Lord of Mysteries

Chapter 38 Amateur Enthusiasts

Upon hearing Klein's question, the beautiful woman with her long, elegantly styled brown hair showed no impatience and maintained a polite smile, replying:

"Our members are free to perform divination for others at the club and set their own prices. We only take a very small percentage of the fee. If you would like to have your fortune told, you can take a look at this brochure, which contains introductions to members who are willing to perform divination for others and their prices."

"However, it's Monday afternoon, and most of our members are at work or busy. Only fewer than five people came..."

As she spoke, she invited Klein to sit on the sofa by the window in the reception area, then flipped through a catalog opposite him, pointing out the current members of the club:

"Hainas Vansent, a famous fortune teller in Tingen, a resident mentor at the club, is skilled in various methods of divination, and charges 4 soules per session."

So expensive... This could have cost me, Benson, and Melissa two lavish dinners... Klein clicked his tongue inwardly, without replying.

Seeing this, the lady with brown hair continued to turn the pages and introduce each item one by one:

"...The last one is Grassis, a new member of the club this year. He has mastered tarot readings and charges 2 pence per reading."

"Sir, which one would you like to choose?"

Klein answered without any politeness:

"Mr. Grassis."

"..." The beautiful lady in charge of reception paused for two seconds before saying, "Sir, I must remind you in advance that Mr. Grassis is only a beginner."

"Understood, I will take responsibility for my decision." Klein smiled and nodded.

"...Then please follow me." The beautiful woman stood up and led Klein through the door next to the reception hall.

There was a short corridor leading to an open conference room. The room was bright and sunny, with tables and chairs, newspapers, magazines, playing cards, and other items. A faint aroma of coffee wafted from it.

When they were two rooms away from the conference room, the pretty lady in charge of reception gestured for Klein to stop. She quickened her pace, walked to the end of the room, and called out softly:

"Mr. Grassis, someone wants you to do a divination."

"Me?" A voice filled with surprise and doubt immediately rang out, accompanied by the sound of a chair being moved.

"Yes, which divination room would you like to use?" the pretty woman replied without much emotion.

"The citrine room, I like citrine." Grassis appeared at the door of the conference room, looking curiously at Klein who was waiting not far away.

He was a man in his thirties with a dark complexion, dark green pupils, and soft, light yellow hair. He wore a white shirt, a black vest, and a monocle hanging from his chest, and had a rather good demeanor.

The beautiful lady in charge of reception didn't say much, and opened the "Yellow Crystal" room right next to the conference room.

The curtains inside were tightly drawn, and the light was dim, as if only in this way could one receive divine and spiritual revelation and obtain accurate divination results.

"Hello, I am Grassis. I never expected you to choose me to do your divination." Grassis bowed politely, strode into the room, and sat down behind the long table. "To be honest, I am just trying my hand at divination and don't have much experience yet. For now, I am not a good diviner. You still have a chance to back out."

After returning the greeting, Klein followed him inside and closed the door behind him.

He smiled and said, using the light filtering through the curtains:

"You are a very honest gentleman, but I am a person who is very firm in my choices."

"Please sit down." Grassis gestured to the seat opposite him, thought for a few seconds, and said, "Fortune telling is just a hobby of mine, haha. People often receive guidance from the gods in their lives, but ordinary people cannot accurately interpret the will of God. This is the meaning of fortune telling, and the reason I joined this club. In this respect, I don't have enough confidence in myself yet. Let's treat the following fortune telling as an exchange, a free exchange. How about this suggestion? I'll cover the club's expenses myself, just a quarter of a penny."

Klein neither agreed nor shook his head, but instead smiled and said:

"It's clear that you have a good, respectable job."

As he spoke, he leaned forward slightly, made a fist with his right hand, pressed it against his forehead, and tapped it twice.

"But that doesn't improve the accuracy of my divinations," Grassis replied humorously, then asked thoughtfully, "Are you having a headache? Want to have a divination about your health?"

"Just a little bit, I hope the divination is about the whereabouts of an item." Klein had already prepared his words, and slowly leaned back.

In his eyes, Grassis's aura was clearly visible, the orange-red color of his lungs was dull and thin, and it affected the brightness of the rest of his body.

This doesn't seem like a sign of fatigue... Klein nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Searching for lost items?" Grassis pondered for a few seconds before saying, "Then let's make a simple judgment first."

He pushed the neatly stacked tarot cards on the black table toward Klein:

"Calm down, think about the item in your mind, and silently ask yourself, 'Can I still find it?' At the same time, shuffle and cut the deck."

