Chapter 18 Entering the Next Destiny

Chapter 18 Entering the Next Destiny

Chapter 18 Entering the Next Destiny

64
Melissa stood in front of the grave, her eyes unfocused and quiet like a delicate doll. Leonard looked at the scene with his head tilted, feeling very sad, but also admired the girl's strength. After hearing the bad news, she didn't cry or make a fuss, and her silence was distressing.

After the pastor's eulogy and everyone's prayers, the soil began to fill in with a rustling sound, and the black coffin was covered little by little.

The grave was filled and covered with a stone slab. Leonard took one last look at Klein's tombstone. His epitaph had three lines:
"The best brother;"

“The best brother;”

“The best colleague.”

The body of another sacrificed night watchman, Dunn Smith, had been requiemed by the Beyonders sent by the Holy Temple and buried two days in advance. The Holy Temple had given the promotion potion prepared for him to someone else. It was said that there were still some special mystical connections that could help them find the murderer. In the sad atmosphere, the people of the Blackthorn Security Company gradually left. Leonard was overwhelmed by the heavy sadness and hung his head. He followed his companions and left quietly without disturbing his grieving relatives.

At the corner of the street, Leonard separated from Frye and the others, returned to their own residence, closed the curtains, locked the door, and sat down on the chair exhausted.

"Old man." In the darkness, Leonard seemed to be talking to himself, or asking, "Why is it that Klein is facing Ince Zangwill alone? Why is he alone? Why didn't I wake up?"

"A normal person shouldn't wake up so quickly when faced with the sleeping blessing of the gods. Your colleague has a big secret." Pales replied.

"...You know what I'm asking." Leonard leaned back in his chair and covered his eyes with his hands. "You could have woken me up, right? I could have fought with him. At least he wouldn't have to face a Sequence Five alone and die miserably with his neck broken!"

Pales snorted coldly: "What's the point of waking you up? Are you expecting me to defeat that Sequence Five, the Sequence Five with a Level 0 Seal, or are you going to deliver the goods to him together with his characteristics? His characteristics have been taken away. If you want to fight side by side, then I won't bother changing hosts?"

Hearing this, Leonard's face turned red with anger. He stood up suddenly and paced back and forth in the dark room anxiously.

He wanted to find some reason to retaliate against this parasite, but the further he walked, the uglier his expression became. Finally, he sat back in the chair, covered his face with his hands, and bent over deeply.

“…Ince Zangwill.” He pronounced the name with gnashing teeth, wishing he could chew every word into pieces before spitting it out. “You must live until the day I become stronger and kill you!”

"Hey, the culprit of this incident is no longer the gatekeeper. It's the guy who killed your captain and killed more than 3,000 people in Tingen."

Pales said jokingly, "There are benefits to being alive. You still have a chance to take revenge yourself, but it will probably be difficult for you to avenge your captain."

Leonard was silent for a few seconds. He wiped his face vigorously, took a few deep breaths, adjusted his state to be no different from usual, and then asked seriously: "Old man, do you know that person?"

"Yes, to be exact, it's not a human, it's a 'demon'."

Demon? Leonard tilted his head, feeling that the tone of the word Pales said was unusual. Rather than an ordinary noun, it sounded more like a specific reference, or the name of a potion: "Who is that?"

"An angel, an angel on earth, I have never met him before." Pales thought for a moment, "Simply massacring a city, other demons would do it, but helping the evil god 'True Creator' to descend to the heavens, no one else but him would do it."

Leonard clutched his pants tightly and asked nervously, "What's His name?"

"Don't tell you."

"…What does He look like?"

"You can't know that."

"Why?" Leonard raised his voice in astonishment. "How can I... report this matter to the Holy Church without knowing His name and appearance? How can I give an explanation to the more than 3,000 innocent lives in Tingen?"

"Silly boy, do you think you guys in the Church of Night are all freeloaders? How could you not know which demon it is? Even if you take a step back, the Goddess of Night personally took a look at it at that time. It's not your turn to worry about this matter." Pallez chuckled, making Leonard embarrassed immediately. "I don't tell you His appearance and name because I am protecting you, because He is very face-blind."

Leonard slowly typed a question mark: "What do you mean?"

"I don't know why, but He can't recognize people."

Pales clicked his tongue twice, and his tone was somewhat subtle when he mentioned this matter: "Unless you have been with Him for a long time or have obvious personal characteristics, He will not be able to remember you. Even if you have spoken to Him, He should have forgotten your face by now. It is a good thing that He does not know you. But if you knew Him, could you control yourself in front of Him? Would you not lose your composure?"

“It won’t matter if you are noticed by Him, but it will also implicate me.” Pales sighed, “Anyway, I don’t want to face Him in this state.”

“…” Leonard scratched his hair, thinking fruitlessly, and could only sigh, "I understand, old man, thank you for talking to me." "Why thank me? I just don't want to change hosts so frequently." Pallez's voice gradually weakened. He had spent a lot of his accumulated strength in the game with the devil. Now he could no longer suppress his fatigue and urgently needed to sleep to recover. "Whether you become a red glove or something else is your own business. Don't wake me up unless it's dangerous…"

"Yeah." Leonard said firmly, "I understand."

65
In the cold wind of the cemetery late at night, Mr. Fool, Klein Moretti, who had just been resurrected and was very confused and didn't know what was going on, turned his head with difficulty. It seemed that his cervical vertebrae had not yet fully recovered, and he felt a pain similar to a stiff neck.

