"Admiral of Stars" Cattelya's letter was addressed to "Queen Mystic" Bernadette.
Rumor had it that she'd once followed this Queen, only to break with her later after joining the Moses Ascetic Order. But the truth was different: the Queen had foreseen that Cattelya's future did not lie with her, and had sent her away of her own accord.
To this day, the two of them still kept up a secret correspondence.
Cattelya weighed every word with great care.
Her expression was extremely solemn, so solemn it bordered on fear, as though her very life were lodged inside the quill in her hand, and the smallest mistake would strike her dead on the spot.
After a long while of deliberation, she finally set pen to paper and wrote the second line:
[Also, I will need some of Emperor Roselle's notes recently]
She was trying to pass along information about the Tarot Club!
Cattelya had been raised by "Queen Mystic" since childhood and knew her well.
She knew the Queen had spent years chasing Roselle's trail, knew she longed to decipher the true meaning of the Roselle Script, knew that half her life's efforts had gone toward that very purpose.
And that mysterious "Fool" clearly understood the Roselle Script!
Cattelya badly wanted to tell the Queen this outright, but she didn't dare.
She had only just been warned for peering at others through the Grey Fog; if she stepped out of line again, there was no doubt it would mean courting death.
She could only wait for the right opportunity.
At last, Temperance's commission gave her a legitimate reason to write to the Queen.
In that second line, she had obliquely alluded to the matter of Roselle's diary.
Read on its own, the letter appeared to contain two separate requests: one, to find the recipe for Sequence 3; the other, to find Emperor Roselle's notes.
But given the Queen's wisdom, and the mutual understanding between the two of them, Bernadette would grasp her hidden meaning at once, and would know that the person searching for the Sequence 3 potion formula had some important connection to Roselle's diary.
"I'm sorry, my Queen. This is all I can say..."
Taking on considerable risk, Cattelya wrote down these two lines, then quickly set up the altar and summoned the Queen's messenger.
"Whoosh..."
A cold wind blew past. By the time she noticed, the envelope on the altar had quietly vanished.
Above the Grey Fog, the small gathering of the two Travelers continued.
"Elaine plans to slip out of Bayam in disguise tomorrow. I'll take responsibility and catch her myself," Klein said to Silas.
"Once we've actually found Vice Admiral Ailment, we'll get back in touch."
"Sure, I'll be watching your performance then," Silas said with a nod.
"Did Qonas give you anything valuable?" Klein asked.
In this stretch of Grey Fog that shut out the outside world, the two of them could speak freely even about a somewhat dangerous topic.
"He said quite a bit, actually..."
Silas thought back briefly, then relayed to Klein what he'd learned from Qonas: the ruins left behind by the "Blood Emperor," the cooperation between the Demoness Sect and the Psychology and Alchemy Association, the channels of human trafficking, the materials for repairing the ruins...
"The Blood Emperor's attempt to become a god..."
As Klein listened, his expression grew steadily graver.
He felt that what Silas was describing might very well be true.
Back in Backlund, at Roselle's memorial exhibition, Klein had obtained a "Blasphemous Card" made by Roselle himself: the "Black Emperor" card.
It recorded in detail the potion recipes and ascension rituals for the entire Sequence chain of the Lawyer pathway. And the ascension ritual for Sequence 0, the Black Emperor, seemed remarkably similar to part of what Silas had just described!
"Mr. Fool, would you allow me to share the information on that card with Temperance?"
To keep up appearances, Klein still went through the motions of asking his own permission first, then materialized a sheet of parchment and handed it to Silas.
"What's this?"
Puzzled, Silas took the parchment and saw it read as follows:
Sequence 0: The Black Emperor.
Recipe:
Ritual: Possess a nation of one's own; bind one's own name to the title of Emperor until it becomes common knowledge among the populace.
Furthermore, establish a rigorous and elaborate set of rules that run counter to normal convention, including matters of architectural style.
Next, mobilize the populace to secretly build nine pyramid-like mausoleums. Then enter one of them, and during a corresponding sacrificial ritual, held simultaneously across different cities and attended by the vast majority of the populace, consume the Sequence 0 potion.
The part concerning the potion recipe had been concealed; all Silas could see was the ritual. But even that portion of the description gave him an odd sense of familiarity.
Become an emperor. Establish rules. Drive the populace to build mausoleums...
Wasn't this exactly what George III was doing!
As Emperor, he had abolished the Corn Laws, overhauled the system for selecting officials, and handed over enormous benefits to the three great churches and the nobility in order to establish a new order, all of which more than satisfied the first two requirements.
As for the third part of the ritual, Silas understood it even more clearly.
So that was it: the island natives and Southern Continent people who had been abducted, the common folk of Loen seized and sold by human traffickers, all of it had been for his ritual, driven to build his mausoleum!
And in the process, countless more had suffered misfortune simply from being caught up in it!
Silas felt fury welling up in his chest.
"So this is the real reason he triggered the Backlund Fog: to push through his policies, to establish new rules?" he asked quietly.
"I believe so."
Klein's tone was heavy.
"Because of the constraints imposed by the three great churches, he couldn't openly prepare the ritual, so he conspired with multiple organizations instead, secretly seizing people to build the mausoleums..."
Selfish, arrogant, treating his own citizens as less than human: this was the true face of the king the people of Loen so revered.
Silas took a deep breath.
He would never allow such a beast to become a true god!
"What do you think we should do?" he asked Klein.
"I think we should report it to the Church first."
After careful consideration, Klein gave his answer. This was also his usual approach: to rely on the three great churches to handle problems he couldn't handle himself.
Hearing his suggestion, Silas said nothing in response.
In truth, he suspected the royal family had long since prepared countermeasures; even if the Church sent people to investigate, it would be difficult to find concrete evidence.
Still, letting more people know about this would be useful, and might at least slow down George III's preparations.
"According to what Qonas said, the mausoleum he's responsible for is still under construction," Silas said. "I don't think George III is ready for the ascension ritual yet."
Which meant they still had some time on their side.
"I agree," Klein said. "And his ritual requires most of the country's population to take part in the sacrifice at the same time. That's a very clear marker to watch for."
Still, even so, the time left to them was tight.