Lord of Mysteries:Fire of Destruction

Later that day. Oldeah District

Choo choo!

Exiting the train, Klein looked around the station and nodded inwardly. He wore a large light brown coat and black gloves, and his laurel held his hair in place. He carried a dark blue travel briefcase.

His appearance was slightly different. His beard was now a light gray. His hair was slicked back, showing his somewhat wrinkled forehead, and white lines ran over his ears.

Clowns were naturally skilled with makeup, so making himself look several decades older and changing his face a bit was no problem.

Once, he took a break to regain his lost spirituality and had another breakfast for the day ahead. He then performed several divinations in the space above the gray fog to locate the place he had seen in the mirror divination.

Luckily, locating the spot he had seen was not difficult. After the divinations, he simply consulted some people on the streets and found what he was looking for relatively quickly.

Apparently, it was a relatively popular place to visit in the fall.

Walking out of the train station, the detective looked up at the large sign hanging from the ceiling.

Welcome to Auchiieb

'Even by Lenburg standards, that's an odd name. Did whoever was naming this place headbutt the keyboard and take the first word that made any sense?' Klein raised an eyebrow for a moment before shaking his head.

It's not as if he could judge people's naming ability...

That aside, the detective continued on his way out of the train station and onto the sidewalk, his gaze inevitably drawn to the large forest on the edge of town.

The lush, large trees obscured the sun and cast large shadows. This was only part of the largest forest in the country, the Lumea Forest.

It was quite a beautiful sight.

Northern Lenburg was known for this same forest, but Klein was most interested in the buildings and atmosphere.

The traces of the Feynapotter Kingdom were stronger here than in any other part of Lenburg. The houses, streets, people, and atmosphere screamed history, making the historian inside him tremble with excitement.

A single stone in the street was already older than his whole family put together!

Several projects have been implemented to maintain that 700+ year-old history.

To maintain the diverse fauna of the area, Lenburg came up with a somewhat peculiar solution. Instead of making a big city with a small park in the middle, they decided to make a series of towns that would function as mini-cities placed in a series of 30 across the northern part of the country.

There was not much difference in each one; the only difference would be in the population that varied from town to town, but they were never less than 50 thousand. This number obviously increased with the arrival of autumn and winter, which were the major tourist points.

Auchiied is the 13th village in the series of 30. It is a little further away from the rest and one of the oldest, being one of the first built after the country's independence from the Feynapotter Kingdom.

'The best place to make a deal with gangs.' Klein noted, 'Away from the controlled Azshara to an old town in the middle of a rich forest in the oldest parts of the country. The same forest that can be used to escape if things get complicated and hide in until the coast is free...'

Remembering the sight of the buried bodies, Klein just took a breath.

'Sure, the same forest can be used to "hide" forever.'

Looking around as he walked through the town, the detective noticed the occasional passing policeman, either on foot or on horseback, none alone but always in at least two pairs.

Inhaling calmly, the clown did not hurry to search for the yellow house but strolled a little around Auchiieb. Noticing the colorful houses, the movement of the inhabitants, and the surprising smell of the forest.

He looked up at the cloudy sky and the darkening clouds.

With autumn arriving in full force, the trees were not the only ones to show it. The weather was also celebrating in its way with more frequent rain.

Using his intuition and the streets he had seen in the mirror revelation, he found the street and yellow house where his target was, but he did not rush in to get the money.

Although it was late, the streets were still quite busy. Something that would only jeopardize him.

So, remembering the location of the yellow house for later, Klein wandered as best he could through Auchiied, spending several hours there. Occasionally buying a bit of street food or a drink, he seemed like just another tourist—someone who decided to pay a short visit to this small town to get a taste of its culture.

About two hours after arriving in town, it began to drizzle lightly, but Klein knew it was likely to get worse soon. The streets quickly emptied.

Feeling that his short sightseeing was over, the clown began to look for a place to rest for the time being.

Normally, he would go to one of the many restaurants until the rain passed, but given what he planned to do, it was better to be somewhere more private.

Being a tourist town, it didn't take Klein long to find a motel where he could rest. Paying 4 argentum for the rest of the day and night, he closed the door to his room and looked around with a critical eye.

A bed for one, a simple wooden desk, and the heater resting in one corner. A window perched on the side, and the soft tapping of the glass from the water droplets gave the room tranquility. The view to the sky was decent, but to the ground, it was not so good as it overlooked an alley.

