Blinking slowly, Klein looked at his partner as if multiple heads popped out of his shoulders and were serenading him.
"... You confronted him directly? Hand to hand?" Klein asked, stunned.
"Dagger against sword," Adryan corrected without much significance, then rolled his shoulders again. "Besides, he was suppressed. We were about even in strength."
"...Even?" Klein raised a suspicious eyebrow. Already getting an idea of what was about to be said.
At that question, the red-haired man laughed in amusement and somewhat nervously replied.
"I was outmatched as an adult to a child. I could barely keep him in line."
Now that he was a Reaper, his fire armor had truly become one, able to withstand small-caliber gunfire without shattering. Blunt attacks that weren't from sequences with large physical augmentations couldn't hurt him.
But when he was still a Conspirator, it was not so much an armor per se but more like a thick layer of stone, significantly reducing hits from blunt attacks and considerably reducing cuts from enemies of Mid Sequence below...
Still, before the brutal assault of a demigod with a grade 1 artifact, that was wet paper in comparison. It didn't even look like it was there.
Every exchange he had with David Tamara, however brief and quick it was, made his muscles and bones tremble, even his very spirit. And his punches and attacks were not far behind. If he failed to use a substitute paper figurine in time, he would no doubt swim off into the Styx River and its horrible fish.
Sighing slightly, Adryan smiled and continued, "Even suppressed, he was so superior to me that there was no danger from my part. And because of that, he underestimated me."
Klein nodded approvingly and said, "I can't do that."
The Seer pathway so far was a path with weak bodies. The power brought by the potions was more focused on the spiritual than the physical.
"Then get an artifact that cuts the difference." Laughing a little, Adryan looked with a small smile at his friend.
"We don't depend on us alone to win battles, artifacts can win them for us. Or make us lose before we even lift a finger."
As he said that, he pointed his finger between the two of them.
Remembering his experience in Tingen, Klein pursed his lips a little. His blood heated up a little.
"You're right." He whispered.
To have his fate played out like that...
Rolling his eyes a little, the red-haired man grunted a little and stood up to his feet a little.
"Excuse me!"
Puff!
Before a complaint could be spoken, a hand rested on Klein's shoulder, and he was forced to look up into a pair of ruby eyes.
"What are you doing?" with a flat face, the detective asked.
Adryan winked knowingly.
"I know you're doing your best to control that cute face. Do it if you want to, but know that I know what you're thinking."
With cheeks heating up a bit, Klein didn't look away.
"What's your point?"
"Mmm. This is your fault, you know?" Rolling his shoulders without much interest, the Reaper gave an odd smile.
A shiver went up Klein's back, who suddenly couldn't help but notice the difference in size between his fellow and himself.
"Whatever it is you're accusing me of, I'm innocent," Klein said somewhat faster than usual, and both of them noticed this.
"Ohoho?" laughing interestedly, Adryan tilted his head to the side curiously, "Is Little Zhou nervous? Why?
"This is just a short interaction between friends. No need to be embarrassed." With a normal, casual tone, he patted the detective's shoulder.
Detective who right now could feel his control over his face and body language slipping from his grip slowly but steadily.
Klein cursed to himself.
This wouldn't happen to him with anyone else! It was only with his partner that he felt it was hardest to control himself.
'Is this because I know he comes from the same place as me? The sense of familiarity he brings me makes it more complicated for me to control my expression and face, as it relaxes me...' Having a theory of his current state, Klein opened his mouth.
"Joa-"
Poke
In the middle of his words, a finger pressed his nose, accompanied by a nasal Weee.
Stupefied, Klein watched as the finger slowly separated from his nose.
Looking bored, Adryan patted his shoulder in camaraderie and rose from the couch.
"It's just the two of us here. No need to hide your emotions behind that mask."
Without turning around, the redhead stretched and then walked to the kitchen.
"Come, I'll make you something to drink."
Still with his mouth hanging open, Klein watched the man leave the room with a casual step.
"Did you..." Blinking, the disbelief faded and was replaced by indignation and a bit of ridicule. Incredibly chagrined.
Ohoho! He didn't do it!
Rising from the couch, he strode briskly to his kitchen.
"Did you really make the sound of Freddy's nose?! What year do you think this is?! Come here!
"Joa!"
Entering his kitchen, his sight quickly found how the bastard was finishing pouring milk into two mugs.
"Ou? Welcome. You took your time." Adryan smiled mischievously at his favorite fool and, grabbing a cup, he extended it to him.
"Coffee?"
Standing in front of him, with the table separating them, Klein stared at him, one eyebrow twitching.
"Sure you're not a child?"
Lifting his cup to his lips, Adryan winked, "It's your fault for going into emo mode."
"You...Sighh...." grunting a little then letting out a heavy, long sigh. Klein took a seat at the table and sipped his cup in defeat.
"You seriously are frustrating."
"Someone has to keep you in line. Showing a little emotion once in a while is okay." Looking complacently ahead, Adryan raised a hand in the air with an open palm.
"You're going to end up ruining that tender face of yours by constipating your emotions so much. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about."
Flora made him realize that... With a method Adryan was not interested in showing to Klein.
"...I don't think it works that way." Klein raised an eyebrow, the comparison to constipation at least curious.
