Cattleya's face, shrouded in layers of gray fog, played minute changes in expression and mood as she perused through the list 'little' Sun provided.
"Use the history of your City of Silver in exchange." She soon replied to Mr. Sun.
Li'l Sun, Derrick's eyes lit up, as he found one of the main ingredients for his subsequent potion.
Mr. Sun soon manifested pages of information on the City of Silver, and handed them to Cattleya.
"How should I hand over the fruit of the Radiance Spirit Pact Tree to you?"
Just as she asked that, she turned to Mr. Fool.
"Mr. Fool, is it done by a sacrificial ritual?"
Indeed, this lady, a member of the Moses Ascetic Order, and a Sequence 5 of Mystery Pryer pathway, was intelligent and intuitive.
Sigh.
The thought of Moses Ascetic Order reminded me of Hidden Sage and, by extension, Old Neil.
Alas, I am here too late to save anyone from Tingen.
Or... no, actually.
Madam Daly is still alive!
If I can assist Klein, Leonard, and Daly in fucking up Ince Zangwill, there might hopefully still be a chance to save her.
But if I am to make any difference in that battle, I'll have to be at least a Sequence 6. Only then will I have the survivability of a true Demoness, and the leverage of buying hopefully demigod level charms from Mr. System.
I still don't understand how here, of all places, in the LotM universe, I got a friggin' System. How does it even work, with the laws of this world?
As I was lost in thought, the deal between Cattleya and Derrick was finalised.
My attention was brought back to the conversation by the hoarse voice of Mr. Fool's smurf account, Mr. World.
"I need a pair of eyes from a six-winged gargoyle."
At the World's quest, Cattleya answered straight.
"300 pounds, or the equivalent cost in gold coins."
"Okay."
Mr. World, the bot, answered with a big smile.
Once this transaction was completed too, the palace fell silent. As someone with great social anxiety, I couldn't help but feel an uncomfortable sensation crawl up my spine at the silence. It wasn't awkward at all though.
I need to work on my social anxiety.
The slightly uncomfortable silence was soon broken by my dear Mr. Hanged Man.
"Something major has happened in the Rorsted Archipelago."
Immediately, Miss Justice was the first to prod.
"What happened?"
Mr. Hanged man answered calmly, "A disguised archaeologist, Leticia, discovered an ancient elven ruin in Symeem Island and took out an item from it. This pushed the deity the locals believed in, the Sea God Kalvetua, to be on the brink of collapse.
"This fake god wished to create tsunamis to drown the island so that everyone could accompany it in its death, but it was stopped by the Church of the Storms' Sea King."
Indeed, my goat Jahn Kottman.
I listened patiently, as Mr. Hanged Man continued.
"Finally, Leticia was found and Kalvetua had died. The threat of the tsunamis was levelled, but strangely, the devout believers of the Sea God would still occasionally receive responses."
Amusingly, I watched as everyone sat in silence for a few seconds. Something seemed to strike Madam Hermit, as she suddenly snapped her head towards Mr. Fool.
Noticing her, Miss Audrey sat perplexed for a second or two, and immediately snapped her head in the direction of the head of the long, mottled table. A sort of realisation seemed to have struck her as well.
Mr. Hanged Man, on the other hand was looking more perplexed at Madam Hermit's apparent knowledge of Sea God Kalvetua's current status being related to Mr. Fool.
Mr. Moon, and Madam Magician seemed to guess a relation too, and turned towards Mr. Fool as well.
Mr. Sun, on the other hand, seemed quite clueless. But he followed everyone else, and looked at Mr. Fool in reverence too.
Mr. World was last. He first had a look at Mr. Hanged Man, who shuddered inexplicably—for god knows what reason—then looked straight ahead at Mr. Fool too.
For a second, Mr. Fool said nothing, before making a brief revelation.
"Kalvetua became a demigod by relying on a relic left behind by Calamity Cohinem."
Everyone had a varying reactions to this brief sentence.
Madam Magician frowned as she came up with conclusions within her head, reaching an answer, then denying it, then questioning it, and finally accepting it.
Meanwhile, Madam Hermit sighed as her thoughts were in turmoil. Even though she was the first to guess the gist of the matter, it seemed like there were other, more impactful ideas still running around her head, resulting in a mildly dramatic expression.
Mr. Hanged Man seemed somewhat pleased, and grateful on the other hand. No wonder, after all he'd now found a more concrete support in the seas, one he could directly pray to.
Miss Justice was surprised for a second, but soon her lips curled up in a pleased smile. Truly, a devout follower experiencing great joy at success of her beloved god.
Mr. Moon had his own thoughts, but he soon returned to his normal, stupid face, as if whatever the matter regarding Sea God and Cohinem was, didn't concern him.
Little Sun, on the other hand, looked apprehensive, as he slightly tilted his head in thought, but said nothing.
Mr. Fool, who was looking at Mr. Sun, said nothing, and looked at rest of the members as if he was casually watching them.
Was he looking for confirmation from Derrick? This might be an opportunity. While I don't want myself to be a target of too much attention, contributing something from my knowledge might not be too bad. I can just chalk it up as something I learnt from a senior, it doesn't matter that the senior is someone high up in the Demoness Sect, or Cuttlefish himself.
