Lord of Mysteries

Chapter 48 Haynes Vancent (First Update, Please Vote)

The fortune-telling club is located on the second floor of 13 Halls Street in the North District of Tingen.

Klein saw the beautiful lady who was in charge of reception once again.

She still wore her long, brownish-yellow hair in a bun, looking mature and elegant. It was difficult to judge her exact age from her appearance alone.

"Hello, Mr. Grassis is not here today. Would you like to choose another fortune teller?" the beautiful lady said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Klein, who had just put his silk hat back on, was immediately taken aback:

"Do you remember me?"

This all happened five days ago!

The brown-haired woman smiled and said:

"You are the first and, to this day, the only one to have your fortune told by Mr. Grassis. It's hard for me not to be deeply impressed."

The impression of being penny-wise and pound-foolish, right? Klein muttered to himself, then pondered and asked:

"When was the last time Mr. Grassis visited the club?"

The brown-haired woman glanced at him and answered as if in thought:

"To be honest, we can't control the pattern of our members' comings. They have free will and all sorts of things to do. Well, I remember that after that day, after I did your divination, Mr. Grassis hasn't come to the club again."

"Good luck to him, may the goddess protect him..." Klein prayed, then smiled and said without asking any further questions.

"I'm not here for a fortune telling; I want to join the club."

"Really? That would be our honor." The brown-haired woman feigned surprise. "For first-time members, there's a £5 annual fee, and then £1 per year thereafter. I don't need to go over the details again, do I?"

Klein pulled a newly received five-pound note from his inside pocket, watching the portrait of Henry Augustus I recede into the distance.

After carefully checking the anti-counterfeiting watermark, the brown-haired woman solemnly put away the banknotes, took out a form, and handed it to Klein:

"Please fill in the details, and I will issue you a receipt."

Do you have an invoice? The invoice is for Blackthorn Security Company… Klein amused by his own thoughts, picked up the dip pen on the table, and filled in his name, age, street address, and company name using the blue-black ink.

However, he deliberately left his birth date blank, which, for a "diviner," is a numerological number related to his own secrets.

After issuing the receipt and registering the member's information, the brown-haired woman extended her right hand and said:

"Welcome to the Tingen City Divination Club. I am Angelica Barrehart, your diligent servant. This is your membership cufflink, bearing our unique inscription to prove your membership."

"Hello, Ms. Angelica." Klein lightly shook her hand and accepted the dark gold cufflink.

He discovered that the unique inscription used the root of a word in Hermes, which means "diviner".

Angelica withdrew her left hand, thought for a few seconds, and said:

"We don't know what kind of divination you specialize in, or what divination method you would like to learn at the club. We will consider inviting a well-known diviner to teach you, and we will also introduce you to members with similar expertise so that you can have a pleasant exchange."

"I know a little about every kind of divination, so there's no need to consider me in any special way," Klein replied, adding, "Can I start divination now? I'm not a complete novice."

He came to play the role of a "fortune teller," not to learn divination methods that ordinary people can access.

Angelica maintained a polite smile and said:

"You are free to perform divination for others at the club at any time. However, we will not speak favorably of you when customers inquire before we have confirmed your skill level. What is your desired fee for a divination?"

"Two pence," Klein said, intending to win by price when he didn't have much of a reputation.

"We will take a quarter penny, which is one-eighth of the total price..." Angelica explained the various rules before writing Klein's information into the "Fortune Teller" booklet for customers to choose from.

After doing all this, she smiled and pointed to the conference room at the end of the corridor, saying:

"Mr. Hynes Vancent is explaining astrological divination. You can find a quiet spot to listen in, or raise your hand to ask questions."

"Okay." Klein walked towards the conference room with great interest, wanting to hear what the differences were between what Haynes Vancent and Old Neil had to say.

At this moment, Angelica caught up and whispered:

"Mr. Moretti, would you like coffee or tea? We offer complimentary Siberian black tea, Nanville coffee, and Dixi coffee."

Klein, who had been reading the newspaper frequently lately, knew that the coffee and black tea were of below-average quality, but he also understood that they were definitely better than the inferior products he had at home. So he thought for a moment and said:

"A cup of South Wales coffee, three spoonfuls of sugar, no milk."

Southwell County in the Kingdom of Loen is most famous for its beer and wine, which are quite popular among many important figures, while its coffee is relatively less well-known.

"Okay, I'll bring it in for you in a bit." Angelica pointed to the conference room.

Klein walked slowly to the half-open doorway and heard the explanation, spoken in a thick Akhova County accent, say:

"Astrological divination is one of the more complex forms of divination..."

This is only relative to ordinary people... Klein silently added a sentence for the other party, and saw five or six long tables in the conference room arranged in a semi-circle, surrounding a middle-aged man wearing a black classical robe, Hainas Vancent.

