3:00 p.m., Monday. In the space above the gray fog.
Several crimson flashes appeared on the moldy bronze table with two inhabitants, followed by various illusory and semi-transparent figures in their respective places.
As was now usual, Justice rose from her seat and curtsied gracefully; in a cheerful voice, she said, "Good afternoon, Mr. Fool~"
Giving a simple smile, Klein nodded slightly to the woman.
After the usual greetings, the Tarot Club officially began.
The lady did not sit down but said, "I have brought two pages of the Emperor's Diary, Mr. Fool."
"I have ready the last eight pages I have yet to deliver." The Hanged Man wasted no time and quickly added.
'10 pages in all... I hope there's something interesting... Surely one of them is a sexual escapade...' Lamponing a bit, Klein just nodded and manifested the red fountain pen and goatskin parchment so the members could write.
Before long, in his hands floated the promised pages, and he casually glanced at them.
<>
...14th January. I discovered a problem. If unconscious High-Sequence Beyonder objects are not sealed, they would unconsciously attract nearby Low-Sequence Beyonders from the same pathway, causing them to come into contact with each other. The higher the original Sequence, the more likely that this will happen.
However, this situation doesn't seem to be a constant. It seems to be intermittent...
<>
'This!' Klein restrained himself from tensing up. This diary part immediately caught his attention because he had had similar encounters!
'As soon as Mr. Chariot arrived in Azshara, I accepted a mission that led me to meet him. Mr. Chariot, who carries an artifact made with the characteristics of Faceless!'
An idea was born in his mind, and he glanced sideways at the place around him.
'The attracting force must come from this mysterious space. Another secret of my transmigration here to see later...'
This page delivered by Justice lacked more data and information, so he could only turn to the last one supplied by the woman.
<>
... 16th January, the taste of a Demoness still isn't bad.
<>
'... Why am I not surprised?' Klein wondered at his lack of reaction. He couldn't help but wonder if there was something wrong with him.
'Of course. I have already read that this guy got a 'divine milking' from a man. The only thing that would top that would be being the passive one next...' Klein lampooned a little, absent-minded and unsurprised.
Thanks to Chariot's 'joke.' Klein knew that any man who took the Witch potion from Sequence 7 would become a real woman. And with the escapes he had already read about from Emperor Roselle, the Clown felt that was enough for the man.
Unable to help, he put himself in the same shoes as Emperor Roselle.
'If my partner told me she was a Witch. And I knew the possibility that she was once a he was very high. Would I still have relations with her, even though she is now a real woman? Would I take that step and not be repulsed by the idea?' Klein lampooned for a few moments before coming up with an answer that defended him.
No, he doubted he would be able to do it. The knowledge would be too much for him, and Mini Klein could not be proud.
Maybe there were beautiful witches out there who would fight against that knowledge, but the lack of proof helped calm the clown.
After all, he had never met a real witch.
The closest thing to his mind when he thought of a witch was Madam Daly Simone, a woman of great beauty and a flirtatious yet gracious character.
Putting aside that existential doubt, Klein continued reading the last page delivered by Justice.
<>
...20th January. I finished making the second Card of Blasphemy.
Let me think, let me think, where should I hide it?
Yes, I plan to disguise it as a bookmark and insert it into a very valuable book. If the person who obtains it isn't someone fated, it would be hard to imagine that the most valuable thing in the book is actually that seemingly ordinary bookmark!
Not bad, that's a good idea!
<>
'Why do I always have to be provoked by my elders?! It's not only with Mr. Chariot, but now it's you, Emperor?! Why didn't you put what kind of bookmark!? In what book did you put it?! You dared to dream me up and then kill me coldly! You have no heart!' Klein felt his blood heat up and his brow quiver for the briefest of moments.
The Emperor had disappointed him twice in a row this day.
'Perhaps future diary entries will have more information on this...' Saving this hint for later, the clown finally moved his attention to the pack of pages delivered by the Hanged Man.
