Meanwhile, back in Pritz Harbour, in a field of abandoned warehouses…
'Disgusting stench of rotten animal corpses… Check. Warehouses that are abandoned and rusting away by the salty breeze of the sea… Check. A lighthouse not too far away randomly throws light into the warehouses…. Check. Random shady thugs bustling about… Check. Now… I will need to find Ademisaul among the various warehouses.'
'I don't have much time, but going one by one without making much noise it the way to go,' Tom was crouching behind a few crates near one of the five warehouses in this field of abandoned warehouses, hiding from the light and from the thugs, criminals, and otherwise not-so-friendly people who were scattered all about the field.
Carefully walking on the ground, making sure neither his footsteps nor the rubbing of his clothes made much noise, Tom crawled all the way to the nearest warehouse which had the least number of people around it.
He carefully glanced inside only to see nothing since there was no light. He waited for the light from the lighthouse to make its way around and back to this warehouse, and finally got a glimpse, but what he saw shocked him.
The entire warehouse was filled with corpses, though not all were corpses, those that were living would barely qualify as part of the living, with their bodies as thin as skeletons and their breathing as frail as a dying flower.
Most of them were women and children, with just a few men among the group, barely distinguishable due to the stubble on their faces. Tom hesitated for a bit, but then carefully backed away from the warehouse, inspecting his surroundings and moving onto the next.
He was not here to be some sort of hero for justice and pounce on these clearly disguised slave traders and human traffickers. No! He was here to save Ademisaul, and that was exactly what he would do.
Of course, he would have to keep the information about these people from Ademisaul, or else he will most likely try and attack the sorry excuses for humans.
After 2 warehouses of people, he finally found an empty warehouse and sneaked inside, soon finding the plain-looking iron bracelet. It was rather easy to find considering almost everything else had either a lot of dust, mould, or rust all over it.
But Ademisaul was not in this warehouse.
…
Max had put a hold on his studying as he saw Tom find his bracelet. Now, instead of his vision of Tom being highly restricted, he could see a lot more since he was looking through the bracelet which had the power of the Amalgamation of All.
He frowned as the current situation was one where he would not be able to do much even if he made his way back to Earth, since the distance between Tingen and Pritz Harbour was immense, and he would not be able to complete it within 10 minutes or so to arrive on time to save either of his two subordinates.
As such, all he could do was warn Tom about any danger he was about to encounter just before he did.
Thankfully, as time moved, Max found that Tom successfully located Ademisaul along with three other captives, all boys the same age as Ademisaul, in pitiful conditions. Ademisaul naturally took the lead to bring them out on their great escape and finally took some rest after reaching an inn. Tom made sure not to bring Ademisaul or the other three kids near the warehouses with the rotting corpses and half-alive people.
"So, do you have any family or friends you can go back to?" Ademisaul asked hesitatingly since he had a feeling what their answer was going to be. The look in their eyes was the same that both he and Tom had before they met the mister.
All three remained silent, with their heads lowered to the ground.
"Well, why don't you come with us? We have this mister who takes care of us, he might even take you in!" Ademisaul said trying to rectify his mistake of asking such a question.
Hearing this, all three looked up at Ademisaul with tears in their eyes before bursting into fits of laughter and crying while hugging Ademisaul. Tom stood by the side silently as he did not know if the mister would actually take in the three kids. But since Ademisaul had already made the decision, he would go with it.
"Here." Tom threw the bracelet at Ademisaul, who happily took it and put in on while sighing in relief.
"You could have given it to me before." He turned to Tom.
"If we were in real danger, your powers would have likely activated and warned us. Our chances of survival were higher this way." He said while nodding to himself at his well-made plan.
"No, you fool. My powers do not show immediate danger or anything like that. In fact, it is much worse than that."
"Sure, sure… Let's leave Pritz harbour first. You prepare a carriage while I'll get us some food for the journey and for our new friends as well." Tom said before turning around and vanishing into the darkness of the inn's corridor.
Being a Sequence 9 Hunter, Tom's physical prowess, and senses were far superior to normal people, which had allowed him to escape the sight of the thugs in the warehouse field successfully, as well as his speed right now of running along the corridor and out into the main lobby of the inn before Ademisaul could even try and question Tom's plan.
…
Mark smirked as he got another few members for his Beyonder organisation on Earth. Then, he got back to reading.
