Circle of Inevitability

Chapter 52: Cafe

Views:

Seeing the "slogan" on the wall, Lumian couldn't help but smile.

"In Trier, the coffee house has a very special status. It is the starting point of riots, the holy place of conspiracy, and the source of scandal."

In the history of Intis, countless riots started from exchanges in coffee houses, and countless literary works and political struggles fermented in coffee houses.

Unlike the neighboring Kingdom of Loen, although Intis also has some closed clubs, they are relatively professional or high-end, and few people can participate. Whether they are former nobles, current parliamentarians, or government officials, financiers, bankers, industrialists, famous writers, newspaper editors, military generals, university professors and other high-level social figures, they all like to hang out in different cafes, enjoy the fun of chatting, and show their people-friendly side. After all, the political slogan of the Republic and the image it establishes internally and externally is "freedom, equality, and fraternity."

At the same time, banquets and salons were very popular throughout Trier. If an upper-class person did not hold a salon for a month, people would suspect that something had happened to his family, or he was in an economic crisis or had lost his political prospects.

One of the reasons why Aurore, who obviously loves this big city, doesn't come here is that artists such as writers, poets, painters and sculptors are like captive butterflies, fluttering in the salons of different congressmen, financiers, politicians and senior officials. It seems that only by gaining their recognition can the value of their own works be realized.

The combination of salon and cafe has replaced most of the functions of the club.

In this system, pubs, beer houses, dance halls and coffee houses play a similar role, but are far less important than the latter and are more oriented towards the lower classes.

Seeing a guest coming in, a female waiter in a gray and white dress came over and asked with a smile: "Do you have a favorite seat, or have you made an appointment with a friend?" Lumian nodded: "Seat D."

[So far, this is the most comprehensive and best-used App for listening to books, integrating 4 major speech synthesis engines, over 100 tones, and supporting offline reading source changer, huanyuanapp.org Source Change App]

The female waiter led him to a seat in a corner.

Right next to a window, you can see the lush, tree-lined botanical garden.

"What would you like to drink?" The female waitress put down a drink menu wrapped in a brown cover.

Lumian picked it up and unfolded it. He took a look and was slightly surprised by the dazzling array of choices: "Firmer Coffee, Highland Coffee, Lime Espresso..." Xibo Black Tea, Marquis Black Tea, West Balam Black Tea? ...

"Fruit ice water, frangipani water, ambergris lemon water, 'Venus' holy oil special drink..." Chayou wine, light red wine, rose wine, walnut shochu, orange lemon wine, cherry shochu...

"Absinthe, aniseed absinthe, gin, bitter curacao, apple brandy, grape pomace brandy..." Sweet wine: Perfect Love, Barbarian Cream, Little Rose, Westpalo...

Considering that he would be receiving treatment from a psychologist later, neither alcohol nor caffeine would be suitable for him to consume. Lumian thought for a while and said, "Ambergris lemonade."

"Four Ricks." The waitress asked again, "Do you need cake, bread or other food?"

"Not for now. I'll decide after my friend comes." Lumian looked around the Mason Cafe again and found that there were not many customers at this time.

People who came to the cafe for lunch left before 2:30, and there was still more than an hour before afternoon tea time.

Not long after, the female waitress came over with a tray and placed an open glass filled with colorless liquid and a few lemon slices floating in it on the table.

Lumian looked at the empty seat across from the booth, picked up the cup and took a sip.

The elegant and sweet fragrance wafted into his nose, and the refreshing sour taste lifted his spirits.

Time passed by minute by minute, and seeing that the wall clock was about to reach half past three, Lumian couldn't help but turn his body and look towards the entrance of the cafe.

There were some green plants there, but no guests came in.

Just as Lumian looked away in disappointment, a gentle female voice of unknown age came from the booth behind him: "I'm here.

"Good afternoon, Lumian. Mr. Li."

Lumian probably guessed that the other party didn't want to communicate face to face, so he didn't turn around, but lowered his voice and asked politely: "Good afternoon, what should I call you? My voice is so soft, can you hear me?"

