The Start of a Partnership and a Strange Letter

Time slowly passed noon, and sunlight fell just right across the table.

Leon looked at Klein, who was in a good mood, and abruptly changed the subject.

"Klein, can you answer a question for me?"

"Hmm?" Klein looked up, a little ice cream juice still on the corner of his mouth.

He suddenly wanted to throw up the food he had just eaten.

"To be honest, at first I thought you were a rather cautious person."

Leon gently stirred his black tea with a spoon and spoke slowly under Klein's puzzled gaze.

"But after this, I realized that judgment seemed a little off. After all, most people wouldn't testify for me and say those things in front of the captain."

He glanced at Klein's empty ice cream cup, raised a hand to summon the waiter, and ordered another.

"Do you know what that means?" Leon gave Klein a mysterious look.

Following Leon's example, Klein said nothing and simply looked at him.

The emotion gradually faded from his brown eyes.

"It means you have something to fall back on." Leon's tone grew a little more serious. "I don't know what it is, and you may not even realize it yourself yet, but I believe it's there."

He paused, his gaze resting on Klein's face as he found a precise way to describe it.

"You remind me of someone standing at the edge of a cliff. He knows there's nothing ahead, but he still dares to step forward. Either he has a death wish, or he knows there's a net below."

"I'm guessing you don't have a death wish, so you must know the fall won't kill you." Leon spoke casually, but Klein's heart skipped a beat.

Damn, has he really found something out? Or is he showing off how observant he is? Is it too late to throw up all that food now...? Klein thought helplessly.

Those words instantly brought to mind the palace that stood Above the Gray Fog.

That enormous space surrounded by an ancient table and chairs.

He suddenly realized that he really did seem to have only a partial understanding of what it meant to become the Fool.

He knew only that it was safe there, not why it was safe.

He knew only that it was the "Fool's" seat, not what gave that chair the power to block all prying eyes.

And regardless of whether Leon actually knew something or was probing him.

If what Leon said was true, and he dared to step forward because he subconsciously knew there was a net below, he also knew that he hadn't woven that net himself.

Then who had woven it? When had it been woven? And what did the person who wove it want from him?

Klein's fingers tightened slightly.

Leon's words had given rise to countless questions in an instant.

For a second, he actually considered revealing something.

Probing Leon's reaction in some subtle way.

But the moment the thought appeared, he ruthlessly nipped it in the bud.

I can't say anything. Absolutely not.

That secret didn't belong to him alone.

Too much was tied to it, too many people were involved. His transmigration, the Tarot Club-any leak could lead to unpredictable consequences.

Klein took a deep breath and was about to say something to smooth things over.

"Waiter, the bill." Leon suddenly pressed the bell, his tone as light as if nothing had happened.

Klein froze.

"Huh? That's it?"

"We're done talking."

Leon pulled a few banknotes from his pocket and slipped them under the bill. "I've said what I needed to say, and you haven't said what you shouldn't. Isn't that good?"

Klein opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to say.

Leon stood, picked up his cane and hat, and politely invited Klein along. Klein had no choice but to stand and hurry after him.

After paying the bill of five pounds and thirteen soli, the two walked side by side in the shade along the street.

"I'm very sorry," Leon suddenly said, his voice much softer than before. "I wasn't trying to pry into a companion's secrets, and I imagine you aren't either. I just wanted to see whether, besides being smart, you were also the reliable sort."

"After all, people who can keep their own secrets are more likely to stay alive."

He glanced sideways at Klein, a trace of a smile on his lips, and added teasingly, "That's also why I was willing to talk to you first instead of Leonard."

Klein couldn't help coughing.

He remembered what Leonard had once said to him: "I think we're actually the same kind of people."

Apparently, Leonard had said something similar to Leon, and the effect had been quite... direct.

"But that also shows that Leonard has something to fall back on too."

Leon continued walking on his own, his cane tapping crisply against the stone pavement.

"Looks like he said something similar to you about being the same kind of people. From what I've seen so far, he probably wasn't just talking."

