Lord of Mysteries: Starting As A Reader

After herding "Steel" Maveti's soul, Klein avoided Danitz's gaze and then stopped maintaining his persona, quickly removing the crystal from the Burial Blade to restore it to its hilt form.

"Because I had to 'perform' Gehrman's 'madness,' I used it for more than a minute longer than planned…"

Looking at the tiny cracks on the crystal, a heartache, Klein couldn't help but turn his gaze to Maveti's corpse, hoping to make up for his losses from it.

He quickly found 26 pounds, 11 soli, 8 pence in cash, and a pile of seemingly normal but actually strange items, such as candles, clamps, spiked leather whips, and so on.

Considering "Steel" Maveti was a member of the Rose School and belonged to the desire-indulging faction, Klein vaguely understood something, spat, and put away the cash.

To his disappointment, the Admiral of Blood's third mate didn't carry any Beyonder items.

"'Werewolves' have super self-healing abilities, and 'Zombies' have steel-like bodies, so they indeed don't need to carry healing potions or items… This aligns with Sharon's judgment that she told me about above the gray fog: Maveti had no magical items… Also, magical items are rare, and many have obvious flaws and negative effects, so not everyone wants to own them, or can own them…"

"Fortunately, he himself is worth a lot of money!"

While thinking this, Klein took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket.

It was a wanted poster, with Maveti's portrait and the corresponding bounty amount printed on it:

"6000 pounds!"

"According to the agreement with Mr. Hanged Man, he'll give me half once he gets the money!"

Just as Klein was filled with joy at the prospect of 3000 pounds entering his account, in a villa on the outskirts of Bayam City, Miss Abby, the daughter of local gang leader Mr. Bose, suddenly woke up from her sleep.

This lady was also the mistress of the Governor of Bayam, and someone Lion Leon had warned Ebner to be wary of before he left the Rorsted Archipelago.

At this moment, having just tumbled out of bed, she knelt on the floor and devoutly made a gesture belonging to no orthodox deity, murmuring, "As Your will commands, great Mother Tree of Desire.

"I will surely complete Your task when the false god is distracted elsewhere!"

Then, she stood up and took out candles and other ritual items from a room drawer, setting up a small altar.

A moment later, a black rhino horn-shaped necklace, only the size of a finger joint, appeared before Abby.

After devoutly thanking the Mother Tree for the bestowal, Rabbi shook the bell by the bed and called in the gang members who had become vassals of the Celestial Sect, instructing them, "Mobilize manpower to help me inquire about an adventurer named Gehrman Sparrow.

"The operation must be covert; you can use our inside man in the Governor's Mansion to investigate…

"But absolutely do not let the other party become aware!

"Remember, the other party is a very formidable adventurer."

Several confidantes immediately responded, "Yes, Your Excellency, Fertility Envoy."

"You can just call me 'Miss' normally." Abby corrected, then added, "Once the investigation yields initial results, report them to me immediately… I will arrange the subsequent actions!"

...

In Lynn City, Sivella County, Gentle Words Hotel.

After counting the gains from this war with the Beria family, Ebner and Lady Helene began to divide the spoils… no, to distribute the spoils of war.

It was worth mentioning that, unaware if Lady Helene was secretly observing, Ebner did not conceal that he had killed "Mirror Apostle" Herta and plundered over a hundred thousand pounds worth of assets from him. He only omitted the details related to the Quiz Labyrinth. After all, the latter involved the "Wanderer" senior and extraterrestrial characteristics, so it was better left unsaid if possible.

After a brief discussion, the two ultimately decided that the characteristics and items of the three Apostles—Charm, Light, and Mirror—would all belong to Ebner, while those of Death and Slaughter would be Lady Helene's share.

As compensation for missing one "Charm Apostle," all characteristics and items from the other "Demons" and "Serial Killers," except for the "demon cat" killed by Fors, Helene, and Fanny, would belong to Helene.

Ebner had no objection to this, as every Beria family elder was incredibly wealthy, worth at least over a hundred thousand pounds… All the demons and serial killers combined weren't as valuable as a single elder!

For example, the "Light Apostle" who had already merged into the "scepter" was superficially an inherited baron in Segal.

Although Segal was a small country and the value of inherited nobility there couldn't compare to Loen, even without accounting for assets, just obtaining this status itself either required a significant amount of time to accumulate contributions and connections, or cost at least 300,000 pounds to "buy" from the Grand Duke of Segal.

—The "Light Apostle" Baruch clearly took the former route, spending nearly a century to successfully acquire the title.

As for "Charm Apostle" Chesi, she was the behind-the-scenes boss of many high-end brothels in major cities in central and western Loen…

Ebner only needed to pose as Baruch and sell "noble" heir quotas to easily gain over a hundred thousand gold pounds…

Of course, he felt that this noble title might still be useful, so he planned to temporarily retain it.

As a "Charm Apostle," Baruch had openly claimed to be residing abroad for a long time, returning only once a year on the winter billing day. So, at least for this year, there wouldn't be any problems.

Therefore, this distribution method, on the surface, seemed like Helene was losing out… unless she sold them a second time.

After they had gathered their respective items, Helene was about to take her leave when Ebner suddenly called out to her, asking, "Do you know why the Beria family attacked me?"

Although he knew from the "knowledge" left by Chesi, Baruch, and Herta that their main purpose was to seize the "Devil" characteristic, how his possession of this item was leaked was not mentioned.

Despite achieving a "great harvest," being ambushed for no apparent reason, he still needed to understand the cause.

"It was an order conveyed by 'Nors' through the Delien family… but you should know which entity stands behind them." Lady Helene said cautiously after casually setting up a barrier with moonlight.

"The Delien family? They're also colluding with the demon family?" Ebner frowned. His trip to Intis this time was ostensibly to help Lion open a newspaper, establish their shared film and television industry in Trier with Helene, and help Fanny get revenge on the Fryers family… But in essence, his biggest goal was to uncover the true relationship between the sea monster with the "Prophet" characteristic and the Delien family, and to eliminate the sea monster's helpers as much as possible.

So, upon hearing that Delien was also involved with demons, he blurted out:

"The entity behind it… is the Mother Tree of Desire?

"I remember that the current Prime Minister of Intis is from the Delien family… Don't the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun and the Church of Steam care?"

Lady Helene, seeing the question, organized her words and explained:

"Two demigods from the Delien family are Archbishops of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun.

"Their piety is beyond doubt…

"Any collusion could only be the choice of a portion of the family.

"Moreover, the Prime Minister's power is heavily restricted; he's merely a representative of various interests. Even if he were truly a cultist, the harm wouldn't be too great."