"Captain, how is Old Neil doing?" Klein, who had been standing guard at headquarters, immediately stepped forward with nervous concern when he saw the captain return.
"Not too bad. Old Neil himself is sufficiently restrained. Although we discovered it rather late, as long as he doesn't continue receiving that knowledge, there should still be a chance to save him. However, the current situation is tense and we can't spare any manpower, so we can only temporarily have him stay at the church. Once this matter is resolved, we'll send him to Backlund for treatment."
Dunn's tone carried obvious traces of lingering fear. Just a little bit more, and he would have had to lose another teammate due to this ridiculous—or perhaps not so ridiculous—reason.
"That's good to hear." Klein immediately relaxed somewhat, but Dunn sighed and continued:
"However, Old Neil won't be able to deal with anything mystical for some time, so your mysticism lessons will have to be suspended. Knowledge of mysticism is extremely dangerous—you'd better not attempt to 'self-study.'"
"It's alright, Captain. Old Neil said I've already mastered all the parts I can currently access. What remains is just practical application." Klein shook his head gently, and Dunn managed a forced smile—
"This incident was resolved thanks to a wild Beyonder. However, the other party didn't reveal their identity, and we don't know their specific pathway, though their sequence should be quite high. These are their physical characteristics... Oh, I forgot, you don't need to do field work..." Dunn stuffed the document he was about to hand Klein back into his coat, paying no attention to Klein's raised hand and bewildered expression as he turned around and said:
"I came back just to notify you. I still have patrol duty in a while. Stay safe, and if anything happens, immediately go to Saint Selena Cathedral through the secret passage..."
...
"It actually digested a portion?!" On the other side, Trissy felt the feedback from the potion and showed a surprised expression on her face.
In just a few short hours, the potion she had digested far exceeded the feedback from half a month of cursing and killing civilians.
"What exactly is the principle behind this? Is this how a Witch should act to perform better? Or is there some kind of hidden feedback mechanism? Speaking of which, although I know about the acting method, I have no idea why acting can digest potions... I wonder how much money this question would be worth..."
As soon as this thought arose, Trissy immediately felt somewhat annoyed. That guy hadn't left her any way to contact him. In other words, unless she prayed to that unknown existence, she could only wait for the other party to come to her.
...
Snow had no idea what Trissy was thinking at this moment. He was currently holed up in his study, writing plans in Chinese.
Although as the potion was digested, his choice anxiety slowly began to weaken and he wouldn't be on the verge of losing control every time he encountered an option, these short two weeks had already made him develop the habit of preparing contingency plans.
With the Most Holy Teacher Ram¹ as a shining example, it never hurt to make several backup plans for everything.
As long as he listed all options in advance and weighed the pros and cons, when things actually happened, he wouldn't need to waste mental energy on choosing.
...
Backlund was filled with terrifying undercurrents amid the atmosphere of extreme tension. Almost every day, madmen from the Aurora Order attempted to conduct various dangerous rituals, but these matters had nothing to do with Snow, who lived in the West Borough. After all, no matter how insane the lunatics of the Aurora Order were, they wouldn't run to Mr. A's front door to cause trouble.
The "inheritance" left to him by his predecessor exceeded twenty thousand pounds. Such a sum, even by Backlund's standards, was enough for him to live comfortably for several years without purchasing luxury goods.
Just like this, Snow peacefully spent his first week back in this city amid the treacherous situation in Backlund. No old customers came to his door, nor did any new customers seek help. He stayed completely indoors, not even stepping out the front door. Even his daily meals were delivered by a nearby Intis restaurant.
Although this cost him over three pounds per day on food alone, compared to safety, this price was hardly worth mentioning.
The clock ticked away steadily. After organizing his plans once more, Snow glanced at the timepiece.
Still ten minutes until three o'clock in the afternoon.
Skillfully striking a match, he burned all of today's written plans to ash. Snow pre-activated his Sequence 7 anti-divination ability, completely erasing the last traces of the plans' existence in this world.
"Lily!"
"Meow?" Upon hearing Snow's call, Lily, who had been hiding in some unknown corner, immediately emerged. Seeing the cat food Snow poured into her bowl, she let out a pleasing meow.
"Before I wake up, don't let anyone approach the house. Of course, don't cause any deaths either. Understood?"
Snow placed the food bowl in front of Lily and gave his usual instructions. Lily nodded and showed a humanized smile, then buried her face in the food bowl.
Snow looked at Lily, who seemed to be either playing dumb or genuinely clueless, turned around to find a comfortable position to lie down, and quietly waited for the crimson light that would surge like a tide...
...
"Good afternoon, Mr. Fool. Good afternoon, Mr. Hanged Man. Good afternoon, Mr. Devil..."
Miss Justice's sweet and cheerful voice rang in his ears. Snow quickly awakened from the brief confusion of ascending above the gray fog, slightly adjusted his sitting posture, and likewise began greeting the members of the Tarot Club.
"Mr. Fool, this time I've brought a page of Roselle's diary."
After Justice and The Hanged Man indicated they hadn't found any diary pages, Snow placed his hand on his chest and said respectfully.
Upon hearing this, Mr. Fool realized that Mr. Devil had returned to Backlund a few days ago, and immediately felt quite pleased, though he still maintained The Fool's persona on the surface, chuckling lightly: "Very good."
Accompanying his words, a dark red fountain pen and brownish-yellow parchment appeared before him. Although it was his first time using them, under Miss Justice's enthusiastic guidance, Snow quickly "learned" how to use them and wrote neat square characters on the paper.
After capping the pen again, the parchment appeared before Mr. Fool. Before he could read it, Mr. Fool was slightly stunned.
Because this was the first time since his transmigration that he had seen such neat Chinese characters.
"Could this be Roselle's original manuscript?" Klein had this thought, but when he clearly saw the text on the paper, he almost couldn't maintain The Fool's persona, because he saw this opening line—
July 17, 1172
"Finally obtained the Seer potion formula. Next, I can try to collect the materials. Roselle, oh Roselle, I hope you haven't screwed me over!"
"This isn't Roselle's diary!" Klein felt somewhat dazed, but at the same time, an even more exhilarating emotion was continuously growing within him.
(End of Chapter)
---
Author's Notes:
PS1: Regarding the issue of Trissy saving Old Neil resulting in faster potion digestion than killing people—
First, I believe the acting principles for [Witch] should be something like "a frightening female who can bring disaster and possesses mysterious powers."
Second, potion digestion requires feedback, and different groups of people provide different feedback. Klein scaring a Red Angel versus scaring ordinary people produces qualitatively different feedback.
Cursing civilians to death provides little feedback, not because this behavior doesn't conform to the Witch's acting principles, but because in order to avoid attracting official attention, Trissy chose people who were already close to death and acted in secrecy. In other words, although people died, only she knew it was murder—others just thought it was natural death, so no fear of her was generated, let alone the fact that these deceased were all ordinary people.
But this time saving Old Neil, her actions immediately frightened a Sequence 8, while also displaying "Beyonder power" and "female" characteristics, announcing "misfortune," and the news quickly spread throughout the Nighthawks and Punishers. Many people knew about it, many elements were involved, and the affected population had relatively higher sequences, so faster digestion is reasonable.
PS2: The Most Holy Teacher Ram refers to Herman Lamm, the man who re-standardized America's bank robbery industry. You can look up his story yourselves. He had two main characteristics: first, extremely bad luck, and second, obsessive-compulsive disorder developed because of his bad luck. Because he was unlucky enough, he would make many backup plans before doing anything, and his misfortune also meant he would always end up using these backup plans.