Chapter 21: Ash Black

Ashes joining the Tarot Club gave Klein a sense of urgency.

On one hand, he hoped to gain useful intelligence from Ashes, so he didn't regret the decision.

On the other hand, it was inconvenient for him to have too much direct interaction with Ashes.

After all, in the Tarot Club, he was the 'Fool', and directly inquiring would be undignified.

To address this, he attempted to create an alias for himself, but ultimately failed.

Meanwhile, he heard the prayers of a crimson star.

Due to the language barrier, he chose to ignore the prayer—

Even if he responded, it wouldn't matter. He wasn't truly a god and couldn't solve the problem.

After all this, Klein fell into a dilemma again.

He now suspected that the 'young woman' he encountered was likely the former 'Instigator' Tris.

The appearance and demeanor of the two were almost identical—

A rounder face, narrow eyes, and a gentle temperament.

Apart from one being male and the other female, they were nearly the same.

However, he had no evidence to support this 'suspicion' and it would be hard to explain it to the captain—

Should he say that he got the information from the Tarot Club?

After hesitating for a long time, Klein finally decided—

He would say it was his intuition.

Anyway, it was just a guess. Revealing it could provide clues, and saying it was intuition wouldn't arouse suspicion.

After all, it was the intuition of a Seer.

Moreover, perhaps he could use the Divination as a cover?

Just say it was the result of a divination.

"Yes, let's do that!"

Klein nodded solemnly, then hesitated again and took out a crystal pendant to perform a divination.

...

The next day at work, Klein took the opportunity to reveal his guess about Tris's identity.

"You mean," Dunn frowned slightly, "that Tris might have escaped our pursuit by turning into a woman? And you saw her but didn't recognize her at the time?"

"Yes." Klein nodded, presenting his well-prepared explanation, "In fact, when I met that 'young woman' that day, my spirituality gave me a hint, but I was focused on capturing Tris and didn't connect the two."

"But yesterday, while researching the Witch Sect, I found that almost all members are female."

"So I guessed, is it possible that at a certain stage, an Assassin's pathway potion could turn them into a woman, like at Sequence 7."

"Sequence 7?" Dunn pondered for a moment.

According to their speculation, Tris was indeed on the verge of promotion at that time.

Otherwise, his abnormal behavior couldn't be explained.

This meant that after coming to Tingen, Tris had indeed been preparing to advance to Sequence 7.

The only issue was they didn't know the name of the Sequence 7 potion for the Assassin pathway.

"This is indeed a direction for investigation," Dunn said slowly after some thought. "The information you've provided is valuable. I'll have someone investigate immediately."

Although it was just based on Klein's intuition, for Beyonders, intuition often came from spiritual warnings.

And spiritual warnings were often more accurate than their own judgments.

So Dunn didn't hesitate to trust it, especially since they had no other leads for investigation.

Considering Klein's pathway as a Diviner, his 'intuition' would be more valuable than the average person's.

After reporting the situation, Klein felt satisfied and attended the welcome party his team held for him that evening.

Klein was pleased because his weekly salary had increased to 4.5 pounds.

The only regret was that Old Neil couldn't attend his welcome party.

"Miss Justice's Telepathist formula has been found, so it's time for me to find the Clown potion formula."

Klein sighed inwardly. If this continued, he feared he would become the bottom member of the Tarot Club.

Could you believe that the leader of a mysterious organization was the weakest among its members?

At the same time, in the Saint Samuel Church in Backlund, Ashes also proposed a 'negotiation' to Archbishop Anthony.

"If I want to buy other Sequence potion formulas, what price would I need to pay?"

"Price?" Anthony was momentarily taken aback by Ashes question, then quickly drew a crimson moon on his chest and said, "Let's go with the market price: 200 pounds for Sequence 9, 400 pounds for Sequence 8, and 800 pounds for Sequence 7, how about that?"

After a pause, Anthony continued, "Of course, I can only provide low and mid-sequence potion formulas, and only ensure the completeness of low-sequence formulas."

For ordinary NightHawks, they didn't need to pay in pounds; they just needed to make sufficient 'contributions' to the Church of EverNight.

When their contributions were enough and they met the promotion conditions, the Church would naturally provide the corresponding sequence formula.

But if Embers wanted it and didn't want to spend time making 'contributions,' considering his special status, it was also possible to allow him to exchange gold pounds for it.

