A true Spirit Medium... Klein silently repeated the description without speaking again, following Dunn Smith out of the carriage.
Welch's residence in Tingen was a detached house with a garden. Outside its openwork iron gate was a road wide enough for four carriages to travel abreast. Streetlamps stood at fifty-meter intervals on either side. Unlike those Klein had seen in his previous life, these were gas lamps, their posts roughly the height of a grown man to make lighting them easier.
Black metal hugged the glass, forming grids and casting each lamp into a classical, lantern-like "work of art," where coldness danced with warmth and shadows coexisted with light.
Walking along the road bathed in dim yellow light, Klein and Dunn Smith passed through the half-open iron gate and entered the property Welch had rented.
Directly opposite the gate was a concrete driveway wide enough for two carriages, leading straight to the two-story house.
A garden lay to its left and a lawn to its right. The faint fragrance of flowers mingled with a fresh scent, refreshing the mind.
The moment he stepped inside, Klein's hair suddenly stood on end, and he looked around.
He felt pairs of eyes watching him from the garden, the shadows on the lawn, the top floor of the house, behind the swing, and every dark corner!
Although the place was open and deserted, Klein felt as though he were standing on a bustling street.
This eerie contrast, this strange sensation, made his body tense as a chill crept up from his tailbone.
"Something's wrong!" He could not help warning Dunn.
Dunn walked beside him, his expression unchanged, and answered calmly:
"Don't mind it."
Since even the Nighthawk had said so, Klein endured the creepy sensation of being followed, spied on, and scrutinized without being able to find the watchers, and made his way to the house's front door.
I'll become neurotic if I stay like this too long... As Dunn reached out to knock, Klein quickly glanced back again. Flowers swayed in the wind, but there was no one in sight.
"Come in, gentlemen." A slightly ethereal voice came from inside.
Dunn turned the handle, pushed open the door, and addressed the woman sitting on the sofa:
"Daly, have you found anything?"
The living room's chandelier was unlit. A leather sofa and two smaller seats surrounded a marble coffee table.
A candle burned on the coffee table, but its flame glowed a vivid blue, shrouding the semi-open-plan living room, dining room, and kitchen in a strange, flickering hue.
A lady sat in the middle of the long sofa. She wore a hooded black robe, blue eyeshadow and blush, and a silver chain with a clear quartz pendant wrapped around her exposed wrist.
At his first glimpse of her, Klein had an inexplicable thought: She's dressed like a real Spirit Medium...
Is she playing herself?
Daly, the Spirit Medium with an uncanny beauty, swept her glittering green eyes over Klein before looking at Dunn Smith.
"The original spirits have all disappeared, including Welch's and Naya's. The little ones here now don't know anything."
Spirits? A Spirit Medium... Those invisible watchers just now were spirits? There were actually that many spirits? Klein took off his hat, held it before his chest, and bowed slightly.
"Good evening, ma'am."
Dunn Smith sighed.
"This really is a tricky one..."
"Daly, this is Klein Moretti. See if you can discover anything from him."
Spirit Medium Daly immediately turned her gaze to Klein. She pointed to the armchair beside the main sofa.
"Please sit."
"Thank you." Klein nodded, walked over, and obediently sat down, his heart unconsciously rising into his throat.
Whether he lived or died, whether he got through this safely or had his secret exposed, all depended on what happened next!
What left him feeling most helpless was that he had nothing to rely on and could only place his hopes in his special circumstances...
This really is a terrible feeling... Klein thought bitterly.
As Dunn sat on the two-seater opposite him, Spirit Medium Daly took two thumb-sized glass bottles from a concealed pouch at her waist.
Her green eyes smiled at Klein.
"I need a little assistance. After all, you're not an enemy, so I can't treat you so directly and roughly. That would make you uncomfortable, cause pain, and might even leave serious aftereffects. I'll give you some fragrance, enough tenderness and lubrication to help you open yourself up little by little and truly immerse yourself in that feeling."
Why does that sound a little wrong... Klein was left speechless, surprise in his eyes.
Across from him, Dunn smiled.
"Don't be surprised. Unlike those fellows from the Church of the Lord of Storms, women here are also allowed to tease men verbally. You should understand that. Your mother was a devout believer in the Goddess, and you and your brother attended the Church's Sunday school."
"I understand. I just didn't expect it to be so, so..." Klein gestured, unable to find a suitable adjective, almost blurting out the equivalent of "an old hand at dirty talk."
The corners of Dunn's mouth rose.
"Don't worry. Daly rarely does this, actually. She's only trying to calm you down and help you relax. She likes corpses more than men."
"You make me sound like a pervert," Spirit Medium Daly interjected with a smile.
She opened one of the little bottles and sprinkled a few drops into the vivid blue candle flame.
"A hydrosol distilled and extracted from a mixture of night vanilla, slumber flowers, and chamomile. I call it Amanda, which means tranquility in Hermes. It smells lovely."
As she spoke, the candle flame flickered a few times. The drops of hydrosol quickly evaporated and spread through the room.
A delicate, enchanting fragrance entered Klein's nose. His emotions were no longer taut, and his mind swiftly grew peaceful, as though he were gazing down into darkness in the still of night.
"This bottle is called the Eye of Spirit. It's made by drying the bark and leaves of dragon-patterned trees and poplars in the sun for seven days, boiling them three times, and steeping them in Lanti liquor. Of course, a few incantations are involved along the way..." As Spirit Medium Daly explained, amber liquid dripped onto the vivid blue candle flame.
Klein smelled liquor, an ethereal, elusive scent of liquor. He saw the candle flame sway violently and Daly's blue eyeshadow and blush gleam with an eerie luster, even forming double images.
"It's an excellent aid for spirit channeling, and a sufficiently enchanting flower essence..."
