Lord of Mysteries world. A new week — Monday.
The previous morning, Vincent and Bernadette had completed another swap. With Bernadette now in control, she moved through the spirit world to the offshore islands not far from Bayam, tracked down Danitz — lying low on Long Tail Island — and, working from the targets and locations he provided, conducted a few more public prosecutions.
The results were noticeable.
Feeling the potion digesting, Vincent said, "Based on everything we've gathered from these sessions, I think if we can collar even one Pirate Admiral for a prosecution, the rest of the potion should fully digest."
The point wasn't their raw power — it was their reputation. The more notorious the target, the more the prosecution drove the digestion forward.
The problem was finding them.
If Pirate Admirals were that easy to locate, the authorities would have wiped them out long ago. Official organisations were never short of demigod-level Beyonders with teleportation capabilities.
"Which means Qilangos — still somewhere in Backlund right now — is probably our best opportunity," Vincent said, with a touch of frustration. "Trouble is, we still have no word on him whatsoever."
In the original, Xio and Fors had crossed paths with Qilangos by accident. This time, because of all the disruption from the royal family's human trafficking affair, things had gone completely sideways. But Qilangos's underlying mission — the assassination of Duke Negan on behalf of the Twilight Hermit Order — that wouldn't have changed. If things held consistent, he'd most likely choose the same ball as in the original.
Three o'clock in the afternoon.
Several figures appeared in succession in the palace above the Gray Fog. As with last time, Vincent did not materialise directly in his own seat like the others — he arrived some distance behind Bernadette, then scurried over to sit beside her.
The sight made Audrey want to laugh, but she held it in out of courtesy and greeted everyone with her usual bright cheer. "Good afternoon, Mr. Fool! Good afternoon, Mr. Hanged Man... Mr. Sun... Mr. Lovers, Miss Lovers."
After the greetings, Audrey turned to Mr. Fool. "Respected Mr. Fool — did your blessed follower receive the three hundred gold coins of compensation?"
Klein replied mildly, "I haven't been following that matter. But since my follower hasn't made any further requests for assistance, I assume it went through."
"Wonderful~"
Audrey's smile dimmed slightly as she lowered her head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Fool — I wasn't able to obtain a page of Emperor Roselle's diary this week."
But I more than made up for it by getting personally involved and encountering the Lord of Chaos, bringing you intelligence of far greater value. Unfortunately, without Mr. Fool's explicit instruction, she didn't dare share that with the others, which she found deeply regrettable.
Alger spoke up promptly. "I'm on the verge of acquiring a batch of Emperor Roselle's diary pages. I believe I'll have them ready for the next gathering, or the one after."
Klein turned his gaze to the two Lovers. They didn't disappoint — two pages again this week, though still without any real substance. The pages described various ordinary observations Roselle had made during a sea voyage.
The majority of the pages was devoted to how profoundly boring the whole trip was. The remainder discussed how, after weeks without fresh fruit and vegetables, the crew had grown constipated, and Roselle genuinely suspected that if they happened upon pirates in this condition, the entire fleet would fail to perform and suffer a humiliating defeat.
And Roselle the Great, he noted, would thus become history's first transmigrator to be slain by constipation.
Klein dismissed the pages and thought to himself: Obviously he either never ran into any pirates, or he found a way to get some vitamins. Otherwise the next problem wouldn't have been constipation — it would have been scurvy. A disease that caused catastrophic casualties throughout the Western age of sail.
He looked at Bernadette. "Miss Lovers — regarding these two pages, is there anything you'd like to ask?"
"Mr. Fool — why was Emperor Roselle so fixated on ocean voyages?"
The question genuinely stumped Klein for a moment. The diaries offered no clear answer. Roselle wanted to be the Columbus of another world, to circumnavigate the globe, to search for the legendary Western Continent — but why? Mere curiosity? Perhaps.
After a moment's thought, Klein rested his chin on one hand and smiled faintly. "Roselle believed that his journey was never limited to the world immediately before him. His destination was the stars and the sea."
He'd crossed the oceans and circumnavigated the world; he'd set foot on the moon and looked out at the boundless cosmos. Roselle had, in the truest sense, conquered the stars and the sea through his own actions.
"You may begin."
Alger was the first to speak. "Does anyone have news on Qilangos?"
Audrey shook her head. "I'm sorry, Mr. Hanged Man — nothing so far." The main reason was that she'd been counting on Xio and Fors to track him, but both of them were stuck at the Hall estate in protective custody and couldn't venture out. The search had simply stalled.
Bernadette added, "We haven't found anything useful either."
"I see."
Alger looked mildly disappointed. Looks like I'll have to handle it myself. He was planning to land in Backlund in the next day or two, under the pretext of reporting back to the Church of the Lord of Storms. If it came to it, he'd consider using himself as bait to draw Qilangos out.
Just as he had always wanted Qilangos dead, the reverse was equally true. The problem was that using yourself as bait only worked if you had the strength to swallow the fish once it bit. Otherwise it was just suicide with extra steps.
Alger laid out his thinking for the group — though his real audience was Mr. Fool, hoping He would dispatch one of His blessed followers to help deal with Qilangos.
Klein actually gave it serious consideration. Could I ask Mr. Azik for help? He'd be more than capable of hunting down that pirate.
At that point, Bernadette spoke up. "If you're confident enough to draw Qilangos out, I could lend a hand."
Alger blinked, surprised.
Mr. Lovers had once mentioned arranging a bodyguard for Miss Justice to deal with the Aurora Order's messenger — which implied the two of them had decent connections in the Beyonder world. But as for their actual strength, Alger genuinely had no clear idea. Logically, given Mr. Fool's usual standard for pulling people into the gathering, they shouldn't be much stronger than himself. Were they really a match for Qilangos?
Not necessarily. Then again — a high-sequence powerhouse had seen fit to curse both of them into sharing a body. That in itself might, indirectly, be proof that they weren't weaklings.
To be safe, Alger asked: "Miss Lovers — could I ask what sequence you and Mr. Lovers are currently at?"
Bernadette and Vincent exchanged a glance. She said evenly, "Treat us as Sequence 5." The vague answer was deliberate — she didn't know whether she or Vincent would be in control at the time, so she'd given a conservative figure that covered either case.
Sequence 5?
Everyone froze — especially Mr. Fool, for just a fraction of a second. Wait. That's not what I assumed. I've always thought of the Tarot Club as a collection of low-sequence Beyonders scraping by together — and there's a mid-sequence powerhouse hiding in here?!
But then — how is my spirituality sustaining a Sequence 5?
To be continued…
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