"The real psychic..." Klein silently recited this description, not speaking further as he followed Dunn Smith off the carriage.
Welch's residence in Tingen was a detached house with a garden. The iron gate outside led to a road wide enough for four carriages to travel side by side. Street lamps, different from the ones Klein had seen in his past life, were gas lamps placed every fifty meters along the road. The height of the lamp posts was roughly equal to that of an adult male, making it convenient for lighting.
Black metal clung to the glass, forming a grid and casting the appearance of lantern-like classical "art pieces." Cold and warmth danced together, with shadows and light coexisting.
Treading on the dimly lit road, Klein and Dunn Smith passed through the half-open iron gate, entering Welch's rented place.
In front of the main entrance was a cement path wide enough for two carriages to pass, leading straight to the two-story house.
To the left was a garden, and to the right, a lawn. The faint fragrance of flowers mingled with a fresh scent, making the atmosphere pleasant.
As soon as he stepped in, Klein suddenly felt his hair stand on end. He looked around nervously.
He felt as though eyes were watching him from the garden, the shadows on the lawn, the top floor of the house, behind the swing, and every dark corner!
Though the place was clearly empty, Klein felt as if he were in a bustling street.
The eerie contrast and strange sensation made his body tense, a chill rising from his tailbone.
"Something's wrong!" he couldn't help but warn Dunn.
Dunn walked beside him, his expression unchanged, and replied calmly, "Don't mind it."
Since the "Night Watcher" said so, Klein endured the creepy feeling of being followed, watched, and scrutinized without identifying the source, step by step reaching the front door of the detached house.
If I stay like this for long, I'll become neurotic... As Dunn knocked on the door, Klein quickly turned to look around again, seeing only the flowers swaying in the wind, with no human figures.
"Come in, gentlemen," a slightly ethereal voice called from inside the house.
Dunn turned the handle, pushed the door open, and addressed the woman sitting on the sofa, "Daly, any results?"
The chandelier in the living room was not lit. Leather sofas in a one-main-two-side arrangement surrounded a marble coffee table.
A candle burned on the coffee table, but its flame glowed a vivid blue, casting a flickering and eerie hue over the semi-open layout of the living room, dining room, and kitchen.
A woman sat in the center of the long sofa. She wore a hooded black robe, blue eyeshadow and blush, with a silver chain wrapped around her exposed wrist, from which hung a white crystal pendant.
At the first sight of her, Klein felt an inexplicable sensation: dressed like a real psychic...
Is she role-playing herself?
The bewitchingly beautiful "psychic" Daly swept her sparkling green eyes over Klein, then looked at Dunn Smith and said, "The original spirits are all gone, including Welch's and Naya's. The little ones here now know nothing."
Spirits? Psychic... So those invisible watchers just now were spirits? And there were so many of them? Klein took off his hat, placed it over his chest, and bowed slightly, "Good evening, madam."
Dunn Smith sighed, "This is really troublesome..."
"Daly, this is Klein Moretti. Try to see if you can find something from him."
The "psychic" Daly's gaze immediately shifted to Klein. She pointed to the single-seater sofa at the side, "Please, have a seat."
"Thank you." Klein nodded, walked over, and sat down honestly, his heart involuntarily tightening.
Whether he would live or die, whether he would pass smoothly or have his secrets exposed, all depended on what happened next!
What made him feel most powerless was that he lacked anything to rely on and could only hope for something special...
This is a very unpleasant feeling... Klein thought bitterly.
As Dunn sat on the two-seater sofa opposite him, "psychic" Daly took out two thumb-sized glass bottles from a dark pouch at her waist.
Her green eyes smiled at Klein as she said, "I need a little assistance. After all, you are not an enemy. I cannot be too direct or rough with you, which would make you uncomfortable, cause pain, and might even leave severe aftereffects. I will give you some fragrance, enough gentleness and lubrication, so you can gradually open up and fully immerse in that sensation."
Why does this sound so wrong... Klein was tongue-tied, his eyes wide with surprise.
Opposite him, Dunn smiled and said, "Don't be surprised. Unlike the Church of the Lord of Storms, in our place, women can verbally tease men too. You should understand this, your mother is a devout follower of the Goddess, and you and your brother have attended the church's Sunday school."
"I understand, it's just that I didn't expect it to be so... so..." Klein gestured with his hands, unable to find the right word, almost blurting out the equivalent of "seasoned flirt" in another language.
Dunn's mouth twitched into a smile, "Don't worry, Daly rarely does this. She's just trying to help you relax. She likes corpses more than men."
"You make me sound like a pervert," the "psychic" Daly interjected with a smile.
She opened one of the small bottles and sprinkled a few drops into the vivid blue candle flame, "Night Fragrance, Deep Sleep Flower, and Chamomile distilled and extracted. I call it 'Ammanda,' meaning tranquility in Hermes. It smells wonderful."
As she spoke, the candle flame flickered a few times, and those drops of essence quickly evaporated, permeating the room.
A refreshing and enchanting aroma filled Klein's nostrils. His emotions were no longer tense, his mind quickly calmed, as if overlooking the darkness in the deep quiet of the night.
"This one is called 'Spirit Eye,' made from dragon-patterned tree and white poplar bark and leaves sun-dried for seven days, boiled three times, and soaked in Ronsey wine. Of course, there are a few incantations involved..." The amber liquid dripped onto the vivid blue candle flame as the "psychic" Daly described it.
Klein smelled a faint scent of wine, ethereal and drifting. He saw the candle flame swaying violently, Daly's blue eyeshadow and blush flashing with an eerie glow, even creating afterimages.
