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For now, you can go home.

The weariness was apparent reflected in Colin Iliad's eyes as he watched Derrick nod with a few tears on his face.

The young man said goodbye politely and forcefully before staggering back home.

Along the way, he even briefly came across Pearlie, a Beyonder of the Warrior Pathway and one of the participants in the last expedition that took place at the behest of the Council of Six Members.

She was leaning against a staircase. Her wavy brown hair was very disheveled, messy and short.

Pearlie stared at him without much attention. She seemed to already know the situation.

— God will be merciful to your parents. They have the chance to die as humans while maintaining a shred of sanity. — The girl, at least twenty years old, told him, her words hard as steel.

This was an extremely valuable miracle, almost unbelievable.

Mercy...? — Derrick thought weakly.

Perhaps the greatest mercy from a true Deity that he had ever had was actually receiving that crystal ball for his birthday, an ancient Sealed Artifact that belonged to a faithful follower of The Fool.

This mysterious Entity had responded, a divine response after 2582 years of nothing.

Of course, God had always blessed them for countless years, but He had disappeared a long time ago. Derrick still had faith in Him, but he couldn't help but have gratitude and belief in The Fool, the one who showed the truth!

Derrick cleared his blurry and completely wet vision a little, but it was no use.

— I... Should I ask for help? — The first thing he could think of was the Tarot Club.

They were very experienced, extremely strong and had already shown great knowledge of the mysterious world. Maybe they could help him with his doubts.

Derrick gained a little confidence when he thought about this.

There was still a little hope after all.

As soon as he got home, Derrick went to the relatively average living room. There was a very simple table in the middle and some books.

Leaning against the wall, near a place covered with candles, was a huge axe with a shiny silver blade, huge and almost bigger than his own arm.

He gripped the axe tightly.

Another silver bolt of lightning fell rhythmically as always, its light passing a little under the front door.

The pain in his heart was tight and never stopped, it only eased a little.

When Mr. Fool calls me for the meeting, I'll ask what I can do... — Derrick thought as he headed towards the door.

His destination was the training camp.

...

That was Selena's birthday and Melissa couldn't be more excited.

She was carrying the gift she had made for her friend.

Beside her, Klein seemed very calm as he looked at Benson, who insisted that his old suit was enough and that his brothers should dress better.

Melissa and Klein had to literally drag him to the store to buy Benson a new outfit.

Looking at Benson and Melissa looking so happy, Klein couldn't help but remember his older brother from Earth, when he was still Zhou Mingrui.

Klein remembered very little about him, only his hair color, which was blond, and his tall figure. His brother was completely obscured from his memories.

He was very intelligent, however, he was too soft on Zhou Mingrui and constantly spoiled him too much.

He let him do whatever he wanted and many times this could have gone wrong if he wasn't an incredibly quiet child. Technically, it couldn't be said that Zhou Mingrui didn't have any hidden plots, but they were rare.

His brother had raised him, just as Benson had raised Melissa and Klein.

In fact, Zhou Mingrui had never been far from him, especially because when he transmigrated he had barely turned twenty and was still in college, so he lived in the same house as his brother.

Klein couldn't help but give a blank look before he recovered from his deep reverie.

I wonder if he's worried about me… — he couldn't help but briefly remember when his brother would play some card games with him, like Uno.

There were also some memories from when he first saw snow. It was when Zhou Mingrui was three years old.

He was instinctively curious, so he tried running across a frozen lake in Crimea when a heavy snowstorm hit the region. In his thick, warm clothes, he looked like a little ball of fur, so it wasn't much of a problem.

Zhou Mingrui ended up slipping, but like the calm child he was, he got up quickly without any problems.

Soon after, another child ended up falling face first onto the ice and broke his nose. He was gushing so much blood that they had to take him to the hospital, and the young man was obviously in tears.

His brother must have finally come to his senses and realized that it was a bad idea to let him run around, and immediately bribed him with promises to buy him some stuffed animals and watch some movies with him

Of course, Zhou Mingrui didn't buy it very well. It was hard to fool a child who was raised to be suspicious and thoughtful, even quite cunning. Even so, Zhou Mingrui really wanted to watch the new Disney movie that had recently come out and didn't want to leave in an ambulance, so he accepted without protesting.

He suspected that his brother had proposed the bribe knowing that he would accept..

On the way to his brother's house in that city, they happened to see some abandoned kittens on the side of the road.

He and his brother didn't even need to say a word to each other to immediately decide to take the little animals in so that they wouldn't freeze to death.

