Watching the crow that had taken on her own appearance fly away, Lumine had no choice but to glare at Valerius in silent protest.
Was it really necessary to go this far?
If you'd just given me the points, I would've helped you for real!
"Alright, next comes the question of how to deal with you," Valerius said.
"What do you mean?"
"I can't exactly eliminate you right now, can I?"
Valerius chuckled. The crow still had work to do—Lumine couldn't be eliminated yet.
"Th-then what do you want to do?"
"Like this."
He pointed his short staff at Lumine. Instantly, the runes in the room lit up. Lumine felt her body rapidly shrinking, until she was finally transformed into a crow.
"Caw—! Caw—!"
Now she really panicked, flapping her wings and letting out crow-like cries.
"That should do it."
Placing Lumine on his shoulder, Valerius produced a thin iron chain and fastened it around the crow's ankle.
[Jing Yuan: It's over. I can already imagine tomorrow's disaster.]
[Ruan Mei: If Lumine proposes a series of excellent suggestions tomorrow… this team is probably headed for destruction.]
[Paimon: Lumine~~~ she turned into a crow!]
[Lisa: I have a question—does this count as Lumine being eliminated or not?]
[Jean: Probably not. The system didn't announce anything.]
[Ningguang: That means… even if they lose in the end, Lumine won't be punished?]
[Yelan: That's likely the case.]
[Xiangling: That's actually pretty nice.]
[Herta: You can escape the punishment zone like this?]
[Barbara: As expected of the Traveler.]
The next day.
As the sound of a bell echoed through the castle, signaling the end of the night, Valerius withdrew.
"Phew—finally made it to daytime."
Having spent most of the night in the armory, Bronya stood up, stretched her stiff body, and headed toward the dining hall.
They had designated the dining hall as the rendezvous point, and now that it was daytime, she wasn't worried about running into danger.
By the time she arrived, the others were already there.
And their expressions didn't look great.
"Everyone's here. Let's talk—what happened last night?"
Luocha looked troubled. Things had been fine at first, but later they'd been scattered by the swarm of rats. Something felt off.
"Exactly!" Arataki Itto was the first to jump out. "Didn't we agree to stick behind me? Keqing, you were the first one to run off!"
"Me?"
Keqing pointed at herself, utterly confused. Wasn't Bronya the first to break formation last night?
"I didn't run. I saw Bronya leave the group first, so I chased after her."
"Huh?" Bronya frowned and looked at Jingliu. "I saw Miss Jingliu leave first—I was trying to stop her!"
"I was—"
"I was—"
As everyone described their own experiences, it became clear something was wrong.
"Everyone, haven't you noticed?" Lumine spoke up at that moment. "We might've been tricked. What we saw wasn't the same at all!"
The room fell silent.
"Th-then what do we do now?"
This was bad. Not only did they have to watch out for Valerius, they also had to doubt what they themselves were seeing. No one knew what to do.
And if they'd seen illusions last night, how much of what they saw before had been real?
Had Valerius really been blown back by the mine?
For a moment, no one spoke. Only Lumine tapped her fingers against the table, making a rhythmic tap tap sound.
Suddenly, she seemed to realize something.
"Everyone—did you notice what was outside the windows last night?"
They all shook their heads.
"Did you see something?"
"Yes." Lumine nodded. "When we ran into the rats last night, I saw a crow outside the window. Its eyes were blood-red—just like the rats we encountered."
"And your conclusion?"
"The conclusion is… the reason we saw those things was because of that crow."
"Think about it. We were moving around inside the castle the whole time before, and nothing strange happened. But the moment we entered that corridor, we immediately fell into hallucinations."
"If there's any difference between those places, it's that corridor's windows—you could see outside the castle."
After hearing Lumine's analysis, everyone nodded. It really did make sense.
"Then it looks like… tonight we'll have to be careful," Luocha said, reminding everyone to watch out for that crow.
"But… how do we guard against it?"
"Yeah, crows are way too small."
Even knowing the culprit didn't make things much better. A pitch-black crow blending into the night was easy to miss.
"No need to panic," Lumine spoke again, calming them. "I suspect that crow can't come inside."
"Oh? What makes you think that?"
"We ran through plenty of places inside the castle last night. If the crow could mess with us there, it would've had plenty of chances. Why choose only that spot?"
"Because it had windows!"
"Exactly. I believe the crow needs to see us to interfere."
After Lumine's explanation, more than a few people were convinced.
The reason the crow hadn't acted elsewhere was because it couldn't.
"Then tonight, we'll need to be careful around rooms with windows facing outside," Luocha said as he stood up. "Time is tight. Let's not rest this morning—we'll split up to look for points and skills."
Since it was daytime and relatively safe, Luocha decided to search in the morning and rest from afternoon into the night.
"Alright."
No one objected. Every second counted—anything gained during the day increased their chances of surviving the night.
"Wait."
Just as everyone was about to leave, Lumine proposed another plan. "I suggest we work in pairs. While searching, one person focuses on looking, and the other keeps track of time."
They already knew that parts of the castle had distorted time. Hearing this suggestion, everyone nodded in agreement.
It might slow them down a bit, but it would help identify exactly where time discrepancies existed. The trade-off was worth it.
[Herta: It's over. They've all been led into the trap.]
[Jing Yuan: Every suggestion is reasonable—that's what makes it terrifying.]
[Kaeya: Fast-forward to the phase where everyone just does whatever Lumine says.]
[Yae Miko: Lumine and Valerius aren't scary at all, let's charge—then get wiped?]
[Kamisato Ayato: That's a bit much.]
[Navia: I'll bet every useful skill is about to get hidden away.]
[Lisa: Say… when they count points at the end, won't the crow have the most?]
[Neuvillette: Very likely.]
[Venti: I have points—but I'm just not going to use them!!!]
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