'Good enough.' Nodding in satisfaction, Klein placed his briefcase on top of the desk as he closed the curtain with his free hand.

Reaching into his sack, he pulled out a silver knife. After forming a wall of spirituality and performing a short divination to confirm his current security,, the clown finally relaxed.

'Now for the fun part.' With both hands on the latch of his briefcase, Klein pressed them together, and a slight click sounded. Opening it, the first thing that greeted the man was a change of dark clothing.

Moving the clothes aside, various materials were revealed: candles, oils, herb powders—everything needed to make a sacrificial altar!

He didn't plan to sacrifice anything yet; he just needed to 'open the window' to come out to breathe. Therefore, the only thing he took from that group was a candle influenced by sandalwood, essences, extracts, and herbal powders that symbolized mystery and good luck.

Following the steps of ritualistic magic, Klein lit the candle with his spirituality allowing a flickering flame to illuminate the room as he spread the extracts, essences and herbal powders.

After checking that the altar was in order and that nothing had been forgotten, Klein shouted in jotun, " I!"

Pausing for a moment, he switched to Hermes: "I summon in my name:

"The Fool that doesn't belong to this era: The mysterious ruler above the gray fog: The King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck!"

The moment the incantation began, the flickering candle flame merged with the harmonious scenery to form an illusory vortex that sucked spirituality madly.

But as soon as Klein finished the incantations, the vortex stabilized into a palm-sized circle of gray-white fog.

As soon as that happened, he took four steps counterclockwise and entered the space above the gray fog. Without further delay, he felt the spirituality surge into the door, which was complete and filled with mysterious patterns, unlike the sacrificial door.

Immediately with the formation of that gate, Klein felt the pull. He did not struggle but let himself be pulled by it into the gate.

After a moment of calm with nothing, he finally opened his eyes and saw his body sitting in front of a palm-sized circle of gray-white fog.

He learned this once he had better mastered the sacrificial ritual and was inspired by Chariot's messenger's summoning method. Klein could summon his spirit body by using an altar similar to the summoning altar and changing the last lines to his honorific name.

He was now a ghost! Invisible to ordinary people!

What better method to explore than this?

Of course, he could barely interact with the physical world. His form was incredibly weak, and the only way to strengthen it was to 'absorb' spiritually charged objects.

Grasping Mr. Azik's copper whistle, Klein quickly absorbed it into himself. His eyes turned into two illusory dark flames, and his spirituality expanded and froze.

With all the preparations ready for the exploration, Klein made a small window in the wall of spirituality, calmly exiting, closed it, and stepped out into the dark rainy outdoors.

Being now a spirit that was also powered by an object charged by the spirituality of a Death Pathway Beyonder, the sun was a great weakness of his.

If exposed to it, the summoning would stop and return to the mysterious space. However, if he still had the Flaring Sun Charms, this might not have been a problem, but that wasn't the case.

Klein could not maintain this spirit state for long; even with the copper whistle stabilizing his spirit body, it only gave him a few extra minutes.

But those minutes were more than enough for what he wanted to do.

The motel he had chosen was two blocks from the yellow house.

Klein carefully approached, moving through the shadows and hiding in the thick rain.

Just because normal people couldn't see him didn't mean he had to fly over everyone.

'Even if it is a village, its size is not small. Therefore, it should have at least one team from the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom.'

Not because he had a good relationship with one of their members would he dare risk provoking them. Nor could he rule out the possibility of wild beyonders.

It was better to be cautious.

So, Klein flew carefully and cautiously to his first target. It wasn't the yellow house, but the light blue house not far from it - the same he saw in the mirror divination.

He did not enter the light blue house directly but circled it, peering slightly out of the windows.

At the second-floor window. The clown stared, stunned at what was in front of him.

Dieter Smicht rummaged through some documents, his expression nervous, and sweat clung to his shirt. Next to him, William, who looked even more nervous, was stuffing various things into a briefcase.

'Weren't they dead? What does this mean? The mirror divination was wrong?' While completely taken aback, he knew that time was running out, so he could only leave this for later.

After finding everything he was looking for, Klein left the blue house and focused on his second target: the yellow house at the end of the street. Using the shadows and the thick rain, it floated there undetected.

Carefully, he repeated the same process. Peeking slightly out of the windows.

The house was empty, with only essential furnishings as far as Klein could see. A light layer of dust adorned some of the furniture.

