Secret: The years I served as a foreign aid for the Aurora Club

Chapter 132 Angels Playing Cards
345
The next day, Wednesday morning, he got up early and took a hackney carriage to the Steam Church.

The church has towering chimneys and bell towers. The former represents the power of steam, while the latter hangs complex clocks, symbolizing the beauty of machinery.

It was neither the weekend nor the noon or evening, and there were only a few believers praying quietly in the church hall.

Klein sat in the aisle, leaned his cane against the wall, took off his hat, and pretended to pray for ten minutes facing the holy emblem in front of him.

Then he took his things, walked along the aisle to the altar, and said to the bishop standing next to him:

"I want to repent."

"Okay, God is watching you." The bishop with a kind face and gray temples walked first to the confessional on the side.

Klein followed closely and closed the door.

He sat down on the chair and said to the bishop across the wooden board:

"I confess that I did not stick to my principles when faced with danger and chose to retreat."

"What were you thinking at that time?" the bishop asked softly.

Klein immediately described in detail Talim's death, his own doubts, the reminder to the "Mechanical Heart", Prince Edessak's commission, and his inner retreat in the face of royal oppression after divination failed to obtain the desired answer.

The reason why he did not go directly to Carlson was that he was worried that he was not only being watched by the other side, but also secretly observed by Prince Edessak's men. Once he made it clear that he intended to be perfunctory and slack, he might encounter another disaster.

The Steam Cathedral is the headquarters of the Backlund Parish of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery and one of their three major temples. No one can peek in here.

Klein intended to use the Steam Church to convey his true thoughts and avoid being drawn into deeper conflicts.

Simply put, follow the will of your heart.

The bishop listened quietly and replied in the same tone:

"Your choice is human instinct, God will not blame you.

"Go back, God will protect you."

That’s good… Klein understood the hint and quietly left the Steam Church.

Although I felt a little sorry for the prince who gave me a hundred pounds yesterday, and I couldn't do anything for Talim, I couldn't ignore my own life either... Standing on the street outside, looking at the misty sky, he sighed silently:
Improve it as soon as possible.

Finally, this matter was resolved. Although he was inevitably a little depressed, Klein felt a lot more relaxed overall.

At noon, after being "busy" all day outside, Klein, feeling depressed, walked into the living room after lunch and entered the dream world.

Fragments that were sometimes continuous and sometimes fragmented floated by, and Klein suddenly woke up and realized that he was dreaming.

A force has invaded my dream... Klein remained in his dazed state and looked around casually.

He found himself in the suburbs, with fertile fields everywhere. A river rushed from afar and made a bend beside the cliff in front. One side of the cliff was bare, showing pure white rocks. From a distance, it had an unusually holy beauty.

At the river bend, nearly ten men and women carrying various tools and wearing black coats or dark jackets gathered around a hidden underground entrance. Among them was Klein's acquaintance, Ikanser Bernard.

White Cliff Town... Stratford Bay... Mechanical Heart... Are they exploring the tomb of the Amon family? But why did this scene appear in my dream? Klein was puzzled.

At this moment, he saw the water on the river surface floating, and quickly outlined a line of white words:

"Your loyal servant Arrodes reports to you on the progress of the exploration."

…Klein opened his mouth slightly, but was unable to speak for a moment. A voice echoed in his mind:

Why are you being so mean with a mirror?

346
Zaratul twirled his beard and confidently played six cards: "Straight."

Edward pondered for a moment and threw out an "Invulnerable" card.

"I didn't expect you to have this card in your hand. How about this?" Zaratul said in a joyful tone, fully demonstrating the ancient scholar's spirit of studying ancient knowledge and his passion for playing cards. "I will play a 'Knowledge Emperor Roselle' to break your advantageous venue and change the venue to 'White Maple Palace'!"

Zaratul removed the hand-painted flying chess tablecloth from the table and replaced it with the black and white checkered Emperor Roselle's "improved" version of Intis chess.

"The White Maple Palace will bless my Roselle deck, giving each deck a +2 attribute, and will also invalidate the previous flying chess layout!"

"Change venues when you can't throw 5 and 6? Russell is hitting everywhere, and your control over your destiny is just like that." Edward looked back at Zaratul's "Knight Vault" tactic, but still calmly played a pair of 2.

"You want to attack?"

