Chapter 191: Huh? What is this?

Lamud Town was located on the northwestern edge of Tingen. Several buildings still had the characteristics of the era before the Age of Steam. There were almost zero factories and the nearby villages engaged in commercial trading.

After they stopped the carriage, Dunn looked at the team and said.

"I asked earlier. It only requires a 15-minute walk from here to the castle ruins on the mountain. It is said to have belonged to a Feudal Lord who reigned during the Fourth Epoch. Anyway, no one knows what happened after that."

The information revealed by Dunn immediately caught the attention of Klein who immediately linked Dunn's information with that revealed by Chariot.

'So the Death Consul used the Baron's identity as a hideout? A somewhat striking identity but who would come looking for 'Him' here? Mhm, Chariot said that 'His' son's skull was used for the ritual and wraiths can be born from negative emotions... Is possible that the Wraith is the evil spirit of this Counsul's son?'

While Klein finished his theory, Dunn finished explaining.

"We'll go deal with that Wraith now before the sky turns black. Then, we can take turns watching over 3-0782 and keeping it away from people."

From the moment they took the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem and arrived at Lamud Town, 3 hours had passed. In no time, they would have to part ways and give each other time to recover.

"Okey" Frye gave a succinct reply.

"I have no problem with that" Klein touched the Slumber Charms and Requiem Charms in his pockets.

"So serious~ You know Dunn if you approached women with that side of you, you would already have a wife and at least 2 kids." Daly teased a little coquettishly and the men present blushed.

Daly Simone, who was standing next to Dunn, gave him a gentle squeeze on the bicep and walked to the Hair Salon opposite them, waving a hand lightly in the air without looking at them.

"I'll leave you guys with your Man Time. I'll see what kind of women's hairstyle they have here."

She stopped before entering and glanced over her shoulder at Dunn as she caught a bit of her black hair and brought it closer to her lips.

The blush of Dunn deepened and this made Daly laugh softly.

She released her hair and smiled at the men.

"Take care~ And if something happens just yell!" She said amused as she entered the hair salon.

"..."

"..."

"..."

'It really was a vacation for her!' Klein thought completely stunned, his mouth hanging slightly.

Cough* Cough*

Looking at Dunn who had coughed to get his and Frye's attention, Klein looked at him in surprise.

'Captain, seriously, don't you notice that she likes you? Your bad memory is no excuse for ignoring all the signs!'

Since he'd met Daly Simone, the woman had made no attempt to hide her clear attraction to the Nighthawk Captain.

And it was crystal clear that Dunn also liked Daly!

"Let's go to the castle and deal with that Wraith. We can't waste any more time." Dunn said seriously but the blush on his cheeks was still there.

The taller man then turned and started his way to the castle being followed by Klein and Frye.

The last mentioned looked at each other and with a knowing look, they both sighed. Neither of them dares to point out the obvious... After all, love is complicated...

And neither of them had any experience with it.

...

Sitting on a seat and attracting decent attention due to her beauty, Daly sipped the mild tea that was brought to her.

'Poor quality but at least they put lemon on it.' Daly gave a mental opinion.

Putting down her teacup, she whispered almost inaudibly in the Language of the Dead.

"Keep an eye on them. Don't get closer than 25 meters and don't be seen. Don't intervene unless absolutely necessary."

The air around Daly turned cold for a few seconds, fogging up the mirror behind her, but it only lasted a moment and it was gone.

With the spirits commanded to watch over the Nighthawks, Daly took another sip of her tea and frowned slightly.

Looking aside at a worker she spoke.

"Could you bring me more sugar please?"

...

30 minutes later.

'The Capitan has his moments. He looked so cool before...' Klein thought as he asked another Lamud Town resident about the castle.

With the joint work of Dunn's dream ability and the purification of Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem, they easily finished off the Wraith without it being able to do anything.

Remembering the castle made Klein click his tongue in annoyance.

'Although I found the body of the Consul's son, I couldn't find any clue. Whoever took the skull eliminated any clues...'

"Thanks for your time."

Bidding farewell to a curly-haired older lady, Klein sighed as he moved to the next person.

The lady had been the thirteen person who he had asked about the castle, of which two of them clearly remembered having been injured in it when they were young.

'As the Captain supposed, there was never any incident in the past and the Wraith only appeared recently...'

"Excuse me, Officer!"

Turning to where the voice came from, Klein watched as a blond man in his forties approached him with a smile. The man came out of an antique store and appeared to be the owner from his clothing and demeanor.

The man's smile seemed to say business and his walk had confidence in it. He didn't seem like someone who needed help.

'Don't tell me you're going to try to sell me something? You look like a typical street hustler. Maybe if I show him my gun he'll freak out and run away...' Klein considered with a raised eyebrow.

