Above the gray fog, inside a palace like a giant's residence.
Klein sat in the Fool's seat, raised his right hand, and the "Sea God's Scepter" hidden in the pile of odds and ends flew out and landed in his palm.
He had originally planned to place this
Looking at the blue-green points lingering around the short bone scepter, Klein had a thought and gave an idea to do a preliminary division of them.
As he expected, those blue-green light points completed the division on their own based on his will; those that simply praised the "Sea God" and prayed casually sank to the bottom and disappeared faster, while those involving confessions and supplications floated upward, closer to Klein's palm.
Following his spiritual intuition, he "selected" one of the latter.
Suddenly, he saw towering waves and heard violently howling wind.
A near-sea fishing boat bobbed up and down in the undulating deep blue, tossed and raised, on the verge of capsizing at any moment.
On the boat, people who were clearly local natives either hugged the mast tightly or pulled on ropes, making their last efforts, and many of them panickedly recitated the "Sea God's" honorable name.
Klein realized that this was an ongoing prayer, so he raised the ivory-white scepter.
At the top of the scepter, blue-green "gems" bloomed one after another, connecting into a piece, and shone into that scene.
The fishermen were gradually despairing, but suddenly they felt the boat, which had been tossed about, stabilize.
They looked around in astonishment, only to see that the mountainous layers of giant waves had somehow become calm, and the raging wind on the sea was slowing down, becoming as gentle as the taste of Zahar beer.
The layered dark clouds in the sky dissipated, and before the storm could show its full form, it was forcefully suppressed by a mysterious force.
The fishermen quickly snapped out of their daze and understood what had happened: "The 'Sea God' had blessed everyone; the 'Sea God' had shown His majesty!"
Thump, thump, thump!
They all prostrated on the deck, spreading their hands, placing them by their mouths, and recitated the "Sea God's" honorable name, not very neatly: "Thank you, praise you, the darling of the sea and the spirit world, the protector of the Rorstead Islands, the dominator of seabed creatures, the controller of tsunamis and storms, the great Kavitua!"
Above the gray fog, Klein inexplicably became a bit glum: "I clearly saved you, why thank Kavitua?"
"That sea serpent only deliberately creates hurricanes, raises waves, intimidates you, forcing you to piously believe in it..."
Klein was silent for two seconds, then suddenly laughed silently: "Kavitua is dead; the present Kavitua is another identity of mine."
"Why should I feel bad because others thank my other identity?"
"This is the problem that a 'Faceless' must pay attention to in real acting? Truly integrate into the identity, treat his joys and sorrows as one's own, but not forget who oneself originally is... This is really difficult; with the slightest carelessness, one will become mentally disturbed, and once a Beyonder is mentally disturbed, loss of control is not far away..."
After thinking carefully for a while, Klein let out a breath and chuckled to himself: "Acting as the 'Sea God' is still quite rewarding."
"Although with the gray fog shielding and isolation, this acting might not receive feedback and directly promote the digestion of my 'Faceless' potion, it can still provide experience and lessons, helping me figure out safer and more effective acting methods."
Calming his mind, Klein extended his spirituality to another light point.
This time, the prayer came from inside a bridge arch; a woman in tattered clothes, with her body ulcerated and oozing pus, leaned in a corner, mumbling the "Sea God's" honorable name, making her final confession.
Through her description, Klein seemed to see her short life with his own eyes.
This was a native woman; her parents both believed in the "Sea God", so she also believed in the "Sea God". For the first ten-plus years, her father worked as a miner, built roads, laid rails, and her mother mainly did various temporary jobs, like mending, washing, helping at the dock, and intermittently worked as a streetwalker; the family was quite difficult but still barely manageable.
The change occurred two years ago when her father died in a road repair accident, but the Rorstead Railway Company only gave a very meager compensation, and the family gradually went to the brink.