There were ten kittens in total and each one was given a different name, five chosen by Zhou Mingrui and five chosen by his brother.

As expected, the second part only gave strange names of stars in the universe, while little Rui gave some random names like some characters.

At the end of the day, they watched a very good movie on TV, "Home Alone".

His brother ended up comparing his hidden cunning to the protagonist's and embarrassing him for the rest of the film, which earned him piercing looks and ruthless judgments.

Seeing these memories flash through his mind, Klein sighed. He missed his brother a lot.

As soon as they entered the party room, Benson poked him with a rather amused look.

— Since when do those people over there know Melissa? — He pointed his gaze at the young people the same age as his sister.

They had gone to talk to Melissa the moment she had entered.

— I don't know, aren't her friends Elizabeth and Selena? — Klein answered honestly with narrowed eyes.

To be honest, he was more worried about what might happen next.

Melissa was strong and very intelligent, maybe she would scare the younger ones by telling them something horrifying and traumatize them for the rest of their lives if they were too much of a nuisance.

We don't have money to pay a psychologist for all these poor children... — Klein watched from afar, looking to intervene in case something went wrong.

Selena's older brother was greeting the guests who were arriving, but the first one they saw was Selena's father, Wood.

— Good morning, honorable older brother and young historian. — The man seemed to add a special tone when speaking to them. He was a senior employee at the Tingen branch of Backlund Bank.

Selena hugged Melissa excitedly. Her eyes shone with enthusiasm.

— Thank you for coming!

— Happy birthday! — Melissa smiled as she gave her friend the gift she had made.

When Klein looked around, he saw someone familiar. It was a young girl, Elizabeth, his sister's friend.

Oh, I saw her the day I was buying some amulets with Old Neil. — he recognized her, but just ignored her, pretending not to know anything.

Even so, she approached and quickly thanked him:

— Thank you very much, Mr. Moretti. Selena really liked the gift I gave her. She loves mysticism.

And then, she ran off looking for something or someone else.

Uh... Melissa had said that. Selena must still want to summon "degradation" in the mirror? I guess I thank my luck that I never agreed to summon Blood Mary, or anything else at Khoy University! — Klein scoffed, but quickly remembered the gray mist ritual.

Not only that, but he summoned the Heaven and Earth and also the Antigonus family entity!

Yes, that was like shooting myself in the foot. The gray mist ritual was like a total charlatan. — he thought as he glanced across the room.

He stood in the corner since he had no reason to talk and he also had no desire to do so.

Suddenly, Melissa seemed a little curious, but that didn't reflect on her face. She gave Klein a few light and discreet elbows, catching his attention.

— Hey, don't you think it's strange that Selena's younger brother is looking at that other lady strangely... By the way, his intended came to talk to me... She seemed a little uncomfortable about having to be engaged to him.

Melissa narrowed her eyes with conviction.

— I feel like he's cheating on you even before the wedding... — she whispered with shock in her tone.

Klein had already noticed the strange air around him, but he really didn't bring it up because he didn't even want to get involved in it.

— That's not all, you know that tall man with blond hair and light brown eyes? He's probably also Selena's brother's lover.

— The way he behaves is very casual around him, too intimate for mere acquaintances, and his eyes reflect a feeling of desire... I also think Selena's brother's fiancée is in love with someone else.

Klein was really good at recognizing other people's emotions, from sadness or nervousness to the most confusing and indescribable possible for humanity. Of course, his spiritual intuition was totally helpful, as it was for Melissa.

He remembered a sentence from Emperor Roselle's diary at the same moment:

"These nobles are so impure! I am completely innocent!"

Klein felt that this sentence perfectly fit the current situation that was unfolding.

For a moment, he feared that someone would suddenly start throwing cutlery and plates everywhere, starting a general brawl throughout the entire party hall.

Imagine if this party was ruined because of this mess? This even sounds like the cheap plot of a book my compatriot would write! — Klein complained in his heart.

That description was accurate. Surely the Emperor would be the one responsible for doing such a work without feeling even a hint of shame!

Looking thoughtful, Melissa left for the second floor with Elizabeth and Selena, while Klein will stay in a corner by himself.

I don't feel like using any social skills in this place, if I have any... Being alone is better. — he deprecated himself as he looked outside through a window.

The Nighthawks were friends, as was the Tarot Club, so there was never any problem in talking. Here it was different, with so many influential people from Tingen, it was more like a well-crafted speech theater.

Benson stood to the side chatting with Crish and others with his extraordinary conversational skills.

