The following Saturday arrived, and Klein began his night watch at the Chanis Gate, his first time on this night shift filled with special significance.
In short, after the near-miss incident of the "Unlucky Doll" pushing open the door for help, the curse of misfortune that had always surrounded Klein seemed to have dissipated.
The following week, his life returned to a smooth and peaceful routine, with no more strange coincidences or unexpected supernatural events—
using the excuse that "the new members' main task at this stage is training and learning," Captain Dunn very "thoughtfully" led the other night watch members to take over the recent field missions, leaving Klein, who was engrossed in reading occult materials, somewhat amused and exasperated. "
Hey, Captain, if you think I'm cursed, just say so. No need for such euphemisms. Without Klein, the difficulty of our missions would be much lower."
Of course, he hadn't forgotten the red chimney house he'd divined, nor the man suspected of being a member of the "Psychological Alchemy Society," nor his continued "role-playing" at the Divination Furniture Club, nor his nightly cooperation with Alice's "drug experiments."
Regarding the search for the red chimney house, Alice suggested that it was best not to linger in the mirror world for too long in the short term—she didn't want to step outside one day to find a silver-haired man in a simple linen robe standing before her, with a beautiful face, demanding that she bear her child.
Klein felt regret, but he completely understood her concerns.
He had also tried to understand the meaning behind the name "Urelius" through his current channels, but with little success.
Unfortunately, Alice wouldn't be providing assistance in the short term, so the task of extensively searching for information on the red chimney house had to be entrusted to the detective agency.
Fortunately, her magical spells had eliminated at least half of the interfering options, so Klein took some time to visit Detective Henry's agency again and inform them of his revised requirements.
Detective Henry, naturally, wouldn't refuse a job that would reduce his workload by nearly half and allow him to focus his investigation on the red-chimney houses on the outskirts of Tingen. However, he immediately emphasized that the tedious procedures of the job exceeded his expectations, so the fee would remain unchanged.
The subtext was that they wouldn't refund the client, and there would be no discount on the remaining amount.
Klein was heartbroken but couldn't bargain, so he could only nod reluctantly, then get up and walk out, pretending he hadn't understood Detective Henry's crazy implication that the client wanted his travel expenses reimbursed.
—Just kidding, that should all be included in the fee! I won't give a single extra penny!
He clutched his trench coat pocket tightly, clutching the few banknotes lying there quietly, and fled like the wind.
It wasn't just this detective agency that was unwilling to lower their fees.
Even Alice, who had only helped him eliminate nearly half of the interference and hadn't even actually found the house with the dark red chimney, stubbornly refused to agree to shorten his drug testing period, insisting that a month was a month, with no room for negotiation.
...Although she promised to continue providing assistance around the "about time," who knew how long "about time" meant?
Perhaps by then, he would have already located the house himself... Hmm, hopefully, she'd consider their past relationship and act as his bodyguard.
But right now, as the weaker party, what could Klein do?
He could only humiliatingly bow to this witch.
Well, actually, it wasn't particularly humiliating...
After all, during their nightly "drug testing" sessions, Alice acted like his personal maid, obediently and charmingly applying the pungent-smelling ointment evenly to his shirtless back...
though,
only to his back. As for the description of her as obedient and charming, that was probably just his imagination. Objectively speaking, Alice's requirements for Klein were roughly as follows:
every night after showering, apply the experimental ointment she provided to his entire body, especially to areas where he had exercised, and then wait quietly for two to three minutes for the ointment to be absorbed by his skin.
At this point, he could choose to get dressed, call her in, and wait with her until the ointment took effect. This stage would last approximately five to fifteen minutes. With nothing else to do, the two could chat casually or play a game or two of Gwent…
Of course, what happened after that was none of Klein's concern as the test subject.
To summarize his experiences so far: his limbs and torso became cold, his body temperature gradually decreased; he felt like he'd been in a sauna, sweating profusely in a 20-degree room; his skin felt numb and painful, like needles pricking it…
and once, a relatively pleasant side effect was that he felt no discomfort at all. However, at the same time, his sense of touch and pain became extremely dulled, as if he had developed an insensitivity to pain.
Fortunately… fortunately, Alice hadn't exaggerated her healing abilities.
Each time she confirmed Klein's symptoms, she would skillfully cast the corresponding spell immediately, dispelling the negative effects that clung to him within a few breaths, allowing him to rediscover the beauty of health.
Finally, Alice would reward him with a few pretty candies, casually offering words of encouragement.
Klein almost always wanted to retort: Don't treat me like some little kid who cries after a shot and can be soothed with a few candies!
