Eldritch Horror Theatre

Earlier...

The rapid-fire questioning proved far more effective than gentle comfort.

Suddenly given a focus amidst her intense mental torment, Claire snapped out of her daze. Incredibly, her urge to vomit subsided.

Breathing heavily, she lowered her eyes and wiped her mouth, not daring to spare another glance at that "wall."

Her mind raced, subconsciously clinging to the distraction.

"I didn't think anything of it before, but looking back now, there was one time Rick acted quite strangely."

Lost in thought, Claire's expression suddenly shifted, as if she had genuinely caught onto something.

"How so?"

Seeing his method working so well, Fu Qian flawlessly played the role of the attentive listener, tailoring his tone and expression perfectly.

As she spoke, Claire's profound sense of dread was almost palpable.

"He said that those seemingly grotesque things were actually flowers blooming from flesh and blood, possessing a beauty ordinary people couldn't understand..."

"That certainly sounds like a novel perspective."

Fu Qian nodded at just the right moment, playing along diligently.

"But you didn't feel it was too off at the time, right?"

The fact that Claire needed his prompting to recall this meant the conversation, while bizarre, hadn't struck her as entirely incomprehensible at the time.

"Right. When everyone looked shocked, someone quickly guessed that his profession simply gave him a different perspective. He didn't deny it, and even continued sharing—"

Claire's expression turned somewhat vacant.

"He said that, to him, those things weren't foreign objects, but a part of his own body. And a wonderful part, at that."

"The more I listened, the more uncomfortable I felt. Once I noticed the others were feeling the same way, I stopped him from scaring everyone any further..."

...

A part of his own body. That was certainly an interesting way to put it.

Fu Qian listened to Claire's recollection intently, fully understanding her bewilderment.

From Claire's current perspective, Rick's bizarre remarks were naturally a hint she had failed to grasp back then.

However, in Fu Qian's view, if that were the only layer of meaning, Rick's phrasing back then would have been far too pretentious.

Compared to the others, the extra piece of information he held was Claire and Winona's special resistance to dream invasion.

Actually, it wasn't just those two anymore. Along the way here, Fu Qian had casually tested it more than once.

It turned out that almost all the servants of The Wesley Family were in that exact same state.

This classic scene of overflowing contamination proved yet again the foresight of his earlier operational strategy.

And the deeper meaning behind it now spurred further associations in Fu Qian's mind.

A part of his own body...

If interpreted entirely literally, was the contamination Rick spread akin to smelting everyone into a single entity?

If that were true, his intuition about the covenant back then didn't seem completely baseless.

Ordinary Covenanters sacrificed their inherently independent selves to become vassals of a Deity, thereby gaining transcendent gifts.

In contrast, the contamination Rick spread seemed to only saddle them with the negatives without granting any benefits?

And judging from Rick's behavior, he was clearly aware of this.

Those chaotic human anatomical structures might have truly appeared exactly as he said—a wonderful part of his "own body."

Because their original owners had all been contaminated by him back when they were his patients, assimilated into his "body."

If this hypothesis held true, it meant the victims over here in Loss would be far more numerous than just the ones before him.

Of course, the cause and purpose behind this contamination couldn't be determined yet.

But this trip had already paid off tenfold. Not only had he completed the investigation, but he had also successfully nudged Claire into providing critical information.

Now, it seemed it was time to leave.

"Thank you. I'll figure out a way to find him as soon as possible."

A moment later, Fu Qian nodded to the still-dazed Claire.

"You don't need to keep our conversation a secret when someone arrives later."

"Ah... Who's arriving?"

Startled out of her reminiscence, Claire's heart pounded, and she subconsciously hesitated to respond.

Mainly because it was truly difficult to tell if his words were sincere.

"People of justice, I suppose."

Answering casually, Fu Qian snapped his fingers. Like magic, the only light in the room went out.

Though in reality, he had turned it off by flicking a hairpin at the switch.

Ah—

The sudden, returning darkness, coupled with the terrifying atmosphere that had been building this whole time, finally made Claire's fiercely suppressed volume go wild.

"Stop!"

Amidst her scream, a figure rushed in, once again stirring the murky air.

Click!

With the soft click of the switch, light returned to the room.

Winona stood there, having hastily thrown on a jacket. She scanned the surroundings on full alert, but unfortunately, apart from a helpless Claire, the room was already empty.

...

"Don't worry. He's gone."

The silent standoff lasted for quite some time. Only when the victim's screaming finally stopped did Winona change her posture, stepping forward to call out to her friend.

"Winona, I'm fine..."

Her earlier high-pitched scream seemed to have vented a good portion of Claire's negative emotions.

With the lights back on and reinforcements having arrived, her mood had calmed considerably, and she quickly reassured her friend.

"That guy... he was the fraud I saw today. I don't know what method he used, but he appeared right in front of me in an instant..."

As she spoke, Claire couldn't help but look around.

"Just like how he vanished just now..."

Actually, I don't know either.

Claire's analysis left Winona feeling inexplicably lost for a moment.

Not only did she have no idea how the man managed a concealment capable of coming and going like a ghost, but she also couldn't even be sure if their current conversation was being overheard.

"Maybe he already got what he wanted... Why did he make you bring him here?"

Just as Raylan had said, there was no point dwelling on certain things. The next moment, she changed the subject, voicing the doubt in her mind.

"That... it might be because this room was Rick's secret chamber—I'm sorry I hid some things from you earlier."

The question made Claire hesitate, but she quickly chose to be honest.

"At first, I didn't think it was important. I didn't expect that guy to take it so seriously. It turns out there really were strange things in here."

Even now, Claire still subconsciously only looked at that "wall" from the corner of her eye as she explained what her husband had likely been doing in this room.

Along with the entire process of how she had been invited to explore the place.

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