"Honestly..."
Silas looked down at the Tarot card on the ground and shook his head.
Even the Sequence 1 Snake of Mercury refused to answer questions about the Primordial Moon. He had expected as much, but the outright rejection still caught him slightly off guard.
Something about this did not feel right.
"Moon" Emlin, who knew a little about the Primordial Moon, had shared what he knew without much hesitation.
The mirror, Arrodes, who also seemed to know something, had shattered into pieces the moment Silas asked.
And now the Snake of Mercury, Speaker of the Life School of Thought and someone who should have known a great deal about the subject, had refused to speak to him altogether, denying him even the chance to ask.
Their reactions seemed to be warning him of something.
Information about the Primordial Moon was poisonous!
Simply knowing about it, or even passing along the little one knew, appeared to carry tremendous danger.
At his current Sequence, this was a matter best left alone for now rather than investigated any further... Silas quickly came to that conclusion.
"I understand. I won't ask about it, then. Can you come out now?"
Silas raised his head and called into the empty tower, hoping to catch a glimpse of the Snake of Mercury.
The Primordial Moon was not the only subject he wanted to ask about. He also wanted to know how the Aurora Order had deployed its members and whether Uroleos, the Tail-Swallower, would make an appearance...
Then he heard a cold snort.
"Hmph!"
A massive white shape suddenly expanded before his eyes.
"Damn it!"
Silas's body jolted, and his eyes flew open.
"If you didn't want to see me, fine, but did you really have to hit me with your tail..."
He rubbed his forehead and muttered under his breath, as though he could still feel a lingering ache.
"What's wrong?"
Sitting across from him in the carriage, Klein, disguised as a middle-aged gentleman, asked. His body swayed gently with the motion of the vehicle.
"Nothing."
Silas collected himself, shook his head, and said, "It was that snake. You know him as Will Auceptin. He refused to see me and asked me to pass along a message: don't bother Him before He's born."
At that, both men fell silent.
Will Auceptin was supposedly a Sequence 1 angel, yet somehow the two of them had ended up harassing Him as though He were a defenseless infant.
Back at Silas's home, the two had exchanged some information.
As it turned out, Klein had known the Speaker of the Life School of Thought for much longer and even knew that, in His previous life, He had gone by the name Will Auceptin.
Out of courtesy, the two of them had originally planned to visit the angel's current home together and pay their respects. However, Silas had fallen asleep in the carriage, and by the time he woke up, a warning had already arrived from the other side.
"Then let's turn around and head straight to our next stop."
Klein recovered and smiled.
He reached out and knocked on the small window at the front of the carriage, then raised his voice to inform the driver.
"Sorry for the trouble, but could you change our destination? Take us to Hillston District instead."
"Of course."
The driver sounded quite pleased. Since he charged by time, a sudden change in route only meant he would earn more money.
The two of them sat inside the hired carriage.
Beyond the window stretched the streets of Backlund, where carriages, pedestrians, and buildings were all shrouded in a thin haze. Compared to the severe pollution from several months earlier, there was still some mist in the air, but the improvement was dramatic.
The public outrage caused by the Great Smog disaster had pushed the royal family and the upper levels of the bureaucracy to introduce a series of new policies, gradually reducing the city's air pollution... From another perspective, however, it also showed that George III was steadily putting his new system into place.
The two had planned to visit two people that day. Since the first had refused to receive them, they had no choice but to move up their visit to the second: Fors Wall, Miss Magician.
To deal with the Aurora Order and establish ties with the family behind her, it was necessary to meet her in person.
So Miss Magician is connected to the Abraham Family... That was news to me too.
Silas glanced at the middle-aged gentleman sitting across from him.
When explaining how he had learned that information, Klein had claimed that the Fool himself had told him.
But why would the Fool reveal something like that to him?
The Black Emperor's Card of Blasphemy, the Black Emperor's ascension ritual, matters involving the Abraham Family, and other hidden secrets besides... Klein seemed to know all of them, as though the Fool had personally granted him a vast amount of knowledge.
During Tarot Club gatherings, he also often appeared to be acting according to the Fool's wishes.
Silas had already formed a rough theory.
Klein's connection to the Fool was likely much deeper than it appeared.
Perhaps Klein truly was one of the Fool's Chosen, someone who had received His favor... That would explain how he had died and returned to life, as well as why he possessed so many unusual abilities and resources.
Silas understood but said nothing, merely watching Klein in silence.
So far, the Fool had shown no sign of hostility and could be considered a relatively benevolent god.
Still, Silas never forgot what he had come to understand when he was only Sequence 9, and he never fully lowered his guard around beings of that level.
He only hoped the day would never come when he was forced to oppose his friend.
The carriage stopped in front of a house. The two men stepped out, paid the fare, walked to the door, and knocked twice.
"Coming, coming!"
A voice immediately sounded from behind the door, carrying a hint of flustered urgency.
"Huh?"
Klein turned and glanced at Silas, his expression subtly shifting.
Fors had responded far too quickly, almost as though she had been waiting directly behind the door, afraid that making them wait even a few seconds might upset them.
"Sorry to keep you waiting."
The next moment, the door opened from the inside, revealing a young woman with curly brown hair. She wore an outfit that was appropriate for receiving guests, though it looked noticeably stiff and formal on her.
She looked first at Klein in his middle-aged gentleman disguise, then at Silas standing beside him with his usual cool, detached expression. She appeared confused, yet also seemed to have already guessed who they were.
"You are..."
"Good afternoon, madam."
Klein chuckled and flicked his wrist. With the practiced movement of a magician, he sent a Tarot card sliding out from his sleeve.
Within a wreath of laurels, a maiden danced.
At the four corners were a lion, a soaring eagle, an angel, and a bull. It represented dynamic balance, the culmination of completion, and the beginning of something new.
The World.
Fors's eyes widened slightly.
Although she had been notified beforehand, seeing another member of the Tarot Club in person still sent a wave of shock through her.
She instinctively looked toward the other man. Beneath his black formal suit, he wore a striking blood-red shirt that made him impossible to overlook.
Noticing her gaze, Silas stepped forward. He took the stack of Tarot cards from Klein's hand and drew one at random, revealing the card that represented him.
A red-winged angel holding a chalice stood with one foot planted on either side of a stream.
The Temperance card.