Chapter 655: Invasion

Chapter 655: Invasion

This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation.

On a brisk and chilly afternoon, it was nearly time for the mistress to appear in this silent room where only the sound was the gentle scratching of a pencil on paper. Lines of various shades moved across the page as if alive, dynamically growing under the artist’s hand. This artist, Richard, was fully engrossed in his drawing, a unique method of “welcoming” someone. A blend of calm and eager anticipation gradually filled his thoughts.

Unaware, Richard did not notice the chill in the room dissipating. The strange void that had plagued him lately had vanished, and a smile slowly formed on his face. His mind was completely absorbed by the thought of the mistress’s imminent arrival.

This mistress, whom he had never met personally, held a place of deep respect and anticipation in his heart. He pondered whether she would like this place. Would she appreciate his efforts in preparing everything for her visit? Would she smile and commend the dedication of what he considered himself to be—a “rag doll”?

As he sketched, it seemed the mistress’s kind gaze emerged from the drawing, smiling directly at him.

Richard’s heart fluttered with excitement, yet his hands moved with unprecedented steadiness and speed. He had not realized when he had become so adept at drawing, able to produce such beautiful lines so quickly. He even began using his left hand, both hands moving in a blur.

Suddenly, loud and urgent footsteps in the corridor broke his concentration. They echoed like a racing heartbeat, an unwelcome interruption.

A soft voice in his mind whispered, “They are coming for you, dear rag doll...”

It was a faint whisper, like a distant noise on the wind.

The familiar, unpleasant sensation of cold returned. Richard felt a surge of annoyance. Someone was coming to disrupt his long-awaited meeting with the mistress. They were almost at his door, and he hadn’t finished his drawing yet.

He quickened his pace, his hands flying over the paper. However, the disturbing footsteps reached him faster than he had anticipated.

They halted right outside his door, followed by a knock. It started gently but quickly became more insistent.

“Richard, are you in there?” A voice from outside called, tense and awkwardly polite, “The Saint has called a meeting, everyone is to gather in the hall.”

“Don’t go, it’s a trap.”Discover new chapters at novelhall.com

Richard heard a warning inside his head, but he couldn’t discern if it was Rabbi’s voice or his own thought. He ignored the voice at the door, concentrating even more intensely on his drawing.

The quiet of the room was shattered by more forceful knocking as they raised their voices, “Richard, we know you’re in there. This meeting is important, you can’t still be sleeping!”

“Just a little longer,” he thought, “Just a bit more.”

Richard’s brow furrowed deeply, his arms shaking as if in a spasm. From the black and white sketch, the mistress’s eyes seemed to come alive within the drawing.

But still, Richard’s artwork was incomplete; he had just a few crucial strokes left to add...

Suddenly, the persistent knocking ceased, only to be replaced by a loud, violent crash.

The Saint, standing on the central platform of the hall, momentarily lapsed into a state of dazed fatigue. Exhaustion from his prolonged observation of fate had set in. He found himself longing for the past, for the days when he inhabited a human body. Despite its weakness and vulnerability, he reminisced about the comfort of lying in a bed, free from the incessant, muddled whispers and the tumultuous roars that now plagued his mind...

Lost in this daze, his memories wove into a nebulous veil, within which a sense of eternal peace seemed to beckon to him. That “peace” took the form of a tall shadow, aglow with pale green flames.

Abruptly, the Saint was jolted from this premonition of fate, his every nerve and blood vessel pulsing with intense pain.

“Your Holiness,” a voice interrupted, belonging to a high-ranking priest. The priest was delivering a report: “Everyone you requested has been brought here.”

The Saint raised his eyestalks, surveying the assembled followers in the hall. The crowd was a mix of fear and bewilderment that had been engulfed within an impenetrable shadow.

“Intruders have boarded the ship!”

...

After the hall had emptied, a subtle shift in the air occurred in Richard’s room. This was followed by the sudden appearance of a figure beside the bed.

The emergence of this figure, Lucretia, was almost like an image transitioning from a flat surface to a three-dimensional form. It was as if she had “flipped” and “stood up” from being a mere image.

Lucretia had been incredibly close to the suppressor during the earlier encounter, at times just half a meter away, but she was positioned sideways.

A flat picture lacks depth, making it invisible to eyes in three-dimensional space when viewed parallelly.

Lucretia let out a soft exhale, examining her hands. She casually picked up a pencil that had been tossed aside and drew a few lines on her palm.

Then, with a simple gesture, her “flat” figure transformed back into a normal, solid form.

She glanced at the empty floor and spoke: “Rabbi, I know you’re in the room.”

Almost immediately after her words, a sharp, childlike voice rang out in the room: “Eee! Mistress is here! Rabbi is coming out!”

Accompanying this high-pitched, almost playful voice, countless white, fluffy substances suddenly materialized.

The shadows in the corners, the gaps between the pieces of furniture, small openings in the ceiling, and even the tiny cracks in the floor became sources of an unusual phenomenon. These spaces, potential hiding places for “fibers,” suddenly erupted with countless cotton fluffs. It was as though the room itself was actively expelling these foreign objects. In just a moment, the fluffs swarmed into Lucretia’s field of view, rapidly converging in the center of the room. There, they began to merge, gradually taking on the form of a rabbit made entirely of cotton, yet curiously missing its “outer skin.”

Then, this makeshift cotton rabbit began a peculiar transformation, almost “inverting” itself from the inside out. Colorful fabric pieces emerged from within its core, swiftly enveloping its cotton body. The transformation resulted in a large rabbit doll designed with an unsettling, eerie aesthetic.

This bizarre doll wobbled unsteadily, then joyfully lunged toward Lucretia, exclaiming with enthusiasm: “Rabbi’s here, Rabbi’s here! Welcome, welcome, we...”

“Quiet,” Lucretia interrupted sharply, her tone frosty as she effortlessly caught the rabbit doll in mid-leap. “Stay quiet,” she commanded, imposing silence upon the lively doll.