Records of the Weakest Emperor

Chapter 115: The Depths of Spiritualistic Magic

"Any results related to that investigation, yet?"

Calvin seemed to have arrived in some kind of a bedroom.

The chandelier of the bedroom was unlit, and a set of three leather couches surrounded a coffee table made out of marble. On the table was a crystal ball that emanated a sky-blue glow.

The light from the crystal ball inundated the entire room. Even the nook and cranny of the room that shouldn't even be reached by the glow were intruded upon.

The other Cavaliers sat politely and obediently at the nearby chairs. Only Calvin and Ron Samuel sat on the leather couches, while the Wise One sat on the remaining leather couch.

Calvin's gaze was directed to the queen-size bed and discovered that on the walls, just above the bed were all sorts of apparatus. There was a rope hanging on the wall, and what seemed to be a Cross as well as handcuffs, and there was even a whip.

A strange, amorous smell was also lingering in the air.

All of these combined together made Calvin feel a shiver down his spine.

But before he could even say anything, the Wise One had removed his robe and revealed underneath the robe was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties.

"Sigh... You sure do know how to work a mule to death, eh? You sent me the carcass of that doppelganger, but to be honest. I don't discover anything strange. Apart from the fact that the doppelganger was killed with great force that instantly annihilated its brain."

"That's so obvious, you think that's helpful?"

"Of course, not. Come on, Ron... Don't be too antsy. Didn't you send this guy for me to investigate him? I'd draw out all of his secrets and make sure that there's nothing left. After all, this is the Red Cloud that we're talking about."

"R-Red Cloud? What is that?" Calvin suddenly interrupted.

Ron Samuel looked at him and said, "You don't have to think about it for now. It doesn't concern you at all. You need to focus on what's about to happen."

"What's about to happen? What's about to happen? Please... don't kill me... I have a family to feed!" Calvin immediately kneeled onto the floor and clutched Ron Samuel's thigh. The fear on his face couldn't be more genuine.

The Wise One let out a chuckle and helped Calvin off the floor.

"Sit down, sit down... Nothing will happen, all right? You are innocent until proven guilty. That's in the constitution of the Joselian Kingdom. So, until we prove that you indeed have some dealings with the Red Cloud. You are an ordinary citizen, a citizen that these police officers need to protect."

"Police officers?! They are from the police? They lied to me?"

Calvin stared wide-eyed at the Wise One.

"Oh, you already told him?" The Wise One turned to look at Ron Samuel.

"Yeah, I did... It doesn't really matter, you see? If he has some dealings with the Red Cloud we're obligated to dispatch him and if he doesn't have any relation to them, then we can turn them into one of us. After all, he's already experienced the supernatural, and with the churches' regulations..."

"All right, all right, I understand." The Wise One stopped him from speaking.

Afterwards, he sat in front of Calvin.

Sipped some of his tea and said, "Now, I need your cooperation here. I can't treat you harshly since we're potentially going to be comrades. It's not good to have bad blood against each other when we're comrades, you see?"

"What is about to happen may make you uncomfortable at the least, or it could turn you into a retard at the worst. I will light up some incense and let you inhale some fragrance..."

"I also have some magical mushrooms here that you can consume to intensify the effects of what is about to happen, but at the same time, lessen its effects on your body."

Gulp!

Calvin audibly gulped a mouthful of saliva.

"Pfft..."

Ashlynn let out an audible laugh, but she was immediately silenced by Ron Samuel's death glare.

"J-Just what exactly is about to happen?"

"I don't want to die... I still have a wife and a family to take care of!"

"It's fine, don't think too much into it..."

"His words may be foreboding and similar to a foreshadowing but he's an expert when it comes to this. As for the things that you need to consume such as that mushroom and the fragrance from the incense..."

"All of them have no bad effects on you whatsoever— they are beneficial and will help you out a lot."

"That's right, so you need to calm down, all right?"

The Wise One then stood up and started lighting the incense.

When the Cavaliers saw his actions, they immediately took masks out of their chest pockets and then put them on.

Apart from the Wise One and Calvin, everyone in the room including the Captain of the Cavaliers had put on a mask.

"Seeing you guys put on a mask the moment the incense is ignited doesn't reassure me at all that it's safe!" Calvin looked as if he wanted to cry.

The Wise One then placed a plate of magical mushrooms in front of him and said, "I seasoned them well, with some pepper and salt. Though, they are not cooked so I am not sure if they'd taste well..."

Calvin now wanted to cry but no tears would come out.

"Flower of Eternal Sleep, Extract of the Night, and chamomile extract. When you combine these three together along with some seven secret herbs and spices, they smell really good!" The Wise One seemed to be incredibly excited.

As the candle flickered, the smell of the herbs and flowers scattered throughout the room.

A pleasant smell inundated Calvin's nose and he was no longer as tense as he was earlier.

"The bottle is called the Potion of Clearance. The sap and the branch of the allspice tree are combined with the seeds of the Berbercane Fruit to create this beautiful and incredibly enchanting potion!"

"Of course, a few incantations in the Elder Tongue are added in, and as a cherry on top, a succubus core is crushed and sprinkled like sugar onto the potion."

