Diary

The environment at Evil Dragon Bar really wasn't very good. At the very least, it couldn't be called sanitary.

Swain held a filthy wine bottle, enthusiastically chatting with someone as he guzzled down drink after drink.

A few minutes later, one of his men jogged over and whispered something to him. Swain's expression first brightened, then darkened again as though he had remembered something.

He casually drained the last bit of liquid from the bottle, then strode toward Evil Dragon Bar's back door.

A brown-haired man with short hair and thick-framed glasses was waiting for him there.

"Can't you be more direct and come find me through the front door?" Swain was getting a little sick of this lunatic. Every time this guy came looking for him, he acted especially mysterious, yet the matters he discussed were increasingly trivial. On the contrary, the troublesome intelligence he sent by letter was more exciting with every piece.

The visitor was Aster. He took two steps into Evil Dragon Bar's back kitchen and used just one sentence to turn Swain's impatient expression into a grave one. "The Aurora Order has its eyes on me."

"Because of that woman?" Swain also realized the seriousness of the situation. He raised a hand to close the back door and waved one of his arms at the subordinate nearby. The man hurried out of the back kitchen with good sense, closing the door behind him.

"So you've confirmed the authenticity of my intelligence?" Aster put his hands into his pockets. The Aurora Order hunting him down was something he had made up, mainly to see Swain's reaction to this matter and to lay some groundwork for possible future negotiations with the Aurora Order. "How is Megose now? You should have dealt with her already, right?"

"No. It's troublesome." Swain took out his pipe and drew deeply on it. "The Mandated Punishers failed to find her."

"Failed to find her?" Aster stared at Swain in surprise, nearly blurting out, "What are you Mandated Punishers even good for?"

Sensing the surprise and faint accusation in Aster's words, Swain glared. "Your intelligence came too late! By the time we went searching, Megose had already disappeared!"

"Then did you find any clues?" Aster couldn't be bothered to hold a blame-shifting convention with Swain, so he directly asked what he cared about most. "Her residence, her relatives... There had to be some traces, right?"

Swain subconsciously glanced at him, seemingly considering whether this intelligence should be told to Aster, but he quickly made a decision.

"It was the Aurora Order." Swain rubbed the surface of his pipe. "They did it very discreetly. If our people hadn't happened to find traces of Flesh and Blood Magic nearby, she might simply have been deemed a fugitive or missing."

"Do you think she left voluntarily?" Aster studied Swain's expression.

"That's not something someone earning a few soli a week needs to worry about." Swain slapped Aster out the door. "Kid, I know you might want to help, but there are some things you'd better not meddle in. It's for your own good."

After Swain shoved him out of Evil Dragon Bar, Aster touched his hair and surveyed the surroundings, considering where he would stay next.

Hmm, Swain doesn't really want me involved in hunting Megose... Makes sense. The Mandated Punishers definitely wouldn't trust me just because I provided relevant intelligence... And I really am untrustworthy... Thinking of this, Aster sighed softly.

I spent so long building up Swain's favorability, only to now plot against Sealed Artifact 1-27 guarded by the Mandated Punishers. How ironic...

Aster decided to find an inn in the North Borough, first investigate the defensive strength of the Church of River and Sea, then formulate a plan of action.

But come to think of it, tomorrow is Monday, isn't it? Should I prepare something for the Tarot Club?

Aster subconsciously glanced at his pocket watch.

Above the Gray Fog, enormous stone pillars supported a majestic palace. Three clusters of crimson suddenly appeared beside the ancient, mottled bronze long table, stretching and blurring into illusory figures.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Fool." Audrey, seated on the right side of the long table, rose and curtsied with a smile. "Should we congratulate you on your success?"

She was referring to Mr. Fool's request during the previous Tarot Club commission that they chant his honorific name.

Aster had already completed that ritual according to Mr. Fool's instructions and successfully received a response. However, he had been preparing to hunt Lanevus at the time and had not had much energy to marvel at a feature that had already appeared in the game.

"Praise your might." He likewise raised a hand and saluted Mr. Fool.

Once the brief greetings were over, Justice eagerly raised her hand. "Mr. Fool, I have collected the Roselle's Diary you requested. Two pages."

"I also have three pages of diary entries." Hanged Man immediately followed.

Then, all three members turned their gazes toward Mr. Lovers at the end of the long table, apparently waiting for him to speak.

