Lord of Mysteries

Chapter 59 Roselle's Beginning

Upon hearing the Fool's question, Audrey didn't answer immediately as she usually did. Instead, she opened her bright eyes and looked at the Hanged Man with a scrutinizing gaze.

Alger unconsciously stopped his body movements, and after a few seconds of silence, he spoke:

"I found two pages of Emperor Roselle's diary and memorized their contents."

"I have a page," Audrey replied in an detached tone, her gaze parted by the gray mist.

"Very good." Klein didn't let his joy and disappointment show in his voice.

He was pleased that there were three whole pages, but disappointed that there were only three pages. The first collection was relatively easy, as it was an exploration of the potential of the resources and channels. As it progressed, it would become increasingly difficult, involving more factors.

"Shall we 'express' it now?" Audrey asked calmly.

"Yes." Klein nodded simply.

He maintained his previous posture, making almost no changes; he had to be careful in front of the "audience."

As soon as he finished speaking, a brown parchment and a dark red pen instantly appeared in front of Audrey and Alger.

The two picked up their writing instruments and began to recall the symbols in their memories, expressing their urgent emotions.

Without a sound, line after line of text appeared on the yellowish-brown parchment, some upright and grand, some elegant and graceful, and some crooked and slanted.

In less than a minute, Audrey and Alger had forcibly memorized everything and made a copy of it.

With a thought, Klein saw the three parchment pages appear in his hand.

His gaze swept across the diary, and he noticed that the language order was reversed, and there were missing and misspelled words.

However, experiments have shown that a certain degree of error in word order does not affect the reading of Chinese, and having endured the torment of asterisks for so long, he is even less afraid of omissions and misspellings:

"On April 8th, I stood at the bow of the 'Black Throne,' arms outstretched, and said to Grin and Edwards, 'Want my treasure? Then come to the end of the Misty Sea to find it! I've hidden all my treasure here!' They completely missed my humor and actually asked me if I really had extra treasure. How boring! You can't be my Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse like that!"

"On April 11th, we discovered an unnamed island off the safe shipping lanes. It was home to many extraordinary species—no, I prefer to call them extraordinary species; it sounds more sophisticated. Besides them, there were many other strange creatures on the island. I think if Darwin had traveled here, he definitely wouldn't have been able to write his theory of evolution."

"On April 15th, Green started acting a bit strange. Was he infected with something?"

When did Emperor Roselle, born in the Kingdom of Intis, ever sail? The Misty Sea should be the ocean west of the Republic of Intis... Hmm, I need to go to the library to find some historical materials to compare... Klein quickly finished reading a page and turned his gaze to the next page.

At this moment, he no longer concealed his knowledge of the secret symbols of Emperor Roselle, as this was an act befitting a fool. Audrey and Alger remained silent, sitting quietly and waiting. They seemed completely unsurprised by this outcome and phenomenon, even believing it to be the right thing to do.

"On October 2nd, without even consulting me beforehand, they decided to arrange my engagement to Matilda of the Abel family! Good heavens, I haven't even met her yet! No, I must refuse! Even if I run away from home, even if I have to fend for myself and suffer all kinds of oppression, I will resist this arranged marriage!"

"Miss Matilda looks so beautiful on October 5th."

"On October 6th, her personality and temperament were exactly what I liked, and I started to look forward to our marriage."

Hey, Your Majesty, where's your integrity...? Klein leaned back in his high-backed chair, trying to keep his emotions from penetrating the gray fog.

He discovered that Russell did not write in his diary every day in his early years. He would only pick up a pen when something happened that he needed to complain about, record, or express his emotions.

Klein's gaze shifted downwards to the last entry on this page of the diary:

"On October 9th, they actually called me the Son of Steam, and I liked it very much."

Seeing that the content of the first two pages was of little value for the time being, Klein couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

But he didn't lose heart. He moved the third page of his diary to the top, and wrote the following on both sides of this page:

"On May 21st, the Church of the God of Craftsmen gave me two choices, the beginnings of two sequence paths: one is the 'Generalist,' which belongs to the complete sequence chain they themselves have mastered, and the other is the 'Secret Seeker,' which comes from the Morse Ascetic Order and lacks a higher sequence."

"On May 22nd, my choice was simple: a 'Generalist'! A 'Generalist' with a complete sequence! Although mastering more occult knowledge would help me find a way home, the problem is that without sufficient strength, such a journey would inevitably require external assistance. Whether that assistance is good or bad, benevolent or malevolent, is uncontrollable and extremely dangerous. Therefore, it's better to become stronger and return on my own. Thus, a complete sequence is my primary consideration!"

