No way... Could Mr. Azik be the so-called first Baron Lamud? That's a figure from fourteen or five hundred years ago... No, how can I be sure the person in the portrait is the first Baron Lamud... Klein stared at the oil painting, his mind in a whirl, as if he had suddenly discovered that everyone around him had turned into Monster, or that the whole world was just a dream of the gods.
He abruptly raised his head, stared at the blond middle-aged man in front of him, reached into his armpit holster and took out a revolver, saying in a deep voice:
"This is not an antique. If you don't explain yourself clearly, I will arrest you and prosecute you for fraud!"
He didn't care whether the prosecution fell under the jurisdiction of the police department; his only goal was to intimidate the other party and obtain information!
At the same time, Klein tapped his left teeth twice, activating his Spirit Vision to monitor the target's emotional changes.
The middle-aged man with blond hair was startled and answered in a trembling voice, filled with fear:
"No, I don't know if it's an antique. No, I've heard it's an antique, but I don't know anything about these things. I really don't. I don't even know many words, well, words."
His eyes darted around, looking around as if he wanted to call for help.
But at that moment, he saw Klein adjust the cylinder and trigger, posing as if he were about to shoot the resisting suspect.
He straightened up abruptly and dared not look around anymore.
"Where did you get this painting?" Klein asked, his mind heavy.
The blond-haired middle-aged man's lips moved, and he smiled ingratiatingly:
"Officer, this is something my grandfather found in the castle. Over forty years ago, the outer walls and the second-floor rooms collapsed, revealing some items that previous inhabitants couldn't find. Among them was this oil painting—no, no, not this one. The original painting was too badly damaged to be preserved, so my grandfather commissioned someone to paint a copy. Yes, the one you just saw. I'm not lying to you; an oil painting from over forty years ago can indeed be considered an antique..."
"Are you sure this is a portrait of the first Baron Lamud?" Klein rubbed the trigger, preventing the other man from shifting his gaze.
The blond-haired middle-aged man chuckled and said, "I'm not sure, but I suspect so."
"Reason?" Klein almost laughed at the other party's shamelessness.
"Because there's no title on the painting," the blond middle-aged man replied, unusually serious. "It's like how I'm called 'Rogue Gray,' my father is called ' Curly-Haired Gray,' but only my grandfather is the real Gray."
... Klein sighed silently and said:
Where is your grandfather?
"He's been buried in the cemetery for almost twenty years. Next to him is my father, who was buried three years ago," the blond-haired middle-aged man answered very honestly.
After asking a few more questions from different angles, Klein adjusted the cylinder of his pistol in front of the blond middle-aged man and put it back into his armpit holster.
Putting away his police badge, he turned around, hands in his pockets, and walked silently toward the hotel, his steps illuminated by the dim light emanating from the buildings on either side.
"It's uncertain whether the portrait belongs to the first Baron Lamud... I don't know if there are any definitive historical records of the castle in the town..."
"But in any case, the gentleman in the portrait is definitely a person from ancient times, at least a thousand years ago..."
"He and Mr. Azik are almost identical except for their hairstyles. Is this what they call reincarnation?"
"Perhaps Mr. Azik's decision to give up positions at other universities in Backlund and come to Tingen was driven by a lingering instinct..."
"Well, there's another possibility. For example, the person in the portrait is Mr. Azik, Mr. Azik is him!"
Thinking of this, Klein was startled and almost tripped over the steps in front of him.
He paced back and forth a few times under the damaged gas streetlight, drawing on his knowledge of the information explosion era and his earlier speculation to make further analysis:
"Did Mr. Azik become an undead creature, like Vampire, for some reason, and thus live from ancient times to the present?"
"Wait, there aren't any Vampire with bronze skin..."
"Moreover, when I shook hands with Mr. Azik, I could clearly feel his body temperature, and I could feel the blood flowing in his body."
"Although he disliked the southern heat, he wasn't afraid of the Sun. He once teamed up with other teachers for a rowing race under the scorching sun..."
"Hmm, there's another possibility. Mr. Azik's Sequence Potion or some other factor granted him a long life, but the price was the loss of his memories! Hmm, considering his completely different dreams, could we assume that his memory loss is cyclical? Every few decades, he forgets the past and is reborn, and those dreams are his past real lives... Heh, I think I've read a similar novel..."
"To verify this, Divination alone won't suffice. We must find traces of Mr. Azik's existence throughout his life, traces that skip childhood and adolescence and go straight to adulthood!"
Klein, who made bold assumptions and carefully verified them, began to lean towards his latter guess, but the possibility of "reincarnation" could not be ruled out for the time being.
