The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch-Chapter 82 - Whispers of "Instigator" Ciel (1/3)

Probably best not to open it just yet.

Ignoring the other items, Ciel opened the notebook beside it.

Towards the back of the notebook, there was a message left for her, written in Chinese.

【I already bought the potion from Avena. She seems to have collected quite a few “Instigator” and “Listener” potions and materials in the past.】

【The previous “Other Side Page” seems damaged and not very effective anymore, but I’m too lazy to write another one, especially with a third-tier “Crown Guard” around. So I just redeemed some from the sub-system.】

【Nothing else was worth redeeming, so I exchanged everything for “Other Side Pages.” 25 pages, enough for you to hand out flyers.】

【The stuff is in that cloth bag. See if you can stuff it into the inventory... but based on my guess about the system, probably not.】

【I had Adele inform Uris about everything in advance, then had Adele come over to Avena’s. After all, staying near the “Crown Guard” Nia offers a higher survival rate than staying with Uris, who’s caught in the crossfire.】

【If you’re lucky, you might see Hugh again near the end of the simulation... Of course, it might not be her again.】

【That’s all, dead tired, going to sleep. What you do next is up to you.】

【Oh right, you know, we didn’t do anything.】

【”Charm” and “Art of Conversation” are more effective than you think. If you deem it necessary, you can upgrade these two skills—if it’s too expensive, forget it. After all, besides redeeming things from the shop, I can’t really do anything.】

【88】

This thing... contains a stack of “Other Side Pages”?

Ciel looked at the thick cloth bag she had just weighed, never expecting it to hold such items.

Ciel took out the “Radiance Bishop’s Letter” from her inventory, tentatively grabbed the cloth bag, wanting to put it into the inventory, but failed.

After putting the “Radiance Bishop’s Letter” away again, Ciel looked at the cloth bag, her expression slightly confused.

Previously, just one “Other Side Page,” merely being near it, was enough to trigger alarming whispers in one’s mind.

But these 25 pages before her, simply sealed in a cloth bag, gave Ciel no sense of threat.

This doesn’t feel like “Other Side Pages.”

Ciel temporarily set aside the canvas bag, found her clothes and shoes, took them out of the room, changed in another guest room, and then went down to the main hall.

These things were too dangerous. Ciel couldn’t possibly risk opening them directly in Avena’s room, especially with a third-tier “Crown Guard” watching over Avena’s safety almost 24/7.

Finding no suitable room, Ciel took the items to the first-floor washroom.

Compared to the reception hall with its unrepaired wall, this place offered slightly more privacy.

Ciel hung the canvas bag on the back of the door, took out the cloth bag, took a deep breath, and slowly opened it...

Nothing happened.

Ciel reached in, pulled out one of the pages, crumpled it into a ball, wet it with water, then slowly held it up before her face.

Although the blood and text on it were somewhat smudged by the water, and the crumpling made the already illegible script even harder to decipher.

But the text had no effect on Ciel whatsoever.

Ciel tossed the crumpled paper back into the cloth bag, then directly took out an intact page and looked straight at it.

It was the familiar “Other Side Page,” but it no longer held any power.

In previous simulations, Ciel’s simulated self had indeed used Fate Points to transform, redeem Gold Pounds, and purchase various survival supplies with those pounds.

Could it be that, apart from transformation, everything redeemed from the sub-system was fake?

Or were the items real, just lacking any transcendent properties? Only precious metals like Gold Pounds could be used properly?

Ciel checked the remaining pages, confirmed none were usable, then put them back into the canvas bag.

It was commendable that her simulated self thought of this and tried it, just a pity it didn’t work as intended.

However, being able to redeem identical fake items... if used well, this might still be very helpful.

Just not right now.

Ciel rummaged through the bag and found a brand-new potion vial.

The potion inside emitted an overall pink glow. Within these points of light, several tiny tentacles drifted—it looked like the “Instigator” potion.

But this potion looked very different from the one Ciel had seen with Thomas.

Thomas’s potion had fleshy tentacles nearly dyed black, the vial filled with a mixture of black mist and oily liquid, nothing like this clean pink.

It seemed the potion Thomas obtained was likely made from second-hand, or possibly even third-hand, extracted materials.

Basically soul rings attached.

No wonder Thomas needed two vials of the potion, and drinking just one turned him into that wretched state.

A small label, tied with wire, hung from the vial’s neck. “Instigator” was written on it in Ansu script, the handwriting clearly Ciel’s own.