บท 16: Returning

'I will send a letter to those guys telling them to bring a new list of ingredients to that youngster from the Alchemist's Hut. I want to have the powers of a Bard, Lawyer, Sailor, and Apprentice as quickly as possible.'

The people he was talking about being some couriers that worked by sending classified information to anyone you wished for. As long as you had the coin to pay for their services, of course.

As The Magician chose to receive money rather than hear his secret, he still had to send her money to get the Apprentice formula. As Ethan prepared the sacrificial ritual, he directly took 200 pounds from his suitcase and sent it to The Fool.

After doing that, he quickly received a response and got the formula he wanted.

With the formula now in hand, he picked a sheet of paper that was inside the drawer at the side of his bed, writing the ingredients he wanted the couriers to buy from the youngster, including some strange things only a true mysticism researcher would want to buy. Also specifying the payment would be on Beyonder characteristics.

The reason he was buying things a mysticism researcher would buy wasn't because he wanted to do anything with them, but to create an excuse for the youngster to not suspect the fact he was going to use the same Beyonder characteristics from the ingredients he just bought as payment for the new ones.

In just a few seconds, all information he wrote on the sheet disappeared, turning into a "16 pounds."

As he saw the information appearing, Ethan just wrote an "Okay." and stored the paper once more.

These couriers could be trusted since they were bound by a notarized contract. The sheet of paper from before was their method of contact. He didn't understand the spells behind it, but it worked wonders.

Walking up to the front balcony of his cottage, he didn't feel anything from having to live here anymore. It was like this place was no different from the most luxurious of palaces, he lost any feelings in regards to its lack of appliances.

As Ethan looked at the brightly shining sun, he decided it was time to go after the characteristics and potion formulas of the rest of the Pathways.

The reason he didn't do so before was that he was still too weak and wanted to keep a low profile, however, as he was right now, killing a Sequence 7 was already perfectly doable, so he could start taking some risks.

He picked his suitcase, top hat, and cane. He left the cottage in the direction of the train station a few miles ahead.

When he arrived at the train station, Ethan used 2 pounds to board it and go back to Backlund.

The reason he decided to go back wasn't because he suddenly went insane and wanted to court death, but because he deduced the Church of Steam wasn't looking for him at all.

After eating the Prisoner's characteristic and completely removing the influence the useless mental imprints had on him, he was left with a completely calm mind.

He could now think ahead without the strong fear Charles' mental imprint had of the Church of Steam.

It should be said his decision to leave Backlund was very biased by Charles' imprint, after all, Kaspars had his connections too. The Church of Steam and Machinery wouldn't use Beyonder powers to make him speak like this, even more so when James wasn't even a core member and was seen as a nuisance for his desire for revenge.

All in all, the Church of Steam would certainly investigate, but it would take years, if it would even happen at all, for them to find him.

With all of this considered, Ethan decided to just return to Backlund, as it would be easier to get more characteristics in the city than outside.

He could even go to one of the Aurora Order's gatherings to look for some ingredients and people to kill.

Of course, he still wouldn't dare do so if he hadn't gotten the powers of a Seer, as it would be far too risky. However, now that he had the ability to use divination, he felt the risks were far lower than before.

And why did he feel the risks were far lower? Was it because he would blindly trust divination methods when he himself had different ways to interfere with it?

No, it was not. It was because he had Lust. He didn't understand much about this sin, as he couldn't even use its powers willingly.

But he did know something: Lust had the power to protect itself from interference. This interference could also be seen as interference against his divination.

Which meant that, as long as what he divined was not higher than Sequence 4, he would be able to directly ignore any powers that tinkered with his divination attempts.

This was the reason he chose to come back. While seated inside the steam locomotive's private seat, he picked one soli coin from his pocket.

Throwing it up into the air, he recited the words "It's safe to return to Backlund" seven times.

As the coin fell to his hand, the result was as Ethan expected "Heads". Which meant a 'yes'.

But even then, he would still not go overboard. He would keep a low profile for some days, then he would go after that Sleepless and Corpse Collector Charles' was going to target before.

…

Ethan's residence in North Borough, Backlund, a few hours later.

As Ethan returned to his house, he used his silver key to open the door and enter. The place was just like he left before, but it seemed to have been cleaned in the meantime, as it didn't have much dust.

Sitting in his reclining chair in the living room, he left his big suitcase on the table and started thinking of where to get the next potion formulas or characteristics he needed.

