"You're back?"
"Mm, I'm back."
"What about Miss Audrey?"
"She returned to Backlund."
"The journey was exciting, wasn't it?"
"It wasn't bad."
This brief conversation took place inside a room in the castle.
Since Sharon did not particularly enjoy lively places, after Hastur and the others left Puning Harbor, she took Ariella back to the castle to live.
Inside the bright, clean room, the dim golden light of sunset gradually seeped in. Sharon gazed out the window with her back to Hastur, the hem of her black dress swaying gently in the breeze.
After those few brief exchanges, Sharon stopped speaking. Hastur took out various dried fish that had been sun-dried aboard the Hope and fed the gluttonous Ariella while asking about how they had been living during this period.
Ariella merely rolled her eyes at him, lowered her head, picked up several pieces of dried fish in her mouth, and left the room, leaving Hastur and Sharon alone together.
"Let's go to the spirit world." Hastur walked to Sharon's side.
"What for?"
"To meet your teacher."
"And then?"
"Discuss some things with her."
"What things?"
"The lifelong affairs of her most outstanding student."
Sharon fell silent for a moment. "What about Miss Audrey?"
It was the same topic as before. Although Sharon's expression remained the same as always, her tone was completely different.
"I'll be heading to Backlund in a while."
"So, did someone steal my home?"
"???"
Hearing such words come from Sharon's mouth left Hastur frozen on the spot. With a strange expression, he said, "Sharon, where did you hear that phrase?"
With Sharon's personality, how could she suddenly say something so straightforward? Did she even know what those words actually meant?
"Roselle's writings."
"…"
Hastur remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "Those aren't exactly proper books. You should probably stop reading them in the future."
Proper people didn't write diaries, and proper people didn't write books either.
In the end, Sharon still did not accompany Hastur to the spirit world.
…
April 1st.
Some time had already passed since Hastur returned to Puning Harbor.
During the day, he handled various matters while inviting Sharon out for walks and excursions. At night, he traveled throughout the Kingdom of Loen in his identity as the Vessel of Stars.
The Lost One, one who had lost the spiritual anchor of their heart, on this point, the Vessel of Stars did a better job than he himself did.
However, the digestion of the Sequence 4 potion was no longer as fast as before. Hastur estimated that it would probably take until around the end of the year to completely digest the Lost One potion.
That speed was acceptable, because he should advance quite quickly through Sequence 3, Enlightened Sage, and Sequence 2, Attendant of the Stars.
At night, within the Hall of Stars, Hastur calmly looked at the Mother Tree of Desire, Supernova Dominator, Son of Chaos, High-Dimensional Overseer, and Primordial Hunger before him.
During this gathering of the stars, he did not voice any opinions. He merely remained silent and watched as They discussed various matters.
None of them were particularly important.
There were only two things worth paying attention to: the entanglement between the Supernova Dominator and the Eternal Blazing Sun, and the game of pursuit between the High-Dimensional Overseer and Amon in the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
Judging from the High-Dimensional Overseer's tone, Amon might have already quietly left the Forsaken Land of the Gods.
As for the Feysac Empire that Ouroboros had previously mentioned, not one of the existences such as the Mother Tree of Desire brought it up. Clearly, They did not pay much attention to matters concerning the Feysac Empire.
Hastur also did not ask Them whether the Mother Goddess of Depravity and Her faction had done anything recently.
After all, the persona he maintained was that everything lay beneath the gaze of the stars, and there was nothing he could not observe.
When the gathering of the stars ended, only Son of Chaos seemed to be in a particularly good mood.
It was probably related to Bernadette's recent intention to establish a pirate kingdom on the sea. Regarding matters involving this Beyonder pathway, no one understood them better than Him.
That importance alone was enough to make His status in Bernadette's eyes soar dramatically.
After all the Great Old Ones dispersed, Hastur sat alone within the Hall of Stars. After quietly sitting for a while, he descended through divine descent into the body of the Vessel of Stars.
…
Tingen City.
Late at night, Tingen was quiet and ordinary. Although beggars could still be seen curled up asleep beneath the streetlamps, and the sounds of celebration outside the bars were still loud, the city itself was mundane and peaceful.
On days without frequent mystical incidents, public-security matters were nothing more than minor troubles, not even requiring the Nighthawks to intervene.
Their daily lives now mostly consisted of drinking tea and reading newspapers during the day, occasionally taking on a few minor assignments to improve their financial situation. At night, they no longer needed to remain constantly tense and heavily guarded. They could often sit outside a nearby bar, drink a few glasses of beer, and remark that Tingen had once again passed through another ordinary day.
Dunn was still the captain of the Nighthawk team here. Unlike before, two new Sequence 9 Beyonders had been transferred here, along with one lucky survivor of a mystical incident.
"Nights like this are really nice."
