Chapter 45: A Haunting Revelation

The moment Jiang Jiuli was pulled free, the shadows that had enveloped her entire body withered and receded with visible speed, as though their power source had suddenly been cut.

Just before Su Muxue closed her own door, she distinctly heard another door click shut from somewhere nearby.

‘It seemed Uncle Lu was indeed keeping an eye on things here,’ she mused.

“Alright, Jiuli, you can tell me everything now,” Su Muxue said gently.

She turned to the girl, who was still clad in her black Lolita spirit attire, panting heavily. Su Muxue tilted her head, a gentle suggestion in her voice. “Or perhaps I should get you a glass of water first?”

“Yes, please, thank you!”

Jiang Jiuli was so overwhelmed with gratitude that tears welled in her eyes.

****

Jiang Jiuli’s tale began two days prior, when she first perceived an unsettling, chilling presence.

To be precise, it was more like her own hallucination.

After all, only Jiang Jiuli had sensed it. Neither the magical girls who shared her origins nor the contracted creatures returning home later had detected a single thing.

She had even summoned passing Peacekeepers and a patrol squad dispatched by the Tower, yet they, too, found absolutely no trace.

Ultimately, they could only reassure Jiang Jiuli that she must have experienced some sort of hallucination.

This explanation, this supposed discovery, left Jiang Jiuli utterly bewildered, almost convincing her that she had imagined it all.

Then, Jiang Jiuli was roused from her sleep once more in the dead of night.

And it always happened precisely when Jiang Jiuli rose in the quiet hours to use the restroom in the courtyard.

It was an experience so terrifying, the girl dared not even attempt to recall it.

Before Su Muxue, she could only stammer out the events that followed, struggling to form coherent sentences.

In essence, her terror had thrown the entire orphanage into chaos.

Woken in the middle of the night, the children’s resentment was palpable, and some even hurled harsh words at Jiang Jiuli in their momentary frustration.

However, the girl knew she was in the wrong.

Even when confronted with their anger, she could only bow repeatedly, murmuring apologies and coaxing them back to sleep.

After several such incidents, Jiang Jiuli, in her helplessness, decided to bury her head in the sand.

She moved into the room of another magical girl from the orphanage, opting to sleep on a makeshift bed on the floor.

Perhaps the presence of her more mature senior truly deterred the strange entity, for at least while in that room, Jiang Jiuli no longer experienced that chilling sensation down her spine.

That unnerving feeling of something watching her from the depths of the darkness.

“Perhaps it’s finally over,” Jiang Jiuli had tried to convince herself.

That fragile peace lasted until this morning. When the magical girl from her courtyard left for patrol, Jiang Jiuli seized the opportunity of the weekend to catch up on sleep before her afternoon training.

Then, that familiar dread returned.

This time, it invaded her dreams. Jiang Jiuli felt a cold, icy touch descend from above her head.

The terrifying, yet strangely familiar, sensation returned.

It was like a wisp of cold air, nestled within a comforting warmth, brushing across Jiang Jiuli’s forehead.

The girl, who had been embracing her mother whose face remained indistinct, suddenly felt an abrupt chill rise along her spine.

It ascended from the soles of her feet all the way to her neck, causing her to tremble violently even within her dream.

Half-forced, Jiang Jiuli stirred, slowly regaining consciousness.

She initially expected it to be another unsolvable mystery, just like all the times before.

But to her horror…

…as she groggily opened her eyes:

A section of the ceiling directly above her was shrouded in darkness.

From directly above her head, an unfamiliar, pallid face extended downward.

That humanoid, white canvas was covered in a dense network of jet-black threads, crawling across its surface to form repeated eye-like patterns.

In the theoretical positions of eyes, two hollow orbs, filled with writhing coils of thread, stared unblinkingly down at her!

“Aaaahhhhh!”

The sight sent Jiuli’s spirit attire into a berserk frenzy. She instantly retreated into her own magic, too terrified to even glance at that horrific face again.

Ultimately, she fled, sobbing and scrambling, until she reached Su Muxue’s home.

****

“So, Jiuli, you didn’t accidentally bring that ‘person’ here with you, did you?”

Su Muxue muttered, half to herself, a playful jab that startled Jiang Jiuli into another high-pitched gasp.

“Oh no, oh no! If I really did bring it, wouldn’t I be endangering you, Xiaoxue, and your beautiful mother?”

‘Hold on, your priorities seem a little off,’ Su Muxue thought.

Su Muxue considered this for a moment, then decided it was best not to tease the already visibly distraught Jiang Jiuli any further.

“I actually think it’s a good thing that face finally appeared,” she offered.

She gently pushed the glass of warm water towards Jiuli.

Jiuli snatched it, downing the entire glass in one gulp before finally asking, “Why do you say that?”

“Because it now has a physical form,” Su Muxue explained softly.

“Once something has a physical form, it can be analyzed. We can then seek methods to neutralize it, to render it harmless.”

“This is precisely what Professor wrote in the textbooks.”

“Besides you, Xiaoxue, which other student actually reads the textbooks seriously?!” Jiang Jiuli protested loudly.

“Even so, there’s no need to be quite so terrified,” Su Muxue kindly pointed out, highlighting a detail Jiang Jiuli had overlooked.

“Look, it didn’t appear yesterday or the day before, did it? It only showed itself to you, Jiuli, after everyone else had left.”

“Huh, you’re right,” Jiang Jiuli mumbled, her mouth slightly agape.

“Hmm… while that’s true,” Su Muxue mused, resting her chin in her hand. “How about this, Jiuli? You stay here with me for now.”

“Then at noon, Uncle Lu can take us both.”

“Eh—but even then, what if it follows us…?”

Jiang Jiuli’s eyes widened, her mind struggling to process, as a long, drawn-out sound escaped her lips.

As Jiuli spiraled into a mental whirlwind, Su Muxue quietly lowered her gaze to Booboo, who was sniffing curiously at her feet.

Booboo made no sound, simply nodding before circling Su Muxue’s left foot once.

“A strange scent, it was here… but now it’s gone,” Su Muxue murmured softly.

If Jiang Jiuli wasn’t lying, and a “monster” truly had been fixated on her, then what exactly was it after?

Su Muxue tilted her head, pondering the mystery for a few moments, but still couldn’t make sense of it.

‘Never mind. After today’s training, she would tell her mother everything. Her mother would surely know what to do,’ she thought.

A faint smile naturally curved Su Muxue’s lips as she thought this.

At the same moment, a conflicted Jiang Jiuli finally made up her mind, nodding her head vigorously, though what she silently resolved remained unknown.

“Guh-uh-uh, I’m still so scared…”

“I’ll have to trouble you, Muxue.”

Jiang Jiuli blinked, her gaze darting around the room, before suddenly noticing something she had overlooked.

She asked cautiously, “Um… where is Su Muxue’s mother?”

“Why are you the only one home, Muxue?”

“Ah!” Su Muxue exclaimed, a sudden realization dawning on her.

It was then that Su Muxue remembered she had forgotten to share her joyous news with Jiang Jiuli.

“Because, my mother is now the training leader! For the very training we’re attending this afternoon, you know!”

“Wow—!”

Jiang Jiuli’s mouth dropped open, her expression exaggeratedly impressed.

In the worldview of a young elementary school girl, becoming a “teacher” was, indeed, an incredibly impressive feat.

“Hehe,” Su Muxue hummed contentedly.

This, after all, was the truly important news, wasn’t it?