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Hobert first recalled the ruins in northern Backlund that someone had organized a team to explore during a previous club gathering. Could it have been a trap?
He continued reading: "I asked the minister why such intelligence had emerged. The minister just gave me a mysterious smile without answering my question. Hmph! If I become king in the future, I'll tie up this minister and tickle his feet with feathers until he's had enough of laughing!"
Hobert deduced that this journal entry was written during the period before the Emperor overthrew the Intis royal family when he was still a low-sequence Beyonder.
He read on: "March 16th. The trap in Backlund has intrigued me, so I discussed it with Bishop Michel. He told me it's likely that the Loen royal family discovered and excavated Fourth Epoch ruins, then used them as bait to lure more Beyonders of the same sequence."
"Bishop Michel spoke with such certainty, as if his guess was the truth. When I asked why he was so sure, he said it's a secret hidden within the sequences. I have a terrible suspicion, but I'm not sure if it's correct."
This page of the diary had clearly been transcribed by someone later, containing only these two brief entries.
When Emperor Roselle wrote these entries, he was evidently unaware that even without enmity, those of the same or adjacent sequences were natural enemies due to the competition for Beyonder characteristics.
Hobert first thought of Amon, who had designed many so-called treasures of Marauder pathway families to devour Beyonder characteristics of the same pathway. He would leave a clone in the treasure, waiting for Marauder pathway Beyonders to walk into his trap.
The Loen royal family's trap was similar to Amon's method. Most Fourth Epoch ruins were related to the Lawyer and Arbiter pathways.
Three emperors emerged in the Northern Continent during the Fourth Epoch: the Black Emperor, the Blood Emperor, and the Night Emperor.
Among them, the Black Emperor Solomon was the true god of the Lawyer pathway.
The Blood Emperor Tudor and Night Emperor Trunsoest both started in the Lawyer pathway. They betrayed Solomon, helping the six gods defeat him to obtain the Sequence 1 characteristic of the Lawyer pathway.
The current Loen and Feynapotter royal families, both Arbiter pathway Beyonder families, had served different emperors in the Fourth Epoch. After the fall of the four emperors, they became ruling families with the support of the six gods.
Both Lawyer and Arbiter pathway Beyonders were quite active during the Fourth Epoch, producing two true god-level rulers: the Black Emperor and the Night Emperor (Justiciar).
The capital of both the Tudor-Trunsoest United Empire and the Trunsoest Empire was present-day Backlund.
Thus, anyone with basic historical knowledge would know that ruins of the Tudor and Trunsoest families were likely to be found near Backlund.
This was why Hobert valued this diary page. He had also considered searching for ancient ruins around Backlund once he became stronger, as these ruins would likely contain items related to the Lawyer pathway.
He believed the Loen royal family had exploited this fact to set traps in the ruins, probably as a way to recover Beyonder characteristics.
Realizing this, Hobert mourned for the mercenary team that had gone exploring earlier.
He also thanked the Emperor for the warning, feeling the 6 pounds spent were well worth it!
This was the Beyonder world—even the kindest person could become a sinner due to possessing Beyonder characteristics. What was that saying? Ah yes, "The innocent suffer for the jade in their possession."
Hobert carefully recalled the contents of the other diary pages. Though he couldn't remember all the details, he could piece together seven or eight pages of coherent entries. He planned to use them to trade– ahem, negotiate with the dear Mr. Fool.
Instead of leaving the club immediately, Hobert collected fifty more bullets and went to the shooting range to practice.
After returning the gun, he didn't forget to remove his notice about buying Roselle's notes from the information wall on the third floor. He didn't want to draw too much attention. If too many people came to sell him diaries but he only wanted a few, he might get away with free information, but the sellers would certainly be unhappy.
His life experiences had taught Hobert not to go too far.
Moreover, today's expenses were less than expected, which pleased him. He now had 61 pounds, 7 soli, and 8 pence left - he had counted several times to be sure.
After dinner at home, Hobert eagerly returned to his bedroom. Following Old Neil's instructions and Klein's practice, he first drew the symbol of the Evernight Goddess on the table and lit three candles.
Two candles represented the Evernight Goddess, and one represented himself.
Then, Hobert infused spirituality into the silver knife, consecrating the pure silver blade, and circled the table to build a wall of spirituality.
Next, he took out deep sleep flower essential oil, dripped it on the candles, and burned moon flower petals.
Finally came the most important part–the incantation. As a graduate of a top public high school, Hermes language was a required course.
He solemnly recited in Hermes:
"I pray for the power of the night;
I pray for the power of crimson;
I pray for the favor of the Evernight Goddess;
Your faithful believer prays for the Evernight Goddess to grant me a quality sleep.
"Nightshade, herb of the moon, please transmit your power to my incantation!
"Moon flower, herb of the crimson moon, please transmit your power to my incantation!"
Hobert nervously watched the candles on the table. According to Klein's analysis, for minor requests like asking the goddess for a good night's sleep, pleasant dreams, spiritual communication, help with paying bills, or curing constipation...
Uh, why did those last two requests seem odd?
Anyway, for such minor matters, the Goddess's "automatic response system" would usually handle them. As long as there was no malicious intent, the success rate for such low-level rituals was quite high.
As mentioned before, in the Beyonder world, many Sequence 9 Beyonders had higher spirituality than Lawyers, but they didn't know how to perform rituals.
Hobert's advantage was that he knew the ritual process.
After about one or two seconds, the simple altar finally showed a response. Although the candles were still burning, the room suddenly became dim and quiet.
Hobert immediately felt a wave of drowsiness. His eyes quickly became too heavy to keep open. Wait, he hadn't cleaned up the altar or laid down on the bed yet!
Despite his internal struggle, Hobert's body went limp.
The pain of falling on the floor didn't wake Hobert. The moment he fell, he was fast asleep on the ground.
He slept until dawn. If Donna hadn't knocked on his door to wake him, he might have continued sleeping.
After lying on the floor all night, his body was sore and aching. Most critically, the three candles he had just bought yesterday had burned out completely—each one cost 3 soli!
Thinking about how he had "spent" 9 soli last night, Hobert's heart ached along with his body.
He seriously suspected that the Evernight Goddess had a grudge against him.