"Okay." Klein didn't actually remember what the old notebook looked like, so he had to expand on the question he needed to ask himself: Could the Antigonus family notebook still be found?

Through repetition, he skillfully completed the shuffling and cutting of the cards.

Grassis picked up a card from the top and pushed it horizontally in front of Klein:

"Turn it clockwise to make it vertical, then flip it over. If it's reversed, meaning the image on the card is facing you upside down, it means the item can't be found. If it's upright, then we'll continue with the divination to find its exact whereabouts."

Following the instructions, Klein turned the horizontally placed cards into vertical ones in a clockwise direction.

He pinched the edge of the tarot card and flipped it over.

This is a card with the image reversed.

"It's a pity," Grassis sighed.

Klein did not respond, as his attention was focused on the tarot card in front of him.

The image on this reversed card is of the "Fool" dressed in gorgeous clothes and wearing a dazzling headdress!

"The Fool" again? It can't be that coincidental... According to the Hanged Man and Old Neil, divination is the result of communication between the spirit and the spirit world, and with a higher level of "self." Tarot cards are merely tools to facilitate the interpretation of "symbolic revelations." Theoretically speaking, it doesn't matter what divination items are used; they won't affect the result... Klein frowned slightly, considered for a moment, and said:

"Can I divine whether that item has already been obtained by someone else?"

"Absolutely. Let's do it again in the same way as before." Grassis nodded with great interest.

Klein reshuffled and cut the cards, pondering the question.

He drew the cards, laid them horizontally, and rotated them clockwise to make them vertical. He completed the preparations with a serious expression.

Klein took a breath, reached out, and flipped over the tarot card.

Please, please, don't let it be another "Fool"...

In his prayerful mood, he suddenly relaxed because the card showed the "star" reversed!

"It seems that the item hasn't been picked up by anyone else yet," Grassis remarked with a smile.

Klein nodded, raised his right hand, tapped his brow twice as if thinking, then took out two pennies with a dark bronze luster from his pocket and pushed them to Grassis.

"Didn't I say it was free?" Grassis frowned.

Klein smiled and stood up:

"This is out of respect for divination."

"Alright, thank you for your generosity." Grassis stood up and extended his hand.

After shaking hands, Klein took two steps back, turned around, walked to the door, and turned the handle.

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly turned back and said, "Hmm."

"Mr. Grassis, I suggest you see a doctor as soon as possible, mainly because of your lung problems."

"Why?" Grassis asked in surprise.

Is this a sign of dissatisfaction with the divination result, a curse upon me?

Klein thought for a moment and said:

"These are symptoms that can be seen from your complexion. You, um, your brow is dark."

"Darkness between the eyebrows..." This was the first time Grassis had heard such a description.

Klein didn't explain further, smiled, walked out of the room, and closed the wooden door behind him.

"Is he an unlicensed doctor or a rural pharmacist?" Grassis chuckled and shook his head, picking up a silver mirror used for divination.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the area between his eyebrows was indeed black.

However, this was due to the environment. In the dim light filtering through the curtains, not only was his brow black, but his entire face was black!

"A joke that's not so appealing," Grassis muttered.

He was still a little worried, so he consulted a fortune teller about his health and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with him.

…………

When Klein left the fortune-telling club, he already had another plan for the future.

That means saving up money as quickly as possible, paying the annual fee, becoming a member of the club, and thus starting to play the role of a so-called "fortune teller".

The reason I don't go it alone is because I don't have the resources or channels for the time being, and I can't possibly become a street vendor. After all, I'm a respectable person and I have to save face.

A few minutes later, he waited for a public carriage, which cost 2 pence, and arrived at Zotland Street, which wasn't too far away.

Pushing open the door of "Blackthorn Security Company," he didn't see the familiar brown-haired girl, but instead found Leonard Mitchell, a man with a poetic air, black hair, and green eyes, sitting behind the reception desk.

"Good afternoon, where is Rosanne?" Klein asked after removing his hat and bowing.

Leonard smiled and pointed to the partition door:

"She's on duty at the armory tonight."

Before Klein could ask any more questions, Leonard, as if pondering something, said:

"Klein, there's something that's been bothering me."

"What's wrong?" Klein asked, looking bewildered.

Leonard stood up and smiled gently:

"Why did Welch and Naya commit suicide on the spot, while you went home?"

"It must be that unknown entity that wants me to take the Antigonus family's notes away and hide them," Klein said, stating the generally accepted theory.

Leonard paced a few steps, then suddenly turned and looked directly into Klein's eyes:

"If making you commit suicide was to silence you and eliminate clues, then why not just have you destroy that notebook on the spot?"

(End of this chapter)