Chapter 294: Time Angel and Imaginary Angel

Chapter 294: Time Angel and Imaginary Angel

The fors Family

fors, who had successfully advanced to the rank of Sequence 8 Master of Illusion, was currently lounging lazily on the sofa in a light blue lace dress. The book she had intended to finish reading today was casually placed under her head as a pillow.

If there was nothing else to do, she could lie around like this every day, with Xio feeding her meals. What a wonderful life that would be. 

However, she could only briefly fantasize about such a blissful existence, as a recent discovery had left her quite perplexed.

Following the guidance of the Stars, she had joined the mysterious Tarot Club organization and successfully met the villain's leader, Mr. Fool. She also had a good relationship with Miss Justice.

Originally, her goal was to infiltrate this evil organization, acting as an informant for the Stars on one hand while collecting evidence of their misdeeds on the other. Then, she planned to cooperate with the Stars to destroy this evil group.

However, the longer she remained in the Tarot Club, the more she realized that its members were not as terrible and evil as she had imagined. On the contrary, Miss Justice and Mr. Sun seemed like decent people after interacting with them.

Especially Mr. Sun, who was exceptionally innocent, like a child who had not yet grown up, full of naivety, although he was gradually maturing.

And then there was the newly joined Mr. Moon, who claimed to be a noble vampire, Xio ding an undisguisable aura of childishness.

Perhaps she should remind the Stars that the members of this organization were not utterly wicked.

The true source of trouble seemed to be the organization's founder, Mr. Fool. He enjoyed collecting Roussel's diaries and often struck a mysterious and unfathomable pose, clearly a formidable figure with deep thoughts hidden behind a smiling facade.[1]

"Why are you lounging on the sofa again? Didn't you say you were going to work hard and start a new book recently?" Xio scolded fors as soon as he returned.

"Striving is necessary, and I will start a new book, but when it's time to rest, I absolutely cannot spend that time working. That would be disrespectful to rest time," fors replied calmly, her gaze falling on what Xio had brought back.

Various cooking ingredients, no ready-made cooked food, and no extra sweets either. Disappointing.

fors pursed her lips and turned over, her back facing Xio.

"Watch your expression. Do you think I didn't want to buy some delicious food?" Xio said with a helpless look as he placed the ingredients on the kitchen counter and walked back out. "Since the New Year until now, you've been lying at home resting under the pretext of some post-holiday syndrome. You're not in any hurry to write. We're not as lucky as Miss Audrey, able to just wait and collect money. fors, if this continues, we won't be able to support ourselves."

"It's not that serious, is it?"

"How long has it been since you last went to the market to buy vegetables? Vegetable prices have almost doubled since before the New Year because the extremely low temperatures during the holiday caused widespread crop failure in many farmlands."

fors pondered for a moment, realizing she couldn't win this argument. She changed the subject, "Xio, I earn more than you every month, don't I?"

"..." 

Xio, who had intended to say more, opened his mouth, his face flushing slightly, before leaving with a simple "I'll go cook" and returning to the kitchen.

That night, after Xio had gone to bed, fors secretly prayed to the Stars.

She had no choice; many people in Beckland were still searching for followers of the Stars. Just last week, someone mistaken for a Stars follower had been dumped in a trash can in an alleyway.

The dim starlight illuminated the small room, the subdued glow contained within, not leaking out to draw attention from outside.

When Hasta heard fors's respectful yet anxious report, he wanted to say, "Why are you so addicted to drama?"

He remembered only giving fors guidance to join the Tarot Club, not telling her it was some evil organization or that Mr. Fool was the villain's leader.

fors had used her talent for storytelling to concoct all sorts of fanciful notions in her mind.

Regarding this, Hasta could only respond with a slightly amused tone, "Mr. Fool is a decent person. You don't need to be so tense."

"Ah, the Stars know Mr. Fool?" Feeling like she had made a fool of herself, fors's cheeks began to burn.

"Yes, he's an old friend."

To dispel fors's jumbled thoughts, Hasta didn't mind sharing a bit more information with her.

An old friend...

fors lowered her head and took a deep breath of cool air. She truly felt like a fool now.

...

It was another Monday afternoon. After dealing with the matters at hand, Cline leaned back in his chair, took out his gaudy gold chain-wrapped pocket watch, and checked the time.

There were still twenty minutes until the Tarot Club meeting. He closed his eyes briefly to rest, only rising to head to the washroom and step onto the mist above as the appointed time neared.

He didn't know if it was because of the many distracting thoughts in his mind lately, but even the drifting mist seemed more ominous than usual.

