The Acting Method

Hearing the Fool's question, Angel felt as though an invisible hand had clenched around her chest, and her heartbeat began to quicken.

Part of her tension came from the diary entries she had "watered down." Although the Fool probably would not care about such trivial matters, that did not stop panic and excitement from rising within her as she deceived a mysterious existence.

The other part was that Angel was uncertain how scarce Roselle's Diary actually was.

Perhaps two centuries had turned an emperor's notes into a widespread puzzle-solving craze, but that clearly did not fit with the Fool's urgent need for the diaries.

A more likely possibility was that these notes circulated only within major churches and mysterious organizations. If so, could obtaining them so easily expose her identity?

The other two seemed to share similar concerns. Miss Justice, who usually liked to speak first, appeared to have gained a little more composure after becoming a Beyonder. The first to answer was instead the Hanged Man.

"I found two pages of Emperor Roselle's Diary."

"I have one page as well."

Justice followed up immediately.

It seemed that I had the most... Angel pondered before replying according to her original plan, "I also found two pages. Should we write... express them now?"

"Yes, please."

Following the Fool's concise words, curled-edged parchment and fountain pens filled with ink instantly appeared before the other three.

Angel picked up her pen, recalled the diary contents she had only recently "disassembled and reassembled," focused on the pen tip in her hand, and expressed the urge to write.

Square characters left behind in this world by the transmigrator Emperor Roselle appeared smoothly on the parchment.

To avoid letting the Fool guess that she understood Chinese, she deliberately made the handwriting strange and varied. Some characters were small and elegant, some wild and rough, and she even scrambled the order of a few words, making them seem as though they had come from different copyists and been pieced together onto a single sheet.

After displaying the two diary pages on the parchment through this miraculous method of writing without touching the paper, Angel put down her pen and looked up. The other two had finished as well.

Just as they had appeared, the parchments vanished in an instant, then reappeared together at one end of the long table before Mr. Fool.

His figure remained hazy behind the Gray Fog, but he was already holding the diaries and lowering his head to read. The others did not even dare breathe loudly, afraid of disturbing the Fool's reading.

He really knew this writing...

Angel had long guessed that the Fool wanted everyone to collect Roselle's Diary so he could read it. Therefore, he had to understand this writing, perhaps even be proficient in it.

Yet as she watched the Fool flip through the diary pages as if reading a newspaper, reading words that did not belong to this world, even more questions welled up in her heart.

Had He already deciphered the meaning of Chinese? Had He translated it with some mystical method?

Or perhaps He was also...

The Fool read faster and faster. By the final two pages, he did not even take a minute. Then he set down the parchment, raised his head, and looked at the other three one by one. His gaze lingered on Angel for a moment, making her think that her act of padding the diary had been discovered.

"My apologies. I became somewhat absorbed in reading."

The deep voice of the Fool pierced through the Gray Fog, allowing Angel to breathe a sigh of relief. With a slightly brisk tone, she said, "I hope that one day I might learn some of the diary's contents from you."

She truly wanted to see what secrets Roselle Gustav, another transmigrator, had recorded in his diary. Would they be profound mystical knowledge, treasures buried in secret hideouts, wondrous scenery unlike anything on Earth, or perhaps even a way to return to her original world?

"Everything here can be exchanged, but everything also requires a price."

"Continue searching for diaries for me. Perhaps I will disclose some information that you can safely learn."

So there really was a great deal of profound mystical knowledge in the diaries, so much that even learning of it now carried enormous risks... Upon hearing the Fool's response, Angel hurriedly stood up and placed a hand over her chest in salute. "Thank you for your generosity."

Justice and the Hanged Man also said that they would do their utmost to gather more of Emperor Roselle's Diary for the Fool.

"Mr. Fool, Miss Empress, Mr. Hanged Man, I happen to have three questions I would like to ask." After sitting back down, Justice, who had just become a Spectator, could no longer wait to ask. "If the answers are highly valuable, please tell me what you require. I will do my best to satisfy it."

Ah, it was time for curious Miss Justice's questions again. Knowledge-sharing among Tarot Club members should not be one-on-one like the Potion formula trade last time, right?

Angel secretly rejoiced. She stole a glance at the Fool and saw that He neither approved nor objected, nor did He conjure any new parchment. It seemed He did not intend to interfere with Justice's questions, so she nodded to Justice.

"Go ahead."

The Hanged Man also leaned back against his chair, assuming a listening posture.

"My first question is that I want to understand in detail what 'acting' means. After drinking the Spectator Potion, I felt that the remaining mental influence in the Potion faded very quickly. Was that because I had been constantly acting as a Spectator?"

At the previous Tarot Club gathering, the Fool had reminded everyone in brief words that the key to mastering a Potion's power was "acting," and that the key to acting lay in the Potion's name itself.

It seemed Miss Justice had already found the key through the Fool's hint. Yet as a newly minted Beyonder, she still had doubts, enough that she was willing to promise a high reward for an answer at the Tarot Club.

"I can answer that question."

Seeing that the Hanged Man remained in the same posture without moving, while the Fool merely rested a hand along the table's edge with no intention of answering, Angel thought for a moment before taking the initiative.

"You have already realized that the Potion's name is the key to acting, which means you have found part of the way, but it is not enough."

Based on Cole Granger's summary of the rules of Potion acting from her memories, as well as Mrs. Sharon's teachings, Angel distilled the essentials of mastering—or, in the Fool's words, digesting—a Potion, and explained patiently.

