49 Tarot Club 3rd Meeting

July 9th, 1349 of the Fifth Epoch

On the roaring blue waves of the Sonia Sea, an ancient sailboat was sailing with the wind.

[AN: Sorry, I won't do this too often, but cue the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song!]

Alger had locked himself in the captain's cabin and made the ghost ship provide him the highest protection. Glancing at the pocket watch on the table, Alger leaned back in his chair as the boat rocked back and forth, but not too violently.

When it was 3 o'clock, an explosion of crimson consumed him, ignoring all the defences he had set forth and the ghost ship as well.

…

Backlund, Empress Borough.

Audrey lay on her bed with a yellow page in her hand. Her emotions had become largely controlled after having advanced to a Spectator, largely a result of the potion itself, but also due to her active suppression of her emotions, and focusing more on observing others and the world around her.

Her entire world turned red as soon as it turned 3, yet she did not react at all, her emotions as stable as a hibernating bear.

…

Tingen, hotel room.

Max had already taught Ademisaul the basics of the ritual and how to pray to Singularity, as well as the symbol to draw and what lines to use. It was actually a rather simple process, but he had to ensure the child would not end up contacting some random Cthulhu God by mistake. And he especially did not want him teaching this to anyone else unless Max allowed it.

Currently, Ademisaul was taking a well-earned afternoon nap on the bed, while Max leaned back in his chair, smirking as he thought about the spectacle that would be today's Tarot Club.

Suddenly, just as the red fog covered his vision, he had a thought, 'I should probably get someone to teach me how to fight.'

Over the past year or so in Backlund, neither did Max have the time to learn close combat or weapon skills with blades or guns, nor did he find the need to, since he was considerably low-key at most functions, and did not make many enemies anywhere, choosing to give up some profits along the way to keep an amicable relationship with almost everybody by not getting too close to anyone.

And that was fine for his short-term goal, which was to establish a small but reliable source of income for him, to act as start-up capital for his future Beyonder organisation.

And with that, his vision blurred under the red fog and Max found himself in a grey-ish foggy place.

…

Max noticed the change in Audrey and just remained calm. On the other hand, he also noticed that the points at the back of her chair had also changed, forming the symbol of mysticism; the giant dragon.

'Perhaps the points behind my chair form a circle?' Max thought to himself as another thought came to mind. 'Or perhaps they form the symbol of Unity; the same form taken up by the Amalgamation of All.'

"Congratulations Ms. Justice, you are now a Beyonder.'

"Thank you Mr. Fool, Mr. Hanged-Man, Mr. Death."

"That was faster than I thought," Alger said honestly.

"Not bad." Max nodded as well. It was indeed quite good for someone to successfully advance to Sequence 9 within a week of getting the formula.

"Lady, Sirs, have any of you gathered Roselle's Diary?" Klein asked.

Audrey proceeded to produce 2 pages while Alger produced one, and Klein proceeded to read them all one at a time. Thought, Max was sure that his emotions were in a considerable storm as he read the pages. 

'Well, perhaps the first page may not seem too important at the moment, but later on the in plot it would be revealed that the god Emperor and his gang of goons- adventurers, were corrupted on the island he had read about in the first page rather early on in their adventures. But at least, the next pages would reveal a lot of important information which would be useful to the current Klein.'

After reading, Klein only nodded.

At this moment, Audrey decided to speak up.

"Everyone, I have a few questions to ask. If you think the answers warrant a high price, please tell me what you want, and I will try my best to seek it."

"Sure." Both Alger and Max agreed readily.

"The first question is, what does 'acting' really mean? I realise that the remnant psyche in the potion has minute effects on me; is that, because I have been acting as a Spectator all this while?"

Max raised his hand just before Klein spoke, and told everyone he already knew it and did not wish to take part in this conversation. For this, he was isolated from the lecture Klein was about to give, and he happily accepted it. After all, he did not wish to lose a page of Roselle's diary for something so stupid.

Klein went on to explain the basics of acting in an analogy he had just understood in more detail compared to the explanation previously, and Audrey finally understood. Even Alger had a look of realisation on his face.

In exchange, he asked for the diary pages, or information for the Antigonus Family, which Alger happily obliged. By now, Klein had conveniently lost control of the fog again and allowed Max to hear the conversation. Max did not intervene much here.

Yet, once Alger took certain names of the families, despite its context, Max coughed slightly with his eyes closed and the room went silent. Slightly opening his right eye, he examined everyone before nodding and closing his eyes again for a brief pause. Then he spoke, his eyes still closed as though he was giving out free advice.

"Be careful of the names you take, Mr. Hanged Man. Here it should be fine, but in the real world, there are beings with just as much power as the True Gods, but with much fewer restrictions on them. Some of the names you took belong to such beings. Names have more power than you think."

After saying that, Max stopped speaking completely after successfully delivering his message to the people present here.

The room fell utterly silent for a while before Alger resumed his discussion, a little worse for the ware after Max's little 'revelation'. 

Finally, Audrey asked her second question about the next potion of the Spectator pathway, and its formula or clues to find it. Alger answered this for her and told her the next potion name was Sequence 8 Telepathic, followed by Sequence 7 Psyche Analyst, as well as the Psychology Alchemists who likely had the pathway potion formulae.

Audrey then asked her next question, and the one Max was looking forward to the most.

"If, and I am saying, if, a normal animal were to drink Sequence 9 potion, what would happen."

"Pfft"

Max suddenly began laughing. He simply could not hold it in any more. He had been looking forward to lightening his mood since his meeting with Klein in the real world and learning about the Old Man's passing.

And little Ms. Justice did not disappoint.

After a few moments of awkward silence where Max was the only one laughing, he gradually stopped himself from laughing.

"Huh… I am sorry for that. You don't know how much I needed a good laugh. Anyway, I'll give you the answer to that question. You can consider lightening up my mood as payment."

"Well, if the animal has yet to explode, implode, or mutate into a terrifying creature right out of someone's nightmares, it means that the pet had successfully advanced to Spectator. I am assuming it had become a spectator. This should be a good thing for you, as long as you have treated your pet with love and affection, and it felt the same way for you before ingesting the potion."

"The pet should now have the same abilities as you, and should also be able to think like a human… more or less. You can use it for certain missions where you cannot be seen or are busy."

Alger by the side nodded.

Meanwhile, Klein had initially thought it was something normal, but after hearing Max's laughter, he couldn't help but also feel the situation was quite comical. Once Max said that he needed the laughter, Klein felt a little sad for Mr. Death, after all, he had just received the news of having lost someone close to him.

After a while of discussing, Klein told his honorific name and Alger was deeply shocked at the implication, while Audrey was simply curious about it all. The was also slightly shocked, but more curious about the ritual than anything else. Especially after the embarrassment of Mr. Death. She would get her revenge later! For sure!

Then came the time for the casual discussion.

Here, Audrey gave her report on how the exam suggestions Max had given were receiving a lot of support from a lot of people. She also mentioned that she had found two of the items from Max's list, which greatly interested Max. Only for him to learn that both of them were items that he had thrown in there as distractions.

Still, he had to keep up appearances and told her to hand them to the nearest Branch of the Dunant's Department Store. His men would collect it from there.

"The payment will be waiting for you at that store unless you go to a different one, in which case the payment will be delivered to that particular branch within 2 hours."

"Also, I would like to know the potion formula for Sequence 9 of the Monster pathway. I am willing to pay a sufficient price for it, and we can discuss it when someone has the formula." Max ended his list of requests and settled back into his seat.