Eldritch Horror Theatre

”Why did you leave the Pocket Watch behind?”

In the dead of night, the two civil clerics from The Order finally turned to leave after a grueling evening.

Almost immediately, Amira looked at Reginald, making no effort to hide her confusion.

”I shouldn’t need to remind you how important that thing is. Aside from Anke, it’s practically the only find we’ve had in our investigation so far. More than one victim claimed to have seen it.”

”Even though it doesn’t appear supernatural on its own, and the contents inside are impossible to understand, shoving something so important into his hands serves no purpose—it only adds unknown risks.”

”Or do you think Anke can uncover its secrets? If that’s what you really think, wouldn’t honest communication be better than this kind of misdirection?”

”Don’t you think you’re contradicting yourself?”

Amira’s tone bordered on severe, but Reginald merely glanced at her, completely unmoved.

”If carrying that thing around serves no purpose, where does the unknown risk come from?”

...Faced with this pointed question, Amira found herself momentarily at a loss for words.

”I know you don’t approve of using the victims to take further risks, but you saw what happened today. If it weren’t for Anke’s own risky behavior, we might have missed too much...”

A wistful expression crossed Reginald’s face.

”I think that sometimes, we ought to learn a thing or two from Mr. Anke.”

”Learn from someone who views all of this as a Nightmare?”

Amira had remained silent for a long time before she finally looked around and spoke in a low voice.

”At least he seems willing enough. Who knows—even if nothing happens while he carries it, he might actually bring us a surprise after he studies it.”

Reginald’s stance was visibly resolute.

”His willingness is largely driven by bias. It isn’t fair to Anke.”

But Amira was clearly not so easily swayed.

”I’ll state everything clearly in the report.”

”That’s fine. I only have one request.”

Reginald slowly shook his head.

”Write it all down. Don’t leave out any details. Let them make their own judgment.”

...

Interesting.

As the subject of their argument, Fu Qian was deep in thought, staring at the opened back cover of the Pocket Watch.

Engravings on this kind of object weren’t uncommon, but the problem lay in what it said...

[...Handle the lady with care...]

[...Ravaged by time, yet still smooth and radiant with a slight wipe. This is the part of herself she is most satisfied with...]

[...Her only regret is that her ruined body has still not been restored...]

A name, an oath, a blessing—finding any of those engraved inside wouldn’t have been strange.

But the tone of the legible portions before him was simply far too bizarre.

Handle the lady with care?

If this were a lady’s pocket watch, that would at least make sense. The problem was, this text made it sound like the pocket watch itself was the lady.

After reading through the text, Fu Qian couldn’t help but scoff.

Even though he hadn’t had the chance to pry it open back in the Painting World, it was truly hard to imagine that the vessel for the blood of the Dragon of Time would have something like this engraved inside.

Coupled with the fact that it carried no aura of the Transcendent Tier whatsoever, he figured he had been overthinking it earlier. The probability that this object was merely a replica spawned by the Nightmare in reality seemed to be shooting straight up.

But it only seemed that way. Fu Qian never easily chalked anything up to coincidence.

From Reginald and Amira’s conversation, he could confirm that the Pocket Watch was the result of The Order’s month-long investigation into the Painting World.

More than one victim of the Painting World remembered this object, having seen it during their Nightmare experience.

Why?

Popping the back cover into place, Fu Qian naturally recalled how the Countess had described the Pocket Watch back then: a Sacred Relic of The Church.

Considering that world’s pursuit of the sequence, the chances of it being revered by the masses were quite high, since it was a Sacred Relic.

It only made sense that many people knew of its extraordinary nature.

But that raised a problem. Considering there were seven paths of the sequence in the Painting World alone, there obviously couldn’t be just one Sacred Relic of The Church. What about the others?

With the strength of The Order and the vast number of Nightmare victims providing information, they shouldn’t have easily missed anything.

Yet the argument between those two just now clearly confirmed this was their only find.

Why is that?

Did they fail to find them? Or were the other items not special enough... not special enough.

Unlike the other well-preserved Sacred Relics, this was the one the Countess had stolen.

And speaking of which, she also happened to be a lady...

Fu Qian felt he was onto something.

In that case, I might as well take a Razor to it and remove the word ”also.”

Merge the two subjects into one, and substitute the Countess into that text?

[...Handle the Countess with care...]

That phrasing was far too bizarre... but if he didn’t rush to dismiss it, one detail suddenly made sense—why was this the only item found?

Why did it seem to be the only thing that had returned from the Nightmare?

His mind raced, and Fu Qian realized he had arrived at an interesting conclusion.

Because it isn’t an item; it’s a person.

The Pocket Watch was of the same nature as the Rayson Couple, only it had taken on the outward appearance of an object.

And precisely because of that, just like the other victims, it was both ordinary and special.

...

Now came the final question: why would the Pocket Watch be the Countess?

Since he had categorized her as unimportant information, it took Fu Qian quite a bit of effort to vaguely recall the Countess’s face.

Along with the state she had been in when he walked out of her manor.

The situation at the time had been clear enough. She had suffered repeated blows, her body was crippled, and she was at death’s door. He had even called for help on her behalf and advised her to spend her twilight years in peace.

In fact, her most severe injuries had come from him.

To deal with the Priest who had taken her hostage, he had pretended to negotiate. Then, catching them both off guard, he had indiscriminately unleashed a blast of Time Dragon Breath—and as it happened, the text engraved on the Pocket Watch actually did say ”ravaged by time.”

Recalling his sinful act of killing a captive, a possible sequence of events quickly dawned on Fu Qian—

The Countess had been on the brink of death, and the dismantled Pocket Watch had still been on her person.

Afterward, he had cooperated with the Witch to introduce decay to the Painting World.

Under the influence of that change, or perhaps with the help of some other power, did the Countess—whose body was rotting but whose will had not faded—use this Sacred Relic of The Church as a final anchor for her soul?

And then, in the tide of the Nightmare, had she served as a dreaming subject herself, ”waking up” in this peculiar state with words engraved on her body?

Seems I’ve found a loophole in this perfect world. Where there’s a willing volunteer, there’s a way.

Fu Qian silently praised himself.

After continually breaking through his own lower limits and attempting to decipher the puzzle The Order couldn’t comprehend, this reality—which appeared completely normal no matter how you looked at it—had finally exposed a hint of unnaturalness.