Hastur never expected that he himself would become a dungeon boss.
He remained silent for quite a while before finally pulling himself together again.
Even if he was a dungeon boss, at the very least he had to be nightmare or hell difficulty, right?
With Klein's current Sequence, there was no way he could clear him. Just Madam Lisa alone would be enough to firmly suppress the situation.
There was only one issue: the situation in Puning Port could not be allowed to drag on and grow bigger. It had to be cleaned up sooner rather than later, so the Church of the Evernight Goddess would stop bothering him every day.
The Red Gloves team had two main objectives on this trip. One was to find out what exactly Ince Zangwill had encountered back then, and the other was to locate Sealed Artifact 008.
According to the arrangements, 008 was already in the hands of the King of the Five Seas, Nast. As for Ince Zangwill, the man was already dead, so fabricating a reason would not be difficult.
After sorting out the chain of events, Hastur already had a plan in mind.
He could use Klein's hands to solve everything here in one go, and at the same time earn Klein some merit. At the very least, he should be able to receive a bonus.
For the poverty-stricken Mr. Fool, this was definitely the best gift possible.
On the blank sheet of paper, 008 continued writing:
"Master, which unlucky fellow are we going to write to death next? How about that Crestet Cesimir guy? He kept chasing after me back then. So annoying."
Hastur chuckled. "So you two actually have that kind of grudge between you?"
"Hmph. With his strength, he was never enough to make me wary. But at the time, I was in Ince Zangwill's hands. You know how it was. He could at best be considered a third-rate playwright. The scripts he wrote were ugly and full of plot holes, like a pile of crap. Crestet Cesimir could always sniff out the trail and come chasing after us."
"Tsk. Your insulting skills have improved again."
"Thank you for the praise, Master (so happy)!"
"..." Seeing 008 showing signs of assimilating into the Mirror's sycophantic behavior, Hastur decisively ended the chat.
Leaving the study, he arrived at the room where Sharron was resting. She still maintained the same posture as when he had left earlier, standing by the windowsill and gazing into the distance.
Ariella had also curled up by the window and fallen asleep, no longer bothering Sharron.
Hastur merely glanced at them a few times before leaving again, not disturbing Sharron's puppet acting.
...
At Puning Port, Klein followed Crestet Cesimir to the terrifying harbor that had trapped the previous Red Gloves squad.
Although Crestet Cesimir had explained many of the strange aspects of Puning Port along the way, he never clearly stated what exactly existed here.
He only repeatedly warned Klein to be careful of coincidences and accidents, details that were easy to overlook.
Whether it was someone approaching to ask for directions on the ferry, or a street vendor passing by selling snacks and fruit, they all needed to be treated with extreme caution and carefully considered.
To avoid drawing too much attention, Crestet Cesimir and Klein disguised themselves as merchants from neighboring East Tuck County, supposedly seeking business opportunities related to the Southern Continent war.
Klein played the boss, while Crestet Cesimir acted as the strong, sharp-eyed bodyguard.
Upon arriving at Puning Port for the first time, their first task was naturally to find a place to stay temporarily.
To avoid being secretly manipulated, Crestet Cesimir and Klein used a lottery method to select one suitable inn from several options. Then they deliberately abandoned the idea of staying there and instead chose to rent a private residence.
The living conditions in the rented house were worse, but it was spacious and had fewer visitors, making it ideal for conducting investigations in secret.
That night, Crestet Cesimir and Klein shut all doors and windows tightly before discussing the results of their investigation.
"I didn't find any information left behind by the previous Red Gloves squad members. They may truly be trapped somewhere, unable to move freely."
Crestet Cesimir shared his findings first. After renting the house, he had wandered through many shops and street stalls under the pretense of buying daily necessities.
"Perhaps we shouldn't treat that as our breakthrough point. Instead, we should return to the original question."
Klein carefully worded his opinion.
"You think we shouldn't directly search for the trapped Red Gloves members?"
Klein nodded. "Yes. We should continue investigating along the path they were already following."
He had extensive experience dealing with 008 and knew how to counter the methods of something so skilled at arranging coincidences and accidents.
First, you absolutely could not allow yourself to be led around by the nose. You had to maintain your own judgment and focus on one matter all the way through, regardless of how many changes occurred during the investigation.
