Salted Fish Chapter 49.2: Secret Training (Part 2)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

The next day was still training with Mr. Thales in the underground lab. Duan FeiZhou could already manipulate the rag to wipe the dishes, and could already be a qualified dishwasher, so today he began to practice more difficult elements, such as manipulating objects to attack others.

When he first fought Smith, Duan FeiZhou had seen him manipulate the rope and thought that it was a very profound occult art, but he never thought he could do it easily. No wonder Smith’s mentor, Al’s grandfather, refused to pass the mantle on to that guy. Not only was the disciple incompetent, his character was also very low. To have that kind of person as his own disciple, itt simply was a disgrace.

Soon Duan FeiZhou was able to manipulate items to fly around with ease. As he watched Duan FeiZhou direct the candelabra to dance on the table, Mr. Thales lamented, “Actually, you don’t need to learn how to manipulate items to attack others. You are quite aggressive on your own. Just use your artillery skills to blow up the enemy.”

“…Is that a compliment from you?”

“Of course it is. Not all occult practitioners can just blow people up. That requires a very strong… explosive power.”

Duan FeiZhou still felt that the old man was shading him.

“But then again,” Mr. Thales stroked his beard, which was much shorter today than it was yesterday because he shaved off the burnt part. “You obviously inherited the powers of two people, but you don’t seem to have any abnormalities at all. You really don’t feel anything wrong with your body?”

Duan FeiZhou looked down at himself. “What kind of wrong feeling should I have?”

“Do you feel that your senses have become sharper? Do you feel as if there is an unexpressed energy in your body? Do you often see or hear strange visions?”

Duan FeiZhou’s only distinctive sense at the moment was his vision. He could see the light of occult items, and the memories left on them. However, that psychic ability was inherited from Joseph Chester, and not given to him by Jack the Ripper or Duncan McKellen.

Mr. Thales had asked whether he had other abnormalities though. Since he had awakened in the dungeon, he hadn’t felt any different from before. The only difference…Probably the way his wounds had all healed?

Duncan McKellen’s wounds could heal quickly. Jack the Ripper lost his heart and his body could still move. Of course, he wouldn’t cut off his own head to experiment. However, it was still possible to test the self-healing ability.

“Can you give me a knife?” he asked. “Just a regular knife. I remember that Duncan McKellen could heal himself quickly, and I want to try to see if I have that ability.”

“You wait.” Mr. Tylers hobbled out of the lab and returned a moment later. He held a sharp pocket knife in his hand.

“It’s for cutting fruit, without any occult effect attached.” He handed the small knife to Duan FeiZhou.

The wounds caused by occult weapons couldn’t be healed by magic, so only ordinary knives could be used for testing. Duan FeiZhou held the knife, gritted his teeth, and ruthlessly cut into his arm.

A bloodstain appeared on his small arm.

In a flash, the bloody mark disappeared without a trace.

“Wow! You’re so strong!” Mr. Thales exclaimed.

“Whoo! I’m so strong!” Duan FeiZhou also exclaimed.

“What about the other abilities? You try it!”

The spiritual sight ability that Duan FeiZhou possessed wasn’t always activated passively either. If he wanted to see the memories left on an item, he had to actively trigger the ability. He closed his eyes and tried to enhance his other five senses as he had enhanced his vision.

An energy gradually rose up inside his body, and turned into millions of threads that extended outward from his body. They were like an extension of his body, and what they touched, he could touch. What they listen to, he could also listen to. What they smelled, he could also smell.

He stood in the basement, but it was as if he could touch the whole world.

Or perhaps, he became the whole world?

“I can smell the kitchen.” Duan FeiZhou said softly. “Xenophon and Z are preparing lunch. They ordered take-out again, exactly the same as last night.”

“Hmph, two lazy bastards.” Mr. Thales said.

“And I heard someone talking…in the living room. But it’s not Xenophon or Z. It’s a woman.”

“Huh? Why is there a woman in my house?” Mr. Thales frowned. “Boy, listen more carefully. Could you have misheard?”

Duan FeiZhou turned his head slightly. “Someone is coming.”

The door of the laboratory was suddenly knocked on.

“Mr. Thales, can I interrupt?” Xenophon shouted from outside the door.

“What is it?” The old man shouted in a medium voice.

Xenophon shouted, “You have a visitor!”

