Chapter 33: Messenger

Evah only needed to leverage the fact that Medici was unaware of the truth to cozy up to him using the Ancient Sun God. Whether they'd fall out later was entirely outside Evah's concerns.

Or rather, in this matter, Evah was just an outsider.

"If I get really tight with Medici and can't raise Adam's favorability, I wouldn't mind siding with the Red Angel to take a swing at Adam," Evah thought shamelessly.

As for whether Adam could sense these thoughts, honestly, Evah was thinking them deliberately for Adam to catch. Just like when he'd thought of Adam during the 'Past Ancient Son God Descend' incident, he was fully aware an Adam might be lurking in the air around him. He also knew he had no real defense against Adam right now. So, why not openly display his stance and test Adam's reaction?

Adam wanted to figure out Evah's deal, but didn't Evah also want to probe the mind of this divine stalker?

Through his probing over time, combined with the uniqueness of his soul, Evah had some guesses. He wasn't sure if Adam could read his thoughts, but he suspected that, just as Amon couldn't parasitize him, the Spectator pathway's hypnotic, cognition-altering abilities likely wouldn't work on him either.

Otherwise, Adam would've just hypnotized him and solved the problem at its root.

As for whether he was already hypnotized, that wasn't a concern. Having faced Yog-Sothoth directly and housed a Nyar's Fragment in his body, Evah was confident he'd know if he wasn't in his right mind.

Still, even if his guesses were correct and Adam couldn't alter his cognition, Adam remained a formidable threat. But Evah was always pragmatic about such things.

'You can set me up, push me to the world's opposing side, or try to win me over. After all, I'm still half in the lawful camp. Honestly, I'm curious to see what you'll choose…'

Evah chuckled inwardly, not caring whether Adam could sense these thoughts, and shifted to thinking about Xio and Fors.

I wonder if they've contacted Audrey yet. Next time I'm in Backlund, I can nudge their Tarot Club membership along… Evah mused, maintaining his naive persona on the surface with professional dedication.

Azik, unaware of the chaotic thoughts swirling in Jack's head, turned to Klein gently. "Klein, I'm afraid I need to retract my earlier words. Moving forward, I might personally search for my past memories."

Before recalling his daughter, Azik had been half-hearted about recovering his past, content to coast. But after meeting her and regaining some memories, his drive to uncover his history was stronger than ever. No more slacking off.

"Mr. Azik, do you still need me to look for clues about your past?" Klein asked promptly.

"You can keep an eye out, as I mentioned before, but don't go out of your way. I don't want this to put you in danger," Azik said, pausing to study Klein closely, a hint of puzzlement in his expression. "Strange…"

"What's wrong, Mr. Azik?" Klein tensed up immediately.

"There's a layer of fog around you, something tied to the spirit world, but I can't be sure…" Azik's expression mixed confusion and concern. He rubbed his temples, trying to recall more but failing, and finally said gravely, "Klein, be careful. There may be more than one entity meddling with your fate."

Klein's face stiffened. Thinking of the coincidences in his life and the mysterious gray fog, he felt a headache coming on.

Evah hadn't expected Azik's memory recovery to let him spot the anomaly around Klein. Still, he stayed calm, only showing concern as he looked at Klein, then Azik. "Mr. Azik, is there a way to fix it?"

"I'm sorry," Azik said with a bitter smile, shaking his head. He lacked the means to help Klein in this regard—his memories were still too fragmented.

But looking at Klein, Azik thought for a dozen seconds before unfastening a copper whistle from his sleeve and handing it to him. "I can't resolve the anomaly in your fate, but Klein, if you face an unsolvable problem later, you can contact me through this."

"Is this a tool for summoning a messenger?" Evah chimed in, putting on a suitably curious expression.

"Messenger?" Klein looked puzzled, clearly unfamiliar with the term, as he hadn't studied this yet.

"I know this one!" Evah said with a proud grin, eagerly explaining. "A messenger, as the name suggested, was an entity that delivered messages for its master, typically a spirit world creature. Beyonder could contract suitable spirit world beings to serve as their messengers. Normally, a Beyonder had only one messenger, except for big shots."

"Exactly as Jack described. This is a tool to summon my messenger. Just blow the whistle, and my messenger will appear, like this…" Azik demonstrated, blowing the whistle. A towering skeletal messenger materialized before them.

"This… this is a messenger?" Klein stared at the over-two-meter-tall skeletal figure, utterly shocked, marveling at the wonders of the Beyonder's world.

Azik smiled, explained how to dismiss the messenger, and handed the whistle to Klein, saying earnestly, "I'm not sure if I can help, but I hope I can."

If Klein had previously been just a student Azik mildly liked, their shared experience with his daughter—coupled with her entrusting Klein and Evah to care for him—had sparked a bit of transferred affection in Azik.

In this context, Azik genuinely didn't want anything to happen to Klein, which is why he gave him the whistle.

Watching this unfold, Evah raised an eyebrow, surprised that the threads of fate had converged in this way.

Just then, Azik seemed to recall something. He looked at Jack Jones, pulled out paper and pen, wrote a string of Hermes text, and handed it to him gently. "This is how to summon my messenger. You can contact me through it too. I'm sorry I don't have a second whistle—hope you don't mind."

(End of Chapter)