[Frederick was invited to Cinder Barren by his former friend “Shield of Unfallen” Justice, intending to use the object-finding spell to help his friend complete a difficult mission.]
[—The development of the original story should have gone this way.]
[Frederick had the feeling that Justice was seemingly hiding something from him. He trusted his intuition of being an Idol Wizard, drank the magic wine that would make him unconscious, and used the power of the wine to steal Justice’s mission contract from his dream.]
[But Frederick, he would prefer not to have read that contract—]
[The initiator of this contract was called “Trisino”. If it was just a simple name, it only hinted that he appeared to be a person from the United Kingdom. However, coupled with the feather pen imprint on the contract… As the future successor of the Melvin Family, Frederick already recognized this person.]
[The true identity of “Trisino” was unknown to the public. However, the ritual could identify him as the pope of the Deity of Murder and Conspiracy “Tragedy Writer”.]
[In the contract, it was specified that Justice should bring an Idol Wizard to Cinder Barren. When the star reached the designated position, the Idol Wizard staying here would sense the incomplete “dream essence”. The conspirator could get the essence of the unfinished dream from it.]
[According to the contract, the sunset that day was the moment the stars reached the desired position. Frederick did not know what the “interval between dreams” was, and he did not know what the “dream essence” was. However, he knew that the contract initiated by “Trisino” must have ill intentions.]
[When Frederick and Justice parted, Frederick had a big fight with Justice because of another person. However, Frederick still hoped that he could protect his impulsive and stupid friend from the conspiracy brewed by Tragedy Writer.]
[Or perhaps, it was a former friend.]
The plot introduction made Annan blink in surprise.
This situation was somewhat different from what he knew.
In Annan’s knowledge, it seemed that Frederick had deceived Justice. He dedicated his friend Justice as a sacrifice to the Tragic Writer.
However, judging from the hints of this nightmare, it appeared that Frederick did not know anything about it.
He even wanted to save Justice from the Tragedy Writer.
However, Justice…
The man looked different from what Annan had heard from Nefertari in the first place.
According to Nefertari, Justice was a calm and reliable Protector.
However, based on what Annan saw with his own eyes just now, the arrogance and the self-centeredness in Justice’s words were quite obvious. Justice was not as calm and reliable as the rumors said, and he was even a little irritable… and a little prideful.
Moreover…
What is “the dream essence”?
And who is “Trisino”?
Why have I never heard of this name?
“What’s happening here?”
Everything Annan saw in the nightmare did not match the information he had collected in advance from the outside world. This made him a little confused.
Following Justice’s previous words, he got up from the sofa and prepared to investigate Justice’s room.
He noticed that most of the stuff in Justice’s room was in newspapers.
The newspapers were on the wall, table, and cabinet. Justice stored newspapers of almost all years and publications. He could be regarded as a loyal fan of the newspaper…
After all, in this era, the price of newspapers was far from cheap. It was expensive to collect them all. A considerable part of Justice’s income should be used to buy newspapers from various countries.
It was almost like obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Or was Justice a collector of newspapers?
“…Huh?“
Annan exclaimed.
Relying on his keen observation skills, Annan quickly discovered that the newspapers on the wall all had some kind of commonality.
These newspapers either mentioned Justice – and whoever mentioned him must praise his outstanding contribution, or they mentioned “Gray Professor” Seti and his other students.
Looking around, Annan could even see more than twenty “Portraits of Justice”. It was usually on the newspaper’s front page, drawn by a painter hired by the newspaper.
Although what Justice did was indeed remarkable.
It was too narcissistic.
This was so abnormal that Annan couldn’t help wondering whether this strange behavior was related to his curse.
—But what curse would make people buy newspapers continuously? You also had to post all the news related to yourself on the bedroom wall so that you could read it at any time.
Before Annan could get to see more, Justice rushed back suddenly.
“…Something went wrong, Freder.”
The robust “Shield of Unfallen” looked a little serious.
Only when his face was solemn could Annan vaguely see a shadow of Nefertari.
Annan also quickly put on a straight face, continuing to play the role of Frederick, trying to get more words out of Justice, “What’s wrong? Could it be… that your contract was lost?
“Speaking of which, where’s my lunch?”
He imitated Frederick’s tone, glanced at Justice, and asked leisurely.
“—Among other things, you’re sure to miss lunch.”
Justice said, grabbing Frederick’s right forearm, and said in a low voice, “Come and see—”
With that said, Justice dragged Annan out of the house.
The house looked like a donut—they were on the second floor, and the rest area on the first floor could be seen in the middle of a circle of houses.
But at this moment, there was no one in the rest area. The chairs and tables were messy.
Annan and Justice exchanged glances and walked quickly down the spiral staircase without saying a word.
On closer inspection, Annan noticed – the six round tables in the lounge area were scattered randomly, with two to five chairs surrounding the round table.
Some round tables still had untouched tea, which was still warm; some round tables had some cards on them. However, Annan glanced at the cards and quickly counted the number of cards before realizing that half of the cards were gone.
It was like someone just poured a cup of tea and left directly.
It was like a group of people playing cards halfway through and then running away with the “cards in hand”.
Annan walked over and touched the seat. There was no warmth anymore.
“Look here, Freder.”
Justice pointed to the front desk.
Annan looked over and subconsciously took a few steps forward.
His eyes suddenly became sharper.
The drawer at the front desk was opened, and it was full of money. No one has touched it… The account book was placed on the table, opened, and even half-written, but the pen was missing.
[201, Smoked salmon—]
This was the last line left on the ledger.
It seemed that the guest in Room 201 ordered smoked salmon, and then the front desk took the money and recorded the purchase at the same time. Then, before the order was jotted down completely, the person suddenly disappeared—even the pen he was holding disappeared along with him.
This… hotel? Not really a hotel, but Justice obviously stays here for a long time.
In short, not long ago—maybe an hour or half an hour ago, all the people here suddenly disappeared from the world.