Mr. Thales was amazed, “What a…”

Duan FeiZhou opened his eyes and his five senses returned to the level of a normal person in a flash.

“Tell the guest I’m busy today!” Mr. Thales shouted at the door. “Tell her to come back to visit another day!”

“But she’s rich!” Xenophon shouted back.

Mr. Thales said decisively, “Tell her I’ll be right there!”

…Have some backbone, Mr. Thales!

“Are you going to receive guests?” Duan FeiZhou cried and laughed.

“Alas, one has to eat.” Mr. Thales shrugged his shoulders. “Actually, I’m not completely retired on Lesbos. I do some psychic work in my spare time to earn some extra money.”

“Is Greece so tolerant of occult practitioners?”

“Every country is different. Some countries are very intolerant of occult practitioners, others tolerate their existence, and some allow them to join the official ranks. Greece is one of the more tolerant countries.”

Then the UK must be a less tolerant country. However, the occult practitioners could at least join the Nightmen to save their lives, so it was not a complete extermination of the occult practitioners, right?

“Do you want to come along?” Mr. Thales pointed upstairs.

Duan FeiZhou nodded. He was eager to see how Mr. Thales carried out his psychic work.

The two returned together to the ground floor, and went back down to the living room on the first floor. The guest had been waiting there for a long time. Once he saw the guest’s appearance, Duan FeiZhou couldn’t help but open his mouth wide.

The guest was the maid of the noblewoman who had disembarked with them! The maid was talking and laughing with Xenophon. Seeing Mr. Thales, she hurriedly got up and nobly extended a hand.

“Your visit is a great honor to my house, madam.” Mr. Thales kissed the back of the maid’s hand. “May I ask what your name is?”

The maid smiled gracefully. Even if she was only a servant, she had the temperament of a person of honor, “My name is irrelevant. I am here in place of my master.”

“I, Thales, am at your service and that of your master with all my heart, madam.” The old man bowed in an exaggerated manner.

Duan FeiZhou looked to his left and right, but could not find Z. Xenophon pointed to the door. Duan FeiZhou squinted before he saw Z sitting in a corner of the front garden, most of his body blocked by the grass.

“What’s he doing?” Duan FeiZhou asked in a whisper.

“Sulking there, because Mr. Thales has taken up the work of an occultist.” Xenophon replied in a low voice.

Z had never liked occult practitioners, and his tolerance for them was limited to his fellow Nightmen. However, Mr. Thales was both his former colleague and an occult practitioner. He had no right to interfere when he was in a foreign country, so it was no wonder he was sitting alone in the garden, sulking.

Mr. Thales asked solicitously, “Madam, what do you need from me?”

The maid glanced at Xenophon and Duan FeiZhou, “Can we talk in private?”

“Both of them are my disciples, so there is no harm in letting them hear it, right?”

“… All right then.” The maid had to accept that. “Actually, my master…oh, these two gentlemen have also met her, we were on the same airship.”

She looked at Xenophon and Duan FeiZhou, who nodded immediately to confirm his words.

The maid continued, “My master has been suffering from a strange disease in recent years. Once she has nightmares at night, she will be haunted by dreams and cannot wake up. We have looked for many doctors and visited some psychics, but they are unable to do anything. I heard that there was a psychic on Lesbos Island, so we took the liberty to visit you. If you can help my master to solve her problems, I will definitely thank you with a large sum of money.”

When he heard the word “money”, Mr. Thales’ eyes shone.

“It would be an honor for me to serve you and your master, a noble woman like her.” The old man said. “As for the nightmares…There are many possibilities. I would have to meet your master myself. It would be best to ask your master to come to me, as a psychic, I need to use some tools for my spells, and that can’t just be carried around with me.”

“Then I will bring my master here this afternoon.” The maid said, “I hope you will live up to your reputation, Mr. Thales.”

The old man gave an exaggerated bow, and Duan FeiZhou was a little worried about whether his old back would straighten up again after he had bent it.

Z returned to the living room with a gloomy look on his face once the maid left.

“Fallen. Oh Thales, how you’ve fallen.” He tightened his brow. “I can’t believe you’ve taken up this line of work.”

“I have to eat too! I can’t live comfortably on my Scotland Yard pension!” Mr. Thales was righteous.

Z wanted to retort to him, but he had to bow down before his master under his roof, so he gritted his teeth, turned his face away and said nothing.