The enjoyable Tarot Club meeting began with Roussel's diaries. Cline received three more of Roussel's diaries from Miss Justice and Mr. Hanged Man.

Apart from some amorous adventures, these latest Roussel diaries contained two relatively valuable pieces of information:

A blasphemous card created by Roussel was disguised as a bookmark and left in a book, still undiscovered.

The Sequence 0 path for observers was the Imaginary, and the 008 seal that had fallen into Innes Zangwill's hands was a powerful seal from this extraordinary path.

Cline was quite interested in that undiscovered blasphemous card. If it happened to be from his Fortune Teller path, it would save him a lot of time and money.

Of course, such a coincidence would also make him more cautious, lest he be tricked by 008 again.

The Roussel Memorial Exhibition was still ongoing in Beckland, so he could try his luck there tomorrow.

Sitting in the lowest seat, Audrey glanced up at the pensive Mr. Fool, feeling a bit troubled.

This week's page from Roussel's diary was the last of her stockpile. It was only because Mr. Hasta had left her eight pages of Roussel's diaries before leaving Beckland that she could provide them steadily to Mr. Fool each week.

Through this exchange, she had gained various trades and Mr. Fool's answers to her questions, allowing her rapid growth.

Currently, she was on par with Mr. Hanged Man in terms of Sequence rank, considered the first tier within the Tarot Club.

Thinking of this, she unconsciously straightened her back slightly, her gaze carrying a hint of pride as she surveyed the others.

"You may begin now," Cline said, putting down Roussel's diary, indicating they could freely trade and converse.

This week's Little Sun Story Time had reached the point of exploring the ruins of an ancient temple and its rewards.

"The Chief told us that when the all-knowing and all-powerful God watched over this land, eight Angelic Kings surrounded Him, including God's offspring," Deric recounted as he spoke. "The Chief suspects that Ammon is the Time Angel among the Angelic Kings, and the figure in the mural is the Fate Angel, the Devourer Ouroboros."

The eight Angelic Kings - what a significant secret!

Audrey was quite excited. This feeling of gradually unveiling the mists of history and approaching the mythical era was truly thrilling!

She suppressed her excitement and asked as calmly as possible, "Mr. Sun, what are the titles and names of the other six Angelic Kings?"

"The Chief didn't say, and I don't know either..." Deric lowered his head in embarrassment.

Oh, how she wished she knew the answer!

Unable to conceal her curiosity, Audrey's gaze unconsciously turned towards Mr. Fool at the head of the long bronze table. His eyes contained the wisdom to see through everything; surely He knew the answer to this question.

Her gaze became one of longing. Seeing such an expression made Cline's heart skip a beat, but he still struggled to control the twitching at the corners of his mouth.

Miss Justice, what kind of look is that?

Why are you looking at me like that? This question is too difficult; I can't answer it...

Of course, he had his own guesses about the identities of the other Angelic Kings, but they were just guesses. If he said something wrong, wouldn't that undermine Mr. Fool's dignified and great image before the Tarot Club members?

How could he maintain an aura of mystery and grandeur then?

Cline suddenly recalled a phrase he had read before: When others mention an unknown field, hearing knowledge you don't possess usually evokes a sense of enlightenment. However, when others mention a field you're familiar with, you realize that person is merely putting on airs and has no real substance.

Who knows what valuable content Little Sun might uncover in that area? What if he exposed Mr. Fool's true nature...?

But this time, Miss Justice actively demonstrated her commendable attitude of asking questions when she didn't understand something.

Seeing that Mr. Fool had no intention of voluntarily revealing information about the Angelic Kings, she offered the Roussel diary pages she had accumulated in exchange for the answer to this question.

Moreover, she did not choose to inquire privately but generously shared this knowledge free of charge with every member of the Tarot Club.

Cline's head started to ache. He really wanted to put his hand to his forehead, but his expression remained calm, his eyes squinting as if pondering something.

In reality, his mind was incessantly grumbling: "Miss Justice, you really don't need to be so diligent and studious, you know. You're so wealthy, yet still so hardworking in your studies. How are us ordinary folk supposed to live?"

"And sharing it publicly too - are you trying to make Mr. Fool lose face in front of everyone?"

"Sigh, I guess I'll have to come up with a decent explanation."

Faced with this situation, he had to offer some real knowledge; he couldn't just use profound and inscrutable words to deceive them.

Otherwise, hearing that too often would only make him seem ignorant.

Miss Justice, you've really given me a difficult problem here.

But soon, Cline smiled. Perhaps there were questions he couldn't answer, but Mr. Fool could not fail.

With His wisdom, He would surely be able to give a reasonable explanation, not a deception, for the present difficulty.

(End of Chapter)