"Hopefully you'll never have to try it to find out then." Adryan replied calmly.
Not wanting to go on about constipation with a cup of latte in his hands, Klein mentioned what happened earlier.
"I didn't expect you, of all people, to be a FNAF boy."
In the middle of raising his mug, the Reaper's left hand froze for a moment. Laughing a little, the redhead sighed.
"I was 12," Adryan said, pointing out the obvious.
Noting that he had found something that seemed to grieve the man, Klein didn't miss the opportunity and joked a bit.
"You were scared of bunnies and animatronic bears."
At that, the red-haired man snorted unamused.
"What 12-year-old wasn't with those games? Simple, but the YouTubers I watched made it extremely funny, and the over-exaggerated as ridiculous reactions helped a lot."
He fondly remembered the afternoons he spent with Cruyff watching Fernanfloo's videos on various nights.
Remembering his little brother, the corners of Adryan's lips turned up a little.
Sighing faintly, he looked calmly at his friend.
"My favorite is 4. How about you?"
Noticing a bit as the mood changed slightly, Klein looked at the redhead for a moment before closing his eyes and sighing.
"The 2. The puppet was a nightmare on the seventh night."
While he was 19 when the second game came out, age never stopped him from enjoying video games.
At the mention of the puppet, Adryan was unable to contain a snort.
"Ha! It's ironic that you're the one saying that."
The pot calling the kettle black at its finest, knowing that Klein had trouble with just the puppet made he knew that much funnier.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Klein narrowed his eyes.
It was something stupid, he could feel it. And the ridiculous, smackable grin on his friend's face didn't help matters.
"Mmm~ You'll know when you're Sequence 5." Chuckling another bit, Adryan said mysteriously.
Breathing slowly and refusing to give his soul brother the satisfaction he was getting under his skin, he calmed down. He sighed a little and, resting his cheek on his palm, the detective watched him sip his coffee without saying anything.
Thinking a bit, Klein held out his hand, and the pages the Hanged Man delivered today appeared in his hands.
"Leaving the subject of possessed animatronics aside..." Pausing and taking a moment to read the pages as if for the first time, he held them out to him.
"I have a question."
Taking the pages, Adryan began by reading the longest and most complete one first, "Go ahead."
As he waited for the question to come, one red eyebrow raised in utmost interest.
'The Red Priest Pathway is the path that resists fate the most? That... makes a lot of sense. And it also explains a bit about the symbol I saw.'
In his mind, the spear wrapped by the infinity symbol and with the closed book at its feet was drawn—his symbol as Scarlet Monarch as well as the Bastard.
'So the spear is not being wrapped by fate, but is fighting against it. It makes much more sense than being 'wrapped'...'
As he thought about the meaning of the whole symbol, he watched as Klein lowered his cup and opened his mouth.
"What is a Herald?" The detective asked.
Adryan froze in place.
With tiny pupils, he lowered the page in his hands and looked unblinkingly at Klein.
"Where did you hear that word, Zhou?"
"I-I..." Stumbling over his words, Klein swallowed saliva and unconsciously unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt to breathe easier.
It didn't help at all.
'I'm feeling like I asked something I shouldn't have...' With his back feeling wet, controlling his movements so that the above wouldn't be repeated, he finally answered after a few seconds in silence.
"The incomplete page Mr Hanged Man handed over mentions it. Roselle wrote that the Church gave him the title privately."
Still unblinking, Adryan quickly grabbed the aforementioned page and read it.
His eyes stopped on a few short words.
Herald of Steam Roselle
Why?
Why did Roselle also have that title?
'This...'
A dead shiver ran down Adryan's back, scraping cold nails across his skin and sinking deep into his brain.
'Roselle was also a Herald... But...'
Realization hit the redhead who had the almost irresistible urge to smack his forehead. He would have done it had he not been alone.
'I'm an idiot. I'm a huge idiot!'
He had confused what the Doctor had called him when he pointed out that he didn't belong in this world the first time.
The Doctor called him, the one who inhabits the body of Adryan Kenway, the Stranger. That was his name for not belonging to this world and universe.
The Doctor called him Herald, referring to his relationship with the bastard who brought him here, with the Fire of Destruction!
His ability to interweave information tried to combine this revelation with the information he already had, but Adryan stopped it just in time.
'I have no idea what kind of reaction will happen if I do it here. It's better to wait until I return to my body and enter the City of Calamities for that...'
Sighing a little, the red-haired man turned down the pages and looked deeply at Klein.
Klein was looking back at him with his brow considerably furrowed in visible concern.
After some consideration, Adryan sighed again and shook his head.
"I don't know what it means. But I have an idea..." He didn't elaborate.
Understanding what he meant, Klein closed his eyes and nodded.
"The more you know, the more you get infected."
'Was this the reminder of my spirituality? Warning me that it couldn't just be a title?' The detective was honestly disturbed.
He had never seen his partner so pale. It was as if he had seen unimaginable terror.
"Zhou."
His partner's voice made him open his eyes. And again he could only press his lips together at how pale he looked.
Knowing he looked horrible, Adryan didn't comment on that and just continued what he was going to say.
"I may not be able to tell you what I think it means, but there is what I can say."
Pausing for a moment, he sighed heavily and straightening up a bit, said;
"I am the Herald of the Hunt."