After stepping outside, he felt the unique climate of late June in the Loen Kingdom. The air was warm with a faint breeze, and there was a quiet stillness that seemed to soak into his bones.
A sigh slipped from his lips.
Welch and Naya were both dead, and there was nothing he could do to bring them back. In this world, He couldn't change the past as they were already recorded in the Historical Void. It's not that he lacks the ability to Change the past, but rather because the universe itself has restraints against any attempt of doing so.
With his right hand he pressed down his felt hat and took a step forward and moved through the Spirit World. In the blink of an eye, he arrived in front of an old apartment building in foreston street.
Activating his Spirit Vision, he peered into the room where Ray Bieber lived. Inside, he saw Ray's spirit body hunched at a table, reading something intently.
Klein knocked on the door twice. An older woman, likely between fifty-five and sixty, opened it.
The room behind her was modest. A chimney stood in one corner, a rocking chair beside it. A table with scattered newspapers, rusted nails on the doorframe, and old tin cans with silver edges filled the space with a sense of age and quiet routine.
"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Bieber," Klein said politely. He took off his felt hat and gave a gentleman's bow.
"It's nice to meet you too, deary," she replied, though her eyes narrowed slightly. "What do you need?"
Klein pressed the hat back on and gave a small smile.
"I'm here for Mr. Ray Bieber. I lent him a diary yesterday and came to pick it up."
"Oh… come in, come in. Would you like some tea?"
"No, thank you. I'm in a bit of a hurry, so I won't stay long."
The woman nodded gently. "Ray isn't home at the moment. He went to my late husband's old shop."
Klein furrowed his brow on purpose, acting as if this confused him.
"He told me to come here to his apartment," Klein said, adding a hint of annoyance to his voice. "Did he take the diary with him?"
"Oh yes… he had a book in his arms when he left. I suppose that was it."
Klein observed her spirit body as she spoke. She truly believed what she said.
"Thank you," he replied.
With a soft snap of his fingers, her eyes lost focus for a moment. He didn't make her a marionette. Instead, he used a minor touch of his authority over the Mind Domain to make her forget that he had come. As an apology, he also healed her back pain and a few small health issues she had.
As the owner of the Sefirah Castle, Klein could borrow powers close to Sequence 0 The Fool. From the domain of Mind, he held the authority over "Blind Stupidity." It allowed him to make people forget without any trace or struggle.
He stepped inside the apartment. It had two bedrooms, a living room, and a small kitchen. Following the position of Ray's spirit body, he opened the correct door and walked in.
There was Ray Bieber, a man in his thirties with black hair and deep blue eyes. He was hunched over the table, reading the Antigonus Family's notebook with fanatical focus. He didn't even notice Klein enter.
Klein snapped his fingers. Both Ray and the notebook were fooled instantly. Ray's eyes became dull as Klein approached the table and quietly picked up the notebook and sent it inside the Sefirah Castle.
With a burst of gray fog, a bundle of money appeared in Klein's hand. It came from the Historical Void. He made sure the money was once lost and forgotten. He grafted it into reality using the authority of Change and the ability to fool fate and time. The money became real as if it had always been with him.
He was no longer the God of Poverty.
He placed one hundred pounds into Ray Bieber's hands and adjusted his memories. Now, Ray remembered selling a jewel in his shop to someone.
Without another word, Klein walked out and slipped into the Spirit World, heading off to buy bread, mutton and peas.
…
After buying the bread, he reached the municipal square at the intersection of Iron Cross Street and Daffodil Street. Dozens of colorful tents had been set up, and clowns in strange, mismatched costumes were handing out fliers.
He was about to walk past when something came to mind.
In his previous life, there had been a theory that the Animal Trainer might actually be the Evernight Goddess in disguise.
Here though, with the defenses at work, it was likely that even the Evernight Goddess wasn't aware that the Sefirah Castle had released a spirit body. If the Animal Trainer lady wasn't here, then maybe that theory really was accurate.
"Would you like to try a divination?"
Klein turned his head slowly. A woman stood near a short tent. She wore a pointed hat and a long black dress. Her face was painted in red and yellow, and her eyes were a deep grayish-blue.
He activated his Spirit Vision and examined her. She just had high spirituality. She wasn't even a Beyonder.
He was going to say no, but then a small idea crept in.
He thought to himself, I probably shouldn't, but I want to prank her a little.
"What kind of divination?" he asked.
"Tarot."
"Tarot, huh. Are they accurate?"
