Chapter Text
The land beneath my feet now belongs to that chaotic and insane Fourth Age.
Klein was a little dazed.
Before his mind could wander, Klein found himself standing in front of a familiar figure. Although he had never once seen a real person in the future, the Star Worm in his body reminded him of this, as did the uniqueness of the Gate's pathway.
The middle-aged man with black hair and blue eyes was "Mr. Gate", the ancestor of the House of Abraham, Bertram Abraham.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm very interested in your Excellency, would you be interested in making friends with me too?" Bertram Abraham said, "By your dress and face, you must have travelled a long way from elsewhere, perhaps a guide is needed?"
Klein was very uncomfortable with his now very "polite" Abraham ancestor.
He looked at the other man with a very humiliatingly confused look.
By the time Klein came to his senses, he was sitting face to face with Mr. Gate over tea in a house owned by the Abrahams family.
But perhaps it was not time to call Bertram Abrahams Mr. Gate; the Sequence One gentleman seemed to be missing a share of the Starbug's extraordinary traits. Klein surreptitiously scowled and observed Bertram. Both the other man's asymmetrical, but extraordinarily ornate and exaggerated costume, embellished with various precious stones, and the very special blue eyes with their cascading ripples, struck Klein as somewhat new.
The living, not insane Gate of Ten Thousand Gates.
"Mr Merlin," said Bertram Abrahams to Klein, "if you have nowhere else to go, why don't you stay with me for a while?"
Klein had just told Bertram that his name was Merlin, just as Amon was just Amon and Medici was just Medici; he had one name and no surname, but his name was also his surname. He was a traveller who had wandered aimlessly around the world and now travelled to the Solomon Empire intending to stay here for a while. Perhaps it was due to the law of convergence of extraordinary traits that he had met the other man just as he arrived in the city, for he himself was a Sequence II miracle worker of the Diviner's Path.
Of course Bertelli could see many holes in Klein's words, and He did not believe that Klein was only a Sequence II, but He knew very well that He would not get the answer now, at least not from the fact that he sensed that there was another Gate Pathway uniqueness in the other man, and that there was something very wrong with Klein's identity. And because of that, He was going to keep the man.
And Klein had no problem with Bertram's suggestion that he should stay.
It might not have been so easy to bump into the "old men" of the Third Age in Abraham's household. Although it had been a long time since his "friends", the memory of the Redeeming Rose was still as clear to him as the paint he had just put on yesterday. Klein didn't know how to face these friends he hadn't seen in years.
Especially Medici and Urolius.
Klein took a sip of his tea while listening to Bertram's introduction to Solomon's Empire.
The flavour of multiple flowers mixed with honey slid warmly from his mouth into his stomach. It was so good that it made Klein mentally spit out the phrase "lavish aristocracy". He stared at the cup of tea for a moment, only responding when Bertram called to him.
"Merlin, is there something wrong with this cup of tea?" Bertram looked at Klein in confusion.
"I was thinking about the ingredient list for this tea ......"
It must have been expensive. Klein swallowed the last few words.
"Sorry, I haven't had this tea on previous trips and was a little curious." He smiled.
The scene of social death.
Klein wanted to find a hole in the ground to burrow down.
Because he wasn't a spirit worm controlling a secret puppet to talk to people, but was walking on the ground, there was some part of him that was suppressing the "original" consciousness that hadn't fully awakened, causing him to speak without thinking at times.
"Well ...... what are the ingredients." Bertram Abraham, who had never paid much attention to how to make food for his family, was also deep in thought.
And a certain unknown Abraham junior who was trying to narrow his presence on the sidelines suddenly appeared, "I'll ask the chef." And then just as quickly he slipped away, dragging his sister along with him.
Bertley looked in the direction they had left and touched his face in some confusion, "Am I that intimidating?"
Klein looked at His serious, ancient face and was very tempted to nod.
The next few days of Klein's stay at Abraham's house were very full.
He didn't know exactly how Bertelli had so much time to wander around after him. Perhaps it was because there were so many Bugs of the Stars that it didn't matter if he split a few for other things? Klein was a little less sure. But apart from the first day, it was true that there was no uniqueness to any of the other times he saw Bertley. I'd heard it looked like he was busy doing things under Solomon's hand too.
So how did he get so lucky when he first arrived here to meet the native who had followed his junior out to touch the fish.
In the meantime, he took the time to go to Amanesis.
Thanks to the Goddess, who didn't seem to have the habit of changing the entrance to her divine kingdom, Klein entered the Goddess of the Night's divine kingdom through the original entrance.
Compared to the last time he met her, Klein felt that Amanesis' eyes were even darker and deeper, like the stillness of the night. The whole divine kingdom was filled with a serene atmosphere.
"You are here." He nodded slightly to Klein.
"It's been a long time, Amaneses." Klein said.
He noticed a sudden slight curve of the mouth beneath the veil of the Goddess of Darkness, as if she were smiling.
"It's been a long time since I've seen you. For you, I'm afraid, I've only just met." His voice was softer than before, like the soft humming of a mother's lullaby.
Klein gave a sheepish "hmm", "I was sent here by the river of fate before I could finish what I had agreed to do before."
"No harm done. Thanks to your reminder, Lilith's replacement as Mother Earth didn't go wrong. The pollution on the red moon ......" Amanesis paused for a moment, "It's not so easy for Him to steal the power."
"With the barrier in place, it would still be difficult for Him to infiltrate now." Klein said.
Amanesis nodded and suddenly the conversation turned, "So you came to this time to bear witness?"
"What?"
"To witness the fall of the Black Emperor. In the future, this should be an event that will go down in history."
He calmly dropped the bombshell in front of Klein.
"Solomon is going to die?" Klein's expression turned blank again, "No, there is no specific time recorded for this event, in fact, the history of the Fourth Age is very much missing due to the gods meddling in the power struggle on the ground ......."
Amaneses cocked her head slightly.
Klein closed his eyes and shook his head, "No, I'm not here to witness that. In fact, I don't even want to meddle with any more history right now."
"This matter is out of your control." The Dark Goddess said.
"...... At least now I have a choice as myself." Klein said, "I don't want to watch," he paused for a moment, "watch them pass away anymore."
And with that his conversation with Amaneses ended in a hurry.
Klein changed to a more native face and walked down the busy street, looking at the rather Quaternary-style asymmetrical buildings that lined the streets, lost in thought.
Such a city, it was completely impossible to tell that someone else was going to be in charge at the top tomorrow.