The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch

Ciel walked all the way up the stairs to the second floor. She looked to the right. On a corridor laid with red carpet, stood several people talking. Ciel did not hesitate, walked straight towards them.

These few are members of the “Chaos Squad.” Their appearance and abilities, her simulated self had recorded in the notepad. So when Ciel saw them, she just glanced, and quickly matched them with the descriptions in the notepad.

Among them, one worth noting is a “Dream Thief” named Mary. She is a senior “Dream Thief”, having remained at Tier 2 for almost 10 years. The deepening of whispers is not obvious in her case, but she has been slow to advance.

The “Subverter’s” Reconstitution Ritual is not that easy to complete, especially for timid and unstrategic people.

After seeing Ciel, they all quickly stopped talking, retreated to both sides of the corridor, and just watched Ciel pass through their midst.

“The ‘Keyman’ is inside, Lord ‘Faceless’.”

A man wearing black-rimmed glasses, his right palm slightly upward, made an inviting gesture towards the door to his right.

This is the team’s “Blood Painter.” His paintings can be constructed in dreams, and can still produce effects.

This is the “Chaos Squad’s” specific finishing method. Using the “Blood Painter’s” paintings in a “Dream Thief’s” dream makes the person dragged into the dream go mad and become a vegetative state person in reality.

However, this combined ability has a certain limitation: if the “Dream Thief” sees the painting in the dream, they will also fall into different degrees of mental chaos, and the dream may collapse very quickly.

In the previous simulation, if it had been slightly later, Ciel might have seen that painting and been affected.

But... who goes mad is not certain. Ciel has been to the Other Side. It’s just a painting; she doesn’t think it can be that sinister.

Ciel nodded, then stood still at the entrance. After two seconds, she looked up at the painter with glasses beside her and asked, “How is this door opened?”

“Uh?”

The man was stunned for a second, then stepped forward, reaching out to help Ciel open the door.

But the next second, Ciel suddenly raised her hand, directly twisted open the doorknob, and pushed the door forcefully inwards.

The scene inside instantly presented itself before the “Blood Painter.” His gaze continuously spread along the luxurious carpet. A person stood in the center. He just glimpsed a pair of leather boots, then quickly closed his eyes, repeatedly taking several steps back.

“Hey, hey—”

Ciel, with her eyes closed, swayed her head left and right, seeming to call out to others on the wilderness, “What did you see? Pickman, is everything alright, Corporal Pickman?”

Ciel’s right ear twitched slightly. She heard Pickman’s breathing gradually become heavy. Ciel opened her eyes with a hint of curiosity, looking towards Pickman.

At this moment, Pickman lowered his head, panting violently. His eye sockets were empty, his eyeballs had disappeared long ago. Fresh blood dripping down his cheeks onto the carpet looked as if he were shedding bloody tears.

The lenses on his glasses had all shattered. The blood-stained lenses on the carpet reflected the firelight of the wall’s gas lamps.

What sealed artifact? Or the “Subverter’s” ability?

I didn’t hear or feel anything.

“Tsk tsk tsk tsk...”

“Sorry, Pickman,”

Ciel slightly lowered her head, saying sincerely with a hint of apology, “Don’t cry. I’ll buy you a new pair of glasses later.”

Ciel raised her hands to shield her eyes, stepped forward into the room. She hooked her heel back and pushed, closing the wooden door.

“Freak.”

A voice with a smile sounded. Although the word spoken was derogatory, the tone was full of appreciation.

Only this voice, like countless layers of audio tracks were layered, made one’s eardrums repeatedly buzz just by listening.

But this voice...

Child? Woman?

Ciel’s fingers spread apart slightly. Through the gaps between her fingers, she looked at the person before her.

The instant she saw the person’s face clearly, Ciel was slightly startled.

That was a face as if it had jumped out of a Picasso painting.

The left half was the front view of a normal human face, facing Ciel. The right half was a side view with no mouth, a chin connected to tentacles, exposed nasal bone, and a side face with a ferocious giant mouth where the eyeball should be, facing the front view on the left.

The back of the right side of the head exposed almost half a brain. For the entire head, it looked as if a piece was protruding—almost the instant she saw this face, Ciel’s brain started buzzing slightly.

But very quickly, the bloody pupil in the wide-open giant mouth where the eye should be on the right side of the face made Ciel recall she seemed to have seen this kind of “thing” before.

To be precise, she had seen similar Other Side creatures.

That was the fleshy ball with giant mouths and eyeballs and tentacles that was sacrificed in the underground exchange area of Deton Manor when she first obtained spiritual summoning.

“You’re not afraid?”

The giant mouth where the “person’s” eyeball should be opened and closed. Layered voices sounded beside Ciel’s ear. There seemed to be some surprise in the voice.

“You should let the painter look at you more. Perhaps it could significantly improve his ability.”

Ciel couldn’t help but complain.

“He can’t. He can’t bear it.”

The Keyman shook their head, then immediately pointed to the sofa beside them, and continued, “Let’s sit and chat.”

Ciel lowered her hands and followed the Keyman to sit on the sofa. As soon as she sat down, Ciel couldn’t help but start examining the Keyman before her, looking up and down.

Leaving aside their head, the Keyman’s figure was rather curvaceous, the kind where people on video websites would comment that it’s all the same with the lights off... Only the face was too abstract, it was truly difficult to associate them with a beautiful woman.

Ciel slightly raised her palm, reached out, and in her eyes, slightly covered the right side of the Keyman’s face.

However, the instant the Keyman’s right face was covered, before Ciel’s eyes, their left face directly turned into that side-profile monster head. When Ciel put her hand down, the monster head returned to the right side again.

The Keyman did not interrupt Ciel. Instead, they watched Ciel’s actions with interest, waiting for her to finish playing.

“Right, what do you need from me?”

Ciel finally stopped her hand movements, no longer attempting to only look at the normal half of the Keyman’s face, and asked.