Chapter 133: Expensive Charms
Translator: Atla.s.studios Editor: Atla.s.studios
Elizabeth immediately turned nervous after hearing Klein’s reply. Subconsciously, she began to speak faster.
“Can you help me divine the specific reason? It will be even better if you can divine a way to solve this…”
Divination can only give us a general direction of how to solve the problem, and furthermore, it will be unclear and filled with symbolism, making it difficult to decipher the hints correctly… Of course, you’re very lucky, I’m not an ordinary Seer, I’m a true mysticism scholar! Klein lampooned the girl’s question before saying solemnly, “Since this matter has to do with dreams, I would suggest a similar divination method.”
“Alright, alright.” Elizabeth nodded her head like a hungry woodp.e.c.k.e.r.
Klein maintained his professional att.i.tude. “I will need you to sleep here and allow that dream to present itself. Is that a problem?”
“There’s no problem, I trust you,” Elizabeth answered without hesitation while pursing her lips.
But she quickly added with a stammer, “B-but, I cannot guarantee that I would… I would have that dream.”
“It’s just an attempt,” Klein consoled her with a gentle smile.
He then pointed at the long sofa on the side of the Red Agate room. “Please.”
“No, no need for that, I’ll sleep here.” Elizabeth shook her head gently. She crossed her arms and said, “I sleep like this at school after cla.s.ses whenever I feel tired.”
She used her arms as a pillow and leaned forward onto the edge of the table.
“Alright, you can pretend that I’m not here.” Klein smiled as he observed the colors of her aura and emotions. He used them to deduce if the girl had fallen asleep or not.
“Okay.” Elizabeth closed her eyes and buried her face into her arms, trying hard to ease her breathing.
Klein didn’t speak as he leaned back into his chair. The room suddenly became unusually quiet.
It was a peaceful silence, a silence that could make one forget their troubles.
Sometime later, Klein took out a semicircular piece of silver from his pocket after he confirmed that Elizabeth had fallen asleep. The piece of silver was filled with indecipherable Hermes phrases as well as symbolic imagery and numbers.
It was a Dream Charm that Klein had succeeded in making the previous morning!
He had also finished making two Slumber Charms and two Requiem Charms. The former were made with rectangular pieces of silver while the latter were made with triangular pieces. This was to help him differentiate between them solely by touch during an intense battle.
“Crimson!” Klein softly recited the phrase in ancient Hermes.
This was the activation incantation that he had set. Since there was still the step of injecting spirituality into the charm, there was no need for his incantation to be different from the rest. All it needed was to be short and easy to remember.
The mysterious incantation reverberated around the room. Klein felt the Dream Charm become light in his hand, as if it had temporarily lost its weight.
Klein immediately placed the charm on the table in front of him after he injected it with his spirituality.
A transparent flame leapt up silently, enveloping the charm and became a deep, serene black.
The black flames spread quickly, enveloping Elizabeth and Klein.
Klein seized the opportunity to enter his state of Cogitation. He used his spirituality to look at the illusory spherical light in front of him.
The spherical light was surrounded by a boundless darkness, making it seem exceptionally lonely.
Klein didn’t dare delay any further as he emitted his spirituality, allowing it to touch the illusory ball of light.
Silently, the scene around him started to coruscate and warp, but it quickly settled into a yellowish-brown plain. The plain was littered with the corpses of horses and humans. Fresh blood and weapons could be seen everywhere.
Elizabeth was wearing a regal gown with engageantes and a fishnet hat. She was looking around, lost.
She quickly saw Klein’s figure and revealed a look of surprise and joy.
“Mr. Moretti, we meet again! I had suspected that the Klein Moretti on the name register was you when Selena and I came to get a divination. I came again multiple times, but always missed you as I had to attend lessons during the day…
“When I was free during the summer break, I was dragged to a holiday at Lamud Town by my parents…
“You can help me right?”
Klein froze for a moment when he heard the girl’s talkativeness.
To think that Elizabeth had suspected that I was working part-time at the Divination Club and tried to find me on multiple occasions…
Yet, she didn’t appear abnormal at all!
Hmm, her surprise was authentic, masking her true thoughts…
Indeed, everyone’s dream shows their most honest side, other than me, Mr. Fool.
As he was indulging in his thoughts, Elizabeth’s dream changed. A tall knight, about 1.9 meters in height, was walking toward them, dragging a broadsword which was sc.r.a.ped the ground.
This knight was dressed in black armor. The metallic sounds of metal colliding could be heard with his every step. Two blobs of red light akin to flames peeked out from the slit of his faceplate; they were staring at Klein and Elizabeth intently.
The will of a wraith… Still not at the stage of an evil spirit. Klein, who was in his spirituality state, didn’t need to activate his Spirit Vision.
According to the cla.s.sifications based on the Nighthawks’ confidential information, the feelings of vengeance and injustice left behind by spirits were the weakest and easiest kinds of souls to deal with. Following those were shadows and wraiths. Evil spirits were the most difficult soul-like creatures to deal with. The most horrifying of evil spirits were said to be as strong as High-Sequence Beyonders.