'A rental house?' Klein whistled inwardly in surprise.

A house that spends most of the year empty and with almost no activity is a good place to hide money. Dieter Smicht seemed to have it all figured out.

'Sure, except for getting caught...' Klein raised a ghostly eyebrow.

Seeing that the house was safe, Klein floated up to the roof, using the shadows as a hiding place, and went straight through the wall. Immediately, his eyes were drawn to a reddish-brown bag hidden deep within it.

Contrary to his vision, it was relatively clean. There were no cobwebs.

Floating up to the bag, Klein could only stare at it with some regret. 'If my spirit body were stronger, I might be able to take it with me now, but at the moment, it's impossible. If I want to take it, I must come and get it.'

Having confirmed his target's state and sensing the time limit he could maintain this state approaching, Klein cut the summoning short. His spirit body disappeared from the attic and reappeared in the space above the gray fog, whose place he also left just as quickly.

Holding a hand to his head and grunting in pain, the clown closed his eyes and began to use cogitation to calm down. Once he was better, the man pulled a single vial from his open briefcase and downed the contents in one sip.

Feeling the Evernight powder potion accelerate his recovery of lost spirituality, the clown smiled slightly. 'Thank you, Old Neil.'

Closing the vial and putting it away, Klein frowned slightly at the results of his short exploration.

'The bag is practically brand new. It's not covered in cobwebs yet, and has no dust on it either. According to the results of the mirror divination, the bag has been there for a long time...'

Frowning slightly, the man sat on the small bed and covered his chin in deep thought.

Ever since he had seen the divination results, he had been confused. From the state of the bodies, it was clear that the men had been tortured before they died, and that was a problem.

No matter if the torturer was a professional or a Beyonder, in the face of torture, any normal person would break down and say anything to avoid more pain.

Considering the profile of Dieter Smicht and William, both men feared death and the gang they owed money to. Given all that, it's ridiculous to think they didn't hand over the money as soon as they received it.

With their profiles, it would never come to torture!

Closing his eyes, the clown sighed a little before opening them again.

'The date on the divination was September 8th. That is, four days from today.

'The bodies' state suggests that they should have been decomposing for several days, maybe even weeks, but that is not the case. They were buried in the forest, where predators, constant rain, and insects would accelerate the decomposition of the bodies...'

He wasn't part of the Death Pathway, so Klein couldn't say for sure when they died, but if Klein had to give an estimate, it would be between tonight and tomorrow...

Klein's blood froze, and he felt a horrible chill run through his bones.

The result of the mirror divination was not a revelation of the future like he thought it was!

It was what would happen if he intervened!

That was why the divination was so weird. It showed him two results simultaneously while making it appear like only one result. There are two possibilities and two endings!

The divination showed that the bag was still in the same place where he had found it but had not moved.

That meant something would happen to him if he looked for it now! Something that made him unable to retrieve the bag even after 4 days!

Something that ended up getting both Dieter and William tortured and killed!

This both confused and unnerved Klein, but he remained calm.

All the divinations he had done before coming here gave the same result. The danger was not great and was even relatively low.

Therefore, it was not that his life would be in danger but that it was very likely that he would only be unable to obtain the bag as a result.

'Kidnapping? No, if so, the danger would increase and would be reflected in the divination...' Klein frowned slightly.

What would keep him unable to retrieve the money at the same time that was not dangerous?

Lowering his hand, Klein stared incredulously at the opposite wall. 'Am I going to be arrested?'

It was the most logical option!

Normally, being arrested shouldn't bring too much trouble, but Klein's situation was special.

Not only had he entered the country with false documents, but he was also a Wild Beyonder!

'That is the danger that the divination showed!' Klein brightened in realization before frowning slightly.

'But, shouldn't the danger be greater? Normally, being caught by the police as a wild Beyonder would be very dangerous, even deadly. Being a theocratic country, I would no doubt be reported to the church- Ah, of course.'

It did not matter if the police caught him. Neither would that they discover that he was a Wild Beyonder, much less if they discovered that all his documents were fake. If he is handed over to the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, he has the best answer...

His get-out-of-jail-free card, Chariot!

'Is this what it's like to have powerful contacts?' Klein mumbled a little, unsure how he should feel about it.

Shaking his head, the detective dismissed his earlier plan.

Knowing now that his targets are alive. Klein couldn't just take the money and let them get killed.

