The only private room in the Old Ville restaurant, at half past six in the evening.

All the members of the Black Thorn Security Company, except for the "corpse collector" Frye who needs to be on duty at Chanis Gate, the remaining seven extraordinary people and five civilian personnel have already arrived.

One of the protagonists of the dinner, Klein Moretti, visited a retired knight in the afternoon for rigorous martial arts training.

At this time, he looked tired, his eyes were blank as he looked at the long table covered with white napkins, his hands massaged his leg muscles, and from time to time he would stimulate the injuries on his body because of slight movements, and he gasped with bared teeth.

The other protagonist, Angel Granger, sheds her usual shirt, trousers and trench coat and changes into a summer dress, which she is not used to, and she is trying to curl up in the back chair to make herself less conspicuous.

Miss Roseanne leaned next to her and whispered something, and Angel could only bend over and tilt her head because of the height difference, listening to the other man's whisper with a smile on her face.

Dunn Smith, captain of the Tingen Nights, locked himself in his office all day, thinking about how to be a real "nightmare", now looks rewarding, his eyes sharp, and he grabs over the players at the table one by one.

White-haired and black-eyed, the "Midnight Poet" who likes to write in his spare time, Siga Teang, is talking in a low voice with Luo Yao Leiding, who is also a female night watchman, and his eyes sweep over Angel and Crane from time to time; Leonard Mitchell, a somewhat bohemian poet, was sipping an aperitif, squinting at the bottom of his eyes; Korney White, who is a little short in stature but has strong and well-proportioned muscles, just finished his shift at Chanisgate yesterday, and today he worked overtime to patrol several cemeteries in the North End during the day, and even if he is a "sleepless", he is tired at this time, yawning from time to time.

Mrs. Orianna, who usually seemed to have endless things to do every day, was arguing in a low voice with old Neil, dressed in a black robe, about something, perhaps a matter of reimbursement for additional expenses; Bright, with his bushy beard, recited today's headline in the Tingen Zeitung: Dennis, the former mayor of Tingen, resigned due to the recent deterioration of the law and order situation in the city. Cizer Francis, who commented on the veracity of the news with a mysterious smile on his face, believed that Mayor Dennis was forced to resign because of the arrest of a courtesan in the upper echelons of Tingen and his involvement in a number of major cases.

As the waiters in the restaurant brought plates of steaming food to the table, cut and delivered them to each guest, the "Welcome Party for Newcomers of Black Thorn Security" finally began.

Captain Dunn was the first to stand up with his glass, the champagne in the glass was a beautiful amber color, and strings of bubbles hung on the walls of the glass as the glass swayed.

"Let's all raise a glass to welcome the new members, Miss Angel Granger, Mr. Klein Moretti!"

"Cheers!"

Everyone raised their glasses, stooped down and brought their glasses to the middle of the table, clinked them together, and then drank the champagne.

With the alcohol in his stomach, the atmosphere at the table became lively, except for Klein, who had undergone brutal training, who looked at the food in front of him with a look of embarrassment, everyone else had already selected their favorite dishes and began to feast.

"I heard you killed another Sequence 6 in Port Enmat?"

Leonard quickly wiped out the steak and mashed potato salad in front of him, took a sip of champagne, and leaned over to Angel and asked.

He seemed to have premeditated and occupied the seat next to Angel in advance.

"You're so well informed...... But I didn't kill him, that Mr. C ran away in the end, and the wanted warrant should have been sent to Tingen, right? ”

Angel swallowed the bacon in her mouth, emphasizing helplessly, cursing in her heart the "Bishop of the Rose" who no longer knew where to flee.

"That's okay, in battle, hitting the opponent hard and getting him out of the fight is actually equivalent to killing."

Due to the presence of the restaurant attendants, they did not mention extraordinary abilities and occult terms, but only exchanged vague words.

After all, their external identity is a security company, and it is normal to talk about fighting and killing during dinners.

At first she was very interested in their conversation, and listened to a few words with her ears pricked up, but soon lost interest in the boring experience of the battle, and turned to Klein on the other side, who was still in front of him, and was taking a small bite of a beef pudding from the waiter, as if his taste and appetite had not recovered from the excessive exercise of the afternoon.

"What's the matter, Klein, are you going to learn from me to diet to lose weight?"

"Believe me, Miss Rosan, I would love to get rid of this steak in front of me, but my stomach has a different idea......"

Klein dipped a little of the steak sauce with the spoon he used to eat the pudding, and tasted it tentatively, but quickly gave up this staple food of heavy oil and salt, and continued to slowly eliminate the beef pudding in front of him.

"After strenuous exercise, you need to eat a lot to replenish the lost salt and energy, but you are not used to this amount of training, and when you recover from it, you will eat this steak as if you were hungry for three days, and ask the waiter to bring another one."

Even with two ladies in between, Leonard still used his flirtatious tone to educate the newcomers on the night watch, and because of the loudness, the attention of the other chattering team members was drawn.

"Oh, it must be Sir Gawain, as I have always said, he may have secretly had a secret agreement with the 'Substitute Punisher', and used extreme training methods to dissuade the newcomers on duty."

