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Audrey returned to her room and stared silently at the dressing table before her for a long time. The Emperor's reminder and reflections still echoed in her ears.
This caused Audrey, who had always maintained an optimistic attitude towards the Beyonder world, to suddenly feel worried and defeated.
"You look like you've had some realizations about certain things," said Susie.
Audrey couldn't help but hold her forehead–she was still having trouble accepting a talking Susie. However, at this moment, Susie was the only suitable confidant. She patted Susie's head and said, "Susie, perhaps our choices weren't the right ones."
But soon, Audrey's eyes were filled with determination and optimism again. "But since we've already made our choice, we can't complain too much."
Meanwhile, in Backlund, after leaving the Gray Fog, Hobert returned to his hotel room. He quietly watched the flow of carriages and the surge of people outside the window.
Hobert suddenly missed his previous life a bit, even though each day was just work and watching videos, which felt boring. Looking back now, that mundane life was a form of happiness. Unlike now, with the family curse, playing the role of a Lawyer, and the need for money–it felt like someone was whipping him from behind, forcing him to move forward quickly without a chance to rest.
Hobert smiled wryly and composed himself before going to check out. Since he had already begun the life of a Beyonder, he shouldn't complain about the hardships this world brought him. After all, he had gained Beyonder abilities.
On the street, Hobert hailed a cab and headed straight for the Mercenary Club. When he left the law firm that afternoon, he had brought all his savings–a total of 71 pounds, 5 soli, and 8 pence. He had counted it several times.
However, today's afternoon transaction would likely use up most of his savings. Hobert patted the pocket containing his wallet, already feeling the pain of spending money he hadn't yet spent.
With his club badge, Hobert easily entered the club. He opened his pocket watch and saw he was about ten minutes early. However, the club member selling dragon blood grass and other materials had also arrived early. He was a man in his thirties carrying a huge suitcase.
He introduced himself, "You can call me Gal. I specialize in items needed for mysticism. My shop is at 51 Henry Street."
Hobert smiled and said, "Hobert, mysticism enthusiast."
The two exchanged smiles, feeling that the other was hiding something. This was normal, as they hadn't yet established full trust.
Arranged by an attendant, the two came to a small reception room to conduct their transaction. Galplaced the suitcase on the table and opened it, revealing bottles and jars containing various common mysticism materials.
He introduced, "This is essential oil extracted from deep sleep flowers, and here are chamomile petals. I noticed the goddess symbol on your pocket watch earlier, so I strongly recommend this Amantha essence and Holy Night Powder. Trust me, they'll definitely please the Goddess."
Hobert was taken aback. "Brother, your words just now seemed a bit ambiguous! Or has the word 'please' been ruined? Why do I always think of some indecent images when I hear this word?" He shook his head, driving these clearly disrespectful thoughts about the Goddess from his mind.
Hobert was buying the mystical materials needed for the ritual to receive a response from the Evernight Goddess, so he could ask for her help in spirit communication when needed in the future.
Of course, Hobert could also try to pray to himself for power in spirit communication, but the Nation of Disorder was a symbol of order and chaos. Even if it could help him complete the spirit communication, there was a high possibility it would be done in a distorted way.
In that case, the spirit communication would be completed, but who knows what mess it would leave behind?
After some friendly negotiation, Hobert finally bought a silver knife, a small bottle of Amantha essence, a small jar of Holy Night Powder, deep sleep flower essential oil, moon flowers and chamomile petals, as well as three candles mixed with night lavender, mint, and other materials, for a total of 3 pounds and 18 soli.
The silver knife and Amantha essence were the most expensive, with the former costing 1 pound and 6 soli, and the latter costing 1 pound and 3 soli for a small bottle.
As they parted, Gal hinted, "If you need higher quality, more magical materials, you can come to my shop to choose. Of course, if you're not comfortable with that, you can also choose to trade at the club."
Hobert nodded and smiled, "Alright." It seemed Gal had even higher-grade Beyonder materials.
Next, Hobert began his next transaction. The other party was a military man in his forties, wearing a neat uniform. "This is a spoil of war from a battle," he said as he took out a stack of Emperor Roselle's diary pages from his leather bag. "There's still enemy blood on a few pages, but it doesn't affect reading."
The stack of diary pages numbered at least a dozen. Hobert had already made up his mind: he definitely couldn't take them all, or he would go bankrupt!
He cleared his throat, "I'm sure you saw my message on the information board. I need to briefly review the content to make sure I don't have similar items in my collection. Well, you should know that there are many copied versions of Emperor Roselle's notes, and I don't need duplicate notes."
In fact, the price he offered was slightly lower than the market price. Generally, a page of Emperor Roselle's notes normally traded between 6 to 7 pounds.
However, the other party didn't haggle, "That's fine, but I'm curious about your reason for purchasing Emperor Roselle's notes."
Regarding the buyer's request for a brief review, the seller wasn't worried because no one could understand the content of the notes. Even if someone browsed them, there was no concern about the content being leaked.
The reason the seller didn't haggle was that the market for Emperor Roselle's notes was very small. When someone interested in collecting them wanted to buy, it was best to sell immediately.
Hobert smiled and said, "I'm trying to decipher the symbols in Emperor Roselle's notes."
The other party showed an "as expected" expression, "A very good idea. I wish you success."
However, his expression clearly said: There really are such fools in this world.
Hobert shook his head with a smile, without further explanation. He took the diary pages and briefly browsed through them, picking out some of Emperor Roselle's romantic history and some seemingly unimportant content.
He also picked out some Beyonder knowledge that he already knew. After becoming a supernatural being, his reading ability and comprehension had improved. He could remember the gist of most diary entries with just a glance.
Of course, all of this was based on the premise that he could read Chinese characters.
In the end, Hobert was left with only one diary page in his hand, creating a somewhat awkward situation. Even Hobert, with his improved eloquence, couldn't find a suitable reason to explain to the other party.
The seller spoke first, "I didn't expect your collection to be so extensive."
Hobert let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he had spent a short time browsing each diary page earlier, so the other party hadn't noticed anything amiss.
If he had spent a long time looking at each page and then very annoyingly said, "I'm sorry, sir, I already have all these notes," the secret of his ability to understand these "mysterious symbols" might have been exposed.
Hobert took out 6 pounds in banknotes, with 1 pound meant to alleviate his guilt.
After completing this transaction, he asked the attendant not to let anyone disturb him, and he carefully read the Emperor Roselle diary entry he had valued in the small reception room:
"March 12th, I heard from the minister in charge of intelligence about a very interesting matter: Most of the Fourth Epoch ruins appearing around Backlund are traps!"