"What's all this commotion about?" Klein asked intrigued when he entered the Blackthorn Security Company to see everyone running around in a frenzy.
"Didn't you hear? The person in charge for Leonard's advancement examination is here." Rozanna informed.
"He's going to become a sequence 7?" Klein blinked in surprise.
"Yes, and less than a year since he had become a midnight poet as well." Rozanne said, "First Ms. Daly, now Leonard, why is our small branch in Tingen producing so many geniuses in such a short time?"
Theres me too who digested his Seer potion in 2-3 weeks, Klein chuckled in his heart. He wasn't that surprised that Leonard had already divested his potion, actually he was more surprised by the fact that it took him an entire year when he seemed to know about the acting method to a certain extent and had a nice vibe going on as a poet.
But considering the fact that Mr. Hanged Man had mentioned that a speed of 2-3 years even after knowing the acting method was considered quiet good for divesting a potion, Leonard was a genius to certain extent as well.
Thankfully, Klein had the advantage of the knowledge he had gained from Roselle's diary pages which held all sorts of secrets about mysticism and had thankfully explained about the acting method in the first few ones be bad read.
"Ah, Klein," Dunn Smith greeted when be entered the room, "Good to see you. I was going to ask you about this report, but someone important has come so I have to delay it unfortunately."
"Someone important?" Klein tilted his head in confusion as he indirectly urged the captain to say more.
"It's the person who has come in for Leonard's examination." Caotain Dunn informed with a low voice, "The person in charge of the examination is one of the nine high-ranking deacons of the Nighthawks, Crestet Cesimir."
"A high-ranking deacon?" Klein blurted in surprise.
In general terms, the thirteen archbishops and nine high-ranking deacons made up the upper echelons of the church. It was said that there was no lack of High-Sequence Beyonders among them!
The twenty-two ladies and gentlemen were all equal in terms of their rankings. They only followed the orders of the Evernight Goddess, and they were only answerable to the Pope.
"Yes, he's a high-ranking deacon. But you don't have to be nervous. Crestet is only a Sequence 5, and has yet to enter a demigod state. So, you don't have to be too afraid or reverent if you run into him accidentally." Dunn soothed with a gentle smile, "Oh, his title in the Beyonder world is the 'Goddess's Sword.' As he possesses a holy item, his combat strength is similar to a newly advanced Sequence 4 Beyonder. I just chatted with him. He was very friendly."
Someone like this came for Leonard's advancement... Klein couldn't help but be impressed.
After chatting a buy with Rozanne, Klein went back to his work of writing reports and calculating the inventory and attending his mysticism classes.
"Old man, why is a high deacon here?" Leonard asked in a hushed voice as before he entered the potions room where Crestet Cesimir was.
[This probably has to do with the fact that the goddess wants to check you.]
"Check me?"
[Do you not have a single brain cell in that head of yours?] Pallez sighed in Leonard's mind, [She probably wants to know whether you have been completely parasitised by me since the speed of digestion of your potion waa faster than expected even with my guidance considered. She must have also sensed an increased amount of Marauder pathway distortions in Tingen and wants to check up on me on whether I'm truly dangerous and intent on taking lives and playing around like Amon.]
Leonard nodded as he understood what the old man was trying to say.
"Klein," captain Dunn smith called out to Klein.
"Yes?" Klein turned to look over his heavy book he was reading about basic rituals and mystism knowledge.
"Come to my office,"
Klein was Klein but confused but followed the orders nonetheless. When he reached the office, he saw that Leonard was also there and be waved at him with a smile.
"Leonard has successfully advanced to sequence 7 Nightnare today," Dunn started as he took his seat, "Although his sequence is now the same as mine, his position unfortunately is not, making him a subordinate to me."
"Yes..." Klein didn't know why be was being told this stuff but went along nonetheless.
"But this does allow him to have subordinates of himself, and he has requested to apply you as a member of his team as a permanent partner till any later changes. You'll be his assistant kind of and also receive an increased salary."
What?
