The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 44

A knock?

The sudden sound jolted Ciel, forcing her to regain some focus. She steadied herself and opened the door to her room, glancing back at the space she once considered familiar.

Her vision seemed to split into layers, as though she were seeing multiple overlapping perspectives at once.

In this disjointed view, the chaotic, bloodied claw marks on the walls seemed to combine and form words. Coupled with the blood-soaked floor, the entire room resembled the scene of a sinister cult’s ritual.

I can’t keep looking at this…

Ciel forcibly averted her gaze and stumbled out of the room. Her legs gave way as she tumbled painfully down the staircase. The splitting headache and incessant buzzing in her mind were relentless, and a wave of nausea surged through her.

“Ugh—”

A mouthful of black blood spewed out of her, dripping down the stairs like dark, viscous water.

The person knocking at the door seemed to notice something, as the knocking abruptly stopped.

Through her hazy vision, Ciel saw a faint yellowish figure pass through the wooden door and glance in her direction before slowly approaching her.

All she could perceive was a dazzling glow of yellow and white light. The dizziness and nausea receded slightly, though the maddening whispers in her mind refused to dissipate.

Those murmurs urged her to take out the blood-soaked page in her pocket and return to the room she had just left.

From behind her, Ciel’s shadow emerged, its form flickering unsteadily with spurts of grayish flame. It supported her by the shoulders, helping her stagger toward the door. Ciel reached out and opened it.

Standing outside the door was a figure draped in immaculate white robes adorned with intricate gold patterns. The individual wore a white mask devoid of any openings, with thin golden lines dividing the face into distinct sections.

“Are you Miss Ciel?” A faint humming sound emanated, but the voice didn’t come from the figure’s mouth. Instead, it echoed directly in Ciel’s mind. She only caught the first part of the sentence; the rest of the words in her mind sounded like the grotesque squelching of mangled flesh.

The additional noise in her head seemed to suppress the other whispers that had been plaguing her, giving her a momentary relief. She looked up at the “person” before her.

As her overlapping visions merged into one, Ciel’s pupils contracted, and she stumbled backward several steps. If not for her shadow supporting her, she might have fallen completely.

This… wasn’t a person at all!

Beneath the white robe was a nauseating white worm, its head covered with dense, compound eyes formed by golden light specks. At that moment, the sleeves of its robe lifted, revealing coiled tendrils and jointed appendages that slowly extended toward Ciel.

Shadow!

At Ciel’s mental command, her shadow immediately released its grip on her and lunged at the grotesque creature before her. But in an instant, a yellow-white worm shot out, moving even faster. It ensnared her shadow with its wriggling appendages, completely subduing it in mere moments.

The humanoid worm’s dense compound eyes began to glow with a yellow-white luminescence. Its robes billowed as six pairs of wings, sticky and insect-like, emerged from beneath the fabric—each adorned with glowing, circular eyes.

As the six wings fully extended, the golden eyes on them locked onto Ciel.

The moment she was gazed upon by those brown circular eyes, her heart rate spiked. Her vision seemed to be veiled by a thin layer of gauze, and all the overlapping images, whispers, and dizziness vanished in an instant.

Through this veil, Ciel finally saw the figure clearly.

Standing before her was, indeed, a normal human figure. They stood quietly outside the door, their masked face turned toward her. Their outstretched hand was gloved in gem-encrusted white fabric, and ethereal, light-like strips resembling angelic wings extended from their back.

“Are you feeling better now?”

The voice resounded in Ciel’s mind again, hollow and ethereal, devoid of any emotion. It was impossible to discern whether it belonged to a man or a woman.

“Y-Yes… much better…” Ciel slowly rose from the ground, raising a hand to rub her forehead, but she didn’t feel anything in front of her.

“Are you the Miss Ciel that High Priestess Uris mentioned?” The white-robed and masked figure repeated their earlier question.

“I am…” Ciel fumbled through her belongings before retrieving a church insignia from one of her pockets. She held it out to the figure.

The insignia was stained with Ciel’s blood, but the figure showed no sign of disgust. After holding it briefly, they slipped it into a pocket.

“Where is Uris?” Ciel spoke up to ask, though the notebook mentioned that she had recently committed suicide, it didn’t explain the specific reason.

“She martyred herself,” the white-robed figure replied mechanically. “As a ‘Missionary,’ after witnessing the deaths of so many followers, her potion was on the verge of spiraling out of control. To prevent a full loss of control, she chose to meet the Goddess while still lucid.”

“And you are… the bishop the Church of the Savior Goddess dispatched?” Ciel asked.

“That is correct,” the white-robed figure replied. “When I arrived, the pain emanating from this area barred me from entry. Only after the pain diminished significantly was I able to come inside.”

So the bishop had arrived when the outbreak began but couldn’t enter due to the overwhelming suffering? They could only enter after the pain subsided—which essentially meant after most of the people had died?

This was clearly a targeted massacre, exploiting the Church of the Savior Goddess’ path and its inherent weaknesses.

“High Priestess Uris mentioned in her report that you have access to some unique sources of intelligence. May I trade the stabilization of your spiritual clarity for some of that information?” the white-robed figure asked politely.

Despite their courtesy, there was something deeply unsettling about them. Perhaps it was the memory of the grotesque worm she had seen in her overlapping vision, or perhaps it was the emotionless, mechanical quality of their voice. Either way, Ciel couldn’t shake the feeling that what stood before her wasn’t a person at all, but some unfathomable entity pretending to be human.

“There’s a traitor… within the church or the Redemption Society.” Ciel tried her best to avoid looking directly at the white-robed figure in front of her and continued speaking. “The outbreak’s original schedule was for July 4th, but after I had someone report the information to the church early, the outbreak was triggered prematurely.”

“Shocking.” The white-robed bishop said mechanically, “And you’re not lying.”

“Though I know it’s impolite to ask further, I must know—how do you know the outbreak was originally planned for July 4th?”

After calming her breathing, Ciel looked at the white-robed figure again. Recalling her first encounter with Uris, she said, “Uris told me. She said it was something the Goddess wanted me to see—she wanted to take me to the church for baptism, but I refused.”

Ciel’s words elicited no visible reaction from the white-robed figure.

They stood motionless, as though frozen in the middle of processing her statement. After a moment, the figure lowered their head slightly and said:

“I see. If Missionary Uris intended to baptize a prospective Saintess, it would have facilitated the complete digestion of her potion. That must have been her reason for wanting to take you to the church.”

“Given that the situation is beyond repair, Miss Ciel, would you consider accompanying me to the church? Hearing the divine oracle has destabilized your spiritual clarity—it requires treatment and intervention.”