food!
He could only work well on a full stomach! Leave the thinking after meals!
He picked up the staple food used for rituals and through the memory and habits of original Klein, navigated through the chores.
Everyone saw Klein prepare boiled potatoes with salt as seasoning and eating it with bread like it was a delicacy.
They heard Klein mention Moretti family's eating habits and how meat could only be eaten twice a week and on special occasions. Like he's trying to familiarize himself with this lifestyle.
Melissa apologizes for managing the meals like that, thinking that she was really stingy.
Benson and Klein reassure her that it was necessary to manage the income that way, otherwise they wouldn't be able to eat for next month if their income was all used up on meals only.
Although Klein was eating with gusto, he still felt that so much was missing. He missed the food from his original world, the seasonings and spices…
Audrey looked at Klein who was chewing with food filled in his cheeks. He looked like a hamster, really adorable. She added another thing that she'll do after returning. That is– buying Klein whatever he wanted to eat.
She glanced at Leonard and by the look on his face, she knew that he was thinking the same as hers. She didn't really like sharing her stuff with others but, since she liked Leonard too, she doesn't mind letting him share Klein with her.
Klein tidied up and sat on his desk.
'I can't escape. I must think of a way to come into contact with mysticism and become a Beyonder as mentioned by Justice and The Hanged Man.
I need to overcome my fear of unknown.
But before that, I need to figure out why Klein committed suicide? What happened to him?'
He decided to wait four more days for the next gathering and see if he can find the formula or other things related to mysticism.
Unable to transmigrate back and wash his hands of everything, Klein could only continue living here and find some hints that could help him regain his lost memory fragments.
He picked up the original owner's diary. He had a habit of writing diaries; his cabinet was filled with a whole stack of completed notebooks.
Klein began reading the ongoing notebook, quickly flipping pages like he was merely glancing at them.
But hearing Klein's thoughts whenever a relevant entry was seen, they knew that he was reading every sentence. His reading speed and ability was surprising for others because Klein should be new to the language.
But this guy was able to adapt so quickly… he really wasn't normal. Or, were everyone from his era this capable?
Leonard saw Klein seriously flipping through pages. He often saw him work at the Tingen security company and was familiar with his habits so he wasn't surprised.
He asked Klein, "So you really didn't remember?"
Klein looked at him with dissatisfied expression, "What? You thought I was lying?"
Leonard shrugged, "Well, you've hidden a lot of things so…" he dragged his tone.
Klein: "That's not lying though."
Leonard: "Not entirely the truth either."
Klein: "So what?"
Pallez sighed 'I'm too old for this,' and then he hit Leonard on the back of his head. "Let others watch quietly or take your lover's quarrel elsewher-" he stopped suddenly.
After coughing lightly, he said he wasn't used to having so many people hear him talk, only Leonard could hear him usually so he got carried away.
'Almost got into trouble! I should rein in my tongue!' Pallez scolded himself. Even if the Klein in front of them behaved friendly, he was a God. He couldn't poke fun at a God!
He turned to look at Klein who has finished bickering with his brat and was leaning into his seat with a suspicious redness on his cheeks.
'His personality is more like a human than a God, but it's better to not provoke him,' the old man thought.
The diary was done reading.
It can be summarized into: Klein and his friends found an ancient book from the Tudor dynasty, tried to decipher it, experienced strange things because of it, were eventually killed.
Looking at Klein who flipped to the last written page with the entry for June 27th everyone could more or less guess the reason for the original Klein's shocking statement "Everyone will die, including me"
Benson and Melissa also realized what happened to their brother. Just finding a book and looking into mysticism led to their brother's death.
Fors was extremely interested into the mystery of the original Klein's death, she has been watching attentively ever since 'Tudor dynasty' and 'Hornacis mountain range' were mentioned.
She couldn't help but ask, "So, how exactly did he die? If he went to his friend, Welch's place, then he should be at his own home at the time of his death."
Klein turned to look at the excited novelist Fors then turned towards Leonard.
Leonard smiled and told her, "Don't worry, the case will progress soon after this."
He looked excited, not because of the plot but because he is going to appear soon. It'll be his turn to shine.
Klein couldn't think of many solutions.
Call the police perhaps? But claiming to have committed suicide would be silly, right…
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Someone was knocking on the door. Klein sat up immediately.
"Who is it?" he subconsciously opened the drawer, took out the revolver, and asked vigilantly.
Two seconds later, the person outside replied, "It's me, Bitsch Mountbatten."
After a pause he added, "The police."
Klein was reminded of the rude and hands-on policeman of their area. He responded loudly, "Okay, I'll be right there!"
He was afraid that police might search the room so he hid the revolver in the extinguished gas stove and covered it with coal to conceal it.
After doing all that, he approached the door and murmured, "Sorry, I just had a nap."
Notes: