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.

he walked towards the fence, Klein suddenly thought of a non-rigorous part

for quite a while. I

by doing so will I be able to arrive at the most accurate

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

hour,

can basically determine that 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

a change of clothes before trying

were the recently deceased corpses that haven’t been laid

targets often existed in a hospital’s

his way back to the South Borough on foot in the dreary, dark night. The surroundings were deathly still and quiet.

from the dead. Back then, he too had to

began to run, as if

hour later, he rented a carriage in South

an hour before the metro stopped running, and this could

…

into a grayish-blue worker’s uniform and wore a cap as he made his way to St. Estin’s Hospital

the Church of the God of

corpses awaited cremation from the government or be donated to the medical schools. This

would be quickly embalmed and bodies to be buried the next day would be cleaned up.

It was relatively cool, even during the summer, and was biting cold during autumn

Klein relied on a Clown’s agility and balance to sneak into the basement while avoiding the doctors

the morgue, he felt

moving past the janitor’s room, Klein took out a piece

of the methods of

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

Most of the corpses were bagged up and placed in different iron cabinets.

no longer

closed the door and walked around the

Klein let out a breath of cold air and confirmed that

about time… He took out his gold pocket watch

Klein withdrew his spirituality and stopped enveloping Azik’s copper

sure if it was a psychological effect, but he had a baffling feeling that

in his instincts. He stopped pacing back and

by, and Klein determined that

corpse on a

Bang! Bang! Bang!

a series of banging noises, as though all hell