'The next time I use Chariot's seat. I will do a divination to confirm the information. This problem was because I put all my trust in that. Never again.' Klein put this deep between his soul.

If he hadn't checked the blue house, he would have killed two men because of taking the bag.

'Divination isn't all-powerful. It will never change that just because I cheated by using the seat...'

Sighing slightly, the man prepared a sacrificial altar and sacrificed himself a piece of paper and a pen. In the mysterious space, Klein wrote a short letter, which he threw back outside as soon as it was finished.

He didn't have many anti-divination methods, so he could only use the one that worked best. He wrote the letter in that mysterious space and concealed it using its unique properties.

Originally, he planned to report the duo's problem to the police, but according to the divination, that may or may not have led to his arrest, so Klein had to change his method.

'Just because they owe money to gangs doesn't mean they deserve to die.' Sighing a little, the clown began to change his clothes into dark ones as he wiped the makeup on his face and applied a different one.

His face now had several black spots, and a simple black mask reached up to his nose. His shirt and vest were replaced by a large black windbreaker that reached to his knees with a black hood.

He had several cards in his pockets that he could use as projectiles, along with some slumber charms and all the materials for a sacrificial ritual.

While the plan had changed, the objective remained the same.

'It's payment for saving their lives. Why should I feel bad if I take it?'

He had already made the journey here and did not plan to return home without that bag. But for that reason, the way to get it had changed slightly.

Once he was ready, he didn't immediately go outside but waited until the rain was heaviest.

Placing the do not disturb sign on his door and keeping the wall of spirituality raised, he opened the window and quickly hung on the frame. With a deft flick of his wrist, he closed the window again, falling to the ground almost noiselessly.

Looking up and confirming that he had closed the window, Klein quickly moved into the shadows. The heavy rain made it difficult to see, obscuring his figure and the sound of his quick footsteps.

He was not worried that the sound of the wind rushing into his room would alarm anyone. The wall of spirituality contains any disturbance that might happen in it, such as the sound of wind and rain from an open window.

Arriving at the yellow house, the clown moved carefully along the side, almost sticking to the wall. Reaching the back door, the man pulled out a card and, with a flick of his wrist, opened it.

Stepping inside and quickly closing the door, Klein shivered at the cold he now felt. Watching the drops falling to the floor, he could only press his lips together and ignore them.

Using any entrance other than the back would only leave him exposed, so wetting the floor would be inevitable.

'Well, it's not like it's impossible to fix the problem...' Klein thought after a moment's consideration as he moved carefully through the house.

The clown jumped up the stairs to the first floor. Then, grabbing the rope to the attic, he pulled it, letting the stairs down.

Climbing with a pounding heart, Klein stepped carefully through the boxes and cobwebs to the corner of the attic, where a dark red bag rested.

Breathing tensely, the clown held back his strong desire to open the bag. He reached out his left hand and let his topaz pendulum fall free.

After confirming that it was safe, Klein wasted no more time and, with trembling hands, opened the bag.

Seeing the sea of yellow inside the bag, the detective could only close his eyes, and with almost tears coming out of them, he taped his chest 4 times in a circle.

'Praise The Lady!' Amid his praise, Klein paused for a moment before raising his hand and giving a military salute, 'Praise The Monarch!'

It was fitting to praise the Scarlet Monarch as well. After all, it was 'His' blessed one who gave him this mission.

'Not only did I get the money I would need to obtain my Magician ingredients, but when I deliver the results of my 'extensive research' to Chariot, he will pay me again!' Klein thought ecstatically, the huge grin he now wore almost splitting his face.

'This is like a legal scam!'

Barely containing a chuckle, Klein reached into the bag, but before pulling anything out, he paused.

'...' Looking deeply at the large amount of money in the bag, Klein could only sigh sadly.

'The main ingredients are not as expensive as the formula, but their price should not be less than half... So, more or less, the price of a main ingredient of a Sequence 7 formula should be around 1800 sassem... Adding the secondary ingredients and the missing main ingredient would be 3900 or 4000 sassem...'

With the mental calculations done, Klein only took out what he needed. Not one sassem more, not one sassem less.

While he could tell it had lost a considerable amount of weight, the bag was still quite full.

'There must be at least another 6000 sassem left in there...' Ignoring the temptation to take out even more money, Klein set the bag aside and left it where it was. The action being extremely painful.

