Chapter Twenty-Four: Arrested

At dawn, Klein sat silently in the duty room with an open novel before him. Across from him sat the dashing, black-haired poet with green eyes, Leonard Mitchell, who was also reading a collection of poetry.

However, both of them looked rather weighed down. Leonard's eyes kept wandering, clearly not focused on the poetry collection at all. Klein was the same. Although there was a novel in front of him, he had no interest in reading it whatsoever.

"I never thought Old Neil would lose control..." After a long while, Klein exhaled deeply.

To the official Beyonders, converting to an evil god's faith, undergoing a drastic change in temperament, and even apostasy were all collectively referred to as losing control.

He had personally watched the once-kindly old man being sent into the confinement room by Dunn. Even now, Old Neil was still pleading incessantly:

"Please... Dunn, I really won't hurt anyone... As long as you let me complete the Resurrection Ritual for Celeste, I'll accept any punishment, even if it means taking my life..."

"Please, give me one more chance... I've already missed too much. This may be my only chance..."

Tears glimmered on Old Neil's profile as he was locked in the confinement room. The wrinkles on his face were so distinct that Klein might never be able to forget the scene for the rest of his life.

"But that's the truth." Leonard's voice was muffled as well. He took a sip of coffee. "Boss Swain brought us information about Old Neil's faith in an evil god. We raided Old Neil's home and discovered a large quantity of living human blood preserved with ritual magic, along with some evil ritual magic notes that he shouldn't have known about... He also admitted to worshiping the Hidden Sage without hesitation. Old Neil didn't even regret listening to the evil god's whispers. He only felt unwilling because he hadn't had the chance to try that ritual... He'd been hesitating all along."

"Why did this happen? How could he suddenly start worshiping an evil god..." Klein couldn't understand. From the information Dunn had told him that evening, Klein already knew the entire sequence of events and Old Neil's motive.

He simply couldn't understand it, nor could he accept that Old Neil would believe in a ritual provided by an evil god for the sake of his lover.

Dunn had already telegraphed the Holy Cathedral, reporting Old Neil's loss of control. This meant that the best possible outcome for Old Neil was to remain locked in the confinement room until death, without even being allowed out for fresh air. Perhaps Klein could still bring him a cup of hand-ground coffee, but Old Neil would probably never get to enjoy the coffee beans he had treasured again.

As for the worst outcome...

"The Holy Cathedral shouldn't purge Old Neil. He clearly still has his reason. Besides, besides, he's only a Sequence 9. He doesn't possess enough destructive power..." Klein muttered under his breath.

"I also believe nothing will happen to Old Neil." Leonard didn't say anything more. Yet both of them knew very well that Old Neil would probably find it difficult to last until winter this year.

The essence of all ritual magic was using a small stake to obtain a great return. A Mystery Pryer proficient in ritual magic definitely couldn't be contained by an ordinary confinement room, which was why Klein was taking a shift with Leonard tonight.

One of them was a Sequence 9, and the other was a Sequence 8. Together, they were capable of handling most unexpected situations.

Once the Holy Cathedral issued its decision to imprison Old Neil—which would most likely be confinement for observation—he would be transferred behind Chanis Gate. Under the erosion of the sealed core, Old Neil, already old and frail, would find it difficult to hold on for long.

"Old Neil has lost control. He can no longer teach you anything related to mysticism." After a moment of silence, Leonard spoke again. "The Holy Cathedral won't allow the Nighthawks to learn ritual magic from Old Neil, who's been corrupted by an evil god. The captain asked me to tell you to seek out Miss Daly starting tomorrow. She'll teach you some mysticism."

"All right." Klein gave a simple reply.

A few seconds later, Leonard was the one to initiate the conversation again. "Boss Swain said his lead came from Melvin, who followed Old Neil last time. Melvin is an informant for the Mandated Punishers. I heard that you've met Melvin before. He claimed that you possessed a strange fate..."

"I don't know what he meant." Klein's heart gave a thump, and he suddenly became alert.

Was this guy fishing for information? What does he want to know?

"I believe you truly don't know, but I also believe you understand yourself well enough. Some people are different from others. You don't have to be overly wary." After Old Neil's arrest, Leonard finally revealed a smile.

This guy is always saying things that are impossible to understand... Klein silently raised the novel to cover his face, adopting an attitude that clearly said he didn't intend to chat.

It had taken him quite some time to placate Gracis. Persuading him not to call the police had been easy, but getting him not to tell Lanevus that "Melvin is looking for him" had been extremely difficult. Klein had been forced to produce his identification as a member of Squad Seven of the Special Operations Department of the Awwa County Police Department of the Loen Kingdom. Only then had he barely managed to intimidate Gracis.

