99 Red Chimney (1/2)
Late in the afternoon, Klein returned home and drew the curtains, allowing his room to slip into darkness.
He took out his pen and paper and thought for a long time, finally writing down a sentence: ”The kidnapping of Elliott was due to extraordinary elements.”
As a Seer, Klein had tried to divine if those coincidences were a consequence of unnatural developments, but the results showed otherwise.
This time, he was influenced by Azik to look into these events again. He also drew lessons from the suited clown. He seriously designed an appropriate divination statement, eliminating any descriptions that might be vague or cause confusion.
”Yes, I should break down the three coincidences and divine them separately…” Klein nodded in thought as he slowly removed the topaz from his wrist.
He held the spirit pendulum with his left hand and allowed it to hang close over the divination statement on the paper.
He collected himself and entered a state of Cogitation. With his eyes closed, Klein started chanting repeatedly, ”The kidnapping of Elliott was due to extraordinary elements.”
…
As he recited the statement over and over again, Klein opened his eyes and looked at the pendulum, only to see the topaz turning counterclockwise slowly.
”It's still a negative…” Klein muttered to himself. He designed several other divination statements, but the results persisted—there was nothing strange about that incident.
He then separately divined the ”event of Ray Bieber's stay in Tingen” and ”Selena's magic mirror divination incident,” but the answers for both events were normal.
Heh, was I, a real Seer, frightened by the charlatan Mr. Azik? Besides, Captain and the others didn't feel that anything was off… Klein laughed and shook his head. But he remained cautious. He planned on using the dream divination technique to get a final confirmation.
After some thought, he changed the divination statement to fit the change in method.
”The true reason for Elliott's kidnapping.” As he scribbled with the fountain pen, Klein paused and pondered over his words.
After reading it over and over again, he tore the slip of paper and walked toward his bed. He relaxed and laid down.
With the divination statement in hand, Klein quickly fell asleep with the help of Cogitation.
He found himself in a contorted, broken world. Regaining his senses, he began swimming through the blur.
Gradually, he saw the few kidnappers. He saw them lose their final chip at a gambling table, saw them obtain guns from underground sources, and saw them survey the area. They even rented the apartment across Ray Bieber's apartment as their hideout…
These didn't form a continuous scene, instead, they were presented in the form of flashing pictures. Klein couldn't find anything that was abnormal.
Furthermore, it had also aligned with the statements given by the kidnappers.
After exiting the dream, Klein separately divined the other two incidents but had the same result. Their developments followed logic. The coincidences were really coincidences.
”I was indeed overthinking things. Mr. Azik is merely a divination enthusiast…” Klein stabilized his pendulum and shook his head with a bitter smile.
He was about to draw the curtains and allow sunlight into the room when he froze.
”From the original Klein's impression of Mr. Azikc, he is a dependable and trustworthy person. He had never once said anything baseless. Even if he was always quarreling with Mentor, it was limited to academic topics, and each of them had their reasons… If he was truly a mere divination enthusiast, he wouldn't have interacted with me like that… And the memories of original Klein has nothing about him liking divination… Of course, this could be due to the loss of a corresponding memories…” Klein frowned and couldn't ease his worries. He needed a way to confirm this.
He suspected that Mr. Azik had unwittingly come across some insider information and was trying to remind him by using divination as an excuse.
”How should I confirm this?” Klein paced back and forth across the dark room, trying to recall the other divination techniques he knew.
One step, two steps, three steps. He suddenly halted as an idea came to him.
”Let's assume that these coincidences are dubious. I'm unable to divine a result either because my Sequence isn't high enough or I'm being affected by outside interference, but I can change my environment! I can change my environment to someplace that is even more mysterious and even harder to understand.” Klein felt pumped. He pulled open his drawer and took out a silver dagger.
He concentrated and allowed his spirituality to flow out from the tip of the dagger, becoming one with his surroundings.
With each step he took, the wall of spirituality sealed off the entire room.
Klein planned on doing the divination above the gray fog, to do the divination in that mysterious world!
…
In the magnificent ancient divine hall above the endless gray fog.
Klein sat at the seat of honor on one end of the bronze table. Before him was a piece of goatskin he willed into existence.
He lifted a pen and tried writing the divination statement as he had previously.
”The kidnapping of Elliott was due to extraordinary elements.”
He held the spirit pendulum and hung it low. Klein quickly composed himself as he turned silent and ethereal.
Half-closing his eyes, he recited the statement seven times, using his spirituality to interact with the spiritual world that stood above all.
Feeling the tug of the silver chain, Klein opened his eyes to look at the pendulum.