Chapter 346: Miss

Very seasoned and experienced—truly worthy of the reputation that has spread across the sea for years, the "Admiral of Stars." Klein sighed in admiration in his heart.

Then, he leaned back gently against the chair back, maintaining his leisurely posture, and spoke in a very casual manner:

"The remuneration for rescuing you will be paid by the 'White Tower.'"

Sitting in the seat beside him, Rekdton was stunned for a moment. He instinctively looked toward Klein at the very head of the mottled long table, opened his mouth, and said in a sincere voice, "Thank you for your help, respected Mr. 'Fool.' I will pay an equivalent remuneration for this!"

I'm just someone watching the show, and I still have to perform along with you—it's practically like a badger in a melon patch personally planting melons!

"'Fool'?"

"I have heard your honored name from Mr. Z of the Aurora Order."

Cattleya grasped the key point from the earlier conversation between Rekdton and Klein, and chose her words carefully before speaking.

She then turned her gaze to the blurry figure directly ahead and to her side, saying in a very sincere tone:

"Thank you very much for your help. I don't know what kind of remuneration you require for this? If possible, I am willing to pay on his behalf."

Rekdton straightened his posture and said with a light smile:

"Remuneration? Just consider it my fare aboard the Future."

The Future. He had once been aboard the Future—no wonder I found him familiar. Cattleya rapidly filtered through one figure after another in her mind, and soon, she locked onto the target.

She chose her tone carefully and spoke:

"Are you Al?"

Rekdton gave a slight nod and said with a smile, "Long time no see, Captain!"

Cattleya's originally tense mood relaxed somewhat. Then, full of curiosity, she asked, "How did you know I encountered Knowledge Pursuers, and how did you promptly request Mr. 'Fool's' help?"

Klein sat leisurely in the high-backed chair, but his gaze remained on Rekdton. He was prepared to take the question upon himself directly if the other party couldn't answer it.

At worst, Mr. Fool holds authority over the ocean domain, so it's perfectly normal for him to know the situation of a pirate general drifting on the sea. Besides, I have the Sea God's Scepter, so performing corresponding miracles isn't out of the question either.

Rekdton rested both hands on the bronze long table before him and said with a faint sigh, "It's just a coincidence. I happened to have some matters to report to Mr. 'Fool.'"

"That astrolabe of yours—it was crafted by the Great Emperor Roselle and can establish a certain connection with this place. That is the main reason you were able to receive Mr. 'Fool's' help."

An astrolabe? An item crafted by the Great Emperor? In that case, Miss 'Justice' and Mr. 'Hanged Man' must have had similar items on them back then—that was also the reason I was able to pull them above this gray fog at the time?

The Great Emperor also had a certain connection to this gray fog—related to transmigration? Could it be that both Roselle and I were brought to this world by the Castle Above the Fog? And Al was brought over by the Wilderness of Knowledge? Klein's emotions surged uncontrollably, thoughts constantly floating through his mind, but under the concealment of the gray fog, none of this was visibly apparent.

An item crafted by the Great Emperor Roselle can establish a certain connection with this place! As her thoughts churned, her gaze toward 'Fool' at the very head of the mottled long table shifted subtly.

Her first reaction was to relay this information to the Mystical Queen—this was something the other party had been pursuing all along.

A moment later, she gathered her thoughts once more, her gaze sweeping unobtrusively around the area, focusing on the other empty seats, before respectfully and cautiously asking the figure at the very head: "Respected Mr. 'Fool,' are there others here?"

Klein reined in his emotions and said in a flat voice, "Some people similar to you. They established a fixed gathering, and I am the witness."

Cattleya said with almost no hesitation, "May I participate?"

Since she had already established a connection with this "Fool," she might as well take the opportunity to learn more. The fact that an item crafted by the Great Emperor Roselle could produce a certain connection with this place—the reason definitely wouldn't be simple. Perhaps the Great Emperor himself had once sat in one of the seats here.

Klein leaned back slightly, resting against the chair back, and said in a leisurely voice:

"You may."

"Without permission, nothing may be disclosed."