"He's also the reason I think there are hidden talents among the Nighthawks of Tingen."

Klein was silent for a few seconds before asking, "Are you this... direct with everyone?"

"Uh... depends." Leon spoke without looking back.

"I think being direct with you is the most effective approach, for one thing. For another, we've spent the most time together, so you're worth placing a certain amount of trust in. As for Leonard-"

He paused.

"When he wants me to be direct, he'll come find me himself."

Klein looked at his back and suddenly felt that this new colleague was far more complicated than he had imagined.

His "indifferent" attitude might not mean he truly didn't care; his "direct" way of speaking might not mean he was truly holding nothing back.

And there was the question of why the Archbishop had personally cleared him of suspicion.

The secrets he carried might be no fewer than Mr. Azik's.

Leon hailed a carriage and went home with Klein. Dunn had given them both the day off, so of course they intended to rest properly.

With things having progressed this far, Leon had largely completed the first step of his plan, and he had learned more than he expected.

Traces of the gods of the Lands Between, information about a fellow transmigrator, and the person who had plotted against his predecessor from behind the scenes. Leon even thought his predecessor wasn't the only one who had been schemed against.

Perhaps even his own arrival this time wasn't so simple, but in any case, he needed a good start.

As for the little interlude of saving Klein, Leon didn't think he had done it entirely out of curiosity about the secrets Klein was hiding.

More than that, he could hardly stand by and watch a colleague he had spent the whole night chatting with die in front of him. He wasn't an evil god.

At worst, being exposed would cause a little trouble.

But Leon, who had once been a pitiful corporate slave, understood one thing very well. Since he planned to stay with the Nighthawks for the time being,

a colleague he liked, could have a conversation with, and who wouldn't make a fuss at every turn was essential!

And Klein happened to fit those conditions very, very well.

To his delight, the result showed that he had made the right decision.

As for Klein mentioning that he had divined the influence of a supernatural power behind it all, and whether those "coincidences" or "arrangements" were scripted or improvised,

Leon felt neither was the most important thing. His arrival and the Frenzied Flame's reappearance were definitely not things that lousy screenwriter could have written.

They would even disrupt that person's arrangements to some extent.

So what mattered now were his old opponents. He was certain that the Frenzied Flame had come for him this time, and he had deliberately left behind an item bearing the aura of his true body.

It had come that very night. In that case, the others certainly wouldn't remain idle behind the scenes.

It was just that the Frenzied Flame had no brains and hadn't even thought to hide its tracks. The other, more calculating ones were different.

So he needed his own information channels and had to make preparations before his power recovered. After all, whether in the Lands Between or in this unfamiliar world, going it alone wasn't a good thing.

The Roundtable Hold could serve as a base for that, which might have been Ranni's intention.

He could also begin making contact with the people of the Erdtree Church. A Tarnished needed slaughter to grow.

The carriage stopped outside Daffodil Street. The two walked side by side to their doors and each took out a key.

From inside their respective homes came calls of "Brother" and, from Martha, who had arrived earlier, "Young master."

"See you tomorrow." Leon tipped his hat.

"See you tomorrow." Klein nodded.

They each turned toward their doors. Just before the door closed, Klein suddenly called out to him.

"By the way, the captain said that, according to procedure, starting tomorrow you need to come with me to report to Old Neil and learn some procedural mysticism."

He thought for a moment, then added, "If you don't need it, I can tell him for you."

"I'll go." Leon leaned against the doorframe and smiled. "The Nighthawks' knowledge must be better than what's been passed down in my fallen family."

Klein nodded and closed the door.

Leon looked up and suddenly saw a letter in the entryway.

After asking Martha about it and learning that the letter had arrived at noon, Leon immediately narrowed his eyes.

He opened the letter and saw a flourishing Erdtree design printed behind the writing. It contained only one sentence:

"Great Child of Prophecy, please be patient for now. The seed of the Haligtree has been planted. Please look forward to the day the law descends."

It was signed, "Your faithful believer."