Mystery: I, the Hermit, am too eager to improve

Chapter 109 You're Perfect for the Clown Potion

"Miss."

"Remember your promise."

Bernadette sat quietly on the pea vine.

Sharon lowered her head: "I will keep my promise and help you when you need me. If I had known he was your subordinate, I wouldn't have followed you."

"If nothing happens, it doesn't matter, and besides..."

Bernadette's beautiful eyes gazed at her, as if trying to see the trajectory of fate through her, but alas, it was like a flower in the mist or the moon's reflection in the water—unclear and indistinct.

She said calmly, "Your friend should hurry up and get promoted. I'll keep him occupied for now; I won't have time to deal with him later."

"Yes."

Sharon nodded.

"Um."

As the sound faded, the pea vines vanished and rose, and finally, all traces of the magic disappeared without a trace.

Sharon let out a soft breath.

At that moment, the door opened.

She emerged from the shadows, looking at Klein calmly: "Let's go?"

"Are you waiting for me?"

Klein was somewhat surprised.

Sharon said calmly, "No, it's just a coincidence."

"Anyway, thank you. Let's go. We won't be able to catch a ride tonight, and it might be a long walk."

Klein put on his hat and said, trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Sharon didn't say anything, but instead vanished into the shadows.

Under the dim streetlights, Klein walked alone.

……

The next day, the mysterious club's opening hours arrived as scheduled.

"Mr. Rowling, you've finally arrived."

"Miss Ollie, it seems you've missed me. What brings you here? Do you have a good request or client?"

Roy looked at Ollie Clay at the front desk.

then.

He quickly pulled out the cup he had tucked into his sleeve and said, "I bought this coffee when I passed by."

"Thank you, Mr. Rowling, but your guests have been waiting for a long time."

Ollie took the coffee, smiled sweetly, and pointed to the amethyst room.

"Last week's guest?"

"Yes."

Ollie nodded gently.

Roy nodded slightly and then walked inside.

His purpose in coming here was to test whether the problem lay with Sherman or Klein.

He initially suspected it was this quasi-witch.

but.

Azik and Dunn also encountered crises one after another, which led Roy to focus his suspicions on Klein.

If it's the former, then...

This means that he is now highly likely to be noticed, to the point that even a mere Sherman has attracted the attention of those above him, and he needs to hurry up and improve.

Including Lanius and the like, none of these are even considered.

But if it's the latter...

So.

As long as Roy doesn't have direct contact with Klein or provide offline assistance, he's theoretically relatively safe.

Upon entering, Sherman, who was sitting in his seat, eagerly awaited Roy's arrival. He immediately stood up and respectfully greeted him, "Mr. Rowling."

"sit."

Roy sat down with a smile.

Then, he looked up at the other person, observing Sherman's ethereal body, mental body, and astral body—

The other person's etheric body is relatively unhealthy, but their mental state presents a healthy picture, which seems very contradictory.

"Have you made up your mind?"

"Yes, sir."

Sherman sat quietly in the chair, a happy smile on his face. "I think, even if my ending isn't good, at least I walked this path."

Roy sighed and pulled his hat down.

"Now that you've made your choice, why are you coming to me? Aren't you worried she'll cast a curse on you?"

"Your explanation, although it made me depressed and confused for a time, has made me understand things better in the end, and I think I should thank you in person."

Sherman smiled.

Roy sighed softly and said, "With your personality, you weren't originally suited to be a witch, because you're not ruthless enough. Your act won't be thorough enough, and the end result will only be madness."

"..."

Sherman remained silent for a moment, then said, "I'll do anything to achieve my goal."

"Tell me why you've come."

Roy looked up.

Sherman said, "Sir, do you have access to potion recipes or formulas? I can buy them from you, or I can try to raise the money..."

"Do you have three or four thousand gold pounds?"

Roy said seriously.

Sherman wasn't a rich man, otherwise he wouldn't have been in the East End and wouldn't have become friends with Hugh.

He doesn't have much money.

Sherman hesitated for a moment, then fell silent.

