Little Sun was instantly caught in a dilemma. He clenched his fists, wrestled with himself for a while, and then looked at Vincent with a pitiful expression.
"..."
No wonder he was the most honest kid in the Tarot Club — making him deal with something like this really was asking too much.
"My suggestion is: don't report it. Just act like you don't know anything, like nothing happened. Keep doing whatever you were doing before."
"But, Mr. Hanged Man said..."
Vincent cut him off. "Mr. Hanged Man only reminded you to keep an eye on Elder Lovia, so she doesn't bring disaster down on Silver City. But realistically, your Chief has probably already been doing that."
"I even suspect your Chief might have already guessed, at least partly, that Elder Lovia believes in the True Creator — he just hasn't said it out loud."
Derrick asked, surprised, "Why?"
"Because to your Chief, Silver City hasn't found a way out in thousands of years. No news from the outside world. Not even a god's attention. In other words, nothing has changed in Silver City for thousands of years."
"For most places, no change might mean stability and peace. But for your Silver City, no change means despair."
"Now, when an Elder reconnects with the outside world and catches a god's attention — even if it's a terrifying evil god — that's already breaking your city's thousands of years of 'unchanging.'"
Thinking back to how, in the original story, that Chief of Silver City collapsed right in front of the gate out of the god-forsaken land, Vincent couldn't help a quiet sigh. He said softly, "After all that, do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
Derrick lowered his head, thought for a good while, then nodded firmly. "I... think I get it. Elder Lovia believing in an evil god is both a crisis and a hope for Silver City."
"Exactly!"
Audrey spoke up. "In that case, could Mr. Sun also... appropriately let their Chief know a little about Mr. Fool?"
She quickly added, "I don't mean actually telling him about Mr. Fool — just letting him know that you've also made contact with the outside world, and gained the favor of a great being."
"That's about right."
In fact, in the original story, after that Chief of Silver City discovered the problem with Little Sun, he took a similar approach toward Lovia — subtly letting the two of them play off each other, so he could figure out whose faith could actually save Silver City.
"But I think it's better to just let things happen naturally."
Vincent added, a bit of amusement in his tone. "I'm sure your Chief will notice the change in you soon enough, and start paying similar attention. What Mr. Sun needs to do is make it clear that everything you've done has been for Silver City's sake."
Derrick nodded seriously, excited. "I understand! Thank you, Mr. Lovers!"
That exchange left Fors's questions piling up one after another: what was going on with this Mr. Sun? Where was this Silver City they mentioned? Had it really been cut off from the world for thousands of years?
Ah — could it be one of those hidden families that show up so often in the novels Emperor Roselle used to write? Except in those novels, families like that usually hid a lot of powerful old monsters. But from the way they talked, Mr. Sun and the others didn't seem to be having an easy time of it.
"Mr. Fool."
Having settled Little Sun's question, Vincent turned to Klein. "I've got three pages of diary this week."
Only then did Audrey and Alger remember it was time for Mr. Fool to read his diary. They quickly apologized. "Sorry, Mr. Fool, I didn't collect any new diary entries this week."
"Mm."
Klein rested his cheek on his hand, looking utterly indifferent.
In truth, he'd been carefully listening to the conversation between "Lovers" and "Sun" — not because of the conversation itself, but because of the "True Creator" they'd mentioned. He was genuinely curious how this fellow countryman of his had ended up becoming a universally-reviled evil god.
Audrey noticed the confusion on Fors's face and explained. "Mr. Fool takes a particular interest in Emperor Roselle's diary, so at every gathering we present him with whatever pages we've collected that week."
"Of course, it's not free. Mr. Fool likes an equal exchange — you can trade diary pages for knowledge or other things of equal value from him."
"Oh, I see."
Fors nodded repeatedly, then suddenly realized: wait, that means Mr. Fool can actually read the script Emperor Roselle invented?!
She suddenly remembered that not long ago, Xio had gotten targeted by a powerful being just because she'd taken a commission to collect Emperor Roselle's diary entries for someone. If Miss Natasha hadn't helped afterward, who knew what would've happened to the two of them.
"Huh? Could the person who put out that commission to collect Roselle's diary have some connection to Mr. Fool, to the Tarot Club? Could that person even be one of the people sitting right in front of me?"
The thought flickered through Fors's mind before she mocked herself for it — it's not like she was living in her own novel, things didn't line up that neatly. There was never any shortage of Emperor Roselle devotees in this world, nor any shortage of people trying to crack the Roselle script to find the treasure supposedly hidden in those notebooks.
While Fors's mind wandered, Klein lowered his head and looked over the diary pages Vincent had manifested. These pages seemed to be from Roselle's early years — no mention of the Lord of Chaos, no mention of him building his tomb:
"September 21st. Arrived at Saint Mielon, officially began my first tour with the delegation... Tonight I'm heading to the tavern to find a lovely Feysac lady and get drunk together in crime!"
Heh. "Get drunk together"? You just wanted a one-night stand with someone.
"September 23rd. The Dusk Palace really is magnificent — like a myth made real. That whole building seems built for giants."
"I met a Feysac man who plays a bone flute. Onegg and I chatted for a while — I brought up that question from earlier. He said he was just missing home. He thinks somewhere in the far eastern reaches of the Sonia Sea might hide the road to the Giants' Court."
"...He started playing the bone flute again, and drifted off into that long, sorrowful melody."
"Home, huh..."
Seeing that word again, Klein still felt a jolt in his chest. That gradually fading world surfaced in his mind again, and he couldn't help mocking himself internally: seems my ability to adapt is better than I thought — I've already become no different from a "native" of this place.
"January 10th. Visited Sonia Island. Also known as the Ancient Elf Island — plenty of elf ruins and customs still remain here.
I was shocked on the very first day — the elves make 'blood pudding'? They like eating animal organs, they're skilled with spices? They even invented chopsticks?"
"Thinking back on the elf depictions in the murals — aside from a few with blue hair, the rest of their features, hair color, and eyes are close to Asians on Earth. Could they be fellow countrymen?"
Damn it!
Klein nearly lost his composure: another one? Another fellow countryman?
Wait — since when did transmigrating into another world become a group activity?
To be continued…
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