He who Bends Time-Chapter 81 - like a child’s play

"After learning that the thing Nick used has a time limit on its perfect camouflage ability, I didn’t even use it in the carriage to hide from the guards—just to save its energy and time," she said, as she stretched the creature and placed it on her back.

She attached it and wore it like a long robe over her back—more than enough to cover her whole body.

Afterward, cautious of the guards roaming around, she arrived at the base of the watchtower. From her hand, blood flowed out and solidified into a sharp nails.

Hmph!

Thuk!

Jumping up, she thrust the hand holding the sharp nails into the wall, and it stuck like a glued. Holding onto it, Marian bore her entire weight with one arm, the crystal sturdy enough to support both. Then she shifted her other hand, driving another nails slightly higher while pulling herself upward along the wall—gradually ascending.

The watchtower was quite high, and Marian had to climb for a long time. At one point, about halfway to her destination at the top of the tower, she looked down to see the earth far below and noticed a carriage arriving at the watchtower.

"I thought I would be scared, but this is like child’s play," she muttered. Despite the wind blowing hard against her, and her words sounding confident, anyone else would surely believe that one slip would mean the end.

Fortunately, at certain points, there were windows in the tower walls. Marian took the chance to rest briefly in those spots—but only if no one was there to see her. Her rest never lasted longer than five minutes, as the inside of the tower was constantly watched over by roaming guards.

Occasionally, they even stuck their heads out the windows to check the outer walls for intruders. If not for her extraordinary cloak, Marian would have been caught long ago.

Ugh!

When she finally neared the top, Marian had to rotate her position around the tower. As she slowly shifted sideways, reaching the far end of the structure away from the wall, she spotted a telescope poking out from a massive open window at the top.

After locating it, she carefully made her way toward it. The window was large enough to allow the telescope’s head to extend out, with plenty of additional space for wind and birds to fly in and out of the tower room.

"Okay... this is the part where I actually feel scared," muttered Marian, glancing down. She was truly high above the ground now—the people below looked like tiny bugs. The gusting wind was relentless and hard to endure.

Peeking into the room through the wide window, Marian saw no sign of life.

"Where is he?" she muttered, scanning the entire room. When she didn’t see anything for a few moments, she made the decision to jump in.

Thump!

Her foot hit the floor with a soft sound. The room was eerily quiet, save for the occasional flapping of birds flying inside.

Once inside, Marian looked around as thoroughly as she could.

"I’m definitely in the right place," she muttered, eyeing the nameplate on the desk, which read: Tower Administrator.

She made her way to the table to check for anything else, but as she tried to sit on the chair beside it, she suddenly jumped up.

"Administrator?"

She muttered again, now staring at the old man lying on the floor beside the desk. The old man showed no signs of life—he looked dead.

"Is he sleeping?" she questioned under her breath. Then, using her foot, she nudged the old man’s body slightly. Even after she rolled his body over with a kick, the old man remained motionless.

"Old man... Old man..." Sitting beside his body now, Marian examined it more closely. During her inspection, she realized the old man wasn’t breathing.

"He’s dead..." she whispered. A wave of confusion, surprise, and fear swept over her.

Confusion—because how did the administrator of the tower die in his own office?

Surprise—for the fact that she was the one who discovered the body.

And fear—for the possibility that whoever did this might still be nearby.

Clink!

At that moment, she heard the distinct sound of keys unlocking the door. Acting quickly, Marian ran back to the window she had come through. Stepping out, she grabbed hold of the outer wall using her sharp blood-formed nail and peeked back into the room.

The door opened, and a young man entered. He quietly closed it behind him and walked toward the desk, muttering a few nonsense words to himself.

He clearly saw the old man lying beside the desk, but without hesitation, he stepped over the body, sat down in the chair, and began sifting through some letters on the table—reading them as if nothing were out of place.

On the wall, Marian held tightly to her sharp blood-formed nails, peeking inside at the young man reading silently. After about fifteen minutes of quiet reading, the young man finally threw the letter onto the table.

"Time to get back into this old body... sigh, when will I be able to go back?" he muttered, looking down at the old man lying on the floor.

Afterward, he picked the old man up by both arms and lifted him upward, raising the limp hands high enough so he could look directly at the old man’s face.

Then he opened his mouth—and at that moment, a shrill sound escaped from within. A shallow, phantom-like skull began detaching from the young man’s face, almost like peeling off a tightly glued mask. The phantom skull resisted fiercely as it was pulled out, accompanied by a wave of unnatural mist that billowed out from his body.

The mist formed fully into the shape of a skull, which then dove straight into the old man’s mouth. As it entered, the old man began to twitch—small signs of life starting to return.

Outside, the moment Marian saw this, her entire body froze with shock. A bone-deep chill ran through her, paralyzing her instincts and stunning her into stillness. Her grip slipped, and she lost hold of her blood-forged nails embedded in the tower wall.

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