Chariot"?
Does it refer to "The Chariot," one of the twenty-two Major Arcana cards in the Tarot?
Tracy Pelle blinked blankly, completely unable to comprehend the ambiguous words that Gehrman Sparrow had suddenly thrown out.
However, considering the unusual phenomena currently occurring in the office, this issue itself seems to have become irrelevant.
Whether it's the chilling gray fog or the menacing figure emitting incomprehensible roars, both are awakening certain memories that Tracy has consciously hidden.
Black, eerie, unyielding, beyond human comprehension... memories.
"Have you also visited the palace of that 'mysterious god'?"
Tracy took a deep breath, trying to confirm a possibility.
She should have realized it much earlier, during the conversation between Gehrman Sparrow and "Admiral" Cattleya.
The so-called "pre-divine council," the so-called apostles who are gifts from the Lord.
The scene fell silent for a moment. Tracy's reaction was calmer than Klein had expected, which made him look at the pirate general, who was both strange and familiar, with greater respect.
Sigh, thinking about it, it makes sense. Not everyone is like Emlyn White. Not to mention Miss Justice, who initially knew little about the Extraordinary World, even the Hanged Man, after his initial shock, quickly accepted reality...
Faced with the sudden change, Klein, after a moment's thought, abandoned his pre-prepared draft.
He thought for a moment and then simply admitted it.
"You can call me 'the world'."
"After the Lord turned His gaze back to reality, He selected a group of mortals like me and like you, gave them code names, and allowed them to hold regular meetings in the Lord's palace."
"A meeting similar to the assembly of extraordinary beings, witnessed and presided over by the Lord Himself."
"And 'Chariot' is the code name that the Lord has chosen for you."
There was no deception involved. Initially, Klein did not intend to choose a Major Arcana card as Tracy's code name before she officially joined the Tarot Club. Instead, "Mystery" made the suggestion first.
It was a prophecy that could hardly be called a prophecy.
The "God of Mystery" told Klein that if he was interested in winning over and recruiting this pirate general, the "Chariot" would be a better fit for the path the general would soon embark on.
The "Empress" card, which corresponds to the "Witch" path, is actually not a good match for Tracy Pelle's personality and expectations for the future.
The codename bestowed upon me by the "God of Mystery"... As expected, Tracy Pelle crashed after hearing this news.
Her carefully crafted respectful attitude and undeniable obedience were abruptly shattered by this message. Her azure eyes gradually filled with emptiness, her mouth opened unconsciously, and her legs, which had been pressed together, involuntarily took a few steps back in a daze.
Happiness arrived quietly, shattering her reason.
There was no other way. For some time now, Tracy Pelle had been thinking about how to please the mysterious god, and even considered selling her soul to gain the trust of the "god of mystery".
But now, this deity has already given her the opportunity to participate in the pre-divine meeting without doing anything, and has even personally chosen a code name for her.
Fortunately, this confusion did not last long. The painful experiences from the past, buried deep in her memory, tried to remind Tracy and pulled her back from her daze.
By the way, before she embarked on the path of the extraordinary, her mother also pretended to be a loving "good mother" who used sweet words to mask poison and push her onto the path of the "witch." It wasn't until she became an "instigator" and ascended to become a true "witch" that the truth was revealed to her.
There are no gifts without a reason... Tracy suppressed her thoughts, her expression returning to normal, as if everything that had just happened to her was just an illusion.
"Praise be to the 'God of Mystery'."
It must be said that her gestures, which traced messy, thread-like shapes on her chest, were more skillful than Klein's own, and the speed of her movements astonished Klein.
Do all those who make a living at sea know this stuff?
"The Hanged Man" is, and so is Tracy Pelle... but then Klein thought of Cattleya and Edwina's performances and dismissed the idea.
He cleared his throat and then got down to business.
"Generally speaking, each new member will first ascend to the Lord's palace, and then the Lord will personally inform them of the time and rules for the meeting."