"Good!" Cattleya gave a slight nod and responded without the slightest hesitation.

Rekdton lounged lazily in the high-backed chair, his right hand propping up his chin, slightly lost in thought. Given the Captain's personality, once she left the gray fog, within an hour, some of the information from just now would appear in Bernadette's hands—and that one hour in between would be her agonizing over and weighing her wording.

Klein curled the fingers of his right hand and tapped the table gently, producing a thumping sound. A deck of Tarot cards with their existing code names removed materialized, floating above the bronze long table.

"They use Tarot cards as code names. These are the remaining ones."

"You may choose one."

So that was why Mr. "Fool" called Al "White Tower" earlier. Cattleya's gaze swept over Rekdton, lingered briefly on the Tarot cards floating above the table, and then said directly: "The Hermit!"

Rekdton then withdrew his right hand from the table, and the materialized Tarot cards vanished. Shrouded in the gray fog, he sat in a leisurely posture and said in a flat voice: "Backlund time, every Monday at three in the afternoon."

"Understood." Cattleya nodded gently and responded in a very solemn tone.

Seeing that Klein intended to let Cattleya leave, Rekdton straightened up, leaned slightly forward, and said:

"Looking forward to our next meeting, Miss 'Hermit'~"

As soon as those words fell, with a surge of deep crimson light, Cattleya's figure vanished from above the gray fog.

Rekdton leaned back against the chair again, returning to his earlier lazy posture, and turned his head to look at Klein's figure shrouded in gray fog at the very head:

"The Captain of the Future has appeared. When do you plan to set out to sea?"

"Or perhaps you could still pray to the Goddess of the Night—that would be simpler."

"My identity in the Church is already that of a dead man."

Klein responded in a calm voice.

Rekdton nodded gently, not exposing Klein's thoughts, and instead said, "In the ruins of the Divine War, there is a passage leading to the Forsaken Land."

"If the timing works out, I can go with you to those waters."

The ruins of the Divine War have a passage leading to the Forsaken Land—which means there's no way to enter or leave the Forsaken Land through normal means. No wonder Silver City's millennium of exploration had yielded nothing.

Klein's expression, shrouded in gray fog, grew somewhat grave. He frowned slightly and looked at Rekdton: "You plan to go to the Forsaken Land?"

"What's there?"

He felt that given Rekdton's personality, he wouldn't suddenly want to go to the Forsaken Land for no reason—there was a greater probability that something there held an attraction for him.

Klein's question made Rekdton instinctively think of A Meng wandering the Forsaken Land, and he blurted out:

"There's A Meng—lots of A Meng."

"..." Klein fell silent for a moment; he didn't know how to respond.

After a brief silence, Rekdton continued from what he had been saying:

"I plan to go to the Forsaken Land to find some characteristics of high-sequence Beyonders of the Seer and Knowledge pathways, and to collect some faith along the way, in preparation for possible future needs."

"Silver City?" The first thing Klein thought of was Silver City—it was also the only human city-state he knew of that still struggled to survive in the Forsaken Land.

Lei Kedun slightly shook his head, then after pondering, he said:

"I have discussed this with Sasilier; in the Godforsaken Land, besides Silver City, there are several other human settlements, some under the protection of the True Creator, some wandering in the deep darkness."

"True Creator? The survivors protected in the Godforsaken Land?"

Ke Laisen felt somewhat unbelievable; this was completely different from his impression of an evil god's image.

Even though he knew that the True Creator was the remnant of the ancient sun god who once led humanity's rise in this world, but He had gone mad, and was even closer to being an evil spirit of that ancient sun god.

Lei Kedun leaned back in his chair, his right hand rubbing the edge of the mottled long table, his voice full of emotion as he said: "Although He is mad, as long as one is not an extraordinary person of the Secret Prayer Path, and does not actively approach Him and listen to His voice, there will not be great danger."

"Even the Aurora Society, their frenzied actions are mostly to enable the True Creator to break the seal left by the Seven Gods in the Godforsaken Land and descend into reality; besides that, they are no different from those other churches."

(End of chapter)