With this in mind, Klein took a step forward, blocking Elizabeth behind him. He then stomped down with his foot and shattered the dream.
Multiple specks of light scattered like fireflies. Klein’s spirituality returned to his body, allowing his eyes to once again adapt to the darkness of the Red Agate room. He saw the tools needed for divination placed around the table, as well as the Dream Charm that had almost finished burning.
Klein felt the pinch when he saw this. Charms in the Evernight G.o.ddess’s domain were all made using pure silver, so it pained his heart.
Using these charms is akin to burning money! Even if I don’t account for my labor costs, the materials alone already averaged to about six to eight soli per charm!
Well, he felt a little more at peace when he thought of the Beyonders from the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun. After all, they burned gold—the corresponding metal for the Sun was gold.
Elizabeth groaned softly and slowly woke up before straightening her posture.
She glanced furtively at Klein and asked, “Mr. Moretti, were there any results from your divination?”
“Yes.” Klein nodded seriously. “Your nightmares should disappear in no more than a week.”
I will report this to the Captain and get him to send someone to deal with it at Lamud Town… Klein added in his heart.
“Really? That’s great! Thank you Mr. Moretti!” Elizabeth became excited. She then suddenly creased her brows.
“What’s the matter?” Klein asked in concern.
“Nothing. I just remembered that I have to go home now.” She slowly took out a single soli bill that she had prepared and placed it on the table. She then grabbed her hat and bade goodbye to Klein a little hesitantly.
After leaving the Red Agate room, Elizabeth walked toward the stairs outside the door. She flailed her arms after she confirmed that no one was watching and groaned softly, “Pins and needles! How numbing…”
…
In the Blackthorn Security Company, Dunn rubbed his forehead as he looked at Klein.
“Did you suddenly return because you came across another supernatural incident?”
Hey, Captain, what’s with that tone of disparagement… Klein cleared his throat and answered without hesitation, “Yes.”
“What’s the matter this time?” Dunn Smith rubbed his forehead again.
Klein organized his words and replied, “Two things. For the first incident, I discovered ‘Monster’ Ademisaul hunched in a corner, s.h.i.+vering in fear when I was buying materials for my charms at the underground market.”
When he said that, he hinted heavily that he needed a reimburs.e.m.e.nt for the materials.
Klein couldn’t mention the fees for the detective he employed to find Daxter Guderian, for it involved the red chimney. He deeply regretted not employing separate detectives.
Dunn seemed to fail to read between the lines as he nodded slightly.
“What happened to Ademisaul?”
Klein exhaled silently and described in detail, “Ademisaul had a dream. He dreamed that there were corpses and blood everywhere. One of the corpses was his, and thus he became very frightened.”
Dunn thought for a moment before asking slowly, “As a Seer, what do you think it symbolizes?”
“A disaster. A disaster that spans a wide area. But I have no information other than this. Furthermore, not everything in Ademisaul’s dream might have a symbolic meaning,” Klein said while deliberating his words.
“I will report this to the Holy Cathedral and see what they have to say.” Dunn shook his head and said in a self-deprecating manner, “This isn’t something I have expertise in.”
Klein didn’t have any other ideas either. He changed the subject and spoke about the wraith hara.s.sment Elizabeth faced.
“Lamud Town… Is that lady a believer of the G.o.ddess?” Dunn asked.
“Yes.” Klein gave an affirmative answer.
“Then there should be no problems. Let’s head over to Lamud Town now and try to get dinner there. Oh, and bring Frye along. His abilities should prove useful if the incident involves corpses and ghosts.” Dunn ma.s.saged his temples and tried his hardest to contemplate whether he had forgotten anything.
If Elizabeth wasn’t a believer of the Evernight G.o.ddess, then they would have to hand her over to the Mandated Punishers or the Machinery Hivemind according to her faith. If her faith didn’t lie in any of the three major Churches, then she would be handed over to the Machinery Hivemind who were responsible for the outskirts.
Klein didn’t speak. He waited silently for a while before finally hearing Dunn add, “Also, we have three men on the mission. We can request to use Sealed Artifact 3-0782.”
“3-0782?” After a minute, Klein recalled that the Sealed Artifact was called the Mutated Sun Sacred Emblem.
This Sacred Emblem’s Beyonder influence seemed to be able to last a long time. It had the ability to constantly purify any corpses and spirits in a fifteen-meter radius. However, it had the drawback of purifying the soul of a commoner at the same time. Research data indicated that if a normal human were to stand within its radius for an hour, they would become an idiot that only knew how to praise the Sun. The limit for Beyonders was six hours.
As for ghosts and corpses, they would scatter in less than a minute.
Hmm, to think that the Captain would remember the codename for this Sealed Artifact… d.a.m.n, I feel that my memory is worse than his… Klein suddenly froze, nearly wanting to hang himself.
Dunn Smith leaned back and looked at Klein with his deep gray eyes.
“You went to the Divination Club again today? Did you feel any changes over the past two days?”