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

Chapter 249 Approaching
518
Monday, tarot session.

Klein, who had already returned to Backlund, was soon overwhelmed by the expenses of playing a wealthy man.

According to the list reported by the butler, in addition to the house with an annual rent of hundreds of pounds, maintaining the status of a wealthy man also requires a personal male servant, two first-class maids in charge of the bedrooms, two second-class maids in charge of the living room, two male servants in charge of receiving guests, a storage room maid, a kitchen maid, two washing maids, and two male servants who do menial work.

In addition to these, there is also a cook, two gardeners, two coachmen, or a coachman and a coachman's assistant, and if necessary, a page, a handyman, a house nurse, and a cook's assistant.

And carriages. You must have two of them, one sedan, which costs about 300 pounds, and one two-wheeled, which costs about 100 pounds...

In addition, there are wine cellars, manors, hunting grounds, occasional balls, and even horses and necessary pets that reflect one's status. The huge expenses make Klein's scalp tingle even though he has a large sum of money of more than 3,500 pounds.

He has now decided to hire Mr. Walter as his butler, and all expenses are imminent.

More than 3,000 pounds is not enough to maintain the wealthy persona of "Dwayne Dantès", not to mention the 10,000 pounds gold coin reward from the messenger lady.

Therefore, he even looked forward to the arrival of the Tarot Club so that he could escape from reality for a short time and quickly sell the magical item "Lucky Scale" he got from Senior and other items that were no longer of much help to supplement his family income.

If only he could collect the 4 pounds bounty of the Blood Admiral... Klein sighed. It was a pity that the scene that Gehrman Sparrow had played in Bayam was so horrifying that it made him lose face at sea and in front of the Sea King.

Even if he found an insignificant passerby to claim the reward, it would attract the attention of the military, Bayam, and the Church of Storms.

Gehrman Sparrow's bounty is higher than Senior's!

Therefore, no matter how reluctant he was, Klein had no choice but to give up the 42,000 pounds.

3pm.

Above the gray mist, inside the palace with a towering dome.

Klein the Fool glanced at the "Sun" that was pulled in ahead of time and the "World" that materialized in advance, and spread his spirituality at the right time, touching the crimson stars representing "Justice", "Hanged Man", "Magician", "Moon", and "Hermit".

Rays of light rose up, and relatively blurry figures appeared on both sides of the long bronze table.

"Justice" Audrey, who had just returned to the castle from the forest, had changed into a dress with layered lace cuffs and round pearls.

She stood up skillfully and lightly, lifted her skirt slightly, and bowed:
"Good afternoon, Mr. Fool~"

Klein's mood improved a lot. He smiled and nodded, responding to the other party.

At the same time, he couldn't help but sighed:
"A newly rich man spends so much money. How much does a noble like Miss Justice have to spend on a daily basis..."

At the same time, he noticed that Ms. Hermit had the intention to speak, and guessed that she might have retrieved some of Roselle's diaries that Bernadette once owned through her own means.

He cast a glance over, and Cattleya immediately materialized a page of a yellow-brown diary, watching it travel through the spirit world and fall into the hands of Mr. Fool.

Klein looked down casually and was slightly surprised to find that there was no corresponding date at the beginning of this page.

"It's beyond my expectation. The history of the Fourth Epoch revealed by Mr. Men is getting more and more interesting. This unfortunate guy who was trapped in the storm and lost in the depths of darkness told me that the Black Emperor died once and was resurrected."

"Even if all nine mausoleums are destroyed, as long as there is a certain amount of remnant of the order established by the Black Emperor, He can mysteriously resurrect and return. Only the birth of a new Black Emperor can completely destroy Him and prevent Him from appearing again."

"…'Uniqueness' is separated from its owner, conceptualized and abstracted. The 'Black Emperor' that has integrated 'uniqueness' reappears in the 'Astral World'. The three copies of Sequence 1 Beyonder Characteristics automatically return to their Emperor. This is an order that no other true god can reverse or stop."

"As a result, Blood Emperor and Night Emperor, who are both Sequence 1 Princes of Order Killing, are in a very awkward situation. They may fall down in an instant and regress to Sequence 2. Mr. Men said that at that time, Storm Lord and Night Goddess chose Night Emperor and helped him turn to a similar extraordinary path, the Judge path. As a result, the Tudor-Trensost United Empire was split."

"And the Blood Emperor Alistair Tudor, who was forced into a desperate situation, made a crazy decision, which was to turn to an unrelated extraordinary path, and forcibly ascend to the true god at the cost of losing his mind and becoming a madman."

"I have to say that this decision is irrational and almost impossible to achieve. But Mr. Men told me that Alistair Tudor finally succeeded, and the craziest true god was born!"

Madness... Turning to non-adjacent paths... Potions and uniqueness... A flash of lightning suddenly struck Klein's mind.