And Klein will learn this from Siatas anyway when he enters Groselle's Travels.
With a cough, I pulled everyone's attention towards me.
"I've heard from ancient elven legends that Cohinem was the queen of Calamity, the wife of ancient Elf King Soniathrym. I'm not sure how true this might be, since most of these legends come from word of mouth."
Everyone suddenly turned towards me, their eyes glued to my form covered in at least some amount of gray fog. I now had everyone's attention.
Geez... Being the centre of attention feels so weird.
While most were surprised, it was Derrick's reaction that was most interesting. His mouth opened slightly, as if he wanted to ask something, but he shut it immediately, pursing his lips.
With a look at Mr. Fool, he addressed everyone else.
"Mr. Empress is right about the latter part, that the Elf King in the Ancient Era was named Soniathrym. This is recorded in our history books. So if the name Cohinem is known along with his, it might be true that she may have been the Queen of the Elves."
This answer seemed to have cleared everyone's doubts about my claim. But now, they were looking at me again, this time with more interest. Especially Miss Justice, who made me feel like she was physically opening my brain and trying to read every single thought that passed.
Unfettered, I decided to further contribute to today's discussion. I looked straight at the pseudo-god before me, and reported what I'd learnt this morning.
"Mr. Fool, I happened to be at Tiana Port today. I overheard some boys talking about allying with Sea God's Resistance to fight against the colonisation of the island. While I didn't put much thought to it before, now, knowing that the Sea God believers are essentially your believers, would it be right for me instigate these people to further ally with them?"
While I was sure most of these people already knew my sequence at this point, I didn't mind casually dropping wild hints just for shits and giggles.
"You are free to."
Mr. Fool soon replied with a short sentence.
This guy... truly good at aura farming.
I nodded and immediately turned my head towards Mr. Hanged Man. And as I expected, he was deep in his own head, probably coming up with various ideas about Mr. Fool's motives, considerations, then berating himself for trying to guess a god's thoughts, but still trying to come up with conclusions, only to further scold himself for such blasphemous thoughts.
Lol, this guy.
Of course, I was not the only one amused.
When I looked away from him, I only belatedly noticed Miss Justice turning her eyes between me and him, having accurately guessed what was so amusing. And that seemed to amuse her in turn.
Truly, gotta beware of the spectator.
Once the topic had passed, there was again silence for a few seconds, before it was broken by the bot, Mr. World.
He pulled out a portrait from his ass, and showed it to everyone.
"Does anyone know her?"
Not missing a beat, the first to answer was Madam Hermit.
"Red-haired Helene. She's from a fallen noble family and has the bloodline from the Intis' Sauron family."
She paused before adding, "She was once a trader out at sea, but she was later said to have been abducted by Ailment Maiden Tracy."
Ah, so she's finally run away, huh? So it will not be long before the great adventurer makes an attempt at Tracy's life, and Mithor King dies.
While I would feel slight regret at former's death, I was gladly looking forward to the latter's. Now that I was no longer affected in any way by Tracy's charm, I could see how clearly that she was deep in a gray area. But she was not evil either, nor was she cruel. But she still had done her fair share of fucked up stuff.
While in her presence, I would be too enamoured to think about all this. But in the gray fog, the problems were all too clear to me. Still, I felt a certain thing in my heart.
I can fix her... With Eleanor's help, we can surely fix her.
I wasn't unaware of the mixed feelings Eleanor had about Tracy. While they had an entanglement in the past, it was short and ended soon after Tracy acquired Helene. Now, I was ready to fully commit myself to Eleanor, and only her, and she seemed to reciprocate that. But if it were to happen that Tracy need consolement, I would be willing to assist her with Eleanor, if Eleanor were to wish so as well.
And then, we can fix her.
I couldn't help but imagine a certain future, where the daughter of the Demoness Sect's Saintess of White would be at least a minor arcana member of the Tarot Club.
That would certainly require a lot of manipulation and planning, but if there was anything I'd learnt from reading this story, and larping through the wiki for COI, one thing I was certain of was that this pathway was all too happy with twisted feelings. In fact, that was almost the prerequisite to advance.
While I was brewing conspiracies in my head, I still made sure to keep some attention on the participants of the gathering.
While Mr. World showed a pleased and interested reaction to Madam Hermit's words, the one worth more attention was Madam Magician's. She seemed to have broken out of a reverie, only to dive into another at the mention of my dear Captain and her dubiously consensual relationship with Helene.
But the reverie ended soon, and her head turned down in what seemed like disappointment.
Is she disappointed there is not enough gossip?
Should I make another contribution?
"I've heard that the relationship between Vice Admiral Tracy and red-haired Helene is quite peculiar. Apparently Helene both loves and hates being with her, and that excites Tracy even more. On top, all the female staff in her flagship hates Helene because she apparently hogs all her attention."
Like I was hoping, Madam Magician's reaction filled me with joy. As if a fire was lit in her eyes, they widened and got lost in another chain of strange and creative thoughts.
Mr. World, Madam Hermit, and Mr. Hanged Man—on the other hand—looked at me as if I'd just spat out a lizard on the table.
___
Quite a few of the character dialogues are quoted from the book itself, I have no credit in them.
Thanks for reading everyone, hope y'all like it.