â4th April. I just returned from Countess Wawrinkaâs masquerade party when I suddenly felt an emptiness in my heart.
âOne woman, one woman, one woman after another. The monotonous and mechanical movements, the indistinguishable smell of perfume, and the warmth from the entanglement of their limbs; all these in exchange for a few seconds of pleasure, followed by endless boredom, disgust, emptiness, and numbness.
âWhat pleasure is there in such a life? Is the meaning of life to just do this every single day?
âI canât go on like this. I have to get out of this sorry state.
âAlso, I need to remind myself that I shouldnât habitually write Arabic numerals.â
⊠Emperor, there are actually times when you reflect on yourself and act like a hipster? This doesnât fit with my image of you! Klein almost pricked his brows up.
He looked down at the second entry of the diary.
â4th April, Countess Wawrinka invited me to a private salon, and she told me that Maâam Julia would be there, too.
âHa, will this conservative blonde girl who had come to Loen because of her marriage participate as well?
âI really look forward to it!
âIâve been imagining her in bed for a long time. I hope her husband, Viscount Dellien, doesnât mine.â
Emperor, have you forgotten what you wrote a few days ago in your diary. Tsk, how nice, isnât it? Also, you have a typo. Mind! Klein couldnât help but lampoon.
â14th April. Iâve been attending too many events recently, and the flesh is weak even though the spirit is willingâŠ
âBut thatâs nothing!
âAlthough Iâm still young, I should be careful about the risk of retrograding. Temperance! Temperance!
âThe Archaeologist Sequence has improved my physique and effectively enhanced a certain degree of my powers. However, this isnât its area of expertise, but just something that comes with it.
âAs I continue raising my Sequence, the changes from the previous potions will also intensify. This is my motivation.
âApparently, Apothecaries can concoct medicine that lack side effects. Perhaps, I should ask a few of them.
âAlso, I really have to control myself. Unrestrained behavior will only lead to continuous increases in the threshold, and the degree of satisfaction wouldnât be like how it would normally be.
âAfter calming down and thinking about it carefully, there are many things that can be done. Humans are always like this, bound by desire, unable to see whatâs of value. Why did I transmigrate over here? What secrets lie hidden in the depths of the stars above my head? Where did the original consciousness come from, and if self-cognition purely comes from oneâs consciousness, then who was I before I had the identity of Huang Tao? Who does the essential part belong toâŠâ
Emperor, are you describing to me what it means to be a pervert and philosopher before and after the deed? Hehe, so you do have worries about such matters. I thought you were already fixed in certain traits⊠Thankfully, you didnât teach Chinese to your children. Yes, you likely didnât teach them. Otherwise, what would they think after seeing such content? Zaratul prophesied that your eldest daughter, Bernadette, would be at odds with you and betray you. Itâs not without reason⊠Of course, not teaching them is more of a form of protection⊠Klein was successfully amused by Roselleâs diary entries, but he didnât show it on his face.
To him, the diary of Emperor Roselle was both a book of knowledge and a collection of jokes.
With this thought, Klein turned to the next page of the diary.
â2nd October, Zaratul came to visit me again.
âNow that Iâve become a demigod, he wishes that I can honor a promise. He wishes to steal that dangerous Sealed Artifact from the Church.
âThat is a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact, the Antigonus familyâs notebook from the Fourth Epoch!â
At this point, Kleinâs pupils contracted uncontrollably.
This was likely the notebook that the Secret Order lost later on.
This was likely the notebook that led to Klein Morettiâs death and how he, Zhou Mingrui, had used Klein Morettiâs corpse to successfully awaken in this world!
This was the source of everything!
It turns out that it didnât fall into the hands of the Secret Order from the very beginning. Instead, it was sealed within the Church of the God of Craftsmanship which later turned into the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery. Zaratul successfully obtained it through Emperor Roselle.
Right, the Secret Order member inside Creeping Hunger was very fearful of Zaratul. He believed that Zaratul is an undying and abnormal monster. Does this mean that Zaratul gained benefits through the notebook, but an accident happened? He turned from a person who could communicate normally with Roselle into a monster. Therefore, this eventually led to the loss of the Antigonus familyâs notebook?
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that Zaratul deliberately allowed it to be lostâŠ
Yes⊠As Zaratul became a monster, the Secret Order lost all the mermaids, causing subsequent Faceless Beyonders to risk their lives out at sea? Rosago succeeded because he attempted to enter that sea which is a ruin of a battle between gods?
All of these thoughts flashed through Kleinâs mind, causing his heart to feel abnormally heavy.
He didnât assume that the Antigonus notebook that he had encountered was closely related to Roselle, because the theory he always had had stemmed from the law of convergence of Beyonder characteristics, and that some of the details that followed were in line with similar logic.
Are they all involved with the upper echelons of the Seer pathway? Klein glanced over the palace and took in the endless gray fog.