"But you are clearly different, 'Chariot'."
Tracy readily accepted the new name Klein suggested and nodded.
"Is it because of what happened to me?"
"Was it actually an accident that I was noticed by the Lord during that storm?"
Perhaps, like the messengers of the true creator, the selection of messengers is only made from among the people of the empire under His rule, and the selection of participants for the meeting by the "mysterious god" is also based on this scope.
She wasn't afraid that she wasn't the special one chosen from the beginning, and her frankness far surpassed Klein's amazement at Tracy's ability to accept the fact that "Tracy could betray the 'Primordial Witch' without batting an eye and directly call the 'God of Mysteries' her master."
"You can understand it that way," Klein nodded. "After all, you had other beliefs in the past, and as you said, what happened to you was a complete accident."
"In short, at the beginning, the Lord did not see you as a believer worth cultivating. In His eyes, you were just like many heretics. Your only value was to serve as one of the Lord's eyes and ears in observing and understanding the present age."
At this point, Klein had to pause for a moment.
He asked himself honestly, and realized that he really didn't have much talent for being a charlatan; such a job was more suited to a sophisticated and shrewd angel like Friedrich Zarathustra.
However, he obviously couldn't find any other help at the moment, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue making things up.
"Later, you proved through your actions that you were different from the other lambs blinded by false faith. You seemed to have been running away from the evil god that bound you, hoping to embrace a new faith?"
Even without the help of "Mystery," Klein realized, and even vaguely guessed, why Tracy disliked "The Witch Cult" and showed a betrayal attitude the moment she made contact with "The God of Mystery."
Judging from the consistent tradition of the "Witch Cult"... the gaze of the messenger behind the desk did not conceal the fact that what rose in the pirate general's eyes was not desire, but a faint sympathy and unspeakable feeling, on his body that was not plump but had both charm and heroism.
This "disease-stricken lieutenant general" might have been a man a few years ago.
Realizing that Klein needed an explanation, Tracy took a deep breath and slowly answered while organizing her thoughts.
"Yes, I've wanted to break free from the 'Primal Witch's' control over me for a long time..."
"To be precise, it belongs to my mother."
It seemed that Tracy hesitated for a long time before she finally had the courage to reveal the source of all her misfortune.
"My mother is a high-ranking member of the 'Witch Cult,' and she has the title of 'White Saintess.' She may have lived for over a thousand years?"
"I don't know much about her past, but from the information I've gathered, she seems to have been a high-ranking member of the Witch Cult during the Fourth Epoch."
"She deceived me, twisted my will and made me who I am now, which is why I want to escape."
Klein leaned back in his chair again, folding his hands in front of his chest.
This time, however, he wasn't using body language to exert pressure or create a sense of relief; it was simply an outward expression of being lost in thought.
A powerful and extraordinary individual who had already become a high-ranking member of the "Witch Cult" during the Fourth Age?
In other words, Tracy Pelle's mother, the "White Saintess," was already a demigod at least by the end of the Fourth Age.
Could she have participated in the "Pale Catastrophe"?
Klein suddenly realized that there was a hidden value in Tracy that he had never discovered before.
If Tracy inherited the surname "Pelle" from her mother, the "White Saint," perhaps I could try asking Mr. Azik...
In fact, the intelligence department of Trensost had conducted a systematic investigation into the background and abilities of each pirate general. However, when it comes to pirate generals who can be considered figures in the Five Seas, on a larger, world-wide stage, they are just a few slightly stronger Sequence 5 generals who cannot attract much attention.
During the Fourth Age, the "Witch Cult" was more commonly referred to as the "Witch Family".
They revered the "Primordial Witch" of their faith as the mother of all witches, while the angels and high-ranking members of the sect were the mothers of their respective small families, and could also be called "mistresses".
The children of these people, regardless of the closeness of their blood relationship, are given the surname of the "mistress" in order to distinguish factions within the sect.
