The Fellow Earthling Collection Plan

Mr. Sailor, do you know Earth...

Do you know Earth...

Earth...

Know...

The first part was in Loenese, but the second was the word "Earth," spoken in perfectly standard Mandarin.

That pronunciation had no meaning in the Loen Kingdom's linguistic system.

Nor was it a variant of any known place name or concept.

It was a purely foreign word, one that should not have appeared in this world.

The instant those words fell, Klein's pupils abruptly contracted.

The majestic, solemn voice from beneath that starry face was like a depth charge.

With a hum, it exploded straight into Klein's little head, where he had still been making plans.

In that instant, his deliberately controlled emotions and body language nearly gave him away.

He felt he had reacted faster than ever before in his life to keep himself from being completely exposed. He controlled his heartbeat, his breathing, and his Spirituality's instinctive stress response.

Under the cover of the Gray Fog, Klein ultimately kept anyone from noticing anything amiss. Without leaving a trace, he loosened the fingers gripping the armrest.

Having steadied his emotions in the space of a breath, Klein couldn't help looking at the face shrouded in starlight.

Earth? Bro, why the hell aren't you playing by the rules at all?! That's way too direct.

Could it be that you're already strong enough to ignore all the risks?

Klein's mind raced at that moment.

He opened his mouth, his tone carrying just the right amount of confusion. "Earth?"

He paused, as though trying hard to repeat the awkward pronunciation.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stars, but I've never heard that name. Like Tarnished, is it a term for a certain region? Or is it a code name for some secret organization?"

Beneath the starlight, Leon pouted helplessly, a little disappointed by the reaction.

I couldn't trick him into giving himself away...

That was a little troublesome. He had always been too lazy to use tedious verbal probes, and had assumed that, like the people he had suspected in other worlds, catching him off guard would at least show a little panic.

But this time, he hadn't sensed anything unusual about the other party. Instead, that mysterious fog had prevented him from directly observing his soul.

Ah, if only he were Klein, Leon thought regretfully.

That adorably clueless colleague wore his thoughts on his face almost every time.

Come to think of it, Leon had recalled the aura he had sensed among the stars the moment he first saw this fog.

But after two brief encounters, aside from the similar fog, there really hadn't been any familiar aura.

So it was a coincidence?

No! Leon was ninety-eight percent certain that the other party was using the notes as bait to probe him this time. Don't think a few deliberately misspelled words can fool me!

That was all old hat to that bunch of fellow earthlings back then.

Even if things really weren't as he thought, there had to be an expert guiding him from behind the scenes.

But no matter what, this person was still very resistant at the moment. Being too forward might scare him away outright.

In that case, his fellow earthling collection plan would likely be short one person.

But as long as he remained in the Roundtable Hold, Leon would catch him sooner or later.

Go on, run out of this world if you can, Mr. Sailor.

Leon narrowed his eyes and stared straight at Klein, his mind wandering over this and that.

Sitting to one side, Audrey sensed the unusually quiet atmosphere that had settled over them and looked curiously at the other two.

From her perspective, the powerful Mr. Stars seemed to have fallen into some kind of thought after hearing Mr. Sailor's answer.

His figure, wreathed in starlight, was completely motionless, like a statue that had stood there since time immemorial.

His eyes, obscured by the radiance of the stars, looked straight through that arcane starlight at the equally silent Mr. Sailor.

What was that word again... Earth?

Audrey silently committed the pronunciation to memory.

On the other side, Klein felt the oppressive gaze and tried to maintain his confused expression, but his palms were sweating.

He knew he was gambling.

Gambling that Mr. Stars couldn't read minds, or rather, that even if He could, He wouldn't be able to do so under the cover of the Gray Fog.

Gambling that although Mr. Stars understood simplified Chinese, he couldn't be certain that the person who wrote the characters was also from Earth.

After all, the mistakes Klein had deliberately left could easily be interpreted as "the copyist didn't understand the writing and was merely tracing it mechanically."

Gambling that the initiative in this probe was still in his own hands.

Yes, that had to be it.

"All right." Leon finally spoke, his tone reassuringly relaxed. "Then I may have been mistaken."

"If you meet anyone who knows this word, you can send him to me. Tell him I can take him home."

Leon thought for a moment and added that, thinking he would make one last attempt.

"Is it the same home as yours?" Audrey's voice suddenly rang out. "I remember you said you were looking for the way home."

Audrey had been sitting quietly to the side since earlier, her pretty eyes flitting back and forth between the two men.

As a "Spectator," she had keenly noticed an undercurrent in their earlier conversation. Mr. Sailor and Mr. Stars seemed to be discussing a subject she couldn't understand.

But she didn't press them.

That was the smart thing to do, but in the end she couldn't resist finding an insensitive topic to join in with. Her curiosity was simply itching.

"Yes, Miss Spectator," Leon replied, laughter in his voice. "Although I haven't found it yet, I've kept trying. Otherwise, I wouldn't have appeared here."

With that, he looked at Klein.

"I'll remember. If I meet anyone, I'll be sure to pass the message along," Klein replied, his expression unchanged.

"All right, that's enough of that." Leon changed the subject, tapping a finger lightly on the armrest. "In any case, the notes you provided are indeed very valuable."

He looked down at the paper in his hand. The crooked simplified Chinese characters on it glimmered faintly gold in the firelight of the Grace.

"Although the copying is somewhat... rough, the core content has been preserved."

"Then can you decipher it?" Klein asked, following his lead, his tone carrying just the right amount of anticipation. After all, he had to play his part to the end.

"I can." Leon made no attempt to hide it. "But the information here is incomplete. It's mostly some everyday records and the emperor's plans for a certain period."

Leon scanned the contents again, confirming that there were no mistakes.

"December 20. Another new year is about to begin, but the feedback I've received bit by bit has left me very confused and troubled."

"There's no petroleum to be found in this world! No petroleum!"

"December 21. I won't think about petroleum anymore. Raising my Sequence is the true path!"

"December 22. The conditions in the Old Borough of Trier are disgustingly dirty. If I hadn't gone on an incognito inspection, I might never have known that it still looked the way it did when I saw it in my youth. I must summon my ministers and draw up a 'capital sewer and public toilet improvement plan.' Hmm, I must also correct the residents' bad habits: get them to boil their drinking water, wash their hands and faces often, not litter or relieve themselves wherever they please, and use condoms as much as possible. Haha, I know what to call this now: the patriotic sanitation campaign!"

"So the invention of condoms needs to be put on the agenda, along with things like face masks and paper cups. Hmm, the most primitive versions will do. I'll give it a try. Thank this world, it has rubber trees."

"December 23. Perhaps I should consider that suggestion and leave myself a way out beyond the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery. For example, join that ancient, secret organization that influences the state of the world from the shadows?"

Klein's heart stirred.

Of course he remembered the contents of those notes. In fact, it was the page Miss Justice had given him at the last Tarot Club gathering, the one with the least substantial information of all those diary entries.

He had deliberately chosen this passage so that he could probe Mr. Stars without actually losing any valuable information.

"Thank you for your generosity." Klein gave a slight nod.

Leon folded the page and put it away amid the starlight. "In exchange, you may ask me for something of equal value or ask me a question."