Klein, stopped by Miss Angelica, sighed inwardly. Leaving now would be far too deliberate.
After steadying himself slightly, he stepped forward with a calm smile.
"Good afternoon, Miss Angelica. And how should I address this gentleman?"
"Hello, Mr. Moretti. My name is Sno von Pandax. I came here hoping to have a divination done, and Miss Angelica recommended you." Sno removed his top hat and placed a hand over his chest in a polite greeting. Klein immediately returned the gesture, though his heart was anything but calm.
It's Mr. Devil? Has my identity as the Fool been exposed? No, I only came to the Fortune Telling Club on a whim. If he were really looking for me, he should have gone to Daffodil Street instead.
But why does his cat make me feel threatened? Could it be a pet that drank a potion? So besides Miss Justice, there are others willing to do something so extravagant. No wonder Mr. Devil hadn't looked too surprised when Miss Justice asked about it earlier.
With that thought, Klein turned to Miss Angelica.
"Is anyone using the Amethyst Room?"
"You may use it as you wish." Miss Angelica smiled faintly, and Klein led Sno into the divination room.
As the door closed behind them, Klein silently activated his Spirit Vision. What appeared before his eyes was an exceptionally healthy aura.
"The colors are very even, with no dimness or turbidity. But the color around his head is somewhat deep. He should be thinking..." Klein made his judgment inwardly without pausing. He moved smoothly to the table, glanced down at the various divination tools, and asked casually,
"Mr. Sno, do you have a preferred method of divination? An astrolabe, Tarot Cards, or something similar?"
It had merely been an opening line to start the conversation, but Klein discovered in horror that, through his still-active Spirit Vision, the Aether Body of the man before him was twisting as it spread outward. Though it was his first time seeing such a sight, a word instinctively surfaced in Klein's mind—
Loss of Control!
"Why is he suddenly losing control? I haven't done any—" Klein was considering his options, his hand already reaching toward the Slumber Charm in his pocket, when he suddenly saw the man before him trembling slightly as he took out a one-penny coin from his coat and tossed it into the air. When the coin landed in his hand, the wildly distorted Aether Body gradually settled down.
"Sorry. I have a severe case of indecisiveness. Without using a coin or dice, I can barely make any choices. Well, according to the coin's guidance, let's use the astrolabe."
That's far beyond severe... Klein grumbled inwardly, but he still breathed a sigh of relief. Theoretically, Mr. Devil was only a Sequence Nine Beyonder, but he possessed at least one Advanced Sealed Artifact, and his cat was also suspected of being a Beyonder. If they really fought, a Seer whose marksmanship depended on luck and whose close combat skills were abysmal would probably be flattened within a few exchanges.
Klein gave a dry laugh to ease the awkwardness, then pointed at the dip pen and paper on the table.
"I still don't know what you want to divine."
"My future fortunes." Sno spread his hands and gave a slightly crude shrug that somehow looked handsome thanks to his striking appearance. "I've gotten involved in some trouble recently, so I wanted a divination."
"Alright. Please write down your name, birthday, and address. It would be even better if you have your exact time of birth."
As Klein spoke, he suddenly grew a little nervous. Yet unexpectedly, this Beyonder who was a Secrets Suppliant showed no concern at all for the dangers that might come from revealing his birthday and quickly wrote down the information.
Mr. Devil is only twenty-one this year? Klein muttered inwardly as he looked at the writing on the paper. At the same time, he was curious why a Secrets Suppliant, who should likewise possess divination abilities, had come to a place like the Fortune Telling Club to seek a reading.
Quickly calculating the other man's spiritual number and annual number, Klein put on a gentle expression.
"Next, I need to draw the astrolabe. It will take some time and requires absolute silence, so please wait outside for a moment."
Sno was not surprised by this. He turned and left the room, while Klein locked the door behind him and began drawing the astrolabe as he considered what to do next.
The best approach at a time like this was naturally to complete the divination normally. But the information the other party had revealed about the Spectator during today's Tarot Club meeting had left Klein gnawed by unease.
Whenever he thought of the coincidences surrounding him, the owner of the Red Chimney house he had still failed to find, and the Catastrophe Tingen City might face, he felt an overwhelming urgency to obtain information from Sno.
"What should I do? Approach him as a Blessed of Mr. Fool? No, that would be too obvious. Besides, if I were a Blessed, I could directly ask Mr. Fool, and a believer would have no reason to possess information about other believers."
"Then use divination to fish for answers? It might work, but he is a Beyonder himself, and one with a family inheritance and extensive mysticism knowledge. Fishing information out of him would be far too difficult!"
No, perhaps he could look at it from another angle?
Another option suddenly surfaced in Klein's mind.
It was risky, but based on the personality Mr. Devil had displayed, he could gamble on it.
With that thought, Klein glanced at the completed astrolabe on the table. He immediately took four steps backward in reverse order, arrived Above the Gray Fog, sat at the head of the Bronze Long Table, manifested paper and pen, and wrote a divination statement—
"There is danger in laying everything bare to Sno von Pandax. There is danger in laying everything bare to Sno von Pandax..."
After repeating it seven times, the pendulum began slowly turning counterclockwise, and Klein's heart instantly relaxed.
"No danger!"
He did not know much about the secret of Above the Gray Fog, but he understood at least one thing—even the owner of the Red Chimney house, who was suspected of being on the Spectator pathway, could not interfere with divination Above the Gray Fog.
In other words, this result should be trustworthy.
Feeling much more at ease, Klein was about to leave the Gray Fog when he suddenly remembered Sno's divination. With the thought that he was already here anyway, he wrote a new divination statement on the paper—
"Sno von Pandax's future fortunes."
He repeated the words aloud while continuously recalling the information from the astrolabe. After seven repetitions, Klein leaned back against his chair and entered a state of deep meditation...
But unlike his previous divinations, this time Klein's Dream Divination Method did not work. Although he had successfully entered the dream, nothing appeared before his eyes. It was as if a sheet of White Mist had obscured his vision.
"This..." Klein jolted awake from the dream. Looking at the ancient, mottled Bronze Long Table before him, even the Gray Fog could not conceal the shock in his heart.
This was the first time he had encountered something capable of interfering with divination Above the Gray Fog.
PS1: Those who think Sno got a terrible deal in his transaction with Trissy, remember this saying—every gift has long had its price secretly marked. There was no need to talk about owing favors, because once Trissy learned this information, she would inevitably be tied to Sno's chariot. No matter how unwilling she was, she could only side with Sno in order to survive.
PS2: The term Paths of the Divine first appeared in Chapter Seven of the original work, when Alger mentioned the Blasphemy Cards. In other words, Paths of the Divine is the official name, so there is no problem with Sno mentioning it. The members of the Tarot Club simply did not know about Sequence Zero.
Before you continue