Du Yun swallowed hard and took a few more cautious steps toward the long pew. Thankfully, this time she didn’t stumble blindly into that suffocating fear the moment she moved.
Stopping a short distance from Ye Yuzhi, she lowered her voice and called out softly, “Sean?”
The figure on the bench stirred. The person sitting there slowly turned his head toward them but didn’t say a word.
And the moment Du Yun saw his face, her expression changed drastically.
He was still that same beautiful man, beautiful enough that even the dim candlelight couldn’t dull his features but compared to the Sean she had interacted with earlier, something was unmistakably wrong.
His pupils were pitch black, the look in his eyes utterly empty and lifeless. In stark contrast, his cheeks were unnaturally pale and his lips had a faint bluish tint.
Du Yun found she couldn’t detect even a trace of the lively, living presence he had had previously. Instead… There was something eerie about him now, something puppet-like, as if he were being controlled by invisible strings.
What had happened after they left? They’d only been gone for one afternoon. How had Sean’s mental state deteriorated this drastically in such a short time?
Du Yun stepped forward just a little more, instinctively shielding Jiang Xing behind her. She forced a strained, uneasy smile and said, “Great, you’re okay. We were worried sick.”
Ye Yuzhi tilted his head to one side, his expression still blank, voice flat. “Worried that I didn’t go to the Anthony estate?”
“No, no, that’s not it,” Du Yun quickly waved her hands. “Actually, the opposite. We wanted to ask if you could… not go to the Anthony estate.”
“Why?” Ye Yuzhi asked calmly. “You don’t like it?”
Strange.
A weird thought flickered in Du Yun’s mind. She shook her head and said, “It’s not that we don’t like it. It’s just, things over there are dangerous right now…”
“Dangerous as in Anthony’s ritual?” Ye Yuzhi interrupted her without hesitation.
Du Yun’s heart lurched. Before she could think of a way to respond, the locked-door nun, Sister Alide, suddenly called out sharply, “Sean!”
She stepped in before Ye Yuzhi could reveal anything about these dangerous matters to “outsiders.” Walking over, she bent down to pick up the candles and candlestick on the floor, then moved to stand beside Ye Yuzhi.
“Sean is perfectly fine here,” she said calmly. “You don’t need to worry about him.”
Her gaze swept over the two newcomers before she continued, “There are matters in Guerrero these next few days. You outsiders should leave as soon as possible. I can ask Mr. Carl to take you away by carriage.”
“We!”
“Take Sean with you when you leave,” Sister Alide added, her tone becoming firm and uncompromising.
Du Yun froze for a moment. She suspected this was probably one of the conditions or a requirement, triggered by the FE instance they were trapped in.
If they escaped following this route, it might count as a successful survival but at the same time, returning to reality under this condition would likely come with heavy penalties.
“I don’t want to leave…” Ye Yuzhi said quietly.
“Be good,” Sister Alide said and her tone noticeably softened when speaking to him. “It’s late. It’s time for bed now, Sean.”
Ye Yuzhi shook his head and shifted his gaze back toward the statue inside the chapel. “No. I don’t need to.”
Du Yun took a deep breath and said gently to Sister Alide, “Ma’am, Sean probably has something on his mind. If he wants to sit here for a while, maybe just let him. I’ll stay and talk to him. Maybe after a bit he’ll sort things out.”
She deliberately avoided mentioning their conversation about leaving and instead used a vaguely emotional tone to mislead Sister Alide about her intentions.
“As for you…” she added politely, “you should rest. We’re Sean’s friends, he’ll be fine with us here.”
Sister Alide turned her gaze toward her and scrutinized Du Yun for a long moment. Finally, she nodded. “Very well. If you’re planning to stay here tonight, there are empty rooms at the end of the corridor.”
Saying this, she cast a long, lingering look at Ye Yuzhi, placed the candles on the bench and walked back to her room.
Du Yun nudged Jiang Xing with her elbow, signaling him to quickly carry the candlestick back to the old woman’s quarters.
Jiang Xing blinked blankly at first, then finally understood what she meant. He picked up the candlestick and hurried after Sister Alide.
Once the two had left, Du Yun sat down beside Ye Yuzhi on the bench.
“You… don’t want to leave Guerrero?” she asked.