Could it be the cause? he asked himself this question once more from the bottom of his heart.
Steadying his emotions, Klein went on to read the subsequent diary pages.
âHeh, Iâll have to do it depending on the situation. If itâs easy to steal and thereâs no risk of exposure, Iâll try to do it. Otherwise, Iâll pretend as though none of this ever happened.
âIt doesnât matter even if Zaratul were to expose me. With my present identity, status, Sequence, and influence, as long as Iâm willing to repent, the Church wonât do anything to me.â
The other two diary pages recorded Roselleâs train of thought towards constructing his plans to steal the notebook, but none of them seemed likely to succeed. However, Klein knew that Roselle eventually obtained the notebook and handed it over to the head of the Secret Order, Zaratul.
After a momentâs thought, Klein turned the page.
â10th December. I once again attended that ancient and secret gathering.
âAt the gathering, I discovered that they were unanimous in being extremely hostile to the Solomon Empire of the Fourth Epoch.
âI raised the question which Mr. Hermes quickly answered. In the Fourth Epoch, the ally and supporter of the Solomon Empire was the True Creator.
âThis is very real.
âI resisted the urge to ask what exactly our organization had done in the history of the Fourth Epoch, but as I left the palace and returned from my dreams, I found that Mr. Hermesâs route this time coincided with mine to a certain extent.
âThis ancient man who lived since the Cataclysm definitely knew more. I build up a rapport with him and earnestly asked him the questionâis that why the organization hates the True Creator? Is it solely because âHeâ had used the Creatorâs holy name in âHisâ name?
âMr. Hermes chuckled and said that they werenât such superficial creatures.
âHe asked me in return if I knew what the actual abilities of the Shepherd were.
ââOf courseâ was my answer.
âHe asked again in a profoundly meaningful manner, âWho do you think would be most likely to develop in the direction of being omniscient and omnipotent among all the present gods?â
âThis⊠The first thought that came to me was the Shepherd pathway which could engage in Devouring and Grazing, so as to control the souls and characteristics of other Beyonders.
âSo thatâs the reasonâŠâ
This page only had this diary entry, but it contains a lot of information⊠The Solomon Empire originally came under the True Creatorâs camp⊠Yes, in the Tudor familyâs underground ruins, there are humanoid statues of the six true gods. Although it isnât certain whether they were worshiping or desecrating the gods, one thing is certain. The six gods were involved in the affairs of the three empires, and they later had a close relationship with the Trunsoest dynasty⊠Did the three great empires represent three different camps of gods? Klein tried to use his âarchaeologicalâ discovery and historical knowledge to decipher the hidden truth of the previous epoch, but he was still shrouded in fog.
Towards Hermes, the oldest master of mysticism, Kleinâs answer came close to Roselleâs.
As a Beyonderâs Sequence was raised, the saints and angels of the Shepherd pathway were able to engage in the Grazing of more souls, gaining more and more Beyonder powers. In the end, if the True Creator had finished Grazing the other twenty-one Beyonder pathways, he would be, to some extent, the omnipotent and omniscient Creator.
There are still a lot of secrets hidden in the Sequence pathways⊠Klein turned to the fourth page.
This diary page recorded the actions Roselle took after he consumed the Savant potion. He read a lot, studied a lot, tamped down on his foundation very firmly, and increased the scope and depth of his knowledge to a whole new level.
In this period of time, he had almost no entertainment. Learning was his greatest form of entertainment.
In one of the diary entries, he wrote: â⊠When a person knows with certainty how much he will gain after putting in the effort, and is able to directly tell how much he gains, then he will certainly work as hard as I am now.â
Isnât this the fundamental attraction of many games? Klein turned over the last diary page and read the legend of the ancient gods provided by Little Sun.
During the entire process, the majestic palace was completely silent. Be it Justice or The Moon, they were both considering what to trade and communicate later on.
It was the first time that The Hermit Cattleya had encountered such a situation, but she didnât feel uneasy or uncomfortable at all. Instead, she carefully analyzed the information that the scene revealed.
This isnât the first time this is happening⊠Mr. Fool has the habit of reading Roselleâs diary at the Tarot Gathering⊠The members will proactively or passively search for the pages for âHim.â However, it canât be confirmed if there were any advance paymentsâŠ
âHeâ really can read Roselleâs diary⊠Heâs searching for secrets that have sunken in the river of history?
Just now, that Sun mentioned that the information he handed in was about legends of ancient gods⊠This is roughly in line with my previous speculationsâŠ
At this point in time, Klein had roughly finished reading the new piece of information regarding ancient gods.
In the Second Epoch, in those dark years, every ancient god had a âgodâ attached to them, just like the Dragon of Imagination Ankewelt and âHisâ child, the Dragon of Nightmare, Alzuhod.