Mysteries: Arcana Wars

Field Moretti.

This is a name that stands out in this book.

Before this, all the names Klein had read had a photo of a person in his twenties above them, but Field's photo was obviously a bit older than the others. With the Faceless Man's precise control of appearance, Klein believed that the person in the photo was in his twenties, and probably not even thirty.

Field in the photo had an ordinary face, with some fancy hairpins on his head and a long black braid, and it was hard to tell whether he was a man or a woman at first glance. His big dark eyes had no pupils, but he could see a feeling of uneasiness and despair, which reminded Klein of those unlucky children in the old days who didn't want to be photographed but were forced by their families to take family photos.

After this discovery, Klein suddenly became alert.

"There's another person, Leonard—Adela Moretti!"

"Adela Moretti?"

"That's right! You read it out! That means this little girl also 'exists'!"

Klein became a little excited.

Adela Moretti, this is another somewhat special photo. The little girl in the photo is far from being in her twenties. Klein estimated that she was probably only fifteen or sixteen years old. She had two long and thick black low ponytails, and tied many colorful rubber bands and hair pendants on the braids. Compared to Field's restraint, Adela's smile was too lively and cheerful, and it felt like she wanted to crawl out of the photo and hug everyone and kiss them.

Field and Adela, these are the two names at the bottom of the entire family tree. Leonard's clear cognition shows that at least the two of them still "exist" in the world, and are likely still alive.

Are these... the only two remaining "descendants"...

Tracing back along the connection, Klein could find that Field was a descendant of Melissa's branch, while Adela was a descendant of Benson's branch. The two looked only a few years apart in age, but the generation gap was quite large. If you really wanted to talk about it, Adela might have to call him great-grandfather or even more.

You call me sister and I call you great-grandfather, so we should call each other by our own names, right?

Once his gaze returned to Melissa's generation, Klein's mood became solemn.

From this family tree, Klein learned that his eldest brother Benson had a daughter named Claire after marrying Ms. Ruth. This niece, whom he had never met, looked very much like her parents, and later married a shy young man named Cice.

Melissa met a spiritual young man named Is as her husband.

But what made Klein's scalp tingle was that the connection in the family tree told him that this Yis and another Xisai were brothers.

Hard! The fist is hard!

It’s not enough to steal the cabbages, he also steals two at a time!

This inexplicable feeling of awkwardness was only temporary, because other discoveries made Klein feel even more bizarre.

There is a line between Is and Cisse representing the brotherly relationship.

But after the two lines met here, they extended upwards and split again from a certain point. One line stretched to one side and stopped without writing anything, making Klein unable to tell whether this line was intentional or accidental.

The other line extends upward until it reaches an empty gap.

Alice Moretti

This is the second name besides myself that has no photo.

Discomfort and suspicion overflowed from this abrupt gap, wetting Klein's fingers along the pages. This disgusting sticky feeling was like maggots crawling slowly in a rotting corpse, supporting a drifting drum under the festering and sticking fascia. You thought you had picked up a priceless treasure left by the forerunners, but when you came to your senses, you found that the book in your hand had long been soaked in rotten flesh and blood. Mosuo's fingers were therefore covered with black body fluids, and countless tiny lumps were constantly squirming under his skin.

If I could not leave a photo in the family tree because I had become a thing of the past, then why did this person not leave a portrait?

This family tree...has it been contaminated?

Tiny suspicions spread in Klein's mind. Klein didn't know if this name "existed", and for protection, he didn't read the name to Leonard.

"Right, I remembered."

Leonard suddenly had an idea.

"Is there a name called 'Alice Moretti' in the family tree you saw?"

Klein was so shocked that he almost dropped the book in his hand.

"Do you remember the name 'Alice Moretti'?"

"Hmm... It seems to be a clone of yours with a higher sequence. You should use it to look after the house."

Seeing Klein's reaction, Leonard understood that this name was really recorded in the family tree. He frowned and tried to recall it carefully.

"I don't remember the exact details, but I can find traces of this name in many of my memories. This clone must have existed for a long time.

"I've said before that in the Sixth Epoch, you liked to take your family to various places in Loen, and even outside of Loen to open small shops for fun. Bakeries, tailor shops, dessert shops... You even once went to Feysac to open a black clinic, specializing in treating various injuries, but unfortunately you ran into a crackdown on illegal medical practices, and you were driven away after only a few months...

"This messy shop should be the main source of income for your 'family'. According to the setting, the people in your family are mostly ordinary people or low-sequence Beyonders, so every time I come here, I may not be able to find your real body or any of the secret dolls or clones who claim to be Klein, but I can always see this clone named Alice in the store. I think you stayed here to look after the family. Your real body may not be at home, but this clone must be there. But this clone is quite crazy, and it is difficult for me to have an effective conversation with him...

"The story your family usually tells the public is that you and Alice are brothers. You are the older brother and he is the younger brother. The older brother, whose condition is more optimistic, couldn't bear to see his brother suffer. He was afraid that his crazy and penniless younger brother would die on the street one day, so he started his own business with his terminally ill younger brother. This is the setting you have used for thousands of years... Of course, sometimes you say that your son is completely crazy or something like that. Anyway, your brother is a clone and you won't care..."

Leonard grinned at this point. He felt that the world was becoming absurd again.

"To be honest, I thought you were always playing with the Roselle fairy tale, the story of Alice and the Mad Hatter... I didn't expect you to actually write the name of this clone into the family tree... No, I'm a little curious, in your family tree, did you arrange this clone of Alice as a son or a brother?"

"Wait, I think you have some misunderstanding about me?" Klein said speechlessly, "Do I have such a bad taste?"