The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 152

“This is a lie, Lord Ciel.”

After the slow voice sounded, Merritt’s eyes dimmed slightly, and she slowly lowered her head.

When she looked up again at the young girl called Ciel before her, she blinked, and tears instantly slid down from the corners of her eyes.

“The money has already been given to you. What… what exactly do you want?”

Merritt maintained a fragile image and retreated two steps. At this moment, quite a few people were already gathered around watching, and even police officers were present.

If they continued to block the way here, more and more carriages would be unable to pass.

As long as those cultists didn’t dare expose their identities in broad daylight, they wouldn’t dare do anything to her. After all, they still didn’t know she was the “Dream Thief” from last night, and absolutely didn’t know her identity.

The young girl’s weak and helpless appearance seemed to attract quite a few sympathizers. The surrounding crowd began whispering.

Even Tara, who had been behind Ciel the whole time, felt this was not a place to linger.

Tara was also an old hand at hiding her identity. Staying any longer now would only mean more people would see their faces, which was extremely unfavorable for them.

Even if they knew the young girl opposite had hidden her name, they couldn’t do anything… After all, the other party had only hidden a name.

However, Tara made no move—the Mother Goddess was not in a hurry, so she had no reason to be either.

“What happened?”

At this moment, several detectives also walked to the scene, standing between the young girl and Ciel. Seemingly maintaining order, they were actually blocking Ciel behind them.

“It’s nothing, Detective. Just a small accident. Tara, the money.” Ciel smiled and looked back at Tara.

Tara understood perfectly. She took out a delicate wallet from the inner pocket of her cloak and directly pulled out two banknotes with a face value of 50 Su pounds from it.

Ciel took the banknotes, deliberately shaking them in her hand. She could almost hear the murmurs of surprise from the civilian onlookers.

Ciel walked to the young lady’s front, handed her the banknotes, and said, “Sorry for delaying your time. Please accept my apology.”

“Move along, move along. Don’t block the way. Nothing more to see.”

The detectives seemed to have received a hint from Tara and began to disperse the surrounding crowd.

Those people, seeing there was nothing more interesting to watch, dispersed under the police’s urging. Even Ciel and Tara had already boarded another carriage and left.

Only the detectives remained, directing the coachmen to drag the scattered carriage parts and wheels to the side, clearing a passage for carriages to pass.

Merritt, holding two 50 Su pound banknotes in her hand, stood stiffly in place. The bright sunlight shone on her, but she felt no warmth, only biting cold.

“Miss, do you need me to call another carriage?” The coachman, after checking the horse’s injuries, jogged back to Merritt’s side and asked.

But he received no reply, only saw his young mistress hand him the banknotes in her hand.

“Take it back… buy… buy a carriage and two good horses again,” Merritt said, “I’ll walk over myself.”

“Uh… okay.”

The coachman accepted the two large-denomination Su pound banknotes with delight, quickly stuffing them into his pocket.

This money was enough for him to buy these things and still have a large sum left over for himself.

The coachman happily led the horse away, while Merritt stood in place for a while before taking a step, continuing to walk forward.

In the eyes of others, everything on this street was as usual, except for the two damaged carriages piled to the side waiting to be cleared.

Only in Merritt’s eyes, around her, over twenty black and white shadows had gradually gathered.

Some leaned against the wall, some leaned against lampposts, some just stood motionless in the middle of the road, letting ordinary people and carriages pass through their bodies.

These black and white shadows just watched Merritt, waiting for her next move.

Merritt knew she was finished.

In the brief few minutes of contact just now, she exposed too many flaws, didn’t even know which flaw allowed the other party to completely lock onto her.

She didn’t even know where the main bodies of those black and white shadows of varying shapes were located. The idea of dragging all the controllers behind them into a dream seemed utterly delusional.

Now, she definitely couldn’t go to the meeting place anymore… She would kill everyone.

Every move she made now was under the surveillance of those cultists. She had no safe place to go.

Catch the leader first… She had absolutely no chance of winning against these cultists.

But she knew the opponent’s data, knew that the red-haired cultist leader was only Tier 1, knew that the archbishop beside her was only Tier 2.

As long as she could have isolated contact with them, she was confident she could drag the two into a dream again. Whether modifying their memories or directly instigating them, these were ways for her to escape.

She had no other choice.

She slowly looked up, her gaze slowly focused, meeting the gaze of the tall black shadow standing in the middle of the road.

Merritt was using this method to tell the other party she could see them.

The “Instigator’s” hiding ability could deceive them, but not for long.

The moment her gaze met the shadow’s, the black shadow slowly raised its hand, pointed in a direction, then the black shadow slowly walked towards the direction it had just pointed.

Merritt nodded slightly, then turned around, followed that black shadow from earlier. Other illusory shadows also gradually approached Merritt, following behind her.

After following the black shadow for about twenty minutes, Merritt finally stopped outside a house in the Gem District. A familiar carriage was still parked outside the house, the new one the cultist leader took when leaving.

“Gulp—”

Merritt swallowed. The black and white shadows around her had stopped at the sides of the door, seemingly waiting for Merritt to knock.

Under the silent pressure, Merritt walked to the wooden door, slowly raised her hand, and knocked on the door.

“Tara, please open the door.”

A familiar voice came from inside. With the sound of footsteps approaching, the wooden door was opened. Merritt saw the indifferent dark green-haired girl, and simultaneously, smelled the aroma of stewed meat from inside.

“Come in.”

The girl stepped aside. Merritt took a deep breath and slowly walked in.

Before she could even examine the room’s furnishings, Merritt was attracted by the clanging sound of kitchenware.

She turned to look and saw the red-haired cultist leader. She was actually wearing an apron, holding a ladle, stirring in a pot of meat, seemingly cooking something.

A cultist leader… cooking?