<>
... April 5. Mistress Not-so-straight-as-a-board, or as she prefers me to call her, Mistress Ameliee, has come to congratulate me on my future marriage to Lady Matilda.
She brought me a chocolate cake, which, by the way, was delicious!
... And she also brought a new 'costume' and whip, which she wore that very night while we were 'eating' the cake.
Usually, she would leave shortly after, leaving me with the marks of our games and adventures, but this time, she stayed a little longer.
She fed me what survived of the cake, and we even took a bath together, her rubbing all the marks she left on my body.
Was that the popular aftercare? It felt good.
Of course, that aftercare didn't last long, eventually revealing what I suspected. She wanted something!
"You let me stick a finger in there; you can stick it there." She said to me, wearing something that looked like something out of a sex fiend.
If you've read my diary, this isn't the first time she's played there. Several times, she's tempted me, and even on a drunken night, I let her eat it...
<>
For a moment, Klein closed his eyes, almost putting his face in his hands and cried.
Only his brutal endurance saved him from doing that and his clown control.
'I didn't even finish the first page!' Wailing in horror, the clown made the gray fog over his face denser and continued reading.
<>
Of course, when I woke up the next day, I was furious and almost lashed out at her.
How dare she destroy my masculinity like that!
All she said to me was, "I didn't hear you complaining about my tongue, Roselle~"
... Is this how people feel powerless before a superior being?
Because no matter how hard I looked, I found no way to take it back... I was pretty vocal, in fact...
Whatever!
The deal she gave me was very juicy, and after deliberate and deep, DEEP consideration, I accepted it.
You will understand if you see the ass that woman carries. If I must take a finger up there to taste it, so be it!
Only real men do that!!
I plan to meet her next week. At her recommendation and out of concern for myself, I'm bringing extra lubricant.
...April 12. I'm writing this as soon as we finished the deal.
It didn't feel bad at all; I would even recommend it.
Mind you, next time, I have to specify only one finger...
The bitch used three!
She still has my palm mark on her cheek, but it doesn't seem to bother her. She even tells me to be just as violent next time.
...Intis women are scary.
I'm going to pray to the God of Craftsmanship that Matilda will be gentler.
<>
If he had the original page in his hands, Klein would burn it with holy fire.
Wishing with all his might that he could forget this, he turned to the next page.
'The dates are different...' Frowning slightly, he gave a little more attention.
<>
... June 15. This is the fifth week of travel in search of the New Continent.
Normally I wouldn't write this early but today we came across something extremely interesting!
There wasn't much wind, so some of our Seafearers and Windblessed decided to have a little swim. It's nothing strange; we already know how much those gill-less fish love the water.
The depth those guys can reach still amazes me.
Well, it turns out that one of those Seafearers found the remains of a sunken ship!
We've dropped anchor and are now in the process of salvaging whatever managed to survive.
A little spoiler~
From its looks, it's a Fourth Epoch ship!
We have not yet found a mark of the family it belonged to, but by size, it is likely to have been one of the various Angel families of the Epoch.
But which one is the question~
Will it be during the Solomon Empire, the Tudor-Trunsoest Empire, or perhaps the separation of the aforementioned?
What a thrill! I'm sure it will be full of treasures!
I'll write more tomorrow.
...June 16. As always, the protagonist of this era turns out to be right!
We have found the Tudor family seal on it!
From what I could see, this ship was very likely made during the Tudor Empire. The coins we found there show the seals of the 5 Angel families that supported it.
This is quite interesting!
Unfortunately, all that was there were old notebooks ruined by time and sea and a few treasures.
We also found more ships in the vicinity, but due to a lack of time and worsening weather, we could only grab the most interesting and continue the trip.
How can I be so unlucky?!
I checked every artifact that was brought for abnormalities or specialties but found nothing.
I'm not interested in carrying useless junk, so I told the crew to grab what they wanted and throw the rest.
This was a waste of time.
...June 21. Something strange has been going on with some of the crew members.
They claim to hear voices and see things in the shadows. One even attacked another crew member because he thought he was a monster.
