Mysteries: Arcana Wars

Klein sat on the bench sipping his drink. Leonard sat next to Klein, sipping his drink with a serious expression.

After more than 1,300 years of transformation in the Sixth Epoch, the taste of sweet iced tea is very different from the Fifth Epoch in Klein's memory. With the help of modern additives and automated production lines, today's sweet iced tea is not only more refreshing, but also has a richer and more diverse flavor. Lime, sour lemon, super sweet, low sugar, soy sauce flavor...

Klein refused to admit for the moment that the last one was also a sweet iced tea.

Even the nostalgic classic flavor is no longer the true Fifth Age flavor. The formula has been changed a lot to suit modern tastes, and even the packaging box has been laser-plated with a characteristic of the era.

This old-fashioned sweet iced tea is still popular. The most popular one is the Triumph brand nostalgic classic sweet iced tea in Klein's hand. It is refreshing and sweet but not greasy. After drinking it, it will leave a strong lemon flavor in the mouth. It won the first place in Klein's bench modern sweet iced tea appreciation conference today.

Everyone jokes that Triumph Sweet Iced Tea makes people happier than Daye, and some even suspect that Daye is added to it.

Turning the shrunken box to the back, Klein saw the words "Gustav Group" squeezed in among the densely packed small characters.

After a slow and long process of technological development, some initial capital forces were able to accumulate unimaginable wealth before the next era of change. Various large capital groups with huge wealth and involvement in many industries emerged one after another, becoming behemoths that grew wildly in Backlund.

However, it is rare for a business family to last for hundreds of years. The business world is like a battlefield. The great opportunities brought by social development are also great tests for businessmen. Today, you may be living a life of luxury in a hundred-story building, but tomorrow you may be sleeping on the floor in a dark underground city.

In Loen, even though the parliamentary system had been developed for a long time, the Augustus royal family, which held strong extraordinary power and had angels sitting in the palace, still had considerable ruling power. No matter how hard the major financial groups tried to fill the upper and lower houses with people, it was still difficult for them to gain usurp power through this means under the actual power of the royal family.

But power and influence cannot only be obtained through parliament. In a sense, in modern society, wealth is power.

Some ancient extraordinary forces and extraordinary families also keep up with the times and are keen to disguise themselves in the form of such groups and chaebols in order to gain more benefits in a fair and open manner.

Nowadays, these giants called chaebols in Loen are still dormant under the glory of Queen Isabella IV. The queen is already 125 years old this year. I believe that the Auguston family will have enough means to suppress these restless groups in the future.

In contrast, looking back at the few memories of the Sixth Epoch, it seemed that Intis was more in line with Klein's stereotype of the near-future cyberpunk world of "plutocracy in power", "hollow government", and "free order".

The Gustav Group, which is involved in various industries, is almost the only one in Intis, and has even become a monopoly in Intis in some aspects. It can be said that half of the market order in Intis is controlled by the Gustav Group.

Regaining power in Intis through another means... Is this the business empire of the "Black Emperor"...

As Klein placed the empty beverage boxes, he re-examined the memories of the Sixth Epoch with his current perspective.

It seems that our Emperor Roselle not only succeeded in his sit-ups, but also found another effective and elegant way to step back onto the stage of history and ascend to his throne...

From this perspective, he must have played a big role in Emperor Roselle's awakening and pollution purification in the future, and he might have even met Emperor Roselle many times in the Fifth Epoch.

But now his memory of the Fifth Epoch came to an abrupt end where he was sleeping in the Church of Saint Arianna. Lacking any information, Klein couldn't guess what he had done for Emperor Roselle at the time.

Did I, later, kneel on his feet and stretch his knees while he was doing sit-ups on Roselle Land, counting and cheering him on while shouting something like “Taotao, stand up and work harder”?

"Klein, try harder, you can do it."

"No, I can't."

Klein returned the evidence bag to Leonard.

Since the church bombing, Leonard has been tracking down Nelson Korodeko in addition to his daily affairs. As Leonard's assistant, Klein had to run around with him just to confirm this identity.

Especially when he found evidence, Klein became an emotionless divination tool.

"This won't work either..."

Leonard sighed. There wasn't much evidence about Nelson during this period, and most of the divinations came back empty-handed, either because they were contaminated or because the divinations failed.

Klein accepted this well. As a participant in the battle, he was still bothered by the honorific name that Nelson did not finish reading at the beginning. Even though he initially determined that Nelson was a "criminal" at the level of a demigod or saint, out of fear of that name, Klein, who could not ascend to Sefirah Castle, tried his best to avoid confronting the remaining pollution.

The pollution from the demigods is not a big deal, but there is also that name left behind...