After leaving the Divination Club, Klein had gone straight to Blackthorn Security Company. The moment he arrived at the Nighthawks' headquarters, he witnessed Old Neil being detained.

From the Tarot Club in the afternoon onward, the constant bombardment of information had left Klein somewhat numb as he dealt with one unexpected situation after another. Only now, at night, did he finally get a chance to catch his breath and analyze the information he had obtained that day. After Dunn placed Old Neil in the confinement room, he had looked extremely exhausted, so Klein decided to wait until tomorrow before reporting the information Melvin had provided to the captain.

"Boss Swain said Melvin was his informant. That's unlikely. Old Neil had a good relationship with him. If Melvin really wanted to find Old Neil's residence, there would have been no need to seek a detective's help with the investigation. He could've simply asked Swain... However, it's also possible that Melvin didn't know who Old Neil was. Perhaps he followed the lead of investigating organizations such as the Moses Ascetic Order that worship the Hidden Sage, and that's how he ended up targeting Old Neil... Although Old Neil claimed that he'd never had contact with other evil secret organizations, given his mental state, those words can't be trusted."

Klein rubbed his tired eyes, then simply closed them and leaned against the chair. Leonard glanced at him but said nothing.

"As for the questions Melvin raised... They were mainly related to me. Moreover, he didn't strictly follow the 'one question, one answer' rule he had set himself. He casually asked two questions, but answered every question I asked... He even took the initiative to supplement quite a bit of information for me... He seemed excessively favorable toward me. Could it be that he was targeting me? Both of his questions were also related to me. One concerned the Antigonus Notebook, while the other asked whether I had mastered the Acting Method... He said he merely wanted to pass information to the Nighthawks, but that isn't credible. If he wanted to report Old Neil or Lanevus to the Nighthawks, he had plenty of ways to do so even without going through Boss Swain..."

As a reporting expert, Klein could list countless ways to report Old Neil without making a sound, but for the moment, he truly couldn't figure out that Aster himself wasn't skilled at reporting people.

"However, actually... he did save Old Neil, in a way." Klein placed the novel facedown on the desk and suddenly said this seemingly out of nowhere.

"Hm?" Leonard raised his head in confusion and glanced at Klein. He quickly understood whom Klein was talking about.

Leonard nodded and sighed. "Yes. If no one had noticed, Old Neil would eventually have tried that terrifying and evil ritual. The consequences would have been unimaginable."

Regarding that strange Resurrection Ritual, both Klein and Leonard had grave doubts about it. This wasn't only because it came from the Hidden Sage, but also because it was far too simple. How could a ritual to resurrect the dead possibly be this simple? If Old Neil had truly activated that ritual, the best outcome for him would still have been to go insane on the spot.

In that sense, Melvin had helped Old Neil preserve the last of his dignity.

Because of this, Klein's hostility toward Melvin had diminished considerably. He began to pay attention to Melvin's other target: Lanevus.

"He seems to be a cunning con artist... I'll mention him to the captain tomorrow. As for the source of the information, I'll say it came from an informant obtained through another channel..." Melvin hadn't actually provided much information about Lanevus, but Klein could clearly sense that he valued Lanevus far more than Old Neil!

This likely meant that Lanevus was much more dangerous than Old Neil's loss of control... Klein closed the novel and prepared to brew a cup of coffee.

After all, he wasn't a Sleepless. At this hour, he was inevitably somewhat tired.

Klein took some coffee beans from the coffee jar, and his hand became slightly heavy. It was as if he had once again seen Old Neil teaching him Pendulum Divination.

I still can't accept it... He carried the two cups of coffee slowly back to the duty room, where Leonard was resting with his eyes closed.

"Want a cup of coffee?" Klein placed one of the cups in front of Leonard. Without paying attention to his thanks, Klein began seriously examining the contents of the Dream Divination he had performed earlier.

"This Dream Divination is a little strange. It seems to be divided into two parts." Klein sipped his coffee while pretending to read the novel. "The first part is relatively easy to interpret. Falling into the deep sea... To a 'Seer,' the deep sea usually symbolizes matters related to the Church of Storms. But that ocean was black, and countless black hands were dragging me down... I tend to interpret it as 'some kind of unknown danger from which it will be difficult to obtain help.' As for the hand reaching down from above and rescuing me from danger... I just don't know which part Melvin represents. I think he should be the hand that helped me... If that black ocean symbolizes Melvin, then the hand that dragged me up from the Abyss would have no real significance that could represent it..."