"It's not about terms—it's a matter of principle," Evah said, pausing before pivoting. "But I can summon the person you want to call up one more time, as payment for looking after Jack these days."
Azik's dimmed eyes lit up. "Thank you, Mr. Lucifer."
It was just one chance, but for Azik, it was priceless.
And… Azik's biggest fear was that the other party wouldn't budge at all. Since Lucifer was willing to bend for Jack's sake, it meant his stance wasn't ironclad. There might be room to negotiate more opportunities later.
Evah knew exactly what Azik was thinking—it was the outcome he'd steered toward. While he had no intention of making the Shadow of Time a tradeable item for Azik, he wasn't planning to shut the door entirely. His goal was to throttle the pace of Azik's memory recovery, so dangling a bit of hope was strategic.
Evah just smiled, then, as if struck by a thought, added, "Oh, and I'd like you to do me a small favor, Azik."
"What favor?" Azik asked eagerly.
"Pass a message to Klein Moretti for me," Evah said, his smile widening with a playful edge, his tone deliberate. "Batman is watching you."
Azik blinked, clearly thrown. He'd never heard the language Evah used, but memorizing and parroting it was no issue for him. He repeated it a few times under his breath, then nodded. "Got it."
After a moment's hesitation, he looked at Evah. "Klein's a good kid, Mr. Lucifer. You might have some misconceptions about him."
Azik had heard from Jack's letters that his teacher seemed to have a chip on his shoulder about Klein, so he couldn't help but worry.
"I know he's a good kid, but that doesn't stop him from being a little con artist," Evah said, catching Azik's concern. He chuckled, his eyes flickering with a hint of nostalgia and reverie, his voice softening, almost ethereal. "Don't worry, I bear him no ill will. Even if I don't like him, I'd never harm one of my own kind. Never."
Azik half-understood. He wasn't sure why Lucifer called Klein "one of his own kind," but thinking of the tangled mess of Klein's fate, he let it go.
Azik knew Klein carried plenty of secrets, but so what? To him, Klein was his student, his junior, his friend—nothing more.
As long as the man before him had no real malice toward Klein, Azik could breathe easy.
"Oh, and please tell him everything that happened tonight," Evah added, his tone pointed. "Especially the part about the Tarot cards."
...
Unlike the original story, where Klein only learned the outcome the next day, this time he got a visit from Mr. Azik that very night. From him, Klein heard the full rundown, including Azik's talk with Lucifer and the message Lucifer asked to be passed on.
"Batman is watching you… The Batman's watching you?" As a university grad, Klein understood the English perfectly. His first thought was, Is there another transmigrator out there cosplaying Batman? But a split second later, he got it—this was a warning.
"Batman is watching you" was essentially a meme, implying that no matter what you're up to, Batman knows and is watching.
Applied to Klein, it was a blatant heads-up: I know everything you're doing, all your aliases and little schemes, kid. Watch yourself, or I'll come for you.
Klein realized Lucifer's warning stemmed from knowing he'd used Jack to rope him into helping with Qilangos. While Lucifer stepped in for his student's sake, he was clearly directing his irritation at Klein.
Klein felt a twinge of guilt, but alongside it, he couldn't help analyzing the details.
First, it was now certain Lucifer was a transmigrator, making it highly likely he was the Zoroast from the diary. Given Lucifer's personality, it wouldn't be surprising if he'd turned his life's story into a diary for posterity.
Second, Azik's recounting of "never harming one of my own kind" showed that, despite his gripes, Lucifer placed special weight on their shared transmigrator status. Klein might not need to worry about outright hostility from him.
Finally… "Lucifer's clearly tight with the official Churches, even tied to True Gods. Using Tarot cards as a hint in front of them is partly a warning to me, but to the Churches, it's like vouching for the Tarot Club. If a Tarot Club member gets caught down the line, the Churches might look the other way for Lucifer's sake."
Klein exhaled, muttering to himself, "Is this help for a fellow transmigrator? He doesn't like me, but he's still lending a hand for our shared roots… Or maybe it's just for Jack."
Either way, the gesture left Klein with mixed feelings. This was the second time he'd gotten help from a transmigrator senior—the first being Roselle's diary. These seniors always seemed to be both insanely impressive and tragically messed up.
As for Jack Jones, Klein didn't count him as a senior transmigrator but as a peer.
"If Lucifer really is the Zoroast from the diary, how did he go from that laid-back, snarky guy who loved slacking to… this?" Klein closed his eyes, already guessing the answer. The diary spelled it out clear as day.
There was only one culprit: Amon.
The Zoroast in the diary, burning for revenge against Amon, was still a far cry from Lucifer's current persona. But who's to say what Amon did in the years that followed, shaping him into what he was now?
In that moment, though he'd never met the guy, Klein's frustration with a certain Blasphemer of Time hit an all-time high.
(End of Chapter)