Klein looked at Leonard with wide eyes in confusion.
Leonard chuckled as he waved his hands casually, "It's just that our pathways make you an extremely viab,e support for me that can help me overcome my weakness. And we have already done quiet a few cases together already and have noticed our-" he wanted to say compatibility, but he didn't what ti be fried alive by Amon so instead he changed his words, "how good we work together." He smiled. Frankly, he wasn't completely speaking out of his ass since his points were true and Klein truly was a good support for his pathway and would help then take on missions together without much need for any external help like sealed artifacts or other people and coincided perfectly with Amon's request.
His plans initially were to go to Backlund to become a pat of the Red Gloves, but unfortunately, Amon existed. Though Amon had said that he'd allow him to go after a few months... what was about to happen in a vew months? Leonard didn't know.
Meanwhile the only thing going on in Klein's mind was that he was getting yet another raise!
More money!
My dear poet is the best... hehehehe.
("HOW DARE YOU CALL SOMEONE ELSE YOUR DEAR?!")
Leonard felt chills running down his spine.
Although Klein hadn't yet gotten his previous raise after officially joining the police force and becoming a formal member of the Nighthawks, he was getting another raise in such a short notice!
Seeing that Klein's face had become excited, Dunn let out a smile and explained. "Your payment would be equivalent to a sequence 8 Nighthawk, though it will take a a few weeks to be approved."
"I can wait," Klein said, barely holding back his excitement. Wasn't the salary of a sequence 8 Nighthawk coupled 2ith his police payment be about 10 pounds a week?! That easily placed Klein and his family in the upper middle class of normal people!
[Ahy is he so excited about such a small amount of money when he has Amon as his lover... young people I'll never understand them.]
Leonard wanted to quip back at Pallez about how he was younger than Amon, but considering the fact that he was still in the company of others and didn't want to make them see him as already losing control due to his recent advancement, he shut his mouth intelligently.
"Amon! I brought back wome lemon cakes!" Klein announced as he placed the packages containing the sweet lemon cakes on the dining table, one was for Amon and him and the other was for Melissa and Benson for when he comes back home later that day.
After recieving no replies, Klein called put once again, "Amon?"
Is this his sleeping condition again? Klein wondered as he entered the bedroom without knocking to see Amon sleeping on the chair with some kind of romance novel on his lap.
He fell asleep while reading... that's so fucking cute! Klein cooed in his mind as he approached Amon.
"You'll get sick and have back pain if you sleep like that," Klein sighed softly as he picked uo Amon, who was pretty light already and now with his increased strength from his Clown potion, he could easily carry around Amon.
Klein placed Amon on the bed and wrapped him up tightly with blankets just the way he knew Amon liked before placing a light kiss on his forehead.
"He was still awake this morning, so he must have fallen asleep somewhere during the afternoon before making lunch." Klein observed, the last comment was because the kitchen was empty and untouched since last night he had been there to cook some pork stew for Amon. "Will he sleep till tomorrow evening?" He wondered out aloud as he played with Amon's curly bangs.
Although he was really worried with seeing his wife in this state, Amon has kept telling him that he was alright and that it was completely natural and that if things got worse there was always his older brother who could relieve some of the symptoms.
But even after those assurances, Klein still felt a bit worried in his heart. What if Amon's state worsens while hes sleeping? He didn't even know the name of Amon's ppder brother... who to even contact...
Klein sighed as he stood up from where he was kneeling beside Amon's bed and walked out of the room.
"The cakes would go bad..." he couldn't help but regret as he looked at ge extra cakes he had bought for Amon. Klein didn't really like sweets that much, yes they erre nice as a snack, but not that much, spicy food was still superior. In contrast Amon loved sweets and everything sweet and couldn't handle spice very well. That's why most of the food he usually made had a little hint of sweetness to it that he had started allocating to Amon's cooking.
He had bought extra for Amon and his portion as he thought rhat Amon would be able to eat all of it, but now Amon was in his sleep state...
