Lord of Mysteries:The Good Witch

As The Fool posed his question, Angel felt an invisible hand tighten around her chest, her heart rate quickening.

This tension stemmed partly from the "embellished" diary entries she had written. Although The Fool likely wouldn't care about such minor details, it didn't prevent the panic and excitement that welled up in her as she deceived a mysterious entity.

Another reason was Angel's uncertainty about the scarcity of Roselle's diary.

Perhaps two centuries had turned an emperor's notes into a widespread puzzle-solving activity. However, this clearly didn't align with The Fool's urgent need for the diary.

More likely, these notes circulated only within major churches and mysterious organizations. If so, could her easy acquisition of the diary potentially expose her identity?

The other two seemed to share a similar mindset. Justice, who usually liked to speak first, appeared to have gained some composure after becoming a beyonder. Surprisingly, Hanged Man was the first to answer.

"I found two pages of Emperor Roselle's diary."

"I have one page," Justice quickly added.

It seems I have the most... Angel pondered, following her planned strategy: "I also discovered two diary pages. Do we need to write... express them now?"

"Yes, please proceed," came The Fool's concise response.

Instantly, curled-edged parchment and ink-filled fountain pens appeared before the other three.

Angel picked up the pen, recalling the diary contents she had recently "deconstructed and reorganized." She focused on the pen tip, expressing the urge to "write."

The square characters left behind by the transmigrator Emperor Roselle in this world flowed smoothly onto the parchment.

To avoid The Fool guessing her knowledge of Chinese, she deliberately made the characters look strange and varied—some small and delicate, others wild and bold. She even scrambled the order of some characters, making them appear as if they came from different transcribers, pieced together on one sheet.

After presenting the two diary pages through this miraculous pen-not-touching-paper method, Angel put down the pen and looked up to see the other two had also completed their work.

Just as they had appeared, the parchments before them vanished instantly, reappearing together at one end of the long table, in front of Mr. The Fool.

His form, hidden behind the gray fog, remained indistinct, but his hands now held the diary as he began reading, bowing his head. The others didn't dare breathe, afraid to disturb The Fool's reading time.

He really does recognize this script...

Although Angel had long guessed that The Fool's purpose in asking everyone to collect Roselle's diary was to read it, and therefore he must have some understanding or even mastery of this script, seeing The Fool flip through the diary pages like reading a newspaper, reading text not of this world, still raised more questions in her mind.

Had He deciphered the meaning of Chinese? Had He translated it using some mystical means?

Or was He also...

The Fool's reading speed increased, taking less than a minute for the last two pages. He then put down the parchment, looking up at each of the other three in turn, lingering on Angel for a moment, making her think her embellishments had been discovered.

"I apologize, I got a bit engrossed in reading," The Fool's deep voice penetrated the gray fog, causing Angel to breathe a sigh of relief. She said with a slightly cheerful tone, "I hope one day we can learn some of the diary's contents from you."

She truly wanted to see what secrets the fellow transmigrator Roselle Gustave had recorded in his diary. Were they profound mystical knowledge, treasures buried in secret locations, or wonderful scenery different from Earth? Perhaps even methods to return to their original world?

"Everything can be exchanged here, but everything also comes at a price," The Fool replied. "Continue to search for diary entries for me, and I may disclose some information that you can safely know."

It seems the diary indeed contains much profound mystical knowledge, and even knowing about it poses a great risk to us now... Angel, hearing The Fool's response, quickly stood up and curtsied: "Thank you for your generosity."

Justice and Hanged Man also expressed their commitment to collect more of Roselle's diary entries for The Fool.

"Mr. The Fool, Miss Empress, Mr. Hanged Man, I happen to have three questions I'd like to ask," Justice, who had just become an "Spectator," eagerly inquired after sitting down again. "If the value of the answers is high, please tell me what you need, and I'll do my best to satisfy it."

Ah, it's time for curious Justice to ask questions again. The knowledge sharing among Tarot Club members shouldn't be one-on-one like last time's potion formula trade, right? Angel thought gleefully. She glanced secretly at The Fool, seeing Him remain noncommittal and not materialize new parchment, apparently not intending to interfere with Justice's questions. She nodded to Justice: "Please, go ahead."

Hanged Man also leaned back in his chair, assuming a listening posture.

"The first question, I want to understand in detail the meaning of 'acting.' After taking the 'Spectator' potion, I felt the residual mental influence from the potion dissipate quickly. Is it because I've been constantly acting as a spectator?"

In the previous Tarot gathering, The Fool had briefly reminded everyone that the key to mastering potion power lies in "acting," and the key to acting is the name of the potion itself.

It seems Justice has already grasped the key from The Fool's hint, but as a new beyonder, she still has some doubts, to the extent that she's willing to promise a high reward to get answers in the Tarot gathering.

"I can answer this question," Angel said after a moment of thought, seeing that Hanged Man maintained his original posture without moving, and The Fool was stroking the edge of the table without offering an explanation.

"You've already realized that the potion's name is the key to acting, which shows you've grasped some of the principles, but it's not enough," Angel explained patiently, distilling the key points of mastering—or as The Fool would say, digesting—the potion, based on her memory of Cole Grangeri's summary of potion acting rules and Madam Sharon's teachings.

