Lin Chuan sat down, looked around, let his gaze linger slightly on Audrey and Alger, and finally landed on Zhou Mingrui at the very head of the bronze long table.
In his field of vision, Audrey’s soft golden hair swayed slightly as she turned her head in shock.
She was wearing an exquisite, home-style long dress, and her gem-like emerald eyes were clear and bright, currently widening slightly due to shock and vigilance.
Alger, on the other hand, had dark blue hair that was fluffy and somewhat messy.
His facial features were deeply contoured, with sharp and even somewhat rugged lines.
He wore a robe embroidered with lightning patterns, his body tense and his eyes filled with doubt and apprehension.
The true appearances of the two were fully exposed in Lin Chuan’s eyes, clear without a shred of concealment.
Only the mysterious figure sitting upright was enveloped in layers of grayish-white mist all over, leaving only a hazy and blurred outline visible.
Zhou Mingrui was at the main seat of the long table, leaning back slightly in a leisurely posture.
Behind him was a wide, high-backed bronze chair, and his right hand casually stroked the edge of the long table, giving off an unfathomable feeling of looking down from above.
Lin Chuan’s lips curved up slightly.
With such an image, it was no wonder that the two people pulled into the first Tarot Club subsequently concluded that Mr.
Fool was an existence at least close to a deity.
He even suspected that the circle of gray fog shrouding Zhou Mingrui was not just a decorative item to blur his appearance, but might also have some passive occult enhancements.
After all, having marinated on Sefirah Castle for so many years, he was thoroughly soaked in it; it was only reasonable that he could unconsciously mobilize some of it.
“Fooling?
No, that’s impossible.
If it’s a subordinate Sequence of the coward trio, maybe a Swindler?
His eloquence and charm do match up…”
Lin Chuan stopped these unimportant associations.
He relaxed his body, leaned against the high-backed bronze chair behind him, and turned his head slightly, as if locking eyes with Zhou Mingrui through the gray fog.
His gaze was clear and familiar, completely devoid of any sense of estrangement.
At the same time, he greeted with a complex tone mixed with nostalgia and banter:
“…Long time no see.”
‘Long time no see?’
‘Long time no see!’
Zhou Mingrui, who at this moment seemed to still be sitting upright in his seat without any reaction, had already stirred up monstrous waves in his heart.
His thoughts almost stagnated for that instant, and his stroking fingers paused unnaturally for half a second.
Fortunately, the gray fog blocked it, preventing him from giving himself away.
After a momentary stagnation, his brain began to spin rapidly.
One guess after another surged into his mind:
“Who is he?
I clearly only touched two crimson stars, so how could a fourth person appear?
Unless there is another way to appear here, or, was he here before I came?”
While thinking of this, Zhou Mingrui noticed that Lin Chuan’s figure was incomparably solid—unlike the sweet-voiced young girl and the steady, introverted man who were illusory and tinged with a slight reddish hue, he seemed truly located here.
” ‘Long time no see,’ is he talking to me?
Does he know me?
No, that’s not right, he’s just looking at my position, which means he probably can’t see my appearance clearly.
So…
Is it a misunderstanding?
Did he recognize the wrong person?
Were there other people here before?”
“Calm down, calm down.
My current posture cannot have any wavering.
It looks like he doesn’t know my actual situation, and this is my cover.”
“Regardless of whether he is here to make trouble or reminisce, I should maintain my mystery and let him give more information first.
In short, before figuring out how much he actually knows, I must never voluntarily expose the fact that I know nothing.”
There were still many doubts left to consider, but it was already too late to think about them.
Zhou Mingrui’s fingers resumed the rhythm of stroking, steady and slow, as if that half-second pause had never happened.
He nodded slightly, the gray fog concealing the lingering shock in his pupils, and spoke in a low and even voice:
“You’re here.”
The gray fog stagnated, and the air inside the palace seemed to have been pressed with a pause button.
After seeing Lin Chuan sit down, Audrey timely swallowed back the chime-in that had almost slipped out of her mouth.
She subconsciously looked at the figure wrapped in gray fog on the main seat, waiting for this “Excellency” to respond.
“You’re here.”
Two words, as bland as saying the weather is nice today.
The voice enveloped in the gray fog was the same as always, with no joy or anger discernible, nor any closeness or detachment.
There was neither an interrogative ending note nor the warmth or estrangement of an old acquaintance reunion.
It was as if the appearance of this visitor here was a matter of course.
She instinctively turned her gaze to the visitor, a natural thought flashing in her mind: So that Excellency knew he would come today; they knew each other beforehand.
This conclusion quietly refreshed her perception of today’s adventure, but the seventh chair on the left…
Why did he choose that place?
Could this have any special meaning?
Or was that his seat?
Regardless, Audrey silently noted down this position.
How interesting.
The young girl’s emerald eyes flickered, her curiosity quietly ignited.
Yet, out of upbringing and caution, she temporarily suppressed her bellyful of questions.
She sat quietly in the chair, her gaze gracefully sweeping past Lin Chuan as she waited for the next step of progress.
On the other side, Alger Wilson’s pupils had already shrunk slightly when Lin Chuan walked out of the gray fog, and his body instantly tightened.
He quietly lowered his head, not daring to look directly at Lin Chuan, while secretly observing the attitude of the “Mysterious lord.” at the head.
“You’re here.”
He chewed on these two words repeatedly in his heart.
This meant that the mysterious Excellency knew this person, and was not surprised by the way this person arrived.
At least, he acted completely unsurprised.
Alger deduced rapidly in his heart.
But the question was: Was this person truly proactively invited by that Excellency?
Or perhaps, this Excellency was not as certain as he appeared on the surface, and was simply catching the words thrown by the other party in the most flawless way possible.
Even so, being able to say “You’re here” instead of “Who are you”…
at least proved that this person was not an antagonist?
Or at least not an open antagonist.
Alger weighed it in his heart.
Then, these two very likely had a past already, and this person’s status…
was probably not low; otherwise, he wouldn’t appear here with such an equal conversational posture.
He observed Lin Chuan’s posture after sitting down with the corner of his eye: no salute, no self-introduction, just a slightly curious glance at the two of them.
That composure was simply too natural.
Alger calculated in his heart while moving his gaze nonchalantly away from Lin Chuan, landing it back on the mysterious person enveloped in that mass of gray fog.
Since the master of this place had already spoken and taken up the conversation, it was now up to the visitor to respond.
And before that, observation was the only thing he should do.
He gave up the probing he had prepared earlier and thought it best not to say a single extra word at this moment.