"Hmph, I'll stack two 8s together and Xyz Summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

This 3,000 attack power made Zaratul feel very difficult, and there was no flash in his deck! Zaratul had no choice but to laugh and put out another hand-painted stickman card with a stickman wearing a black crown on it: "I sacrificed "Knowledge Emperor Roselle" and the King chess piece together, and upgraded it to "Black Emperor Roselle". Now I use the skill of True God-level Bribery, and with the blessing of the White Maple Palace, I will use a magic card to offset your 3,000 damage this time!"

As he spoke, Zaratul took out a "Qilin Bow" and handed it to Edward.

"Then I'll play Bernadette Gustave."

Edward threw out a stickman card wearing black leather boots and a shirt. "I will now let Bernadette equip the Qilin Bow to attack your Roselle's army. Roselle will not attack Bernadette, so I will take away your Black Emperor Roselle smoothly, and then take your horse away with me according to the effect of the Qilin Bow."

Zaratul frowned: "I play a card called 'Bonois Gustave' and die together with Bernadette and be expelled from the chess game. At the same time, I use the trick to draw a card from your deck... 'The Evil God Ea'?"

"The Divine Evil has a Transfiguration Curse that makes your opponent rest for one round. At the same time, you are also polluted by the sky and temporarily lose control of part of your deck!"

Edward took advantage of the victory and played three more 2s with K, reaching out to blow up the Baifeng Palace chess board, but Zaratul quickly grabbed an "Invulnerable" card to save the board.

"You no longer have Roselle, so what's the point of the White Maple Palace? King Bomb."

"I activated the Resurrection of the Dead, and Black Emperor Roselle returned from the grave like lightning!"

"I am William Augustus. Resurrection is not allowed here. Your resurrection of the dead is invalid."

……

Above their heads, the secret dolls watched swayingly, like a group of silent spectators.

The card game ended with the Queen who was promoted from a pawn and the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon dying together. The two angels who had played more than ten games of cards in one night collected all the hand-painted stickman cards and piled them aside. Only the tic-tac-toe chess pieces drawn with white lime were left on the ground.

“I haven’t been this excited in a long time.”

Zaratul's gray beard trembled for a while, and he said meaningfully: "Roselle's wonderful ideas are really fascinating."

"Don't tell me you're still planning to digest the ancient scholars." Edward replied calmly, "The stories of the Fourth, Third, and Second Epochs are long enough for you to digest the ancient scholars several times. There's no need to look further back in time."

"Hahaha, I understand your advice, but exploring the unknown is always human instinct, even if knowledge can kill people."

The fortune teller narrowed his eyes again, revealing the look of a good fox, and said slowly: "In other words, there really was a very ancient civilization in this world, and you knew about its existence?"

"This information is an additional price." Edward communicated with Him rationally, "What can you give me?"

"No, I don't want to know. I just want to confirm something with you."

Zaratul pondered for two seconds and asked uncertainly: "The Roselle we know is not the real Roselle, right?"

"Oh?"

"Maybe I am too rigid. I always think that a person's talent should be reflected at a very young age. If he is really a genius, I don't know how he can write works with such a different style and transcend generations, as well as inventions and scientific research talents beyond imagination. He was clearly only in his twenties at that time, and it is impossible for him to have such rich life experience."

"Genius." Edward disagreed, "Genius is something that humans cannot understand."

"And His inventions are always very mature, as if He had already produced the best products from the beginning. Choosing the Steam Church was a requirement for cooperation between Him and me, but I didn't expect Him to be so brilliant. And I have never seen drafts, design drawings, simple basic models, or His think tank. If these shocking inventions were really completed by Him alone, why did they disappear in the middle and late stages?"

"Perhaps because of the changed approach, the Archon no longer needs to do these things."

"Haha, I also had doubts and tried to divine whether Roselle was the original Roselle. Guess what happened?"

Hearing this, Edward, who had been looking away, finally turned his head and stared at Zaratul for two seconds, revealing an emotionless smile: "Your divination is ineffective."

"You think I'm not the real Edward either. You also divined me, but it didn't work, right?"

Zaratul smiled and shook his head: "I felt cold sweat dripping from my body the moment I thought of this divination question, not to mention divination. You and Roselle hit it off right away, and Roselle even distanced himself from me because of you. Although the demonic path can easily gain favor through various influences, I have carefully noticed that Roselle's cognition has not been modified by you."

