Meeting the Detective

June 6th, 1348 of the Fifth Epoch

The next morning, Max spent the early morning after waking up to the not-so-refreshing Backlund air reading the morning newspaper with a cup of tea, before returning to his practice. A few days passed with Max repeating the very same routine continuously slowly and gradually improving his control over his newly acquired powers.

Although it was not at the level of being able to proficiently use it, he was able to still make use of his powers without having to spend minutes on end to concentrate on exactly what he wanted it to do.

June 8th, 1348 of the Fifth Epoch

Max finally received a letter from Detective Isengard regarding his request. As it turned out, the old detective with his massive number of contacts in the political, nobility, and Beyonder scenes had allowed him to complete the request incredibly quickly, with a large portion of the time being taken up the postal delivery service of Backlund, that was clearly not nearly as good as the modern delivery services.

His fake ID had already been prepared by the detective, with only his photograph remaining. For this, the detective had called him to come over on 10 June, 1348 for it to be taken. He had not exactly stated which of his documents had been prepared, but given the meticulous character of the old Man from the novel, Max assumed that he would take care of all the needful.

Thus, Max finally decided to stop his daily shut-in lifestyle and head to a particular shop. It was a Cutter's shop where suits were made by hand from scratch, as compared to the tailer's shops where the suits were merely tailored to fit the individual.

With the former being a task of considerably more experience and skill, it also cost more. However, it ultimately gave a better fitted and design of clothing for the individual.

Since this photograph would be an essential part of his future endeavours, and the fact that he would need more of such clothing for his social gatherings, Max went to the Cutter's shop. Unfortunately, it took him the rest of the day, as well as 3 whole pounds for his newly made three piece suit, that he would not receive until another day passed.

Thankfully, this shop did not get a lot of customers compared to normal tailer's shops, so their speed of making his order was pushed up on the priority list and would be completed by the very next day.

Returning home after a long day of standing in one place and stretching out different parts of his body, while also trying on what he had initially thought to be a torture device, but turned out to be a more sophisticated measuring device, Max did not spend the day doing much else other than having his dinner, making sure his Beyonder Sword was properly sealed, and finally going to sleep.

Till now, his days in Backlund had been incredibly normal considering the sheer number of Beyonders living in the capital city of the Leon kingdom, the number of High Sequence individuals in or around the Backlund Area, and the number of Gods who had their eyes on the place most of the time. Plus, compared to Klein's daily chaotic lifestyle of living life on the edge, constantly taking on missions as a detective that somehow led him to one danger after another, Max's peaceful life was something he much preferred. At least he was still weaker than most Beyonders who were higher than Sequence 9.

June 10th, 1348 of the Fifth Epoch

Max, who was now wearing a Grey double-breasted three-piece suit with a Light Blue shirt, a Prussian Blue tie, and brown leather shoes, headed out of his motel and towards Detective Isengard.

This time, however, he had brought his Beyonder Sword with him. He was now a Beyonder, and Detective Isengard would most definitely notice it over the course of their upcoming interaction, if not at first glance. He knew the detective had been kind and helpful to Klein, but he was not the main character of this story and thus did not have plot armour. 

Thus, it was best to be prepared for the situation where the Old Man decided to kill him for whatever reason it was possible. 

Max had learned it the hard way after his originally white three-piece suit had not only been stained with multiple splotches of soot to the point it could pass for a coat made by a certain female psychopath who liked smoking a pipe with her black and white hair, but his suit had also become an abnormal shade of yellow with time for some reason. Max attributed this to the pollution in the air and in the water used to wash his clothes.

Thus, his new suit which he expected to stay with him for a lot longer, was grey in colour to hide any yellow colouring, while also being able to ignore the black spots from the smoke and soot floating through the air like inverted fireflies.

…

Ringing the doorbell, the very same old man Max had seen the first time he came here was in front of him once more. This time, however, Max could feel it. His spirituality was telling him of the danger that the being before him possessed. To a Sequence 9 like Max, a Sequence 7 like Mr. Eye of Wisdom was indeed like comparing an ant to a frog; one could easily eat the latter in mere moments. However, if enough ants piled up on the frog unless it escaped, it would ultimately succumb.

On the other hand, there were existences in this world like kings of Angels who were equivalent to lions and tigers that could very easily kill any number of frogs that attacked it. And finally, there were the True Gods and Outer Gods, who were equivalent to Dinosaurs of the ancient past of Earth and an uncountable number of meteors waiting to descend on Earth and kill everything.

'Yup, that very aptly describes the current situation of the world and the apocalypse that would come soon.' Max sighed in his mind before smiling at the good detective and waiting for him to allow him to enter.

However, the old man simply kept glancing at Max then towards the strange suitcase he had brought with him, then back to Max.

"Ahem~ I suppose we can discuss my situation inside." Ma pointed out the clear lack of privacy out on the road where anyone could be spying on them without them even noticing.

This seemed to bring the detective out of his daze as he gave a smile that did not quite reach his eyes and put his smoking pipe to the other side of his mouth, before gesturing Max to enter as he stood to the side.

Max obliged and entered, waiting for the detective to close the door behind him and lead the way to the living room, which was much better decorated than the dull and depressed exterior of the house/office of the nearly white-haired detective; who was actually just a middle-aged man but to Max he felt like an old man. To Samuel however, he felt like a proper middle-aged man with good hair genetics, but a bad sense of hairstyle.

It was a slightly confusing emotion, but ultimately he ignored the feeling and got down to business, loosening the buttons on his suit to better allow him to be seated on the couch of the old Detective.

"Young lad… Do you know what you have done?" He asked, probing whether Max truly knew about Beyonders and voluntarily entered this dark society or whether he just became one out of luck, was forced to, or was just curious.

"Yes. I have become a Beyonder, just like you. Except, I seem to be far weaker than you, and many other strong individuals in Backlund apparently." Max said in a calm tone.

"Huh…" the old detective said, finally taking out a matchbox and lighting his pipe. This was the first time Max was actually seeing the old man lighting his pipe.