He suppressed his chaotic thoughts and seriously considered whether to report the matter to Captain Dunn:
"If Mr. Azik is indeed an ancient Beyonder has lived for over a thousand years, then his strength must be far greater than I imagined..."
"His initial reminders were well-intentioned, but after I found clues about his past, it's hard to say whether he'll still maintain those good intentions..."
"But Mr. Azik has always been very kind to me, and rashly introducing Nighthawks could quite possibly endanger him..."
"Phew, to perform Divination above the Gray Fog, free from interference, is the best choice Seer should make!"
Klein made his decision and hurried back to the hotel.
Taking advantage of the fact that Dunn and Frye had not yet returned, he spent 1 Soli to book another room.
Upon entering the room, Klein used " Holy Night Powder " to create Wall of Spirituality, then took four steps backward, passing through the mad babbling, and arrived above the Gray Fog.
The majestic palace stood quietly, its ancient and mottled bronze table and twenty-two high-backed chairs unchanged.
Klein sat at the head of the table, where a brown parchment and a black, round-bellied fountain pen came into view.
He picked up his pen and wrote carefully:
"We should tell Dunn Smith about Mr. Azik."
Immediately afterwards, he took off the citrine pendant from his left sleeve and performed a pendulum Divination.
The answer to this pendulum Divination was counter-clockwise, which means "you shouldn't tell!"
After putting down the citrine pendant, Klein, who always followed his heart, thought for a few seconds and decided to try " Dream Divination " again, just to be on the safe side.
This time, his Divination statement became "the consequences of concealing matters concerning Mr. Azik from the Nighthawks."
Holding the parchment, Klein silently recited it seven times, then leaned back and, through Cogitation, entered a deep sleep.
In that illusory, hazy, fragmented world, he saw himself struggling and sinking in a sea of blood.
At that moment, a hand reached out and pulled him up from the sea of blood. The owner of that hand was none other than Azik, who had a bronze complexion and small black moles near his ears.
The images shattered and Reorganization, Klein found himself in a dark and gloomy mausoleum, with open coffins all around him.
Azik stood beside him, gazing ahead as if searching for something.
Just then, Klein suddenly exited the dream and saw once again the illusory, gray, and boundless mist.
"The symbolic meaning of the dream I just had is that if I conceal the relevant information for Mr. Azik, then when I fall into a crisis in the future, I will receive his help. Ah, this crisis may have arisen precisely because of helping to conceal it... What does the last scene mean? I will explore a mausoleum with Mr. Azik? Hmm, the mausoleum may have another symbolic meaning..." Klein crossed his hands, rested his chin on them, and deciphered the contents of the " Dream Divination " he had just had.
Based on the results of the previous Spirit Pendulum Method, he had decided not to report his guesses to the captain, but only to mention that a townsman had produced a portrait that was supposedly of the first Baron Lamud, which bore a striking resemblance to Azik, the history professor at Hoy University — Klein couldn't be sure if Dunn had heard about this from elsewhere, so he had to mention it.
Of course, without Azik's account, it would be difficult for Dunn, who was not familiar with him, to make any connection between his strange dreams and Azik's experiences. Klein even suspected that the captain no longer remembered what Instructor Azik looked like.
Thinking of this, he suppressed his thoughts and prepared to leave the Gray Fog. But at that moment, he noticed that the deep red star, which had been quiet for a long time, was once again showing a slight contraction and expansion.
Klein extended his Spirituality with great interest and saw once again the boy who spoke the Jotun, kneeling before a pure crystal ball.
The boy was still wearing a black bodysuit that was different from the styles of other countries in the Northern Continent. His face was blurry and Distortion, with only his brownish-yellow hair vaguely visible.
He knelt there, pleading repeatedly in an extremely painful tone.
Klein listened intently, and with his barely grasped Jotun, he managed to understand what the other person was saying:
"Great God, please turn your gaze back to this place you have abandoned."
"Great God, please free us, the people of darkness, from that curse of fate."
"I am willing to dedicate my life to you, and please you with my blood."
Abandoned land... people of darkness... great gods... Klein murmured these keywords, then suddenly remembered a place the " The Hanged Man " had mentioned:
" The Forsaken Land of the Gods!"
Roselle's diary also mentioned it! He even sent out a fleet to search for it, but to no avail... Klein narrowed his eyes, unsure if his guess was correct.
He tapped his fingers on the edge of the bronze table three times, then made a decision, extending his right hand to touch the illusory deep red star.
The crimson mass immediately burst open, its light flowing like water.
PS: There will be another update in a few minutes.