Dunn sat outside a bar not far from the Blackthorn Security Company, tasting the beer there while watching the two newcomers opposite him compete in drinking with a kindly expression.
Tonight was Saturday, one of those rare days when they could relax a little.
As they drank and the atmosphere grew lively, one of the newcomers complained that there had been nothing to do lately. Every day consisted only of drinking tea and reading newspapers, completely unlike the life full of exciting experiences he had once imagined.
Dunn merely smiled and told him that ordinary days were the most precious treasure in the mysteries world.
Another new member curiously asked about the major incident that had once shaken the entire Tingen. They very much wanted to hear Captain Dunn, someone who had personally survived it, recount that Beyonder incident that had since been classified.
"Knowing too much isn't necessarily a good thing. You need to learn to restrain your curiosity."
Dunn shook his head and refused to tell them about it. Although he often forgot many things, there were some things he would always remember.
Not far away, at another table, a middle-aged man quietly tasting the beer watched them with a calm and gentle gaze.
When Dunn and the others left the bar, he put down 2 soli and 2 pence for his beer, then got up and left as well. Reaching up to lower the brim of his hat, he followed the street shrouded in dim yellow light, passed through the area, and step by step returned to the place where it had all begun.
The sky gradually began to brighten. More and more vendors appeared on the streets, pushing carts filled with their goods and loudly hawking their wares.
"Come, come! Delicious pan-fried meatfish!"
"Fresh, piping-hot oyster soup! Have a bowl in the morning and stay energetic all day!"
"Fresh fish delivered from the harbor! Only five pence each!"
"Muffins! Eel soup with ginger beer!"
"Conches! Conches! Conches!"
The familiar cries of the vendors sent a warm feeling flowing through the heart of the middle-aged man who had wandered the streets throughout the night.
He looked around, then the corners of his mouth rose slightly. He ordered a portion of pan-fried fish, a bowl of oyster soup, a serving of muffins, a serving of blanched flower snails, and a glass of ginger beer…
For a long time, he had wanted to find an opportunity to order one of everything from this stall. Today, that wish had finally come true.
Drinking ginger beer first thing in the morning really was a bit extravagant.
After finishing an overly sumptuous breakfast, the middle-aged man ordered another serving of lemon pudding and ate it as he walked.
When he once again passed the street outside the Blackthorn Security Company, he removed his hat and gave a slight bow in that direction. His lips seemed to utter a sentence that only he himself could hear clearly.
After putting his hat back on, he hailed a carriage and headed for the steam train station, where he bought a ticket to Backlund.
Backlund, the City of Hope. Once again, he was heading toward that city.
Having grown accustomed to a life drifting across the seas, he felt it was about time he returned to Backlund and properly enjoyed life for a while.
Mm, this time, he would become a nobleman too.
What name should he choose?
Dwayne Dantès seemed like a pretty good name.
As for his identity, he would be a mysterious wealthy man from Desi Bay who believed in the Evernight Goddess.
He had sold his original lands and mines and was preparing to come to Backlund in search of new opportunities. He also had a certain interest in obtaining a noble title through donations.
That was merely the first, superficial layer of his identity. To deal with official Beyonders, he needed to prepare another, somewhat less respectable identity for himself. Such an identity would make it easier to fool official Beyonders conducting deeper investigations.
After all, no wealthy man could remain completely upright and honorable throughout the process of accumulating a vast fortune.
He would be an adventurer who had secretly gone to East and West Balam on the Southern Continent and struggled there for ten years. Over those years, he had accumulated a considerable fortune through methods that were not entirely legitimate.
This time, he was returning to Backlund to settle down there, making it more convenient for his eventual retirement.
There were quite a few wealthy men like that in Backlund. His double-layered disguise should be enough to handle routine investigations.
The journey from Tingen to Backlund would still take some time. He could continue developing and perfecting his dual identities along the way.
As the pattering rain struck the train windows and gray fog shrouded the path ahead, the steam train suddenly slowed down to avoid slipping on the rain-slicked tracks and causing an accident.
Klein put aside his wandering thoughts, turned slightly to the side, and gazed out the window.
Outside was a world where rain and fog blended together, leaving everything hazy and indistinct.
Yet faintly, he saw a long procession carrying oil lamps, moving through the world of gray fog by the dim yellow glow.
What was even stranger was that every member of the procession wore yellow clothes and a yellow hood that concealed their face. Each carried an oil lamp in one hand to illuminate the way, while tightly clutching a book in the other.
Because of the combined obstruction of the raindrops and fog, coupled with the steam train moving far faster than people on foot, Klein could not make out the title of the book. He could only vaguely see its cover, which seemed to depict the back of a figure dressed in yellow robes.
They were like ghosts. In the blink of an eye, the steam train left them behind in the hazy world of raindrops and thin mist.