An Eastern Face

A rough sketch was quickly completed.

Audrey was surprised to find that the butterfly that had happened to fly over was still resting on Susie's nose instead of flying away.

At first, Audrey had assumed the butterfly would soon fly off, and she would have to rely on the memory enhanced by the Spectator Potion to half-imagine and half-copy the remaining details.

But five minutes passed, and the butterfly remained steadily perched on Susie's nose. It only occasionally fluttered its wings before quickly returning to its original state.

At first, Audrey did not think much of it. She assumed the butterfly was merely resting on Susie's nose and basking in the sun, so she sped up her work, intending to prioritize depicting the butterfly and leave the other parts for later.

When someone devoted themselves wholeheartedly to something, time passed quickly.

As a Spectator, and with Audrey already being patient and skilled at painting, it was not difficult for her to enter such a focused state.

Ten minutes passed. Half an hour passed. An hour and a half passed.

At last, the painting took shape.

Amid the flowers, afternoon sunlight spilled across the face of a golden-furred dog with half-closed eyes. The dog raised its head, its expression contented, while a colorful butterfly reflecting the sunlight rested on the tip of its nose.

"Done!" Audrey tossed her brush into the bucket beside her and stretched hard.

Hearing her voice, Susie finally stopped maintaining her motionless pose. She lowered her head and shook it.

The butterfly also rose from Susie's nose, flew to another flower nearby, and landed there.

Behind the easel, Audrey's gaze followed the butterfly's movement and settled on the flower where it had landed.

This was completely beyond her expectations.

She knew it was not impossible for butterflies to remain in one place for a long time, but such a "long time" was generally limited to around half an hour.

After stretching her body a little, Susie came over to Audrey, opened her mouth, and vibrated the air.

"Audrey, I think it might be the same kind as me," Susie said. "N-No, that's not right. I mean... I think it's a dog like me... Uh... no, that's not right..."

Susie had learned to speak less than a week ago and did not understand human language very well, so she failed to express herself properly.

But Audrey still understood.

"You mean you think this butterfly is an extraordinary creature like you?"

"Woof." Susie answered in the language she was best at.

Although they were both Spectators, seeing the world from a human perspective and from an animal perspective was still different.

Audrey was human after all. When it came to observing animals and insects, she was far inferior to Susie.

Of course, there was another reason: Audrey had only digested part of her potion, while Susie had digested most of hers.

Audrey found Susie's judgment quite reasonable, because the butterfly's abnormal behavior had also made her suspicious.

Audrey's first reaction was that perhaps becoming a Spectator a few weeks ago had drawn the attention of a Beyonder or a Beyonder organization, and this was a creature someone had sent to watch her.

But she quickly dismissed that thought.

After all, if it truly had been here to spy on her, there would have been no need for such an obviously flawed approach, nor any need to deliberately expose itself as an extraordinary creature.

But... but...

What if this was exactly what they wanted her to think? What if they had anticipated her suspicions and deliberately exposed themselves?

Audrey fell into a chain of doubt.

Susie's thoughts were much simpler.

Wagging her tail, she happily asked,

"Audrey, it's so cute. Can I keep it as a pet?"

Before Audrey could answer, the butterfly reacted first.

As if it had heard Susie's voice, the distant butterfly suddenly fluttered its wings, took flight, and flew away.

"Oh, it seems it doesn't want to," Susie said, her ears drooping.

"It's all right, Susie. If it doesn't want to, then forget it."

Audrey patted Susie's head comfortingly.

"The snacks are in my cabinet. Go help yourself."

This was the reward she had promised Susie for being a "model."

"Okay!" Susie perked up again and ran toward the house.

Audrey watched Susie run off and shook her head with a smile.

Standing up from the folding stool, Audrey prepared to pack up her tools and head home.

She glanced at the painting attached to the easel and smiled in satisfaction.

Although that butterfly seemed somewhat suspicious, the painting itself had turned out quite well.

Audrey's gaze was drawn to the butterfly she had painted. Then she suddenly noticed faint patterns on its wings, forming an image that resembled an eye resting on a book.

At the entrance of the Divination Club.

Klein, cane in one hand and top hat in the other, had just left the Yellow Crystal Room and turned a corner when he suddenly froze.

He saw a man sitting on the sofa in the hall.

The man had his back to him, so Klein could not see his face. The man was turning his head to look at something beside him, yet there was nothing at his side.

Klein's curiosity was instantly piqued. His Spirituality intuition told him there seemed to be something over there.

So Klein lightly clicked his teeth twice and activated Spirit Vision.

Then he saw a pair of eyes without eyelashes.

This was the third time he had seen those eyes.

The first time had been on his first day in this world, when he saw them while responding to a prayer.

The second time had been when he became a Seer, when he saw them behind his mysticism teacher, Old Neil.

The third time was now.

Then Klein watched helplessly as the man tore off a mask and dispersed those eyes.

That looked familiar. Had he seen that somewhere before?

As he was thinking, Morien turned around and looked at him.

Klein froze.

That was an Eastern face!

While Klein was still dazed, Christina, who was sitting on a sofa not far from Morien, noticed him as well. She immediately stood up and approached him.

"Mr. Moretti, you said before that if I had an item related to Lanevus, you could try to divine his whereabouts?"

The lady was eager to seek Klein's help and ask him to divine the whereabouts of the swindler who had cheated her out of 150 pounds.

Her interruption snapped Klein out of his stupor.

He instinctively deactivated Spirit Vision again, looked at Christina, and nodded.

"Yes, that's right."

Klein looked at the person before him, but his attention remained fixed on Morien in the distance.

An Easterner... There was no way he could mistake that face!

The fluorescent patterns on his face looked a little strange, but he was definitely an Easterner.

Christina did not notice Klein's distraction. She took a breath and asked in a low voice,

"Then does his child count as a related item?"

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