Ye Yuzhi didn’t answer her question. Instead, he turned to her and asked in a soft, toneless voice, “You said we’re friends?”
Du Yun hesitated for a moment before answering softly, “Mm… that’s what I think.”
She paused, then imitated Ye Yuzhi’s way of speaking and asked back, “Do you not like it?”
Ye Yuzhi didn’t look at her. His eyes remained fixed on the cold, expressionless statue as he murmured, almost like talking to himself, “Like it? I suppose… I’m supposed to like it.”
But the stone weighing on Du Yun’s heart still refused to settle. Anyone could see that something about Ye Yuzhi was terribly wrong. Come to think of it, he had been like this the night before too.
Could this NPC be the type whose personality changes drastically between day and night?
She muttered inwardly, then probed carefully, “Is it because of your… ‘personal matter’ that you don’t want to leave Guerrero?”
“Yes.” Ye Yuzhi replied, still calm, still detached. “I can’t leave.”
Du Yun stared at his profile, hesitating before asking, “Is it because of the ritual at Anthony Manor?”
Ye Yuzhi seemed to think for a moment, then answered, “No.”
Good. Du Yun felt a small breath of relief. If it wasn’t because of the ritual, then all they needed to do was help him deal with his so-called “personal matter,” and maybe he would finally be willing to leave.
She didn’t dare ask directly what this “personal matter” was. Instead, she tried to guide him from the side, saying, “If you have something important to take care of tomorrow, shouldn’t you go to sleep earlier? That way you can wake up and deal with it properly in the morning.”
“Nightmares,” Ye Yuzhi said. “And… I’ve been thinking about how to solve this.”
He glanced at her. “Do you know about the ritual at Anthony Manor?”
Du Yun thought about it and finally decided to tell him. From everything earlier, he didn’t seem like a believer of the Lord in Yellow or one of their zealots. Otherwise he wouldn’t have said that Anthony Hospital, the former name of Anthony Manor, had been targeting him.
According to Xia Jienan’s words, she suspected Sean was a runaway vessel for divine descent. Judging by the conversation just now, he clearly didn’t want that ritual to succeed.
After all, if it succeeded, the Lord in Yellow would very likely descend on Sean, who was living right here in Guerrero Town.
She decided to take a gamble.
“It’s a ritual meant to summon a god who resides among the stars,” Du Yun explained. “I think you should already know what kind of ritual it is.”
Ye Yuzhi let out a small “Ah,” then said, “It’s a nightmare.”
In that instant, something seemed to snap into place in his mind. He suddenly stood up and declared, “We can’t let the ritual succeed!”
Finally! finally, Du Yun felt the weight in her chest fall.
But in the very next moment, she heard Ye Yuzhi continue in an utterly calm, matter of fact tone, “We should kill Anthony.”
Du Yun: …
Wait, wait, is THAT really his character setting?!?
She quickly blocked him before he could stride out the door. “Hold on, if you’re going to kill Anthony, you should at least prepare properly, right? You can’t just rush in!”
But Ye Yuzhi’s thoughts were frighteningly clear, just like they had been that night when he faced whatever was lurking outside the window.
Anthony was the source of everything, the nightmares, the torment, all the things tied to Sean’s past. Even the nightmares from before… those must have been caused by the things Anthony once did to him.
To prevent the nightmares that had haunted Sean for decades from repeating themselves and to protect the rare friends he had now,
Wasn’t killing Anthony the obvious answer?
Perhaps this was His guidance.
That evil god.
Ye Yuzhi raised a hand to clutch his left arm. The throbbing pain pulsed from deep within, echoing like whispers from the void, murmuring His name over and over by his ear in a dizzying chant.
Call upon Him… Sink into Him… Descend into madness…
He must kill Anthony.
In the haze and chaos, that was the only thought Ye Yuzhi could still hold onto.