'It should not take me more than another week or so to be able to learn the language. Unlike Klein who had been going about his daily life, and only spent an hour or so daily to learn new languages, Max was spending all of the day and night-time, other than the bits where he ate, slept, and communicated with Ademisaul and Tom through Unity in the Castle Black as he renamed it, to learn this language.
And it was clearly paying off. Despite not having whatever reincarnation benefits Klein had that allowed him to learn the mysticism languages in just a few weeks, Max had spent a similar amount of time learning a new language that did not involve mysticism in any way.
With a reduced difficulty and so much more time per day, it was no wonder that Max was already able to speak and understand the language. Even reading had become easy. It was just writing that was a problem, but that would go away with practice.
'Then I will have to find another 'teacher' to help me fix my pronunciations…' Max thought to himself as he continued reading under the dim sunlight that entered through the breathing hole.
…
August 20th, 1349 of the Fifth Epoch
Klein sealed his room with Spirituality just 15 minutes before 3 o'clock, took four steps counterclockwise and entered the castle above the grey fog.
In the quiet, ancient palace, Klein conjured a piece of goatskin and wrote down a divination statement.
"I should obtain the Clown potion through the Nighthawks."
He put his pen down and untangled the spirit pendulum on his wrist, grabbed the pendulum firmly with his left hand, and allowed the topaz to be suspended right above the piece of paper.
He recited the statement seven times. His eyes darkened and the pendulum in his hand started to turn. It turned clockwise.
'It's a positive answer, so it's appropriate. But it'll be hard to say for the sequences after Clown. I should seriously develop my Tarot Club.'
Klein did another divination to confirm the answer. After this, he used his hand and pressed down on the dark red star representing the Sun.
He wanted to bring the youth from the City of Silver in early and ask if he could reveal whatever had happened in this world to the six-member council. If he hadn't, then Klein would give him a better way of knowing what time the gatherings would start.
…
In a room of the Berg household in the City of Silver…
Derrick sat silently by the side of his bed, waiting for The Fool's summoning. In order to avoid being near anybody, he didn't even go out of the house after he "returned." He had nearly finished all the food in his room.
Bearing with the hunger and hearing the growls of his stomach, Derrick felt as though he was a living corpse roaming around on a dark plain. However, he remained silent nor did he stand.
At that moment, he saw a dark red colour spread in the air, quickly swallowing him. The grey, boundless, cold, lonely world appeared in his field of vision once again. Seated at the seat of honour, The Fool, who was obscured by the thick fog, presented himself in front of him once more.
Klein was satisfied that his "summoning" wasn't interrupted. He also confirmed that he didn't face any immediate danger.
"Sun, we meet again," he said smilingly, using Jotun. Derrick was shocked by what had happened. He lowered his head.
"You are a Fool who keeps his word."
"The other members will arrive in a while. Before that, I'll confirm a few things with you first."
Klein used the Loen language this time but willed the mysterious space to translate it into Jotun. The words rang through the air, coming to Derrick in Jotun.
He asked curiously, "What's the matter?"
As it turned out, now that he understood Jotun properly, the mysterious space above the grey fog would translate the words spoken here by Derrick into something he and the other members could understand.
"I'll permit you to recite my name; remember the incantations I'm going to tell you."
"The Fool that doesn't belong to this era;
The mysterious ruler above the grey fog;
The King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck"
Derrick's pupils constricted when he heard that, but he didn't dare to get distracted. He recited it over and over again in his heart, then confirmed it with The Fool.
"You have to use a simple ritual and recite my name whenever you return to the City of Silver... I will notify you in advance for future gatherings. You need not pay too much attention to it on other days, nor do you have to avoid anyone. When you receive my notification, isolate yourself within a thousand heartbeats."
Klein told him the method he had been deliberating on for quite some time. This was essentially a response to a prayer. As he had to consider the situation regarding the City of Silver, as well as save time, Klein opted to omit the other steps of the ritual since it was a plea directed toward him.
"A thousand heartbeats?" Derrick muttered to himself.
Klein described the general idea of the Tarot Club to Derrick, then took out his pocket watch and looked at the time. Derrick froze for a while, instinctively looking at the wondrous item.
When three approached, Klein extended his hand and pressed on the dark red stars representing Ms. Justice, Mr. Hanged Man, and Mr. Death. Derrick didn't blink as he witnessed this. He saw light burst forth opposite and beside him, as three hazy figures extended from within.
