Whew—
After half a minute, Lorne slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, gradually calming his somewhat agitated emotions.
He turned around and looked at Klein, who was standing nearby, and Dr. Allen, who was still slumped on the ground. Both of their faces bore expressions of ill-concealed astonishment.
"Sorry, seeing a scene like this made me lose control of my emotions for a moment. It reminded me of... that night at Capine Villa." Lorne wore an apologetic smile, offering a seemingly reasonable explanation.
"Mm... after all, Scott must have seen similar scenes that day." Klein nodded in understanding. He walked over to Dr. Allen, bent down, and reached out a hand, saying, "There's nothing to be afraid of; he's already dead."
"...It's because he's dead that it's scary." Dr. Allen's emotions calmed slightly. He didn't accept Klein's help, instead propping himself up from the ground on his own.
These clothes are ruined, what a pity... Klein thought with some heartache as he looked at the other man's expensive formal wear, now covered in dirt and grass clippings.
Seeing that Dr. Allen still looked shaken, he smiled and offered a suggestion: "At times like this, praying to the deity you believe in can have a good effect."
"Exactly." Lorne agreed with this sentiment. Regardless of whether it actually worked, it at least provided some psychological comfort.
"Is that so?" Dr. Allen dithered for a moment, then tapped his chest four times in a clockwise direction, chanting in a low voice, "The Evernight Goddess, more noble than the Cosmos, more eternal than the everlasting, your devout believer prays for your blessing—"
Klein also pretentiously traced the Triangular Sacred Emblem on his chest, muttering under his breath.
Should I pray too... Seeing this, Lorne also tapped his chest four times.
"Evernight Goddess, your devout—your not-so-devout—your believer who might be devout in the future, prays for your blessing."
Thinking about how he was a false believer who hadn't even been to church many times, he simply couldn't bring himself to recite the full honorary name of the Evernight Goddess.
I won't suddenly disappear into the night one day, will I... he thought with some uncertainty.
"Let's call the police!" Klein suggested.
His spiritual intuition told him that this highly decomposed corpse was most likely Will Auceptin himself. As for the truth of his death—he had planned to go above the Grey Mist later to perform a divination, but on second thought, matters involving high-Sequence existences were far too dangerous; it was better to leave it to the official Beyonders.
"Call the police..." Lorne pursed his lips, then nodded.
He looked at the corpse again and activated his Spirit Vision.
There were no signs of life; he was indeed dead, and had been for a long time.
Was I... influenced just now? By a high-Sequence existence of the same Pathway?
So this Will Auceptin really is a high-Sequence Beyonder of the 'Fate' Pathway, at least a demigod?
I didn't expect him to be an evil brat who likes to act young.
To think he died just like that... For some reason, Lorne didn't feel much fear, but rather an indescribable irritation.
It was like a delicacy that was already at his lips, only to be suddenly knocked to the ground and covered in dirt.
About twenty minutes later, the three of them arrived at an interrogation room in a nearby Police Station.
Because Lorne was very famous recently, the ordinary police officers were very polite to the three of them after recognizing his identity. However, the police were full of disbelief regarding the account of events they provided.
Dreaming of a little boy giving a message in a dream, and then going to dig up a corpse—this sort of thing was simply too ridiculous.
However, after the police officer in charge of the interrogation went out for a turn, he immediately changed his attitude upon returning. He stated that the three of them were not suspects and only needed to sign their statements before they could leave.
Dr. Allen was quite surprised by this, but Klein and Lorne understood clearly. They knew that official Beyonders must have intervened.
I'm a celebrity now; the Church and MI9 shouldn't make things too difficult for me later... Lorne thought to himself.
At the same time, Fors Wall, wearing an elegant black gown and a black soft hat, entered the somewhat quiet cemetery and arrived before Mrs. Anisat's grave.
There, she met the brother of Mrs. Anisat's husband whom she had met once before, an elderly gentleman named Lawrence. After showing her kindness and compassion, she received a commission—one that might change the Fate of her entire life.
"Will Auceptin is dead."
"Will Auceptin is dead."
Watching the pendulum in his hand rotate slightly clockwise, Lorne sighed.
"He really is dead... but why do I always feel like something isn't right?"
Although he had seen the corpse with his own eyes, Lorne had a strong premonition—
Will Auceptin might not have truly died. He was still in some corner he didn't know about, waiting for him to be found. After lying on his chair for a while, he stood up, put away the pendulum, took a coin from his pocket, and tossed it upward.
Seeing the coin land heads up, he set up a spiritual wall and then took out that primitive small wooden box from his portable space.
Ever since he had encountered a series of accidents following the instructions on the note inside this box, he had rarely used this Mystical Item again.
But in the current situation, this box might be of some use. At least, it could provide a point of reference.
"How should I go about finding Will?" he asked the box in a low voice.
Feeling the consumption of spirituality within his body, Lorne frowned slightly.
As expected, just as I thought before, as my Sequence increases, the spirituality it consumes also gets higher.
—
However, to Lorne's surprise, this time, after he had paid a considerable amount of spirituality, no note appeared inside the box.
"Could it be... this means Will really is dead?"
"No, that's not right. If that were the case, it should also remind me of something related to the corpse. Or, like before, a blank piece of paper would come out. It's impossible for spirituality to be consumed with no reaction at all."
"Is it being interfered with? Or is it that... Will's current state can no longer be observed?"
"Whichever possibility it is, it proves that there is definitely something wrong with Will!"
After putting the box back into his portable space, he took out a paper crane. It was the one Will Auceptin had left behind.
After examining it carefully and coming up empty-handed, he suddenly felt an urge to destroy the paper crane.
"No," he quickly dismissed the impulse, "if I tear it up directly, there will be no room for maneuver. In case it really does have some key function..."
After thinking it over, Lorne took a pencil from the pen holder, his gaze drifting over the surface of the paper crane.
"What should I write?" He toyed with the pencil in his hand, momentarily unsure of how to proceed.
"A greeting? Hello? Or—uh—"
Suddenly, an exciting and bold idea popped into his head.
"How about—writing a sentence."
"I will come looking for you."