"Hello, Ms. Susie."

For some reason, Lumian became quite calm when facing the psychologist, and he no longer had the habit of commenting in his mind as usual.

The next second, he felt an inexplicable familiar uneasiness.

"What's wrong?" Susie, who was sitting in the booth behind him, asked softly.

Lumian thought for two seconds and did not hide his feelings: "I feel a little uneasy. It's a very strange and familiar experience.

"Well, I think I had a similar feeling when I met an information dealer yesterday."

“I’m sorry, I’m used to reading your thoughts, and this may be the source of your uneasiness.

“Is that so…” Lumian was not angry.

In his opinion, if psychologists cannot read one's own thoughts, how can they treat patients? Is it all based on words

He then frowned: "I know." Susie expressed her understanding, "Where is Anthony Reid from, and what did he do before he became an intelligence dealer?"

Susie was silent for a long time before she said, "If he is really from the west coast of the sea, he could be a Beyonder of the Audience Path."

The Path of Audience… Lumian had read about this divine path in Aurore’s wizard notes, but Aurore only knew that its corresponding Sequence 9 was called “Audience”, which possessed extremely strong observation abilities and could interpret the true thoughts implied in various subtle expressions and body language.

It turns out that one of the sequences above the “audience” path is “psychologist”…

Just as Lumian had this thought, he heard Susie correct him: "It's 'psychologist'."

"That sounds more reassuring." Lumian smiled. "What's Anthony Reid's sequence number?"

After knowing the other party's route, he thought Anthony Reed should have recognized him at that time and noticed his inner tension, worry and attempt to deter him.

"According to your description, he is at least Sequence 8." Susie gave her own judgment.

Lumian smiled and said, "It would be funny if he really is a 'psychologist'. He couldn't even cure his own post-traumatic stress disorder from the battlefield." "That's normal. If a 'psychologist' really suffers from severe psychological trauma, it is difficult for him to get out of it on his own. He often needs the help of another 'psychologist'. And the treatment of a 'psychologist' is much more dangerous than normal. Once there is an oversight, he will easily be infected with the mental illness he suffers from." Susie explained briefly.

As the topic changed and the other party began to chat with him, Lumian gradually calmed down and no longer felt uneasy or nervous.

"Shall we begin treatment?"

"Chatting is also part of treatment." Susie's gentle voice was filled with a hint of smile.

Seeing that the first stage of treatment was pure chatting, Lumian relaxed more.

“I already knew it was a dream, but there were a lot of details I couldn’t understand.

"Since it was my dream, why can I know the various abilities of the three official investigators, and why do I know so clearly what unique abilities the parish priest and the shepherd each possess?"

“The three official investigators were forcibly pulled into your dream, which is equivalent to letting their own subconscious minds approach your subconscious mind, presenting a semi-open state.

"They will actively participate in the dream and show all kinds of information they know, and even if they just think about it in their mind, your subconscious mind can sense it."

"Why do you know the abilities of the evil god's followers? You should have some guesses about it, right? Are you just not willing to face it?"

Hearing this, Lumian's eyelids twitched involuntarily.

"Obviously, at some point before the destruction of Cordu Village, you saw Guillaume Bené, Pierre Berry and others using their abilities, and you were not hurt or traumatized by them, otherwise there would be a corresponding presentation in your dream." Analyzing from that dream, what really left a trauma on you was the performance of Puaris and his gang.

"How do you think you saw those evil god's followers use their abilities?" Susie's words were like sharp arrows, piercing the surface of Lumian's memory and causing the solid barrier to waver.

Lumian's face twisted slightly.

In the pain that was difficult to conceal, he felt several scenes floating up from the depths of his memory: it was the third floor of the administrator's castle, and those were the walls covered with bluish-white transparent faces, but the ones fighting were no longer Ryan, Leah and Valentine, but Guillaume Bennet, Pierre Berry and Sybil Berry!