"On May 23rd, I became a 'Generalist'. Thanks to the power of the potion, I was able to completely recall all the knowledge I had learned before, such as physics, chemistry, and so on."

"Not only did I recall them, but I also deeply understood and mastered them. Haha, this is simply a 'profession' tailor-made for me, a visitor from a foreign land, which can maximize my advantages! I have to say, if I went back to my senior year of high school in this state, I would definitely become the top student. If I had more standardized and in-depth professional learning, becoming a scientist wouldn't be too difficult a goal."

"On May 26th, I enjoyed the identity of 'Generalist'. Strangely enough, when I identified myself as 'Generalist' and did things in accordance with its definition, the whispers that were driving me almost crazy quieted down a lot, my occasional outbursts of temper were brought under control, and I remembered the diary."

"Is this the 'role-playing' that the mysterious Mr. Zarathustra mentioned to me? Perhaps this is the key to resolving the potion's hidden dangers."

As Klein looked at this page of the diary, he deeply felt that he and Emperor Roselle were significantly different in personality and style.

For example, when it comes to going home, I think more about using my in-depth knowledge of occultism to avoid danger and achieve my goal, while Emperor Roselle's idea is to rely on himself to take control of the danger.

"I have to say, sometimes I envy people like that. Maybe everyone craves things they don't have... Of course, I also need to consider strengthening myself. I need to do both things well..." These thoughts floated through Klein's mind, making him sigh.

The description of the reduced dangers of the potion by Emperor Roselle gave him more confidence in his summary last night and a clearer understanding of the essence of "playing the role".

Setting down the three pages of the diary, Klein looked up at "Justice" and "The Hanged Man," and smiled slightly:

"Sorry, I got so engrossed in it."

Audrey suppressed her envy and smiled calmly:

"I understand, and I look forward to the day when I can exchange the contents of Emperor Roselle's Diary with you."

"That comes at a price." Klein glanced at "Justice" with a smile, then swept his gaze over the silent "Hanged Man."

Audrey clasped her hands together in front of her and said:

"Mr. Fool, Mr. Hanged Man, I have three questions for you. If you think the answers are of great value, tell me what you want, and I will try my best to find them later."

"No problem," Alger replied simply and calmly.

Klein nodded slightly and leaned back more comfortably.

Audrey thought for a few seconds and said:

"My first question is, what exactly does 'playing the role' mean? I've noticed that the residual spirit from the potion has very little effect on me. Is it because I've been playing the role of an audience member all this time?"

Alger remained silent, turning his gaze to the Fool, seemingly also awaiting an answer.

Klein tapped the edge of the long table lightly with his fingers and said in a relaxed tone:

"Let me use a more vivid example to illustrate this. The core power of Sequence Potions is a heavily guarded castle. Those remnants of spirits that can cause backlash reside within the castle. Our goal is to eliminate them and truly become the masters of the castle."

"We now have two options. One is to force our way in, which may not succeed, but will certainly hurt ourselves, unless we can crush them with an absolute advantage, which we obviously do not have."

"The second method is that we have an invitation from the castle owner. This invitation will allow us to pass the guards' checks and sneak into the castle to easily eliminate the enemies. However, the problem is that the invitation contains descriptions of the guest's physical characteristics and temperament. Therefore, we must disguise ourselves and 'play' the invited guest. Do you understand?"

As if he had expected this, Alger immediately countered with:

"Is that invitation the name of the Sequence Potion?"

"Yes," Klein replied affirmatively.

Audrey suddenly realized what "playing" meant.

But once she became slightly agitated, she immediately detached herself from being a "spectator" and happily praised:

"What an outstanding method! I think it suits your title perfectly, and its style is very compatible with 'The Fool'... I never expected 'playing' to work like this. Fortunately, I've been instinctively playing the role of 'the audience' all this time."

She paused and then said:

"I believe this is a very valuable answer, and I cannot accept it so easily, Mr. Fool. What kind of exchange do you require? Of course, I remember I still owe you a page of Emperor Roselle's diary."

"More of Russell's diary, or..." Klein paused.

He had originally intended to ask about anything related to the "Diviner" sequence, but then felt that such a low-level request would damage the Fool's image, so he temporarily abandoned the idea and planned to ask about it discreetly when he found an opportunity later.

Anyway, I haven't been promoted for long, and I haven't fully digested the "Diviner" potion yet... He comforted himself with this thought, adding casually:

"Or anything about the Antigonus family, even the parts I already knew about."

Alger remained silent for a few seconds, glanced cautiously at the head of the bronze table, and then spoke slowly:

"Mr. Fool... I can now pay you for your answer."

(End of this chapter)