Lord of the Mysteries

Returning to his chair again, he heard the faraway cathedral’s bells chime again. It continued seven times before Zhou Mingrui slowly stood up. He went up front to the cupboard and took out his clothes.

A black vest with a matching suit, trousers that clung tightly to his legs, a halved top hat and his faint scholarly air made Zhou Mingrui feel like he was watching an English drama set in the Victorian era.

He suddenly muttered softly as he shook his head with a wry smile, “I’m not going for an interview. All I’m doing is buying some ingredients to prepare for my luck enhancement ritual…”

Klein was so concerned about his impending interview that it became instinct. When he was not focused enough, he habitually wore his only decent set of clothing.

After taking a breath, Zhou Mingrui took off his suit and vest, switching to a brownish-yellow coat. He also changed to a felt hat with a rounded edge of the same color.

With his outfit done, he walked to the side of the bed and lifted a square cushion. He reached his hand into an inconspicuous hole beneath and rummaged around before finding an intermediate layer.

When he retracted his right hand, there was a roll of notes in his palm. There were about eight notes with faded dark green colors.

These were all the savings Benson had at the moment. It even included the living expenses for the next three days. Two of them were five-soli notes and the remaining were one-soli notes.

In the Loen Kingdom’s currency system, soli was ranked second. It originated from ancient silver coins. One soli was equivalent to twelve copper pence. They had denominations of one and five soli.

At the top of the currency system was the gold pound. They were also paper based but were guaranteed by gold and pegged directly. A gold pound was equivalent to twenty soli. They had denominations of one, five, and ten gold pounds.

Zhou Mingrui spread a note and caught a whiff of the faint unique ink.

This was the smell of money.

Perhaps a result of Klein’s memory fragments or his constant desire for money, Zhou Mingrui felt like he had instantly fallen in love with these notes.

Look, their designs are so beautiful. It makes the stern and old-fashioned George III and his two mustaches appear especially adorable…

Look, the watermark that can be seen when the note is placed against sunlight is so alluring. The exquisite design for the anti-counterfeit label makes it completely different from those fake fancy schlocks!

Zhou Mingrui admired it for nearly a minute before pulling out two one-soli notes. He then rolled up the remaining notes and stuffed them back into the cushion’s concealed layer.

After arranging and flattening the cloth around the hole, Zhou Mingrui folded the two notes he had taken out neatly and placed them into the left pocket of his brownish-yellow jacket. He separated the notes from the few pence he had in his trouser pocket.

With all of this done, he placed a key into his right pocket and brought a dark brownish paper bag along with him and quickly walked toward the door.

His shuffling footsteps slowed down from a brisk pace until it eventually stopped.

Zhou Mingrui stood by the door and was unsure when he had already begun to frown.

Klein’s suicide was fraught with peculiarities. Would he encounter any ‘accidents’ if he were to leave just like that?

After some deep thought, Zhou Mingrui returned to his desk and pulled open the drawer. He then took out the shimmering brass revolver.

This was the only defensive weapon he could think of, and it was the only weapon with sufficient power!

Although he had never practicing shooting, just pulling such a revolver out would definitely daunt anyone!

He caressed the revolver’s cold metal before stuffing his revolver into the pocket where his notes were. He clasped the money in his palm as his fingers pressed onto the gun’s handle. It was perfectly concealed.

Feeling secure, he who knew a little of everything suddenly had a worry.

I end

cylinder. He then aligned the empty chamber which was a result of the ‘suicide’ along the

there was a misfire, he would discharge an ’empty

revolver back into his pocket, Zhou Mingrui kept his left

hat with his right

the day remained dim as limited sunlight shone in from the window situated at the end of the corridor. Zhou Mingrui quickly went down the stairs

Loen Kingdom, so it had unique climate characteristics. The highest annual temperature was not even 30°C on Earth, with even cooler mornings. However, the streets were awash with filthy water and strewn junk. From Klein’s memories, this was not a rare sight

and try our delicious

oyster soup. Drink a bowl

the port for just five

soup

“Conch! Conch! Conch!”

the farms outside the city.

…

vegetables, fruits, and hot food shouted along the streets as they beckoned the rushing pedestrians. Some of them would stop and carefully compare

in a whiff of the air that mixed both noxious and fragrant aromas. As he clenched the revolver tightly in his left hand, he held the notes tight. He pressed down on his hat

Furthermore, this street had no lack of poor citizens who were working part time after losing their previous jobs. There were also starving children that

the crowdedness around him restored to normal. He straightened his back and raised his head to

vagrant accordionist busking. The melody was sometimes

in ragged clothes with

self-made choreographies. Their

deadpan woman passed by; her skirt was dirty and her skin

the bunch of children did a faint glow flash. It was as though

her and turned into another street before stopping

old granny named Wendy Smyrin. Her hair was completely grayish-white and she always wore a

lemon cakes

Mingrui gulped a mouthful of saliva and

Smyrin, eight pounds

Is he not

few more days,”

rye bread, she sighed. “He sure is a

saying this, the corners of her lips curled up as she said playfully, “All is good now. You have already graduated. You are a history graduate of our Khoy University~ Oh, you will soon be able to earn money. You should not be

seem to be a young and energetic woman today.” All

were to successfully pass his interview and become a lecturer at Tingen University, it was true that his family would immediately be pushed

had once fantasized about renting a bungalow in the suburbs. There would be five or six rooms, two bathrooms, a huge balcony upstairs, two rooms, a dining room, a living room, a kitchen,

despite working for so many years, Klein’s brother, Benson, only had a weekly salary of one pound and ten soli. Ordinary workers at a factory did not even get a pound or, at best, a little more.

is the difference between earning three to four thousand yuan and earning fourteen to

that he passed either the Tingen University or

servant. And those who studied history were more limited in job opportunities. There was not much demand for

fragmented and incomplete,

been this

the brown paper

bread weighted about half

pence? Wasn’t it eleven pence two days ago?” Zhou Mingrui

cost 15 pence the month before

to thank the people who protested on the streets for the repeal of the Grain Act,” said Wendy as