The three major Churches acted very quickly.
After learning that George III might be concealing his identity as a Beyonder, they held a brief discussion before sending people to the royal palace. They even had an archbishop personally inspect George III.
The final conclusion was that George III was merely an ordinary person, not a powerful Beyonder.
Suppressing his anger, George III politely saw off the people from the three major Churches. After they left, a gloomy and furious look flashed through his eyes.
"Investigate it! Send people to find out exactly who is targeting me from the shadows!" George III ordered those around him while forcibly suppressing his rage.
Although he had gotten through this incident without danger, once word of it spread, his prestige as king would once again be trampled upon by the three major Churches.
His prestige, his kingdom, were destined to remain mere accessories to the three major Churches. Puppets!
Only by successfully advancing to Sequence 0, Black Emperor, and becoming a true god would he have the qualifications to stand on equal footing with the three major Churches.
"There's no need to waste manpower investigating. Bernadette is the one secretly pushing this matter along. She already knows you intend to advance to Black Emperor and has begun trying to stop you."
A figure suddenly appeared inside the royal palace, half-hidden in a corner to George III's right.
"How did Bernadette learn of something so top secret when even the three major Churches aren't certain about it?" George III frowned slightly.
"Heh, she is a believer of the Stars, after all." The person chuckled again. "Back then, Roselle openly jumped onto the Black Emperor pathway. As his child, Bernadette naturally knows the secrets of the Black Emperor pathway."
"The Stars..." George III muttered the name several times before letting out an irritated cold snort.
"Focus on your preparations. If you miss this opportunity, you will never be able to move forward another step."
George III silently nodded, then remembered something else. "Has the Aurora Order confirmed that they won't participate in this matter? During the Great Smog incident last time, they withdrew midway. Now they've broken their agreement again at the last moment. Truly detestable."
"That should be a good thing for you. Those lunatics can very easily attract unnecessary attention to you."
George III said nothing more. He merely raised his gaze toward the starry sky overhead.
There, a kingdom belonging to him would rise.
...
After finishing his conversation with Bernadette, Klein returned to his residence.
On a paper crane that was nearly covered in writing, he carefully added another small line of text.
"The next time I see Will, I definitely need to ask him to exchange this for a new paper crane. Preferably a whole string of them, so I won't have to limit myself to such short messages every time."
Klein muttered to himself, then lay down on the bed and entered dreamland.
Not long afterward, Will appeared in his dream, yawning while hugging a chestnut-colored teddy bear.
"Seriously, you always come looking for me right after I've fallen asleep. Don't you know you're supposed to respect the elderly and care for children? I count as both!" Will grumbled in dissatisfaction before glancing at Klein. "Go on, what is it this time?"
"I want you to help me send Leonard a dream."
This was a solution Klein had thought about for a long time. He would soon be busy dealing with George III and truly had no spare time to secretly protect Melissa. Leonard was the best person to handle the matter.
"Sending a dream is easy, but you should know that there's something a little special inside Leonard. He might notice some clues."
"If it really can't be hidden from him, then it's fine to let Leonard know I'm still alive. It'll also make it easier to trouble him in the future."
Klein didn't particularly care about this issue. His fake death back then had only been a temporary expedient.
Besides, even if Leonard found out, he could simply use the excuse that he had been gravely injured, nearly died, and had been recuperating elsewhere.
After all, following the incident at Bansy Harbor, he was probably the only survivor left.
"I see. All right." Will seemed to think of something amusing, and his eyes narrowed.
Klein noticed the mischievous thoughts in Will's mind and warned him, "Be careful. Don't take it too far."
"Don't worry. Absolutely no one is better at sending dreams than I am." Will smiled so broadly that his eyes curved into crescents.
"..." Klein could only silently pray for Leonard and hope his heart was strong enough.
...
At around three or four in the morning, Leonard, who was sleeping soundly in bed, suddenly had a dream.
The world in his dream was an endless sea. Grayish mist drifted over the water, and visibility was extremely poor.
Vaguely, he saw what appeared to be a harbor in the distance. He instinctively floated toward it.
Before he could approach the harbor, bolts of lightning suddenly crashed down from the sky.
Booming explosions shook the heavens as streaks of purple, white, and red lightning swallowed everything ahead.
Leonard instinctively narrowed his eyes to avoid being blinded by the intense flashes.
Once the thunder faded, the harbor ahead vanished along with it. It had been completely reduced to ashes, with only a few wisps of smoke left drifting where the flames had yet to fully die out.
Curious, Leonard floated toward the destroyed harbor. For some unknown reason, the temperature around him grew colder and colder, making him instinctively shiver.
"Wuuu... Wuuu..." The cold wind blowing from all directions sounded like someone sobbing.
