Backlund, North Borough.
On a night when the crimson moon was obscured by layers of clouds, everything was pitch black except for the gas streetlights on both sides of the street, which emitted a faint glow, illuminating the road ahead and the doorways of nearby houses.
The mailbox at 7 Pinster Street, nestled quietly at the boundary between light and darkness, seemed to be asleep, bathed in the cool breeze blowing from the side.
Just then, newspapers, bills, and letters from unknown senders suddenly poured out of its mail slot.
These things seemed to be Invisible Hand, Levitation in mid-air, flying towards the doorway, and slipping through the crack.
Inside the house, in the foyer, newspapers unfolded on their own, flipping rapidly until the last page, then casually fell onto the chairs, stacked together with their predecessors.
The bills and letters continued flying inwards, entering the living room. The former quickly stopped, shook a few times, and then floated leisurely to the coffee table, where they were neatly laid out. The latter, those with envelopes, removed them, while those without quickly opened themselves, displaying their forms in mid-air.
After a while, some of these letters flew to the shelves in the study on the first floor, while others rushed toward the scissors, helping the sender to tear themselves to pieces, and then lined up and poured into the bathroom, where they were thrown into the toilet.
Whoosh!
The toilet's mechanical button sank down on its own, flushing the paper scraps down the drain.
7 Pinster Street returned to normal, quiet like the other uninhabited houses.
Southern Continent, East Balam, Gurain City.
Leonard Mitchell, who had just arrived, was resting in accommodations arranged by the local Church of Evernight.
Suddenly, that slightly aged voice rang out in his mind:
"Kid, you have an important letter."
"What letter?" Leonard asked in a low voice, already having a guess in his mind.
There are only one, no, two people who can send important letters to 7 Pinster Street, yet don't care whether anyone is there or not:
Klein Moretti and Dawn Dantès.
As for why the Old Man named Pallez Zoroast could clearly read the contents of the letters received at No. 7 Pinster Street across the Raging Sea and half of the Northern Continent, Leonard could probably guess a thing or two, because he had helped the other party capture a ghost.
His assessment of this was:
The Old Man must have separated a " Worm of Time " and Parasitism the ghost's body, making it his eyes, ears, and mouth left behind in the Northern Continent.
At this moment, Pallez Zoroast answered his question:
"A letter from Klein Moretti Dawn Dantès discovered Ince Zangwill's trail on Midseashire Island in the Raging Sea while en route to the Southern Continent."
Leonard fell silent for a moment, his mouth opened and closed, but he couldn't utter a single word.
After a long pause, he whispered in a slightly hoarse voice:
"He really hasn't forgotten his revenge..."
Is there anything I can do to help?
"What can you do? You're only Sequence 6. Even if Ince Zangwill hasn't mastered '0-08,' you're not qualified to take revenge on him. He only needs to partially reveal his Mythical Creature Form to make you lose control or go Lunatic on the spot. Your chances of successfully taking revenge are 0! That's the qualitative change brought about by divinity," Pallez Zoroast said in a rather serious tone.
He paused for a moment, then chuckled and said:
"Fortunately, you're more self-aware than before. In the past, you would have said, 'I want to pass on Ince Zangwill's information to the church and join the tracking and capture team.' But now, you know to ask what you can do."
Leonard wanted to argue several times, but he didn't say anything.
Pallez Zoroast continued:
"All you can do for now is give Klein Moretti some intelligence, wait for his reply, and then cooperate accordingly based on the instructions."
"Not going to find an excuse to inform the church of Ince Zangwill's whereabouts?" Leonard asked in a low voice, slightly taken aback.
Pallez Zoroast chuckled:
"No need to rush, wait until the crucial moment to do so."
"Although '0-08' enjoys killing its owners, it doesn't want to return to its sealed state Ince Zangwill's whereabouts and initiate the corresponding pursuit, it will know immediately and make sufficient arrangements."
"You need to remind Klein Moretti of this."
Leonard paused for a second and said:
" Old Man, you seem quite familiar with '0-08'."
This has never been shown before!
Pallez chuckled in a slightly aged voice:
"Of course I'm very familiar with it. During the Quaternary Period, '0-08' caused the fall of Angel."
"I can't tell you too much, because once you know it, it will know you too. The more you understand it, the more likely you are to become a part of the story."
Leonard truly grasped the terror of "0-08" from the Old Man's vague words; it was beyond any understanding of mysticism!
