Ninth Tarot Gathering

After bidding Casper farewell, Sno began his tour of Backlund. The reason he had made contact with an ordinary person like Casper, aside from the lead involving Miss Sharon, was mainly to back up Klein.

He had Triss steal the notebook and killed Sirius in advance. Although that prevented Dunn's condition from worsening, it also meant that K had failed to obtain the Clown Potion Formula. Earlier, he had used the investigation into Lanclus as an excuse to tell K that he had the formula, but he was genuinely worried K would not find a suitable reason to take it from him—

He could not possibly let dear Mr. Fool face Master Roselle with the strength of a fully matured Seer, could he? Speaking of which, Master Roselle had already contributed formulas from Sequence Seven through Sequence V to K in one go, so there was no need to burden the man any further.

Therefore, Old Master of the Eye of Wisdom's Extraordinary gathering became his backup plan. According to his plan, there was a high chance he could reveal the Clown Potion to Mr. Fool at the Tarot Club after next, but what if Justice and The Hanged Man did not pick up on it?

No matter what, as long as Klein came to Backlund, Brave Man Bar would definitely be one of the easiest Extraordinary gatherings for him to find. Hmm, the other would be Mr. A's gathering.

While Sno was worrying himself sick over Mr. Fool, Mr. Fool himself was nursing a headache. Although he had uncovered some information about Mr. Azk, first, the news had come from that unfamiliar female Extraordinary, and he feared there might be a trap in it. Second... Mr. Azk had gone fishing for seals...

According to what Mr. Azk had said before leaving, his vacation should end in a few days. However, considering Tingen's current tense atmosphere, whether he would return to Tingen at this time was still uncertain.

And there was another matter...

He had already digested the Seer Potion.

At this moment, he somewhat regretted not exchanging for the Clown Potion Formula from Mr. Devil. After the other party left Tingen, he had completely lost his means of obtaining the next stage's potion.

Though he knew perfectly well that the other party was in Backlund, he had no reason to go looking for him. Meanwhile, the chaos in Tingen made him urgently wish to improve his strength.

After all, on the night before he and the captain returned from Ramde Town, a horrifying blood sacrifice had taken place in Tingen. Although the Redemption Punishers discovered the problem in time, the ritual had already begun. Even though every cultist was killed on the spot, the luckiest of the innocent civilians caught up in it still lost several years of their lifespan.

"How can I get the Clown Potion Formula from Mr. Devil? Say I have a Blessed? No, no, that's too forced. It really has to be information he would be interested in! What is he interested in? Lanclus? Magaos? If I knew where they were, I'd have reported them already, wouldn't I?"

Amid the chirping cicadas of summer, the days passed one by one. In the blink of an eye, seven days had passed since the eighth Tarot Club gathering, and the time was gradually approaching three in the afternoon.

"It's time." Looking at the wall clock, Sno took a deep breath. At the last Tarot Club gathering, he had not dared to speak up in order to avoid seeming too forced. Today, no matter what, he had to hand over the Clown Potion Formula!

As he pondered, crimson light surged over him like a tide. Sno appeared Above the Gray Fog once more, and another male member appeared to his left.

"He's here!" Sno inwardly rejoiced that The Little Sun had not vanished without a trace because of his butterfly effect, and he became fully confident in today's plan. However, he did not speak first, because the opening line of the Tarot Club had to be left to Miss Justice!

Unfortunately, Mr. Fool stole Miss Justice's opening line today. In a calm voice, he said to everyone:

"This is a new member, codenamed 'The Sun.'"

"This is Miss 'Justice,' this is Mr. 'The Hanged Man,' and this is Mr. 'Devil.'"

Although he had not heard Miss Justice's sweet and energetic greeting because of Mr. Fool, Sno bore no grudge. He merely made a slight alteration to the diary entry he had prepared.

"Mr. Fool, I've collected another two pages of Emperor Roselle's diary." After a brief silence, Miss Justice spoke with delight. However, Sno did not rush to speak, because he was waiting for a very important piece of information.

New diary entries?

