Chapter 58: Who was really fooled?

Wayne Enterprise, Harvey Wayne's Office. The next morning, Wednesday.

"You don't look well, Detective. Trouble sleeping?" Adryan looked somewhat surprised at the man in front of him, who looked more like a raccoon than a man.

'And whose fault is it?' Klein swallowed his bitter complaint and just smiled as he bowed slightly. "Thank you for your concern, Mr. Wayne, but you have nothing to worry about. Your assignment just kept me a little busy."

A black eyebrow curved gracefully, and the dark-haired man joked, "You know you didn't have to finish it so quickly, right? "

"Uh?" For a moment, Klein tensed, and his mouth dropped a little—a slight blush adorning his cheeks at the rather improper words that could easily be misunderstood.

"Fufu~ I'm just kidding, Mr. Moriarty~" Laughing with satisfaction, Adryan watched as the detective gave him a flat look.

Not wanting to waste the man's time any longer, he got to the point. "Well. Have you thought about what I mentioned?"

Klein paused. Then, his gaze turned to the woman with white hair standing a few meters to the man's right.

The woman's gray eyes showed nothing but disinterest.

Turning his attention back to the man and thinking about what to say for a few seconds, he nodded. "It would be a pleasure, Mr. Wayne."

If Chariot didn't ask the woman to leave, she was trustworthy, so there was no problem discussing the subject. However, that didn't mean he would be very direct; it wasn't necessary.

Adryan applauded, a big smile on his face. "Wonderful! I'll be waiting for you on Friday at 11:30 a.m. at Warehouse 7 in the Artelia district. It's located on Artiros Street, the farthest one. You can't get confused."

"Please don't be late."

'As if I could afford that.' Holding the corners of his lips, the detective nodded.

Leaning back in his chair and no longer so serious, Adryan rested his cheek against his knuckles. "With the most important thing dealt with. Tell me, how have those guys been? Any problems? Are they still breathing?"

"They're both alive," Klein replied.

"I managed to find out that the gang they owed money to planned to kill them after getting it. So I warned them, and they escaped. At this point, they should be at the Lenburg border."

Keeping quiet about how he had found out and that he had stolen some of the money - details he didn't see why he should share - Klein explained what he had done.

He did not explain in depth. Not only because it was not necessary but also because, even now, Chariot showed little interest in the men he asked to investigate. Something that caught his attention slightly, but not much. The same man explained in the letter how it was merely a whim.

'Did you really wanted to know how they were or was it just an excuse to have me running from one end of the country to the other?' Klein suddenly felt enlightened.

Was Chariot really that much of a rascal? Yes, yes he was.

Of course, Klein wouldn't complain out loud. The money he got made it all worthwhile.

"It seems that even idiots are blessed. Could this be the luck of the idiot?" Adryan scratched his cheek without interest before laughing, amused. 

"Good job, detective. I'm satisfied. Apparently, you didn't have any problems with that gang, huh?"

"I barely knew what they were planning to do before I escaped. I stayed one night in a motel to avoid drawing attention to myself, and I left town on the first train in the morning." Klein said this was more of a half-truth, but it didn't matter.

His job was not to investigate the gang, only Dieter and William.

Nodding, the man asked no more questions. Adryan reached into his tunic and, taking out a thick wad of bills, threw it to the man. "Here's payment for the full job. Thanks for saving those guys, I guess."

Quickly but carefully counting the money, Klein contained his happiness as he put the 200 sassem into his pocket. "It's a pleasure doing business with you, Mr Wayne."

...

Watching the man leave, Flora waited a few seconds before turning to look at her companion.

"Why did you do that?" Her tone was not accusatory but a mixture of suspicion and curiosity.

"Oh, and what makes you think I did something?" Adryan giggled innocently as he looked at her mischievously.

"Why would you suddenly be interested in finding out the status of those two idiots? That was a lie, if you were really interested you would have investigated them a long time ago, you wouldn't hire a detective you hardly know."

"Your real objective was to get that detective to do something. I don't know what it was, but I'm sure you achieved it because of that stupid smile on your face." Flora looked at the man with calculating eyes.

Everything he had done these last few days regarding this detective had been strange, which piqued her curiosity. Her cryptologist was highly interested in this.

"Perceptive, huh? Nothing gets past you." Adryan closed his eyes with a small smile, sinking deeper into his seat.

Flora straightened slightly, the corners of her lips rising slightly. "Praise is welcome, Princess, but please don't mention the obvious.

"Why did you hire that guy?"

"If I'm honest with you, Abigail? It was a mere excuse." Adryan admitted with a shrug.

Her new identity was that of the bodyguard, Abigail Rodes. A 26-year-old woman, she had spent the last five years in the Loen Kingdon learning sufficient skills to help her in her career.

"Oh?" Her head tilted slightly. She hadn't expected that answer. "Excuse?"

The dark-haired man nodded, an extremely hurt expression on his face, 'It may not look like it. But I do have a heart here.' He said as he covered his chest.

"How could I not reach out to help the most unfortunate?! Look at that detective! He went through so much trouble and took his body to the limit to complete my job, which I said didn't require any effort, and for what? Just for 300 sassem?"

