The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 237

Avena’s hand on the doorknob trembled slightly.

This was the first time she had heard these words from Ciel.

She sniffled again and said coldly, “I will forget these words, and then when this is all over, you can say them to me again.”

Click—

With that, Avena directly twisted the doorknob and walked out.

“Let’s go, Nia.”

Listening to Avena’s footsteps gradually fading away, Ciel propped herself up and sat against the headboard, her thoughts in turmoil.

Only after Tara slowly walked in and closed the door, standing beside Ciel with her head lowered, did Ciel gently shake her head.

She looked up, took a deep breath, and organized her thoughts.

“I’m sorry, Lord Ciel. I made this decision without your permission…”

Tara lowered her head, her small hands gripping the white apron at her sides. She seemed to be waiting for Ciel’s punishment.

“It’s alright.”

Ciel shook her head and said softly.

Towards someone who was wholeheartedly devoted to her, Ciel truly couldn’t utter any words of punishment.

The current Ciel was recalling her dream.

That space was so real… Even after waking from the dream, it was still imprinted in Ciel’s mind.

She could still remember everything that happened in that space now. This was something she couldn’t do after waking up from other “nightmares.”

It was highly likely that it wasn’t a dream.

Everything that happened in it should mean something.

The white armor… was it that Other Side creature?

It seemed to inject something into my eyes, and it also picked up the “Echo of the Silver-White Time-Binder” and smashed it into my eyeballs…

Ciel reviewed the details of the dream. She instinctively reached out, wanting to pull out the pocket watch from her pocket.

But this time, the bonded sealed artifact, the pocket watch, which would not be lost even in a simulation, was not there.

Ciel instinctively opened the system inventory, but still did not find the pocket watch there… She hadn’t placed the pocket watch in it.

Just as Ciel’s heart was in a panic, wanting to lift the blanket to check, in the panoramic view in her mind, she saw her right eye.

Her eyes, at some point, had completely changed.

Her originally dark red right pupil was now covered by a silver-white watch face. The second and minute hands were constantly ticking on it, precisely and steadily.

And her left pupil was filled with interlocking golden gears, slowly rotating… just like the internal mechanism of a pocket watch.

From a distance, it looked like heterochromia with one golden and one silver eye.

But with just a slight blink, these anomalies disappeared, and her pupils returned to their normal dark red color.

What’s going on?

This is…

The sealed artifact, the pocket watch?

It… is directly imprinted in my eyes.

Ciel tentatively raised her hand. Silver light flashed. The exquisite silver pocket watch appeared in her right palm again. It didn’t appear from the inventory… She could feel that it had separated from her body.

Silver light flashed again. The pocket watch in Ciel’s hand disappeared. As long as she willed it, the pocket watch would appear again.

Ciel looked at Tara beside her. Tara, who had been secretly watching her, lowered her head immediately after their eyes met.

“Look at me, Tara.”

Ciel spoke.

“Yes… Yes, Lord Ciel…”

Tara looked up and met Ciel’s gaze.

In Ciel’s panoramic view, her pupils changed again, but Tara before her seemed completely unaware.

Others can’t see it…? Just like the system interface?

What is happening? System upgrade?

Tara, who had been looking at Ciel, pursed her lips, her face slightly flushed. But at this moment, Tara felt more pressure.

And Ciel at this moment was lost in thought.

“System, what is happening?”

Ciel asked in her mind.

【What is happening? The compatibility is reached. Aren’t you happy with a free upgrade ^^】

Compatibility… free… upgrade?

Compatibility with what?

The pocket watch?

Or… Time-Binder?

Did the system do this? And the pure white armor with gilded patterns in the dream…

Suddenly, Ciel remembered the system’s previous evaluation.

【You have met another new Other Side creature, but… it seemed to talk a bit too much】

The system… went to find the other party…

“System, did you go find that Other Side creature?”

This time, the system did not give Ciel any reply.

This made Ciel associate it with what the Other Side creature had said in the dream.

【Please forgive me…】

【Lord Time-Binder…】

Ciel was almost certain that the system had caused trouble for that Other Side creature, but she didn’t know how.

The system had never left Ciel to do anything on its own… The most likely scenario was that the other party had come to her.

She had basically never seen an Other Side creature appear without being summoned and directly cross the door to the Other Side. Could that pure white armor do that? If so, it could have emerged from the Other Side node long ago and killed all the “garbage” that it said disturbed its peace.

There was another possibility—no, it should be the only possibility.

That armor Other Side creature intentionally polluted her, or left some kind of backdoor in her mind… It had obtained her blood and could do this.

If it had truly attacked Ciel’s mind, it would have suffered the backlash of the “Uniqueness” gear. And this gear was basically controlled by the system. The knowledge within it was also sealed by the system…

The system, through the “Uniqueness” gear, had given that Other Side creature some kind of warning.

And the anomaly in her eyes was that Other Side creature’s “compensation”?

Ciel shook her head.

This was all just Ciel’s subjective speculation based on existing possibilities. If she truly wanted to know what happened, she could only wait until she met that Other Side creature again.

The current Ciel was still more inclined to believe that the other party had left some kind of “curse” or a backdoor to invade her mind. Otherwise, her mental state wouldn’t have been so severely contaminated.

Fortunately, whether it was a “curse” or an attack, it would no longer affect Ciel now.

During the time she had been awake just now, the metallic buzzing in her mind had lessened considerably. It was likely that the residual pollution would completely disappear after some more time.

“One last question.”

Ciel asked in her mind.

“Will there be any side effects if I enter the simulation again in a short period of time?”