Lord of the Mysteries

When the steam metro arrived at the southern bank of the Tussock River, Klein rented a carriage and headed to the Aston Cemetery on the outskirts of the South Borough, which was managed by the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery.

Under the darkness of dusk, the trees around the cemetery seemed to bare their fangs and brandish their claws, blocking out the light like monsters lurking in the darkness.

After the carriage driver took the 4 soli Klein paid, he looked at the cemetery and muttered, “Do you need me to wait here for you?”

“No, there’s no need. I’m here to visit a friend.” Klein came up with an excuse, and he immediately noticed the change in the driver’s face.

This is a cemetery… to visit a friend with the sky already dark… The driver could hear his own heart thumping.

Klein jolted to his senses, smiled, and added, “He’s the tomb keeper here.”

The carriage driver was immediately relieved, but he didn’t dare stay. He quickly drove the horses and left.

Klein circled the graveyard until the night truly set in.

After dark, the smoke and dust emissions decreased by a lot. In addition to the biting cold wind, the fog in the air thinned a lot. Although few stars could be seen, the crimson moon made a furtive appearance, covering the ground with a veil-like glow.

Klein tapped his chest four times clockwise, drawing out the crimson moon. Then, he put on his gloves, pushed himself over the iron fence, and entered the cemetery.

He looked around with a high degree of caution, randomly found a secluded corner, took out Azik’s copper whistle, and held it in his hand.

Not far in front of him was a tombstone. The photograph on it was dirty, and the epitaph appeared extremely blurry in the moonlight. Klein carefully read it for a few seconds before figuring out what they were.

“Friend, if you are passing by, help me up. Thanks!”

A very humorous gentleman… I choose you! Klein stopped, leaned back against the trees that sheltered the grave from the sun and rain, and waited patiently in the cold, chilly night.

He threw Azik’s copper whistle up before catching it firmly, repeating it several times to pass the time until twenty minutes later.

No signs of the dead coming back to life… Klein clicked his pocket watch shut, surveyed his surroundings, and confirmed the results.

I’ll come back here in two days to see if there are any additional changes. If there are none, it means that Mr. Azik’s copper whistle won’t be able to affect corpses that have been laid to rest through a priest’s ritual . Klein silently muttered to himself, and he put the ancient and exquisite copper whistle back into his pocket.

There were three kinds of burials in the Loen Kingdom. The first type had coffins and corpses, suitable for the middle and upper classes living in abundance. The second type was the ones without corpses, so a cremation was held. The remaining ashes were placed in urns. This was the choice of the lower middle class and technical workers who could pay for the cremation but found coffins to be too wasteful. But there were also times when religious and governmental factors had an impact, such as the believers of the Eternal Blazing Sun. The majority of them underwent cremation, and the poor people only needed to pay a small fee for the cremation due to the help they received from the government.

The third only belonged to the poor. They couldn’t afford coffins, and they didn’t wish for cremation, so they just wrapped the corpses up and buried them.

But Klein had already determined from the tombstones and tombs that the target of his experiment was the kind which involved a coffin and a corpse.

If Azik’s copper whistle really can cause the dead to rise, even if the target had rotted into a pile of bones, there shouldn’t be a complete lack of reaction. Even if the lid of the coffin cannot be opened, it should’ve at least created a dull thud.

fence, Klein suddenly thought

here have been buried for quite a while. I should find a target

by doing so will I be able to arrive at

played a game of cat-and-mouse with the cemetery guardians before finding a grave that had completed a

hour, but he still

Mr. Azik’s copper whistle can’t affect a corpse that has undergone a ritual that puts the soul to rest. That’s quite weak, no—that’s not right. This copper whistle isn’t meant to cause the dead

to have a change of clothes before trying out his

the second experiment group were the recently deceased corpses that haven’t

targets often existed in a

Klein made his way back to the South Borough on foot in the dreary, dark night.

from the dead. Back then, he too had to walk

run, as if

rented a carriage in South

still about an hour before the metro stopped running, and this could save him

…

and wore a

was a charity hospital belonging to the Church of the God

due to illness, and since there was nowhere for them to place their bodies, they had to be kept in the hospital morgue. There, the corpses awaited cremation from the government or be donated to the medical schools. This phenomenon was very

in an era without air-conditioning or equipment to keep the temperature cool, the hospital’s morgue couldn’t keep the corpses for too long. Donated bodies would be quickly embalmed and bodies to be buried the next day would be cleaned up. Of course, these were the rules enforced in summer. In autumn and winter,

at St. Estin was underground. It was relatively cool, even during the summer, and was biting cold during autumn and

agility and balance to sneak into the basement

morgue, he felt a chill down

quickly moving past the janitor’s room, Klein took out a piece of wire and lightly unlocked the door to

of the methods

with his black-gloved right hand. At the same time, he cloaked Azik’s copper whistle in his spirituality to determine

morgue seemed to be lower than the corridor. Most of the corpses were bagged up and placed in different iron cabinets. Only a few were placed on the long

Sequence 8 Clown, Klein was no longer afraid of such scenes. He

the door and

a breath of cold air

took out his gold pocket watch

ready, Klein withdrew his spirituality and stopped enveloping Azik’s copper

he had a baffling feeling that

He stopped pacing back and forth

Klein determined

that moment, a corpse on a long table suddenly

Bang! Bang! Bang!

surrounding iron cabinets emitted a series of banging noises, as