Mystery: When the Fool Meets the Masked Fool

Chapter 423 The Black Emperor Will Eventually Return

As is customary, when a meeting is held in a church, everyone should first sit down and pray devoutly to the God worshipped in the church for three minutes. Then, the church choir goes to the front of the shrine and praises the God worshipped in the church with ethereal and orderly singing that seems to cleanse the soul.

But Serres said it wasn't necessary and that everything should be kept simple. After all, it wasn't the Fool himself who was paying for it.

Because he arrived early, Klein was able to choose a fairly good spot.

Hearing Serres's words, he could only control his expression and prevent himself from turning red by using the clown's facial control.

"Thank you all for coming. Your character is like the aged Faroque in the tavern," Serres said politely from the platform. "Our establishment of this scholarship fund for the poor stems from the suggestion of Mr. Dawn Dantes, a truly noble gentleman whose piety and character are impeccable and exemplary. Now, please welcome Mr. Dawn Dantes to give us a brief speech."

Klein smiled, straightened his clothes, pressed his abdomen, and quickly stood up. As he walked toward the tall wooden platform, he buttoned up his suit jacket.

He stood on the stage and waved to the audience below.

He was secretly cursing in his heart.

Faroko...tsk.

Klein knew that Farouk's fine wine was a very valuable type of wine issued by the Church of Pleasure. Its complex brewing process and subtle taste meant that only the most high-class balls would offer a bottle to distinguished guests for them to savor.

But he was also very clear that its origin was a fabricated dynastic history created by a masked fool, packaged in an unparalleled elegance, so that those noble nobles could wear an air of superiority when drinking the secretions of the Bohm worm.

Anyway, he had never drunk it before.

Reaching the back of the high wooden platform and gaining his footing, he looked around at the nobles, councilors, clergy, and senior government employees, and smiled as he spoke:

"I'm a little nervous. This is the first time I've been looked at like this by so many people of high status..."

"I used to be active in areas where the poor lived, and in the chaotic southern continent, so I witnessed a lot of things..."

Klein selected some of the experiences of the poor children he had met, combined them together, and told them with genuine emotion.

He could clearly see that the women all showed expressions of pity and compassion to varying degrees, and some of the girls even had a glint in their eyes, such as Audrey Hall.

Then he looked at Serres.

Serres was completely unaffected, and even secretly scratched his butt under the cover of the illusion.

No? You're hiding something, so why can I see it?
You're scratching me specifically to show me, aren't you?
Earl Hall, with his handsome little mustache, nodded in agreement and was the first to raise his hands and clap gently.

Amidst enthusiastic applause, Klein returned to his place, while Serres went back on stage to continue announcing:

"Mr. Dawn's speech was very moving."

"Now, let's welcome a very distinguished gentleman."

Backstage, a gentleman suddenly walked out and onto the stage, causing an uproar among the audience.

The man had a dignified air, a resolute face, and a small mustache.

A deep, resonant voice:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am your Emperor, the ruler of the Loen, East Byron, and Roside Islands, George Augustus III."

"I am very pleased to meet you all here."

Klein was momentarily shocked upon returning to his seat, but as an expert in illusion and a pseudo-demigod with "300% effect resistance" to artifacts, he quickly realized that the person present was not the real George III, but rather an "imagined" figure.

With the mausoleum largely completed, George III has been appearing in the public eye more and more frequently, occasionally giving a speech of varying scale.

This serves both to deepen the public's impression of him and provide more "anchors," and to warm up for the large-scale speech required for the subsequent ceremony, so that it does not seem abrupt.

Klein couldn't help but glance at Serres and Audrey separately, noticing that they both managed their facial expressions very well.

At that moment, Klein had a flash of inspiration.

If George III could only send an avatar, then what about Serres?
If this is also an avatar, then where is his original body?
Without even looking for a reason, Klein instinctively felt that Serres was just an avatar.

On the podium, King George III had already begun his eloquent speech.

…………

"As Mr. Dawn said, our industry is developing, and we will certainly need more literate workers in the future..." The light screen floating in the air played images and sounds. On the Black Emperor's huge chair, Rosell propped his head up, watched the live broadcast in front of him, and let out a sneer.

"This thing actually looks quite presentable," Rosell commented, then looked away.

Looking at the bottle in his hand, Roselle shook the potion inside.

The potion had no specific color or appearance; it was like a jumble of random characters.

It's like a convergence of thoughts, an endless stream of crawling, thinking, and browsing information.

"Ready?" Not far away, Serres sat in mid-air.

“He now… has eight fully completed mausoleums.” Rosell stopped looking at the light screen. “Including mine, that makes nine.”

"Becoming emperor, establishing rules, a mausoleum, and a small ceremony... or rather, a speech. The simple ceremony is enough."

"All that's needed next is a small twist, a substitution, a replacement, and a... aggregation."

“I didn’t actually think you would choose this Destiny Potion at first. I thought breeding would be more to your liking.” Serres looked at the glass that Rosell was shaking in his hand. He didn’t know when, but Rosell had twisted it into a goblet.

“I am indeed omnivorous,” Russell replied with a light laugh, “but I have never thought of becoming ‘meat’ itself. If it doesn’t have to become a woman, I don’t really mind.”

“No other potions are suitable, and to be honest, the one I have right now isn’t suitable either, but these are the only options you have, so I have no other choice.”

"But this can probably be considered a kind of aggregation. I am the true god who was once the emperor of knowledge, and to some extent I can represent knowledge itself."

"And it is only natural that knowledge is attracted to intellect."

"I don't have any particularly special inventions, but I have at least led an era. In fact, this era is my masterpiece," Russell said with some pride.

"Then why are we still stuck in the Victorian era?" Serres picked his nose. "There's a god of wisdom, a perfect being, and you, the emperor of knowledge."

Why are we still living in the Victorian era?

Serres flicked the thing he had pried out to the side, and the surrounding objects scattered in all directions.

"Forget about hand-making a two-dimensional foil, how come there isn't even a water droplet? Can't the three of you even modify a strong interaction force together?"

"If all else fails, why can't I even create a Gundam?"

Russell held his chin.

"I really hadn't thought of that."

"You know, I used to work in sales, so my knowledge base is only that broad."

As he spoke, Russell glanced at George III, who was speaking eloquently on the screen: "Perhaps I can reconsider later, after all, I am much smarter now than before."

"Do you think your brain is up to par?" Serres asked, glancing at Roselle's eager expression and the potion in his hand.

“Although I am not a particularly intelligent person, I am the ‘Emperor of Knowledge’,” Rosell said, looking at Serres. “I am knowledge itself.”

"To become the emperor recognized by all, to establish entirely new rules, to have nine mausoleums, and to consume the potion of ascension in a nationwide ceremony." Roselle raised his goblet.

"Look, don't I meet the standards perfectly?"

"As for the Mother Goddess's corruption..."

Roselle tossed his head back and drank the potion from the goblet.

This is Sequence Two of the [Intellectual] Path: The Aggregator.

The next second, Rosell's figure disappeared, vanished abruptly.

Before disappearing, Russell glanced sideways at George III in the light screen.

"Isn't there a scapegoat?"

"They're all corrupt emperors anyway, so what's the difference?"

(End of this chapter)