After a moment's thought, Leonard asked, as was his habit:
"How can I hint to Klein Moretti without letting '0-08' know, or even if it does know, only to give me a superficial understanding, leaving me merely a passerby in the story..."
Before he could finish speaking, Leonard clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and without waiting for the Old Man's reply, said to himself:
"A veiled hint? Tell him that I won't be handing over Ince Zangwill's whereabouts to the Church for the time being... I think he should be able to understand from this situation that there's a problem, and realize that we must be more cautious than cautious, and even if he can't decipher it, his Concealment organization has enough members who know enough about the Fourth Epoch to help."
"Also, write a normal sentence, 'If you know it, it will know you,' without mentioning '0-08,' and use personal pronouns so that Klein can guess what it refers to..."
Pallez Zoroast listened quietly, then chuckled softly:
"People need pressure to grow."
Leonard sighed, sat up, found paper and pen, and wrote down his thoughts in the letter.
He then set up a ritual and summoned Gehrman Sparrow's messenger.
The Raging Sea, Midseashire Island, a passenger ship docked at the pier.
Many tourists did not disembark, but huddled in the lower cabins, waiting to arrive on the Southern Continent and begin a hopeful new life.
Even with only a few days' worth of fare, they managed to scrape together the money with great difficulty; they were the people of Loen who were forced to take such a risk.
Unlike the others, Klein, Acting the wealthy Dawn Dantès, was staying in a spacious, clean, and luxurious first-class cabin. By the light of candlelight, he opened the letter that Reinette Tinekerr had just delivered.
"For the time being Ince Zangwill's whereabouts... For Leonard, although the source of the intelligence will put him at some risk, it's not to the point where he can't do it... He joined the ' Red Gloves ' for revenge, didn't he? In other words, he has a reason not to report Ince Zangwill right now..." Klein pondered, glancing at the remaining contents of the letter, "You know it, and it knows you."
Suddenly, Klein exclaimed "Huh?" as if the description sounded familiar!
"This is very much like the Hermits of Fate, where everything spoken is known... So, '0-08' is Sealed Artifact of the Spectator pathway? Leonard didn't tell the church because he had this concern and wanted to wait for a better opportunity? This must be what the old man inside him told him..." Klein nodded thoughtfully, somewhat glad that he hadn't asked Reinette Tinekerr for help before.
This was also a very dangerous situation for the messenger.
"Moreover, and most importantly, I'm not prepared for anything yet. If I rely solely on the help I've brought in, my plans are very likely to be detected by '0-08' beforehand, leading to a series of coincidences and targeted arrangements..." Klein sighed silently, feeling that he should do something, but not knowing where to begin.
From the perspective of improving his own strength, the acquisition of materials corresponding to the Trickmaster, and Spirit World Plunderer depends on the follow-up request from the chief of City of Silver, and on how long it will take for Miss " Magician " to obtain the specific location information from her teacher. These are all external forces, and cannot be accelerated by Klein at will.
The only thing he could do was to digest the " Marionettist " Potion as quickly as possible.
After the "rules of Acting " have been largely summarized, practical application becomes even more important.
Therefore, Klein believed it was necessary for him to acquire two Marionette in a short period of time!
He had been delaying because he didn't have a good target, and because he was in Backlund, surrounded by servants, and it was difficult to conceal his presence unless he was a special Marionette. But now that he was almost at the Southern Continent, he decided that no matter what, as long as he was sure that the villain was worthy of being hanged, he would first turn him into his Marionette, and then replace him when he found a better target!
Perhaps using ordinary Marionette to accomplish more difficult tasks can even speed up the digestion process... Heh, I've lowered my requirements for Marionette to the bare minimum now; as long as they understand Dutanese, that'll be enough. That way, I won't need to find a translator, since we can share senses anyway... Klein quickly made a decision, planning to write to Leonard Mitchell later when he had a more advanced plan.
East Balam, Gurain City.
Klein, carrying his suitcase, boarded the dock and set foot on the land of the Southern Continent.
He gazed at the distinctly layered urban area built against the mountainside and silently murmured to himself:
"You'll need two Marionette to leave here."
Before that, he had one more thing to do: shake off the secret "followers" assigned by the military.
The two gentlemen were actually quite skilled espionage agents, but to Klein they were as bright as fireflies in the Evernight, because no matter how they disguised themselves, Klein could recognize them at a glance with the help of the " Faceless's " ability to observe and remember human physical characteristics and facial features.