Mystery: Good Witch

Chapter 1435 "Unique"

Despite being stared at by so many eyes and surrounded by a smile that revealed eight teeth, the wandering magician Merlin Hermes remained calm. He simply looked at the only people in the prayer hall who maintained their expressions and movements: the private detective Sherlock Moriarty and his assistant Erin Watson.

In his spiritual vision, the black threads emerging from all the "actors" in the room floated towards the sky, then converged in one place and were controlled by him.

These people are all puppets, all following the control of this powerful puppet master. All their actions and words are just part of the script.

Sherlock and Irene were the only exceptions. The former's spirit threads entered the spirit world as soon as they left his body and were manipulated by another powerful being. Merlin was completely powerless and dared not shake them in the slightest. The latter, on the other hand, had no spirit threads at all, as if she were just a false mirror image.

He and Vivian stood up together, bowed deeply as if taking a bow to the audience, and then asked in a reverent tone:
"Great Fool and kind Goddess of Calamity, are you satisfied with the play just now?"

As he spoke, Sherlock removed his gold-rimmed glasses, and his mustache curled into his chin, making him look younger and more scholarly. Beside him, Eileen's black hair, which had been piled up behind her head, turned into light gold, and her deep purple eyes were like the most dazzling gems. Her round face had also become thinner, and although her features had changed slightly, she was still extremely charming.

Upon closer inspection, their appearance bore an uncanny resemblance to Dorothy and Christina, the sisters who had just been sent away by Merlin's snap of his fingers.

Looking much younger, like a recent college graduate, "Sherlock" glanced around, nodded slightly, and replied:
"It's pretty good. It's impressive that they were able to put together such a play in such a short time, using all the relationships that could be used in the story of the secret couple. It has elements of surprise and suspense, and it also incorporates elements of locked-room murder and tragic love, without being too complicated for a teenage girl to understand. I'm very satisfied with that."

As soon as he finished speaking, the spiritual threads that were originally controlled by Merlin Hermes all returned to him, as if a huge error had suddenly occurred.

Merlin, whose marionettes had been completely taken, showed no resentment whatsoever. He simply adopted a submissive expression, listening to instruction and accepting guidance, without even subconsciously trying to hide his spiritual threads.

After all, these puppets did not belong to him in the first place, and facing the great being at the pinnacle of his path, a "mysterious servant" did not even dare to have the thought of resistance.

Indeed, Merlin Hermes, who appears to have been observing this "stage play" all along, is not a magician residing in Yharnam, but rather Antigonus, who failed to persuade Christina and Dorothy to visit the "Night Theater" in Bayam with free tickets. Vivian beside him is Philaneias, the "Mother of Heaven," who borrowed the false ring of "Flame" Denise, who was trapped in a nightmare, and transformed into the magician's assistant.

Undeterred by their initial failure, the two angels quickly moved on to the next designated location. Antigonus, now possessing his original Sequence 1 traits, swiftly took over a portion of the city's citizens and orchestrated an entertaining stage play. His sister, meanwhile, filled in the gaps, using "lucid dreams"—fusion with reality—to ensure the script remained intact and to prevent ordinary people already settled in the city from accidentally entering the stage.

This is the tacit understanding they have built up over many years of collaboration at the Night Theater in Bayam.

Antigonus knew that if Mr. Fool wanted to control his spiritual threads and turn himself into a puppet, he wouldn't even need to pull on the black lines on his body.

The "Antigonus" shrouded in historical mystery is a better choice; all that's needed is to find one's own existence in historical fragments and turn it into a puppet.

Antigonus of the past became a secret couple, and so it will be in the future; such is fate.

"Sherlock," or "Irene" beside the Great Fool, is even more terrifying. This goddess of calamity doesn't even need to lift a finger; everything within her sight will be plunged into the most utter natural disaster and suffer merciless destruction. This includes not only Antigonus and his sister Philanes, whose true forms are here, but also the Mysteries located elsewhere, other versions of themselves in the mists of history, and even their future selves.

If this goddess so desires, everything will be reduced to chaos, from physical entities to concepts, cease to exist.

Fortunately, both of them are kind, great beings with abundant humanity, and their sole purpose in appearing this time was simply to provide some enjoyment for their two daughters on their journey...

...No, that's a trial for future angels or even gods, it can't be taken too seriously... Antigonus immediately corrected his mistaken idea in his mind.

Whether it was because it had glimpsed His inner thoughts, the mirror image of the Goddess of Calamity who had descended here smiled slightly and commented in a gentle tone:

"But there are some flaws in the script, even Tina can see the problems."

"This allows the audience to use their own brains to think about the issues and feels a sense of participation. Some directors always try to make everything perfect, which leaves no room for adjustment and lacks a bit of humanity..."

"Sherlock" explained.

That's exactly what I think.

Antigonus quickly took over the conversation, afraid that the goddess would be dissatisfied.

Of course, having spent so many years in the human world and being well-versed in the art of upward management, He understands that nothing can be done too perfectly; one must give the leader some room to find fault.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

When Tina first saw all the believers and clergy in the prayer hall looking at her with strange smiles, she thought she was seeing things.

But the next second, the scenery in front of her changed, from a closed church to a sunny sky, to a noisy street, to a bustling crowd.

A conversation in a somewhat garbled language reached her ears.

It was Intis language... Although she couldn't understand it, Tina had a basic understanding of the pronunciation and immediately realized that she had really come to another country. She quickly looked around and found that her sister Dorothy had also come here. The two had not been separated.

She breathed a sigh of relief and looked around. She found herself on a street with a rather old and outdated architectural style. The road sloped gently uphill and led to a huge square.

The downward slope leads to a continuous stretch of Intis-style buildings with red walls and green tiles, recessed sculptures, arched windows and louvered blinds, clearly part of a large city.

“That magician Merlin actually sent us to Trier…” Dorothy and Tina looked around and exclaimed, “I thought he wouldn’t even cheat us out of a penny.”

"Then why did you give him the money..."

Tina muttered to herself, her gaze lingering on the street signs. She noticed they were all in cursive Intis script, unlike the multilingual signs in Bayam and the Southern Continent, which she couldn't understand at all.

“I’m afraid you’ll just agree to their request and become more and more reckless. It’s better if I do this, so that Mom and Dad won’t have to…” Dorothy argued, but then stopped, as if realizing something, and changed the subject, “Where exactly is the last location?”

"The genie said it was Purgatory Square in the Observatory District, leading into an underground tomb," Tina repeated the "mission location," her expression growing increasingly bitter. She couldn't understand Intis script.

"Oh right, I could ask the magical wishing lamp..." Tina's eyes lit up. She patted the sealed item in her bag and silently called upon the genie:

“You’ve already left the church of the Fools, so you don’t need to be afraid anymore…”

"Hmph, you think I'm afraid of that Fool? Yes, I was afraid, but that's not the main issue. You have no idea how terrifying and dangerous the situation was just now..."

Sure enough, as soon as they left the church, the genie came to life, and his magnificent but not layered voice appeared simultaneously in Tina and Dorothy's minds.

"This is the Observatory District of Trier, not far from the entrance to the catacombs beneath Purgatory Square... I have distorted what you see and hear, so you should be able to read the signs now."

As soon as He finished speaking, the unfamiliar script written on the sign on the old building with triangular pediments and gable roof in front of Tina changed into Rune script, which Tina was familiar with.

"Unique" dance hall.

The road signs next to the building, pointing to both sides, also indicated the location of their final destination, which was the huge square.

"Purgatory Square".

Wow, this is so convenient! If I hadn't planned this in advance, I would have even wished that I could read all the words in the world... Tina exclaimed, about to pull Dorothy toward the square uphill, when a carriage that had sped up and then stopped abruptly blocked their way.

The memory of her kidnapping resurfaced, and she immediately felt her limbs stiffen and become unresponsive, unable even to move to escape the carriage.

Fortunately, after the carriage came to a stop and the door opened, instead of a giant, invisible hand pulling the two sisters into the carriage, three strangely dressed passengers—one man and two women—stepped off.

They were all dressed in dark short suits and matching trousers, looking out of place in the blazing sun. They walked past Tina and Dorothy at very close range as if they hadn't seen them, and stood in front of the "Unique" cabaret.

As they were about to step through the main gate, which resembled a gaping maw, the three of them simultaneously took out a monocle from their pockets, put it on their right eye, squeezed their eye sockets to secure it, and then disappeared into the dimly lit gate.