But he always accepted the candies without saying anything more.
However, to claim his "rights," Klein made only one request.
"I can't apply the ointment to my back myself; you'll have to find a way,"
Alice replied frankly.
"Would you mind if I applied it for you?"
...Of course!Klein, thinking this to himself, would happily lie on the bed each time, enjoying the attentive service like a temporary maid's massage, imagining himself as a wealthy man lying on a sunny Dushi Beach, having a young, beautiful girl apply sunscreen to his back...
A certain sense of guilt, imbued with the air of wealth, would instantly fill him!
...No, no, no, you can't think like that. How can this be considered a sin? The suffering he endured was real; it wouldn't be right not to collect some interest!
Anyway, regardless of how he got along with Alice, his life was finally back on track.
Sometimes busy, sometimes fulfilling, apart from the content and nature of his work deviating slightly from common understanding, he lived a stable and grounded life, and everything was moving towards a better and brighter future.
As for Alice, she deliberately filled her schedule to the brim, spending her days busy with the miscellaneous tasks at the detective agency that no longer interested her. Occasionally, she would slack off, using a mirror image to pretend to work diligently, while she went to the makeshift alchemy laboratory—an abandoned warehouse in the dock area—to advance the research progress of materials analysis.
Every evening, except for Saturdays when Klein had to "work overtime," Alice would dedicate her time to important drug experiments. Afterwards, she would use the feedback from the checking spells, combined with the specific symptoms, to note down the adjustments she needed to make.
Of course, the time spent on alchemical research wasn't enough to fill the entire night.
The nights were always long, especially in this other world where entertainment was scarce.
But as long as she found something to do, the long nights would pass in the blink of an eye.
For example, she would go to her "fire mage" servant, who was not loyal to her, to check on her familiar's progress in exploring "playing the law"; she would use spells to check on the current situation of the two witch cult members; occasionally, when she was in the mood, she would casually play some impromptu music...
And then there was that one thing she had put aside for a very, very long time, so long that even Klein had forgotten to come to her to check on the follow-up:
that unsigned black letter.
Alice had never forgotten it, and after learning Hermes and understanding the prayer she had heard in Triss's dream, she was even less likely to dismiss it as trivial.
In fact, she had already checked the letter itself and was certain it posed no real harm—there were no curses or resentment within the envelope, and she had ruled out the possibility that its contents were explosives.
...In the end, if the prayer Triss had recited were translated in its entirety, all the answers seemed clear enough.
"Ruler of End and Nothingness;
Cradle and Destiny of Endless Fate Beyond the Stars;
You are the Root of Evil, the Source of Demons, the Everlasting Calamity..."
"Your humble servant begs for Your mercy."
"Your insignificant believer implores Your grace."
"Grant guidance to the messenger of the Mourning Lady Angela, to reach Your sacred abode, for Your faithful servant will offer you the first blessing of the end..."
The sender is the Mourning Lady Angela, and the postman is clearly the messenger of this mysterious witch.
As for the item being sent, it is obviously the "first blessing of the end" mentioned in the prayer.
Finally, the one responsible for reciting the prayer is the humble servant, the insignificant believer, Triss, who had not yet become a "witch."
And the most important recipient... naturally can only be that "Ruler of End and Nothingness."
Especially with the descriptions of "Beyond the Stars," "Root of Evil," and "Source of Demons," Alice felt that she might already be able to guess how her unexpected time travel had happened.
A mistake.
Those witches, who seemed to have taken some inexplicable madness, miraculously concocted an interdimensional summoning spell that traversed star systems and world barriers, yet they completely misunderstood something!
There was an over 80% chance they'd summoned the wrong person.
No, perhaps not entirely wrong, but the connection was too complex to explain…
So, after a brief moment of hesitation, Alice cast aside her worries and calmly opened the unsigned letter.
Inside the envelope was only one thin, long, narrow object, made of slightly stiff paper, not much different in size from a typical playing card.
She pulled out this "letter" and turned it over.
A portrait of a figure who seemed to appear in historical documents came into her view.
He was turned sideways towards the outside of the card, dressed in magnificent court attire, with a neatly trimmed mustache.
Alice knew the name of this historical figure:
Russell Gustav.
But he wasn't the only figure depicted on the card.
At the far end of his vision stood a beautiful woman, her face obscured, her exquisite features barely discernible. She wore only a thin, alluring, flowing dress, her figure like a work of art sculpted by the world's most talented artist, every curve and proportion near perfect.
As Alice touched the card, a line of text formed from starlight gradually appeared in the lower right corner:
"Sequence 0: Primordial Witch!