'There are nine different gatherings that James participated in, four of them are from the Aurora Order, four are from wild Beyonders, and one seems to be from the Psychology Alchemists.'

'There seems to be a Hunter and a Planter in one of the wild Beyonders' gatherings. There's also an old man that seems to be a Reader in South Borough. There's most certainly some Secrets Supplicants in the Aurora Order's gatherings. The only ones left are Apothecary and Monster, I can try and look for them after having the memories of all the targets. Or I could just try to buy the formulas and concoct the potions later.'

Having decided on his next plans, Ethan divined the dangers all of these actions might incur him. The divination results were as expected, none of these targets posed any danger to him.

'Even if I can evade most interferences, it's still best to be cautious. I don't want to end up facing a demigod.' Deciding to investigate all targets before trying to kill them, he left the reclining chair and went to his room.

'There's a gathering from the Aurora Order happening tomorrow, I can go and take a look.' he then took a bath and went to bed to get some sleep.

…

The following day, at night.

Ethan left his house with his suitcase and cane in hand, he had already notified George of his arrival in the afternoon.

Walking to West Borough, he stopped at an intersection of the streets and put on his iron mask and black robe he got from the gathering he participated in a few months ago.

These items had already received his Curse of Interference and were completely untraceable. After putting on his disguise, Ethan passed the intersection and entered an inconspicuous alley.

Walking for a few more minutes, he came in front of a big iron door at the end of the alley. Knocking on it in a specific rhythm, he saw the door soon open for him.

The person behind it was concealed by the hood of his black robe, looking very ominous. The person looked at him for a second before asking with a commanding tone, "What is God's purpose?"

Hearing the question, Ethan didn't take more than a second to respond, "Creation."

The person concealed in black robes nodded and allowed him to pass through the door. Passing the door, he was greeted by a flight of stairs leading downwards.

He briskly followed the stairs down and quickly reached a big hall. The place was full of sofas and chairs, all incredibly elegant in design. There was a bar counter at the end being attended by another man in black robes, with many people seated upon the stools.

This place was filled with many people, wearing different disguises. Some were using specific masks marked by different numbers, and they seemed to have some status here.

As he walked up to one of the single sofas in the hall, many eyes directed themselves in his direction. With Ethan's keen instincts, he could feel the deep malice ingrained in some of them.

As he sat on the black single sofa a few meters from the bar counter, he heard the voice of a female say, "I need some ingredients."

He looked at her figure seated at the bar counter, and just observed. One of the figures seated at the bar counter by her side, who was wearing a numbered mask, asked, "What ingredients?"

The woman looked at him and said, "A matured Dark Bunny's ears."

When the woman said that, Ethan's gaze immediately focused completely on her. He knew this ingredient couldn't reach Sequence 7, as it was far too weak for it, but it also couldn't be a Sequence 9, as the creature wasn't that common either.

Taking this into consideration, he observed the rest of the people in the gathering, trying to read their eyes for information.

Another man sitting right next to the woman said, "I have an extra one of those, I can sell it to you if you want. 170 pounds."

As he heard the man say that, Ethan observed him for a few seconds and looked at the other people, most of the numbered masked ones had looks of understanding in their eyes.

When he noticed this, and the fact that he was in one of the Aurora Order's gatherings, he came to a quick conclusion.

'Secrets Supplicant.'

…

The woman closed the deal with another numbered masked person that offered to sell the ingredient she needed for 143 pounds.

The rest of the gathering didn't have much else, only a few failed transactions, and Ethan decided it was better to keep a low profile for now.

However, when the gathering came to an end, the black hooded person in the bar pointed them to the exit and everyone started leaving one by one, with a separation of a few minutes.

When he got up from his single sofa seat, the woman that bought the ingredients from before had yet to leave the place.

As he made his way towards the exit, he passed through a small shadowy place where the gas lamps' lights didn't reach. Proceeding to the staircase he came from, Ethan passed through the woman and rapidly left.

None of his actions attracted any attention. Leaving the inconspicuous alley, he followed the main streets to leave West Borough.

When he finally left West Borough, Ethan waited for a few hours in a 24 hour open cafe. After a long time, he took out his cane and pressed it vertically on the ground, reciting the words, "My purposely lost strand of hair" seven times.

Allowing the cane to fall to the ground, he saw it tilt towards the direction of East Borough.

"After tonight, there'll only be twelve more Pathways left." Getting up from his seat inside the cafe, he started walking in the direction of East Borough.