"It smells really good, right?"

"Y-Yes..."

The Wise One added half of the Potion of Clearance as soup for the magical mushrooms.

"Eat up... It's delicious... It will bring you to heaven..." The Wise One gave a devious smile.

Calvin, entranced by the fragrance of the incense seemed to be hypnotized as he mechanically raised a fork and took a piece of the mushroom soaked in the Potion of Clearance. He put it in his mouth and chewed— the instant that he swallowed the mushroom, he found his vision swimming.

Everything suddenly had their own clones.

Ron Samuel who stood and observed everything from the side turned into a dwarf.

A splitting image of him was standing there with the same posture as him.

Astonished, Calvin looked around and discovered that everything was blurry. The bedroom was fuzzy in his eyes and seemed to be covered with a layer of fog. In a panic, he rapidly turned around and then discovered that the door of the bedroom wasn't properly closed.

"Hehehe... I can probably... squeeze through... the gap..."

Calvin thought to himself, then he suddenly discovered that he was floating.

Murmurs from an unknown number of people assaulted his mind in droves, these unintelligible mumbles felt as if there were hundreds of thousands of people debating about something in a language that Calvin couldn't understand at all.

But at this moment, his eyes suddenly focused on the image of the young man sitting in front of him with a smile.

The young man had sapphire-like eyes, fair complexion, a sharp nose, and jet-black hair. He was the Wise One, but that didn't matter at all for Calvin. His attention was focused on the fact that the couch that the young man was sitting on looked like a cloud with how blurry it was.

"Let me introduce myself first before we get into the business, shall we?"

"My name is Vincent Dela Cruz. People call me around here as the master of Spiritualistic Magic."

"Now, just what is Spiritualistic Magic?"

"A lot of people would say that Spiritualistic Magic is a type of magic that could condemn anyone's soul to the suffering of the undying fire. But to be honest, I beg to differ. That is just what the Church of Eternal Fire wants you to think..."

"They do not want common people intruding onto their territory, you see? In fact, Spiritualistic Magic is not what everyone thinks at all..."

"The ability to demand divine intervention from the gods through the exchange of something from the mortal or material plane makes me believe that gods and humans have a strange relationship of reliance and dependency."

"As to what exactly is the reason why the gods even listen to the demands of us puny humans?"

"I don't know exactly why..."

"All that we need to know when using Spiritualistic Magic is that we can demand almost anything. So long as the god is willing and the sacrifice is sufficient. In your case, I sacrificed some valuable ingredients so that I would be able to dive into the depths of your consciousness."

"You may not be able to remember those memories, but it is impossible that your subconscious that exists in the depths of your consciousness could forget about those events..."

"I induced you into this trance-like state so that it's easier for me to penetrate your subconscious and extract information from there..."

"As to what exactly is the subconscious, you must be confused..."

"But let me make an analogy."

"Let us say that your consciousness is a ship somewhere in the middle of the vast ocean known as 'You'."

"This ship has sailed through the entire ocean that makes up who you are, but can you say for sure that this ship had explored the depths of that ocean known as 'You'?"

"No!"

"Why?"

"It's because the ship cannot explore the depths of the ocean!"

"And that is what the subconscious is..."

"The two of them are different concepts, different entities that would never interfere with each other."

"However, whatever the consciousness knows... Even if the consciousness eventually forgets about it. The subconscious would always remember it..."

"And that is the reason for this peruse."

"Now, tell me... What does your subconscious remember after you met that man?"

"No..." Calvin let out an agonized whisper, "I don't... I don't remember anything... It hurts..."

Veins bulged on Calvin's forehead the moment that the question was asked. Vincent immediately stopped the ritual and Calvin was dragged out of his subconscious back to his consciousness.

He took a sharp deep breath when he awakened after Vincent clapped his hands together.

"Wha... What happened?" Calvin asked in confusion.

Ron Samuel and Vincent glanced at each other before saying, "Congratulations, you passed..."

"You're clear of suspicions now. However, you cannot return to your ordinary life anymore..."

"With the regulations of the Three Orthodox Churches when it comes to things related to the supernatural. There is no way for you to return to society anymore. It's either you become one of us, or we will forcefully remove your memories."

"I recommend doing the former— since forcefully removing one's memories from the subconscious is not only difficult but it also has a relatively high chance of failure." Ron Samuel gave a mysterious smile and asked, "So, what are you going to choose? Are you going to become one of us, or are you going to choose the ordinary and average life of a peasant?"

Ron Samuel stretched his hand out as if inviting him for a handshake.

"With..."

"With what you said, sir..."

"Do you really think that I still have a choice?"

"This is basically coercion!" Calvin feigned a complaint.

But in the end, he took Ron Samuel's hand and said, "Okay, count me in..."

"All right, your first job as one of us is to clean the coffee machines. It's been a few months since they've been cleaned and no one wants to take the job to do it."josei

"And since you're a newbie, it's just appropriate for you to do it for us your seniors." Ron Samuel gave a delighted smile and patted Calvin's shoulder.

"What...?"

"Coffee?"

Calvin uttered in disbelief.