"???"
Klein was genuinely confused. He was certain the pen nib was touching the paper, and he could see the ink flowing — but the page remained blank.
He concentrated and tried to trace the movements of the pen, to guess the letters from their shapes — but it was like looking through frosted glass. All he got was blur.
The man, however, seemed perfectly unaware of this. He wrote with full concentration, and when he finished, he folded the note neatly. Then he looked up, as though saying something to himself.
A moment later, his expression changed. A small, thoughtful smile spread across his face. He raised his head abruptly and looked — directly at Klein.
As if the barrier of time and space were nothing. As if he could see straight through.
The next second, the dream world shattered. Klein jolted awake.
His pupils were trembling. His heart was hammering. The smiling face that had looked back at him through the dream refused to leave his mind.
"Was it a coincidence — just the angle of that moment? Or did he actually… see me?"
Klein's breathing was shallow, his knuckles white against the carriage sides. The shock was genuine and deep: That was a divination of a past moment that had already happened. How could that man, in that past moment, look back at a future me?
He suddenly recalled a handful of his own past recklessness. Unless — that man is a True God.
The man who pretended to flirt with me — is a True God?
That's impossible.
He had no idea how much time had passed. It wasn't until the driver knocked and told him they'd arrived that Klein finally dragged himself back to the present.
He climbed out, looked at the busy restaurant nearby, and hesitated — should he go in and see Alice, or find somewhere quiet first, climb above the Grey Fog, and try another divination?
"I'm already here."
Besides, the restaurant had a bathroom, didn't it?
The evening crowd was lively. Klein found an empty table and sat, ordering his usual Dixie Meat Pie and sweet iced tea with practised ease, then asked the waiter to find Miss Alice for him.
It wasn't long before that alluring woman came swaying over, red wine glass in hand, eyes full of warm amusement.
"Mission accomplished?"
Alice settled opposite him, crossing her long legs.
"No. After repeated consideration, I've concluded that assassinating a Loen prince is simply beyond what I'm currently capable of."
"Heh."
Alice laughed lightly. "That's precisely why it's the test. If it were easy, it wouldn't be a test at all. Do it, and you're in — and you'll have the next formula."
"..."
Klein held her gaze calmly for a few seconds. "I may not have killed Prince Edessak — but I did encounter a Witch outside the estate who was trying to flee. Trissy."
"According to the leads I've gathered, Trissy was brought back to the estate by Edessak a month or two ago. Since then, he's been rather… smitten with her."
"Wait."
Alice's expression faltered. She raised a hand to cut him off. "You're saying Trissy escaped?"
"That's right. I saw it with my own eyes."
"..."
Alice went silent. She pressed two fingers to her forehead, thinking something through.
"Miss Alice — did your instructions to assassinate Prince Edessak have something to do with Trissy from the very beginning?"
"Hmph. Too clever for your own good."
Alice made a quiet, dismissive sound, then stood abruptly and walked away.
Klein sat there, puzzled about what that meant — and then his Dixie Meat Pie and sweet iced tea arrived.
"Right. Food first."
Since coming to this world, Klein had sampled all kinds of food and drink, but when it came to the best value for money and the most consistently satisfying meal, the Dixie Meat Pie and sweet iced tea won every time. He ate it nearly every day and never tired of it.
He'd barely had a few bites before Alice returned, walked straight up to him, and said simply: "Come with me."
Klein hesitated with his cutlery, picked up the sweet iced tea and took a long sip, then reluctantly followed.
They crossed the restaurant's main floor, passed through a private door, walked down a long corridor, turned at the end and went upstairs.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Alice rapped on a door. A voice permitted entry. She pushed the door open. "Go in."
Klein's nerves spiked immediately. Whatever could unsettle Alice this much had to be someone very senior in the Demoness organisation — could he hold his disguise under the scrutiny of a higher-sequence Witch?
It seemed like he didn't have a choice.
He drew a quiet breath and stepped into the room. The door clicked shut behind him.
The room was tastefully sparse — understated but comfortable. At first glance, simple; at second glance, deeply pleasant.
"Kleya?"
A slender, graceful figure rose. She wore a black court dress; her dark hair was pinned neatly up, though a few strands had been left loose, falling naturally in a way that softened her severity with a subtle suggestion of allure. Her eyes were a deep grey, and within them, carefully concealed, lay something like sorrow.
"It's me, ma'am."
The woman approached with quiet steps, and with her came a faint trace of perfume. Klein felt his thoughts shift — a strange, unbidden impulse to kneel at her feet.
"Call me Clarice."
The black-haired woman's grey eyes rested on Klein for a moment, then her slender pale fingers reached through the opening of his collar into the inside of his clothing.
Klein's instinct fired. He wanted to step back — and clamped down on it. He had no idea what sequence this Witch in front of him was, but fighting her was clearly not an option.
Rustle.
A few seconds later, Clarice withdrew her hand. Balanced on the tip of her finger, glinting in the gas lamp's glow, was a sapphire ring — the one Trissy had tossed to Klein as she'd jumped from the carriage.
"Did Trissy give you this?"
"Yes."
Klein explained the encounter honestly — Trissy's request for silence, the ring and pendant as payment for his discretion.
Even as he spoke, a sinking feeling settled in. He'd suspected the ring might be a trap the moment he got it. The divination above the Grey Fog had said no harm. The Goddess's Sword's examination had confirmed the same.
But now — this was clearly not nothing.
Clarice held the sapphire ring and studied it briefly, then took Klein's left hand in her other hand and, without ceremony, slid the ring onto his ring finger.
Then she said, evenly: "From this moment on, you are a member of the Gnostic Society."
She nodded toward a slip of paper on the side table. "The Sequence 6 and Sequence 5 potion formulas are there. Advance as quickly as you can."
"Thank you, ma'am."
"You may go."
Klein gave a slight bow, turned, and left — retracing his steps back to the restaurant floor.
As he passed his former table, he noticed someone else had already taken it.
His Dixie Meat Pie — barely a third eaten.
Klein shook his head and headed for the door, immediately trying to pull the ring off. No matter how hard he pulled, it didn't shift. It sat on his finger as though it had grown there.
"This is trouble."
Klein looked at the ring on his finger and felt it like a dangerous whirlpool, sitting there waiting to pull him in and swallow him whole.
What was this thing? What did it do?
Why had Trissy thrown it to him? And the woman called Clarice — had the whole reason she'd asked to see him, and made him a member of the Gnostic Society, been because of it?
He'd technically succeeded at infiltrating the Demoness Sect — the Gnostic Society sub-faction, specifically — but Klein felt none of the relief he'd expected. He had the distinct feeling he'd just been pulled into something very large.
To be continued…
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