The woman laughed. "My tarot divination is very accurate. You won't be disappointed."
Seeing him hesitate, the woman immediately said with a laugh, "Sir, you are the first one here today, so it's on the house."
"Alright then. Let's go."
With a casual tone, he followed her into the tent, ducking slightly as he stepped inside.
It was dark inside, lit only by a few faint beams of light sneaking in through the cloth. In the center, a small table was barely visible, covered with a spread of cards.
The woman's dress rustled like water as she moved around the table and took a seat. She lit a candle, and the flickering yellow glow made the interior feel both cozy and mysterious at once.
"Shuffle the cards and cut the deck," she said quietly.
Klein took the deck and shuffled it with practiced hands.
"Aren't you going to ask what I want divination for?"
The woman blinked. "Oh, right. What do you want to divine?"
Klein's lips twitched, seeing her shamelessness.
"Past, present, and future," he said as he placed the shuffled deck on the table.
The woman nodded and drew the first card.
"This card represents your past."
She drew the second card and placed it down.
"This one represents your present."
Then the third.
"And this is your future."
She looked up at him with a calm expression. "Which card would you like to see first?"
"Let's start with the past."
"This is your past," she said, flipping the first card.
"This is your present." She flipped the second.
"And this is your future." She turned over the last one.
Klein leaned forward with a serious look. "Uhh... there might be something wrong with the cards."
"There's no way—" she started to say, then looked down and froze.
Every single card was the same. They all showed the number 0.
All of them were The Fool.
She blinked, completely thrown off.
"What...?" she whispered.
The air of mystery she had worked so hard to build instantly fell apart.
Klein held back a laugh, controlling his expression using his shapeshifting ability. He sat still, pretending to be confused.
"This is..."
She was about to speak again when a sharp voice came from outside the tent.
"Why are you pretending to be me again? I'm the one in charge of divination."
The voice sounded annoyed as another woman entered the tent. Her movements were smooth and practiced.
"Get back to your post. You're just an animal trainer. Stop messing around."
"Wait, this doesn't make sense..." the animal trainer lady muttered.
"Out. Now."
The woman's shoulders slumped, and she slowly walked out of the tent.
"How did that even happen..." she mumbled as she left.
Klein sat there for a moment, watching her go.
'I kind of feel bad for pranking her now. Maybe I'll just give her a bit of good luck for a while. Still feel like a jerk though.'
"Would you like me to interpret your cards for you, sir?" the real fortune-teller looked at the table with three different tarot cards and asked with a smile.
Klein gave a short shake of his head. "No, it's alright," he said before turning and leaving the tent.
…
After that, Klein walked back home with his bread, meat, and peas in hand and entered the terrace apartment.
After entering, he put the food in the kitchen and walked over to the bed. With a pulse of spirituality, a curtain formed around the apartment, hiding everything he did from the outside world.
The curtain was his Realm of Mysteries, a manifestation of the Concealment authority and the embryonic state of his Divine Kingdom. It distorted space and time to separate his room from the outside, preventing the tenants on the second floor from noticing anything. In fact, unless a God gave their full attention, they would be fooled into thinking nothing unusual was happening inside.
Then he vanished in a burst of gray fog and materialized inside the Sefirah Castle, right in front of the Door of Light.
Klein sat down on the stairs again and started thinking. What should his next move be? When he had built the Waifu Catalog's setup, he had only thought about the start, about how he would gain ownership of the Sefirah Castle. The thing with Ray Beiber had been a momentary decision. With a mental prompt, the Antigonus Family's Notebook appeared in his hand. He looked at the cover, and the next moment, he threw it back into the endless gray fog.
In short, he had no plans for what to do after arriving here. How was he supposed to know the Waifu Catalog would turn out to be real? If he had, he would've thought twice about choosing a world nobody else in the Catalog had picked.
Out of curiosity, He took out his phone and checked the missions tab, which was empty. With a sigh, he closed it and slipped it back into his pocket.
Then his thoughts drifted to the Tarot Club. Should he create it here too? The only reason Book-Klein created the Tarot Club was because he needed help. Still, with a thought, the shroud materialized in his hand. He stared at it. This could share defenses, right? Maybe he could give Tarot Club members immunity to corruption.
Making up his mind, he summoned the two crimson balls representing Audrey Hall and Alger Wilson.
With a mental command, the gray fog around him churned. With a whoosh, the Door of Light was swallowed into the endless gray fog. He didn't want them to see the true face of a Sefirah before they even became mid-Sequence Beyonders.
