The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 223

Tara had the identity of being from the Divine Advent Church, which would allow her to execute the church merger better. Furthermore, in the eyes of other organizations, the Divine Advent Church was already half-bound to the Church of the Savior Goddess. Handing these matters over to Tara was most suitable.

Ciel naturally couldn’t do these things herself. She was in the shadows and could always maintain the initiative. She couldn’t actively expose herself and hand over the initiative.

However, the church merger had to be done secretly… In Forte’s eyes, the church merger was almost synonymous with the name “Keyman.” If Tara directly announced the church merger, it would only cause Forte to have a stress reaction.

She needed an event that Forte wouldn’t realize who was behind it, something that would happen naturally…

A small “miracle.”

As for Amy, she didn’t need to continue pretending to be a “Saintess” in reality to approach Eleanor. With this scepter and Sacred Contract, Ciel had solved the problem of communicating with the Church of the Savior Goddess without exposing herself.

“Okay.”

Ciel placed the scepter before her, looked up at the two people before her, and said, “It’s a pleasure to cooperate.”

Hearing Ciel agree to cooperate, both Eleanor and Madeline secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

According to the information extracted from Forte’s brain, if Ciel hadn’t helped, they truly wouldn’t have known how to break this situation…

Killing Forte would only cause time to rewind, potentially even back to before they had obtained Forte’s brain. At that point, they would be left in the dark again.

If the Saintess was alive, they could have retained some information through the Other Side node…

The Saintess’s sudden death seemed to be not just because of the brain, but someone did it deliberately… to prevent the Church of the Savior Goddess from obtaining the correct information.

An enemy who was “always one step ahead” was quite terrifying.

Fortunately, they also had a teammate who was “always one step ahead.”

After handing over the items, Eleanor and Madeline did not leave but remained before Ciel—this was mandatory.

They also had a task: to personally witness Ciel’s rewind.

If no changes occurred after the time limit, they would directly retrieve the scepter and Sacred Contract and find another way.

They didn’t have much experience dealing with time-related transcendent abilities. This was the safest method they could think of.

Ciel had no objection to this. She merely held the Sacred Contract and the scepter, leaned back in the chair, and slowly fell asleep, waiting for the simulation time to end.

Time passed by the second. After an unknown duration, Ciel, who was sound asleep, was awakened by a flash of silver-white light before her eyes.

Opening her eyes, Ciel found herself in a silver-white space.

【Reality】

【Holy Year 741, July 18th, 7:26 AM】

【Evaluation: Rejoice! This is the Host’s first great attempt at path merging!】

【Although not entirely successful, at least you tried ^^】

【Are you wondering why you are seeing the settlement in this save file space?】

【Beep beep beep… The system is running out of power, to be continued in the next chapter—】

【Accept this. This is what you deserve based on your performance.】

【Rewards: Fate Points × 54, Unlock 【Segmented Save】】

【Fate Points: 550】

Segmented save?

Ciel looked at the new “skill” that appeared before her, feeling a little confused.

What is this?

Soon, the system’s notification appeared before Ciel.

【Segmented Save: When the Host successfully survives until the end of a simulation, you can choose any time segment of yourself within it to save. Segmented saves are limited to two per successful simulation】

Can… segment and save my time in the simulation?

In other words…

If I consumed path A potion in the simulation and later switched to path B potion, and successfully survived, I can save both paths simultaneously?

【Correct】

The system’s reply verified Ciel’s idea.

If that’s the case…

Ciel quickly figured out the reason and purpose behind the system unlocking this feature.

The reason for unlocking it was naturally because Ciel had, for the first time in a simulation, simultaneously consumed two potions of interchangeable paths and performed path switching.

And the purpose…

Accelerating potion collection, currently for only one purpose.

That is, to unlock Old Days simulation.

If she planned properly in each simulation and consumed two potions simultaneously, it would greatly shorten the time required for Ciel to unlock Old Days simulation.

Of course, Ciel wouldn’t have too many opportunities to use this ability.

There was a condition: she had to not have saved either of the two interchangeable paths before. Only then could she save both at once.

Currently, the paths Ciel had not saved were “Ascetic,” “Listener,” “Poison Master,” “Physician,” “Musician,” “Blood Painter”… and one other path, currently unknown, that seemed to correspond to “Butcher.”

Among these, the paths of “Poison Master” and “Physician,” and “Musician” and “Blood Painter,” were interchangeable.

It seemed that in the future, when she chose new paths in simulations, she would have to design how to utilize path switching to accelerate potion collection.

“Save to No.9.”

【No.9: “Queen Bee” Ciel】

After directly saving the file, silver light flashed before Ciel’s eyes again. Her consciousness rapidly dissipated and sank.

When her skin could feel the outside world, a familiar faint scent reached her nostrils, and she felt a warm sensation on her body.

Ciel slowly opened her eyes and saw Avena lying beside her, watching her with her eyes open.

Ciel in reality was still lying in bed, holding Avena. Avena seemed not to have gone back to sleep after being woken up by Ciel earlier.

“Ciel…”

Avena looked at Ciel before her and said hesitantly, “Just now, you…”

“What is it?”

Looking at Avena’s worried expression, Ciel asked softly.

“Your mental energy is being rapidly consumed, and your spiritual body pollution has worsened,”

Avena’s expression was a little worried. “I couldn’t find any results from the examination, and I didn’t dare wake you up.”

Feeling the person next to her rapidly losing mental energy, yet being unable to do anything to stop it, was indeed a worrying matter.

“It’s alright.”

Ciel comforted her with a smile. She reached out and pressed the back of Avena’s head, slowly leaning in. She gently kissed Avena on the corner of her mouth and looked into Avena’s eyes, saying, “I just had a dream.”

“What dream?” Avena pressed.

Dreams could reveal many things. In fact, many of the “Psychologist”‘s healing methods were achieved through dreams.

“I dreamt that I had no strength and was groggy,”

Ciel said with lingering fear on her face. “Then you pushed me down and got on top of me. I couldn’t resist at all.”