On the roaring blue waves of the Sonia Sea, an ancient sailboat was sailing with the wind.
Alger Wilson locked himself in the captain's cabin and made the ghost ship provide him the best protection.
He opened the pocket watch before him and laid it next to the brass sextant. The clock was ticking without joy as it exuded nervousness.
When the hour hand, minute hand, and second hand aligned, there was an explosion of crimson before Alger Wilson. It ignored the layers and layers of protection he had placed over himself.
Sigh... His sigh reverberated across the captain's room.
…
Backlund, Empress Borough.
Audrey Hall laid against a down-feather pillow and glanced at the yellow paper in her hand. Her gemlike eyes looked like they had two souls spiraling slowly in them.
Her gaze was calm and cool, as if she were waiting for a play to begin.
As the crimson red erupted, she looked at herself being swallowed with complete detachment.
…
'Arthus' was laying in his bed as always, absentminded. Then he instinctively closed his eyes when suddenly his eyesight was filled with crimson red.
…
Above the gray fog, in the magnificent palace, on the ancient and mottled long bronze table. A scream was heard, taking everyone by surprise.
…
"Aaaahhh!" Arthus screamed and jumped straight up in fright.
Then he stopped screaming once he realised that he could speak now, and found himself standing "I can speak! I can stand! I'm cured!" Exclaimed Arthus in joy.
"Sebast— ! Where am I? What the hell is this place?" said Arthus as he nervously looked around him in panic.
"Did I finally die?" He couldn't help but ask in shock.
Soon he noticed three other figures seated around the table, once he got used to his sight.
No one spoke. Arthus turned towards the figure seated next to him and saw a man. He asked him nervously "Greetings to you kind sir, would you happen to know where this is?"
…
Alger was still recovering from shock when 'The High Priestess' suddenly asked him where this place was. As if he knew! Why don't you ask Mr Fool? Alger wasn't good with things like this and looked towards Miss Justice expectantly.
Miss Justice seemed to understand his intentions and stood from her seat, clearing her throat.
But the words caught in her chest.
When she had heard his gentle voice before, it was resolute, careful, always just a bit too polite. But now, it was filled with awe, relief, and fear all at once. Mr Priestess didn't recognize them. He had no memory of this place or them or his interactions here, just as he had predicted in their last gathering
"Ahem… Sir this place belongs to Mr. Fool who is our leader. It's known as 'The Tarot Club' and you are a founding member" Audrey tried to explain as kindly as she could to Mr Priestess.
She then continued to explain "It seems your memory has been wiped by the Nighthawks. This situation was actually predicted by you during our last meeting and you had given us instructions to brief you about the incident responsible for this… I ask for Mr. Fools permission to proceed" asked Audrey turning towards the main seat of honour, seeking confirmation.
Mr Fool gave her a gentle nod and replied "You may"
Audrey then turned back towards Mr Priestess and continued "We call each other by our code names instead of our real ones. My code name is 'Justice', the gentleman next to you is known as 'The Hanged Man' and your designated name was 'The High Priestess'. As you can see all of our code names are from the Major Arcana Tarot cards, hence the name Tarot Club" Audrey explained with a gentle smile giving Mr Priestess an opportunity to digest all the information.
Mr Priestess suddenly said with hesitation in his voice "I— I think there has been a misunderstanding, I'm not a woman! My code name seems to be wrong"
"Your code name was chosen by yourself Mr. Priestess, you picked it out from a deck of Tarot Cards provided by Mr. Fool" explained Audrey.
Mr. Priestess seemed to have accepted her explanation as he didn't ask further questions regarding it. So she continued. Explaining everything that happened in the last Tarot Club meeting with detail. After finishing she saw Mr. Priestess who proceeded to seat himself on his chair, sinking deep into it. Seemingly lost in his thoughts.
Just as she was about to sit down, she heard Mr Fool say "Congratulations, Miss Justice, you are a Beyonder now"
He can tell straight away? Audrey was stunned and smiled faintly.
"Thank you, Mr. Fool, and thank you, Mr. Hanged Man"
"That was much faster that I thought," Alger Wilson said honestly.
Then Mr Fool spoke again "Lady, Sir, have either of you found Roselle's diary?"
…
To say Arthus was shocked would be a mild understatement. He just found out that he has reincarnated, transmigrated, time traveled, whatever you wanna call it into freaking Lord of the Mysteries! Not only that he was literally sitting in a meeting of 'The Tarot Club' as a member! Apparently.