Looking through the balls of light, he saw Miss Audrey putting the mirror away, calling it another fake artifact and grumbling in frustration, while Alger placed the potion vial on a shelf. Suddenly, both artifacts burst open in a tide of crimson light.
Two people appeared.
In the gray mist, Audrey Hall regained her sight. She tried to reckon with the situation in a state of horror and confusion, when she noticed the blurry image of a man on the opposite side of her doing the same.
Immediately, both of them discovered another figure standing not far away, shrouded in gray mist.
Looking at their confused faces, Klein chuckled. The sound reverberated through the empty space, making them stiffen in fear.
...
Alger couldn't see the man's face. But from the silhouette and the chuckle, he could tell it was a man.
Suppressing his surprise and fear, Alger asked, "How may we address you, my Lord?" As he spoke, the space around them shuddered. In an instant, towering stone pillars appeared. Above them was a vast dome that encapsulated everything.
The entire edifice looked magnificent, grand, and lofty, like a legendary palace for giants.
Directly under the dome, where the gray fog gathered, a long bronze table appeared with ten high-backed chairs on either side in a symmetrical arrangement, along with a chair on each end. The back of each chair shone faintly with crimson light, outlining strange constellations that didn't belong to reality.
The man walked slowly and sat in one of the high-backed chairs. He leaned forward, interlocked his fingers, and raised them to his mouth.
With a low chuckle, he said, "You may address me as the Fool."
"Please, have a seat," he added, gesturing at the chairs.
Audrey, following her noble etiquette, sat down gracefully. Alger pulled out a chair and sat as well.
"You have some questions?" the Fool asked.
Audrey swallowed hard, trying to hide her fear and anticipation. She looked at the man across from her, who sat in silence. Forcing her voice steady, she asked, "Where is this place… and how did you summon us here, your Excellency?" She remembered her noble education and quickly added the honorific.
Alger held his breath, waiting for the answer. He had guesses, but none that gave them any chance of survival if this being turned hostile.
The Fool chuckled and said, "Welcome to my Divine Kingdom."
Alger forgot to breathe for a moment. A Divine Kingdom? With tremendous willpower, he forced himself not to visibly shake. He reminded himself that this god hadn't harmed them yet. If they stayed respectful, they might survive.
"As for how I summoned you here," the Fool continued, "you have something that belongs to me. Or more accurately, something infused with my aura."
Alger's mind spun. The god had mentioned an item imbued with divine aura. But Alger hadn't sensed anything from the artifact. The Bottle of Snow he'd found in the artifact hold of the ghost ship from the Tudor Era looked like an ordinary Beyonder item. He didn't know its name. Now this god was saying it might be divine-level. Did that mean the god was related to the Tudor Era in some way?
Audrey drew a breath and forced a polite smile. She asked carefully, "Sir, we didn't mean any disrespect. Might you permit our return?"
Klein nodded mildly and chuckled. "Of course. If you make a formal request, you can return this very moment."
When she sensed no ill intent in his tone, Audrey heaved a sigh of relief. Her whole body shook with excitement. She had met someone who could very well be at the pinnacle of mysticism. In her excitement, she blurted out a question about how to become a Beyonder. The Fool only chuckled in mild amusement and said the person in front of her could give her the answer.
When the noble girl asked, Alger's throat tightened. Then the Fool gave him the task of explaining it. Alger took a deep breath and calmed himself. Right, they hadn't been smited yet. He explained about Beyonders and the churches, sneaking glances at the Fool to see if he reacted. When she asked about potion formulas, he remembered he had both the Sailor and Spectator formulas. He needed Ghost Shark blood. If he could trade with the noble girl, it would be convenient.
He told her about the formulas, and Audrey quickly chose Spectator. Alger was about to tell her the name of the bar when he heard tapping on the table from the Fool. He froze and focused all his attention on him.
With a chuckle, the Fool said, "You can use my Divine Kingdom as a trade hub."
Alger understood instantly. With the Fool's ability, transporting materials would be easy. But of course, the god would want something in return.
"Thank you for your consideration, your Excellency," Alger said. "What do you require in return for this service?"
"I like fair exchange. Bring me pages from the diary of Emperor Roselle Gustav. This service will cost two pages per person. If you bring more, I will give you something extra in return."
"Diary? Those are a diary?" Alger frowned as he caught the detail.
The item Roselle Gustav had left behind had been described by Mr. Fool as a diary.