"Good afternoon gentleman, do you need help with something?" Even though the man didn't seem to need help, Klein decided to keep his manners.

The man's smile remained and he shook his head.

"It's not that Officer. I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with Madam Elay and if you're interested in the old castle I think I have something you might like." The man said confidently.

'Shit. He's seriously going to try to sell me something.' Klein thought wanting to roll his eyes but stopped himself.

Holding back the urge to show off his weapon, the nearly complete Seer decided to play along with this <vendor>.

"Oh? And what could it be?" Klein asked with false curiosity.

Seeing that he had caught the Officer's attention, the man's smile grew.

"I have an oil painting of the first Baron who lived there. My grandfather's grandfather's grandfather...Well, a long time ago he took this oil painting from the castle and said it was the painting of the first Baron Lamud." He said like a real salesman and Klein raised an eyebrow.

'If it was the true painting of the first Baron, your family would have sold it a long time ago... This guy is seriously daring, daring to scam the police... But he doesn't look that smart or brave...'

Taking his pocket watch out of his pocket and opening it with a Clack* and seeing that there was still time, Klein decided that he had nothing to lose by seeing how far this could go.

Taking the attitude of a window shopper, Klein said.

"Who knows if it's a real antique or not? I'll trust my own judgment, show me the painting."

The man's smile grew even more and he nodded excitedly.

"Perfect! I promise you won't regret it! Please come with me to my shop"

Following the man to the shop and entering it was full of all kinds of antiques, from mugs to clocks and furniture.

"Please give me a moment, the painting is stored in the back. It will only take a minute." The man said and quickly crossed a door behind the counter and left Klein alone who, having nothing to do, simply stared at a teacup.

After only 30 seconds, the man returned carrying an oil painting in his hands.

Klein casually looked at the painting. He saw that the baron had gentle features and bronze skin, his eyes hiding an indescribable range of human experience. He was wearing a white curly wig.

'Huh? He looks a lot like Mr. Azik!' Klein's eyes snapped open, his gaze subconsciously falling below the baron's right ear.

He saw an unremarkable mole near the ear.

In the exact same place as Mr. Azik!

Klein felt his heart skip a pulse and for a second, he forgot how to breathe.

...

After questioning and scaring the dealer to death, Klein left the antique shop and was now anxiously circling under a gas lamp on the street.

'I can't be sure that the man in the painting is the first Baron of Lamud... However, the person in the painting is one from the past, at least a thousand years ago...'

'Other than the hair, that person is almost identical to Mr. Azik...' Klein felt his head spin at what that could mean.

'I can't trust Divination to confirm this. It might even be dangerous. I have to find information about Mr. Azik's childhood, if he just appeared one day out of nowhere as an adult that could only mean that he is the Death Consul!'

'Should I tell this to the Captain and the Red Gloves? Mr. Azik has treated me well and even discreetly revealed to me the interference in my fate...'

'Besides the one who would get hurt would not only be him but the Nighthawks and the Red Gloves...Sigh, I have to guess this in the world about the gray fog!'

Stretching, he stopped circling under the gas lamp and began heading toward the hotel they were staying at a light jog.

They would leave in the morning of the next day so they would stay in a hotel until then.

Klein entered the hotel and seeing that Dunn and Daly had gone out to investigate the castle and Frye was still out, he took the opportunity and paid for another room at the cost of one soli.

After entering the room, Kleik formed a wall of spirituality with the help of Holy Night Powder. So, he took four steps counterclockwise and entered the world over the gray fog.

The solitaire palace stood tall and silent while the ancient, mottled bronze table, the twenty-two high seats remained the same.

Sitting down in his seat of honor at the top of the table and making a black fountain pen and goatskin parchment appear, Klein grabbed the fountain pen and wrote earnestly.

<I should tell the Nighthawks and the Red Gloves about Mr. Azik.>

Then, he let the topaz pendulum on his left wrist dangle and performed a spirit pendulum divination.

The result was that the pendulum rotated counterclockwise at such a speed that it nearly flew off!

Lowering the topaz pendulum, Klein lowered his head slightly and thought seriously.

'Don't tell the Nighthawks and Red Gloves...'

Not satisfied with this divination, Klein decided to use dream divination to be sure and changed the divination statement.

<The result of hiding matters related to Mr. Azik from the Nighthawks and Red Gloves.>

Klein held the goatskin, recited the statement seven times silently, and leaned backward to enter a deep sleep.

He saw himself in the illusory, blurry, and distant world. He saw that he was struggling while drowning in a sea of blood.

Then, there was a hand that extended and pulled him up from the blood sea. The owner of the hand was Azik with bronze skin and a small mole near his ear.

