The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 237

Enduring the illusory pain coming from her eyes, Ciel slowly opened her eyes.

What met her eyes was Avena’s anxious face, and behind Avena, Tara, who was standing with her head lowered, not daring to meet her gaze.

Ciel’s mind was buzzing, as if the echo from the hammer striking the pocket watch still hadn’t dissipated.

“Mm…”

Ciel propped herself up, wanting to sit up, but her shoulder was directly held down by Avena.

“What’s wrong…”

Ciel looked in Tara’s direction and asked softly.

At the same time, Ciel’s gaze swept to the side.

The view outside the window seemed to be at dusk. It appeared she hadn’t been unconscious for long.

And her mental state seemed to have recovered considerably. At least the buzzing in her mind had reached a level that could be ignored after getting used to it for a while.

“Why did you come over? Avena…”

Ciel asked after recovering a little.

“Tara called me over.”

Avena looked at Ciel, who was lying before her, her expression complex.

“Tara?”

Ciel looked in Tara’s direction.

Although she had no intention of seeking out Avena, she hadn’t instructed Tara not to call Avena over either.

Seeing Ciel’s gaze turn towards Tara, Avena directly took a step to the left, blocking Ciel’s view. She seemed to not intend to let Ciel blame Tara.

“Even if she hadn’t called me, I would have come.”

Avena said calmly, “Do you know how long you were unconscious, Ciel?”

How long was she unconscious?

From noon… to afternoon?

As if seeing the confusion in Ciel’s eyes, Avena directly said, “A whole day, Ciel.”

In other words, it was already the 19th?

Then the method she used in the previous simulation to deceive Forte would need some adjustments… The date was different, so the method would also have to be optimized, otherwise, some unforeseen deviations might occur.

Ciel instinctively fell into thought.

“Tara, step outside for a moment.”

Avena turned around and said softly to Tara.

“Yes…”

Tara, knowing she had done something wrong, lowered her head and left the room, closing the door.

Tara truly had no other choice… She watched Ciel in a coma, unable to do anything, and as time passed, Ciel’s mental state grew weaker. Tara only became more anxious.

After staying up all night, Ciel still showed no signs of waking up. Tara could only make the difficult decision to disobey Ciel’s wishes and went to have a servant call Avena over.

After Tara left the room and closed the door, Avena walked to the bedside and looked down at Ciel, who seemed to be lost in thought.

It’s like this again… Just recovering from mental exhaustion, and immediately starting to think again…

“Oh, right, Avena, how is your mental state?”

Ciel briefly withdrew from her thoughts. She seemed not to have even noticed that Tara had left.

“Enough.”

Avena’s cold voice echoed.

“Uh?”

Ciel was slightly stunned. She looked at the ice-faced Avena. It had been a long time since Ciel had seen Avena show such an expression towards her.

“I said enough.”

Avena reached out. Her slightly cool hand directly pinched Ciel’s cheeks on both sides. She seemed to have intended to pinch Ciel hard, but in the end, she pulled back her strength, just enough to make Ciel stop talking.

“Just woke up… and you’re already thinking about things again, and you’re worried about my mental state…”

Avena suppressed her emotions with difficulty and said, “Have you ever truly thought about yourself? Do you truly not care about your own mental condition?”

“Do you know what state I saw you in when I first arrived?”

Avena kept talking. Towards the end, her voice was already trembling uncontrollably.

“If it were anyone else, I would have directly judged that they were already dead in that state… Do you know that?”

“What exactly is weighing you down so heavily that you have to be like this?”

“Adele is in danger, we can send her to a safe place; Nia is being targeted, we can keep her by our side at all times; even if North Ansu or the Royal family is targeting us, we can flee far away, to Pharos, to Devo, even across the ocean. We can run…”

“But why are you…”

Avena’s shoulders trembled. By the time she finished speaking, her tears were streaming down uncontrollably.

Ciel, who had been in a coma just now, truly gave her the feeling that she could leave her at any moment… She couldn’t imagine what she would do if Ciel truly left.

“Avena…”

Ciel reached out, wanting to comfort Avena, but the words caught in her throat. She couldn’t speak.

Ciel couldn’t make any promises…

“Uniqueness” had already locked onto her. According to the system, based on the possible law of “Uniqueness” convergence, even if she went to the ends of the earth, she might still run into Forte.

Avena, who didn’t understand all this, believed that fleeing far away could solve the problem, but Ciel knew that this was something that couldn’t be resolved by escaping.

Looking at Avena, who was somewhat emotionally broken, Ciel only felt a throbbing pain in her chest.

She had indeed owed Avena a lot lately… But there was nothing she could do to make up for it in the short term.

Avena, who had not received a response from Ciel, gradually stopped sobbing—she had already learned the answer from Ciel’s silence.

—There was indeed one thing, something she couldn’t escape from even by fleeing far away. This was Ciel’s answer, the one she couldn’t speak.

Avena turned around, no longer letting Ciel see her weak side. She said in a hoarse voice, “I understand… I have only one request.”

“If there is anything I can help with, you must ask me. We will face it together… Can we?”

Avena was not the kind of unreasonable weak person. She understood Ciel’s difficulties.

Acting irrationally wouldn’t solve anything… Only by assisting Ciel as much as possible, helping Ciel, could they better resolve the problem.

“I promise you.” Ciel nodded.

Avena, hearing Ciel’s response, slowly looked up at the ceiling, sniffled, then directly walked towards the door. Her voice also returned to normal, “If you need anything, just come to me.”

“Avena.”

Ciel spoke, calling out to Avena, who was by the door.

Avena stopped, but did not turn around. She was waiting for Ciel to say something.

“I love you.”

Ciel spoke softly.