The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 192

“Relax, Uris.”

Ciel slowly spoke, breaking the silence in the reception room. “This is the absolute center of Ansu. Whatever we do will be noticed… You know this.”

Uris remained silent, not replying, only quietly summoning two white shadows to block her front.

Ciel stood up, took the necklace from Tara’s hand, walked around the round table in front of her, and approached Uris.

Ciel’s unhurried footsteps made Uris almost react defensively. She quickly took a few steps back, even knocking over the antique wooden chair behind her.

“Don’t come any closer!” Uris warned.

“Sometimes I really feel helpless, Uris… Even though we’ve met so many times in dreams, you don’t have any memory,”

Ciel slowly cornered Uris against the wall and held the pendant in front of her. “Perhaps, your method of communication is wrong…”

Another truth… Who exactly is she? Why does the “Missionary’s” lie detection have no effect on her?!

“Don’t you want to see it again?”

Ciel held up the necklace in her right hand in front of Uris. “The lovely creation I made that you saw in Berren City…”

Snap—

With a snap of her fingers, the darkness before Uris’s eyes quickly faded. Everything before her eyes gained color.

The beautiful red-haired young girl holding up the pendant, the green-haired girl behind her looking at her coldly, and the goddess statue in the young girl’s hand, gently swaying, with a bizarre symbol carved on its face.

This was a symbol very similar to both the Church of the Savior Goddess and the Divine Advent Church symbols. It also carried symbols representing the sun and moon, but the carving style was different.

This was a character Ciel had taken from the upper part of the character “夏” (xià) in ancient Chinese script… After multiple tests in the basement, Ciel found that this character precisely corresponded to her, and was quite similar to the church symbol of the Church of the Savior Goddess.

[Translator’s Note: For your information, “夏” (xià) here is the first character in Ciel’s name (“夏尔”, xià ěr) in the original Chinese text.]

To deceive, this symbol was perfect.

But Uris, who had now fallen into illusion, was looking at the colors before her eyes in shock. She turned her head left and right. After just a slight delay, she could “see” everything around her.

This was an illusion Ciel created in Uris’s mind using the “Subverter’s” ability, essentially modeling everything around them and projecting it into Uris’s mind.

—This was something that could only be done for people who had lost their sight later in life. People who were born blind could not imagine “colors” and objects. Even if a “Subverter” dragged them into an illusion using their abilities, they would likely only be able to “see” blurry shapes of gray haze because they couldn’t understand it.

“Try it.”

Ciel guided in a low voice, “Pray… to me”

To… her?

Uris regained her senses and looked at Ciel before her with some shock.

No no no… This might just be a trick of the Divine Advent Church. They want to corrupt me!

Uris looked at Tara behind Ciel.

Even if Ciel wasn’t from the Divine Advent Church, her attendant definitely was… Perhaps the young girl before her was just misled by people from the Divine Advent Church…

“Don’t look at me like that.”

Looking at Uris’s vigilant gaze, Tara said calmly, “I am the Archbishop of the Divine Advent Church. If I wanted to kill you, you would have died in Berren City. I wouldn’t need to do it myself.”

An Archbishop… this size…

Uris quickly remembered someone in her memory who matched.

That was a senior figure in the Church of the Savior Goddess, obsessed with studying ancient texts and scriptures, who ultimately went astray more than ten years ago, took the manuscripts she had written, and defected to the Divine Advent Church. She was welcomed with the highest regard by the Divine Advent Church…

This matter was often recounted by the nuns in the convent as a case study, warning them to look at the unreasonable and merely incorrect parts of ancient texts with a critical eye.

An Archbishop appearing here meant that the area was definitely filled with the Divine Advent Church’s eyes and ears… She absolutely couldn’t escape.

And…

The words spoken by the red-haired young girl before her… why did they make people want to believe so much…?

Uris herself hadn’t noticed, but she had slowly raised her hand and taken the necklace.

It’s just praying… I’m just praying to the Goddess. Nothing will happen…

Goddess…

Uris, trembling, took the pendant and slowly closed her eyes.

Everything around them was very cooperative. As she closed her eyes, she fell into darkness. She returned to the familiar darkness she experienced every day.

Goddess… What should I do… How can I escape this crisis before me… Please guide me…

Buzz—

A slight buzzing sounded in Uris’s mind. The statue in her hand seemed to start warming up slightly. And before her empty darkness, a silver light that she had never seen before appeared.

This was just like the countless times she had prayed before. A brief buzzing sounded in her mind, fragmented whispers entered her thoughts, but she couldn’t make out the Goddess’s oracle at all.

But this time, the whispers in her mind were clear and distinct.

“Follow me, Uris.”

Uris, hearing the Goddess’s whisper clearly for the first time, suddenly opened her eyes. But her vision didn’t regain light. She could only hear the calm breathing of the young girl standing before her.

How is this possible…?

Uris’s legs went limp. She sat down weakly against the wall.

Uris was currently in a state where her worldview was almost collapsing. She was lost and disoriented.

The necklace slipped from her hand. More and more terrifying whispers began to assault her mind again. At this moment, a warm hand took hers and placed the pendant in her palm.

“Uris… relax…”

Ciel slowly said, “Take me to see Eleanor. You should know where she is.”

Eleanor, the “Disciplinarian Saint” Ciel had seen in a previous simulation, who had witnessed the arrival of the Grim Worm in the simulation.

Although she often disrupted the Divine Advent Church’s actions and was called one of the most disloyal to the Mother Goddess and most foolishly believing in the doctrines of the Church of the Savior Goddess by Tara… At that time, Ciel could sense Eleanor’s violent inner turmoil upon seeing the Grim Worm.

Eleanor was the Archbishop of the Church of the Savior Goddess, and one of the leaders of the Judicator’s Court. She had many followers within and had the external title of “Grim Worm Missionary.”

If she could be won over, Ciel’s church reunification plan would be almost halfway to success.

Now, the most important thing was to find Eleanor.