After taking a walk around the Mason Café in the botanical garden as planned, Lumian returned to the Golden Rooster Hotel on the chaotic street, went straight to the third floor, and came to Room 10 where the madman lived.
Bang! Bang! Bang! He knocked on the door.
"I'm dying! I'm dying!" The whispers in the house suddenly became sharp.
“I’m going to die too!” Lumian cursed expressionlessly.
The madman seemed to be frightened by his aura and fell silent, but did not make any response.
Lumian didn't knock on the door again. He took out a small piece of wire he carried with him, inserted it into the keyhole, and fiddled with it for a few times.
With a click, the stained brown wooden door opened backwards "by itself".
Lumian then saw the madman. He was still wearing the linen shirt and yellow trousers, kneeling on the ground, with a dense black beard that almost covered his eyes.
Lumian walked in, closed the door, then squatted in front of the madman and said in a low voice:
"I also encountered the Montsouris ghost."
The madman visibly shook, and only his frightened blue eyes showed signs of thawing.
After a few seconds, he took a breath and asked in a deep voice:
"Are you sure it's the Montsouris ghost?"
Entering the occasional lucid state that Charlie mentioned? Lumian smiled and said:
“I don’t know, so I came to you to confirm.
"What did the Montsouris ghost you encountered look like?"
The madman trembled and replied:
"A dark shadow, like a lonely old man, with a hunched back, walking very slowly.
"After I noticed it, it disappeared into the darkness. I didn't know it was the ghost of Montsouris at first until my parents, my wife, and my children died one by one..."
It really looks like the one I met... Lumian frowned, suspecting that he had indeed encountered the ghost of Montsouris.
He thought for a moment and said:
"How did your family members die? Were you attacked?" The madman shook his head quickly:
"I, apart from the fact that I often feel something is watching me in the dark, I have no other experience. Otherwise, I would not be alive today.
“My child got very sick and died in the hospital, and we had just had him purified and buried in the catacombs, and my wife, my wife just collapsed and hanged herself in the room.
"It was only at this time that I remembered the legend of the Montsouris ghost and took my parents to the church to ask the priest there to protect us.
“The church took it very seriously and sent three clergymen to live in my home. During that time, nothing happened and I thought the nightmare was over.
"After the New Year, the clergy left. Not long after, my father strangled my mother and ended his life with a kitchen knife. After that, I didn't remember a lot of things. I woke up occasionally and found that I had moved here without knowing when..."
The madman's blue eyes revealed anguish that was difficult to conceal, and to Lumian he felt like a spring stretched to its limit, ready to break at any moment.
"Isn't it said that the ghost of Montsouris will kill anyone who encounters him in that year? It's already a new year." Lumian keenly noticed that there was a big difference between the madman's story and the legend.
The madman shook his head:
"I don't know why this happened. I thought the nightmare was over, otherwise the three clergymen would not have left..."
A curse with no end time unless all the targets are dead? Lumian has a new theory about the legend of Montsouris' ghost.
He stood up and said to the madman:
“The ghost I met should also be Montsouris’ ghost. Let’s see who can live longer.
"If I find a way to break this curse, you can pay me to help you."
"A way, a way..." The madman raised the corners of his mouth and repeated Lumian's words with tears and laughter.
He immediately raised his hands and grabbed his hair:
“I’m dying, I’m dying!”
Lumian wanted to ask what the madman's name was, in case he was sent to the cemetery or the catacombs and had no way to engrave his name on him, but he could only shake his head, turn around, open the door, and walk out of room 310.
Back in Room 207, Lumian sat down beside the bed, thinking about how to resolve the curse brought by the ghost of Montsouris.
Although theoretically the curse might not take effect until the end of the year and there was no need to rush, Lumian couldn't pin his hopes on the Montsouris ghost's procrastination.
Moreover, he has no immediate family members, so the first person to die from the curse is most likely to be himself, and that may happen in the second half of the year, perhaps next week or even tonight.
"Come to think of it, that guy might still be alive. If the ghost of Montsouris can help me kill him, I have to say thank you..." As the thought turned, Lumian suddenly laughed at himself.
In his dream, he told Lai En and others that he had forgotten his original name and that he was lying to them. He simply didn't want to mention it or recall it anymore.
His family situation was relatively good when he was young, but the man he called father was a playboy and later became a gambler.
His mother was so angry that she died of illness, and his grandfather went bankrupt and took him to live in a slum, where he died a few years later.
So, after being adopted by Aurora, he took the initiative to ask if he could take her last name and change to a completely new one.