Three or four thousand pounds.

He simply doesn't have that much money, and he doesn't have the ability to repay the loan.

"In addition, once you become an assassin, you will have to assassinate others; this is an inevitable path. And at Sequence 8, you will have to instigate others to fight and create chaos."

Roy said calmly, "Can you afford this?"

"I see."

Sherman bowed, then hesitated between taking 1 pound or 10 pounds.

Roy smiled faintly and said, "One pound is enough. What you should be doing is thinking carefully about your future."

"Thank you, sir."

The other party left.

Roy actually had an idea—

Train Sherman.

As a fortune teller, Tilly's combat abilities are quite average in the early stages. If she really wants to build her own intelligence network from scratch...

They are still missing a powerful combat assistant.

Sherman is a good choice.

His personality and other aspects were quite to Roy's liking, making him a suitable candidate to utilize the extraordinary characteristics of the assassins at hand.

The most difficult part is obtaining materials for Sequence 8 and Sequence 7, but it's not impossible to obtain them.

Currently, Roy only has one Sequence 9 Assassin Extraordinary Trait, and his idea is—

Let Sherman take a more positive acting approach.

of course.

This kind of role-playing is limited to sequences 9 to 7. Beyond pleasure, all kinds of madness can no longer be solved by role-playing.

If Sherman had thought things through instead of acting impulsively, he would have given the other party a chance.

"Sigh, I'm still too weak. Otherwise, I wouldn't have had to train subordinates myself; I could have just brought a whole ship of them over."

For example, Tracy during her illness.

After Zilingus' death, she directly seized Zilingus' fleet and became a pirate vice admiral in no time, without having to build her own power base.

I'm so envious!

Roy sighed.

After sitting idly in the club for a while, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in."

Roy sat up straight.

Then he saw Gary Zabia.

Gary has blond hair. The Zabia family is not a major noble family, but they have fiefdoms and properties, so they are not worried about food and clothing. They are usually quite generous.

Perhaps that's why, out of sheer boredom, he developed an interest in the occult.

Roy sat down in his chair and said with a faint smile, "Mr. Gary, is there something you need?"

Gary hesitated for a moment, then finally sat down and said, "Roland, I heard you're a fighting wizard?"

"Yes, that is my title."

Roy smiled faintly.

Gary smiled wryly, "I don't know if you can help me, but I think if we're talking about who's the most mysterious person in the whole club, the most likely to be the real enigma, it's definitely you."

"Tell me your problem, friend. If I can help you, I definitely will."

Roy sat up straight, his expression becoming much more serious.

There's work to be done!

Gary gathered his thoughts and after a few seconds, he said, "It's like this, something happened in my family. I have a younger sister who's been a little off since she was little. At first, we suspected some kind of congenital mental illness..."

He began to ramble on about the past.

Roy did not interrupt.

Many anomalies can often be traced back to clues found in the past.

He listened carefully, and then his expression gradually became serious.

"Wait a moment."

"Um?"

"You mean, your younger sister showed a thirst for reading and knowledge from a young age?"

Roy asked.

Gary nodded gently: "Yes, she loves reading. Through reading, her condition has improved, and she has slowly emerged from her initial autism."

"continue."

Roy nodded slightly.

Gary continued, "As she grew up, she seemed to behave much the same way, but she still appeared rather withdrawn and unsociable, never going to things like dances."

"But recently things have changed. She seems to be normal, yet she also seems to be becoming more abnormal."

He hesitated for a moment, then took out a piece of paper. "Do you recognize this? I don't know exactly what it is, but it should be something related to some kind of ritual."

As a lover of the occult, he knew about divination, rituals, and magic, but he wasn't very clear about them.

after all.

As an ordinary person, Gary's exposure to things is often quite ordinary, filtered, and limited.

Roy took it.

After glancing at it, he took a slight breath and then put the paper down.

"This is a prayer ritual, and its object of prayer is the Hidden Sage, an outright evil god."

