Fors stared at the words again and again, a little stunned.
This kind of thing should be an order from the Sovereign of the Stars, telling her to carry out a task.
That was normal, accepting the Sovereign of the Stars' protection always required doing something for them in return.
But just moments ago she still fancied herself a devout follower of the Sovereign of the Stars, and now, in the blink of an eye, They wanted her to offer prayers to another unknown, mysterious existence.
Although it didn't demand her swear allegiance, the feeling was strange, as if she were a newly recruited member in a novel being given an assignment to infiltrate another organization as a spy.
That sort of plot often appears between police forces and evil organizations. She had once imagined a similar scenario for fun, but she never thought her daydream would come true.
It seemed she was about to begin a life of undercover work.
She had no idea what kind of big shot "The Fool" was, to merit the Sovereign of the Stars delivering an oracle and sending their faithful to go undercover and gather intelligence.
"I'll follow the Sovereign of the Stars' guidance."
Fors memorized every word and signified that she accepted the task; only then did the letters of starlight disperse and the starry sky vanish.
"No matter what, this is the first mission They have assigned to me, asking me to go undercover is also a sign of trust in my devotion."
Fors muttered to herself, firming her resolve; she would investigate everything she could about the Fool for the sake of the Stars.
"'The Mysterious Ruler above the Gray Fog', that sounds shady."
"'The King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck' , that's the usual disguise evil gods use. They always like to use descriptions like that to tempt those desperately seeking help."
"The Fool is probably some kind of evil god. My undercover mission is a difficult but righteous thing!"
Fors pumped herself up, planning to attempt praying to the Fool tomorrow night; if anything went wrong she would report back to the Sovereign of the Stars immediately.
"Hmm , I should find some related books to study, get familiar with how to be a proper undercover. If my identity is exposed, my first mission will fail."
After thinking for a moment, Fors got out of bed and opened her door.
Xio, who had been waiting nearby outside the door, complained with displeasure, "Why did it take so long this time? I thought something had happened to you."
"I just took a little nap while I waited," Fors offered casually.
Xio stared at Fors for a while, hesitant; she wanted to ask something but stopped with the words on her lips.
"What's wrong?" Fors noticed Xio's odd behavior.
Xio thought for a moment, then decided to say something she had kept in for a long time.
"Fors, I know you worship some mysterious being that provides you shelter. I don't know whether that being is connected to the Stars, but I just hope you'll be careful from now on."
"Mm, I'll be careful. I won't go out unless there's something important."
Fors was a little surprised at Xio's perceptiveness, but she knew the increasingly turbulent situation in Backlund lately had led Xio to make that connection.
"You hardly go out anyway," Xio laughed, feeling much more relaxed.
She had been the one to introduce Fors to Hastur, so although she didn't know the full details, recent events naturally made her think back to that matter.
Counting carefully, the timings weren't far apart.
Fors smiled and said, "From now on you'll have to buy the groceries every day, I really should go out as little as possible."
"That's only a few steps away!"
"Even one step counts as going out."
"..." Thinking about having to do the grocery runs every day made Xio's expression fall; she wished she had said nothing earlier.
....
Hastur had thought long and hard before deciding to let Fors join the Tarot Club.
He needed someone to watch Klein's movements for him.
Not necessarily to aid Klein, but to use the Tarot Club to learn where the world-line was heading; that would help him judge the current situation.
On the other hand, this also added another source of information and could help Fors grow stronger without Hastur having to find chances for her personally.
Once Fors joined the Tarot Club, Hastur would have two informants within it.
Audrey and Fors, together they could rival Alger and Little Sun half and half.
Later, given Fors' relationship with Xio, Xio could be considered half an informant for him, and over on Bernadette's side, Cattleya had always been loyal to Bernadette.
Counting it up, whether now or in the future, Hastur already had information about over half of the Tarot Club.
Realizing this, Hastur was a bit stunned, he'd unconsciously taken over a majority influence in the Club.
