The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch-Chapter 130 - Obtaining "Uniqueness" and Other Side Contamination (3/4)

It was Ciel’s notebook and pen.

She quickly walked over, bent down to pick up the notebook and pen, walked before Ciel, and quickly opened it.

There should be something useful recorded in the notebook...

But when Avena fully opened the notebook, she was completely stunned.

Written on it were some square characters she couldn’t understand at all, different from any foreign language she had learned... This seemed like a rather ancient language.

But from the elegant handwriting, Avena could accurately recognize this was Ciel’s notes—after all, she had been corresponding with Ciel these past few days.

Avena placed the notebook and pen aside. Ignoring the dust on the ground, she knelt directly before Ciel, reached out, and took her hands.

Wait... Ciel...

A faint light flickered in Avena’s dark purple pupils. Avena held her breath, focusing all her attention on Ciel’s soulless eyes.

...

This is... what?

Ciel looked at the patches of silver-white light before her, lost in thought.

Did I come out of the Other Side?

But where is this place?

System space?

Before Ciel’s eyes, silver-white frames continued to pop up.

Inside these frames, where system text used to display for communication, were now filled with characters unfamiliar to Ciel.

She tentatively turned her head, only to find such frames piled up everywhere. No matter where she looked, there were heaps of system frames.

“Really bugged?”

Ciel tentatively spoke, but heard no reply—at this moment, she couldn’t even open the system interface. This was the first time Ciel encountered this situation.

Unsure how long this situation lasted, the frames finally stopped increasing.

Slowly, the system interfaces stacked before Ciel dissipated block by block. After a long time, Ciel finally saw something other than the system interfaces.

Before her was a tiny gear.

It floated in the vast expanse of silver-white space, just quietly revolving.

Only then did Ciel realize the system frames didn’t disappear into thin air but were absorbed into that gear.

Only after all the frames were absorbed did the gear gradually stop revolving.

A new system interface appeared before Ciel.

【Nice view?】

Unsure why, Ciel seemed to sense the system’s resentment from this sentence.

“Did you malfunction?” Ciel asked somewhat curiously.

【...】

【Sigh...】

For some reason, after sending a series of ellipses, the system finally sent a sighing tone word.

“Why sigh?”

【Just thinking about having to do these things again makes me feel bad】

“What did you do?”

【Helped you seal away all the knowledge and will within the “Uniqueness”】

“Seal away... then it’s useless, right?”

【So, do you want me to seal them away, or do you want to go crazy yourself?】

【Haha, managed to make a pun out of that too, pinned ^^】

Seeing the familiar annoying system expression, Ciel finally relaxed slightly.

Looks like the system didn’t bug out, still fine. fгeewebnovёl.com

【Next time you don’t have to swallow it, just stuff it in the stopwatch】

【Oops, oh no~ I can’t hold on much longer~ Can’t continue shielding you from contamination ^_^】

As the system’s last communication interface disappeared, the silver light before Ciel rapidly dissipated.

This was definitely intentional by the system—

Only this thought flashed through Ciel’s mind before she quickly tensed her spirit, preparing to face the possible “contamination” or “whispers.”

But what Ciel didn’t expect was that the mental impact she imagined didn’t arrive.

Feeling the recovery of control over her body, Ciel slowly opened her eyes.

Opening her eyes, she saw her mangled right hand.

All the skin from the palm to the arm of her right hand had been torn open. In some places, only the skin connected some flesh. Even the muscles themselves had started turning somewhat purple.

In the crevices between skin and muscle, some tentacles still writhed, as if they were inherently part of her hand, already fused with her flesh.

Looking along her palm, she saw another pair of fair hands, currently tightly gripping her own hands.

Continuing to look up, Avena, wearing glasses and kneeling before her, appeared in Ciel’s vision.

Avena was currently holding Ciel’s hands, eyes tightly shut. Her face showed slight pain, her forehead covered in fine sweat.

Is Avena bearing this for me?

This would greatly impact Avena’s spirit... And Ciel had to know the extent of her own spiritual contamination without Avena’s help.

“Avena...” Ciel spoke, calling Avena’s name.

Avena, hearing Ciel’s words at this moment, abruptly opened her eyes. Her dark purple pupils trembled slightly, seemingly still shaken from seeing something.

Ciel slowly withdrew her hands from Avena’s grasp, but Avena’s hands seemed to exert some force, not wanting Ciel’s hands to leave.

However, Avena’s strength was still too weak compared to Ciel’s. Ciel’s current physical strength, enhanced by 【Dexterity】, wasn’t something a non-combat path Avena could contend with.

“It’s alright now, Avena.” After withdrawing her hands, Ciel looked at the somewhat shaken Avena, reached out her left hand, slowly put it around her shoulder, embraced her, and said, “It’s over.”

After leaving the influence of Avena’s ability, Ciel’s vision began to show slight double images and hallucinations. The originally dark factory seemed shrouded in mist again.

The warm yellow light emitted by the liquid in the light tube dispersed part of the darkness, but in the faint mist-shrouded darkness untouched by the light, something seemed to be rustling and whispering, luring Ciel closer.

“Ci... Ciel... I... I saw...” Avena’s chin rested on Ciel’s shoulder, stammering, “Why you too...”

Avena’s somewhat chaotic spirit clearly hadn’t completely stabilized yet. Ciel didn’t speak, just gently patted Avena’s back with her left palm.

Under Ciel’s gentle touch, Avena’s rapidly beating heart finally slowed down gradually, her body no longer trembling.

At this moment, Avena seemed to realize their current posture was slightly ambiguous, but after hesitating for a moment, Avena still slowly reached out her hands and hugged Ciel’s back.