As they entered, Tina noticed two guards, dressed similarly and wearing monocles in their right eyes, hiding at the entrance of the ballroom. The interior was very peculiar, with strips of lights that looked like both electric lights and glass, spheres hanging from the ceiling that refracted brilliant light, and rectangular spots of light emanating from the spheres filling the floor. More than a dozen people of different genders, ages, and builds, wearing short suits and monocles, were dancing in the hall to rhythmic music.

What a strange place... The textbook says Trier is the birthplace of modern art, and it really is "different from others"... Tina commented, then looked away, having no intention of curiously following them inside.

She guessed that to enter the dance hall, one needed to wear the same suit as the three men from before and buy a monocle, which was like a kind of admission ticket, meaning that you shared the same interests as them.

Dorothy wearing a monocle might be interesting, but I can't imagine her in men's clothes... Hmm, I could use Dad as a model... Tina shuddered as she pictured her father, Klein, with a crystal monocle on his right eye and a smile on his lips.

Just as I left the entrance of "Unique," a young-looking man with a composed demeanor walked out of another bar diagonally opposite the dance hall.

He had short black hair, bright light blue eyes, and striking features, exuding a romantic charm unique to Intis people. However, his expression was very serious, and his gaze was fixed on the door of the dance hall that had just "swallowed" three people.

"Could he be a male model for some magazine..." Tina stared at the man for several seconds before realizing she had been impolite. Just as she looked away, she heard him give a soft snort and say in an unfriendly tone:
"How come there are such young children wandering around this old street? Are they lost?"
"Get out of here right now, this is not a place for you to play around."

It wasn't until the man's gaze landed on her that Tina realized the two sentences were referring to her and Dorothy.

This completely wiped out any lingering goodwill she had felt towards the man because of his appearance. She stuck out her tongue at him defiantly, then pulled Dorothy along and quickly walked to the end of the street.

"What an unfriendly city! Mom always says that the food in Trier alone surpasses that of the whole of Loen, and that she'd like to bring us here sometime. But I never expected the people here to be so unfriendly..."

As they walked, Tina complained to her sister in a voice just loud enough for the man to hear.

Although she spoke in Rune, with the help of the "genie," the other party would surely understand her taunts.

Dorothy glanced back at the "Different" cabaret and the bar the man had re-entered, above which hung the sign that read "Alone," and explained in a nonchalant tone:

“His tone was harsh, but he probably just wanted us to get off this street quickly, especially away from that strange nightclub we just saw… I think you could tell too, there was definitely something odd about it.”

Actually, I didn't notice... Tina's mind was completely focused on her sister and father wearing monocles, and she couldn't help but lower her head when she heard Dorothy's explanation.

But she quickly shook off her slight frustration, looked at the Purgatory Square not far away, and continued in a low voice:

"None of that matters. What matters is that we're only one place away from truly breaking the seal on the 'Wishing Lamp.' Perhaps in an hour, we'll be able to truly have our wishes granted, and by the way, get back to our home in Tingen before Mom returns... Hmph, after that, Queens in Backlund will be our home."

As she spoke, her excited tone changed again, revealing a hint of concern and worry.

"But can the 'wishing lamp' and the genie inside really grant my wish? Or will it be like those fairy tales, where the demon escapes after the seal is broken and wreaks havoc on the world, and we become accomplices?"

she muttered.

"Are you only thinking about this now?" Dorothy stopped, put her hands on her hips, and was about to assert herself when she noticed that Tina had already taken a few steps. She had no choice but to hurry up and catch up. "Since so many saints and angels on the way did not stop us or express their opinions, it means there is no big problem."

Indeed, Mr. Azik, who had touched the sealed object, recognized the "Wishing Lamp" as Anne Gustav from the Ternsost Empire, Ms. Ariana from the Church of Eternal Darkness, and Gled Soren, who had briefly accompanied them. Even the "Chariot," who looked similar to her mother, did not notice anything amiss... Tina felt relieved and subconsciously reached out to touch the handbag at her waist.

The bag, which had been bulging out, was suddenly flattened and its interior was now empty.

Her "wishing lamp" has disappeared again!
(End of this chapter)