Chapter 157: Unpure Reason

Klein felt his blood run cold and his mind slow down.

'A ritual in Tingen... One that points to an evil God... What am I supposed to do?'

While Klein was falling into a cycle of despair, the other members kept talking.

"What do you mean by ritual, Mr. Chariot? Is it a large-scale sacrifice? Is there anything we can do?" Audrey asked very concerned, unconsciously she put a hand to her heart.

Alger nodded in agreement to Justice's words.

He looked to Chariot and The Fool for answers.

"I haven't gotten much, I need to do more research before I can do anything."

"But I've managed to discover that it has to do with a large-scale sacrifice that should take about a month to be completed..." Adryan said darkly.

"Oh Goddess..." Audrey muttered in fear, she tapped her chest 4 times counterclockwise in a circle.

"I'll be investigating more looking for more clues but I can't promise anything..."

Adryan said heavily.

"Why don't we anonymously notify churches? They should be able to deal with this much more easily." Alger suggested.

"That's right Mr. Hanged Man! Good idea!"

Audrey and Klein immediately agreed, though only Audrey showed it.

But Adryan shook his head.

"There is someone very dangerous behind this ritual, it doesn't matter if we tell the Churches what is happening, the only thing we would achieve would be to reveal that we know what they plan to do and that will be enough for them to discover us."

"This person is capable of diverting the churches' attention long enough to complete the ritual. But it would also make him nervous and end the ritual early, but that doesn't mean there are no consequences." the redhead said mysteriously.

At Chariot's words, Audrey bit the inside of her cheek and turned to look at the Fool for help and answers.

Klein saw the look that the only lady of the Tarot Club was sending him and could only lament internally.

'I have no way of intervening in this Miss Justice! I'm just a little sequence 9!'

But he knew he couldn't keep quiet, it would ruin his image so he quickly made up a true lie.

"My blessed one is in Tingen now, I will entrust him with the investigation of this." he said serenely, he then turned to look at Chariot.

"If you get more information about this remember to pray to me and I will pass it on to him."

His voice carried power and calm as if the ritual towards an Evil God was rubbish for him.

'A blessed? Mister Fool has a blessed?' Alger thought in a daze.

Audrey was also surprised by this, but she already considered The Fool to be a great existence.

That he had a blessed was not what surprised her, but that he sent this blessed to investigate something related to an Evil God.

'This proves that Mr. Fool is a benign existence! He could easily have ignored this because it was none of his business but he didn't!'

'He cares about people's lives!' Audrey was relieved and happy, her image of The Fool had gone up multiple notches in her book.

'By blessed you are not referring to yourself right Klein?' The way Adryan thought of this was not a question but a statement.

His expression was calm, not having been in the least shocked by the revelation of The Fool's 'blessed'.

Klein noticed this but before he could complain, Chariot nodded seriously.

"I'll keep you informed of any progress I make, Mr. Fool."

'That's good, that's good...' Klein inwardly sighed with relief, outwardly he nodded.

"This will not be without reward, Mr. Chariot." He added calmly but didn't say anything else.

Leaving a generous image is important.

'This way Chariot will have more reason to work hard to investigate this... I have to pray that he doesn't ask for anything and decides to accumulate contribution points...' at that thought he sighed internally.

'When the time comes for Chariot to redeem these contribution points what am I supposed to give him? An invitation for iced tea in the afternoon?'

Klein's thoughts were similar to those of Adryan who suppressed a smile.

'What will you give me Klein? A cake with the words <Thank You> written on it? You still are the Poor God!'

He sighed internally and fell silent, turning his attention back to the crimson stars.

'One of these stars is Little Sun...' Adryan let his mind wander.

This move was quite a risky one, he had considered a lot on what to do and finally came to a conclusion.

He would give Klein crumbs so he could defend himself in his first life.

This was the best way to avoid drawing too much attention from 0-08.

One would consider that what he had said before was not a crumb but the whole bread but that was not the case.

It was simply a way to diverse Klein's attention.

He wasn't too worried that the Poor God would die for being curious, Klein was too careful to make a risky move.

More knowing that there is a hand behind all this.

'Make good use of this Klein...'

He had given im the tool, now it remained for Klein to know how to use it...

While the main reason was for Klein to defend himself against the Useless Writer, there was also a second reason.

A reason not so pure.

And that reason was acting in advance...

The Useless Writer's uselessness gave him plenty of room to try to Conspire against him.

It could be considered that this would be a small game of chess with Klein being the Black King and the Nighthawks the black pieces.

The game had already started and Klein was at a huge disadvantage.

But Adryan planned to be the hand that would help him turn the tables.

He didn't plan to play to Checkmate the Useless Writer, but rather to save as many <black pieces> as possible...

Klein looked at the people in front of him and seeing how each one was in their own worlds he decided to end the meeting.

"Let's end the meeting here" he said calmly.

The other members recovered and quickly said their goodbyes.

"By your will" the three said at the same time.

...

He watched as the figures vanished but he remained seated in his chair.

Klein began tapping on his armrest as he sank into thought.

'What Chariot said is a matter of emergency but how can I reveal this to the Captain? I have no way of revealing the source of this information without revealing that there is something wrong with me...'

"A large-scale ritual..." Klein murmured seriously.

'I'll try to investigate for any signs that might indicate Aurora Order activity, so I could use this as an excuse to say that I discovered the ritual by accident!'

'This will not draw too much attention to me and will avoid raising any suspicion as to where this information came from!'

'According to Chariot's words it will take a little over a month for the ritual to be completed…I have that long to try to find any Aurora Order activity and use them as a distraction…'

'But if I fail...' he narrowed his eyes slightly.

His gaze was dazed.

The faces of Benson and Melissa appeared in his mind.

'If I fail to find any information before the end of August I will tell the Captain about this.' he decided.

He would hide from where he had obtained the information along with the existence of the Tarot Club.

That was his most important secret and he had to protect it.

But there was a problem...

'I'm still too weak... I need to digest the Seer potion as quickly as possible and advance to Clown to make it safer to investigate...'

He could try to use Divination to find the place where this ritual would be performed but he immediately rejected that idea.

That was a ritual to an Evil God!

He had no idea what would happen if he saw something he shouldn't in the middle of divination.

The experience with Chariot was a good reminder of what could happen if he was not careful when divining.

Klein remained in his seat and looked up at the crimson stars.

If he wanted to have a chance at saving Tingen he needed to get stronger.

And to achieve that, the most important thing would be to discover what other abilities this mysterious space had.

Looking at the crimson stars, Justice's words echoed in his mind.

After a few moments of silence, Klein began to pray as a form of feedback instead of making a connection to those stars.

In the stillness and silence, he did not receive any feedback from the more than ten crimson stars around him.

'In order to receive feedback, I need to get someone above the gray fog before I can respond?'' Klein nodded slightly.

He did not plan to violate someone else's will by forcibly bringing them into this mysterious space.

Sighing, Klein was ready to leave but he habitually touched a nearby crimson star.

Just then, he felt that there was a faint and insignificant prayer deep within this crimson star!

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The other 2 chapters will be published on Monday afternoon.

Today was a very busy day, I was barely home, sorry about this.

But to make up for that, how about a question?

This may or may not be related to the surprise.

What is the common characteristic between Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, Michelangelo, and Picasso?