"It's a good helper for spirit communication, also a charming floral essence..."
As Daly spoke softly, Klein felt her voice coming from all directions.
Confused, Klein looked around, finding everything swaying and blurring, as if shrouded in layers of thick fog, even his own body swaying, blurring, floating, losing weight.
Red became redder, blue became bluer, black became blacker. The colors mixed like an Impressionist painting, dreamy and hazy. The whispers of countless invisible people overlapped and echoed.
"This feels similar to when I performed the 'fortune ritual,' but without that maddening, explosive sensation..." Klein watched all this, puzzled.
At this moment, his attention was drawn to a pair of emerald-like eyes. Daly, in her black robe, sat on the blurry "sofa," her gaze eerily focused on the top of Klein's head, her voice gently laughing, "Let's formally meet. I am the 'psychic' Daly."
I can still think calmly and rationally... just like during the 'fortune ritual' and 'gatherings'... Klein's thoughts spun, and he deliberately showed a dazed state, "Hello..."
"Human thought is vast, hiding many secrets. Look, that vast ocean. What we can understand ourselves is only the island exposed above the water, but actually, beneath the surface, the island has a larger part. Besides the island, there's the whole ocean, and the endless sky symbolizing the spirit world..."
"You are the spirit of the body. You not only know the part of the island above water but also the part hidden underwater, the whole ocean...
"Everything leaves traces. The surface memories of the island can be erased, but the parts underwater and the whole ocean definitely have residual corresponding projections..."
Daly repeatedly guided, and the surrounding blurry winds and shadows transformed into similar shapes, as if Klein's spiritual ocean was fully revealed here, waiting for him to explore and discover.
Klein calmly watched, occasionally "stirring" the ocean, finally replying in a drifting voice, "No... I can't remember... I've forgotten..."
He perfectly displayed a sense of suffering.
Daly tried guiding once more, but the clear-minded Klein remained unaffected.
"Alright, let's end here. Go back."
"Go back."
"Go back..."
Amidst the ethereal voice that lingered, Dali disappeared, the wind and shadows began to calm, and the faint fragrance of tranquility and subtle wine became evident again.
All colors returned to normal, and the sense of blur and disorientation faded. Klein's body trembled slightly as he regained his sense of weight.
He opened his eyes, which he hadn't realized were closed, and found himself still facing the vibrant blue candle, still in the comfortable position of Dunn Smith, and still with the "Spirit Medium" Dali in her hooded black robe.
"Why did you use the theories of those evil lunatics from the Psychological Alchemy Society?" Dunn asked, frowning as he looked at Dali.
Dali, while putting away two small bottles, replied calmly, "I think it's quite accurate, at least in line with what I've seen and encountered…"
Before Dunn could speak again, she shrugged and said, "It's a tricky one; there were no traces left."
Hearing this, Klein let out a long sigh of relief and feigned ignorance as he asked, "Is it over? What just happened? I feel like I've just woken up…"
Is this considered passing the test?
Thank goodness for the "drill" of the "Transit Ritual"!
"Let's think of it that way." Dunn interrupted him and looked at Dali, "Have you checked Welch and Naya's bodies?"
"The bodies can tell us more than you might think. Unfortunately, Welch and Naya did indeed commit suicide. It can only be said that the forces affecting them were frightening, leaving no traces behind," Dali said as she stood up and reached for the candle. "I need to rest now."
The brilliant blue light vanished, and the room was instantly filled with a hazy crimson glow.
...
"Congratulations, you can go home now, but remember, you must not tell your family or friends about this. You must keep it a secret," Dunn said as he led Klein to the door.
Klein asked in surprise, "Aren't you going to check for curses or traces of malevolent spirits?"
"Dali didn't mention it, so there aren't any," Dunn answered briefly.
Klein felt relieved and, recalling his previous concerns, asked, "How can I be sure there won't be any trouble later?"
"Don't worry too much." Dunn said with a hint of a smile, "According to statistics, in similar situations, eighty percent of the surviving individuals don't face terrible follow-ups. Well, this data is from my memory, so it's approximate."
"And the remaining twenty percent..." Klein wasn't willing to gamble with his "face."
"Then you might consider joining us as a clerical staff. This way, we can detect any signs in time," Dunn said casually as he approached the carriage. "Or you could become an Extraordinary yourself. After all, we're not your babysitters; we can't watch over you every night, even what you do with women."
"Can I?" Klein asked, following up on the comment.
Of course, he hardly had any hope, as joining the Night Watch and gaining Extraordinary power so easily seemed implausible.
Dunn paused, turned his head to look at him, and said, "… It's not impossible, depending on the situation..."
What? This sudden twist surprised Klein, who stood by the carriage, stunned for a moment before asking, "Really?"
Is this a joke? Becoming an Extraordinary so easily?
Dunn chuckled softly, his gray eyes hidden in the shadow of the carriage:
"Don't believe it? Actually, becoming a Night Watcher means losing a lot, such as freedom."
"Let's not even mention that. There are other issues. First, you're not a distinguished clergyman or a devout believer. You can't choose or pick the safest path."
"And secondly..." Dunn grabbed the handrail and climbed into the carriage, "We, the Penitents, the Mechanical Heart, and other similar judgment agencies, deal with a quarter of the cases involving out-of-control Extranordinary beings every year."
A quarter... Extraordinary beings out of control... Klein was stunned.
At this moment, Dunn partially turned his body, his gray eyes deep and his mouth curving into a non-smiling expression, and said, "And a significant portion of that quarter are our teammates."