Tremble, Klein!

"Captain, how is Old Neil?" Klein, who had been waiting at headquarters, immediately stepped forward anxiously when he saw the captain return.

"He's alright. Old Neil himself had enough restraint. Although we didn't discover it particularly early, as long as he doesn't continue receiving that knowledge, he should still be salvageable. But the situation has been tense recently, and we can't spare anyone, so he can only stay in the cathedral for now. Once this is over, we'll send him to Backlund for treatment."

Dunn's tone carried obvious lingering fear. He had come within a hair's breadth of having to lose another teammate for such an absurd reason—if it could even be called absurd.

"That's good." Klein relaxed somewhat, but Dunn sighed and said:

"However, Old Neil can't come into contact with mystical matters for a while, so your mysticism lessons will have to be suspended. Mystical knowledge is extremely dangerous. You'd better not 'teach yourself.'"

"It's fine, Captain. Old Neil said I've already mastered everything I can currently access. What remains is only practice." Klein gently shook his head, and Dunn forced a smile—

"This time, we have a Rogue Extraordinary to thank. But they didn't reveal their identity, and we don't know their exact pathway. Their Sequence shouldn't be low, though. These are their physical characteristics... Oh, I forgot. You don't work field duty..." Dunn tucked the file he had intended to hand Klein back into his coat. Ignoring Klein's bewildered expression and raised hand, he turned and said, "I came back just to notify you. I still have to go on duty shortly. Be careful. If anything happens, immediately use the secret passage to get to Saint Selena Cathedral..."

"It actually digested a portion?!" On the other side, Triss sensed the feedback from the potion and revealed a shocked expression.

In just a few short hours, the potion she had digested far exceeded the feedback she had received from cursing civilians to death over the past half month.

What exactly is the principle behind this? Is playing a witch like this more effective? Or is there some hidden feedback mechanism? Come to think of it, although I know the Acting Method, I have no idea why acting can digest potions... I wonder how much that question would be worth...

As soon as the thought arose, Triss's teeth began to itch with resentment. That person had not left her any contact information at all. In other words, unless she prayed to that unknown existence herself, she could only wait for the other party to come to her.

Sno had no idea what Triss was thinking at the moment. He was curled up in his study, writing a plan in Chinese.

Although, as the potion was digested, his indecisiveness had gradually begun to weaken, and he would no longer approach Loss of Control whenever he encountered an option, the past half month had already made him develop the habit of preparing contingency plans.

With The Great Sage Ram as an example, there was never any harm in preparing several alternatives for everything.

As long as he listed all possible options beforehand and weighed their pros and cons, then when something actually happened, he would not have to agonize over making a choice.

Under the tense atmosphere in Backlund, terrifying undercurrents surged. Nearly every day, Aurora Society lunatics attempted all kinds of dangerous rituals. Yet none of this had anything to do with Sno, who lived in the West Borough. No matter how insane the Aurora Society's madmen were, they would not go cause trouble at Mr. A's doorstep.

The "inheritance" left behind by the previous owner of his body exceeded twenty thousand pounds. Even at Backlund's prices, that was enough for him to live comfortably for years, so long as he did not buy luxury goods.

Thus, Sno peacefully spent his first week back in the ever-changing city of Backlund. No old clients came calling, nor did any new clients seek his help. He never left the house, and even had every day's meals delivered from a nearby Intis restaurant.

Although this made him spend more than three pounds on food every day, compared to safety, such a price was hardly worth mentioning.

The clock ticked on. Having organized his plan once more, Sno turned and glanced at the clock face.

There were ten minutes left until three in the afternoon.

Skilledly striking a match, Sno burned all of that day's plans to ashes. He advanced the Counter-divination ability of Sequence Seven, completely erasing the last trace of information proving that the plans had ever existed in this world.

"Lily!"

"Meow?" Hearing Sno call, Lily immediately emerged from some unknown nook or cranny. Looking at the cat food Sno poured into its dish, it let out a fawning cry.

"Until I wake up, don't let anyone approach the house. Of course, don't cause any deaths either. Understand?"

Sno placed the food dish before Lily and gave his usual instructions. Lily nodded, revealing a humanlike smile, then buried its face in the dish.

Watching Lily, who was either pretending to be dumb or genuinely dumb, Sno turned around, found a comfortable position to lie down in, and quietly waited for the tide-like deep crimson radiance to engulf him...

"Good Afternoon, Mr. Fool. Good Afternoon, Mr. Hangman. Good Afternoon, Mr. Devil..."

Miss Justice's sweet and cheerful voice rang in his ears. Sno swiftly awoke from the brief disorientation of ascending above the Gray Fog, subtly adjusted his sitting posture, and began greeting the members of The Tarot Club as well.

"Mr. Fool, this time I brought a page of Roselle's Diary."

After Justice and the Hangman said they had not found any diary pages, Sno placed one hand over his chest and spoke respectfully.

Upon hearing this, Mr. Fool realized that Mr. Devil had returned to Backlund a few days ago. Joy immediately welled up within him, though he still maintained Mr. Fool's persona on the surface and said with a light laugh, "Very good."

Following his words, a dark red fountain pen and a yellowish-brown sheet of parchment appeared before Sno. Although it was his first time using them, under Miss Justice's enthusiastic guidance, Sno quickly "learned" how to use them and wrote neat square characters onto the paper.

Once he capped the fountain pen again, the parchment appeared before Mr. Fool. Before even reading it, Mr. Fool froze slightly.

Because this was the first time since his transmigration that he had seen Chinese characters written so neatly.

Could this be Roselle's original manuscript? Such a thought surfaced in Klein's mind. However, when he clearly saw the words on the paper, he nearly failed to maintain Mr. Fool's persona, because he saw the following opening line—

"I've finally obtained the Seer Potion formula. Next, I can try collecting the ingredients. Roselle, Roselle, I hope you didn't screw me over!"

"This isn't Roselle's diary!" Klein felt as though his mind had gone blank, yet at the same time, an even more invigorated emotion was continuously growing within him.

ps1: Regarding why Triss saving Old Neil digested the potion faster than killing people—

First, I believe a witch's Acting Principles should feel something like "a woman who inspires fear, can bring disaster, and possesses mysterious powers."

Second, potion digestion requires feedback, and different groups of people provide different feedback. There is a qualitative difference between the feedback Klein gets from frightening Red Angel and from frightening ordinary people.

The feedback from cursing civilians to death is low not because that behavior does not conform to a witch's Acting Principles, but because, in order to avoid drawing official attention, Triss chose people who were already close to death and acted in secret. In other words, although people died, only she knew that she had killed them. Everyone else merely believed they had died naturally, so they would not feel fear toward her. Not to mention that the deceased were all ordinary people.

But by saving Old Neil this time, her actions frightened a Sequence Eight on the spot. At the same time, she displayed the traits of "extraordinary power" and "female," conveyed "misfortune," and the news quickly spread among the Night Watchers and Redemption Punishers. More people knew about it, more elements were involved, and the affected group had relatively higher Sequences, so it is reasonable that the potion digested faster.

ps2: The Great Sage Ram refers to Herman Ram, the man who redefined America's bank robbery industry standards. You can look up his story yourselves. In short, he had two traits: first, an affinity for terrible luck; second, obsessive-compulsive disorder cultivated by that terrible luck. Because he was unlucky enough, he would prepare numerous alternative plans before doing anything, and his bad luck ensured that he always ended up needing those alternatives.