He suddenly remembered that just yesterday, he used the secret doll Senior and went to the mysterious Quaternary ruins where the evil spirits were hidden with Sharon in the form of a vengeful spirit!
There were originally three armchairs, each with a lifeless human figure tied to it...

It is suspected that three extraordinary people at the top of the "Hunter" path died there at the same time, and among them there may be Medici with "uniqueness", so that more and more extraordinary people are attracted here, including the heir of the Pound family and the "Red Priest" card.

So who on earth completed this horrific ritual in that mysterious ruins?

Sacrifice three Sequence One angels and seek godhood?

Combined with this page of the diary, the vague figure in Klein's mind suddenly became clear. There was no doubt that Archon Alistair Tudor should have been Sequence 1 of the "Black Emperor" path, and of course not adjacent to the "Red Priest"!

Under the threat of death, the Archon chose Sequence 1, the path of hunting down three "Hunters", and was promoted to the True God "Red Priest"! And he succeeded, becoming a crazy True God!

There is so much information... It is worthy of being the diary that Bernadette collected... Wait, crazy in the end? Crazy...

Could it be... No way... Roselle's situation at that time was very similar to that of the "Blood Emperor" Alistair Tudor. The original path had been cut off, and the adjacent path was blocked by people or objects, making it not so easy to climb... Could it be, could it be that under tremendous pressure, he made the same irrational decision as the "Blood Emperor" and tried to switch to a non-adjacent path?

In this way, his madness in his later years was really a loss of reason, rather than a smear campaign. No wonder Bernadette Gustave abandoned him, hated him, and tried to find the truth...

Haha, I really underestimated this fellow countryman and "senior". I always thought he was cosplaying Napoleon and Caesar for his own amusement, but it turns out he was preparing for the "Black Emperor"... No, I have also read a few pages of his diary at that time. His thinking was clear, his emotions were normal, and he could even communicate deeply with a certain noble lady and a certain noble lady...

Well, he might not have made the final decision at that time, but was he consciously leaving a way out?
The Civil Code was most likely not something Roselle intended to do. As a usurper, issuing new laws was an inevitable choice. Among the references, the Civil Code was the most in line with social conditions and historical progress...

The subsequent act of declaring himself emperor was probably what Bernadette found incomprehensible and a little difficult to accept... As Roselle's favorite child, she might have noticed some abnormalities before her father became emperor... Klein couldn't help but make connections, as if he saw the heavy history hidden in the depths of the fog turning over a page full of blood and rust in front of him.

This made him even more curious about the trigger for Russell's final madness.

519
The newly born Church of Death was busy dealing with the two silent cities. The meeting ended quickly and everyone had their own things to do.

Under their propaganda, people from the South Continent who could not survive and those who wanted to take advantage of the situation continued to flock to these three cities, posing a huge challenge to urban security. Fortunately, for the extraordinary people of the "Death God" path who are good at driving multiple undead creatures, managing so many people is not a difficult task.

You never know whether the person walking towards you is good or bad, just as it is difficult to tell whether the police officers and church members who maintain law and order and arrest criminals on the streets of Balam are alive or dead.

"For the time being, I will not consider moving my children from the Northern Continent here, because there is not enough space in the Southern Continent to accommodate them, and the money I have can only support a portion of the people. Otherwise, the responsible persons would not need to take on multiple duties to earn funds."

"But I'll always be ready."

"What is Sua's attitude? If He has already achieved a balance between the two roles, then how will He deal with those crazy subordinates of the Indulgence Faction and the rebels who have become terrorists?"

After the brief cooperation meeting with the Church of Death ended, Richard chased out and kept asking questions.

Edward replied reluctantly, "Let it be."

"After being indulged for too long, some people will forget that their true selves may not be so indulgent. The same is true after being restrained for too long."

"For them, who have already become accustomed to it, even if the correct method is in front of them, they may not be able to do it." Richard breathed a sigh of relief: "It seems that He is willing to announce the results of this experiment to everyone."

"In fact, you are the first prisoner who tried to achieve a balance. It is not advisable to always restrain yourself without exploding, and it is also not advisable to always indulge without suppressing yourself. The method used by Sua is based on the simple and rough version you completed later, but it is enough."

The angel of temperance smiled. "If He is willing to put shackles on the indulgence faction, I will help."

Edward sneered:
"There's no need for Suaco to change the way the school acts just to win you over. Your influence in the Temperance Faction is even less than that of Reinette Tinicole. If you want to participate, you'd better do it in secret."

"They really think that the former leader of the resistance army was scared by the beating, so he became a temperance angel, hiding in small places in the north and south continents to do charity, and they really think that the orphans and the elderly raised by you are your anchor."

"Of course, you are just an angel. There is no need for them to touch your anchor."

The number of anchors owned by the Temperance Angel is unknown. From the church's point of view, Richard Ernst has at least one million anchors in the northern continent, including charity hospitals, poorhouses and orphanages, his subordinates and people saved by him. These can be counted by the number of people rescued by the Ernst Foundation. The number of people will also fluctuate with the amount of funding received each year, which is easier to estimate, but it is at least equivalent to one or two large cities. The anchors in the southern continent are completely unknown.

