[Frederick was invited to the Cinder Barrens by his old friend "Unfallen Shield" Justus, intending to use the hidden object spell to help his friend complete a difficult task]
[——The original development of the story should be like this]
[Frederick always felt that Justus seemed to be hiding something from him. He chose to trust the intuition of the idol wizard, drank the magic wine that would cause him to coma, and stole Justus from his dream with the help of the alcohol.
Tes’ mission contract]
[But Frederick would rather he had never seen the contract——]
[The initiator of this contract is called "Trissino". If it is just a name, then it can only be judged that he is from the United Kingdom. But if you add the quill mark on the contract... as Melvin
The future successor of the family, Frederick can already recognize this person]
[No one knows the true identity of "Trissino". But through the ritual, it can be known that he is the Pope of the "Tragedian", the god of murder and conspiracy]
[The contract specifies that Justus should take an idol wizard with him to the Cinder Barrens. When the stars reach the correct position, the idol wizard staying here will sense the "gap between dreams"
.From which you can get the essence of unfinished dreams]
[According to the contract, when the sun sets today, it is the moment when the stars reach their correct position. Frederick does not know what the "gap between dreams" is, nor what the "marrow of dreams" is. But he
Know that the contract initiated by "Trissino" must have bad intentions]
[Although Frederick had a big quarrel with Justus when he parted with him over another man. However, Frederick still hoped to protect his impulse from the conspiracy brewed by the tragedian.
And stupid friends]
[Or rather, former friends]
This introduced the plot and made Annan blink in surprise.
...This seems to be a little different from what he knows.
According to Annan's previous understanding, it seemed that Frederick had deceived Justus and sacrificed his friend Justus to the tragic poet.
But judging from the hints of this nightmare...it seems that Frederick doesn't know anything about it.
He even wants to save Justus from the tragedian.
But Justus...
This man looked different from what Annan first heard from Nefertari.
According to Nefertari, Justus is a calm and extremely reliable guardian.
But according to what Annan had just seen with his own eyes, there was a clear sense of arrogance and self-centeredness in Justus' words. He was not as calm and reliable as the rumors said, and was even a little impatient... and a little inflated.
and……
What is the "Marrow of Dreams"?
Who is "Trissino"?
Why has Annan never heard of this name?
"--What's happening here?"
Everything Annan saw in the nightmare was inconsistent with the intelligence he had collected in advance from the outside world... This made him a little confused.
He got up from the sofa and followed Justus' previous words, preparing to investigate Justus' home.
He noticed that the most common thing in Justus' room was newspapers.
On the walls, on the table, and in the cabinets, Justus has newspapers from almost all years and all newspapers. He can be said to be a loyal user of the newspaper...
After all, in this era, the price of newspapers is far from cheap. If you want to collect them all, the cost is obviously huge. I am afraid that a considerable part of Justus' income is used to buy newspapers from various countries.
It's almost like obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Or is he a collector of newspapers?
"……Huh?"
Annan let out a light sigh.
Relying on his keen observation, he quickly discovered that the newspapers posted on the wall all had something in common.
These newspapers either mentioned Justus, and any mention of him was bound to praise his great contributions; or they mentioned the situation of "Gray Professor" Seti and his other students.
Looking around, Annan could even see more than twenty "portraits of Justus". They were usually on the front page of newspapers and were drawn by painters hired by the newspapers.
...Although what he did was indeed remarkable.
But isn’t this too narcissistic?
This was so abnormal that Annan couldn't help but wonder if this strange behavior was related to his curse.
——But what kind of curse makes people keep buying newspapers? And post all the news related to them on the bedroom wall so that they can see it at any time?
Don't wait for Annan to see more.
Justus suddenly rushed back.
"... Something happened, Freyr."
The strong "Unbroken Shield" looked a little solemn.
Only when he looked solemn could Annan vaguely see a trace of Nefertari.
Annan also quickly put on a straight face and continued to play the role of Freljord, trying to see if he could get more words out of Justus: "What's wrong? Could it be that... your contract was lost?"
?
"Speaking of which, where is my lunch?"
He imitated Frederick's tone, glanced at Justus, and asked leisurely.
"——If nothing else, you will definitely not be able to have lunch."
Justus said, grabbed Frederick's right forearm, and whispered in a low voice: "Come and see-"
With that said, he took Annan outside the house.
This house looks like a donut - they are on the second floor, and the sitting area on the first floor can be seen in the middle of a circle of houses.
At this moment, the rest area was empty. The chairs and tables were in a mess.
Annan and Justus looked at each other and quickly walked down the spiral staircase without saying anything.
Through closer observation, Annan noticed that six round tables in the rest area were scattered randomly, with two to five chairs surrounding the round tables.
Some of the round tables had untouched tea, which was still a little warm to the touch; some of the round tables had some cards placed on them. But Annan glanced at them and quickly counted the number of the cards before he realized it.
About half less.
It was as if someone had just poured a cup of tea and then left.
It's like a group of people playing cards and running away with their "cards" in the middle of the game.
Annan walked over and touched the seat. It was no longer warm.
"Look here, Freyr."
Justus pointed to the front desk.
Annan looked over and subconsciously took a few steps forward.
His eyes suddenly became sharp.
Because the drawer at the front desk was opened, and it was full of money. No one had touched it... The account book was placed in front of the table, already opened, and even half-written.
【201, smoked salmon——】
This is the last line left on the ledger.
It seemed that the guest in room 201 ordered smoked salmon, and the front desk was charging the money while debiting the account. Then before the account was debited, the person suddenly disappeared - even the pen he was holding disappeared with him.
This... hotel? It doesn't seem to count. Justus obviously lives here for a long time.
In short, all the people here suddenly disappeared not long ago - maybe just an hour or half an hour ago, and disappeared from the world.