Chapter 532

Chapter 532: .

Heidi followed the staff member in a dark blue uniform toward another ward deeper inside the medical facility while listening to the explanation along the way:

“That patient woke up first and found you collapsed beside her bed. She ran into the corridor to call for help, and only then did we realize something had happened in the ward…

“Because of your earlier instructions, we first asked the Church guardians and the resident priest to inspect the area around the ward, but they did not find any sign of extraordinary power or corruption. Only you would not wake from your sleep… So we moved you to a ward a bit closer to the small cathedral…

“That elven young lady is still in the facility. Her mental state is good, but she does not seem to remember what happened in the dream, and she cannot explain how she suddenly fell into that sleep. We asked her to stay a little longer for now, in case you want to ask her something.

“Her family is here as well. If you need anything, you can ask…”

The staff member suddenly stopped. A trace of hesitation appeared on the face, and the staff member turned to look at Heidi: “I am sorry. I forgot that you also just woke from a long sleep. You should be resting now…”

“I do not need rest. I have slept long enough this time.” Heidi waved a hand. Her gaze kept drifting over the staff member’s face despite herself, but she quickly forced her expression and eyes back under control. Then she asked, as if casually: “Before you came in, did anything strange happen in my room?”

“Something strange?” The staff member frowned and thought for a moment, then shook the head. “No. Did something happen?”

An uninvited guest had crossed a fissure in the timeline and intruded into the ward—then dropped a heap of cryptic, ominous words before leaving.

Heidi replayed what had just happened in her mind, but soon shook her head and said calmly, “No, I was just asking. I wanted to confirm whether anything unusual happened in my room while I was asleep.”

This “staff member” was only an ordinary person responsible for reception. The rambling, unsettling Ender, on the other hand, felt far too strange to Heidi. Out of caution, it was better not to let news of that “preacher” reach an ordinary person’s ears.

When she went back, she should report directly to the Cathedral, or to the central great Cathedral of the city-state.

Maybe she should also tell her father. And that… Captain Duncan?

All kinds of thoughts turned in Heidi’s mind. Some of them even made her feel a little chill. While her thoughts rose and fell like waves, she had already been led to the end of the corridor.

The staff member who had guided her finished a brief handover with the nurse at the door, then left quietly. Heidi took a deep breath in front of the ward, quickly straightened out her state and expression, then reached out and pushed the door open.

In the bright, tidy ward, the elven maiden who had been trapped in sleep earlier was now calmly half-reclining on the bed. She leaned against a pile of pillows and blankets, holding a book and reading intently. A plump, kindly looking elven old lady sat on the edge of the bed, carefully peeling an apple.

When Heidi stepped into the room, the elven maiden immediately looked up. A bright smile bloomed on her face: “Ah! Miss Doctor! You are awake?”

“I came to see how you are doing.” Heidi smiled back as she walked over to the bed. She nodded politely to the kindly looking elven old lady. “Hello. May I ask, you are…?”

“She is my grandmother!” the elven maiden on the bed hurried to answer.

The old lady gave her granddaughter a helpless look, then turned to Heidi with a smile. “This child is a bit too familiar with everyone… Thank you very much for what you did for Flora, Miss Heidi.”

A faint trace of awkwardness appeared on Heidi’s face. “I feel like I did not help much. Even this ‘doctor’ fell into sleep.”

“But I heard from the staff here that you fell asleep because you tried to wake Flora from her nightmare,” the old lady said. She passed the freshly peeled apple to Heidi, and her warm, sincere attitude did not sound like empty politeness at all. “And Flora also said she felt someone protecting her in her sleep—when danger came close, a series of gunshots drove away her fear.”

A series of gunshots? Danger approaching?

Was that the Annihilator who tried to get close to the bed through the “suggestion gateway” she had opened, during the backlash of the dream?

A guess flashed through Heidi’s mind. She thanked the old lady for the apple, then sat down on the chair beside the bed. She looked seriously at the elven girl named Flora. “Your name is Flora, right? Do you remember how you fell asleep?”

“I remember… I was reading at home.” Flora frowned as she thought. “Before that, the Sun went out. Grandmother said the streets were dangerous and told me to stay in my room. Later the Sun lit up again, and I got really bored, so I picked up a book to read—after all, the Sun was shining again. But I don’t know why. After reading for only a little while, I suddenly felt very sleepy and then fell asleep…”

“Reading a book?”

Heidi muttered under her breath. Her eyes swept over the book that Flora had been holding a moment ago. On the pale violet cover, an ornate string of letters caught her eye—*The Crystal Garden of the Dreamless Prince*.

“In my opinion, it is all because she keeps reading this kind of nonsense,” the plump elven madam grumbled at the side. “Her head is full of unreliable fantasies. If she keeps reading this stuff, she will be corrupted sooner or later. The gods will never bless a romance between two men…”

Flora immediately protested from the side. “Not two—several!”