"This makes me doubt why you two can become friends without caring about identity, status, age, or even the path you are in."

"You are one of the few people who can understand the Archon's strange words immediately. I initially thought that this was a secret code or tacit understanding that you had discussed, but later I found that it was more like two people who have known each other for a long time and have similar views on a matter."

"For example, regarding the guillotine, your views on new shipping routes, and your plans for aggressive wars and colonial rule, Roselle and you have an amazing understanding of each other."

"And you—"

Zaratul paused, as if omitting some words: "You are completely different from what I remember. You don't seem to be a person who should stay for humans, get married and have children, become friends with humans, and be willing to be inferior to humans."

“That’s what makes me most curious.”

All the guesses so far are correct, the devil thought, well, I appreciate people who love to think, I can give you a little reward.

Edward said, "I can answer the question you want to know most."

Zaratul's eyes lit up, and he immediately asked the question he had been thinking about for decades: "In the distant past, was there a great era? So I boldly assumed that in that era, ancient humans had endless wisdom and power, and could easily create props that modern humans could not imagine, codes that could not be compiled, and even more advanced strategies for governing the country."

"Roselle's wisdom and knowledge are enough to make him the God of Craftsmen, but he disdains the God of Craftsmen and the church. So, is Roselle one of the great beings of that era?"

After saying this, Zaratul was very confident in his own opinion and was looking forward to Edward's answer.

Edward was hesitant to speak after hearing this insightful speech. After hesitating for a while, he directly attacked Zaratul: "The times are great. Roselle is not great. In that era, Roselle was just..."

The devil thought for a moment and used a more objective metaphor: "An ordinary person who can hardly be a government employee."

“How is it possible?” Zaratul’s eyes widened, and his mind immediately soared to the terrifying aspect, “Humans in the past actually had such high talents? Could it be that all humans in the past were great beings, so there is no concept of great beings?”

"No." The demon tried hard to explain, "In the old days, there was no extraordinary power at all, so everyone was an ordinary person."

Zaratul frowned: "The humans of the old days should have more outstanding wisdom than us."

"No."

"A lifespan longer than ours."

"No."

"Humans always have awe for the ancients and are extremely afraid of the unknown." Edward said patiently, "In fact, the ancients are weaker. At least humans at that time could not conquer cancer, but extraordinary abilities can completely cure it."

"Without extraordinary abilities, there would be no extraordinary creatures. Without gods, how could humans survive by making their own tools, eating raw meat and drinking blood, building cities, and creating so many magical and advanced creations?"

Zaratul was greatly shocked, and even a little bit unable to imagine. He let his mind wander for a while, and then said with regret:

"It sounds great, but it's a pity that it's destroyed. Although I don't really yearn for that world, I still want to see it with my own eyes."

"What kind of person were you in that era?"

"Me?" This was the third person in his life who asked this question. The first was the True Creator, the second was Roselle, and the third was Zaratul.

"I used to be an associate professor at a university's music school." Edward held his chin with his hand, revealing a nostalgic and thoughtful look, and recounted his life. "I had a child, but he didn't like music. My job was very leisurely, and I had faith. In my spare time, I would occasionally go to the nearby community to volunteer and attend church services."

"I never thought that humans in ancient times also had beliefs. Excuse me, which god do you believe in?"

Edward laughed and did not give a direct answer:

"In the old days, people believed in gods that didn't exist. Gods were more like spiritual symbols and beliefs for self-comfort. But when I discovered that the god I believed in seemed to really exist, at that moment, I suddenly stopped believing in him."

"Oh?"

Zaratul was obviously very curious about everything in the ancient times, as if he had returned to the past to digest the ancient scholar's potion. He asked with great interest: "Why? It's like a mortal who has never seen the true face of a god. If he meets the Holy See one day, he should be more pious, right?"

"This is the third question, Zaratul."

The calculating devil grinned: "What are you going to exchange with me for these two questions?"

The fortune teller, who had been prepared for this, stroked his beard and said calmly:

"Members of the Secret Order will travel to very distant seas in search of mermaids. Perhaps you will be interested in a magical island in the misty sea."

TBC
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Zaratul didn't know that there was Roselle's grave on this island, he just thought it was a special island.

(End of this chapter)