Mystery: A Spark

"Arthas?" Klein looked at Arthur's shoulder with some surprise.

Two days ago, he received another letter from Mr. Azik.

In this letter, Mr. Azik solemnly instructed him not to reveal anything about the Scourge, nor to inquire about such information.

This surprised Klein somewhat.

He guessed that the Scourge might be involved in some big secrets, which was why Mr. Azik was so serious and wrote a special letter to remind him of this matter.

However, Klein wasn't overly curious and insisted on exploring this matter against advice.

Klein was very clear about the principles of listening to advice and that curiosity killed the cat.

After all, he had already suffered several great losses because of his curiosity before.

Anyway, this matter didn't affect his life. Since Mr. Azik had even written a letter to give instructions, Klein naturally followed suit and buried the matter of the Scourge in his heart, pretending not to know anything about it.

However, upon hearing the name of the little white dog on Arthur's shoulder, Arthas, Klein's mind immediately began to wander.

At that moment, Arthur patted the puppy's head on his shoulder and said:

“That’s right, this little guy’s name is Arthas. He’s both my messenger and my companion.”

As Klein looked at Arthas, Arthas was also looking at him.

The puppy and Klein looked at each other, a meaningful smile appearing on their faces, and the puppy said:

"Hello, I am Arthur's messenger, so I often travel in the spirit world."

The word "spirit world" is emphasized slightly.

The slightly emphasized tone went unnoticed by Arthur, but to Klein, it undoubtedly carried a deeper meaning.

Klein looked at the meaningful smile on the little white dog's face and couldn't help but have some guesses.

He already knew that Arthur planned to initiate a revolution and had begun to gather people.

Klein had always thought that Arthur wanted to go into politics, climb to the top, and thus bring about change.

But now it seems... tsk tsk, not simple at all.

"That's quite a skill..." Klein thought to himself, using the Joker's ability to control his expression and not reveal anything unusual.

He gave Arthas a brief greeting, then chatted with Arthur as if he knew nothing about the matter.

"Klein, when I was in Tingen, didn't I invite you to my house? I've been waiting for ages and you still haven't come. I had to go through all that trouble to find you. That's really not nice of me."

Arthur immediately played the victim, pinning the blame on Cthulhu.

Klein was somewhat speechless, and he said helplessly:

"You didn't give me your contact information or tell me where you lived. How was I supposed to find you?"

"Huh? Didn't I say that?" Arthur looked stunned.

Arthas jumped from his shoulder onto the sofa next to him and watched the scene unfold with a leisurely air.

It was 100% certain that Arthur had deliberately kept quiet at the time.

"Yes, you didn't say that."

If you had told me back then, I wouldn't have had to worry about dealing with Meursault's body, and I wouldn't have encountered all those troublesome things that followed... Klein thought to himself.

However, these troubles also brought him the potion recipes for the next three sequences, as well as the world dummy at the Tarot Meeting, so it's hard to say whether it was a blessing or a curse.

"Uh, I don't think they said that." Arthur thought for a moment, then smiled somewhat awkwardly.

He hesitated for two seconds, then said:

"How about this, I'll treat you to a meal as an apology, okay?"

"Apologizing is too much of a big deal, it's not necessary at all," Klein waved his hand and laughed.

"Let's treat this as a get-together. We'll have hot pot together. Don't worry, my cooking skills are pretty good," Arthur said, patting his chest.

"Hot pot?" Klein's eyes lit up immediately.

Heaven help him, he hasn't eaten a single Chinese meal since he transmigrated here.

Especially after eating the local food of Rune, Klein missed the food of his hometown even more.

Therefore, upon hearing the newly coined and unique word "hot pot," Klein couldn't utter a single polite word.

"That's right, it's hot pot. As for the ingredients, I plan to get sliced ​​fatty beef, tripe, lamb rolls, and..."

Every time Arthur named an ingredient, Klein couldn't help but swallow.

After Arthur named several ingredients, Klein finally couldn't hold back any longer.

He grabbed Arthur's hand, which held the book as if it were his most treasured possession, and asked earnestly:

"When to eat? Where to eat?"

"Um... do you have time during the day?" Arthur asked.

“During the day… I do have something to do during the day, but it’s not very important,” Klein said after thinking for a moment.

He had originally planned to practice his shooting at the Kragg Club and then, after the Brave Ones Bar opened in the afternoon, go to Kaspass and ask if he knew of any more extraordinary gatherings.

