Рафтер Паунд

Sivellaus Prefecture was located west of the Loen Kingdom, across the Hornacis mountain range from the Intis Republic. And in Backlund, there was a street named after it, on the edge of Empress Borough, where the headquarters of the capital’s police department was located.

Many people chose to settle down here for the peace of mind, and Rafter Pound was one of them.

The baronet stood by the closed window in his warm activity room at Unit 29, in his cotton quilted pajamas, staring diagonally across the street at Sivellaus Yard.

He was in his early forties, but the sides of his hair had turned white. He had puffy eyes and clear wrinkles on his face. His body constantly emitted the smell of alcohol.

On the floor behind Rafter lay some torn lingerie, and opposite it was a burning fireplace.

The baronet raised his glass and gulped the rest of the liquid in it. Then, he walked slowly to the door and returned to his bedroom to get some sleep.

As there was no pipe to transfer the heat from the fireplace, he felt the bone-chilling chill of late autumn as soon as he left the activity room.

"Damn it!" Rafter Pound cursed under his breath as he staggered to the bedroom door and twisted the handle.

The bedroom was dark, with only a faint crimson glow shining in.

Rafter was about to close the door behind him and collapse into bed when his eyes suddenly froze.

A figure was sitting quietly on a chair beside the curtain!

The figure wore a pair of grayish-blue pants and a cap. The entire person was completely hidden in the shadows.

Sensing Baronet Pound’s gaze, the man slowly raised his head and looked over.

His face was painted red, yellow, and white, looking like the funniest clown!

Rafter was about to shout and run when he saw a revolver aimed at him and heard two deep and hoarse sentences.

"I advise you not to do anything unwise.

"If you cooperate, I won’t harm you, and I won’t take away your belongings, if you still have any left."

Rafter Pound’s expression changed a few times, and he very obediently closed the bedroom door. Then, he half raised his hands and sat on the edge of the bed.

"You, what do you want from me?" He hiccuped in his drunken stupor, and his body trembled slightly as he reminded, "Sivellaus Yard is just across the street!"

"I know, but I think I’m closer to you than you are to Sivellaus Yard." Disguised as a clown, Klein had changed his voice and tone as he warned, "And my purpose is just to ask you a few questions."

Before he came to Sivellaus Street, he had divined if there would be any danger in making this trip in the mysterious space above the gray fog and had obtained an answer that it was very safe.

"Questions?" Rafter’s lips trembled as laughed bitterly, "Here we go again... Am I never going to escape this nightmare?"

"Have there been many people coming to you with questions?" Klein continued the topic.

"No, not only questions! After my uncle, the honorable old viscount, passed away, too many things have happened to me. The amiable old butler resigned for no reason and has vanished. Those servants and maids would change one after the other without warning, becoming unfamiliar and cold. They were looking for something, yes, they were looking for something, I wasn’t even ten back then. All I could do was watch, and I didn’t dare tell anyone. I was afraid that I would never wake up again!" Rafter replied as though he was on the brink of collapse.

Looking for something? Were they searching for the underground structure, or the treasures of the Pound family, such as the Beyonder characteristics and mystical items buried near the evil spirit? The royal family and the churches must’ve realized this as the higher-ups must know about the Law of Beyonder Characteristics Conservation and Indestructibility! Since the Pound family was in ruins, these things should’ve been taken back, right? Unless the old viscount paid a huge price and bought some other rare Beyonder characteristics and mystical items of the same Sequence to conceal the matter of the underground structure... After Klein finished listening quietly, he generated many guesses.

He seemed relaxed, but in reality, he could attack at any time.

"How long has this been going on for?"

"I don’t know, I don’t know. There are faces around me that I don’t know. How can I be sure that the remaining people aren’t also in cahoots? “Heh heh, I pretended not to notice anything. After trembling for a few years, I was enticed by them to do drinking, sex, gambling, smoking marijuana, and all sorts of things that make me look like a piece of trash!" Rafter Pound gave a somewhat crazy laugh. "They’re finally relieved and are no longer watching me. When I sold that house, whoosh! All of them left, with no idea where they went. No, they must still be secretly monitoring me, preventing me from calling the police. Right, they aren’t letting me call the police!"

This fellow has some mental illness... I have no idea if what he said is true or false. In his aura, the change in his mood colors adhere to logic, but what if he just feels that he had let down the old viscount and fantasized a whole sequence of events like this to find an excuse for his degeneration. Later, he would keep telling himself that until he’s utterly convinced... As a qualified keyboard warrior, Klein, who knew a little of everything, had seen similar cases in his previous life.

After thinking for two seconds, he asked, "What did these people ask you?"

"They asked me how the two children of the old viscount died. They asked me what abnormal behavior the old viscount had over the years. I wasn’t even ten years old at the time, so I don’t know anything!" Rafter waved his arms and growled under his breath.

"Calm down, please calm down." Klein lowered his left hand and attempted to confirm if Baronet Pound knew of the underground structure via multiple angles.

Time flew by as the question and answer session ensued. Klein said in a hoarse voice, "You really don’t seem to know anything.

"I’m very sorry to bother you, but it’s time for me to leave."

He stood up, bowed slightly, and appeared very well-mannered.

And almost at the same time, the excitement and appearance of having a breakdown on Rafter Pound’s face vanished. His light blue eyes became abnormally deep, as though he was examining something.

When he saw the intruder about to stand up straight, he immediately reverted back to his previous performance, grief, anger, madness, bitterness, and neuroticism.

At that moment, a mysterious voice suddenly resounded in his ears.

"Crimson!"

Klein injected spirituality into a Slumber Charm and threw it at Rafter with his unarmed left hand.

Amidst crisp crackling sounds, a strong sense of serenity spread out, enveloping the baronet, causing him to shut his eyes involuntarily and fall weakly onto the bed.

"I’m sorry. The questions from before are for the comparison of what shall ensue. Next, it’s the process of entering your dream and spirit channeling." Klein patted Rafter’s pajamas, and with his hand on his chest, he made another bow.

Then, he used the Dream Charm and entered Rafter’s dream like a Nightmare.

In the gray, fragmentary, constantly coruscating world, Klein soberly walked beside Rafter, watching him see the blank faces of the servants and maids who had no facial features as they gave off abnormal and frightening vibes. He saw Rafter turning his head only to always to see an old face silently gazing at him, watching him curl up in the corner, shivering, and him being enveloped by a shadow, little by little.

This matches what he had described earlier... Klein tried to guide the dream to make sense of the situation, but it was as though Baronet Pound had a very serious psychological trauma over these matters. Any tiny bit of stimulation would cause him to scream and run like a madman in his dreams.

This made it impossible for Klein to get any more information.

Thus, he withdrew from the dream and cast another Slumber Charm on Rafter Pound before taking out Amantha extract and other materials, in preparation to channel his spirit in a mediumship ritual.

After responding to himself, Klein’s spirituality passed through the storm of thoughts and saw the illusory image of Rafter, an illusory image based on the Body of Heart and Mind.

"What did the old viscount say to you before he died?" Klein hesitated for a moment before asking.

Rafter Pound muddle-headedly replied, "He wants me to maintain the family."

"What else?" Klein asked again in a tone of deliberate affirmation.

"He wanted me to remember the glory of the ancestors," Rafter answered blankly.

Klein nodded and asked, "What were those people looking for?"

"I don’t know." Rafter gave the same answer.

Klein continued asking and compared it with the answers Pound had said before, finally coming to the conclusion that Baronet Pound had not lied, and what he had just said was true.

At this point, he didn’t stay any longer. He passed through the storm of thoughts and allowed his extended spirituality to return to his body.

Next, Klein methodically tidied up the scene and tossed Azik’s copper whistle a few times, using its nature to interfere with any possible divination investigations.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Baronet." After doing all of this, Klein bowed once again.

Then he turned, opened the window, jumped into the street, and disappeared into the night.

After a while, Rafter Pound suddenly opened his eyes.

Around those light blue eyes, there was a circle of ruptured capillaries!

He flipped himself up suddenly and stared at the open oriel window.

...

After making a long detour to East Borough, Klein washed his disguise and changed into normal clothes. As if nothing had happened, he returned to 15 Minsk Street in Cherwood Borough.

He didn’t rest, nor did he think about what he should do with the underground structure. Instead, he once again entered the fog.

At the very end of the ancient long table, Klein slowly opened his palm, revealing several strands of brown hair. They were Rafter Pound’s hair, hair he had gathered when Rafter was sleeping.

There’s still the final step, confirming with divination above the gray fog... Klein silently muttered to himself, then he conjured a pen and paper. He wrote down the content that he had already thought about beforehand:

"Rafter Pound’s future."

I want to see what will happen to you in the future so as to confirm the past! Klein leaned back in his chair and began to recite the divination statement.

As the ancient structure involved the six orthodox gods, he was afraid that there would be problems if he divined something directly, so he changed his way of thinking and helped Rafter Pound ask about the future!