Roy's expression was serious. "Gary, who has your sister been in contact with lately? There seems to be someone new in her social circle."

Gary's pupils contracted slightly, and his lips trembled.

Roy knew.

Gary must have remembered something, otherwise he wouldn't have made that expression, and the change in the astral body's emotional color also confirmed this.

He raised his head.

"No one, if we're talking about contact, was the one we took her to her mother's grave."

"..."

A hidden sage?

Or the Morse Ascetic Order?

Roy tapped his fingers together lightly, then said softly, "Would it be convenient for you to take me to see it?"

"Are you referring to my sister?"

"grave."

Roy said, "Only by finding the source can we truly understand what happened. As for your sister, she should be alright for now, right?"

"Yes, although my father is preparing to send her to the Storm Church for them to examine, she hasn't been sent there yet."

Gary paused for a few seconds, then said, "He's a rather devout member of the Storm Church, and he's never liked her."

He smiled and said, "The people in the church are definitely more professional than I am. Viscount Zabia made the right choice."

"But... putting that aside, uh, how much money do I need to pay?"

Jia's expression froze, but he still took out his wallet.

Roy shook his head: "I'm very interested in this. If I can solve your sister's problem, then we can talk about payment."

"Mr. Rowling, thank you for your generosity. You are a kind wizard. To be honest, I'm a bit strapped for cash lately."

Gary said with shame.

Roy had already figured it out.

In the past, Gary would take out money as soon as he entered the door, or give a sum of money directly, instead of asking how much it was.

He smiled slightly: "Sometimes it's still necessary to own your own business."

"Yes, I used to be proud of being a nobleman and was obsessed with studying the occult, but in the end, the occult couldn't help me."

Gary sighed.

Roy said, "No, my friend, how could we have met if you didn't know the occult? The occult brought us together and made us friends. Come on, take me to see the cemetery."

……

West District, Green Cemetery.

Gary led Roy along a small path into the cemetery.

Roy looked around the area near the path.

This path leads to Green Park Street, and if you walk along the street, you'll reach Green Park, from which the cemetery gets its name.

He smiled and said, "How did you know about this cemetery path?"

"By chance, I met a rather, well, I should say a crazy person. He worshipped death and could perform a terrifying dance."

"The other party claimed that this was real mysticism, but I didn't dare to believe it, nor did I dare to approach or learn it. However, I remembered this path."

Gary continued to explain.

dance?

It must be that man who likes to dance the spirit dance.

Roy vaguely remembered this person. He slowly walked up the mountain along the path, climbed over the last ridge, and finally arrived at his destination.

They climbed over the corner.

After landing, Gary carefully walked to a corner, offered his prayers, and then turned back: "Mr. Rowling, this is it."

"Um."

Roy scanned his surroundings but didn't see anything particularly conspicuous.

He took out the pendant and first tested his safety from various angles before entering the dream state.

Then, a mist appeared before my eyes.

In the mist, a blonde woman, accompanied by her family, stands before a grave to pay her respects, but as she turns away, she sees a symbol.

That is the symbol of a hidden sage.

Someone wrote it on a tombstone next to it, and at that moment, the woman's expression showed deep surprise and astonishment.

perhaps--

What did she hear at that moment?

Roy seemed to be deep in thought.

Could it be the Morse Ascetic Society?

Probably.

Is Gary's sister a semi-voyeur?

Roy snapped out of his dream.

Gary, standing to the side, was both nervous and excited, his voice trembling: "Mr. Rowling, were you... were you using dream divination just now?"

"You also know about dream divination?"

Roy almost laughed.

After all, Gary had been ahead of him before, showing off his "divination" knowledge, which was very different from his current expression.

Gary blushed slightly.

"Yes, I've read about this kind of divination in books. It's said to allow you to enter dreams and see things that happened in the past. It's very magical."

"They are all essentially guided by the spirit world."

Roy answered.

He glanced sideways at the stone tablet beside him, channeling his spiritual energy to amplify the effects of the Eye of Mystery, and then—

He saw a faint trace.

That was a long time ago.

