Above the Gray Fog, within the grand palace.
Klein peered through the prayer light of "Winner" Enuni and witnessed the scene inside the personal manservant's room.
His vision lifted and expanded gradually, the entirety of Burkeland Street slowly coming into view—there were small buildings flanked by flowers and grass, Intis parasol trees shading the sunlight, carriages decorated with either elegant or lavish designs rolling past at a leisurely pace, and young people gleefully speeding along on bicycles.
Finally, Klein locked onto the building at number 39—Councillor Macht's residence—and lowered his gaze, examining the humans and animals there one by one, searching for a man with black hair, black eyes, and a monocle.
Phew… no signs of destiny displacement or grafting for now… After nearly ten minutes, Klein let out a small breath of relief.
Just then, a carriage pulled into the Macht estate and stopped before the portico.
A young woman with long, wavy dark-green hair and bright, deep-brown eyes stepped down from the carriage—it was Hazel, returning home.
She wore a dark green dress that bared no shoulders, her lips slightly pursed, her expression relaxed with a hint of pleasure.
Seeing Hazel like this, Klein's heart lurched.
This was absolutely abnormal behavior!
In Klein's view, after that Rat Demigod had encountered Amon's avatar, there were only two possible outcomes. One, he still had trump cards and managed to escape at the cost of severe injury. Two, he had reverted to Beyonder characteristic, becoming nourishment for Amon to strengthen his avatar. Either way, Hazel would inevitably fail to find her teacher and be grief-stricken, in pain, depressed, and miserable. How could she possibly be both relaxed and happy?
Given that she had braved danger to travel all the way to the countryside estate to warn her teacher, she wasn't the sort of person to be cold and selfish… Her current state indicated that she was certain her teacher—the Rat Demigod—was perfectly fine, and had perhaps even received some reward from him, possibly including all manner of common knowledge from the world of Beyonders… This contradicted Klein's deduction about the Rat Demigod's fate. No—it didn't contradict it. Eliminate every impossibility, and whatever remains must be the truth… Klein leaned back in his chair, already forming a judgment:
Amon had not only absorbed the Rat Demigod's Beyonder characteristic but had stolen "his" destiny and assumed "his" identity!
So, in Hazel's eyes, her teacher had encountered no accident and simply needed to hide for a while… Having confirmed this, Klein let out a silent breath and relaxed somewhat.
For him, the most terrifying aspect of Amon was that no one knew in what form or under whose identity He would appear. One day, Councillor Macht might don a monocle, or every insect in the garden might simultaneously turn their bodies around—none of this was impossible. So now that he had a rough sense of what identity Amon would assume, Klein couldn't help but feel somewhat more at ease.
As for whether Amon might slip up with minor details in front of Hazel, Klein was certain that was absolutely impossible. After all, this was an Angel King whose very foundation was deception—even if the knowledge He casually let slip happened to differ slightly from what the Rat Demigod had previously taught, He could easily brush it off with an excuse like "it was only a test before, but now we begin in earnest."
Of course, according to Palez Sauras, Amon would never limit himself to appearing solely as the Rat Demigod, so Klein couldn't afford to let his guard down… After observing a while longer, Klein withdrew his gaze and departed the space above the Gray Fog.
In his half-open room with the large balcony, he settled into a reclining chair, took a sip of black tea with a lemon slice, and half-closed his eyes to think about how to deepen his connection with Chunas Kolger going forward.
After who knew how long, Klein suddenly opened his eyes and activated Spirit Vision.
—At the Demigod level, he was now able to toggle Spirit Vision purely by an act of will.
Almost simultaneously, Reinette Tinicol emerged from the void, carrying four golden-haired, red-eyed heads, one of which had a letter clenched between its teeth.
"Whose letter?" Klein extended his right hand, half talking to himself and half asking.
"Sharon…" answered another of Reinette Tinicol's heads.
Miss Sharon? She should be making her final preparations for advancement—why would she suddenly write to me? With a trace of puzzlement, Klein took the letter from the lady messenger.
After unfolding the letter, he found very little content on it—just a single line of text:
"Emlyn White is looking for people from the Rose School."
Emlyn is looking for people from the Rose School? Klein raised his eyebrows in surprise.
In his view, Emlyn was a vampire who shied away from trouble—he wouldn't even leave his house if he didn't have to, let alone actively seek out members of the Rose School.
This definitely wasn't Emlyn's own idea… Hmm, Emlyn had mentioned before that some prominent vampire wanted to meet him… Could this be a new task given to him by the vampires? Very likely! But why hadn't he mentioned it at the Tarot Club? Perhaps he'd been focused on the punitive operation and had other leads, so he'd temporarily put this matter aside? Klein thought pensively, leaning forward and, under the gaze of the lady messenger's eight eyes, pulled a sheet of letter paper from the coffee table and picked up a fountain pen.
He wasn't particularly curious about what clues Emlyn had, because it was quite obvious:
Since Miss Sharon already knew that Emlyn was searching for members of the Rose School and had consulted their mutual friend, the great detective Sherlock Moriarty, about the matter, it meant the vampire must have sought help from Ian, the black-market arms dealer at "The Brave" bar.
This also indirectly indicated that Emlyn had discovered traces of Sharon or Maric during his previous commission—otherwise, he wouldn't have mentioned the Rose School to an ordinary person.
"I don't know enough about the Apothecary Pathway to determine how Emlyn detected a 'Vengeful Specter' or 'Living Corpse'…" Klein crossed his right leg, placed the letter paper on his thigh, and began writing rapidly with the fountain pen:
"This should be a task given to Emlyn by the vampire upper echelon. They loathe those members of the Rose School who worship the 'Primordial Moon,' and their hatred extends to the other factions within the Rose School…"
At this point, Klein paused, then added:
"I suspect the 'Tree of Desire' harbors intentions to encroach upon the Authority of the 'Moon' domain, but what I can't understand is why followers of the 'Primordial Moon' would join the Rose School. The relationship between this hidden existence and the 'Tree of Desire' seems quite complex—sometimes hostile, sometimes cooperative. It's hard to guess…"
Setting down the fountain pen and folding the letter, Klein looked at the lady messenger waiting beside him and chuckled:
"How did you know I was going to write a reply?"
One of Reinette Tinicol's heads answered succinctly: