Klein's Probe

She raised her eyes to Leon.

"That lady's husband didn't pay it any attention at first either, until he went to the scene himself. He said there were strange scorch marks on the walls and ground around the corpses. He wanted to write a report afterward, but his superiors suppressed it."

"Based on the information Mr. Sailor mentioned, I thought there might be a connection between the two, so I asked someone to investigate further."

"Judging by the photographs of the scene, it was indeed just as Mr. Sailor described: the flames had burned from the inside out."

"What kind of creatures were those corpses?" Leon asked thoughtfully.

"Most were beasts that lived in the sewers," Audrey said after a moment's thought. "But a very small number of people were caught up in it and injured as well."

Leon leaned back in his chair and tapped a finger lightly against the armrest, seemingly lost in thought.

The movement was slight, but in the quiet hall, both of them heard it clearly.

"Did the lady's husband say who those people were?" Leon asked after a moment.

Audrey shook her head. "There was no specific information. They seemed to be vagrants or sewer workers, but he mentioned that the location shouldn't have needed repairs. He didn't know how they got in."

Leon's finger paused on the armrest for a moment, and he couldn't help feeling a little surprised.

He had mentioned it offhand at the time, never expecting to get any useful information. He hadn't expected it to actually pay off!

"It was definitely the Frenzied Flame." He looked at Audrey, as though reassessing the abilities of this unexpected visitor. "This information is important, Miss Spectator. You may name the reward you want."

"It's only a guess." Audrey's eyes lit up at once, but she put on a reserved manner as she answered.

"Timely information is valuable enough even if it's only a guess, Miss Spectator. Excessive modesty is pride. People should learn to recognize their own abilities."

"You're an excellent member." Leon praised her without reservation, then turned to Klein, who had remained silent all this time.

"What about you, Mr. Sailor?"

"I'm sorry, but I haven't gathered any information about the Erdtree Church or the Frenzied Flame," Klein said in a low voice.

He looked at the powerful existence seated behind the radiance of Grace. This was the greatest hope he had encountered so far of returning to his hometown.

He had intended to exchange the information Leon had told him about the Scarlet Rot and the Erdtree Church ritual that had initially treated him as a sacrifice.

But when he was about to speak, he found himself unable to get the words out.

Though their time together had been brief, it had been profound. Klein had long since stopped thinking of Leon as a temporary collaborator. Leon had saved his life more than once.

If he exposed his companion for the sake of a sliver of hope, his conscience might condemn him mercilessly.

Fortunately, this was only the first gathering. There would be plenty of time to gather information afterward, and this wasn't his only option.

"But perhaps I have something else that might interest you, Mr. Stars." Klein suddenly raised his head, speaking as though he had made up his mind about something.

"Could I use it in exchange?"

"No problem, but its actual value will have to be assessed by my standards," Leon replied, looking with considerable curiosity at the man who was constantly concealed by some kind of fog.

"May I ask if you know of a man named Roselle Gustav?"

Rather than rushing into an explanation, Klein posed a question of his own.

"I happen to have a note he left behind. No one has been able to decipher the symbols on it to this day, but I thought that, as information left by a High Sequence powerhouse, it might be of some help to you."

His words took Leon aback, and even Audrey, who was waiting at the side, looked over in confusion.

"That ancient emperor with all the famous quotes?"

Leon's voice echoed through the Roundtable Hold, carrying an indescribable emotion.

Audrey keenly sensed the fluctuation in that instant.

But she didn't think too much of it. Powerful people always had things in common in one respect or another. If Mr. Fool was interested in Roselle's notes, there was no reason Mr. Stars wouldn't be.

It was just that the notes in her possession were all meant to be exchanged with Mr. Fool, so she couldn't make that decision on her own.

But perhaps she could ask at a later Tarot Club gathering whether she could exchange them with someone else as well?

Audrey considered this without showing it.

"Yes, the former monarch of Intis," Klein answered, neither servile nor overbearing.

"How will you give it to me?" Leon narrowed his eyes slightly, waiting for Mr. Sailor, who had suddenly sprung this surprise on him.

Klein fell silent for a few seconds, as though thinking, before saying, "Do you have paper and a pen here? I can try to copy it down for you."

"There's no need to go to that trouble," Leon said with a smile, then snapped his fingers again.

A sheet of paper sprang out of the flames of the Greater Grace and landed in front of Klein.

"Just look at this paper and recall the symbols."

A few seconds later, a sheet covered in awkward simplified Chinese characters, with even a few mistakes among them, landed in front of Leon.

"If you can decipher it, please allow me to obtain the information on it in exchange for a suitable price." Klein borrowed Mr. Hanged Man's words to give himself another layer of insurance.

Leon said nothing, merely nodding before reading the note in his hand. For a moment, the air in the hall seemed to grow thicker.

Klein resisted the urge to swallow, a light sweat breaking out on his palms.

He knew this move was somewhat risky, but it was the only bargaining chip he could think of that he could offer without exposing the Tarot Club or betraying Leon.

It also gave him a reasonable way to probe Mr. Stars to some extent.

Judging by his reaction a week ago, Mr. Stars knew very little about this world and had said he was going to do something more important, showing a strong desire to take action.

That meant He might have more than one way of obtaining information, and Klein needed to be more careful.

If his guess was wrong, that would also let him make more specific plans for their later exchanges.

But judging by Mr. Stars's response now, He really did have more than one channel for obtaining information.

In the space of a week, He had acquired a considerable amount of information, enough to know something about a figure from the history books.

Now it was time to test his second conjecture.

Klein steadied his emotions and watched. When he saw Leon begin to read in earnest, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

If Mr. Stars could understand these characters, that meant He was almost certainly a transmigrator like him!

And he had cleverly written the text with mistakes all over it. That way, not only had he avoided revealing that he was also a transmigrator, but he could also gain a better advantage in their later exchanges.

Yes, even after confirming it, Klein had no intention of revealing his identity outright. He had heard of people from the same hometown meeting in a previous life, only for one to shoot the other in the back.

What was more, the other party was an existence with immense power. Roselle's diary showed how quickly his thinking had adapted to this world where the strong preyed on the weak. Power could change a person's mindset very quickly.

Until he had fully established the other party's moral inclinations, or reached a sufficient level himself, Klein intended only to keep himself hidden.

Of course, he didn't think Mr. Stars would reveal his own identity either.

Caution had long been standard among transmigrators.

He was just thinking about how to ask when he heard Leon's voice, tinged with pleasure.

"Mr. Sailor, do you know about Earth?"