The Fool Needed a Diary Too?

"The Fool," Klein Moretti, quietly listened to the little lesson in mysticism being given by "Justice," Audrey, and "Hanged Man," Alger. He silently memorized and studied this obscure yet sufficiently interesting knowledge.

Ever since the first gathering above the Gray Fog, he had been considering how to conduct fair "transactions" among the group. The Potion Formula trade between Justice and Hanged Man had been a good start, but there were four people present. Aside from himself, the organizer trusted by the others, any transaction between two of the remaining three could be overheard for free by the third, causing the trade to lose its proper fairness.

If this continued, fewer and fewer people would be willing to share or sell their knowledge. Everyone would want a free ride, and no one would be willing to drive.

Transactions without incentive could not be sustained for long.

During this Tarot Club gathering, Klein came up with a good solution to the fairness problem. When he entered the Gray Fog in advance, he tried summoning parchment and a Steel Pen onto the Bronze Long Table. Just as when he had first summoned the table and High-backed Chairs, the paper and pen appeared conveniently.

Within this Grey Mist Space governed by his own thoughts, the paper and pen he created did not even require him to write personally. As long as he had a pressing desire to write something, the Steel Pen would automatically imprint the contents onto the parchment.

Watching Miss Justice use the tools he had provided to record the key points of Potion preparation, Klein nodded in satisfaction. The Gray Fog in the space blocked the others' sight, while he himself could clearly see the contents on the parchment. By now, the formula for the "Spectator" Potion had been firmly engraved in his mind. Perhaps this counted as the platform's commission.

Klein glanced at Empress Miss, whose attempt to get something for free had failed. Seeing her looking around in boredom, seemingly uninterested in the knowledge Hanged Man was explaining, he confirmed his suspicions.

This further confirmed Klein's guess about her—she was a Beyonder with considerable experience in the mystical world, yet she seemed wary of the others. She always lingered at the edges of the Tarot Club, only joining the conversation when she had a need of her own.

Empress Miss was the exact opposite of the curious but insufficiently vigilant Miss Justice. The latter seemed like the descendant of an aristocratic family with considerable means but little social experience. Although she had panicked and worried when she first arrived in the Grey Mist Space, she was now the most uninhibited person among them.

Together with Hanged Man, who seemed to possess abundant resources and connections in the Beyonder world and whose strength was unfathomable, as well as himself, the deliberately mysterious initiator, this was the entire membership of the Tarot Club.

The circle was small, but its members were scattered across the country, with different professions and social connections. If properly used, they would certainly help increase his strength.

Refocusing his wandering thoughts, Klein heard Hanged Man discussing the "mastery" and "excavation" of Potions. His heart suddenly stirred as he recalled something he had seen in Emperor Rosell's Diary.

He had an idea.

Knock, knock—

The sound of someone tapping the table rang out, and Hanged Man's bland, rigid explanation came to an abrupt halt.

The three turned toward the source of the sound and saw that the previously silent "Fool" had raised his right hand from the table. He had just tapped the tabletop, stopping Hanged Man's explanation.

"It is not mastery, but digestion. It is not excavation, but acting. A Potion's name is not merely a symbol; it is also an image, and more importantly, the key to digestion."

The Fool's deep, steady voice sounded.

Angel carefully pondered those words. She recalled the "Hanged Man's class" that had originally gone in one ear and out the other, and realized that this was Mr. Fool's supplement to Hanged Man's explanation of how to master Potion powers.

This also matched the memories of Cole Granger in her mind, while being even more concise, precise, and directly aimed at the essence of this path of power known as Potions.

After all, Cole had entered the Beyonder world under the guidance of the "senior" Mrs. Sharon. Under the instruction of this woman, who had ill intentions but could at least be considered a qualified mentor, he had learned quite a bit about Potions.

That included how to master Potion powers, as well as how to make use of Potion names.

At the Assassin stage, Cole Granger had lived up to the name of his Potion, becoming Tingen City's mysterious "Assassin," appearing and vanishing without a trace, with countless lives' blood on his hands. This had been the "acting" demanded by Mrs. Sharon.

After wholeheartedly acting as an "Assassin," it took him less than half a year to successfully master the power of the Sequence 9 Potion. He then consumed the Sequence 8 Potion and advanced to become an "Instigator."

Afterward, he used his newly acquired Beyonder powers to "instigate" many wicked people who already harbored malicious intentions, committing several major crimes and even causing the sensational Tingen University Student Disappearance Case. His actions happened to fit the symbolism of the Potion's name, to the point that even Mrs. Sharon had been rather surprised by the speed at which he mastered the Potion.

Having inherited Cole's memories the moment she arrived in this world, Angel had originally assumed this knowledge was common sense in the Beyonder world. She had never expected The Fool to mention it so casually...

