443 A One-man Performance (2/2)

There were a few drops of dark red blood on the puppet's body, giving it a demonic appearance.

A palm stretched out. The skin was white and exquisite, smooth, and beautiful, with five slender and delicate fingers that accentuated the hand's flesh and bones.

The most eye-catching thing was a unique ring with an inlaid sapphire on the hand's pinky finger.

Pa!

The hand's index finger was wreathed in black flames as it pointed at the heart of the wooden puppet.

Without a sound, the scene shattered and Klein woke up from his dream.

His initial judgment wasn't wrong. Talim had died under a curse!

But there was a problem. He had already seen the scene of the curse happening, so why wasn't the scene displayed in its entirety?

The mysterious space above the gray fog is able to get rid of all interference… Klein was puzzled for a moment.

Normally speaking, receiving a revelation that too abstract and easy to misread was a problem with his limited divination abilities. It meant that the difficulty of the matter he was divining was too high and that it had nothing to do with the gray fog. It was an understandable outcome, but he had clearly seen the scene of the murderous curse, but he was limited to a small scope of the situation. It didn't provide a relatively effective revelation and was rather baffling.

Have I… encountered such a similar situation in the past? Klein dug through his past experiences.

Suddenly, he sat up straight, remembering a similar experience.

In Tingen, when he was divining the real reason behind the countless coincidences, something similar had happened!

He could clearly see the house with the red chimney, but he couldn't reach Ince Zangwill and Sealed Artifact 0-08!

Th-this is the power of someone or something that's at the level of a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact that's resisting the power of the gray fog? Klein's eyes abruptly narrowed.

No, not necessarily. There are still quite a few possibilities. I have to confirm it again! He put in a lot of effort in order to calm down.

As for the method used for confirming, it wasn't daunting for the experienced him. The method was simple—redoing the same divination again.

If the revelation doesn't change, it means that things aren't so terrible, and if divination is no longer successful, then something around the target or the target is resisting the gray fog to some extent, like 0-08!

Taking a deep breath, Klein calmly repeated the previous divination.

”The true cause of Talim Dumont's death.”

…

He leaned back in his chair and chanted in a low voice, his eyes growing darker.

In the dream, all he could see was a hazy, shattered gray fog. There were no more wooden puppets or fingers.

Whoosh!

Klein straightened his back, his expression abnormally grave.

What did Talim get himself involved in? he frowned as he muttered to himself.

There's no question as to what I should do next. It's to be passive and perfunctory. I'll first lie to Prince Edessak before telling him that I'm incapable of figuring out the truth.

Phew, this world is really scary. Just the slightest bit of carelessness would cause me to come into contact with something extremely terrifying… Klein sighed. Without daring to stay any longer, he quickly returned to the bathroom in the real world.

…

Tuesday, 9 a.m. at the Crown Cemetery.

Klein stood at the edge of the crowd, wearing a black shirt, black vest, and a black tweed coat whilst he was carrying some fresh flowers he bought for 12 soli. He looked gravely at Talim Dumont's coffin being carried over, had his soul put to rest, and was buried bit by bit into the earth.

During this process, Talim's mother's eyes were red and swollen. She wanted to speak a few times, but she couldn't find her voice. His father's hair was gray, and his expression was haggard. He just stood there, trembling slightly.

When the scene reflected in his eyes, Klein tilted his head back and closed his eyes.

He waited until the mourners had left before he walked over, bent over, and placed the white flowers on top of the others.

I'm sorry… he silently said inwardly.

Standing up, he stepped aside and was about to leave when Klein noticed Reporter Mike and Surgeon Aaron, closing in.

”What a pity. I never thought that Talim would actually… actually… Sigh…” Mike's expression was pained as he couldn't finish his sentence.

Aaron, who was always cold, took off his glasses and wiped the corners of his eyes. He sighed and said, ”He's a warmhearted guy. He shouldn't have ended up like this.”

”Yes, he could've gotten rid of his grandfather's bad reputation,” Klein echoed.

Just then, he saw a female figure in a thick black dress with a veil covering her face walk up to Talim's grave. She, too, was also carrying a bouquet of white flowers.

Klein looked away, not paying much attention, just keeping watch through the corner of his eye.

The woman bent down to release the flower, revealing her left palm, which was covered by a black gauze glove.

A blue gem faintly appeared on the pinky of her left palm.

Klein's scalp tingled instantly.

His entire body felt numb.