Heidi shook her head to the old lady. “Do not worry. It was not the content of this book that caused this.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Flora looked pleasantly surprised. “Doctor Sis, you read this too?!”

Heidi: “…”

Drawing on many years of finely honed professional skill, Miss Psychiatrist ignored the very different expressions that flashed across Flora’s and her grandmother’s faces. She instead turned a serious gaze on the elven maiden. “Putting that aside, during the time when the Sun went out, you did not try to look at its surface or glance up at the sky, did you?”

“Of course not. Who would dare?” Flora stuck out her tongue. “What sane person would go staring around when the Sun is extinguished?”

Heidi kept a straight face and asked another question: “Do you remember what happened while you were asleep? Even a little impression is fine—aside from the ‘gunshots’. I know about that part.”

“…Aside from those gunshots, there really is only a little bit I remember,” Flora said. She thought hard and spoke with some uncertainty. “I just remember lying in the dark. I felt groggy and could not see anything around me, and I could not really hear anything either. In that darkness, there were many, many shadows, like other people, all standing around me…”

Heidi’s expression immediately grew solemn. “Many, many shadows?”

…

In the depths of the Boundless Sea, in a city-state far from Pland and Lightwind Harbor, a figure wrapped in a thick black coat slipped in a hurry into a narrow alley.

The figure moved quickly, but the steps were slightly unsteady, as if shaken by panic. He avoided any possible prying eyes at the mouth of the alley and slipped through one side path after another. After wandering through the maze-like back lanes long enough to make anyone lose their way, he finally darted into a small house.

dusk was drawing near. The last glow of the Sun was quietly fading from the city. The gas lamps on the streets had not yet been lit. The dimness arrived early, sinking slowly over one house after another.

The soft hiss of a match being struck sounded. An oil lamp in the house was lit.

The man tossed his thick black coat over the arm of the sofa, then walked to the cabinet, took out a bottle of spirits, and poured himself a full glass. He carried it back to the sofa, sat down, and drained half the glass in one gulp. Only then, wrapped in the faint sense of safety brought by the oil lamp’s light, did he let out a long breath.

The strong liquor burned his tongue and his nerves, easing that horror that clung to him like bone-deep frost. He felt courage and life slowly returning to his body, and his cold hands and feet grew warm again.

A faint clinking of chains sounded behind him. A black chain slowly emerged out of thin air. One end of the chain was fastened to his body. The other end bound a jellyfish-like thing that floated in midair, as if made of gathered smoke and dust.

The dull-witted demon revealed its form, pulsing and squirming mindlessly in the air as it sent waves of restless unease toward the man.

“I know, I know. We almost got into big trouble,” the man muttered irritably. He knew the Abyssal demons had no hearts and could not understand human language, but after many years living under a symbiotic pact with the demon, he had unconsciously gotten used to talking to it, as if this dangerous cloud of smoke were truly a family member or a friend he could trust. “Who could have guessed that captain cursed by the curse would suddenly appear… damn it, what does any of this have to do with him…”

He put down his glass, leaned back on the sofa, and lifted his head, staring at the ceiling with unfocused eyes. His tone was full of resentment.

“Those Sun remnants who are as stupid as bricks were useless. They could not even handle that ‘witch’… Tch. The believers at the bottom are all idiots. Even those called ‘envoys’ are just brainless scraps. The so-called Sun spawn are nothing but puppets that cannot think… Among those Sun believers, from top to bottom you can hardly find a single one whose mind is whole. I was almost killed because of them…”

He grumbled as he spoke, then picked up his glass again and gulped twice more. Feeling his heartbeat slowly easing, he turned his head to glance at his demon bound by the symbiotic pact.

“Calm down. We are safe now. We will find another chance. If those chattering preachers were right, more and more elves will soon be affected by the ‘Primordial Defect’. We will have other chances to slip into that dream…”

He suddenly fell silent.

The Smokewisp Jellyfish was pulsing and twisting more and more violently in the air, sending increasingly frantic signals to its symbiotic pact-bearer. The man seemed to sense something at last—his dull spiritual intuition finally began to raise an alarm. As rising waves of fear washed over him, his perception finally broke through the self-protection of his subconscious and began to notice… that gaze, so close at hand.

He swallowed hard and slowly lowered his eyes.

He looked at the glass in his hand.

The remaining liquor rippled slightly in the cup, reflecting the wavering light of the oil lamp. In that faintly eerie greenish firelight, a gloomy and austere face appeared in the reflection, calmly fixing him with a divine gaze.

“Go on,” he heard a hazy voice echo in his mind, as if it were his own thoughts speaking. “I like people who are used to talking to themselves.”