She looked toward Hanged Man, who had been speaking eloquently just moments ago, and saw him sitting there stiffly, as if turned to stone, as though he had heard something unbelievable.

...Could this be extremely secret knowledge, shocking even Hanged Man, who seemed to have considerable insight into Potion powers?

However, Miss Justice beside her did not quite understand the use of this knowledge. Rather than displaying shock and excitement at encountering secret knowledge, she tilted her head curiously, as if she had merely heard some unfamiliar terms.

Compared to her, I still have some advantage in mystical knowledge... Angel thought to herself.

Hanged Man remained stunned for quite some time before recovering. Hoarsely, he expressed his gratitude. "Thank you, Mr. Fool. Your guidance is as precious as my life."

"This is merely advance payment."

The Fool in the Gray Fog replied as though he did not care.

"I need you to gather Rosell Gustav's secret diaries, even if it is only a single page. More diaries will earn greater rewards."

Diaries? Emperor Rosell's Diary again?

Remembering the three pages of Roselle's Diary she had forcibly memorized that morning, Angel's heart tightened as though her inner secret had been exposed. She looked up at The Fool, whose gaze swept across the Tarot Club members one by one without lingering on her.

"Diaries? So those Symbols are diaries?"

Hanged Man muttered, as if he had discovered a New Continent.

"For now, regard them as diaries."

The Fool answered vaguely.

But in Angel's view, this mysterious being had surely already deciphered the writing left behind by Emperor Rosell.

After all, they were not self-created mysterious Symbols, but a mature form of writing from Earth. Unlike something improvised, it was the crystallization of Wisdom developed through thousands of years of use and evolution. It had its own complete system and conveyed meaning with precision and brevity.

That also meant it could be deciphered.

"Apparently, they were written in Symbols invented by Emperor Rosell himself?"

Miss Justice asked.

Seeing that The Fool had no intention of answering, Angel combined Old Neil's interpretation with some of her own knowledge of cryptography and replied, "That's right. Due to Emperor Rosell's legendary life, many people believe they are a set of mystical Symbols he created himself, concealing the secret treasures and mystical knowledge he obtained in his later years. Some scholars also say they possess the ideographic traits of pictographs, and that if enough samples are collected, they can be deciphered through character frequency analysis. But after all these years, no one has truly been able to interpret their meaning."

"We will certainly fulfill your request. But if the writing or Symbols cannot be interpreted by us, how are we supposed to relay them to you? Do we need to mail them to a certain location?"

Hanged Man raised his own question as well.

Immediately afterward, he saw brand-new parchment appear before them.

"Ah, I understand. We only need to force ourselves to remember the shapes of those Symbols, then present them on paper just as we wrote earlier."

Miss Justice excitedly picked up the paper and pen.

Angel also took the paper and pen before her. Following the method The Fool had just described, she tried to sketch out a passage in her mind, imagining that she absolutely had to write it down, then set pen to paper.

Swish, swish, swish. It was as though an invisible pen were writing at high speed. The passage in her mind appeared on the parchment almost instantly.

"This is truly incredible."

Even though she had already watched Hanged Man and Justice use this method, Angel still let out a heartfelt sigh.

The Fool at the head of the long table seemed to chuckle softly. "It is a simple matter. I merely simplified the process by which you write words, turning it into a method of imprinting them and displaying them quickly."

"With this method, you may hand the Roselle's Diary you have memorized directly to me here. I am someone who likes equivalent exchange. The advance payment just now is only equal to two pages of diary entries per person. If you have more, I will give additional rewards."

Wait, don't include me in that. I already knew all of that knowledge... As Angel listened, she suddenly realized that she already owed two pages of diary entries, and immediately felt that something was wrong.

But how could she possibly say that aloud?

Unable to voice her grievance, Angel suddenly remembered the "Roselle's Diary" she had seen with Old Neil. There seemed to be... three pages?

That way, she would not only repay the debt she owed Mr. Fool, but also have one extra page left. From what he said, if she gave him more Roselle's Diary entries, there would be additional rewards.

Thinking of this, she could not help feeling fortunate that she had memorized all three pages of diary entries at Old Neil's place. Though she could not understand their contents at all, as long as she was within this mysterious Gray Fog, she could use Mr. Fool's power to write out those square, orderly characters and obtain his reward.

However, Angel did not intend to submit those diary entries right now. Not only would it be difficult to explain why she had memorized so much diary content, it would also easily draw excessive attention from the other two.

Watching Hanged Man and Justice both declare that they would do their utmost to search for Roselle's Diary, she decided that when the next Tarot Club gathering was held, she would decide how many pages to submit based on the other two's progress.