In the afternoon, the maid returned with her mistress. Of course, Z hid in the garden again. The maid herself was quite elegant, and the mistress was even more well-groomed. When she came into the house, Duan FeiZhou felt that the whole living room was illuminated. Her beauty was different from Z’s or Councilor Evangeline’s. It was a natural nobility, but at the same time with a kind of convergence of time and sorrow.

Madame looked around the room, and her eyes fell on Duan FeiZhou and Xenophon.

“Gentlemen, what a coincidence that we met again,” she said with a smile. “I didn’t ask your names before. That was a bit rude.”

Duan FeiZhou and Xenophon hurriedly introduced themselves.

“It is an honor to meet you both. I am Countess Hohenems, you may refer to me as that.” The Countess of Hohenems sat down on the sofa in the living room, and her maid stood by respectfully.

Mr. Thales came out. He was usually dressed casually, but to receive his guests, he’d changed into a dark robe and pretended to wear a top hat. He was dressed like a wizard in a fantasy movie. No, he was originally an occult practitioner, so maybe this dress was normal.

Countess Hohenems turned to her maid. “You said you were taking me to some interesting people, are these them?”

The maid curtsied. “Madame, this old man is a famous psychic on the island and I took it upon myself to invite him…”

Countess Hohenems glared at the maid. “Didn’t I tell you I’m fine? You are so nosy.”

The maid blushed. “I’m sorry, Madame, but I’m concerned for you. Didn’t you have another nightmare last night? You couldn’t wake up until morning. I was so frightened by your appearance! So I would like to ask this psychic to take a look at you…”

The Countess of Hohenems seemed to be a little shy about discussing her private affairs with a stranger she had just met.

Mr. Thales said in a kindly tone, “Madame, you can tell me anything that troubles you. Can you tell me about your nightmare?”

“I don’t remember.” The Countess of Hohenems bowed her head. “My servants say that I often have nightmares, but I don’t remember them myself. Was it really a nightmare?”

“Of course, Madame.” The maid said. “You were struggling and weeping in your dreams! It must have been a terrible nightmare! I don’t know how you could have gotten caught up in it.”

“Since I don’t remember it myself, perhaps it wasn’t so terrible.” The Countess of Hohenems remained adamant.

Mr. Thales rubbed his hands together, “Madame, please forgive me for offending you, but may I ask…have you lost many relatives?”

A look of surprise appeared on the Countess of Hohenems’s face. “How do you know?”

Mr. Thales smiled and didn’t answer, but went on to ask, “You and your husband, and your husband’s family, also had some disagreements, did you not?”

The Countess of Hohenems was even more astonished. “It was a long time ago, but yes!”

Mr. Thales paced in the drawing room with his hands behind his back, twice. then stopped sharply and fixed his gleaming eyes on the Countess. “Countess Hohenems is not your real name.”

The Countess covered her chest and exchanged incredulous looks with her maid. Duan FeiZhou could see that she didn’t trust Mr. Thales at first, but with those words, she had come to admire Mr. Thales.

But well…Mr. Thales didn’t get to know her through occult arts. Duan FeiZhou, who was a modern person, knew that it was called the Barnum effect, that is, people often believe that a general, generic personality description reveals their own characteristics very accurately. Such was the case with Mr. Thales’ three guesses about the Countess. The Barnum effect, combined with a little simple logical reasoning, was convincing. ¹

First, the Countess had lost a loved one. She was of an age where it was perfectly normal to have loved ones pass away around her.

Secondly, she and her husband and husband’s family do not get along. She was traveling alone without a husband by her side, which was actually quite rare in the current era. She was likely to be a widow, or not get along with her husband. A married woman being in conflict with her mother-in-law was common, so it wasn’t wrong to make this speculation.

Finally, that ‘Countess Hohenems’ wasn’t her real name. This was also easy to guess. She had an extraordinary temperament, and even the maids around her were very noble, which meant that she was certainly not an ordinary noblewoman. For fear of being recognized, it was also very common to use a false name when traveling.

“Please forgive me, Sir, I previously thought you were a charlatan and a wooer. After all, I have met many such people before.” The Countess hung her head.

Mr. Thales stroked his beard. “No matter. Every misunderstanding with others will urge me to refine myself.”

“If it were you, I really believe you could solve my sleep problems.” The Countess said. “How would you do that, please?”