"When you took the potion, you should have felt a mysterious gaze that you couldn't perceive as an ordinary person, and enticing, maddening whispers in your ears. Only after subsequent meditation did those whispers gradually disappear."

Seeing Justice nod gravely, she continued: "This is the effect caused by the conflict between the residual mentality in the extraordinary materials and your own mentality. Meditation can temporarily suppress this influence, but the potion's mentality itself hasn't disappeared. It's like a foreign object in your body, ready to erupt again when your spirituality is exhausted or when you come into contact with mystical powers, triggering a loss of control."

"The purpose of the 'acting method' is to gradually eliminate these residual mental influences and fully master the power of the potion. To use a more vivid metaphor, the potion is like a heavily guarded villa. The power we need to master is controlled by the villa's owner. To break through the layers of obstacles and kill it to seize the power, the best way is to disguise ourselves as the owner, deceive the villa's guards, and successfully deal with the target."

This was the metaphor Madam Sharon used when teaching Cole the acting method, carrying a bloody sense derived from her "Assassin" identity. Since the original author had passed away and couldn't claim copyright, Angel boldly adopted this "take-ism."

"But the guards are smart. To deceive them, you need to perfectly match the villa's owner in appearance, dress, and behavior. Otherwise, if you enter rashly, you'll be exposed and attacked as an enemy."

"So the potion's name is the characteristic of the villa's owner?" Justice suddenly realized.

"Exactly. When you act perfectly, infiltrate the villa, and kill the target, you'll have a very obvious feeling of completely digesting the potion. It's hard to describe, but you'll understand when you reach that point."

At this point, Angel wanted to describe the feeling of completely digesting the potion in a more specific way, but after racking her brains, she couldn't find suitable words and could only explain vaguely.

Justice seemed more satisfied with this mystical answer. She praised, "What a metaphor with an assassin's style. I think I fully understand now. Fortunately, I've been instinctively acting as a spectator all this time. It seems I've been on the right path."

"Miss Empress, what price do I need to pay for this answer?"

Angel pondered for a moment. She didn't seem to have anything urgently needed at the moment. The formulas for Sequence 8 "Instigator" and Sequence 7 "Witch" potions were already in her mind, and although the main ingredients were difficult to obtain, they weren't needed immediately. Pounds were good, but she had considerable savings and a stable income source, so she wasn't short of money for now. Besides, mentioning money at this kind of beyonder exchange meeting seemed to lower the tone of the Tarot Club and Mr. The Fool.

After much thought, what she needed most at the moment was probably a weapon with extraordinary power, which Old Neil had mentioned before—a beyonder weapon that "possibly couldn't be found in all of Tingen City."

"I need a channel to purchase or customize a beyonder weapon, preferably near Backlund. If this channel is of high value, I can make up the difference," she specified the area near Backlund to avoid exposing her secret of being in Tingen City for a long time, and also to prevent the other party from providing locations that might not even be within the Loen Kingdom.

Although she felt that Hanged Man probably already had some understanding of her identity, after all, her current identity information was processed by someone he had provided.

"Beyonder... weapon..." Justice hesitated, seeming even less knowledgeable about beyonder items and weapons than Angel.

Hanged Man, who had been silently observing the two's exchange, suddenly said, "I can provide such a channel. This is also in gratitude for the 'acting method.'"

All along, Angel's impression of Hanged Man had been that of a "businessman who never lets himself lose out." This impression was formed when he came up with a trading proposal that satisfied everyone at the first gathering. Unexpectedly, he now voluntarily offered to pay a reward, suggesting that the "acting method" must have been of great help to him.

"In Emmat Harbor, Oak District, there's a 'Kavee Clock Shop' on Golden Street. Go find the 'Artisan' Kavee. That person often has some beyonder weapons for sale. If you can't find anything satisfactory, you can pay extra to have one custom-made."

"Rest assured, this is a legitimate channel, but you'd better prepare more pounds. These things aren't cheap."

This time, Hanged Man didn't mention anything like "introduced by the Captain," so it seems this isn't his personal connection.

Emmat Harbor...

A map of the area around Tingen City appeared in Angel's mind.

Emmat Harbor is located on the coast of East Chester County, east of Tingen City. It takes about 4 hours by steam train to reach there. It's a port city about the same size as Tingen.

The "Spirit Medium" Daly Simone is also a Nighthawk in that city.

Unfortunately, she was about to become an official member of the Nighthawks in Tingen City, so she probably wouldn't have the chance to leave Tingen for Emmat Harbor in the short term. Moreover, from what Hanged Man implied, the price of a beyonder weapon probably couldn't be covered by just two or three hundred pounds, so she would need time to save money.

"Thank you, this information is very important to me."

Regardless, she still thanked Hanged Man for providing the channel. Not having enough money was her problem, not his.

"Um... this can't be counted as the payment I should make," Justice said. Since the two were sitting next to each other, Angel could vaguely see her actions through the gray fog. She seemed to clench her fists as if making up her mind, "How about this, Miss Empress, if you have any difficulties when buying a beyonder weapon, mainly financial ones, I can provide a portion."

"Let's set an upper limit of 500 pounds," she added, perhaps feeling that an unlimited "check" was a bit exaggerated.

This is already the price of a Sequence 9 potion formula plus the main ingredient, just for a bit of knowledge... Justice, how rich are you exactly? Angel felt she might need to reassess Justice's family situation.