"This 'two-and-a-half faction' really lives up to its name," Hastur sighed with emotion.
He checked the time, folded a paper crane, and prepared to chat with Will; tomorrow Will would go to the hospital for surgery.
Hastur had thought of visiting Will, but Will refused, saying Hastur's presence might trigger changes in fate and cause incalculable consequences.
Hastur suspected strongly that Will was making excuses because he didn't want to see him.
....
Late at night, the West Borough.
"Ah!" A scream shattered the night's quiet.
When two officers arrived at the scene, the killer had long since vanished, leaving only two torn, blood-soaked corpses.
One was a noble, a baron, and the other was likely the baron's steward or bodyguard.
After checking the crime scene, there seemed to be a mysterious power emanating from the bodies: whispers coming from nowhere, plucking at the officers' heartstrings and tempting their weakest spots.
When the Night Watcher patrol squad arrived, they found the two officers squatting on the ground, bent over, pulling out and devouring the organs of the corpses with relish.
Noticing intruders, the two officers turned, licked the blood from their mouths, and snarled as they lunged.
In that situation, the only option was to kill them to prevent further harm.
Naturally, the case moved from the police station to the West Borough's Night Watcherer squad.
Klein, newly assigned, hadn't joined tonight's patrol. He stayed in the office learning the procedures.
Compared with the relatively lax management in Tingen, Backlund's Night Watcher squad was much more regulated and didn't allow taking extra tasks on the side.
That cut off a lot of extra income, but the weekly pay here was high: on arrival, his salary was already one and a half times what he had previously earned, plus housing and meal allowances.
Basically, what he earned that week was what he could save.
High pay meant more work, longer hours, and frequent missions.
Compared to Tingen, the number of Beyonders in Backlund had multiplied dozens of times, making management difficult.
Because incidents had been happening so often lately, the Night Watcher squad sent out two teams every night to patrol different areas.
Klein had heard about tonight's case, but it didn't concern him yet; he was still in the familiarization phase.
"Again, followers of the Stars, those people are like rabid dogs. They won't let any suspicious Beyonders go!" one new captain complained.
"There's nothing we can do. From the intelligence we currently have, at least four or five groups are pushing this from the shadows. As long as they don't find the Stars' followers, Backlund won't be at peace."
"What a headache! Even those brutes from Feysac have secretly sent people into Backlund to hunt down the Stars' followers!"
"It's not just them, other churches are also sending people in. If they hadn't, this wouldn't have escalated to this point."
Passing by, Klein naturally overheard the new captain and the other members talking.
"Why don't we try luring them out by having someone pretend to be a Stars' follower?"
"That could work, but we need the consent of Saint Samuel's Church. Without them backing us, our little Night Watcher squad will be torn apart by those hiding in the shadows."
"Even if the church agrees, finding someone to impersonate a Stars' follower is tough."
At that, their eyes all turned to Klein, who was pouring a cup of coffee to wake up.
Klein froze for a moment, took a sip, the bitter, strong taste jolting him awake.
What had he just heard? They needed someone to pretend to be a Stars' follower? And he seemed to be a good candidate?
No, no, no, that sounded dangerous. He had only just arrived in Backlund and hadn't even received his first week's pay.
But he felt awkward refusing and so continued sipping the bitter coffee, pretending he hadn't heard.
"Klein just joined our squad, we shouldn't saddle him with such a dangerous job. Let's wait for the church's reply," someone said.
"I heard the Red Gloves squad also recruited a promising new recruit?"
"Apparently he's already a Rank 7 Nightmare, and still young. Quite good."
"Maybe he's a better candidate."
"Yeah, Red Gloves specialize in dealing with thorny Beyonder cases."
Klein walked past in silence, inwardly mourning Leonard for three seconds.
Given their plan, the newcomer Leonard would indeed make a convincing fake Stars' follower and draw out those lurking in the shadows.
Of course, it was very dangerous.