Just then Klein's spiritual intuition was touched, as his clown level ability to see slightly in the future alerted him of a presence beside him. He turned just in time to see a few crows had gathered up beside him on the table and one had even flown to his shoulder.
"These are Amon's crows...?" Klein wondered out a loud as he petted the crows gently on the head, loving the way the bird didn't flinch at all but even rubbed its soft head against Klein's palm in enjoyment.
Klein watched intrigued as the crows gathered around the package that he had set aside for Amon and started pecking lightly at it, not completely trying to open it themselves and then glancing at Klein, as if giving him puppy dog eyes and asking for some food.
Klein suddenly remembered about reading about how crows were incredibly intelligent species in his life as Zhou Mingrui back in the modern earth.
"You want it eat the cake instead?" He asked and smiled when the crows stated nodded aggressively and flapping their wings in excitement. "You guys can really understand..." Klein mused out loudly as he opened the package, "Well, these would have gone to waste anyways, and since you master is asleep and cant take care of you now, let me feed you okay?"
The crow on his shoulder rubbed its soft head against Klein's cheek as if in approval.
Klein spent the next 20 minutes breaking the lemon cake into small pieces and feeding them by hand to the corws that had gathered around him and on his shoulders. He faintly wondered why the hell there were so mang crows inside the house and where they had suddenly appeared from, but Amon's home was already pretty werid and large enough and he had already stopped questioning stuff after his Disney princess observation.
Were these crows ans animals in Amon's house actually extraordinary creatures like Ms. Ms. Justice's pet who had accidentally drunk the Spectator potion? Klein mused at himself as he played the airplane game with one of the crows, swinging around the piece of cake in his hand before feeding it to it with a smile.
That would mean that Amon too was an extraordinary...
Hm...
It was also possible that he had gotten these extraordinary beyonder animals from his family who had given them to their youngest as some sort of protection against threats and removing the burden of hiring tfustable servants in the house.
Amon's family was supposed to be the esteemed Amon family from the fourth epoch which was probably a family heavily rooted in mystism like the Antigonus family...
He still had a few days to wait for the next Tarot gathering on monday to recieve The Hanged Man's reply about his research of the Amon family Klein has asked him for. He also had said that had reach land by then and would have more Roselle's diary pages on him...
"I'm going back to my house now to tell my siblings that I'll be staying over here tonight okay?" He told the animals around him as he stood up and washed his hands from the sticky cake and sugar that had stuck on his fingers while feeding the crows.
He had already figured out with multiple tests that these animals could understand human speech very well and follow orders if they liked you enough, which it seemed like they liked Klein a lot.
"Protect Amon for me okay?" He smiled as he patted a few crows and squirrels on the head as he headed out with the other package which had Melissa and Benson's share.
After leaving behind a note and the cake at home Klein took the carriage back to Amon's mansion and spent the rest of the evening with the multiple animals around him as he read through some of the Amon family books from the library. This one was talking about the state of the territories which were handed under the supervision of the then Duke Amon and how the land and money and taxes were managed then.
After night had fallen, he had changed his clothes and slept beside Amon, hugging to sleep.
On Saturday, Klein went to the Greenhill Mental Asylum and met with the Spectator from the Psychology Alchemists he had coincidentally found while on his trio with Old Neil a while back from the information he had had gained from hiring Detective Henry a while back with the red chimney request.
After making a deal with the sequence 9 Spectator and learning about Hood Eugene, Klein went back the Blackthorn Security Company to inform Catoatin Dunn about his finding.
"Klein? Is there something to report?" Dunn asked as he saw olein entering his office.
"Yes," but before Klein could start, Dunn cut him off.
"I'm no longer your superior now, any reports from your private investigations as well as mission reports should be directly handed to Leonard and not me." Dunn said while shaking his head.
"I'm sorry, injustice forgot..."
"No worries, Leonard is in the next room."
Klein bowed as he bid Dunn goodbye and then entered the next room and saw Leonard who was leisurely sitting back with his feet on the table while humming an off tune song.
The contrast between the serious captain Dunn and this causal poet...