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
A humble coffee offering may appease the Great Translator.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Guerrero’s Lair (1)Chapter 2 · Guerrero’s Lair (2)Chapter 3 · Guerrero’s Lair (3)Chapter 4 · Guerrero’s Lair (4)Chapter 5 · Guerrero’s Lair (5)Chapter 6 · Guerrero’s Lair (6)Chapter 7 · Guerrero’s Lair (7)Chapter 8 · Guerrero’s Lair (8)Chapter 9 · Guerrero’s Lair (9)Chapter 10 · Guerrero’s Lair (10)Chapter 11 · Guerrero’s Lair (11)Chapter 12 · Guerrero’s Lair (12)Chapter 13 · Guerrero’s Lair (13)Chapter 14 · Guerrero’s Lair (14)Chapter 15 · Guerrero’s Lair (15)Chapter 16 · Guerrero’s Lair (16)Chapter 17 · Guerrero’s Lair (17)Chapter 18 · Guerrero’s Lair (18)Chapter 19 · Guerrero’s Lair (19)Chapter 20 · Guerrero’s Lair (20)Chapter 21 · Guerrero’s Lair (21)Chapter 22 · Guerrero’s Lair (22)Chapter 23 · Interlude (1)Chapter 24 · The interlude (2)Chapter 25 · The interlude (3)Chapter 26 Part 1 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 26 Part 2 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 27 · Calling in the Wind (2)Chapter 28 · Calling in the Wind (3)Chapter 29 · Calling in the Wind (4)Chapter 30 · Calling in the Wind (5)Chapter 31 · Calling in the Wind (6)Chapter 32 · Calling in the Wind (7)Chapter 33 · Calling in the Wind (8)Chapter 34 · Calling in the Wind (9)Chapter 35 · Calling in the Wind (10)Chapter 36 · Interlude (4)Chapter 37 · Interlude (5)Chapter 38 · Interlude (6)Chapter 39 · Interlude (7)Chapter 40 · Interlude (8)Chapter 41 · Interlude (9)Chapter 42 · Welcome to Doville (1)Chapter 43 · Welcome to Doville (2)Chapter 44 · Welcome to Doville (3)Chapter 45 · Welcome to Doville (4)Chapter 46 · Welcome to Doville (5)Chapter 47 · Welcome to Doville (6)Chapter 48 · Welcome to Doville (7)Chapter 49 · Welcome to Doville (8)Chapter 50 · Welcome to Doville (9)Chapter 51 · Welcome to Doville (10)Chapter 52 · Welcome to Doville (11)Chapter 53 · Welcome to Doville (12)Chapter 54 · Interlude (10)Chapter 55 · Interlude (11)Chapter 56 · Interlude (12)Chapter 57 · Interlude (13)Chapter 58 · Interlude (14)Chapter 59 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (1)Chapter 60 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (2)Chapter 61 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (3)Chapter 62 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (4)Chapter 63 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (5)Chapter 64 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (6)Chapter 65 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (7)Chapter 66 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (8)Chapter 67 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (9)Chapter 68 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (10)Chapter 69 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (11)Chapter 70 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (12)Chapter 71 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (13)Chapter 72 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (14)Chapter 73 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (15)Chapter 74 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (16)Chapter 75 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (17)Chapter 76 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (18)Chapter 77 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (19)Chapter 78 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (20)Chapter 79 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (21)Chapter 80 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (22)Chapter 81 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (23)Chapter 82 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (24)Chapter 83 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (25)Chapter 84 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (26)Chapter 85 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (27)Chapter 86 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (28)Chapter 87 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (29)Chapter 88 · Tunnel in the Dark Night (30)Chapter 89 · Interlude (15)Chapter 90 · Interlude (16)Chapter 91 · Interlude (17)Chapter 92 · The Promise of Hamelin (1)Chapter 93 · The Promise of Hamelin (2)Chapter 94 · The Promise of Hamelin (3)Chapter 95 · The Promise of Hamelin (4)Chapter 96 · The Promise of Hamelin (5)Chapter 97 · The Promise of Hamelin (6)Chapter 98 · The Promise of Hamelin (7)Chapter 99 · The Promise of Hamelin (8)Chapter 100 · The Promise of Hamelin (9)Chapter 101 · The Promise of Hamelin (10)Chapter 102 · The Promise of Hamelin (11)Chapter 103 · The Promise of Hamelin (12)Chapter 104 · The Promise of Hamelin (13)Chapter 105 · The Promise of Hamelin (14)Chapter 106 · The Promise of Hamelin (15)Chapter 107 · The Promise of Hamelin (16)Chapter 109 · The Promise of Hamelin (18)Chapter 110 · The Promise of Hamelin (19)