These same people were acting completely normal a few days ago.
Being a genius, I immediately noticed the cause of this.
I ordered everyone to hand over everything they had grabbed from the treasures of the Fourth Epoch ship.
Some resisted a bit, but in the end, they were all confiscated.
I went through each and every one of them again. But again, I found nothing unusual.
Is it possible that this is some sort of corruption?
Did one of these objects belong to a high-level Beyonder and be marked by 'Their' aura, affecting and causing strange reactions thousands of years later?
With the possibility of that being the case, I immediately ordered everything to be thrown overboard.
We did not have the resources or means to deal with something of such level and being so far from land. The best thing to do was to avoid accidents.
The people who showed changes have been removed and quarantined. We will be monitoring them these days to see if they improve.
... June 30. It seems that whatever was affecting the auditory and visual visions went to the bottom of the sea, the people in quarantine have shown improvement.
This was merely an oversight on my part. I underestimated the danger of certain things, but nothing escalated further.
... July 1. We have lost five men.
Not all the artifacts were thrown into the sea.
One of the normal people hid a mirror he had taken from the treasures. The bastard hid it in his room, and who knows what he did with it.
This person, who was not a Beyonder, had neither extraordinary abilities nor basic mystical knowledge.
This ordinary person was suddenly able to sing melodies that bristled and froze the spirit and launched attacks through music!
He produced symphonies that increased or decreased the area's spirituality in meaningful measures. Even summoning a rather strong Evil Spirit wasn't much of a problem; luckily, we had several Sun Pathway artifacts.
This person I had previously shared drinks and food with was a man searching for adventure like myself. He became a complete stranger; no matter how I looked, I didn't recognize him.
Now, his body was covered with strange marks and lumps of flesh that released music. He used his hair like guitar strings and his thighs like drums.
We managed to subdue and kill him. But when we blew his head and torso off with the combined attack of a Wind Blessed and a Sun Pathway artifact, instead of blood and brains, shards of glass came out.
His body had become a huge crystal, and the mirror in the middle of it all reflected a space filled with a strange gray mist.
I checked this object multiple times but found nothing strange. Now, this once-normal object emitted a dark and oppressive aura that took my breath away.
Before I could do anything about it, this mirror shattered into multiple pieces, but not before I saw my reflection in it—a reflection that was me, but my eyes were crimson in it.
All that gloomy aura vanished as if it had never been there.
What the fuck was that mirror? What the fuck were those ships carrying?
And more importantly.
Who the fuck did that mirror belong to?
It has been precisely six hours since the monster died.
No characteristics or artifacts have formed. No matter what artifacts we use to speed up the process, the body isn't releasing anything.
...
The remains of the mirror, along with the entire ship and everyone on it, were treated by various purification rituals, and the quarantine of the people affected by the ship's objects was reinstated.
Everyone is tense and wants to return.
I hope to find something of real value soon, or all my efforts will have been for nothing.
<>
Klein internally swallowed a little saliva. What he just read could easily be considered an adventure movie that quickly descended into a horror one!
'It seems that the Emperor's journey in discovering the South Continent did not go smoothly... From the dates this event was 1 month before discovering the continent... How he maintained morale in that situation is beyond me...' Praising the Emperor's ability to lead, Klein felt his respect for the man increase slightly.
The events written in this diary were not in the history books. This event was hidden.
'Manipulation of history...' Recalling the words written by the Emperor not long ago, Klein saw another clear example of them.
The abilities of the Monster the man had also faced were things he had never heard of.
A monster that attacks using music and whose own body is an instrument? That was something he had not thought he would read.
'But I don't know of any Pathway with those abilities... Is it even one of the 22? Or is it a new one?'
Was a new pathway even possible? Wouldn't it contradict everything he knew so far?
'I can't help but notice that too... Angel Families... I wonder if the Abraham family was one of them?'
Internally shaking his head, Klein made the pages disappear.
This wasn't something he needed to worry about now.
With that in mind, he smiled calmly at the rest, "You may begin."