The Goddess of the Night has a grudge against me

The Goddess of the Night Had a Grudge Against Me

Hobart first thought of the ruins north of Backlund that someone had formed a team to explore at the previous club gathering.

Could that have been a trap?

Hobart continued reading. "I asked the minister why such intelligence had appeared, but the minister merely gave me a mysterious smile! He didn't answer my question. Hmph! If I become king in the future, I'll definitely tie that minister up and tickle the soles of his feet with feathers until he's laughed enough!"

Hobart inferred that this diary page had been written before the Emperor overthrew the Intis Royal Family. At the time, the Emperor seemed to have been merely a Low Sequence Beyonder.

He continued reading the passage below. "March 16. The trap in Backlund had kept me very curious, so I discussed it with Bishop Michelle. Bishop Michelle told me that it was very likely the Royal Family had discovered and excavated Fourth Epoch ruins, then used them as a trap to lure more Beyonders of the same Sequence into delivering themselves to their doorstep."

"Bishop Michelle spoke with great certainty, as though his guess was the truth of the matter. I asked him why he was so certain. The bishop said it was a secret hidden within the Sequences. I vaguely have a terrifying guess, but I don't know whether it's correct."

This diary page had clearly been transcribed by someone later on, and contained only these two short entries.

When Emperor Rosell wrote these two entries, he clearly did not yet understand that between the same or adjacent Sequences, even without any hatred, they were natural enemies in their struggle for Extraordinary Characteristics.

Hobart first thought of Amon. In order to devour Extraordinary Characteristics from the same pathway, that fellow had devised many so-called treasures belonging to Beyonder families of the Marauder pathway. He would then leave an avatar inside the treasure, waiting for Marauder pathway Beyonders to come one after another.

The trap designed by the Royal Family was similar to Amon's method. Most Fourth Epoch ruins were connected to the Lawyer and Arbiter pathways.

Three emperors had appeared on the Northern Continent during the Fourth Epoch: the Black Emperor, the Blood Emperor, and the Night Emperor.

Of those three emperors, the Black Emperor Solomon had been the True God of the Lawyer pathway.

The Blood Emperor Tudor and Night Emperor Trensoost had both begun on the Lawyer pathway. They betrayed Solomon and helped the Six Gods kill the Black Emperor Solomon, only then obtaining the Sequence 1 Extraordinary Characteristics of the Lawyer pathway.

As for the present Royal Families of Loen and Fenebote, the two Beyonder families of the Arbiter pathway had served different emperors during the Fourth Epoch. Only after all four emperors were killed did they become ruling families with the support of the Six Gods.

Whether they were Beyonders of the Lawyer pathway or the Arbiter pathway, they had been quite active during the Fourth Epoch. Two True God-level rulers had emerged: the Black Emperor and Judgement.

The capitals of both the Tudor-Trensoost United Empire and the Trensoost Empire had been present-day Backlund.

Thus, anyone with basic historical knowledge knew that ruins belonging to families such as Tudor and Trensoost were likely to be found near Backlund.

That was precisely why Hobart valued this diary page. He had also considered that, once he became stronger, he would try searching for ancient ruins around Backlund. Those ruins would most likely contain things related to the Lawyer pathway.

The Royal Family had likely taken advantage of this to set traps within the ruins. This was probably a method of recovering Extraordinary Characteristics.

Thinking of this, Hobart silently mourned for the mercenary team that had previously gone exploring.

At the same time, he thanked the Emperor for the warning. Those 6 Pounds had been well spent!

This was the Beyonder World! No matter how kind someone was, possessing Extraordinary Characteristics could turn them into a criminal.

What was that saying again? Oh, right: a man's only crime was possessing a treasure! Hobart carefully recalled the contents of the other diary pages. He couldn't remember the details, but he could probably piece together seven or eight pages of coherent diary entries. Hobart planned to use them to fool... ahem, to trade with the dear The Fool.

Hobart did not leave the club immediately. Instead, he collected another fifty bullets and went to the Shooting Range to practice shooting.

After returning the gun, Hobart did not forget to visit the Information Wall on the third floor and remove his notice about purchasing Emperor Rosell's diaries.

He did not want to attract too much attention. If too many people came to sell him diaries, yet he needed very few of them, then he might get something for free and feel good about it, but the diary sellers would definitely be unhappy.

His experiences in his previous life had taught Hobart that one could not go too far.

Besides, his expenses today had been lower than expected, which already made Hobart very happy. He still had 61 Pounds, 7 Sule, and 8 pennies left. He had counted it several times, so there was no mistake.

After dinner at home, Hobart eagerly returned to his Bedroom. Following Old Neil's explanation from memory and Klein's example, he first drew the symbol of the Goddess of the Night on the table, then lit three candles mixed with Night-Scented Herb.

Two candles symbolized the Goddess of the Night, while one represented himself.

Then, Hobart infused spirituality into a silver knife, consecrated the Pure Silver Blade, circled the table once, and set up the Wall of Spirituality.

Next, Hobart took out Deep Sleep Flower essential oil and dripped it onto the candles separately, then burned Moon Flower petals.

Finally came the most important part: the incantation. As a graduate of a first-rate public secondary school, Hermes was a required course.

He solemnly said in Hermes, "I pray for the power of the night; I pray for the power of crimson; I pray for the Goddess of the Night's favor; Your faithful believer prays that the Goddess of the Night grant me quality sleep.

"O Night-Scented Herb, herb of the moon, please convey your power to my incantation!

"O Moon Flower, herb of the Red Moon, please convey your power to my incantation!"

Hobart watched the candles on the table somewhat nervously. According to Klein's analysis, for trivial matters such as asking the goddess to grant a good night's sleep or a pleasant dream, conducting Spirit Communication, helping settle bills, or treating constipation...

Uh, why did those last two requests always seem a little off?

In any case, for such small matters, the goddess's "automatic response system" would generally handle them in her stead. As long as one harbored no ill intent, low-level Rituals like this had a high chance of succeeding.

As the saying went, there were many Sequence 9 Beyonders in the Beyonder World with spirituality higher than that of a Lawyer, yet they did not know how to conduct a Ritual.

Hobart's advantage was that he knew the process of a Ritual.

After roughly one or two seconds, the simple altar finally reacted. Although the candles continued burning, the room suddenly became dim and tranquil.

Hobart immediately felt a wave of drowsiness wash over him, and soon he could no longer keep his eyes open. Wait, I haven't cleaned up the altar or even lain down on the bed yet!

No matter how much he struggled inwardly, Hobart's entire body immediately lost its strength.

Thud~ The pain of hitting the floor did not wake Hobart. The moment he fell, he had already fallen asleep face-down on the ground.

He slept all the way until dawn. If Donna had not knocked on the door outside to wake him, he might have continued sleeping.

After spending the night sprawled on the floor, his whole body was sore and aching. Most importantly, the three candles he had just bought yesterday had burned out just like that. Each one had cost 3 Sule! Thinking about how he had "spent" 9 Sule last night, Hobart's heart ached as well.

He seriously suspected that the Goddess of the Night had a grudge against him? Request for recommendation votes, request for monthly votes~