"That's enough," Ashes nodded slightly. Miss Justice only needed the Sequence 8 Telepathist.

However, even Sequence 8 required 400 pounds—

This wasn't a small amount.

Even with his weekly salary of 100 pounds plus the 100 pounds from Anthony, it would take at least three weeks to save up.

Perhaps he could ask Miss Justice to advance some funds at the next Tarot Club.

After all, she didn't seem to lack money.

...

July 18, Wednesday.

Backlund, Crown Racecourse.

Ashes stood in a VIP box, watching the racehorses and riders sprinting below.

It had been two days since he joined the Tarot Club.

Following Archbishop Anthony's suggestion, he frequently attended gatherings among the upper nobility of Backlund.

Unfortunately, the highest-ranking participants were viscounts or heirs.

According to Ashes' estimation, those who knew about the 'Black Emperor' should at least be of earl rank or higher.

However, he had just started attending these noble gatherings, and his own status wasn't too prestigious.

It was normal that he couldn't access the upper echelons of the country yet.

But as he attended more gatherings, things would improve.

With this in mind, Ashes suddenly turned to look at a nearby girl.

The girl had strikingly smooth blonde hair, wore a white dress with leg-of-mutton sleeves, ruffles, and lace on the chest, a hat adorned with blue ribbons and silk flowers, and light-colored gauze gloves.

At that moment, she was staring intently at Ashes.

"Is something the matter?" Ashes politely inquired.

For some reason, the girl had been staring at him since earlier.

"No, nothing." The girl was startled by Ashes sudden gaze, losing her previous detached demeanor and looking flustered as she lowered her head.

Feeling that her behavior was too suspicious, she blushed and quickly moved away.

"Hmm?" Ashes looked puzzled, finding her actions strange.

But he didn't pay much attention.

Although he could sense that her soul was stronger than ordinary people, it wasn't by much.

She wasn't even qualified to be burned as firewood.

No, she wouldn't even be reduced to ashes, just vaporized into air.

"Audrey, what's wrong?" A somewhat frail young man noticed Audrey's sudden fluster and approached with concern.

"Nothing." Audrey had regained her composure, shaking her head and asking, "Glaint, do you need something?"

Glaint was her friend, and whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, he had inherited his title early due to his father's passing.

With her talent as a Spectator, Audrey could see that he had come to her with a request.

"Audrey," Glaint lowered his voice, looking mysterious. "I met a true Beyonder, one not affiliated with the royal family."

You always say that.

"Really?" Audrey maintained a polite and elegant smile, though she wasn't particularly interested in his claim.

"I swear on my father's honor, this time it's absolutely true!" Viscount Glaint nodded solemnly, his face serious.

"Then," Audrey was about to feign surprise but hesitated and pointed to Ashes, "Viscount Glaint, do you know him?"

"I've seen him a couple of times." Viscount Glaint glanced over and nodded, "Ash Black, a fallen noble. I heard he just arrived in the capital recently, so he's been attending noble gatherings frequently."

"He attended my gathering two days ago, but you missed it that day, so you didn't see him."

After a pause, Glaint added, "There's a salon at my place tomorrow afternoon. If I invite him, he should come. Of course, the Beyonder I mentioned will also be there."

"Ash Black?" Audrey's eyes sparkled.

From the first moment she saw Ash, she felt he looked very familiar—

He greatly resembled the 'Lovers' she met at the Tarot Club two days ago.

Although her talent as a Spectator allowed her to compare and observe their physiques and demeanors, the main reason was the numerous rings on his fingers, which left a deep impression.

Even the nouveau riche in the capital rarely wore rings on all ten fingers.

So far, Audrey had only met two people who dressed like that.

One was 'Lovers,' the other was this Mr. Ash Black.

...

Tingen City.

In the morning, Klein visited Mr. Azik at the university.

In the afternoon, he divined that the Clown potion formula was related to Sirius Apiris.

Feeling that a Seer was too weak in combat, Klein decided to equip himself with ritual magic materials to avoid being helpless when needed.

So, he went to the underground market to purchase materials.

As he was leaving, he saw a young woman in a light green dress also preparing to leave.

Klein found her back familiar but couldn't recall why.

He had more pressing matters, so he quickened his pace to the library.

His intuition told him he would find information about Sirius Apiris there.

It made sense.

(End of Chapter)