The image shattered and reorganized. Klein saw that he was in a dark and gloomy emperor's final resting place. The surrounding coffins opened one after another.

Azik stood next to him, looking forward, as though he was looking for something.

Just then, Klein exited the dream in an instant

and saw the illusory, gray, and boundless fog.

'If I were to hide the related matters about

Mr. Azik, I would receive his assistance when

I'm in danger in the future... Heh, the danger

might have come about because I helped to keep the secret... What does the last scene

mean? I will discover some mausoleum with Mr. Azik? Yes, perhaps the mausoleum has other symbolic meanings...'

Sighing, Klein sank back in his seat and put both hands to his face, and laughed at the ridiculousness of this.

Lowering his hands, Klein stared at nothing.

"Mr. Chariot said that the Death Consul was someone familiar with me. I thought he was a friend of the Half-Fool... Not my fucking professor!!!" Klein screamed loudly but the palace remained unchanged.

At this point it was ridiculous not to accept it, everything indicated that Mr. Azik was the Death Consul. From his strange dreams, and how he could detect the interference in his fate and the painting of the Baron. Klein could no longer deny it.

"My professor is an ancient monster that is over a thousand years old..." Klein muttered with a blank stare.

Klein looked around him almost hoping and hoping that several cameramen would come out of nowhere with Chariot and Azik in the lead saying that it was all a super complicated prank...

But all he saw was the endless, limitless, gray fog.

Klein let out a long, tired, and heavy sigh that if you heard it you would think his soul came out of his mouth.

He didn't want to go back to his body yet and since he still had enough spirituality, he decided to hang out a bit more.

So what he did was remember what he had done this day since he woke up until he rented this room.

Leaving aside what had happened at the Tarot Club, there was something that had caught his attention.

And that was the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem...

Remembering such a curious artifact, Klein put a hand to his chin.

'Nothing related to its origin appeared in the artifact's information. With how useful it is, one would think that they would have already obtained it through divination, but they didn't. Is it because the Church Seers were unable to obtain anything?'

Klein doubted it was because the Church was lazy.

Looking around at the gray fog that covered everything and reached beyond what his eye could see, Klein had an idea.

'I am a Seer but I had something they don't.' I wonder if I could divine its origin using the specialty of this space?'

Determined, Klein decided to do that. He had already divined something more powerful than this artifact being the person behind the Ritual to the Evil God.

A level 3 artifact would be nothing to him!

He conjured some yellowish-brown goatskin parchments and a black fountain pen, as well as the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem.

"It feels quite real..." Klein rubbed 3-0782 in his hands, finding the sensation identical to the one he had felt in the outside world.

'Well, I don't know what I expected. If I could conjure up food and drinks that tasted exactly like what I remembered then this would be the same.' Klein thought as he grabbed the fountain pen and wrote.

<The origin of the Mutated Sun Sacred

Emblem in my hands.>

After reciting the statement seven times, he

held the piece of goatskin and the Sealed Artifact

3-0782 in his hands. He leaned back and

entered his dream.

In the blurry dreamworld, Klein saw a drop of

glowing gold liquid. It was warm and bright.

It was suspended above an altar, before a man dressed in a white classic robe.

The man only had his back facing Klein. He

had lost all signs of life as he fell slowly

towards the sacrificial altar.

At that moment, the Sun Sacred Emblem he

was holding had come into contact with the

golden liquid, the latter quickly seeping into

the emblem

The dream quickly dissipated after Klein saw

this, waking him up.

'So that golden drop is what made Sun Emblem so special and uncontrollable to this day... Mhm, several decades have passed since its creation but it hasn't lost its effect? What was that golden drop? An advanced Beyonder ingredient?' Klein thought as he played with 3-0782 in his hand.

"I wonder..." he muttered narrowing his eyes.

After deliberating for a few moments, he tried to emulate the feeling he had in the dream. Trying to separate the golden drop from the Emblem in his hands.

The result was almost immediate, in front of Klein the same golden drop appeared as in the dream!

The warmth of the Mutated Emblem completely disappeared.

'This is a miracle! I didn't think it would be possible but this place is full of surprises!' Klein thought in shock.

Coming out of the shock, Klein wrote a new sentence on the yellowish parchment.

<The origin of the drop of this golden liquid>

Excited, Klein repeated this sentence 7 times in silence, and holding the parchment and the drop of golden liquid, he entered a dream.

His eyelids drooped and he <saw> the illusory yet blurry dream.

In the blurry world that looked in shambles, a

golden, glaring sun suddenly appeared!

A low grunt resounded across the void. The pure and clean light suddenly lit everything up as the gold and burning flames swept outwards.

Boom!

Klein was instantly expelled from his dream world and flipped onto his side as he shivered. His body seemed to become a huge bonfire that burned with a raging golden flame.