Chapter 88: Report

"What is it?" Benson asked.

Melissa looked at her brother with a serious expression because she felt that Klein's behavior tonight was strange.

Klein chuckled as he had long thought of an excuse: "There was a mistake in one of the document descriptions, and I already informed my colleagues that I would hand it over to them when I arrive early at the company tomorrow morning. So, I can either amend it now since it's on the way or wake up at least half an hour earlier tomorrow morning. No doubt, I've chosen to do the former."

"Ah, no wonder. I had a nagging feeling that your mind wasn't in the game, so you were actually thinking about work." Benson smiled. "No, I apologize. I should say, the card game helped you think."

"Alright, we shall wait for you." Melissa looked away and smoothed out the ruffles of her engageantes.

The three siblings bid their hosts farewell before hiring a carriage. The two-wheeled horse carriage traveled quickly in the dark, quiet street and arrived at Zouteland Street in only twelve minutes.

"Wait for me here." Klein said as he got off the carriage.

Going up the stairs, Klein arrived at the Blackthorn Security Company and knocked on the door.

After a moment, the door was opened, and Leonard Mitchell appeared before him in a vest and shirt.

"You're not on duty tonight," Leonard pointed out.

Klein was only on guard duty once a week for the Chanis Gate. They maintained a regular work schedule for the rest of the time. As for emergencies that happened at night, they would be dealt with by the Sleepless.

"I have something to report," he answered simply.

"There's a mission?" Leonard asked, moving aside.

When Klein entered the reception hall, he saw Dunn coming out in his black windbreaker.

"Captain, I came across an incident involving the supernatural."

"Give me the details," Dunn asked directly.

Klein recounted the whole story from earlier and reported the steps that he took to deal with it.

"So, I think there's a need to investigate Hanass Vincent."

"You've done well. You seized the opportunity before the evil spirit fully materialized to possess her body completely.

Let us take care of the follow-up investigations. You can return home to rest." Dunn said.

Klein heaved a sigh of relief and chortled. "I thought you would make this my initiation mission and make me complete it alone."

"That's because there's already an initiation mission for you." Leonard said by the side.

Dunn smirked and explained, "At around seven tonight, the police station referred us to a case. From our initial assessments, there doesn't seem to be any danger or urgency, so it was decided that you would complete it on your own tomorrow.

Alright, don't ask about the case. Rest well tonight and move your day off to Tuesday or Wednesday."

Klein bade farewell and left, making his way back to the carriage.

Under the pure night sky, the carriage moved quickly down one street after the other.

When they returned home, Klein yielded the bathroom to Benson for his shower while he went to Melissa's bedroom and knocked twice.

Melissa, who was planning to use the other bathroom, opened the door and looked at her brother suspiciously.

"Melissa, do you have any questions that you'd like to ask?" Klein asked straightforwardly.

Melissa's lips trembled as she spoke. "Klein, what did you do to Elizabeth? She seemed a bit off.

And, later on, Selena started acting very strange too."

Klein had prepared his reply. "Do you know that Elizabeth and Selena are mysticism enthusiasts?"

"Yeah, but I don't like it. I don't think there's anything that can't be explained in this world," Melissa answered seriously after being momentarily taken aback. "Anything that seems unexplainable is due to the fact that the knowledge we have grasped is insufficient."

"Yeah, I think so too," Klein echoed her sentiments guiltily and continued, "Mysticism involves Hermes, the language used specifically for ancient worship ceremonies and prayers. Elizabeth knew that I was good at it. Heh, it is within a historian's domain after all. So, she asked me about the pronunciation of corresponding words and their actual meanings."

Melissa nodded lightly.

"As for why Elizabeth and Selena became weird later on, I have no idea about the actual reasons." Klein removed himself from the picture first, then he said, "But, I can make a guess."

"You managed to guess it?" Melissa blurted out in shock.

Klein lifted his hand and patted his lips. "I could guess from the contents of what Elizabeth asked. The few Hermes words were related to divination as well as the worshiping of evil entities. Yes, when Selena did the magic mirror divination, did she recite in Hermes?"

He proactively brought that up in order to remind his sister to keep her guard up against similar situations. It would be even better if she could cut off contact with Selena and Elizabeth.

"Yes," Melissa replied. "I think I understand why Elizabeth and Selena were acting strange."

Then, Klein asked deliberately, "As Selena's magic mirror divination involved a wicked, illegal belief, perhaps Elizabeth found an opportunity to criticize and correct Selena's mistake after she clarified with me the actual meaning of the Hermes that Selena had used?"

"I think so." Melissa didn't doubt this conclusion because she had made the same deduction herself.

Klein let out a breath of relief upon seeing that he had successfully directed the conversation. "In the future, it's best if you advise Selena to put her beliefs in the orthodoxy."

"Yes, I will!" Melissa replied.

"And don't tell Elizabeth and Selena about our deduction or about the things that I've said. I actually promised Elizabeth not to tell you," Klein emphasized.

"Okay." Melissa nodded lightly.

...

On Monday morning at eight, in the Blackthorn Security Company.

Klein took off his hat and greeted Rozanne and Bredt. After exchanging a few words, he entered Captain Dunn Smith's office.

He pushed the door open and looked around. He was surprised because Dunn's face was pretty pale and his gray eyes looked clouded.

"What happened? Is it Hanass Vincent?" Klein asked.

Dunn took a sip of coffee and replied with a bitter smile, "Hanass Vincent is dead."

"Did someone kill him ahead of time?" Klein sat before Dunn with his cane in hand.

Dunn sighed. "Leonard and I went to look for Hanass Vincent last night. As his usual behavior didn't show any unusual signs and there was nothing odd about his house, I decided to enter his dreams to look for clues."

"In his dream, in his dream..." His eyes showed fear when he said, "In his dream, I saw a cross, a huge cross, one that blotted out the sky. On the huge cross, there was a naked man nailed to it with black nails. His arms and legs were pinned with his arms extended outwards. He was hung upside down, his head hung low like a chandelier. There were strips of blood stains on his body.

Upon seeing such a scene, I lost consciousness. I left Hanass Vincent's dream, and when I woke up, Leonard told me that Hanass had died in his sleep."

"Huge cross, hung upside down, the man covered in blood stains... So you saw Jesus Christ? No, it was the Antichrist! It's similar to some of the stories of the True Creator that some of the hidden organizations believe in, but there are considerable differences too. Klein thought in suspicion.

The few hidden organizations that believed in the True Creator had only appeared in the last two or three centuries, such as the Aurora Order and the Iron and Blood Cross Order. However, similar depictions had never disappeared over the past thousand plus years.

Dunn rubbed his forehead again. "We'll follow up on this. As for you, go ahead and complete your initiation mission first."