“I am a psychic medium, so I will perform a secret ritual to enter your dreams and find out the culprit of your nightmares. But I’m afraid it’s too late today, I think tomorrow will be more appropriate.”

The Countess thought for a moment, then, as if she had made up her mind she said, “Then we will come back tomorrow. How much will you charge?”

Mr. Thales gave a figure. She signed a check to Mr. Thales. The latter’s hand was shaking as he held the check. The two parties agreed to meet again tomorrow at the same time, and the countess left with her maid. Mr. Thales stared at the figures on the check and let out a contented sigh.

“Fallen, Thales, you’ve fallen.” Z wandered in and said disdainfully.

“Call it what you will, the money’s in my pocket anyway.” Mr. Thales said cheekily. He collected the check, and crooked his finger at Duan FeiZhou to come closer. “Boy, I’m going to have to rely on you for this.” The old man said solemnly. “You will get thirty percent of the fee after the job is done.”

Z crossed his arms, “Don’t get him involved.”

“But he’s the only one who can perform the occult technique I’m talking about!” Mr. Thales protested.

Duan FeiZhou glanced at Xenophon “You and Xenophon are both occult practitioners, why do I have to do it?”

“Well, first of all, that occult technique is rather energy-consuming, and I’m too old for it.” Mr. Thales said. “And Xenophon is not good at illusion-type occult arts. If we let him perform this occult art, God knows what will happen. So we have to let you do it.”

“But we are casting the spell for the Countess tomorrow. I just started learning today, isn’t it too late?”

“Of course it’s not too late!” Mr. Thales was confident. “This secret technique is very simple, it’s just to let you enter the dream state of other people to see what they are dreaming about. You can learn it quickly!”

Duan FeiZhou was doubtful. “What if I fail then?”

“Then I’ll have to step in!” Mr. Thales pounded his old back, “You go to the lab first, I’ll come over later to teach you.”

“All right…” Duan FeiZhou was still a little distrustful of this old man. However he came to this island to learn the occult philosophies, so he couldn’t refuse someone’s initiative to teach, right? He ascended the stairs and headed for the study on the third floor before entering the basement through the secret passage in the study.

After his footsteps disappeared up the stairs, Z grabbed Mr. Thales by the beard.

“What the hell are you up to?” The white-haired Nightmen said in a warning tone. “He is a novice in occult philosophy. How could he possibly master such a profound occult art?”

“I want to see where his limits really are.” Mr. Thales said. “It takes the average person learning occult philosophy three months to become proficient in the method of transferring energy. Isn’t that right, Xenophon?”

He looked at his disciple.

Xenophon nodded. “It took me two months to learn how to manipulate objects at will, and I’m already a fast learner.”

“But that boy mastered it in just one day. So I wanted to see how much potential he has left to explore.” Mr. Thales pushed Z away, and smoothed his beard. “It doesn’t matter if he fails, there’s still me and Xenophon, right? If it doesn’t work out, we can do the spell for the Countess then.”

“There won’t be any danger, right?” Z asked.

“Of course not, the Countess will only feel that she had a dream…”

Z interrupted him, “I mean, there is no danger to the enchanter, right?”

Mr. Thales gave him a strange look. “You seem to be particularly concerned about that boy.”

Xenophon laughed with a treacherous smile. “Gee, Mentor, this is Greece. The history of ‘same sex’ is quite old, you must see it, can’t you?”

“Xenophon!” Z snarled.

Mr. Thales’ body leaned back. “Well. Now I finally understand why you’ve been a bachelor until now. So you–”

“Shut up!” Z said in a bad mood. He turned and brushed them off, not wanting to talk to this pair of improper master and disciple. However, Mr. Thales clearly saw a faint red flush on the ears of the ever-vigilant Nightman leader.

He tugged on his apprentice’s sleeve, and asked Xenophon to come closer. “Z and that kid, really…”

“I share your heroic opinion.” Xenophon said roguishly.

Mr. Thales mused, “But I’m afraid that boy is not as simple as he thinks. You may not know that he has been secretly practicing the method of transferring energy from the very beginning. I think he can quickly master the skills I teach because he has been practicing for a long time. I’m only telling you about this. You won’t talk too much about it, right?”

“I will keep my mouth shut, Mentor. It is a secret between us occult practitioners.” Xenophon’s eyes flashed with an unusual light. “The newcomer, I’m afraid, is far more complicated than you and I can imagine.”