It really hurts... He couldn't help but frown. When the whole city fell into silence, Ince Zangwill somehow came to Blackthorn Security Company. He wanted to pretend to faint, but he couldn't bear to watch the traitor approach the captain's body while cursing. He only had time to show off his skills for a few times before he was brutally killed by the other party. The last thing he saw was the other party picking up the urn.

Klein carefully avoided the gravekeeper and left the cemetery, recalling what he had just done and planning what to do next: go to the "Land of Hope", the "Capital of All Cities" Backlund.

The hope of becoming stronger, the clues, and the whereabouts of Ince Zangwill all pointed to that place, and Backlund had to go there. Another thing was that when he tried to divine "the murderer who killed Dunn Smith" above the gray fog, he suddenly felt as cold as falling into an ice cave and a fear deeper than death. The warning of spiritual intuition made him stop divination in a panic, and when he returned to the real world, he found that cold sweat soaked his back.

Phew… That murderer is more terrifying than I thought. Even the gray fog can’t stop him. I didn’t have this feeling when I divined the “Eternal Blazing Sun”. Could it be that the murderer has ill intentions towards me? Or is it because of his status—no, that’s not right. That’s a true god. It’s impossible for him to be higher than the “Eternal Blazing Sun”. It must be that my own fear amplified my spiritual intuition.

Before leaving, he looked back for the last time, gazed in the direction of Dunn's grave, sighed dejectedly, and left with firm steps.

After walking for a while in silence, Klein began to feel tired. But as a "dead man", he had no other belongings except the clothes he was wearing, the yellow crystal pendant, and the Azik copper whistle, including gold pounds, soles, and pennies. He was penniless.

Should I blow the whistle now and ask Mr. Azik to help me? ... Fortunately, I still have the 300 pounds that Miss Justice gave me before, which is enough to support my expenses for a long time... What day is it today? Take out the money tomorrow and buy a newspaper... Ah, I'm so sleepy... I can't go home... What I have to do can't implicate Melissa and Benson... It's not too cold tonight, just find a place to sleep...

As Klein thought about it, he found a corner that was sheltered from the wind, sat down, took off his coat, covered himself with it, and fell asleep with his back against the wall.

Not long after he fell asleep, he was suddenly woken up by someone and saw a policeman holding a short stick looking at him ferociously.

"You can't sleep here!" the policeman said fiercely, "The streets and parks are not places for lazy, idle vagrants like you to sleep! This is the current Poor Law regulations!"

Poor Law? Klein was stunned for a moment, but because of his sensitive identity, he did not argue with the other party. He took his coat and was about to leave when he heard the police officer say again, "Why are there still homeless people? It's really unlucky!"

And? Klein was stopped by this word. He turned back to look at the police officer, hoping that he would say more. Perhaps because Klein was dressed neatly and behaved in a manner that seemed educated, the police officer did not immediately speak harshly to him. Instead, he looked him up and down several times and asked in a tone that was not very friendly but not disgusting: "What do you think?"

"Last week, there was a big fire on Xia Street, burning down most of the block. Didn't you know? People and shacks were all burnt, and when the police went to suppress it, they shot and killed many criminals who wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to cause chaos! Without these homeless people who affect the city appearance, the public security in Tingen Street has been much better this week, and no one has to worry about being robbed when traveling at night. Isn't this a good thing?"

"What are you still standing here for? Do you want to be arrested?"

The police officer shook the handcuffs hanging on his belt with a grim look on his face.

Klein was speechless for a moment.

He did not stay and turned to leave. If he was a little grumpy because he was woken up earlier, then after hearing these words, Klein's grumpy mood was completely shattered by unspeakable sadness. He knew that he could not demand the people of this era to follow the moral concepts of modern society, but, but - how could he treat the death of an innocent person as something worth being happy about so lightly!
Aren’t homeless people human lives? They just want to survive. Being homeless is not necessarily their fault. How can you...

How can you say it in such a tone?!
What made him even more disappointed was that he wondered how many people thought this way as a matter of course and were happy about it.

He shouted silently in his heart, and the sleepiness disappeared without a trace. He walked on the street, stopping and starting, sometimes confused and painful, sometimes determined and angry. In this way, he walked alone on the deserted street until dawn.

After daybreak, he went into the bank, withdrew some of his property, and bought clothes, luggage and train tickets.

At the station, Klein hesitated for a long time, but he finally couldn't resist the urge to see his brother and sister again, so he rushed out of the station and headed straight for their home on Daffodil Street. Just as the brother and sister were leaving, Klein followed Benson and Melissa, who were dressed solemnly in black, for a long time. There was an invisible high wall between them.

Even though he vaguely knew that his fate could not be changed, he was weak and could only watch his captain die in front of him. He was helpless and could not recognize his relatives even though they were so close to him. He felt painful that his peaceful family life collapsed in just a few hours and he had to struggle to survive in the crisis. He was overestimating his own ability by trying every possible means to kill an enemy so powerful that he was terrifying... All kinds of emotions and barriers were finally condensed into a clown's face smeared with oil paint and an exaggerated and funny smile.

He bent over and handed over the Seville chrysanthemums. Seeing these brightly colored flowers finally brightened up his sister's eyes which had been dark and gloomy for many days.

TBC
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*Klein’s journey to Backlund begins here.

*Don't be surprised if you think what Edward did doesn't match his identity. Because the real character of the fallen king is very different from what it is now. All the hobbies, interests, concepts, ways of dealing with people, and even speaking styles that everyone has seen so far are almost all imitations of the real "Edward Vaughan". Except for his own inner thoughts when he was in the first person, everything else is basically acting.

(End of this chapter)