Therefore, Tracy, who was not so important and had only recently emerged to seize the position of pirate general left by Zilingus, became a fish that slipped through the net of the intelligence department, and no one investigated her true relationship with the "White Witch".
Although Klein was also a messenger of the true creator and a member of the intelligence department, he had always maintained a vague sense of detachment from the whole of Trensost and rarely considered what kind of convenience Trensost could provide him.
Even though he has changed some of his ideas and has actually begun to practice the duties and powers of the divine messenger, the ingrained thought patterns he had developed in the past have made him temporarily forget that, apart from Azik Eggers, whose memories have not fully recovered, directly querying the intelligence department's database is actually a faster and better choice.
"From a personal perspective, I completely understand your choice," Klein said. "As a messenger of the Lord, I am glad that you have seen the error of your ways and made the right choice."
"But I also want to remind you that even the smallest betrayal, no matter how well-founded, will not be forgiven."
Klein did sympathize with Tracy, but only because they both shared the same inability to control their own fates.
In addition, he still remembers the bloody acts that Tracy Pelle committed while playing a pirate general and a member of the "Witch Cult," acts that could be described as atrocities.
He won't give the other party a comfortable choice.
"The Lord wants you to continue to infiltrate the 'Witch Cult,' at least for now."
"A deformed group of 'Primal Witch' followers. These madmen naturally reject normal people. Just as you said, they only slowly trust their own children after inflicting that kind of twisted behavior on them."
"It's very difficult for us to infiltrate them; you're practically the only option."
After hearing Klein's words, Tracy's slender eyebrows furrowed in a very short time, then quickly relaxed.
She swallowed her disgust for the "witch cult" and her mother, repeatedly telling herself the importance of taking things step by step, but she couldn't help but make a request.
Judging from that humble tone, it would be more accurate to call it a request.
"Mr. 'World', I am happy to accept the mission entrusted to me by the Lord, but I don't know if the Empire can take in one or two innocent people besides me."
The figure that had accompanied her for quite some time was hard to shake off, so after some hesitation, Tracy gritted her teeth and doubled the number of places she had initially planned.
Tell me about it.
"As you may already know, in my fleet, besides the peripheral members of the 'Witch Cult' and the pirates I recruited from different docks, there are two members who can be considered half 'trophies'."
Half a "trophy"?
Klein raised an eyebrow, his gaze sweeping over the top of the pile of files on the left side of his desk. After a few seconds, he found some information that might fit the bill.
"They were left behind by me after I plundered merchant ships in the past for various reasons. They were neither pirates nor did they participate in any missions assigned to me by the 'Witch Cult.' They only occasionally contributed during naval battles."
"Compared to me, they are innocent and more deserving of the Empire's protection."
The pleading tone and expression seemed genuine, yet Klein still inexplicably felt a contradictory sense of unease.
When will the "Disease Lieutenant General," who enjoys torturing enemies and spreading pain, start to care about ordinary, innocent people?
But that's not important, and Klein has no interest in digging into other people's privacy.
He reached under the desk and secretly performed a divination. After receiving the answer that there was "no danger," he lost all interest in pursuing the matter further and simply agreed.
That said, after the Battle of Rothschild, although there was Tracy, a spy planted within the "Witch Cult," Alger Wilson, the "Hanged Man," was no longer able to return to the "Church of the Storm"...
Even if, in order to preserve his undercover identity, all the surviving members of the Storm Church detained on the island were returned to Pasu Island through ransom, given the nature of those people, they would probably immediately launch a purge and torture of their faith after the ransom was paid.
If all else fails, I'll ask that guy Radistan to help me out. If it weren't for him forcibly requisitioning Alger's ship, we wouldn't be in this mess... Klein shook his head slightly, putting aside the worries of what would happen later. He glanced at the time, then at Tracy, and decided to end the conversation.
"The gathering will be held every Monday at 3 PM Rune time. If there are no problems, let's call it a day."