Benson, you better keep socializing, maybe you'll even find someone you're interested in! He's already sacrificed a lot for Klein and Melissa... It took a lifetime to convince him to buy a new outfit. — Klein remembered the argument the three of them had in the morning.

His clothes were too tight on Benson, so they weren't an option. Fortunately, his brother stopped protesting after some time of being dragged to the store.

He smiled slightly at his own thoughts.

Klein stood there for a long time admiring the view of the sky with nothing to do. His thoughts rolled, turning through his mind like complicated gears.

He imagined what the bright stars of the cosmos were like, almost daydreaming in his own reverie of hundreds of thoughts about various things, inexplicable and meaningless.

After some time, Klein and Benson were invited to a poker game.

Klein somehow managed to get a Straight Flush in the first game with his great ability to observe others and a very active mind.

— How...? — Benson threw his two-pair cards on the table and Crish's eyes were frozen in disbelief.

— I don't know... — Klein replied with an embarrassed look.

It's always like this! Next time, I think it's better to play poker with Medici, he's an opponent you can fight on equal terms with! — He felt wronged by his own luck, as if he were some kind of cheater because of fate.

— It's always better to invite Medici to something like this... — Klein muttered, looking away to the table.

Only then would he not be the only cheater using his Beyonder abilities and his own heightened senses!

— Who? — Benson, who was beside him, looked on with apparent confusion.

— Nothing. — Klein replied immediately.

In the next game, Crish was the first to look excited.

— I got a Full House. — He placed the cards on the table with the conviction that he would be the winner.

It was impossible for there to be anyone better than him, a professional player.

— How did I win… — he stopped talking as soon as he looked at the cards that Klein had placed on the table.

The Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten were of the same suit.

A Royal Flush!

Klein incredibly got a Royal Flush!

— That's impossible… — Crish spoke in a depressed tone.

It was impossible to play against a monster.

Benson just remained incredibly quiet, his disbelief at seeing the impossible leaving him speechless.

The other players like Wood were silent, until one pointed his finger at him in horror:

— Are you cheating? That's not possible! Last time it was a Straight Flush!

— I just calculated the results. — Klein simply replied. His face showed a deep calm.

— This is not humanly possible... You are crazy. — the man asked very weakly.

In the next game, it seemed that no one had much luck, apart from Benson who had a pair.

And on top of that there was Klein who had once again gotten a Straight Flush again.

He looked at the cards blankly.

— I give up. — He put the cards on the table under everyone's shocked gaze and walked off to somewhere else.

What a disaster, I'm cursed with good luck! I must sound like some kind of elaborate charlatan right now... I'll never play poker again in my life unless it's with someone as righteous as Medici! — Klein complained inwardly.

He suddenly stopped, his senses seemed to be buzzing.

There was a strange fluctuation upstairs!

When he looked up the stairs, Klein noticed Melissa running towards him very quickly.

She was a little flustered. Her face had a controlled expression of half-worry.

When she got closer, the first thing she did was look at Klein very seriously.

Seeing the distress on Melissa's face, Klein didn't take long to ask:

— What happened?

She seemed a little alert. Her sharp, dark eyes shone with many thoughts.

— Selena is acting strange. She messed with some strange ritual that spoke an honorific name of an unknown existence. — Melissa said quietly so that no one would hear.

— It was almost impossible to open the door with hairpins or ornaments, as if there were a lock or seal, so I broke the door down and went in. She was raving like a lunatic, talking about an Omniscient and Omnipotent Savior. I left there immediately and came looking for you.

Before Klein had a chance to respond, she grabbed his wrist and dragged him across the hall until she reached the second floor.

It was so dark that no normal person could even see their own hands. Elizabeth looked very desperate, almost gasping in unimaginable horror that was reflected in her eyes.

She was walking very poorly, almost staggering when she heard Melissa talking to someone.

Klein saw Elizabeth's distraught state and then looked ahead.

The door at the end of the hallway was ajar, the lock clearly opened with some kind of metal decoration, torn from a chandelier on the ceiling, looking like it had been twisted by human hands.

The chandelier above emitted no light, swallowed by the unknown.

The doorway was darker than the sky itself. There was a chilling silence, as if hands were reaching out in the shadows.

Under a blanket of endless darkness, there was no sign of life in that place. Perhaps just an unimaginable being lurking in the darkness.

A voice rang out in deepest devotion:

— The Lord that Created Everything.

— The Lord who Reigns Behind the Curtain of Shadows.

— The Degenerate Nature of all Living Things.

— Hear my prayers! For for The Lord we shed blood until it becomes sacred praise.

— Save us on the promised day with Your eternal grace.

— Oh, True Creator!

.)