The cries entered his ears one after another, clawing at his heart until it felt tightly clenched.
As he approached the harbor, figures of dead souls appeared within the fog. They formed a line and drifted in the same direction.
At that moment, a mangled figure suddenly burst out of the sea.
One arm was missing. One leg was gone.
Its hair hung loose, and its entire body was covered in blood.
Just like that, it suddenly appeared in front of Leonard, only one meter away.
Leonard's breathing instantly quickened. His eyes widened as his heart seemed to skip half a beat before beginning to pound violently.
He tried hard to calm himself, repeatedly telling himself in his heart that this was only a dream and wasn't actually happening.
"Leonard, I died so miserably... so miserably..."
A familiar voice, now filled with resentment and sorrow, came from the mouth of the mangled corpse before him.
It repeated "so miserably" over and over again. Even the surrounding sea became covered in frost because of its voice.
Leonard carefully studied it for a while before asking uncertainly, "Y-You're Klein?"
"It's me. It's me, Leonard. I died so miserably... so miserably..."
The figure claiming to be Klein brushed the disheveled hair away from its face, revealing a pair of hollow, black eye sockets with no eyeballs inside.
"Ah!" Leonard instinctively stepped backward in fright and nearly fell onto the surface of the sea.
"Klein, it really is you. Y-You came to send me a dream?"
Klein's hollow eyes remained fixed on Leonard.
Just as Leonard's scalp was beginning to go numb, Klein suddenly thrust out his only remaining hand and seized Leonard by the throat.
Then, under Leonard's panicked gaze, Klein gave a sinister laugh.
The corners of his mouth slowly split farther and farther apart until they resembled a bloody fissure leading straight into hell.
"Take good care of Benson and Melissa for me!"
"Ah!" Leonard was so frightened that he was directly thrown out of the dream.
With a thud, he abruptly sat up in bed and nearly tumbled onto the floor.
"Good thing it was a dream. Good thing it was a dream..." Still shaken, Leonard reached up and touched his intact neck while nervously looking around.
Fortunately, Klein hadn't followed him out of the dream. Thinking about what had just happened, Leonard shuddered violently.
It had been far too terrifying. This was the first time he had learned that Klein could become so horrifying after death.
Especially those hollow eyes without eyeballs and that blood-covered mouth that had split all the way back past his earlobes.
Leonard sat blankly on the bed for quite a while before gradually recovering from the terrifying dream.
He got out of bed, lit a candle, went to the table, and poured himself a cup of cool boiled water.
Only after drinking four or five cups did he finally calm down completely. Feeling as though his entire back had been soaked with sweat, Leonard gave a bitter smile.
"Klein, why did your dream message have to be so terrifying? If you scare me to death, who's going to help you take care of your brother and sister?"
He took a fresh set of dry clothes and headed to the bathroom. Only after comfortably soaking in warm water did he slowly exhale.
His handsome brows knitted tightly together. Klein had already been dead for several months, yet this was the first time he had ever sent Leonard a dream.
And it had been for the sake of his family. Could they have encountered some kind of trouble recently?
The more Leonard thought about it, the more worried he became.
During this period, he had been busy following the Red Gloves team in handling various matters and truly hadn't paid attention to Benson and Melissa's situation.
Furthermore, the situation in Backlund had gradually become increasingly chaotic recently. There was no guarantee that two ordinary people like them wouldn't encounter danger.
Was that why Klein had come to him in a dream? If something really happened to them, how could he possibly face Klein afterward?
Leonard raised his head and glanced toward the bathroom window.
Outside, the faint light of dawn was already beginning to appear.
Later, he would make a trip to Benson and Melissa's residence.
At the same time, he would instruct the nearby police station to pay special attention to protecting the two of them.
"Wait, that's not right. How could Klein send me a dream after dying?" Leonard suddenly realized the problem.
In the Beyonder world, sending dreams was itself something extremely abnormal.
Normally speaking, only the living had the ability to send dreams.
If a person was already dead, with not even a remnant spirit left behind, how could they still possess the ability to send someone a dream?
Moreover, this place was right near Saint Samuel Cathedral.
Even if there really were ghosts or similar entities nearby, wouldn't the priests of the cathedral completely purify them?
Klein had also died out at sea. Had he really traveled all the way from the sea to Backlund just to send Leonard a dream?
Even when Klein was alive, he hadn't been that capable, had he?
Leonard thought about it for a long time, but with his limited Beyonder knowledge, he still couldn't figure out what had happened.
All he knew was that the dream had felt extremely real, almost as though it had truly happened.
Especially that final sentence: "Take good care of Benson and Melissa for me!"
Like a curse, it had been branded deep into his mind, impossible to forget.