Backlund, Hillston District, Cragg Club.
It was morning, and the first-floor hall held only a sparse number of guests.
At a corner table, two club members sat facing each other. Though they sipped fragrant black tea, their brows remained tightly furrowed.
"Even now, I can't believe Talim has left us."
One of the guests, surgeon Aaron Kress, spoke in a heavy tone.
"Neither can I."
Across from Aaron, Klein likewise expressed his shock, though he knew there was something fishy about the whole affair.
The subject of their discussion was a young nobleman named Talim Dumont.
Talim had been a mutual friend of theirs, warm and friendly, getting along well with them at the club.
Just the day before, right there in the Cragg Club, witnessed by many, he had suddenly collapsed and died on the spot.
His death had been swift and decisive, leaving no chance for rescue.
"Poor Talim. Due to family circumstances, he never married," Aaron sighed and shook his head.
"Who would have thought such a robust man would die from heart problems?"
It wasn't heart disease. It was a curse.
Klein silently refuted this.
The moment he witnessed Talim's death, he had activated spirit vision and noticed a wisp of black energy flash past the man's chest.
That was the telltale sign of a curse, proof that Talim's death was entirely man-made.
Not only had his death been strange, but Talim had also said some peculiar things to Klein while alive.
Combined with the fact that he'd been close to members of the royal family, the whole affair became even harder to assess.
"May he find peace."
Klein said.
Just then, layers upon layers of illusory prayer sounds suddenly reached his ears.
Who's trying to contact me?
"Excuse me, I need to visit the washroom for a moment."
Klein immediately found an excuse to stand up.
"That's fine.
Actually, I also have something to attend to and was about to leave," Aaron also stood. "My wife needs to go to the hospital for an examination."
"Is something wrong with the child?"
Klein couldn't help but ask.
Based on the information he possessed, there was a strong possibility that the child Aaron's wife was carrying was a Sequence 1 "Mercury Snake."
"Nothing's wrong, just a routine checkup."
When Aaron mentioned his child, a smile couldn't help but surface on his face.
After bidding farewell to Aaron, Klein no longer needed to pretend to visit the washroom.
He simply went upstairs and had a waiter open a room for him. Locking the door, he took four steps counterclockwise and arrived above the gray fog.
There, the deep crimson star representing [Temperance] was rippling with layer upon layer of waves.
A prayer from Silas?
News about the Human-Skin Shadow!
Suppressing his excitement, Klein slowly extended his spirituality and made contact with that star.
An illusory scene quickly appeared before him. He saw Silas maintaining a prayer posture and saying:
"Honored Mr. Fool, please inform [The World] that I've obtained the Human-Skin Shadow characteristic. Give me 1,800 pounds and it's his."
As expected, it's the Human-Skin Shadow characteristic!
Klein thought happily. It seemed Silas and Miss Sharron had gone to the cemetery last night.
He wondered what dangers lurked in that mausoleum of Amon's.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but scrutinize Silas's image carefully, repeatedly confirming that the man wasn't parasitized by an "Amon" before finally feeling at ease.
He then began calculating his assets.
That guy Silas is still pretty fair, not asking for too much. But even so, 1,800 pounds isn't a small sum for me...
A Sequence 6 main ingredient was worth roughly 1,500 pounds, but in the actual trading market, due to its gradually increasing scarcity, it often carried varying degrees of markup.
It wouldn't be surprising if it sold for 2,000 pounds or more.
Klein thought for a moment, then created a praying phantom above the gray fog and had it speak: "Honored Mr. Fool, please inform [Temperance] that I'll transfer the cash right away. Please have him prepare the sacrifice ritual."
After finishing, he extracted this segment of imagery and tossed it into the star representing [Temperance].
***
East Borough, Remann Gang's actual territory.
Shortly after Silas finished his prayer, a gray fog appeared before his eyes.
He saw [The World] within the gray fog and heard the words the other party spoke.
"Whoosh..."
But before he could clearly hear what was said, the sound of illusory tides quickly rose up. The tide surged, rushing forth from within Silas's mind.
This is bad!
Silas sensed something wrong.
The tide instinctively resisted the gray fog and looked ready to burst out, about to shatter this scene formed by the gray fog.
However, the tide's response wasn't very intense and hadn't grown to an unstoppable degree.
Silas forcibly controlled the tide's direction, preventing it from overflowing, thereby receiving the Fool's information completely.
"Good thing the gray fog isn't thick enough..."
Silas thought with relief.
After becoming a nominal believer of the Fool, he had gradually figured out the pattern between the tide within him and the gray fog.
The tide seemed to have an automatic defense system. When it sensed the gray fog, or rather Mr. Fool's aura, it would instinctively produce resistance.
But this resistance was relative, meaning the intensity of resistance was directly related to how concentrated the Fool's aura was.
When Silas prayed directly to [The Fool] or went above the gray fog, the tide would resist with all its might, forcing him to give up.
But when the gray fog's aura wasn't very strong, the tide's resistance intensity would decrease accordingly.
It was like a vicious guard dog.
When it saw another fierce dog appear in the house, it would bark frantically and bite the intruder, unable to be stopped even by its master.
But when a small dog came instead, it would lose interest, just sniff around, and back off when the master called.
For Silas, this mechanism allowed him to receive the Fool's information more easily without having to create a virtual personality constantly waiting to receive messages.
It was indeed a good thing.
After this, Silas smoothly conducted the sacrifice ritual and received 1,800 pounds in cash from Mr. Fool's divine kingdom.
His cash had successfully broken through the ten-thousand mark, reaching 11,600 pounds.
"I wonder if ten thousand pounds is enough to buy a Sequence 4 main ingredient... though Sequence 4 main ingredients might not be something money can buy."
Silas pondered, putting away the money and leaving his rest room.
"Mr. Anderson, Miss Audrey is already waiting for you."
As soon as he stepped out of the rest room, Remann Gang's leader Charles hurried over and said in a low voice.
Audrey Hall was the factory's financial backer, so Charles's attitude was very good.