A strange, distorted, faint ripple flashed and vanished so quickly that Klein almost suspected he was hallucinating.
If it weren't for his proficient grasp of Spirit Sense, he would have most likely ignored this anomaly.
Thinking of his sister upstairs, Klein frowned, tightened his grip on his cane, skirted the washroom, and turned towards the staircase of the Wood family.
He quickly climbed the stairs, and following the residual traces sensed by his Spirit Sense, arrived outside the door of the living room near the balcony.
"It should be here..." Klein murmured, raising his hand to tap his brow twice.
One by one, "Auras" penetrated the walls and wooden door, entering his eyes. Most were normal in color and blurred in outline. But one of them rippled with an eerie black-green on its surface, a black-green that was slowly corroding inwards.
"There really is a problem." Klein's expression turned exceptionally serious as he reached out with his right hand to undo the silver chain wrapped around his left wrist.
His left hand grasped the silver chain, letting the citrine pendant hang naturally in front of him. Once the swinging subsided, he conjured a ball of light and silently chanted in his mind: "There is a supernatural danger in the room in front of me."
— Normally, the "Spirit Pendulum Method" was only suitable for divining things related to oneself, as well as objective situations within a small scope. Thus, Klein's description was quite meticulous: "danger" would cause himself to be affected, while the "room" was right in front of him.
"There is a supernatural danger in the room in front of me."
Over and over again. After a full seven times, Klein opened his eyes and saw the citrine pendant rotating clockwise, and at a fairly fast speed.
This indicated that there was indeed a supernatural danger in the room, and the degree of danger was not low!
Selina is an occult enthusiast. Did she bring her friends to play some ritual and create a big problem? What should I do? Klein rubbed his brow, rewound the citrine pendant, and reached out to knock on the door.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
He knocked rhythmically three times, a kind smile spreading across his face.
The door creaked open, and Melissa, wearing a new dress, appeared before Klein.
"Klein, is something the matter?" The girl hadn't expected her brother to come over and was momentarily quite surprised.
"I heard you were having a lot of fun and got curious," Klein replied, his smile completely free of any shadow.
"Sorry for disturbing you." Melissa bowed her head apologetically. "We were playing Magic Mirror Divination. Selina knows a lot. It's really fun."
"Magic Mirror Divination... little sister, why don't you guys go play planchette or the spirit board?" Klein shook his head, half exasperated, half amused.
His gaze passed over Melissa and into the living room, where he saw Selina with her sunny smile and deep dimples.
However, in his Spirit Vision, the wine-red-haired girl holding the silver-plated mirror was being corroded even more severely by that eerie black-green.
His thoughts racing, Klein carefully chose his words. "Heh, I won't disturb your game anymore. Ah, right, where is Elizabeth? I was just discussing Ancient Feysac grammar with her earlier. She said she wanted to ask me something."
"Elizabeth?" Melissa looked her brother up and down a few times, her tone strange as she emphasized, "She's only sixteen too."
"Hey, what are you thinking about!" Klein immediately explained. "This is a normal academic discussion. Elizabeth is very interested in history and ancient languages."
Melissa gave her brother another deep look, then said, "She's inside. I'll have her come out."
"Alright." Klein stepped back, moving away from the doorframe.
Watching his sister turn around, he breathed a somewhat unbrotherly sigh of relief, glad that the one in danger was not Melissa.
He only waited a dozen or so seconds before a bewildered Elizabeth walked out. "Mr. Moretti, what exactly is the matter? I never said I was interested in history and ancient languages..."
Just then, her words were interrupted by Klein's serious and solemn expression. She suddenly tensed up, as if she too had caught a bad "scent."
Klein sidestepped a few steps, gesturing for Elizabeth to leave the door ajar and come over. The girl, with her adorable baby fat cheeks, was influenced by the suddenly heavy atmosphere and unconsciously followed him.
"You know I'm an occult enthusiast," Klein said bluntly, stopping and turning around.
Elizabeth nodded lightly in response. "Yes, I even think you're an occult expert."
"No, I'm just an enthusiast. But that doesn't prevent me from discovering that there's a problem with your Magic Mirror divination," Klein said, his tone heavy.
"A problem?" Elizabeth nearly raised her voice before hurriedly covering her mouth. Klein thought for a moment and said...