As Daly spoke gently, Klein felt her voice coming from every direction.
Looking around in confusion, Klein found everything swaying and blurring, as though shrouded in layer upon layer of thick fog. His own body swayed and blurred along with it, floating and losing its weight.
Reds grew redder, blues bluer, and blacks blacker. Colors mingled like an impressionist oil painting, hazy and dreamlike, while fragmented, overlapping murmurs drifted over in waves, as though countless invisible people were talking.
This feels similar to when I performed the Luck Enhancement Ritual, but without that sensation that drives you mad and makes you want to explode... Klein watched it all, puzzled.
Just then, his gaze was drawn to a pair of eyes as clear as emeralds. Dressed in her black robe, Daly sat on the blurred "sofa," her gaze strangely fixed on the top of Klein's head. She smiled and spoke in a gentle voice:
"Let's formally introduce ourselves. I am Spirit Medium Daly."
This... I can still think calmly and rationally... Just like during the Luck Enhancement Ritual and the "gathering"... A thought struck Klein, and he deliberately acted dazed. "Hello..."
"The human mind is immensely vast and hides many secrets. Look at that sea. All we can understand ourselves are the islands exposed above its surface. But in fact, beneath the surface, a much larger part of each island remains. And in fact, apart from the islands, there is the entire sea, and the boundless sky that symbolizes the Spirit World..."
"You are the spirit of the body. You know not only the islands above the sea's surface, but also the parts hidden underwater, and the entire sea...
"Whatever exists must leave traces. Memories on the islands' surfaces can be erased, but the portions beneath the surface and the entire sea must retain corresponding projections of them..."
Daly guided him over and over. The blurred wind and shadows around them shifted into similar shapes, as though the sea of Klein's mind had been fully revealed here, waiting for him to search and discover it himself.
Klein watched calmly, occasionally "churning" the sea, before finally answering in a distant voice:
"No... I can't remember... I've forgotten..."
He displayed just the right amount of pain.
Daly tried guiding him once more, but the clearheaded Klein remained unaffected.
"All right, we'll end here. Go back."
"Go back."
"Go back..."
Amid the lingering ethereal voice, Daly disappeared. The wind and shadows began to settle, and the delicate fragrance and faint scent of liquor became distinct once again.
All the colors returned to normal. The blurry, bewildering sensation vanished, and Klein's body shuddered as he regained his weight.
He opened his eyes, which had closed at some point, and found the same candle with its vivid blue flame before him, the same Dunn Smith leaning back comfortably, and the same Spirit Medium Daly in her hooded black robe.
"Why were you using the theories of those evil lunatics from the Psychology Alchemists?" Dunn frowned slightly at Daly.
Putting away the two little bottles, Daly answered calmly:
"I think they're quite correct. At least, they fit some things I've seen and encountered..."
Before Dunn could speak again, she spread her hands.
"A tricky fellow. Not a single trace left behind."
Hearing this, Klein let out a long sigh of relief and asked with feigned bewilderment:
"Is it over? What happened just now? I feel like I took a nap..."
Does that mean I've passed?
Thank goodness I had a "rehearsal" with the Luck Enhancement Ritual!
"Think of it that way." Dunn interrupted him and looked at Spirit Medium Daly. "Have you examined Welch's and Naya's bodies?"
"Corpses can tell us more than you imagine. Unfortunately, Welch and Naya really did commit suicide. All I can say is that the power that influenced them is frightening. It didn't leave a single trace." Daly stood and reached toward the candle. "I'm going to rest."
The vivid blue light vanished, and hazy crimson instantly flooded the house.
"Congratulations, you can go home. But you must remember not to tell your family or friends about this. You must promise." Dunn led Klein toward the gate.
Klein asked in surprise, "Don't you need to check for traces of curses or evil spirits?"
"If Daly didn't mention them, there aren't any," Dunn answered briefly.
Relieved, Klein recalled his earlier worries and hurriedly asked:
"How can I make sure there won't be any trouble later?"
"Don't worry too much." The corners of Dunn's mouth moved. "According to statistics, in similar circumstances, eighty percent of the surviving people involved never encounter any terrible aftermath. Well, I'm giving that figure from memory. Approximately. More or less."
"Then there are still twenty percent who are unlucky..." Klein did not dare gamble on his luck.
"Then you could consider joining us as a civilian staff member. That way, we can spot any warning signs in time." Approaching the carriage, Dunn spoke casually. "Or become a Beyonder outright. After all, we aren't your nannies. We can't watch you night after night, even watching whatever you do with women."
"Can I?" Klein followed up on his remark.
Of course, he had almost no hope. After all, how could joining the Nighthawks and obtaining Beyonder powers be that easy?
Those were Beyonder powers!
Dunn stopped and glanced sideways at him.
"...It's not impossible. It depends..."
What? The turn caught Klein by surprise. He stood frozen beside the carriage for a moment before saying:
"Really?"
Are you kidding? Becoming a Beyonder could be this easy?
Dunn chuckled, his gray eyes hidden in the carriage's shadow.
"You don't believe me? In fact, becoming a Nighthawk means losing a great deal, such as your freedom."
"Even setting that aside for now, there are other problems. First, you aren't a clergyman with meritorious service or a devout believer, so you won't get to pick and choose. You can't select the safest pathway."
"Second..." Dunn gripped the handrail and climbed into the carriage. "Of the incidents we, the Mandated Punishers, the Machinery Hivemind, and other similar adjudicating agencies handle each year, a quarter involve Beyonders losing control."
A quarter... Beyonders losing control... Klein froze.
At that moment, Dunn turned halfway around. His gray eyes were deep, and the corners of his mouth moved without a smile.
"And of that quarter, a large proportion are our teammates."