Curiosity Killed the Cat

Half an hour later, Old Neil, still unconscious, was taken away to be properly cared for. If nothing unexpected happened, he would probably end up at Tingen City Hospital, behind the Tingen City Police Headquarters where Leon had once stayed.

The remaining Nighthawks set about handling the scene with practiced ease, sealing evidence, marking bloodstains, and photographing everything for the records. The entire process was quiet and efficient.

The police, who had rushed to the scene, also began maintaining order to prevent any risk of information leaking out.

After confirming that nothing had been overlooked, Dunn sent the two men, who should have been helping with the work, home to rest.

His only requirement was that they write a report on what had happened the next morning. He would first give the Cathedral a rough account that night.

Leonard, who had been assigned to night duty, was terribly envious. Under his resentful gaze, the two walked out of the suburban residence into the evening breeze.

The night breeze deftly dispersed the lingering scent of rot around them.

Leon had intended to treat Klein to a meal as an apology, but Klein had seemed rather quiet ever since they left Old Neil's house. He politely declined the invitation.

Although Klein still boarded the public carriage Leon paid for, he did not say another word all the way back to their homes on Daffodil Street, until the Moretti family's door was locked behind him.

Watching Klein's silent figure recede, Leon shook his head and closed his own door as well.

Martha skillfully brought the prepared meal to the table. After a moment's thought, Leon asked her to make another portion and take it to the Morettis across the street.

As he ate, Leon took several sheets of paper from a drawer and began writing his report.

He deliberately played down the Hidden Sage's presence in the report, describing him only as a negative effect of Old Neil's corruption-a hallucination that accompanied the corruption, rather than an independent source of it.

Instead, he focused on describing another, more obvious corruption. He did not write down the name "Scarlet Rot" directly.

First, he was being cautious: there was a chance that the owner of a true name would sense it when it was written on paper;

Second, he wanted to see whether the Cathedral had any records of the gods of the Lands Between.

If it did, then it certainly would not stand idly by and watch an Outer Deity among the stars encroach on this world.

If it had no records, then, faced with this sudden, unknown corruption, the Nighthawks at headquarters would inevitably heighten their vigilance and mobilize more resources to investigate.

That was bound to cause considerable trouble for the rat in the gutter who manufactured coincidences.

That way, Leon could stop worrying for the time being about one coincidence after another and set about searching for the truth behind his arrival here.

So whatever response the Cathedral gave, it would move things in the direction he wanted.

That was also why he had chosen to make a big issue of it rather than keep it confined to this city.

Years of experience had taught him that in certain environments where a special balance was maintained, extraordinary things required extraordinary means.

Those methods were often troublesome to carry out, but overturning the table and muddying the waters was the simplest of them, and the one Leon was best at.

Since the forces he had uncovered kept appearing one after another, and all liked to hide away and speak in riddles, he would let the riddlers deal with the riddlers and the rats in the gutter deal with the rats in the gutter.

They all had their own objectives, and Leon did not believe they could get along so harmoniously without any conflict. As soon as conflict arose, they would inevitably expose themselves. Once they were exposed, everything would fall into place.

After all, it was not as though Leon had never killed a god. If they really had some troublesome means of resurrection, he would not mind finding a few fellow countrymen who specialized in dealing with such things.

Satisfied, Leon folded the report he had carefully composed, slipped it into a file envelope, leaned back in his chair, and picked up his teacup.

The tea had gone cold. He was about to get up and pour himself a hot cup when he suddenly froze, turning his gaze toward the wall beside the entryway.

In that instant just now, he had sensed the scent of home from that direction-that scent shrouded in Gray Fog, which he had once sensed among the stars.

The scent had vanished after a single instant, so quickly that even he could not pinpoint its location.

But that also happened to prove that what he needed really did exist in this world.

Perhaps it was Leon's fellow countryman, Roselle Gustav, whom Leon had confirmed was dead in the historical records.

As for the fact that the scent had come from the direction of the Moretti home, Leon, uncharacteristically, did not make much of a connection this time.

Although he had deliberately probed Klein's secret during their meal that day, he did not think it had anything to do with the Gray Fog.

At the time, he had mostly been acting out of a mischievous impulse.

Leon felt a slight pang of remorse over that and decided to treat Klein to something better as compensation once he was in a better mood.

Meanwhile, at the Moretti home.

After eating the meal Leon had sent over, Klein made sure Benson and Melissa were both asleep.

He tiptoed into the bathroom and locked the door behind him.

Then he took a deep breath and recited the incantation. The familiar sensation of weightlessness swept over him, the sounds around him faded away, and his consciousness rose.

Amid the familiar weightlessness and whispers, Klein began reviewing the day's events in his mind.

In fact, he had already figured some things out in the carriage. Leon's method had been risky, but it had also been the best way to keep Old Neil safe.

He understood that an open attack was easy to dodge, but a hidden arrow was hard to guard against. This time, it was Old Neil, someone they knew, who had been targeted, allowing them to discover it in time. Next time, an accident could be caused by someone else.

No one could remain on guard forever against trouble that might or might not appear.

It was just that the unknown information appearing with increasing frequency during this period had fallen on him like raindrops, catching him unprepared and putting him at a disadvantage because of the gaps in his knowledge.

That was a situation Klein had always tried to avoid.

But since asking Leon directly was not the best choice, that left only one method.

He would go Above the Gray Fog and use its special properties to perform a divination. While he was at it, he could also try once more to find the cause of Old Neil's corruption.

Above the boundless, hazy grayish-white fog, Klein's figure slowly appeared at the head of the towering, magnificent ancient table.

A sheet of paper he had just conjured lay before him.

After a moment's thought, he wrote down the information he wished to divine, which he had already turned over countless times in his mind.

"Leon's experiences."

If he still believed, at this point, that the things written in the records were the entirety of Leon's experiences, he would be a fool!

But after writing the divination statement, Klein hesitated.

Was this really all right? Using the Gray Fog to gather information about him.

What little conscience Klein had left began to ache.

But Leon's actions had shown that something was amiss at every turn, and the words he had inadvertently spoken during their meal that day had even pointed to Above the Gray Fog.

In the end, curiosity won out over conscience. Klein told himself that he would never do anything to Leon's detriment because of this.

After silently reciting the divination statement seven times, he leaned back in his chair. His eyelids drooped, and with the aid of the Gray Fog, he sank into an illusory, hazy dream.

Soon, he saw a boundless expanse of illusory grayish-white fog.

Translucent golden leaves drifted through the fog. A gust of wind swept them up, and Klein's gaze followed them as the fog gradually receded.

Then Klein saw an Erdtree stretching from earth to heaven.