"Captain, how is Old Neil?" Klein, who was guarding the headquarters, immediately stepped forward to ask when he saw the Captain return.
"Fortunately, Old Neil himself is sufficiently restrained. Although the discovery wasn't exactly early, as long as he stops receiving that knowledge, there should still be room for recovery. But with the current crisis, we can't spare any personnel. He'll have to stay in the Cathedral for now. Once this is over, we'll send him to Backlund for treatment."
Dunn's tone held a clear trace of lingering fear. He had come within a hair's breadth of losing another teammate for such an absurd reason.
"That's good." Klein relaxed immediately. Dunn sighed:
"However, Old Neil can't have any contact with mystical matters during this time. Your mysticism lessons will have to pause. Mystical knowledge is extremely dangerous; you'd better not 'self-study'."
"It's alright, Captain. Old Neil said I've already mastered the parts I can currently access. The rest is just practice." Klein shook his head slightly. Dunn gave a forced smile.
"This incident was thanks to a wild Beyonder. But they didn't reveal their identity, and we don't know their specific pathway. Their sequence should be quite high, though. Here are their physical characteristics... oh, I forgot, you don't do field duty..." Dunn stuffed the file he had intended to give Klein back into his coat, ignoring Klein's confused hand-raising, "I just came back to let you know. I have to go back on duty in a moment. Stay safe. If anything happens, use the secret passage to St. Selena Cathedral immediately..."
...
"I actually digested a portion?!" On the other side, Trissy felt the feedback from the potion, a look of astonishment on her face.
In just a few hours, the amount of potion she had digested far exceeded the feedback she had received from cursing civilians over the past half-month.
'What exactly is the principle behind this? Is acting as a Witch better this way? Or is there some hidden feedback mechanism? Speaking of which, I know about the Acting Method, but I have no idea why acting can digest the potion... I wonder how much that question is worth...'
The thought made Trissy grit her teeth. That fellow hadn't left her a way to contact him. In other words, unless she prayed to that unknown existence, she could only wait for him to come to her door.
...
Snow had no idea what Trissy was thinking. He was huddled in his study, drafting a plan in Chinese.
Although his 'Choice Difficulty' [Analysis Paralysis] was slowly weakening as the potion was digested--meaning he wouldn't face loss of control over every minor choice--the past half-month had already ingrained in him the habit of making contingency plans.
With the 'Grandmaster' Hermann Lamm as a precedent, it was never a bad thing to make several backup plans for everything.
As long as he listed all the options in advance and weighed the pros and cons, he wouldn't need to labor over a choice when things actually occurred.
...
Terror-stricken Backlund was teeming with dark undercurrents. Every day, some lunatic from the Aurora Order was trying to conduct various dangerous rituals. But these things had nothing to do with Snow, who lived in the West District. After all, no matter how crazy the Aurora Order lunatics were, they wouldn't go to Mr. A's doorstep to cause trouble.
The 'legacy' his previous self had left him exceeded twenty thousand pounds. Such a sum, even at Backlund price levels, was enough for him to live a dignified life for many years--provided he didn't buy luxury goods.
In this way, Snow spent his first week back in the volatile city of Backlund in peace. No old clients came to his door, and no new clients sought assistance. He stayed indoors, having all his food delivered by a nearby Intis restaurant.
Although it meant spending over three pounds a day on food, the cost was negligible compared to his safety.
The clock ticked on. Snow, having organized his planning drafts once more, glanced at the clock face.
Ten minutes until three o'clock in the afternoon.
Skillfully striking a match, he burned all of his current planning drafts. He advanced his Sequence 7 anti-divination power to ensure that the last trace of the drafts' existence in the world was completely wiped out.
"Lily!"
"Meow?" Hearing Snow's call, Lily immediately darted out from some corner, letting out an appreciative cry as she saw the cat food Snow poured into her dish.
"Before I wake up, don't let anyone near the house. And don't kill anyone, alright?"
Snow placed the dish before Lily and gave his usual instructions. Lily nodded, gave an unnervingly human smile, and then buried her face in the dish.
Snow looked at Lily--unsure if she was truly acting dumb or was actually simple--and turned to find a comfortable position to lie down, quietly waiting for the crimson light to surge like a tide...
...
"Good afternoon, Mr. Fool. Good afternoon, Mr. Hanged Man. Good afternoon, Mr. Devil..."
Miss Justice's sweet and happy voice rang in his ears. Snow quickly cleared the brief confusion from ascending to the grey fog, slightly adjusted his posture, and began to greet the members of the Tarot Club.
"Mr. Fool, I've brought a page of Roselle's diary this time."
After Justice and Hanged Man indicated they hadn't found any entries, Snow placed his hand over his chest and spoke respectfully.
Mr. Fool realized that Mr. Devil had returned to Backlund a few days ago and felt a surge of joy. However, on the surface, he maintained his Fool persona and chuckled, "Very well."
Along with his words, a dark-red fountain pen and brownish parchment appeared before him. Although it was the first time, Snow 'learned' how to use them quickly under Miss Justice's enthusiastic guidance and wrote the neat square characters on the paper.
As the pen was recapped, the parchment appeared before Mr. Fool. Before even reading it, Mr. Fool was slightly stunned.
Because this was the first time since his transmigration that he had seen such neatly written Chinese characters.
'Could it be Roselle's original manuscript?' The thought crossed Klein's mind, but as he saw the words clearly, he almost failed to maintain his Fool persona. He saw an opening sentence like this:
"I finally got the recipe for the Seer potion. Now I can try to collect the materials. Roselle, oh Roselle, I hope you haven't scammed me!"
'This isn't Roselle's diary!' Klein felt his mind go blank, but at the same time, a more excited emotion was beginning to grow.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika Kagura]