Second, you had to distinguish cause from effect and not reverse the order.
Taking the Puning Port incident as an example, the Red Gloves members being trapped was not the real focus, nor should it be the direction of their investigation. The important point was why they became trapped.
Lastly, be cautious. Extremely cautious.
After listening silently to Klein's firsthand experience, Crestet Cesimir sighed emotionally.
"Being able to choose you to handle this matter with me truly is my good fortune."
Klein only gave an awkward smile. He had merely been traumatized by 008's ability to arrange scripts, so he had thought up many possibly useful methods.
As a certain great figure once said, one must distinguish between primary and secondary contradictions.
Abilities like script arrangement required enormous effort to write elaborate plots precisely to conceal the truly important information they did not want discovered.
During the journey, Klein had already been considering how to resolve the Puning Port incident.
In the end, he concluded that continuing along the investigative direction of the previous Red Gloves squad was the most likely way to break the deadlock.
Crestet Cesimir pointed to his head.
"I already memorized the list that the previous Red Gloves squad intended to investigate in detail."
Klein admired him. "Your memory is impressive."
"It's a habit of mine. Information written on paper is easy to forget or leak out. Keeping it here is safer."
Then Crestet Cesimir rewrote the list the Red Gloves squad had previously sent back to Saint Samuel Cathedral, word for word without missing anything.
When Klein saw Hastur's name on the list, surprise flashed across his eyes.
With his keen observation, Crestet Cesimir asked, "Someone you know?"
"Yes. A baron from Backlund. Though now he should be called Count Campbell. Leonard gets along with him fairly well."
"I see." Crestet Cesimir's gaze lingered on the name for a moment.
"Tell me, should we use this Count Campbell's influence here to investigate the matter?"
While gathering information earlier that day, he had heard people mention that the current ruler of Puning Port was this Count Campbell.
At present, the young count was actively reorganizing the navy, causing quite a commotion.
After hesitating briefly, Klein said as calmly as possible, "His name is also on this list. We can't trust anyone so easily."
Crestet Cesimir laughed.
"Klein, you really are excellent."
"We can first seek help from Grand Duke Southville. Let him come forward and ask this young count to cooperate with the investigation."
Seeing Klein's confusion, Crestet Cesimir explained: "Before departure, Archbishop Anthony told me to conceal my identity as much as possible. That certainly makes things convenient, but it also makes it easy to suddenly disappear."
Then he added meaningfully: "Many times, standing in the open is actually safer."
Handling matters in the real world was completely different from making assumptions while staying inside a church.
One leaned toward practical action, the other toward verbal theory.
In his view, the reason the previous Red Gloves squad had encountered trouble and failed even to send back information was because they had not relied on the power of official organizations in the open.
Just look at Puning Port. Merchant ships still came and went busily, the streets were crowded and lively, and everything appeared prosperous, as if nothing was wrong at all.
If the previous Red Gloves squad had possessed an official public identity, they would never have vanished without a trace.
The confusion faded from Klein's face.
"Can Grand Duke Southville's side be trusted?" Crestet Cesimir chuckled.
"Here, you can always trust the Grand Duke's loyalty to the kingdom, despite all his flaws."
...
By the following evening, they received a reply from Grand Duke Southville.
In the letter, the Grand Duke expressed his willingness to provide assistance.
He had also written another letter to Hastur Campbell, the ruler of Puning Port, instructing him to cooperate in investigating the disappearance of the Red Gloves squad members.
This was the lesson Crestet Cesimir wanted Klein to understand.
On the land of the Loen Kingdom, they did not merely represent the Church of the Evernight Goddess. They were also legitimate official personnel.
How to make use of local official institutions to resolve supernatural incidents was a compulsory lesson.
With the Grand Duke's authorization, regardless of whether Hastur Campbell was good or bad, he would have to shoulder a certain degree of responsibility in this matter.
As for the two of them, they could either continue hiding their identities and investigate Puning Port secretly, or openly visit Count Hastur Campbell and act together with him.
That way, they would possess a certain degree of initiative. Even if they themselves did nothing, Count Hastur Campbell would still be forced to actively take action.
For a newly risen noble who had only recently arrived from Backlund to Southville County, the thing he most needed to avoid while his position remained unstable was unnecessary complications.
Crestet Cesimir understood this very well.