Lord of Mysteries: Starting As A Reader

When Klein awoke in "Tingen City," it was just past 4 a.m., and the sky was still dark. After adjusting to the faint candlelight in the room, he noticed Miss Sharron sitting quietly, reading a book.

"How long was I asleep?" Klein asked hoarsely, his voice still thick from rest.

He glanced around the room, then poured himself a glass of water from the pitcher on the table to soothe his throat—despite this being a dream, the physiological feedback of his body felt incredibly real.

Miss Sharron closed the book in her hands and answered concisely, "Four hours."

Putting down the glass, Klein's attention shifted to the cover of the book she was reading. Thanks to the Nightmare Emblem he wore, which provided enhanced night vision, he managed to make out the words "Ladies' Aesthetic" printed on it.

Is Miss Sharron considering swapping her gothic dress for something more combat-suitable? Klein mused, feeling an inexplicable sense of anticipation, akin to waiting for a new skin update for a female character in one of those mobile games from his previous life.

However, Klein quickly dismissed these wandering thoughts. After ensuring that his spiritual energy had fully recovered, he composed his words and said, "After all, this is a scenario Linster created specifically for revenge. Even if the 'Labyrinth Tower' has balanced it by giving us time to investigate and prepare, that time won't last long. We need to find Ince Zangwill immediately and seize Sealed Artifact 0-08."

"Understood," Sharron replied simply.

After speaking, she pursed her lips slightly, and the outfit on her body began to transform rapidly. In mere moments, her gothic dress had changed into a sleek hunting outfit, making her appear sharp and valiant, with a beauty quite different from her usual appearance.

Noticing Klein's look of admiration and surprise, Sharron's azure eyes flickered slightly. However, she quickly suppressed any unnatural reactions and reverted to the precise demeanor of an immaculate "doll."

On the other hand, Klein had only taken a few extra glances out of curiosity. Knowing that staring at a lady in such a manner was impolite, he quickly averted his gaze, collected his "equipment," and left the room with Miss Sharron.

Instead of hiring a carriage, the two moved swiftly along the streets, finally reaching the outskirts of Tingen before dawn. There, they stood before a house surrounded by verdant lawns.

The house featured a decaying garden, whose flowers had begun to wither in early September, and a dark red chimney. Everything matched the description of the building Klein had hired a detective to search for during his time in Tingen.

"The place I once sought endlessly is so easily found in this dream version of Tingen... It seems that Ince knew my every move back then and had already made 'arrangements.' Unfortunately for you, in this dream, your fake '0-08' is useless against me!"

Though his thoughts were tinged with irony, Klein maintained his caution. He ascended to the gray fog and conducted a series of divinations before returning to reality. Facing the waiting Miss Sharron, he nodded and said, "No additional dangers... our only opponent is Ince.

"You distract him, and I'll wait for the right moment to deliver the fatal blow."

Sharron silently stared at the man who had just excused himself to the bathroom for a few seconds before nodding slightly. "Alright."

A few minutes later, Ince Zangwill, with his dark golden hair and sharply sculpted features, looked on in despair and disbelief with his remaining eye. His body collapsed to the ground, surrounded by charred pieces of internal organs burning with black flames—organs he had just vomited out moments earlier.

Klein lowered the pitch-black revolver in his hand and stared at the corpse of his nemesis. In a voice that only he could hear, he murmured,

"Ince, just like I once said to Lanrus... death is the most 'affectionate' confession I can give you."

Klein lowered the pitch-black revolver in his hand and stared at the "corpse" of his nemesis, murmuring softly to himself,

"Ince, just like I once said to Lanvus... death is the most 'affectionate' confession I can give you.

"Unfortunately, the 'you' here is nothing more than a dream-induced phantom."

After finishing his words, Klein stood up, picked up the feathered pen on the table, and curiously examined it for a moment before setting it down again. Turning to Sharron, who was quietly flipping through a notebook, he smiled and said,

"I didn't expect that after losing the advantage of '0-08,' this version of Ince Zangwill would be so weak in direct combat. I've heard that when he failed to forcibly ascend to a demigod, he suffered severe backlash. It seems likely that as a result, many of the 'Gatekeeper' and 'Spirit Guide' abilities he should have possessed are no longer available to him.

"No wonder he was so intent on weakening the Captain and the Tingen Nighthawks… No wonder he never even considered breaking into Chanis Gate while the Captain was out. Ha, in his current state, just approaching Chanis Gate would probably trigger the latent issues in his body and cause him to collapse completely."

The earlier ambush on Ince had gone so smoothly it felt almost absurd. With Klein and Sharron's seamless coordination, Ince had been rendered utterly powerless!

They hadn't even needed to use the "Sunlight Talisman." The "Black Flame" bullets from Klein's "Confession" revolver, combined with the holy light enchantment from the "Sun Brooch," had been enough to eradicate most of Ince's lingering spirits before killing him outright.

By now, Miss Sharron, who had been wearing a white lace-trimmed shirt paired with a tailored black hunting jacket earlier, had reverted to her gothic long dress. Her expression unchanged, she slid the notebook she had been reading across the table to Klein, pointing to a particular page with her slender finger.

"Look here," she said.

Detecting a note of seriousness in her tone, Klein focused his attention on the indicated section of the page. It read:

"A sense of inexplicable agitation warned Ince Zangwill of impending danger. He decided to assist Linster by accelerating his fusion with the 'Evil God's Offspring.' To this end, he split a portion of the Death's Descendant characteristics he had collected and implanted them into Megose's body, granting her the necessary strength.

"With Megose's enhanced body, Linster, who was in the midst of fusing with the 'Evil God's Offspring,' no longer needed to worry about his 'mother's' body enduring the process. What originally required several months to complete was shortened to just a few days."

As expected... Klein thought to himself. He flipped further back in Ince's notebook, piecing together more of the story behind this dream-created scenario.

The events described were eerily similar yet clearly distinct from the ones Klein had personally experienced. In this dream version of Tingen, there was no "True Creator," no Aurora Order, and no Lanvus.

From beginning to end, the one "collaborating" with Ince was none other than Linster, the "Wraith" who had dragged both Klein and Sharron into the "Dream Labyrinth Tower"!

However, if there was no Lanvus, how had Megose come to bear the "Evil God's Offspring"? And if this so-called "Evil God" wasn't the True Creator, then who—or what—was it? Could it really be as Klein suspected, a god without clear attribution?

As this thought flitted through his mind, Klein frowned and seemed to recall something. Turning to Miss Sharron, he asked,

"What was Linster's faith within the Rose School of Thought? The 'Chained God'?"

Miss Sharron, wearing her black soft hat, remained silent for several seconds before answering in her ethereal, dreamlike voice:

"The Original Moon."

(End of Chapter)