"When you drank the Potion, you should have felt mysterious gazes that ordinary people could not perceive, along with mad whispers tempting you beside your ears. Only after meditating did those whispers gradually disappear."

When Justice nodded solemnly, Angel continued. "This is the effect caused by the conflict between the residual spirit within the Beyonder Ingredients and your own spirit. Meditation can temporarily suppress this effect, but the spirit within the Potion itself has not vanished. It is like a foreign object inside your body. Whenever your spirituality is exhausted or you come into contact with mystical forces, it can erupt again at any time and cause you to lose control."

"The purpose of the Acting Method is to gradually eliminate these residual mental influences and completely master the Potion's power. To use a more vivid metaphor, the Potion is like a heavily guarded villa. The power we need to master is controlled by the villa's owner. If we want to break through countless obstacles, kill it, and seize that power, the best method is to disguise ourselves as the owner, deceive the villa's guards, and smoothly deal with the target."

This was the metaphor Mrs. Sharon had used when teaching Cole the Acting Method. It carried a bloody edge born from her identity as an Assassin. Since the original author was already dead and could not defend her rights, Angel boldly borrowed it.

"But the guards are clever. To deceive them, you need to perfectly match the villa owner in appearance, clothing, and behavior. Otherwise, if you rush in recklessly, you will only be exposed, mistaken for an enemy, and attacked."

"So the Potion's name is the villa owner's characteristic?" Miss Justice suddenly understood.

"That's right. When you act perfectly, sneak into the villa, and kill the target, you will have an extremely obvious feeling that the Potion has been completely digested. It is difficult to describe. You will understand when you reach that point."

At that point, Angel had wanted to describe the feeling of completely digesting a Potion in more concrete terms, but even after racking her brains, she could not find suitable words and could only offer a vague explanation.

Miss Justice was instead even more satisfied by this answer, which carried a distinctly mystical flavor. She praised, "What an Assassin-like metaphor. I think I completely understand now. Fortunately, I have instinctively been playing the role of a Spectator these past days. It seems I have been on the right path."

"Miss Empress, what price must I pay for this answer?"

Angel considered it. She did not seem to urgently need anything at the moment. The Potion formulas for Sequence 8 Instigator and Sequence 7 Witch were already in her mind. Although the Main Materials were difficult to obtain, she would not need them immediately. Gold pounds were certainly useful, but she still had considerable savings and a stable source of income, so she was not short on money for now. Besides, bringing up money at a Beyonder gathering like this somehow felt as if it would lower the tone of both the Tarot Club and Mr. Fool.

After thinking it over, what she needed most at present was probably a weapon with Beyonder powers—one of the Beyonder weapons Old Neil had mentioned, the kind that "the whole of Tingen City might not be able to scrape together even one of."

"I need a way to purchase or commission a Beyonder weapon, preferably somewhere near Backlund. If this lead is highly valuable, I can make up the difference." She limited the range to the vicinity of Backlund to avoid revealing the secret that she had long been in Tingen City, and to prevent the other party from offering places that were not even within the Loen Kingdom.

Although she felt that the Hanged Man probably already knew something of her identity, considering that her current identification documents had been arranged through someone he provided.

"Beyonder... weapons..." Miss Justice spoke hesitantly. She seemed even less knowledgeable than Angel about Beyonder items and weapons.

The Hanged Man, who had silently watched the exchange between the two, suddenly said, "I can provide such a lead. This is also my thanks for the Acting Method."

Angel had always seen the Hanged Man as a businessman who would never allow himself to suffer a loss. That impression had formed during their first gathering, when he had produced a trade proposal that satisfied everyone. She had not expected him to offer payment voluntarily now. It seemed the Acting Method was of considerable help to him.

"At Enmat Harbor, Oak District, Golden Avenue, there is a Kavi Clock Shop. Find Kavi, the artisan. She often has Beyonder weapons for sale. If you cannot find one that satisfies you, you can spend additional money to commission a custom one."

"Rest assured, it is a legitimate channel. But you had better prepare more gold pounds. These things are not cheap."

This time, the Hanged Man did not mention anything like "introduced by a captain." It seemed this was not one of his private connections.

Enmat Harbor...

A map of the area around Tingen City surfaced in Angel's mind.

Enmat Harbor lay on the coast of East Chester County, east of Tingen. It was about four hours away by steam train and was a port city roughly the same size as Tingen.

The Spirit Medium Daly Simone also served as a Nighthawk in that city.

Unfortunately, Angel was about to become an official member of the Tingen City Nighthawks. She probably would not have a chance to leave Tingen for Enmat Harbor anytime soon. Furthermore, from what the Hanged Man said, a Beyonder weapon would likely cost far more than two or three hundred pounds, and she would need time to save up.

"Thank you. This information is very important to me."

No matter what, she still thanked the Hanged Man for providing the lead. Her lack of money was her own problem, not his.

"Um... this cannot count as the reward I am paying." Miss Justice said. Because the two sat next to each other, Angel could vaguely make out her movements through the Gray Fog. She seemed to clench her fist as though making up her mind. "How about this, Miss Empress? If you encounter any difficulties when purchasing a Beyonder weapon, mainly financial ones, I can provide part of the funds."

"Let's set the limit at no more than 500 pounds."

Perhaps feeling that an unlimited "check" sounded too exaggerated, she added that last sentence.

That was already the price of a Sequence 9 Potion formula plus its Main Materials, all just to pay for a little knowledge... Miss Justice, just how wealthy are you?

Angel felt that she needed to reassess Justice's family circumstances.