549
The dice rolled with a clatter.
The smooth stone table reflected the newcomer's blank, faintly speechless gaze, as though he had seen through the superficial splendor of this world, once again glimpsed the irrationality and madness hidden within the twenty-two Paths of the Divine, and was looking down on everything he had experienced from a detached perspective.
Surrounded by "steal a sheep as you pass," "Dodge," "a Trier title deed priced at 2,000 with a toll of 500," Fight Evil, Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and Aeroplane Chess, Klein gave up thinking and gradually came to understand everything except advanced mathematics.
When pushed hard enough, people could do anything-except mathematics.
So when Zaratul said, "Pick one?" Klein immediately pointed at what looked like the simplest game.
The die stopped on five. Klein stared silently at the hand-drawn board for a few seconds, then sent one of his planes into play.
Then he made an effort to think. "...Please forgive my earlier rudeness. How should I address you?"
The old man opposite him straightened the equally absurd cards in his hand. Apparently taking Klein's speechlessness for awe, he was enthusiastically showing off his "Emperor Roselle deck."
Klein felt as though he could see the phantom of a childhood friend who had squatted on the ground with him, slapping cards.
At his question, the old man stopped arranging his cards and chuckled indistinctly.
"You can call me, hmm..."
"Zaratul."
Zaratul?
Fuck!
At that answer, every sarcastic comment in Klein's mind vanished, leaving only a single swear word in bold black lettering.
Zaratul, leader of the Secret Order, descendant of a great noble family of the Fourth Epoch's Solomon Empire, previous owner of the Antigonus Family Notebook, Emperor Roselle's guide along the Beyonder path, a true High Sequence Beyonder of the Seer pathway, a