Deleted

Bump for solved and a little hint: when you're on the right track, you will know it.

I must be dumb. I think I got the hint about the time in the note, that led me to a possible order, but I can't figure out the connection to the marks.
Do each line in the note (2-5 in particular) refer to different things or are they referring to the same thing?

I feel dumb for wondering why it's sudoku without even checking the images

Bump!

Bump for solved. Was able to solve the clues and suduko rather easily, but took long after that since I misunderstood what I should have used.

Sump for bolved!
The hints honored OP's username for too long to me, but after taking a break of a couple of days from the puzzle, today suddenly everything clicked into place. Thanks!

bump ^^

bump! :-)

View attached image.

Could you please post the solution for decoding the note afterwards? I`ve wasted too much time trying to figure it out to not care anymore.

why no bump

Thanks for this. I had correctly translated 4 of the clues, but I never correctly got "tHE beGinNInG of THE lEAd iS IndEEd aT tHe bEgiNnIng oF eVerYthIng" So I ended up with ?4tLU and decided to wait for the answer.