Secrets: Priestess

Chapter 27 Arrangement
The place was bustling with people and the music was melodious.

It seems like some kind of festival is being held here?
Claire opened her eyes.

She stood in the crowd.

The crowd was filled with young men and women.

These familiar people greeted each other, the boys were arm in arm, the girls were holding hands and chatting, they were all laughing and talking, creating a festive atmosphere.

But the atmosphere is a bit stiff, a bit frivolous, a bit fake...

Claire remembered the last time she saw the nightmare doll's eyes.

Nightmare doll... Is she in a nightmare?

Claire recalled the description of this sealed object—

According to experiments conducted by powerful Beyonders in the church, the Nightmare Doll will pull anyone who looks into its eyes into a nightmare.

That nightmare is the most feared memory of those who are pulled in.

Those who are pulled in will be scared to death in the nightmare.

"But this doesn't seem like my most feared memory, does it?"

Claire saw the middle-aged man on the platform shouting in a deep voice:

"God of the mountains that protect us, your humble and loyal child prays to you."

"Pray for good weather and good harvests."

“Pray for a good harvest and a safe harvest.”

"Please let your gaze fall upon me and choose your favorite child from here to serve you in your kingdom of God!"

As the man prayed, the young people around him cheered stiffly and raised their hands high.

The middle-aged man turned around seven times on the platform with his eyes closed, and then suddenly threw out the straw man made of rice in his hand.

All the young people stared at the flying straw man, but their feet stood stiffly as if rooted to the ground.

Claire also saw the little straw man fall into the arms of the girl next to her.

After a moment of silence, screams of relief erupted from people around.

They were ecstatic and sang and danced.

At this moment, the young men and women around shed their stiff and fake laughter and revealed relaxed and festive smiles that came from the heart, celebrating the festival.

Only the girl whose arms had fallen straw men, her stiff smile shattered like glass, her expression was dazed, and then she broke down in tears.

The tearful girl fell into Claire's arms, sobbing uncontrollably: "Yuffie, why is it me? Why is it me?"

At a close distance, Claire saw the girl's azure eyes reflecting the appearance of "Yuffie", who looked exactly like the girl in front of her.

Yuffie.

Claire remembered that she had read the records of the Night Watchmen's containment of "3-0957".

The victim and source in the records is a girl named "Yufei".

In that ignorant and closed mountain village, a so-called "harvest celebration" was held, but in fact it was a bloody sacrifice of young people to the evil god.

In that sacrifice, the girl who was sacrificed was named "Yufei".

Claire looked at the terrified and tearful girl in front of her and compared the description in the records with hers:
"So this woman is Yuffie's twin sister 'Jenna' as recorded in the records?"

"So, I'm now 'Yuffie'?"

What kind of nightmare is this...

Claire felt her heart palpitating, it was the restlessness of the Goddess's Sword.

It was then that Claire understood why the nightmare she had been trapped in was different from what was described.

How could a nightmare like this Level 3 Sealed Artifact, a sacred artifact bestowed by the goddess known as the "Lord of Sleep and Silence," possibly harm her? It would be like showing a movie, allowing Claire to see the source of this Sealed Artifact: Yuffie's memories from her lifetime.

What happened afterwards was not much different from the Nighthawks' investigation report.

Yufei was fed a poison that made her lose her voice by her cruel sister and was pushed to be a substitute for the sacrifice.

Unexpectedly, the middle-aged man who held the ceremony was a real cultist, and the sacrifice was really directed towards a certain existence.

The replaced offerings caused the festival to go out of control, causing disaster in the mountain village and also creating the sealed object "Nightmare Doll".

……

Claire opened her eyes again. She stood stiffly in front of the gap in Chanis's door, holding the Nightmare Doll in her left hand and the less than one-meter-long bone sword "Goddess Sword" in her right hand.

The nightmare doll trembled in Claire's hands.

Even though Claire was looking directly at its large eyeballs after the black cloth fell off, this humble seal did not dare to pull Claire into the dream again.

The white bone sword flowed back into Claire's heart.

Claire bent down to pick up the black cloth, wrapped the eyes of the nightmare doll in her hand, and after thinking for a moment, she put the nightmare doll in her arms.

Finally, Claire closed the gap in the Chanis door again.

……

In the house with red chimneys.

The middle-aged man with deep features like a statue and neatly combed dark golden hair watched the sentences he wrote with a feather pen being erased line by line.

Then the quill wrote a new sentence:

"Under the protection of the sacred artifact, the 'Sword of the Goddess,' Claire Meazza awoke safely from her nightmare. The nightmare doll, which had regained some life, submitted to Claire. Ince Zangwill's foolish idea was a joke."

The blond man with one eye blind growled in disbelief:
"How could she possibly have a holy object?!"

The voice was both shocked and angry.

This brought back memories of when he failed to advance and was abandoned by the church.

"How can a mere Sequence 9 possess a holy relic?!"

If this relic was his...

The moment this thought arose in his mind, the blond man suddenly raised his head, and his only remaining deep blue eye burst into ecstasy:
"A Sequence 9, a Sequence 9 in Tingen, actually has a holy relic hidden on him!"

The man's gloom cleared away, and a calm smile returned to his face. He sat at the table and thought for a moment, then wrote fluently in his notebook with a feather pen that was not dipped in ink:

"Although the events above go beyond Ince Zangwill's description, they do not affect the development of the story."

"With Dunn's help, Klein became a Beyonder and a full-fledged member of the Nighthawks."

"When Baccus and his brothers' luck turned for the worse and they ran up a massive casino debt, they decided to kidnap and extort a wealthy businessman. When they were choosing their final hideout, they happened to settle on the room across from Riel Bieber's house."

"Nighthawk Neil was lucky enough to collect the last precious material. He began to prepare the ritual magic to resurrect his wife."

Line after line of arrangements for the fate of others was written with an ancient feather pen.

Time passes and fate is written as it is written with a quill.

On June 6th, sensing he was being watched, Klein hid in Saint Selina's Church and sought help from Dunn through an underground passage. With Klein's assistance, the Tingen Nightwatchmen captured a member of the Secret Order. Dunn therefore gave Klein a chance to choose a potion.

On July 7, Klein took the advance salary and rented a new house on Daffodil Street with his brother and sister.

Monday, October 7.

Klein drank the "Fortune Teller" potion prepared for him by Old Neil. While embarking on an extraordinary journey, he also formally submitted an application to the church to become a Night Watchman.

At the same time, under Dunn's instructions, Claire wrote a report explaining how the "3-0957" seal became her personal property.

(End of this chapter)