Audrey Hall surveyed her surroundings and froze suddenly. She then heard the ever-calm voice of Mr. Fool.
"This is our newest member; his code name is Sun."
"This is Miss Justice, that is Mr. Hanged Man, and this is Mr. Dead."
'Newest member?' Audrey was shocked at first, then her shock immediately turned to joy. She was very excited to see the development of the Tarot Club. She felt like a protagonist.
The Hanged Man Alger creased his brows, a little upset that The Fool would drag in a new member so suddenly.
'He should've at least mentioned it to us… But a great figure like Mr. Fool wouldn't have to care about our feelings,' he thought in exasperation before giving a simple greeting to Justice, Death, and the newly added Sun.
In this short process, Audrey entered her Spectator state and paid close attention to the newest member Sun.
'He should be quite young… his body language tells me that he's a little nervous and restrained… but he ultimately maintains a tolerable air of silence, giving the feeling of, hmm, a lone wolf, yes, a lone wolf," Audrey thought as she cast her gaze at The Fool who was seated at the end of the long bronze table.
She said in joy, "Mr. Fool, I've collected another two pages of Emperor Roselle's diary."
Max had remained rather silent as he had already fully digested his potion. Now all he needed to do was ensure the original timeline was followed till the end of Volume 1 of the novel. As long as everything went according to the original script till there, he would be able to advance and would be able to free himself of Klein until much later where he would require samples of all the Sefirots.
But this was for the far future, so Max just remained silent and listened with a soft smile on his face. Now he would only need to steer conversations away from certain aspects which Klein should not be knowing or acts he should not be performing just yet.
Other than that, he could watch the entire scene playing in live action. It was a shame that The Lord of Mysteries had mainly become famous through its novel.
They had attempted to make a good comic, but the art was horrendous in comparison to other comics and they had even tried changing the original plotline to suit themselves.
There were even talks of a possible anime coming out, but unfortunately, Samuel had died to early to see it. If there was any consolation to him was that taking the comic as a standard, the anime might not have been anything to spectacle at.
The only way it would be good was if it had absolutely insane art, which had only happened to a few anime coming from a certain country.
Max shrugged the extra thoughts from his mind as he focused back on the ongoing conversation.
Audrey had two pages to give to Klein, and in exchange, she asked for the Next potion formula after Spectator. She also said she would give Klein some money, an odd notion of giving a god money, but then again, Mac knew that Klein at the moment was still in need of money.
Then Derrick stepped in and said he could give Audrey the formula, while casually giving away clues about his real location.
'I mean is he asking himself to be doxed?' Max mused as a slightly larger smile appeared on his face, an odd scene for Klein as he saw the creepy smile, mixed with the silver hair, red eyes, and scar on his eye making him look like a psychopath.
Thankfully Klein's focus was more on Derrick who seemed to be bent on giving out his real-life location.
"City of Silver… I have never heard that before. Where is it?" Audrey asked while Alger remained silent.
Just as Derrick was about to speak, Max decided it was time for him to shock everyone around him. Although he had fully digested his potion and no longer needed to do this, it still felt nice to see a little shock on these novel characters' faces.
"I see. So, you are from the land that should only be known to those strong enough, none of us here other than Mr. Fool qualify for this information. Ms. Justice, Mr. Hanged-Man, I think it's better not to ask such personal questions… Though I already know too much about all of you… some privacy is in order. Don't you think so too?" Max shrugged and leaned back in his chair.
Max looked up and noticed that a tiny crack had gradually formed on his chair, and a deep darkness could be barely visible from his current angle. Instantly, he felt a connection with this, and knew what it was. It was the Corruption from the Amalgamation of All.
Did that mean that the Amalgamation of All was of a higher level of existence than the Sefirah Castle… Well considering this castle is just a projection of the real thing's power, which is basically just a door with white worms and cocoons inside at the top of the stairs… it should be rather obvious.
Yet, the power, the grey fog here should be something that came directly from the real thing, and considering he was not actively bringing any of the black energy here, meant that it was highly likely that the Amalgamation of All should be able to overpower, or even directly corrupt the Sefirah Castle.
But he would focus on that later and saw that Derrick had asked for the Sun Pathway Sequence 9 potion formula in exchange for what he was offering.