This is because Klein wants to sell the Singer and Lightbringer recipes he has to earn some gold pounds.

Of the 15,000 pounds that belonged to Zillingus, 9,800 pounds had already been given to Arthur because of the assassination of Becklong and the three-way deal with Little Sun.

As for the other five thousand pounds, several hundred pounds were spent on hiring bodyguards.

The original plan was for three days of protection, but it was only carried out for one day. As a result, the bodyguard he hired refunded the corresponding amount of money.

This meant that Klein actually had a considerable amount of money left over.

However, living off one's savings is not a sustainable solution. After all, Klein still doesn't know where to find the spinal fluid of the Evil-Patterned Black Panther, the other main material for the Magician, or how much it would cost to buy it.

He needs to set aside a considerable amount of money to prepare for his advancement to Magician, and later, Faceless Man and Master of Puppets.

Currently unregistered, he can only better disguise his identity after being promoted to the Faceless Man.

Klein didn't plan to approach Marich either, even though the latter was definitely part of more than one circle of extraordinary individuals, but he was afraid that the bodyguard might also belong to those circles.

This would make it inconvenient for him to sell potion recipes, as it would arouse great suspicion.

Since the "True Creator" gave you the ability to divine and a strong body, would they really bestow upon you a potion recipe that you don't need? That's impossible!

“In that case, let’s set the time for the evening. It’ll take quite a while to prepare these ingredients. I live at 7 Townsend Street, you can come over then,” Arthur said after thinking for a moment.

“Okay, I’ll definitely be there tonight,” Klein said without hesitation.

"Hmm...but..." He seemed to hesitate, as if he wanted to say something but stopped himself.

"But what?" Arthur asked curiously.

"However, I've heard that eating hot pot can cause a sore butt."

"Fuck you, get out of here!"

"Hahaha……"

……

After Arthur left, Klein did not stay at home any longer.

He ate a simple piece of bread with butter for breakfast, then put on his coat and hat before leaving the house.

After a carriage ride of more than half an hour, he entered the Krag Club and saw an acquaintance.

That was Talim Dumont, the equestrian instructor who recommended him to the club, and a friend of Mary Gale.

Wearing a black wool coat and sporting short, curly brown hair, Talim approached, scrutinized Klein from head to toe, and said with a strange smile:

"Good morning, Mary and Dorago are in the process of getting a divorce."

Is this a sign that they doubt my motives for joining the club? Klein, relying on his "clown" abilities, easily feigned surprise:

"Really? That's surprising!"

Talim gave him a suspicious look, then suddenly laughed:

“A friend of mine is currently troubled by something, and I’d like to know how good your marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat skills are.”

A commission? It only asks about marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat, not deduction. This is a commission involving violence… Klein chuckled.

“I was just planning to go to the shooting range to practice shooting. You can come and watch, but in combat, you need an opponent to judge your skill level.”

“I’ve studied martial arts,” Talim replied eagerly.

……

After successfully gaining Talim's approval of his shooting and hand-to-hand combat skills, Klein received a commission from journalist Mike through him.

So, to protect journalist Mike as he investigated the serial murders, Klein followed him to the Golden Rose, the best legal brothel in the Joewood and Backlund Bridge area.

During the violent investigation, Klein also met Detective Isinger Stanton, who was also interested in the case.

That night, Klein arrived at 7 Downsend Street with an empty stomach.

He didn't eat much at noon, just so he could come over in the evening and properly taste Arthur's hometown cooking.

"Hey, you're here! Come in quickly."

Arthur welcomed Klein inside and led him to the table that had been prepared.

He invited Klein this time partly because after the birth of "the world", there would be no need to hold back when contacting Klein.

Secondly, Arthur had previously made a promise with Bernadette that he would treat her to hot pot later.

However, since Arthur wasn't quite sure how much he had neglected his culinary skills, he decided to practice first.

Since we were going to make hot pot, it wouldn't be very interesting to eat it alone, so we decided to invite Klein over as well, so that we could catch up with each other since we were from the same hometown.

"Come on, try our homemade 'fat house happy water'."

Arthur took out a glass bottle containing a black liquid, poured a glass for Klein, and then poured one for himself.

"This is... cola?" Klein took a sip and asked with some surprise.

"How is it? Not bad, right?" Arthur said with a smile.

This is the 2.0 version of the Coke that I gave Xiu last time. It has been improved in taste and can now be called a budget version of Pepsi.

"That's really good! I didn't know you had this skill." Klein took a couple of sips and couldn't help but praise him.