Even the rebels would occasionally recite the Angel of Temperance. After all, he was their former leader and had the most glorious record.

For an angel, that's a lot.

However, both Edward and Richard knew that the angel of temperance's stability did not depend on the anchor, but on its own beliefs.

"You told me that Mr. Bethel was exiled to a distant place for thousands of years. There are no followers of the Gate in the world except Abraham's family. According to our logic, he should have gone crazy or surrendered to the enemy long ago."

"Since Mr. Men can fight against madness and pollution with his own will and belief, I may be able to do the same."

It's just a matter of cutting off some unnecessary emotions and purifying your beliefs and wishes.

"I am an uneducated person from the southern continent, a short-sighted and ungrateful wolf. Without bait and meat, I will want to take a bite of the flesh of the person who feeds me. Isn't this normal?"

Richard teased himself nonchalantly, then began to count the beads on the abacus: "I see, thank you for your reminder. Is there anything else I can do for you recently?"

"No."

"What a pity! It's hard to find a job these days." Richard asked again, "Teacher, where is the lamp you were holding?"

"Give it away."

Seeing that Edward was beginning to be perfunctory, Richard tactfully changed the subject:

"Is the current Pale Emperor really the God of Death himself?"

Edward nodded.

Richard looked up at the mural on the high dome and was filled with emotion: "Just last year, I had an argument with Him over different political views and had business dealings with Him. In the blink of an eye, He is no longer in this world."

"When Xia was alive, she had racked her brains to deal with the Church of the Seven Gods, and the little remaining energy was spent on retaking Aldera, which took a full six months. After the return of the God of Death, she recaptured the other two cities within a day, silencing the church in the northern continent."

"Is this the difference in power? Or is this the difference between humans and gods?"

"With such a gap, I even feel that humans are just ants, and gods are humans. In battles throughout history, no matter how fiercely ants fight each other, no matter how much civilization and technology have developed, as long as humans step on them, everything will be gone."

"Living in such a world makes people feel helpless and angry."

After all, this was in Emperor Balam's palace. Richard did not speak these words too loudly, nor did he let the people around him notice his emotions. After a long silence, He could not help but ask:

"What does Balam think at the moment?"

War concerns everyone, and Richard must prepare in advance.

Edward said casually: "Baram's targets of war are Loen and Intis. Considering the adjacent routes, the God of Death chose Loen."

“This made Feysac choose to wait and see while being vigilant.”

"Hasn't there been any result from the investigation into last year's Backlund smog?"

"There are results."

Edward walked out of the palace gate and came to the royal aisle. He took out a small paper roll from his pocket like a magic trick:

"Feysac's spies have already investigated the truth about the Great Smog... After all, the emperor of a neighboring country might be trying to become a god, so Feysac's top brass are of course extremely vigilant. They have now determined that the 'Great Smog' incident was almost staged by the Loen royal family. The three major churches also put pressure on George III afterwards, and George III did give up huge benefits to the church, so it doesn't matter who the real culprit is."

Richard sneered: "I have seen a lot of similar things. Everyone's life has a price tag. If I had enough chips, I would really like to ask them to die."

"You have."

"Sorry, suicide is not an option."

"You didn't agree only because your life didn't sell for the expected price. If the condition I offered was to wipe out all the Seven Gods, you would definitely agree very readily."

"But I'm not worth it." Richard replied with great EQ. And if you could do it, you would have done it long ago.

Edward said nothing more. He unfolded the small paper roll and read: "The Feysac Empire has basically confirmed that the Loen royal family and the Witch Cult have reached some kind of cooperation, but the reward they paid was so high that the witches were willing to keep it secret. The human traffickers and slave traders they captured basically identified the witches, and they only lacked a witch to identify George III."

"What else does the Original Witch need?" Richard pondered, "The Hunter's Sequence One or Uniqueness?"

"Maybe." Edward put down the note and looked forward. "Feysac's current intention is very interesting. On the one hand, they hope that the Balam Empire will declare war first to attract Loen's firepower for them. The Balam Empire is also the most suitable. Then they will take the opportunity to throw the truth about the smog on it and declare war under the pretext of humanitarianism. I think this is the best, but there is a strong resistance in Feysac that prevents all this. They know that if they come forward first, they will be rejected by the joint efforts of the Northern Continent, but they still want to take the first step."

"It's very strange. And very profound."

Richard was not very sensitive to these things. Moreover, He knew that the "War Angel" was still in the Aurora Society. Every high-priced order of mechanical containers was blessed by Him personally. "So what is the situation now?"

Edward smiled brightly.

"There are still many places in the southern continent that need to be recovered. Even if war is declared, we don't necessarily have to rush to the northern continent immediately."

"So I suggest that the God of Death declare war immediately."

"Just tomorrow."

TBC
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Richard: Yeah!
(End of this chapter)