It seemed he had been involved in a beyonder incident with the Demoness sect, got the Nighthawks involved in the incident as a security net, trading one week worth of memories for it.
He was shocked that he could come up with such a plan, after all, he wasn't the most brilliant of the minds. He still didn't believe he could come up with such a brilliant plan. It was risky, but it had paid out and he had to only give up memories of the incident. That was nothing to him! It was not as if he had lost all his memories. Well he had lost all his memories as the person named Arthus von Nachthelm, but he still had his past life memories!
Damn it! If he wasn't paralysed he would have figured out he was in the Lord of the Mysteries universe, even be a beyonder by now if he got lucky and found a beyonder channel. Well now he was a member of 'The Tarot Club', those concerns were unfounded. Now he just needs a way to cure his paralysis. He already has a plan.
Just as he was thinking this, he felt someone looking at him. It was The Fool.
…
Klein had been reading the diary pages provided by Miss Justice and Mr Hanged Man, as for Mr Priestess, he felt sympathy for him and of course didn't expect any diary pages due to his unique situation. Now that he is back to how he was before he would probably provide him with some pages as he recalled him saying he knew many people who coveted Emperor Roselle's diary.
As he was reading, he finally reached the entry on the date May 21st. It was as follows,
"May 21st. The Church of the God of Craftsmanship gave me two choices, two beginning Sequence pathways. One of them is the Savant. It is a complete Sequence pathway they possess. The other is Mystery Pryer, which they obtained from the Moses Ascetic Order, but it lacks the higher Sequences"
Klein was shocked, weren't these the two pathways Mr Priestess had requested? Could it be that he can read Emperor Roselle's diary? That can't be possible, no one can read his diary in this world! Or can they? Klein put this thought on the back of his head. He continued reading.
"May 22nd. My choice was easy: Savant! The Savant has a complete Sequence pathway! Although wielding more information on mysticism can aid my return home, the problem is that if I am not strong enough, there is a need to acquire external help for transmigration. And I do not know if this external entity would be good or bad, benevolent or malicious. I cannot control it, and thus it could be very dangerous. In that case, why not strengthen myself and return by relying on my own powers? Thus, the complete Sequence was the most important factor in my considerations!"
"May 23rd. I have become a Savant. With the power of the potion, I actually recalled all the knowledge I had learned in the past, such as physics, chemistry, etc...
"I have not only recalled the knowledge, but I understand it more deeply, as well as its possible applications and implications. Haha, this is a 'job' specially tailored for a transmigrator like me from an alternate realm. I will be able to express my advantage to the greatest extent! I have to say that if I were to return in my present state to the third year of high school, I would definitely become top scholar. If I could further specialize in an area, it wouldn't even be too hard for me to become a scientist"
Reading this Klein couldn't help but frown, maybe he had chosen the wrong pathway. No! He focused on one of the sentences in this entry and couldn't help but feel a chill go through his very soul! "This is a 'job' specially tailored for a transmigrator like me from an alternative realm"
Klein suddenly had a thought, was Mr Priestess a transmigrator like him? Otherwise how could he know all that he does without reading Emperor Roselle's diary! The more he thought about it the more it made sense. He looked towards Mr Priestess's direction. Mr Priestess seemed to have noticed him staring at him and suddenly lowered his gaze.
Klein looked at him for a while before retracting his gaze. Mr Priestess was suspicious! He seems to know about the acting method before Klein told him, he claims to have seen the incomplete version of the Blasphemy Slate. The more he thinks the more it makes sense. He wanted to ask Mr Priestess straight away but hesitated.
After all, he doesn't know what intentions he has. What if Mr Priestess also had a connection to the gray fog? Could he take control over it from him? The thought gave him chills. No he had to maintain the image of The Fool! He knows the value of this mysterious place. What if 'The High Priestess' killed him after finding out he wasn't a god like figure he had been pretending to be, to take over!
He became wary of 'The High Priestess'. He decided to just observe for now and confront Mr Priestess when he was strong enough. He had a head start as he was already a beyonder while Mr Priestess was still a normal human. He was the weakest amongst all of the members and the only non beyonder member. He needs to find out more about 'The High Priestess' before coming to a conclusion. He collected himself and read the remaining entries.
…
Arthus was confused, why was Klein looking at him? Oh he went back to reading the diary. He stopped lampooning and paid attention to what was going around. It seemed everyone was waiting for Mr Fool to finish his reading. Soon he did and after putting down the pages, said "My apologies, I was too absorbed in reading them"