"Mr. Fool, I have obtained ten pages of Roselle's Diary, but my memory is limited. Please allow me to hand them over to you in several installments." Aster likewise noticed the astonished looks from Justice and Hanged Man, but there was no way for him to take back what he had said.

Because he had never expected the other two members to have collected only single-digit numbers of Roselle's Diary entries!

For this gathering, Aster had prepared dozens of forged pages of Roselle's Diary, waiting to submit them to Mr. Fool in exchange for merits.

At first, he had even wondered whether he had prepared too few, because when players handed in Roselle's Diary in the game, they usually submitted hundreds or thousands of pages...

Only now, after hearing that Audrey and Alger had both collected single-digit numbers of Roselle's Diary entries, did he swallow the "fifty pages" that had almost slipped out and change it to "ten pages in installments."

Compared to fifty pages, ten matches the intelligence-gathering ability I've displayed all along without seeming too exaggerated... Isn't Justice a great noble? How did she collect so few diary pages... Or is her memory not very good?

Silently mocking his two colleagues' underwhelming performance, Aster received Mr. Fool's permission and materialized a fountain pen and paper. He swiftly materialized the corresponding Chinese characters onto parchment, while the other two did the same.

Aster had written his forged diary entries with his non-dominant hand before commissioning a copyist through letters to transcribe them again. The distorted handwriting ensured that even if Mr. Fool understood Chinese, he would never associate Lovers with someone who could write Chinese.

His gaze quickly swept over the five completed pages in his hands. After confirming that there were no bugs that might expose his problem, Aster slightly raised his hand to indicate that he had finished writing.

At the head of the table, Fool Klein slightly raised his hand, causing the stack of diary pages to appear in his own hand.

At that moment, the other two members had not even finished writing yet.

Lovers has a pretty good memory... Muttering inwardly, Klein began reading the Roselle's Diary in his hand, only for the first page to make his face darken.

"Dawahufor ah Korea um ah very sad handsome guy red apple's culture fei oh and thinking homebuyer three."

Pure gibberish... Could Lovers have forged this? Klein raised his head and stared at Aster with an unfriendly look, only to discover that the guy was actually looking around absentmindedly.

Aster, who had been spacing out, also noticed Fool's gaze upon him and immediately broke out in goosebumps. No way, did this Fool discover that I used gibberish to forge Roselle's Diary? No, I never showed that I knew Chinese. Isn't it perfectly normal to buy a pirated copy? You can't blame me!

And that reaction... Could Mr. Fool really understand Chinese? Aster took a deep breath and decided that he would submit genuine diary pages whenever possible in the future, only considering forgery if they were truly difficult to collect.

Aster still remembered some of the intelligence and knowledge recorded in Roselle's Diary. While he definitely could not reproduce the original word for word, the overall effect should have been similar.

While encouraging himself inwardly, Aster forced a smile and nodded slightly toward Fool.

After being plotted against by the True Creator, he had gained a new understanding of a God's might.

Forget it. Lovers probably wouldn't dare deceive me... Hmm, hard to say. If he gives me too many fake diary entries afterward, I'll have to give him a proper warning... Even if he doesn't understand Chinese, can't he at least help me screen the sellers and weed out the fake diaries...? Klein withdrew his gaze and grumbled inwardly. By the way, why did this guy change his hairstyle? He used to have long straight black hair... He looked a little like one of those loli-faced uncles, but now he has short hair...

Destroying the page of gibberish in his hand, Klein turned his attention to the next diary entry. This one was finally not a chaotic mess of nonsense, but it also contained nothing particularly interesting.

"March 2nd. Zaratul tasted really good."

Klein: ???

Who is Zaratul... Emperor, you have no shame at all. Why would you write that sort of thing in your diary... Uh, the name Zaratul feels familiar. I seem to have heard it somewhere... Klein wanted to cover his forehead, but considering that he was still playing Fool, he ultimately maintained his original posture and continued reading.

Lady Radia, Miss Sophia, Madam Candice... Emperor, weren't you afraid of catching a venereal disease?

Klein's mouth was harder to suppress than an AK. He was both annoyed and amused now. On one hand, the detailed descriptions of the Emperor's romantic exploits in this Roselle's Diary entry made Roselle's image in his mind turn into that of a comedic character. But no matter what, he certainly had not collected Roselle's Diary to read his romances.

Where's the Beyonder knowledge... Where's the Beyonder knowledge...? Klein directly destroyed the second diary page as well, then finally shifted his gaze impatiently toward the third page.