'I blame you for this, Old Neil. I hope you're all right where you are.' His decision was influenced in part by his teacher's example of the wallet. Klein knew better than to take more than was offered.

Being a Seer and already having a decent amount of experience in the Beyonder world. He knew that one of the worst things he could do was to push his luck.

It was already very fortunate that the mission of Chariot paid very well. That divination using the man's chair also worked and had stupendous results. The same divinations that revealed to him the exact location of his targets and, to top it all off, the exact location of the money.

Not to mention that the targets themselves did not spend the money and kept it in a place that was relatively easy to access...

Klein refused to believe that he could have such good luck. And even if he did, it was obvious that he was using it too much!

'If I keep abusing my luck. All I'll accomplish will be to bring on a run of bad fortune. If my good fortune is like this, I don't want to imagine how disastrous the opposite will be!'

Klein could not help but think of the half-monster boy Ademisaul. Whose good fortune had prevented Klein from catching him to the point of almost severely injuring or even killing him, but all that good fortune was reversed when the boy entered Chariot's workplace, and Chariot captured him without any problems.

The longer the streak of good luck, the worse the fall will be if you don't know how to control it.

Not grabbing more than he needed was Klein's way of avoiding falling into the abyss of bad luck.

Honestly, the streak had been so good that Klein wanted to suspect something, but he had no evidence to do so.

There were no coincidences and no evidence to point to. Everything that had happened seemed to have been nothing more than pure luck!

Shaking his head, Klein put aside the subject of his fortune and pulled out a silver knife. Making a wall of spirituality, the man quickly prepared to make a sacrificial ritual to bring the money into the mysterious space...

He would not dare go out on the street with that much money in hand. That was begging to be robbed!

Opening his eyes after putting the money away, Klein rubbed his forehead with a frown. A small grunt escaped him. The familiar murmurs annoyed him for the fifth time that day.

Hornacis... Flegrea... Hornacis...

'I've never spent so much spirituality in a single day... I'll have to take it slower these days... At least until the party with Mr. Chariot... Sigh' Using cogitation until the murmurs were gone, Klein cleaned the altar and any possible traces it may have left rigorously.

Seeing that everything was as he had entered, the clown carefully went down to the 1st floor and entered one of the rooms, opening the window. The wind and the heavy rain entered the house with force, filling everything with water.

He repeated the same thing downstairs, opening the windows and letting the rain in, making sure it looked like the intense wind had opened them.

With his goal accomplished, the man left the yellow house and moved carefully. He did not return to his motel but took a small detour until he ended up in an alley in front of the blue house with a large cross-shaped window.

Calmly, he pulled the letter he had written out of his pocket. With a flick of his wrist, the paper stiffened.

Then, Klein threw the letter hard into the cross-shaped window.

Crack!

Without waiting to see the results, Klein quickly made his getaway.

...

Inside the light blue house, at the entrance.

William, who had been in the living room when something broke the window, read the letter in his hands with terror. The red ink, slightly runny from the water, only added to the panic in his heart.

**

The gang does not plan to honor the deal, and will kill you. If you don't flee now, you will be buried in the forest.

**

Turning around, the man ran to the second floor, his face clear with panic. "Boss!!"

Dieter, who had finished preparing train tickets, watched in a daze as William came screaming into the room, holding a letter.

Before he could demand an explanation, the letter was almost shoved in his face. Reading the contents, the former owner blanched and quickly grabbed his tickets.

"I knew that guy was unreliable piece of shit!" Screaming in terror, the man moved in panic. "We're leaving now!"

Grabbing what they could in panic, both men ran out of the house. Terrified, they went to the hiding place where they had stashed the money. Ignoring the storm-opened windows, they climbed into the attic and removed the bag.

By 21:00 on Tuesday, both men left Auchiid on the last train. In their panic, they did not realize that the bag was lighter than it should have been until they were about to leave the country the following day.....

...

With deft movements and exaggerated moves worthy of an acrobat, Klein quickly made it to the window of his room.

Closing it, the man sighed as he pulled down his hood and removed his simple mask.

Klein calmly removed his makeup with a simple handkerchief and changed back into his clothes, storing everything he had worn in his briefcase. In his original disguise, the clown lay heavily on the bed.

He planned to use this entire night to rest before returning to the district and accepting Chariot's invitation.

Running away now may be suspicious, so it was better to avoid problems.