The man had prominent dark circles under his eyes, and thick, stiff brown hair that stood up stubbornly, like a hedgehog.

Aside from that, he didn't have any particularly distinctive features when explaining astrological chart readings.

Upon seeing Klein enter, Haynes Vancent nodded slightly, without interrupting the lesson, but merely slowed his speech a little.

Klein put one hand in his pocket and carried his cane in the other. He found a spot on the edge of the room, leaned back comfortably, and looked around in the still bright afternoon sunlight. He saw that there were six members here, four men and two women.

Some were intently taking notes, some were whispering amongst themselves, and others were giving Klein a wry smile.

After setting down his cane, Klein adjusted his half-height silk top hat and tapped his brow twice with his fingers.

His gaze fell on Hainas, and he saw the other's aura, the different colors, brightness, and thickness.

"Dark red, indicates some anxiety... The rest of the body is healthy, but there's something wrong there. I don't know what's going on..." Klein muttered to himself as he leisurely listened to the lecture.

At this moment, he made a fist with his right hand and covered his mouth to prevent his laughter from leaking out, because he suddenly felt like an unlicensed traditional Chinese medicine doctor.

He is quite satisfied with his ability to see through things. Although he can only use it to judge the general situation and cannot distinguish the specific details, it is enough to obtain a lot of useful information.

He looked around again, then tapped his brow twice, as if pondering Hainas's words.

Astrological chart reading is a type of astrology, but ordinary people can also try to interpret it. For example, the most basic "birth chart" is based on the position of the sun, moon, blue planet, and red planet at the time of the inquirer's birth. Their symbolic signs are marked on the correct places on the chart, along with the corresponding conditions of each constellation, and finally, the inquirer's destiny is interpreted.

This requires diviners to know how to work backwards to calculate the state of planets and constellations, which is quite complicated. Of course, some people publish reference books for people to consult, while others simplify it by using constellations and other symbols for the most vague interpretation.

Klein listened quietly, without interrupting or asking questions, occasionally stroking the citrine pendant in his cuff and taking a sip of the Navier coffee that Angelica had brought in.

After a long while, Hainas rubbed his temples and said:

"You may need to try drawing your own birth chart. If you have any questions, you can come to me. I'm in the White Crystal Room."

Watching him leave, a young man in a white shirt and black vest smiled, stood up, and walked to Klein's side:

"Hello, I am Edward Steve."

"Hello, Klein Moretti." Klein stood up and returned the greeting.

"Astrological charts are so complicated. Every time I hear about them, I can't help but want to start a dream," Edward Steve said self-deprecatingly.

Klein smiled and said:

"This is because Mr. Vancent always couldn't help but teach us all the knowledge he had, like giving us a whole feast of Intis all at once, which was too hard to digest."

"If it were me, I could finish a whole table of Intis food. They always serve tiny portions on huge plates." Edward chuckled, then sat down and asked curiously, "Are you a new member? I haven't seen you in the last two years."

"I just joined the club today," Klein answered frankly.

"What are you good at? I'm best at tarot and poker readings," Edward asked casually.

"I know a little bit about everything, and only a little bit." Klein used the same self-description he used to use here.

He wasn't being modest; it's because there is indeed still a great deal of mysterious knowledge in the field of divination that we haven't yet mastered.

Just as other members were about to come over to discuss astrological readings, Angelica walked into the meeting room:

"Mr. Steve, someone wants you to do a fortune telling."

"Okay." Edward Steve smiled and stood up.

"You seem to be an excellent fortune teller," Klein said, looking at the other person.

"No, it's just because my price is the most reasonable," Edward chuckled. "Ordinary people who come for divination will never choose the most expensive ones directly, and unless they've lost their mind, they certainly won't trust the cheapest ones. The ones with prices in the middle are the easiest to get a chance with."

"I'm the one you said had a brain kicked by a donkey..." Watching the other person leave, Klein suddenly shook his head and smiled bitterly.

It seems there's something wrong with their pricing strategy...

He stood up, picked up his cane, walked out of the meeting room, and found Angelica again:

"I'd like to change the price of the fortune telling, um, 8 pence."

Angelica gave him a deep look and said:

"We will meet your request, but we will also tell the customer that you have just joined our club."

"No problem." Klein nodded without hesitation.

Sometimes, mystery is also an important element for "fortune tellers" to attract customers.

After revising the documents, Klein turned and headed back to the conference room.

At that moment, he saw Haynes Vancent emerge from the white crystal room, holding a silver-plated mirror in his hand.

The renowned fortune teller addressed the five members (three men and two women) in the meeting room:

"I've recently mastered a new divination technique, Magic Mirror Divination. Would you like to learn it?"

A magic mirror divination? That's not exactly a safe method of divination... Klein, dressed in a black suit, stopped outside the conference room, frowning.

PS: April 7th, first update, please vote!

(End of this chapter)