The Ritual Succeeds

In the basement at 6 Daffodil Street in Tingen City.

Wearing a simple black robe, Angel cautiously carried a plate of Feneboote Noodles down the stairs. The basement was already brightly lit by several candles and an oil lamp. She skirted around the clutter near the stairs and reached the center of the basement, where a square wooden table had been placed, moved down from the living room in advance.

Seafood rice, white bread, and a Dixie pie had already been placed on three of the corners of the table. The plate of Feneboote Noodles in her hand was the last item required for the ritual, having just been delivered from the Silver Crown Restaurant at the corner of the street. It was still piping hot and giving off a rich aroma, tempting Angel's taste buds and making her mouth water even though she had just finished lunch.

These are the offerings required for the ritual. I can't eat them...

Resisting the urge to slurp down the sauce-drenched noodles in big mouthfuls, Angel placed the plate onto the remaining corner of the table and once again picked up the piece of parchment in her hand to confirm that the placement of the four foods was accurate and error-free.

"In clockwise order: seafood rice... white bread... Feneboote..."

After confirming the placement of the four foods one by one, she noted that although the Dixie pie no longer retained the heat it had when freshly baked, and the crust of the white bread bought earliest had dehydrated and wrinkled slightly, it shouldn't affect the ritual's efficacy.

"And then the essential oils... moon flower, golden mint, deep sleep flower, golden bergamot, and rock rose."

Naturally, it was impossible to verify oils mixed together. She could only recall in her mind whether she had made any mistakes in purchasing the essential oils, then set aside the small bottle of light blue mixed essential oil to ready it for use.

Sandalwood candles had been placed in advance at the four corners of the table, next to the four kinds of food. To prevent the candles from tipping over due to accidental disturbances, she had used the melted wax of another burned-down candle to secure them beforehand.

Lighting the four sandalwood candles with matches, she simply sanctified the carving knife with coarse salt and clear water under the dim, flickering light. Holding the knife, she circled the square table—which had now become an altar—once, using the invisible force gushing from the tip of the blade to create a Wall of Spirituality surrounding the altar that could isolate unclean things.

Under the isolation of the Wall of Spirituality, the area around the square table seemed to become a sealed space, seemingly excluding all interference and unclean powers.

Angel dripped the mixed essential oil onto the flames of the four candles in turn. As the sizzling sound of the liquid instantly evaporating rang out, a faint fragrance permeated the basement, mixing with the existing sandalwood scent and adding a trace of mystery to the ritual.

Licking her lips, Angel—draped in a black robe and hooded cloak, dressed much like a cultist—lowered her head and chanted the incantation she had long since memorized fluently in Hermes.

"The Fool that does not belong to this era; the mysterious ruler Above the Gray Fog; the King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck."

"I pray for your help; I pray for your favor..."

"...Please pass power to my incantation."

After fully chanting the entire incantation taught by the Fool, Angel felt a slight breeze seem to sweep around her. The flames of the four candles on the table flickered slightly for a moment, then grew quiet again.

With a thought, she raised her right hand and looked at her palm. The teardrop-shaped mark that had become invisible—imprinted on her palm after the first Tarot Club—reappeared once more, with a deep red light flickering within it.

Did the ritual succeed?

Angel hurriedly closed her eyes, pressed her palms together, and prayed in a low voice, "Respected Mr. Fool, I have completed the ritual you instructed. Do you have any other instructions?"

Waiting quietly for a moment, she opened her eyes in bewilderment, looking at the wooden table, the food, and the simple altar made of candles. Everything remained as it was at first, and the surrounding breeze had also vanished; nothing seemed to have changed.

"Just like that? Do I need to continue waiting for His response?"

Not daring to act rashly, Angel continued to stand before the altar until half of the four candles had burned down and the sandalwood scent inside the basement grew increasingly rich.

"Perhaps Mr. Fool is too busy to have time to reply to such trivial matters..."

She shook her shakes, blew out the candles, and began to tidy up the food that had grown somewhat cold.

This morning, the elite members of the Nighthawks team in Tingen City had all mobilized, heading to the Underground Trading Market at the Evil Dragon Bar in the Docklands to capture the wanted Instigator, Tris, who had appeared there. After following Seeka Tron to the police station to pull a squad of plainclothes patrolmen, Angel had returned to Blackthorn Security Company in accordance with Captain Dunn Smith's orders to wait for good news from the others.

She hadn't expected the first to return to be the dejected Midnight Poet, Leonard Mitchell. Under his explanation, Angel and the others left behind to hold down the fort learned that the capture operation had failed right at the start.

The reason naturally lay in the subtle relationship between the major churches, which cooperated and competed with each other.

Generally speaking, the three official Beyonder factions in Tingen City—the Nighthawks, the Church of the Lord of Storms's mandatorily-punishing members, and the Machinery Hivemind—were in a state of cooperation. The three respectively belonged to the three orthodox churches of the Loen Kingdom: the Evernight Goddess, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Steam and Machinery. Following the principle of believer affiliation, they handled supernatural cases within their own jurisdictions and rarely interfered with one another.