In this blank state, isn't it just reporting to others voluntarily?

Klein put down another empty drinks box on the bench.

I feel really constrained, cautious, and allergic to everything...

If I were the male protagonist of a novel at this moment, shouldn’t I shout, “Melissa, where is my golden finger?”

However, what Klein didn't expect was that there was no news about the kidnapper David Axus who escaped from the Church of the Earth Hospital, and his divinations about him always ended in failure or were interfered with.

Was it contaminated by the power of a higher being, or was it protected by a higher being...

"Then let's try another one." Leonard took out another file bag from his bag. "Try this one. The case of the lost ritual objects of the Church of Evernight?"

Ritual vessels...

...So the tribute from your Church of Night was stolen!

Can this be said?

"The tribute was stolen... and they asked you, a police officer, to investigate?" Klein asked, "No, are you connected to the Church of Evernight?"

"I think the Church of Evernight came to find me," Leonard took a big sip of his sweet iced tea, "or it was my former subordinate who found me."

After listening to Leonard's story, Klein felt that this might not be a bad thing.

"At least you have been partially cleared of the connection between Pales and the Church of Evernight. Being able to contact people in the church will give us another way to obtain intelligence in the future."

"Not to mention he's my old subordinate."

Leonard sighed.

"According to the old man's experience, Gloria should now be the bishop of St. Julie's Church - the small church that was newly opened in Backlund three or four hundred years ago."

"Yes, I think I went there to worship before. It's a modern church with a unique style."

Klein opened the file bag, which contained some photos of the scene, passers-by's statements, and a card containing surveillance video.

The case didn't seem difficult. Two masked men drove away the courier's car while he was delivering the package upstairs. The courier who found it in time was seriously injured. After driving a car all the way, he rushed into a place without surveillance. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find it.

In the written report, the "civilian employees" stated that after divination and investigation, they suspected that the two men had a history of murder and the case had not yet been discovered.

...You've already predicted this, but you're still too lazy to send someone to capture him?

That's a tribute to the goddess, do you really not care at all?

Now that things have come to this, Klein believes that the church must have dug up the criminal records of the two criminals. This investigation is more like a test for Leonard to see how much of the truth Leonard can dig out.

But why do you use ordinary express companies to deliver this spiritual gift item?

Leonard, however, looked calm and didn't care at all, as if he had just lost a stone.

"The thing I was most worried about happened..."

"Then why didn't you add more people to escort the ritual objects and jewelry?"

Klein couldn't help but ask.

"Church escort? That's not necessary!"

Leonard answered immediately.

"They're not worth anything, we don't know why anyone would want to steal them!"

...Look at these gems, you tell me they are not valuable?

"Don't be fooled by the fact that there are so many gemstones on these jewels. In fact, they are all fake. They are either colored glass or artificially synthesized. There is absolutely no real natural gemstone."

"What era is it now? As long as your cutting skills are good enough, glass can be cut into eight hearts and eight arrows for you, which is more beautiful than some natural gemstones. Why spend all that money?"

"Of course, the pure silver on it is real. After all, silver is the metal that represents the goddess. It is enough to be used to please the goddess. And silver is not a very expensive metal in the Sixth Epoch."

Then such a large pile of silver is also money...

"As for spirituality, these are ritual vessels used in mass ceremonies after all, and they have a certain calming effect, but in fact, they are limited to calming."

"The original intention of making these ceremonial jewelry is to send them to remote small churches for daily starry masses or other ceremonies. The service life is about one year. After the spiritual power is exhausted, it will be no different from ordinary jewelry."

“So we will recycle these spiritually depleted jewelry and put them into use again after undergoing ritual magic and the goddess’ blessing.”

You guys are really sustainable development...

"Today's cities are very different from those in the Fifth Epoch, and the same is true for the countryside. Ritual vessels that are not valuable will be less likely to be stolen, and there is no need to waste manpower to escort them. Ordinary express delivery will not attract other people's attention, reducing the risk of theft by ordinary people and ensuring that those remote small churches can have enough ritual vessels to use."

Okay, the goddess is happy, you are happy, the believers are happy, and the world where only thieves are hurt is achieved.

"So usually when we get caught, we rarely go all out to track down the culprit. We just use a new courier company to send another set of ceremonial jewelry. But it won't sound good if it gets out. I usually give the rest of the investigation to the new Red Gloves to practice with and train them."

I can see that before handing this case over to you, you must have made full use of it to train the new fortune teller Red Gloves...

Leonard smiled with mixed feelings and opened a box of sweet iced tea.

"Now I'm the unlucky newcomer who's being trained."

Leonard, this is how things change.