Dead?
Will Auceptin is dead?
And it seems he's been dead for a while!
Could this be fake?
Klein stared at the child's corpse with shock and suspicion, many thoughts suddenly flooding his mind.
In his understanding, Will Auceptin was a special child, possibly connected to Sequence 1 of the Monster pathway, the "Mercury Serpent".
The divination games he played, his casual remark "Doctor, your luck is about to get worse," caused Allen to suffer bad luck for a long time; the origami cranes he folded could locate Allen's astral spirit in the Spirit World and infuse it with man-made revelations; his whereabouts, even from above the Gray Fog, Klein could only catch glimpses of, unable to reach effective conclusions… How could such a child die so inexplicably? Die before Doctor Allen even had his dream? What about his family?
Klein squinted, suppressing the strong nausea, and carefully examined the highly decomposed corpse, noticing some torn tarot cards in the surrounding soil.
His spiritual intuition told him that the corpse in front of him was most likely Will Auceptin.
Truly shocking and puzzling… I'll go to the Gray Fog later to check if Will Auceptin is faking his death… Wait, what does that have to do with me? I had already decided not to get deeply involved in this matter, to avoid being entangled by that "Mercury Serpent", which might be even scarier than Sealed Artifact "0-08"… Klein snapped back to reality and said to the terrified gravedigger and the nearly hysterical Doctor Allen:
"Call the police!"
"Okay, okay!" The gravedigger was stunned at first, then answered repeatedly.
He grabbed his shovel, turned around, and ran out of the woods, as if a zombie were chasing him.
Truly just an ordinary person, not cautious at all. In this situation, shouldn't he be wary of ill intentions from those around him? Exposing his back makes it easy for someone to hit him with a shovel… Klein glanced at the gravedigger's retreating figure, sighed, and shook his head.
When he was in the Tingen City Nighthawks squad, he had seen many case files and found that many victims were betrayed by their accomplices like this.
Thinking of this, Klein walked over to Doctor Allen, bent down, and extended his hand:
"There's nothing to be afraid of. He's already dead."
"…It's because he's dead that it's frightening." Allen calmed down a little, didn't accept Klein's help, and stood up on his own.
His long black formal coat was covered with mud, which inexplicably pained Klein.
I can't stand seeing valuable things damaged… he sighed inwardly.
Seeing that Allen was still somewhat panicked, Klein smiled and said:
"At times like this, praying to the deity you believe in can have a good effect."
"Is that so?" Allen was startled, then made the sign of the four-pointed star clockwise on his chest and murmured, "Evernight Goddess, greater than the stars, more eternal than eternity, your devout follower prays for your blessing…"
As he repeated this in a low voice, he gradually calmed down, no longer as terrified as before.
Klein casually drew a triangular holy emblem on his chest and muttered silently:
"God of Steam and Machinery, your not-so-devout follower prays for your blessing…"
As he said this, he couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly, suspecting he might be struck by lightning on the spot.
However, lightning and thunder belong to the Lord of Storms, not within the domain of the God of Steam and Machinery… Klein thought quite relaxedly.
After more than twenty minutes, the two sat in the interrogation room of a nearby police station.
When giving statements, Klein frankly told the police that he was just a private detective on a commission and didn't know what had happened. Doctor Allen described his dream in detail and the reason for digging up the corpse.
Klein could tell that the police didn't believe them, but after they stepped out for a while and returned, they immediately changed their attitude, saying that Doctor Allen and Detective Moriarty were not suspects and could leave after signing their statements.
Allen was quite surprised by this, but Klein was not surprised at all—this was clearly the Nighthawks stepping in.
The benefit of having the doctor go to the Starry Cathedral to see the bishop in advance had showed its value.
Before leaving the police station, Klein was not surprised to see a familiar figure—the Nighthawk who had entered his dream earlier.
This Nighthawk, likely the captain, was still wearing a gray trench coat, clearly more cold-resistant than Klein. His blue eyes swept over and moved away from Klein's face without any abnormality, pretending to be an ordinary senior inspector.
Klein, also pretending to be an ordinary private detective, adjusted his glasses, put on his half-high silk top hat, and left the police station with Doctor Allen, getting into the carriage.
After instructing their coachman to head to Minsk Street first, Allen turned to Klein:
"Sherlock, do you think this will be the end of it?"
"If that corpse is really Will Auceptin, you shouldn't be troubled anymore." Klein paused. "Allen, have you felt anything strange lately? In anything at all."
Allen thought seriously, then shook his head:
"No."
"That's worth celebrating!" Klein exhaled and smiled.