Yet the Alfalfa Tragedy involved double-digit victims, and all three major churches had quite a few believers implicated within it. When encountering such complex situations, the usual rule was to divide management by jurisdictional territory: the Nighthawks were responsible for the Golden Wutong District, West Borough, and North Borough of Tingen City; the Machinery Hivemind managed the University District and the Tingen suburbs; and the storm clergy handled cases in the East Borough, South Borough, and Docklands.

This time, the instigator Tris, who had triggered the Alfalfa passengers to kill one another, had appeared in the Docklands. Logically speaking, it fell under the purview of the Church of the Lord of Storms's clergy, but the Machinery Hivemind also had its reasons—the highest number of dead and injured on the Alfalfa were believers of the God of Steam and Machinery, and the informant who spotted Tris's reappearance was a lower-level asset developed by the Machinery Hivemind.

Thus, receiving the intelligence tip, the Machinery Hivemind quickly dispatched a Beyonder team, even bringing along an armed force equipped with High-Pressure Steam Rifles, vowing to bring the wild Beyonder who dared to make a move against believers back to justice.

Yet they hadn't expected the instigator Tris to be exceptionally vigilant, leaving the scene before the encirclement could form. This left the Machinery Hivemind's large force beating empty air, and they could only vent their anger on the ordinary people of the Evil Dragon Bar, comparing facial features and asking for clues over and over again.

According to Leonard's account, by the time he returned, the underground market had yet to resume normal trade. Dunn Smith, who had rushed to the scene along with him, was also being roped into assisting with the investigation of several prime suspects and was unable to break away for the moment.

"Why not try divination?"

Nearby, Seer Klein, who was also staying behind at the company, was eager to try. Last week, he had assisted Angel in solving a commission to recover a ring, netting a bounty of 30 pounds, and had also rescued a kidnapped boy alongside Leonard Mitchell through dowsing rods, securing another hefty extra income. Now, he was already handling the use of divination with ease.

Leonard shook his head, negating this method. "There were team members from the Machinery Hivemind and the storm clergy present at the scene, and among them were no shortage of veteran Beyonders skilled in utilizing divination. Two of them attempted divination separately, but unfortunately both failed. Perhaps there were too few clues, or perhaps other Beyonders interfered with the divination results."

Interfering with divination again...

Angel found this rather headache-inducing. She had originally thought that in mysticism, divination was an extremely useful means of gathering intelligence, but she hadn't expected all sorts of wild Beyonders to apparently possess methods of interfering with divination results. Aside from the two commissions Klein had completed, she had yet to see an example of successful divination.

No matter what, after such an instance of startling the snake out of its hole, the official Beyonders' plan to utilize the time difference to capture Tris—before the wanted posters were posted everywhere and before he discovered he was wanted—had completely gone bankrupt. Next, it would amount to nothing more than conducting massive patrols and searches based on the wanted posters. With good luck, they might find clues to Tris's haunts; with bad luck, he would end up like those predecessors of his whose wanted posters had hung for years, sinking into the ocean without a trace or news.

Since capturing Tris was hopeless, Angel lost interest in continuing to wait. Before becoming an official member, she didn't need to arrange for overnight watches guarding the Chanis Gate, and her current working hours were quite free. Remembering that she still had to complete the task instructed by the "Fool" today, she found an excuse to leave Blackthorn Security Company. Taking advantage of the fact that the midday dining rush had yet to arrive, she purchased all the required various foods and successfully completed the ritual in the basement.

Regrettably, the "Fool" did not reply to her prayer on the spot. Whether it was due to the other two Tarot Club members not yet having completed the ritual, or because the "Fool" simply disdained replying, Angel nevertheless considered herself to have successfully completed the task He had entrusted to her. With a clear conscience, she tidied up the ritual site and packed the long-coveted Feneboote Noodles straight into her stomach.

This was saving food... and besides, it seemed many places had the custom of consuming sacrificial offerings... Angel found an excuse.

For the afternoon, since she was not yet an official member, she did not return to Blackthorn Security Company to play cards or slack off with the other Nighthawks who had nothing to do, nor was she certain whether the underground market at the Evil Dragon Bar had reopened. She could only pass the time crafting charms learned from Old Neil. After wasting a few sets of crafting materials, she finally successfully completed a Slumber Charm.

This was a charm originating from the Evernight Goddess's "domain" power, with an effect similar to the power that caused people to fall asleep after Leonard chanted poetry during the battle against Mrs. Sharon. Because her power overlapped with the Nighthawks of the various Sleepless pathway, practically no one used it within the Nighthawks.

Yet for an Assassin-pathway Beyonder lacking such Beyonder abilities, it served as a fine combat reinforcement.

Both the front and back of the poker-card-sized silver piece were engraved with mystical symbols symbolizing the Evernight Goddess, as well as complex Hermes incantations. This was also one of the difficulties in crafting charms, and the various punctured marks on the discarded silver piece nearby served as the best proof.

On this successfully crafted charm, Angel could sense the tranquil, profound power representing the Evernight Goddess contained within it. As long as she poured her own spirituality into it and chanted the activation incantation, the charm would erupt with the power to send surrounding living beings into slumber within seconds.

Glancing at her pocket watch, there was still some time before dinner. She carefully put away the successfully crafted Slumber Charm, picked up a new piece of silver plate once more, and prepared to try another charm of the Evernight Goddess domain: the Dream Charm.