Lord of the Mysteries world.
Eight o'clock in the evening — and the Beyonder gathering was underway once more.
It had been called together on very short notice, almost last-minute. And yet the turnout was even larger than last time. In a way, that made a certain kind of sense. Vincent's move at the previous gathering — reporting the location and getting Mr. A's operation shut down — had proven effective.
If you were an unaffiliated Beyonder with any ambition at all, attending these gatherings was simply unavoidable. There was no getting around it.
"I have a Beyonder item for sale — something I stumbled across a few days ago by chance. Five hundred pounds. It lets you hear the voice of a great existence. If you're lucky enough to decode something useful from it, you could become very powerful indeed."
"And if we can't decode anything?" someone asked. "Then that's five hundred pounds down the drain?"
The hoarse-voiced seller didn't answer. He swept his gaze around the room instead. "No one interested? Beyonders live and die by their luck — isn't that the whole point?"
"Then why not gamble on it yourself?"
Bernadette sat quietly on the sofa, listening. She had already worked out what the item was — almost certainly a Beyonder artifact from the Secrets Suppliant Pathway. The "great existence" whose voice you'd hear was almost certainly the ravings of the True Creator, the evil god. Much like the Beyonder characteristic that Vincent had once "fed" to the Hidden Sage.
In other words: whoever touched it was as good as dead.
That said, every piece of trash in the world is just a treasure in the wrong place. To help things along, Bernadette spoke up.
"That item could work as a one-use weapon. Activate it and throw it — it might just be enough to turn the tide in a desperate moment."
Her words sparked interest in a handful of people. But five hundred pounds for a single-use weapon was still beyond most of their means. After a few unsuccessful attempts at haggling, the deal quietly fell through.
Then four or five people started speaking at once — some looking to buy materials, others selling items. Vivian stepped in and organised them into an orderly queue, keeping the gathering running smoothly.
Vincent asked curiously, "Couldn't you just leave the whole thing to Vivian? She'd keep the scales of the Nation of Disorder balanced just as well."
A quiet smile surfaced in her thoughts. "I just found myself with a sudden interest in this sort of thing. Back when I had just left Trier, I used to attend quite a few gatherings like this one. I'd turned down Father's help — I was determined to make it on my own, step by step."
"And then... reality gave me a rather brutal lesson. Being an unaffiliated Beyonder is genuinely brutal. You're on your own for everything. Official organisations could swoop in and arrest you at any moment. You have to be suspicious of every single person you meet — someone you think of as a friend might already be sizing up the best way to put you in the ground."
"But that time also shaped me. It turned me from a naive Intis princess into someone who actually grew — who slowly built her own strength through her own efforts, even organising her own fleet and carving out a place for herself on the open seas."
She gave a small, easy laugh. "I found out later that Father had people quietly following me the entire time, dealing with all sorts of dangers behind the scenes on my behalf. When I found out, I was furious — I had a blazing row with him over it."
"Looking back now, I was being terribly childish."
It's like that for a lot of people when they're young — desperate to prove themselves, to carve out something that's theirs alone. Then life teaches its lessons, the years pile up, and suddenly you'd give anything to have someone arrange everything for you. That tension between freedom and security never quite goes away.
Over in a corner of the room sat three figures — two tall, one short — and they were none other than Fors, Xio, and Audrey. Xio had naturally been invited by Bernadette; Audrey had tagged along at Xio's request.
Since the night they'd all attended Mr. A's gathering together, the three of them had quietly formed something of a little circle. Audrey was hoping to learn more about the Beyonder world through them; Xio and Fors, for their part, were more than happy to hold onto the coattails of Miss Holl from a major family.
"Miss Audrey, you seem more nervous tonight than usual?"
Audrey blinked in surprise. "I'm wearing a mask — how can you tell?"
Xio pointed at her hands. "Your fingers gave you away."
"...Fair enough."
Audrey lowered her voice. "A little, yes. I keep worrying the organiser here might be another Mr. A. After everything that's happened lately, my nerves are completely shot."
"And yet when I came to find you this afternoon, you said yes straightaway?"
"..."
She gave a somewhat sheepish grin. "Well... opportunity doesn't knock twice, does it."
The truth was, she'd lost Roselle's diary. She desperately needed to get her hands on more pages somehow, or she'd have nothing to bring to next week's Tarot Club gathering. The last thing she wanted was to disappoint Mr. Fool.
And of course, if she happened to come across a Sequence 8 formula for the Spectator Pathway, that would be even better. Oh, and there was that other matter — the one Mr. Fool had asked her to look into. The Broker!
Xio smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry. This gathering is perfectly safe."
She already knew it was organised by Lady Natasha.
"One Arbiter formula, for sale."
A voice cut across the low murmur of conversations. Xio already had the Arbiter formula, so she only glanced over out of habit — and her gaze met, briefly, the eyes of a man in a white mask.
She looked away at once and pretended not to care.
The man, seeing no one bite, continued, "I also have a Silver War-Bear's right paw for sale."
"A Silver War-Bear's right paw?!"
Xio's heart lurched. That was one of the primary materials for the Arbiter potion.
Far too suspicious.
This is far too suspicious.
She clamped down hard on the impulse, and said nothing.
But Fors, who had seen the Arbiter formula, couldn't keep still. She nudged Xio urgently. "Xio — don't you want it?"
Xio closed her hand firmly around Fors's and gave a small, deliberate shake of her head. Fors went quiet, and her expression turned thoughtful.
In the end, no one bought the Silver War-Bear's right paw either, and they moved on to the next seller.
As each transaction was made, the scales of the Nation of Disorder steadily accumulated new grey crystals, adding to what had already formed before. The scales crept closer and closer toward balance.
Then, just before the gathering was about to wrap up, a mysterious sensation washed over Vincent. Without even entering the Nation of Disorder, he already knew — the scales had balanced.
He could advance to Sequence 7.
At that moment, a man sitting in the corner spoke up. "I've heard... you have some of Emperor Roselle's personal collection here for sale?"
The man wore a featureless mask, with a pair of red eyes visible through the eyeholes. "Is that true?"
Bernadette's gaze snapped to him immediately. Vincent, for his part, quietly noted: walking into Bernadette's territory and asking to buy Roselle's personal effects — that takes some nerve. To outsiders it might just be a "collection." To Bernadette, those were her father's belongings.
But those red eyes...
In Lord of the Mysteries, outside of a few special cases, red eyes are the mark of the Sanguine. This person is a vampire.
Bernadette asked coolly, "What are you looking for?"
"Ahem."
The red-eyed man cleared his throat. "I've heard that Emperor Roselle was known as the 'Father of Dolls.' I was wondering — do you have any of the dolls he left behind?"
"???"
A vampire who likes dolls? The implication here is pretty hard to miss.
Bernadette leaned back slightly. "We do."
The suspected Sanguine shot to his feet. "May I see them?!"
"As long as you can prove you can actually afford it — certainly."
"How much?"
Bernadette named her price: "Five thousand pounds."
"!!!"
The red-eyed man hadn't even reacted yet, but the rest of the room had. Five thousand pounds? For a doll? Does it fight for you? Does it make you rich? Is it life-sized?
To be continued…
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