Klein perked up at once upon hearing that. Temporarily setting aside the question of how to fleece a potion formula from Mr. Devil, he said with a soft laugh:

"Very good, Miss 'Justice.' What do you wish to obtain?"

Miss Justice naturally asked for the Mind Reader Potion Formula, and The Little Sun also spoke at the appropriate time.

Yet Sno remained silent, because he was waiting for Mr. Fool's answer.

Because he needed to confirm whether Mr. Fool had recklessly tried to peer at the divine blood of the Eternal Blazing Sun.

If he had, that would naturally be best. If not, Sno could only take a risk and induce K to court that death himself.

Fortunately, Mr. Fool was still the same fool who was reckless despite being timid. He readily produced the formula for The Worshipper Potion and completed the triangular transaction. Sno, who had remained silent until then, finally spoke:

"Mr. Fool, I also memorized a page of Emperor Roselle's diary."

"Memorized? Mr. Devil's home really does have a lot of 'Roselle' diaries!" Seeing that Miss Justice had already manifested her diary entry, Klein immediately asked:

"Then what do you wish to obtain?"

"I hope to obtain an Extraordinary Item with great destructive power. One-time items such as Demon-Hunting Bullets or charms are also acceptable, but their power must reach at least Sequence Seven.

"Although one page of diary is not worth that price, I still have a batch of diary entries in hand. I simply need time to memorize them.

"Additionally, I have a batch of Potion Formulas, but no channel through which to sell them. I hope to sell them through the channels of the other members. I can pay thirty percent of the transaction amount as compensation, and I hope Mr. Fool can act as guarantor."

"A batch..." Both Justice and The Hanged Man were shocked by Mr. Devil's choice of quantity, while also wondering exactly what formulas Mr. Devil possessed. Mr. Fool, however, was overjoyed inwardly. Still, he could not make it too obvious, and merely nodded lightly.

"Yes."

Then, in a pleasant mood, he began reading the Roselle diaries submitted by the two members.

High Sequences of certain pathways could be exchanged, there was a mysterious and powerful ancient organization, and there were mysterious cards corresponding to the Divine Pathways. Klein was very satisfied with this information. In order not to delay the members' time, he did not think too deeply and picked up the diary entry submitted by Mr. Devil—

"As expected, this handwriting is much easier on the eyes... Pfft!"

Fortunately, the Gray Fog concealed him, preventing Mr. Fool's dignity from completely collapsing. As for what sort of content could make Mr. Fool nearly lose control of his expression, it was entirely because of the sentence written on the First Line of that diary entry—

"Yesterday, that Secret Master Association higher-up tasted pretty good. Roselle, who only knows how to sleep with noble ladies, is pathetically weak!"

As for that speculation about the Primordial One, this is what I think.

First of all, Origin Quality definitely was not torn apart at random. It had to be torn according to certain rules. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for exactly two pathways to be separated from Mother God.

With that as the premise, the convergence and separation during the Primordial One's awakening become rather thought-provoking. As three great pillars, why was the Sea of Chaos not torn apart? Why was Origin Castle not torn apart? Why was only the Mother Nest torn apart?

I'll make a rather bold guess: perhaps it was all intentional on the Primordial One's part.

We all know that the foundation of the extraordinary system is chaotic. Could the Primordial One also have been affected by that chaos? And would he have wished to free himself from it?

Even Rochard knew to fake his death to expel excess characteristics. How could the Primordial One not have thought of it?

If this hypothesis held true, then what was the purpose of convergence and separation?

The answer was obvious—classification and reorganization.

The authorities of the Mystery World overlapped. Many similar authorities existed in different Sequences, which had once trapped those ancient gods who believed similar abilities could be devoured.

At the same time, many Sequences had already been relatively purified. For example, the Destiny Path had become completely orphaned.

Then could we infer that the Primordial One had deliberately torn its own Extraordinary Abilities into tiny fragments, only to reorganize them during convergence?

It was like a sheet of paper covered in every kind of color. Obviously, it would be impossible to sort the colors on it, but if you tore it apart, you could separate the different colors—and the finer you tore it, the more precise the sorting would be.

So, with each round of division and convergence, would the Primordial One's power gradually become orderly?