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*****
"Could this guy be another transmigrator tossed into this world by some high-level being?"
After finishing his broad reading of the world's history, a historical figure named Roselle Gustav caught George's attention. It wasn't because the man had been the Emperor of the Intis Empire over a hundred and fifty years ago, but because of his track record.
According to the history books, this man had invented the practical steam engine, improved sailboats and artillery, invented newspapers, and refined both papermaking and printing. He had even "authored" a series of classic novels, including Romeo and Juliet, and was credited with numerous famous quotes that sounded suspiciously familiar.
It was the classic "power fantasy" template for a modern person transmigrating to a different world.
George suspected that Roselle was either like him—a soul cast here from a modern society—or a unique entity crafted by the Creator of this world. Just as Ilúvatar or Hongjun might create a lifeform with specific memories in their own universes, a Creator might be inspired by certain stories to manifest similar lives through special means.
"A pity the man is dead. Otherwise, I might have asked him a few questions."
Historical records stated that Emperor Roselle had been assassinated in his later years and had been dead for over a century and a half.
"Someone is trying to peer at me?"
Just as George lay in his crib and tucked himself under his small blanket, he suddenly felt the spiritual power of this world attempting to pry into his existence.
"This method of observation... it's divination."
He quickly deduced the source. The high-ranking members of the Secret Order had likely realized that the Clown murderer had failed his mission and vanished. They were now using divination to find out why. As the one who had killed the Clown, George was naturally the target of the search.
However, he wasn't particularly bothered. Let them look, he thought. If they send a Sequence 6 Faceless, it would save me the trouble of hunting for the main ingredients of my next advancement.
The main issue was that he currently couldn't exert his true power, and he lacked a convenient way to block such prying within the local system.
In this world, divination generally fell into three categories.
The first involved communicating with the Spirit World through one's own spirituality to receive revelations. The second was through calculations, inferences, and interpretations based on objective information provided by people or natural changes. The third was a ritualistic request to unknown, mysterious entities for a direct answer.
However, if one accidentally communicated with an Evil God through the third method, the result was usually a human tragedy. Most cases of ordinary people going mad or dying were due to accidental contact with the third type of divination that caught the attention of a malevolent deity.
What George felt just now was the first type—someone using their spirituality to peek at him via the feedback of the Spirit World.
If George could use his original powers, he could have traced that thread of prying back to the diviner and caused them to drop dead on the spot. Between the magic of the Clow Cards and Taoist Celestial Calculus, he was no novice when it came to divination.
On the other side, a Sequence 6 "Faceless" of the Secret Order slowly opened his eyes as the divination ended.
"Was I... interfered with?"
After a night of silence from his subordinate, he had used divination to confirm the man's death. But when he tried to see if the man had fallen to the Nighthawks, the image that appeared in his mind was that of a small infant lying in a crib.
If he were to follow the results literally, it suggested that an infant had killed his capable Sequence 7 subordinate.
But anyone with a functioning brain knew that was impossible. How could a baby not even a year old, who couldn't even walk, kill a "Magician" who had attained Sequence 7 and possessed numerous spell-like abilities?
In a small city like Tingen, a Sequence 7 was usually the peak of Beyonder strength. Even the local head of the Nighthawks was only a Sequence 7.
Therefore, he surmised that his subordinate had most likely died at the hands of the Nighthawks, who then used a special ritual to interfere with his divination. In other words, the image of the infant was a "false answer" meant to lead him astray.
"If the Nighthawks killed him, then the notebook must be in their possession. It's likely already being transported to their headquarters," the high-ranking member sighed. "It seems we have no choice but to give up!"
Although the Secret Order was an ancient organization, it could not compare to the Churches of the seven orthodox gods. Furthermore, their leader had vanished abruptly over a century ago and remained missing. If they could have snatched the notebook before it reached the Church's inner sanctum, they would have tried—but in this situation, pursuing it further was a death sentence.
It was this misunderstanding by the Secret Order executive that allowed George, the actual killer, to escape further scrutiny in Tingen.
Two weeks later, at twilight.
George listened to the muffled sobbing of his mother, Clarice, and the hushed comforts of his father, Jack, from the nearby bed. He reached out and flicked his finger.
Two bullets of compressed air struck his parents precisely, causing them to fall into a deep, unconscious sleep.
During this time, he had read almost every book available to commoners. Tonight, he planned to visit Tingen's underground Beyonder market. He knew from the Clown's memories that such a place existed in the city—a small market where "wild" Beyonders gathered to trade materials. Even Church Beyonders occasionally frequented it; it was a relatively stable, semi-legal grey market.
He intended to see if he could find the materials for the "Faceless" advancement or perhaps some books on Beyonder knowledge. If he could make some money to supplement the family's finances, all the better.
His parents had recently suffered a massive financial blow. From their conversations, George learned that the man his mother had insisted on investing with—a man named Lanevus—was actually a swindler. A few days ago, he had fled Tingen with over ten thousand pounds, leaving no trace. Clarice's investment of 150 pounds had vanished into thin air.
Worse yet, his body's maternal cousin, Megane, was pregnant with the swindler's child. She refused to have an abortion, insisting on raising the child alone.
While his mother and the other victims had reported it to the police and put out a bounty, George suspected that someone as meticulous as Lanevus wouldn't be caught easily by conventional means.
To George, 150 pounds was a trivial sum. Even if he couldn't currently use Transmutation to create gold or jewels, his other abilities made earning money easy. As for the runaway Lanevus, as long as the man was still breathing, George could find him once he finished converting his "Seeking Magic" to fit the laws of this world.
He hadn't been idle during the day over the last fortnight; he had been constantly studying the Beyonder characteristic within him and researching the underlying laws of this reality. He had already begun to see some small results.
(End of Chapter)