Old Neil commented on Klein's martial arts instructor, scooped a spoonful of custard into his mouth, and enjoyed the food, especially when there was a companion at the table who had no appetite to compare it to himself.

Seeing Klein's bitter face, Siga Teang pushed the ice cream in front of her: "You can try sweets, ice sweets may make you regain your appetite." ”

"Thanks, I'll try."

Klein took the blueberry juice-flavored ice cream, scooped it into his mouth, and his face changed.

"Looks like it's working well, hmm, maybe I can put that idea in there......" Siga thought as he watched Crane quickly swing his spoon and quickly wipe out the blueberry ice cream.

"Miss Writer, you say that every time, but when will you see your masterpiece in a magazine?"

"Tomorrow, tomorrow!"

Amid the jokes of several people, Crane, who had gradually accelerated his eating, had already eliminated the pudding and steak in front of him, as if he was thinking about whether to have another one, his eyes moved back and forth on the empty plate and the waiter in the corner, and finally put down the knife and fork, picked up the wine glass, and drank the remaining half of the steamed champagne.

"Look, I'll just say it."

Leonard whispered to Angel.

——————

A sore Crane Moretti refused the help of his brother Benson, gritted his teeth, and walked up the stairs to his bedroom with trembling feet.

As soon as the door closed, he couldn't hold back with a nonchalant expression.

"It hurts, it hurts!"

It's like the day after I was dragged up the mountain by my college classmates in my previous life, I could only move down the stairs by holding on to the wall one by one......

Falling on the bed without grace, he massaged his legs, which seemed to be no longer his own, recalling the tragic experience of "muscle soreness" in the past.

Why don't you just sleep like this...... Anyway, I have already taken a shower in the afternoon, so forget it in the evening......

It was as if a demon was tempting him in his mind: lie down, you're tired, wait until tomorrow for anything.

No, I still have something to do today, and I can't sleep yet!

Crane stood up from the bed with his legs shaking, and went to his desk to find the notebook from the drawer with all the various analyses written yesterday.

"Did she turn down the Monday afternoon invitation today because she was going to attend a fixed-time 'tarot meeting', or was it because there was really something else scheduled for her?"

Crane thought with a frown on the page that had previously analyzed the connection between Angel and the "Queen".

Stroking the citrine pendant that was tied to his left wrist, he finally made up his mind.

Originally, the "soothsayer" Klein has always avoided using divination directly to confirm his speculation, firstly because of the lack of information, it is likely that the divination will fail, and secondly, he is not sure about his attitude after the successful divination, and how to face Angel's attitude.

Therefore, he has been reluctant to use divination to find out the truth that is close at hand.

But thinking of Angel, who was wandering downstairs in the company today, his eyes revealing horror and vulnerability, Klein couldn't help but tighten his heart.

Whatever the method, he wanted to know more about this colleague, this companion.

"Whoa—"

The silver chain fell, and Klein, who was already familiar with the road, let the citrine fall to a height of less than a centimeter from the table, and the tip of the crystal was facing "Angel Granger" on the notebook.

"Angel Granger is the 'Queen' of the Tarot Society?"

He half-closed his eyes, sketched a ball of light, and entered a meditative state, reciting the divination sentence seven times.

Then he opened his eyes with some hesitation and looked at the swaying crystal pendant.

Rotate clockwise in small increments...... Then it was counterclockwise......

Looking at the pendant that kept shaking, expressing two opposite answers, Crane sighed in regret or rejoicing.

"Is the divination failed because of the lack of information...... No, it's the same as when facing the tuxedo clown of the Esoteric Order, my divination is interfered with? ”

Is it a trait of the "Assassin" sequence?

I remember that the same happened to the old Neil when he was divining the Assassin fugitive...... It seems that we still have to continue to collect information, or......

He looked at the back of his right hand, where four black dots were hidden beneath the skin, black dots that could only be seen during some kind of ritual.

"yes, it's long overdue, it's all come to this, what's there to hesitate about?"

With a slurp, Klein closed his notebook with a snap, and walked four crookedly counterclockwise steps around the bedroom with his aching legs.

A moment later, in the gray mist space, in the magnificent temple, the looming figure of the "Fool" appeared at the head of the bronze long table.

"Angel Granger is Miss Queen."

Glancing at the high-backed chair in the first place on his left, Crane closed his eyes, leaned back in the chair, silently recited the divination, and entered the dream with the help of meditation.

In the gray illusory world, Miss "Queen", wearing a hood and a strand of long pale blonde hair hanging down her cheeks, stopped meditating, blew out the candles on the table, and brought trays of cold food out of the basement and emptied them into the trash.

This is the day when the three members complete the "ritual magic" and pray to the fool.

The last thing in the Queen's hand was a plate of Fenepot's noodles, and she seemed to hesitate to throw it away, and after a moment of hesitation, her desire prevailed over reason, and she took a fork from the kitchen, sat down at the table, and ate the food that should have been sacrificed to the "Fool".

Under the hood that was lifted to facilitate eating was Klein's face that he thought about day and night.

(End of chapter)