Lumian didn't know whether the guy who simply contributed body fluids was dead or alive. If he was dead, that was undoubtedly a good thing. If not, he hoped that the ghost of Montsouris would help.
As for himself, Lumian didn't dare to think that the ghost of Montsouris would not do anything to him just because he had the pollution of the evil god in his body and the seal of the great existence on his body.
As long as the other party doesn't attach himself to him, he can do anything!
According to the "Magician" lady, Lumian believed that many Beyonders and monsters could easily kill him, but they would have to face the pollution that spread out afterwards.
"I'm not sure if this is a curse or not... But I can't just sit there and wait to die, I have to do something... Well, Aurore used to say that for the weak or underage, the most powerful ability is 'find parents'..."
Thinking of this, Lumian's eyes lit up, he stood up quickly, walked to the table, and took out a pen and paper.
He planned to report the progress of the mission to Ms. "Magician" now, and mentioned in passing that he had encountered the ghost of Montsouris. He wondered whether he had been cursed and how to solve this problem.
Although the lady codenamed "Magician" is not his parent, but given the current situation, she is definitely his superior. And it is reasonable to ask for help from the superior when encountering difficulties!
Lumian thought for a moment and wrote:
Dear Ms. Magician,
"I have followed your instructions and gained the trust of Osta Trull, and asked him to introduce me to the mystic gathering convened by Mr. K...
"On my way back from the catacombs I had the misfortune to encounter the legendary ghost of Montsouris, but of course I can't be sure. "The specific legend is this...
"I want to know if I have been cursed by the ghost of Montsouris, or if it is something else, and what should I do about it?"
At the end, Lumian deliberately left behind the code name "Seven of Wands" to remind the other party not to forget that he was an outer member of their mysterious organization.
—This was deduced by Lumian through the fact that the lady used the Tarot card "Magician" as the code name, while he himself got the Tarot card "Seven of Wands".
He suspected that the "magician" lady probably belonged to a secret organization that used Tarot cards as a symbol and believed in a great being. Among them, the Major Arcana cards were formal members, each of whom was extremely powerful, and the Minor Arcana cards were peripheral members who undertook different tasks.
After folding the letter, Lumian cleaned the room carefully and conscientiously. He killed all the bedbugs that came in from the next door and threw them into the trash can in the bathroom.
After doing these things, he lit the candles, created the "spiritual wall", and summoned the messenger of the "Magician" lady in his own name.
Soon, the candle flame took on a faint blue hue.
This time, the messenger, who was as tall as a forearm, shaped like a doll, and wearing a light gold skirt, appeared directly on the top of the flame and floated there.
Its unfocused and spiritless pale blue eyes looked around and it nodded slightly: "Much better than last time." The voice was ethereal and unreal, not something that a human could make.
“Actually, I don’t like those bugs either,” Lumian added.
The doll messenger showed a little smile
"Really? No living thing would like those bugs!"
Lumian could see that its attitude was quite satisfied, as if "both sides" hated the same thing.
After saying that, the doll messenger stretched out its pale hand without the texture of skin, and made the letter float up.
Lumian followed the trajectory and saw the "doll" holding the letter shatter and disappear like a bubble.
He said with deep emotion:
"It's really convenient to have a messenger..."
After finishing the ceremony and cleaning the wooden table, Lumian sat back down on the bed, waiting for the messenger to bring back feedback.
Time passed by, the night outside grew darker, and bursts of singing could be heard from the underground bar, but Lumian never received a reply from Ms. Magician.
This made him frown:
"Ms. Magician, are you busy with other things and don't have time to read my letter
"We can't just keep waiting like this, we have to think of other ways to protect ourselves...
"Neither the Hunter nor the Provocateur has the ability to deal with the curse. If it is really a curse...
"'Dancer' is not an option either, unless after performing the sacrificial dance, one really prays to the hidden being. But how is this different from suicide
"Well, praying to that secret being won't work, I can go find that great being!
"I have her seal on me, and I got her permission when I stole the 'Gift', so I'm not afraid to ask her again!
"Well, pray that she can help me remove the curse."
Lumian did what he thought and quickly set up the altar again.
Because the "magician" lady did not specifically mention the materials in the field of that great being, Lumian believed that whatever was used should not affect the final result as long as no other gods were involved.
He still placed orange-yellow candles made of citrus and lavender, two for the gods and one for himself. After completing the preliminary preparations, Lumian stepped back, looked at the three yellowish candles, and said in Hermetic:
"The fool who does not belong to this era, the mysterious master above the gray fog, the yellow and black king who controls good luck..."