Pressing his heart in great pain with his right hand, Adryan opened his eyes and looked at Flora with great pain.

"Oh! He must be in a terrible financial situation! How can I stand by and watch when someone suffers like that?!"

Flora looked with a straight face at her companion's opera-worthy performance. Her expression was difficult to read, but she was clearly tired of his stupidity.

Seeing the most important information among the meaningless verbiage he had just said, Flora exasperatedly pointed it out.

"... It was an excuse to give him money. Right?"

"Of course. That guy would never accept a straight-up cash gift. He'd think it was cursed or that it was a trap." With a 180-degree personality change, Adryan replied, bored as he rolled his shoulders.

"And I thought it would be for a more important reason." Rolling her eyes, Flora sighed disappointedly as she focused on the cloudy sky.

"That he has money is important." The dark-haired man commented amusedly, his eyes shining as he thought about what he had done.

Flora raised an eyebrow at that comment, but the man said no more. Flora didn't ask either; the information she had obtained was already enough, but it only left her with more questions than answers.

Adryan, for his part, only gave enough to give the woman an idea. It didn't matter what she thought or how she saw it; as long as the context was missing, the Cryptologist wouldn't understand the reason for his actions.

How could he not know that with the promise of a good haul, the detective wouldn't give his all to fulfill his request?

'And that's not to mention that as soon as he found out they still had the money from the sale, he'd be off faster than the Flash.' Adryan laughed a little more without holding back.

As a Conspirator, how could he not know the status of the previous owner and the receptionist?

He had already divined their status as soon as he mastered mirror divination and whether they still had the money. The Detective's mission was nothing more than a way for Klein to get his hands on that juicy loot.

'As long as they know what they're doing. A Conspirator doesn't have much to teach a Hypnotist. They can even surpass them in some cases; after all, it's not as if I'm using powers, just my tongue and words~' Once again, the dark-haired man could only praise the hunter's path while cursing all those who branded it as unremarkable in his world.

It was not necessary for the target he wished to manipulate to be in front of him to achieve this. All he needed was a sufficient understanding of the target to gaslight and to use the right words in the letter.

In this world, who knows Klein Moretti better than Adryan Kenway?

All he had to do to motivate him was to put a few crumbs in the letter he sent him and make sure there was no danger.

If there was one thing that would remain the same no matter how the story changed, it would be that the Poor God would stay the Poor God. In addition, of course, to his great love of money.

It was child's play. The detective never stood a chance.

'Considering his personality and heart of gold, I doubt he took it all, just enough to buy the ingredients for his potion.' Honestly, whether he took all the money or not, the dark-haired man didn't care.

As long as Klein advanced to Magician, everything would be fine. That was why he had invited him to the party on Friday.

That was the reason he had manipulated the detective into investigating and obtaining the money.

The Tarot Club was already at the limit of what Klein's spirituality could bear. The mere fact that the last meetings had been so short was proof of this.

If that was not solved soon, dangerous events could bring horrible disasters.

And considering that he carried the City of Calamities, the sefirah that shared the Red Priest and Demoness pathways - two paths focused on destruction and disaster - it was only a matter of time before that happened.

'Although the party might be a bit uncomfortable for him...' The dark-haired man thought as he tapped his chin.

He wouldn't go alone, and it wasn't that Klein wasn't very sociable, but at least at this point, it might be strange for him.

'Meh, it doesn't matter.' Shaking his head, Adryan looked at his watch and saw the time. He sighed as he got up to make himself a cup of coffee.

'If that didn't bother him, then the party venue definitely would... Maybe I should mention it to him...' Sighing and ignoring how one of the two cups disappeared, he raised his cup to his lips.

Coffee in hand, the man returned to his desk and, taking out paper and pen, quickly wrote a letter to Opera inquiring about the status of Ademisaul.

Closing the letter and adding the woman's initials, Adryan stretched his strings from his fingertips to the ceiling of his office. With a tug, a skeleton bell fell from the ceiling into his open palm.

As he caught it, Adryan habitually took a bar of chocolate with nuts from his tunic and placed it next to the letter.

The bell rang with a twist of the wrist, but no sound came out. A few moments passed, and then an icy breeze filled the office for two seconds before disappearing, the letter and chocolate bar sharing the same fate.

"One down, one to go..." Adryan sighed softly as he looked at his mental calendar.

Depending on the boy's state, Ademisaul would regain his sanity and become a complete Monster this Saturday when he finished work at his company.

And with Ademisaul as a Monster, the next part of his plan with Fors will be so much easier~

...

'Could this be considered acting in advance? The next sequence after Clown is Magician. If I go by the name, maybe one of the rules is to fool people with flashy and spectacular tricks? Could lying to a Demigod be considered that? If so, a decent portion of my potion should be digested, shouldn't it?' Klein lampooned as he went down the stairs to his kitchen.

'Sure, if I think about it some more, that would be more like a Swindler and not a Magician. Although...

'What is a magician? If not just a more fantastic swindler?' Klein decided to give this some more thought.

With his promotion approaching, it was best to be ready to start acting.

'A magician never performs unprepared.' Repeating the words he had heard some time ago, he nodded slightly and lit his stove.

He still needed to make himself some breakfast.