Most of the spirituality has dissipated, leaving only traces of engraving, within which a very faint spiritual power still lurks.

Roy placed his hand on the tombstone, closed his eyes, and entered the dream world again for divination.

however.

There was nothing there.

He frowned, then glanced at Gary.

"Gary, can you keep watch for me?"

"What...what are you going to do?"

Gary swallowed hard. "That's my uncle's grave. You...you can't dig it up! My dad will kill me!"

"It's not about digging up a grave. There's a trace of spiritual energy here, and perhaps some secrets can be revealed through divination, but I need a quiet and safe environment."

Roy explained.

Gary understood: "I'll keep an eye on that area for you. If security guards come, I'll distract them."

"it is good."

Roy nodded with a smile.

He set up a ritual, praying to himself through a simple ceremony, and then ascended to a mysterious temple to respond to himself.

then.

Inside the mysterious hall, he formed a close connection with his real self and saw the tombstone through his real self.

The markings on it are clearer now.

Continue the divination!

The dream came to mind.

This time he saw an old man in a white robe who used a pen to carve the Hidden Sage symbol that Roy was familiar with on the tombstone.

In addition, there was a familiar ritual taking place nearby.

Spiritual reinforcement ceremony.

It turned out to be the case.

Roy returned to reality, and then a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"Gary, come back."

"it's over?"

Gary looked around blankly and saw Roy tidying up his things, as if he had just completed a mysterious ritual.

Mr. Rowling indeed possessed genuine magical rituals.

however.

Even so, he was still willing to listen to my explanation of divination and pay for it...

What a generous and kind wizard!

He was secretly amazed.

Roy inexplicably sensed a trace of digestion. He glanced at Gary and pondered the possible rules in his mind.

"Mr. Rowling?"

"Oh, I just performed a dream divination again. It took some effort because the other party also possesses divination and magic skills."

Roy explained with a smile.

Then he walked to a grave and said, "Gary, think back. Wasn't there a small white flower here that day?"

Gary pondered for a long time, then scratched his head: "To be honest, I can't remember. I usually don't deliberately look at the things in front of other people's graves; it's not very polite."

Roy took out his small notebook and pen and began sketching quickly.

About a minute later, a flower pattern appeared on the paper.

It is an elf flower.

It can be used as material for spiritual enhancement rituals.

"This kind of flower."

"Hmm, what you drew seems to remind me of something. It's not just here, I remember there was one in front of another grave..."

Gary tapped his head, racking his brains to figure out which position it was.

Roy smiled and said, "It's next to your uncle's grave."

"Yes, yes, how did you know?"

Gary was utterly astonished. "Dream reading can even see this? That's amazing, Mr. Rowling. Compared to you, the rest of the club are a bunch of curly-haired baboons!"

"Hehe, I just know a little more."

Roy smiled and walked outside. "We've finished looking around here. To avoid being spotted by the security guards, let's go outside first and talk as we walk."

"it is good."

Gary immediately followed.

He hurried over to Roy's side, wanting to help Roy climb over the cemetery wall, and then saw Roy easily leap onto the wall.

"Come on up, have you forgotten? My title is Fighting Wizard, so my forte is actually fighting."

Roy laughed.

Gary struggled to climb over the wall—

There were high slopes and large rocks outside when you come in, but there aren't any inside, unless he's willing to step on someone else's tombstone.

But that would be very impolite.

After they came out, Roy explained, "I just saw a ritual. The effect of that ritual is to enhance mental strength. For example, have you felt that you've been feeling better mentally over the past month?"

"It felt like... a kind of experience that's hard to describe. I even thought it was my knowledge of mysticism working!"

Gary muttered to himself, feeling his face burning.

If Gary were to take "The Joker" at this moment, he would definitely digest a large portion of it immediately.

Roy thought to himself with amusement.

Gary's actions immediately improved his mood.

"Gary, is it convenient to meet with your sister? I mean, without going through your father."

"It's not very convenient, but I'll try my best."

Chapter Two to follow

(End of this chapter)