Ms. Justice did not have it, but then Klein said he would give it to Audrey, in exchange for the two pages of the diary, while Audrey would give the formula to Derrick in exchange for the formula he wanted.
Alger seemed to have wanted to say that he had the possibility of getting the formula but kept silent when Klein spoke, and Max just smirked at these antics.
'If only he knew Klein's real identity… but then if he really knew all of Klein's real identity, including all the stupidly over-powered beings who were paying attention to him, and even some who had bet everything on him, and those who had done so, but their plans were ruined by others, and the absolute mess of an existence Klein truly was… well they would be even more scared than now.'
'Damnit… it's influencing me again… I will return to Independence the moment I return… to my body.' Max's smile gradually vanished as he could feel his thoughts being stretched and morphed into something they weren't. As such, he decided not to speak for the rest of the meeting and just kept silent as things proceeded as normal.
Klein had clearly given up on hiding Derrick's actual location, but still did not say it out loud, and instead made another deal where Derrick would be given compensation once he gave the formula to Ms. Justice, by Klein, and in exchange Ms. Justice would give more diary pages to Klein.
And the deal was accepted by them, and Klein passed on the Sun pathway's Sequence 9: Bard to Audrey, who gave it to Derrick.
'Hmm… Now that I recall it, most people call the pathways by their Sequence 9, like the Fool Pathway being called the Seer's pathway by most people and not the latter, since not many people actually knew of the Fool being the Sequence 0 of that particular pathway. In most cases, even the Beyonders themselves would not know of the true name of their pathway, and just conveniently called it by the respective Sequence 9,' Max hummed to himself trying to distract from the invading forces in his mind. He knew they were not able to actually read his mind, and the force was instead just a vague and weak force of corruption, making his thoughts more and more chaotic with time.
While reading the diary pages, Klein motioned for the others to begin the discussion section of the meeting.
"Mr. Death, the open selection of government officials through examinations that you described previously has already garnered the support of the King and the Prime Minister. It will soon be passed by the House of Lords and the House of Commons and is predicted to be implemented early next year."
"It looks like the King and the Prime Minister still use their brains," Alger mocked out of habit, while Max just smiled and nodded to her.
Audrey straightened her back when she saw Mr. Death's affirmative nod. She said with a smile, "Mr. Hanged Man, you got me to check on something for you previously. I've received an answer. The King has been convinced by the Prime Minister and won't seek revenge on the Feysac Empire at the East Balam Shore for the time being. I think you can now give me the extra payment that you promised me."
Alger thought for a few seconds before saying, "Miss Justice, thank you for your answer. This eases my concerns over certain things. What kind of extra payment do you want? I'll consider it if it's within reason."
Audrey smiled, obviously prepared.
"Clues to the Psychology Alchemists, or clues to the main ingredients of the potion Telepathist. Of course, that can wait until after The Sun hands the formula over to me."
"No problem," Alger said without hesitation.
Then Audrey asked about a certain Beyonder gathering in Backlund by Mr. A, to which Alger responded and gave the information he knew. In exchange, he asked for the location of a pirate named Qilangos; a.k.a. Rear Admiral Hurricane.
Some chitchatting where Alger described why the pirate was so dangerous and Derrick linked the powers to the Sequence 5 of the Hanged-Man pathway; Shephard, Klein turned to Alger and asked, "I hope you received my payment."
"Yes, I have. Thank you," Alger had already been informed about the payment.
After Audrey accepted the mission and Alger gave the portrait of the pirate, Klein ended the meeting and Max returned to his body in the hotel in Tingen.
Without a single extra thought, he left the room through the bathroom door and entered Independence using the Wanderer's Key.
"Finally free. Looks like everything seems to be still going the same as the original plot. It feels like I am in one of those self-insert novels… which were all really badly written copies of the original novel just with an extra character. Well, let's hope my self-insert without changing a single line of the plot continued until the Fool dies…"
Max had naturally cleaned his soul and mind using the black mist from the Amalgamation of All as soon as he arrived in independence and felt a lot calmer after that.
[Holy… a super- uber-ultra-mega-gigantic chapter… almost 4k words lol. Well you know the drill, we got to bring down the average chapter length to 1.5k per chapter, so mostly the next few chaps will be very short. Kek. Btw, the current ratio is around 1.573k words per chapter… that is about 4.5k extra words which we will have to use up in the coming chapters before the next super long chapter… kekekekekeke]