The Hidden Sage and Scarlet Rot

Hum-

The instant Leon saw those eyes, the Elden Ring deep within his spirit body suddenly trembled.

Rage from the very source of the Lands Between surged from the depths of the Elden Ring, as though something had profaned it.

But at that same moment, Leon suppressed the impulse.

His current body was somewhat cumbersome, and it couldn't withstand that power.

Never mind the Elden Ring-even using the power of a single Great Rune would probably be enough to make his body burst.

Now he didn't need to confirm what it was. The Elden Ring had recognized the presence before he did.

Rot.

Scarlet Rot.

It was a law governed by an outer deity, the "Goddess of Scarlet Rot," who had once appeared in the Lands Between. It represented "rot and reincarnation," a rule that forced all things to ripen into decay, come to an end, and give birth to new life from within.

He had never directly faced this outer deity; that had happened before he transmigrated to the Lands Between.

The story could even be traced back to the War against the Giants, but he was no stranger to Scarlet Rot.

On his path to becoming a king, that valkyrie had nearly become the body in which the goddess was resurrected.

But the outcome was obvious: he had won. No matter what, hers was merely the law of a defeated foe.

Leon calmly accepted the coffee Old Neil handed him, then looked away from the old man and fixed his gaze on the pair of eyes floating in the air.

Only when the emotionless eyes seemed to show a flicker of avoidance and slowly faded away did he look back at the other two.

"Leon, do you need the notes... What's wrong?"

Klein instinctively activated Spirit Vision and looked around. Finding nothing amiss, he examined Leon's condition.

He found that Leon was extremely healthy, and even the color representing his mental state was unusually bright.

"I'm fine." Leon blocked Klein's gaze, lest he fail to conceal himself properly and harm Klein's spirit body.

He turned to Old Neil and said, "Mr. Neil, there's a pair of eyes behind you."

Old Neil froze for a moment, then waved a hand. He first glanced at Klein, then chuckled and explained, "That's just a manifestation of Ritualistic Magic. Klein has seen it before too."

After Klein confirmed it, Leon nodded, but he had no intention of dropping the subject. "I see. I wonder if I might have the privilege of learning this Ritualistic Magic?"

"As you know, there's a great deal for a Nighthawk to learn."

"You'll have the chance, but it's a little too early for you now," Old Neil said with a chuckle.

"Klein said your family seems to have passed down quite a bit of knowledge. How much Ancient Hermes have you mastered?"

"The vast majority of the vocabulary isn't a problem." Leon said no more, or it would have seemed a little deliberate.

"Then let's skip the basics. If there's anything you've missed, you can ask Klein. He's a top student from Khoy University."

Klein didn't mind.

Over the following hours, Old Neil taught them a series of basic facts about mysticism.

He gave a general outline of what they would study later, including astrology, pendulum divination, herbs, Ritualistic Magic, and supernatural creatures.

Aside from the incident at the beginning, Old Neil was an excellent teacher.

He spoke with wit and humor, and his explanations were easy to understand.

"Oh, there's one thing I need to warn you about in particular."

At the end of the lesson, Old Neil spoke solemnly.

"Never pray to mysterious entities other than the seven gods, or you may very well bring about unimaginable consequences.

That's something I've told every Nighthawk who came to study!"

Two minutes later, Leon and Klein walked out through the iron door.

After saying goodbye to Old Neil, they left the underground together and followed the spiral staircase up to the corridor on the ground floor.

In an office where they were alone, the two ate the work meals delivered from Old Verne's Restaurant.

Klein ate with his head down, focused on his meal. Leon speared a piece of stewed mutton, chewed it a couple of times, and suddenly spoke.

"You said you'd seen those eyes?"

"Yeah, after I activated Spirit Vision for the first time." Klein looked up, speaking indistinctly around the food he hadn't yet swallowed.

"What did they look like?" Leon put down his fork.

"Just a pair of transparent eyes with no eyelashes..." Klein swallowed his food and described what he remembered seeing.

Leon listened and tapped his fingers lightly on the table twice.

According to Klein's description, the eyes hadn't seemed to show any signs of infection by Scarlet Rot at the time.

That made things difficult. The matter was more complicated than he'd imagined.

"I see." Leon nodded thoughtfully.

Klein had just picked up his fork when he suddenly froze. He put it down and looked at Leon hesitantly.

"Wait, are you asking because-"

The more he thought about it, the more something felt wrong.

Offensive as the thought was, from what he'd seen of his new colleague, Leon never asked questions without a reason.

If those eyes had something to do with Old Neil, could Old Neil also be involved in all this mess?

Old Neil? That gray-haired, affable old man who even spoke with a smile?

Klein felt that the thought was a little absurd, but he couldn't stop himself from pursuing it.

"No." Leon waved a hand, his voice soft. "At least, that wasn't what I was referring to just now."

Klein breathed a sigh of relief.

He really didn't want to drag Old Neil into this tangled mess too. Old Neil was a good teacher.

He was just about to pick up his fork again-

"But as far as I know, the Mystery Pryer Pathway is controlled by a secret organization called the Moses Ascetic Order. The god they believe in seems to take the form of a pair of eyes."

Klein's hand stopped in midair.

His fork hovered above his plate, gravy slowly dripping from it.

"The Moses Ascetic Order?"

The relevant memories quickly surfaced. He remembered Dunn saying that the Nighthawks' Mystery Pryer Potion formula and the incomplete subsequent portions had been obtained from the Moses Ascetic Order.

They hadn't fallen at the time, but the captain didn't seem to have said exactly why they had fallen.

And at the Tarot Club meeting a few days ago, Mr. Hanged Man had happened to mention the secret organization too, adding the most widely circulated explanation.

Mr. Hanged Man had mentioned it as an amusing anecdote. Klein hadn't paid it any attention at the time, but when he put it together with Leon's words...

A sudden sense of foreboding welled up in his heart.

"What's wrong?" Leon looked at Klein's frozen expression and speared another piece of beef with his fork. "You don't look well."

Klein came back to his senses, put down his fork, and took a sip from the glass of water on the table before he managed to suppress the chill rising from the bottom of his heart.

"It's nothing," he said. "I just... suddenly remembered a few things."

Seeing that he seemed to have achieved the effect he wanted, Leon said nothing more.

Klein hesitated for a few seconds before saying, "The Moses Ascetic Order you just mentioned, I've... heard a little about them."

"Oh?"

"Captain Dunn mentioned that the Nighthawks obtained the Mystery Pryer Potion formula from them. At the time, they hadn't yet... fallen." Klein chose his words carefully. "As for exactly why they fell, he didn't say."

Leon nodded without speaking, being a good listener.

The knowledge left behind by the body's original owner contained no particularly detailed information, and that was exactly what he needed now.

"It's just..." Klein lowered his voice. "A... friend of mine also mentioned the organization. He said the Hidden Sage the Moses Ascetic Order believed in during its early days wasn't a god, but more like an idea."

"Then, later on, the Hidden Sage came to life and became a personified evil god."