How did he know? Could he even decipher Roselle's cryptic text?
The Fool only chuckled at his thoughts. Remembering he was speaking to a god, Alger stopped asking and bowed.
Then Audrey had an idea. She proposed they hold gatherings like this. Mr. Fool chuckled and agreed, telling them to meet every Monday at 3 pm.
"As for exchanging items," he added, "sacrifice them to me. To sacrifice, create an altar and recite my honorific name."
"The Fool that doesn't belong to this era;
The Mysterious Ruler above the Gray Fog;
The King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck."
Both of them fell silent, digesting the implications, before giving their thanks.
Then Audrey brought up code names and the name of their gatherings. She chose Justice, while Alger chose Hanged Man. Together they decided to call it the Tarot Club. After a while, her curiosity turned to Roselle Gustav and his tarot cards. She asked Hanged Man, who explained the Cards of Blasphemy to her.
Their attention returned to the Fool when he tapped the bronze table again. Klein decided to end the gathering.
Both of them left. Only Klein remained, sighing. His spirituality had warned him to end the meeting, not because of himself, but because Audrey's maid was knocking at her door. If she didn't respond, she'd get in trouble. Alger's crewmate was about to enter the cabin he is in as well. While speaking to their projections, Klein had been keeping an eye on their bodies, ready to interfere if something went wrong.
Suddenly, his thoughts were broken by the buzzing of his phone. He glanced at it. The notification read that he had "captured" both Audrey and Alger. He froze, then remembered. The Mark of the Sefirah Castle. The Catalog had counted it as a capture method.
With that thought, he brought out the Talent Sharing tab. He gave Alger the Wild Talent and the Soul Talent, while Audrey received the Psychic Talent and the Soul Talent. He didn't grant them access to the defenses just yet. If they didn't know how to handle corruption on their own, they would be the first to die if the defenses were ever breached.
That didn't mean he wouldn't grant them defenses. When they prayed to him, he could make them immune to corruption or save them from losing control. Doing so would give him plenty of credibility as an Ancient God awakening.
After fiddling with the phone for a while, Klein stood up and walked along the table, gazing at the massive palace that had appeared out of thin air.
What now? Should I just play along… follow the path Book-Klein laid out for me? I just need to join the Nighthawks and become a Seer. With my information defense, I don't think the Evernight Goddess would figure out my Sequence.
But then again, what do I gain from being so passive? In a world like this, the one who wins is always the one who acts first.
Suddenly, while thinking, he felt something. It was like something was poking him on a metaphysical level. He turned his attention toward it, and his gaze fell on the Hornacis Mountain Range. At that moment, he understood what was happening. Somehow, the Evernight Goddess was using Antigonus to poke at the Sefirah Castle.
His lips twitched at the thought of a ridiculous scene. He imagined the Evernight Goddess holding the limp body of Antigonus and using his finger to poke at the Castle like a child pressing a button.
Then he realized… she still hadn't figured out that the Sefirah Castle had already released a spirit body. So she was trying to force it through trial and error.
With a shake of his head, he decided to ignore it. She wasn't ready to meet him yet. If he showed up in front of her now, she might attack him, thinking he was the revived Celestial Worthy.
He took a step forward and teleported toward the Door of Light, arriving before it once again.
He stood in front of the door and gave a command.
Four Worms of Time separated from the Door of Light and dropped onto the floor. In the next moment they began to writhe and duplicate, then slowly gathered together into four different silhouettes. After a while, each of them took on a distinct shape.
The first was a man with brown eyes, slightly long black hair, an average face with some stubble, and a thin yet moderately muscular build.
The second was a young gentleman with gold-rimmed glasses, neat black hair, and dark brown eyes. His sharp expression, refined demeanor, and gloomy aura gave him the air of someone experienced and ruthless.
The third was a middle-aged gentleman with deep blue eyes, black hair streaked with silver, and a profound gaze. His mature features carried the weight of someone who had endured the ups and downs of life.
The last appeared as a wandering magician in a black robe and a classic hat. He looked unremarkable at first glance.
"You know your roles," Klein said.
All of them bowed their heads in silent acknowledgment.
"Now," Klein continued, his tone deepening into something solemn and grand, "let us begin a performance worthy of the Fool."
…
"Cough… That was really cringe," Gherman Sparrow muttered, breaking the silence. The others nodded in agreement.
"Shut up," Klein snapped with his face twitching as he tried to keep his laughter at bay. "Let me live my fantasies, damn it."