The roaring grew louder and louder, each wave rising above the last. Within moments, Julian was dizzy and disoriented.
The "Colour Out of Space" is angry... but what exactly is it angry about?
Julian looked utterly baffled, unable to make sense of what was happening.
Through his Four-Color Vision, the surrounding tabletop, the plaster on the walls, and even the sleeping Ray Bieber were all steeped in that neon radiance, looking extraordinarily eerie.
Everything except the Antigonus Family Notebook, which still appeared black.
Could it be because of this notebook?
He tried withdrawing his hand. Sure enough, the roaring immediately grew much quieter.
After a pause, Julian reached out again, and the furious roaring erupted once more.
He repeated the motion several times, extending and withdrawing his hand. The roaring rose and fell like a roller coaster.
The "Colour Out of Space" hates this notebook?
Julian finally realized what was causing this, but the discovery struck him as rather strange.
The Colour Out of Space was a mythical creature from beyond this world. Logically, it should never have had any conflict with Antigonus.
Besides, Julian knew that apart from its high standing and a certain degree of corruption, the notebook before him was actually less dangerous than the vast majority of Grade 1 Sealed Artifacts.
"The more you hate it, the more determined I am to hold it."
At that moment, Julian finally felt the urge to rebel.
Over the past three years, this colorful monstrosity had turned his life into a complete mess. Not only had he changed his name and left his home behind, but he had even been forced onto the Four-Color Seer pathway, with no idea what lay ahead.
Now that he finally had a legitimate identity and wanted to do a few things on his own terms, the Colour Out of Space was interfering again.
How could he possibly stand for that?
Once again, Julian began silently reciting the honorific name of Amanises, the Evernight Goddess.
It was nighttime, and a full crimson moon hung outside the window. This meant the strength of the Goddess's mystical symbolism was at its peak.
Sure enough, the moment he began reciting her honorific name, the iridescent light around Julian faded considerably, and the roaring weakened along with it.
There even seemed to be a note of frustrated resentment in that furious voice, like a brat throwing a tantrum only to receive a parent's iron-fisted discipline.
"...I might not be able to put you in your place, but you think the Goddess can't?"
Borrowing the Goddess's authority, Julian chuckled and muttered the taunt under his breath. Then he took the Antigonus Family Notebook in hand and opened it.
Just as he had expected, it contained one potion formula after another for the Seer pathway, along with assorted details about the Nation of the Evernight and the Antigonus Family.
There were also numerous maps marked with different locations.
Some of those markings were plainly drawn on the paper.
They included circles, triangles, check marks, and other symbols, but there was no legend or explanation, so Julian could not accurately distinguish their meanings.
He judged that this was deliberate. The aim was to create false choices and distractions, luring anyone who was not a descendant of the Antigonus Family into dangerous traps and putting a permanent end to their designs on the family's treasure.
"...Huh? There seems to be hidden information here?"
Suddenly, Julian discovered that some of the treasure maps contained extremely well-hidden octagonal symbols, as though they had been drawn in invisible ink.
Normally, he would not have been able to see this information, but his Four-Color Vision had revealed it.
Most importantly, one of the invisible markings was right on the outskirts of Tingen City!
Realizing how important this information was, Julian decided to record all of it and analyze it at leisure after returning.
He took out the Scholar's Legacy again and used its ability to store knowledge and books to record most of the contents.
As for the hidden contents that the Scholar's Legacy could not record, Julian had no choice but to memorize them for now. Fortunately, his brain had once been altered by the Reader potion, so even after losing the corresponding Beyonder powers, his memory remained far superior to an ordinary person's.
Once he was done, Julian carefully returned the Antigonus Family Notebook to its original place.
For now, he did not want to take the Antigonus Family Notebook away. Doing so would alert the Secret Order and scare its members off.
"...Mm... who..."
Just then, Ray Bieber abruptly stopped snoring, and his eyelids opened slightly.
He seemed to have dimly sensed Julian's presence and murmured a question as though talking in his sleep.
Julian's entire body jolted. He immediately took out the colorless, odorless sleep-inducing essential oil he had prepared beforehand and sprayed it twice into the air.
Under the oil's influence, Ray Bieber fell into a deep sleep and soon began snoring again.
Julian let out a small breath of relief and silently withdrew from Ray Bieber's bedroom.
Yet just as he was about to leave the apartment through the living room, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
His spiritual intuition told him that someone was standing outside the door!
"..."
Julian bit his lip and did his best to remain silent.
Anyone visiting Ray Bieber's home at this hour was very likely a member of the Secret Order.
To interfere with any divination the Secret Order might use to track him, Julian had performed an anti-divination ritual before entering Ray Bieber's apartment building.
Even though it had only been a simplified, quick ritual, it had been reinforced by a Sequence 7 Sealed Artifact. Unless the Secret Order's Seers were above Sequence 7, they should not have been able to break through its interference easily.
What he had not expected was to run straight into a member of the Secret Order just as he was about to leave.
The timing was far too coincidental-so coincidental that Julian began to wonder whether 0-08 had played a part in it.
But with the Goddess and Arianna watching over him, that did not quite seem to make sense either.
He silently drew the pistol from his holster while looking out through the peephole.
Sure enough, someone was standing in the dim corridor.
The man was not particularly tall. He wore a tailcoat, and exaggerated greasepaint covered his face in clown makeup.
Even more surprising to Julian, the man was holding a purple
crystal pendulum, which was rotating clockwise in small circles.
In pendulum divination, clockwise movement meant affirmation, while the size of the circles indicated the degree.
Is he divining whether there's danger inside Ray Bieber's home?
Julian immediately understood.
The Secret Order's Clown must have discovered Julian's presence and also determined that Julian, standing behind the door, was not particularly strong!
How did this guy break through my anti-divination ritual?
...Was there a flaw in my ritual, or did the Secret Order tamper with the Antigonus Family Notebook?
A chill ran through Julian's entire body.
With Sequence 9 abilities against a Sequence 7 adept at combat, death seemed to be the only possible outcome.
As he rapidly considered his options, the Secret Order's Clown on the other side of the peephole suddenly moved.
He tilted his head toward the peephole at an exaggerated angle, while the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward to an unnaturally wide degree.
An utterly horrifying grin spread across his greasepaint-covered face!