"Eh?"
The change of topic was so sudden that Syl's brain hadn't even transitioned from her reasoning yet, so she instinctively shook her head. "I'm not hungry."
"Oh." Aishala nodded expressionlessly. "Go to sleep early."
"Hmm? No divine art practice today?" Seeing Aishala about to leave, Syl asked curiously.
After all, Syl had spent the morning outside acting while resisting the whispers and dealing with various people; the mental pressure was immense.
Teasing Aishala was one of the few ways Syl had found to decompress and entertain herself.
"Self-study." After dropping those words, Aishala left directly, as if she had something to do.
"Alright..." Syl replied, watching Aishala leave. "Goodnight, Archbishop."
Hearing Syl's goodnight, Aishala paused at the door for a moment before replying, "Mm, goodnight."
With that, Aishala walked out and closed the door for Syl.
"Exhausted..." Though Syl's body felt fine after wandering all day, her mind was utterly spent.
After washing up in the bathroom and changing into pajamas, Syl dove into the soft bed and fell asleep almost the instant her head hit the pillow.
She already had some leads on the clues she needed to collect. Syl couldn't wait for tomorrow to uncover the Conspiracy Beneath the Haze.
Syl did not sleep soundly.
In her dream, Syl, the clown, and the physician stood facing each other, watching one another. Whatever movement Syl made, the other two character cards followed, like character models using the same motion capture data.
After an unknown amount of time, when Syl raised her hand for the last time, the physician followed suit, but the clown remained motionless. She looked at Syl and revealed an exaggerated smile.
"Saintess... Transform."
Just as Syl would transform into the clown, after the clown spoke those words, a beam of holy light enveloped the clown. Almost instantly, the clown took on Syl's appearance.
Then, Syl was startled awake.
Syl propped herself up, looking at the dim light of dawn outside. She rubbed her forehead, her eyes filled with confusion.
She felt like she'd had a very bizarre dream, but when she tried to recall it upon waking, everything in the dream seemed to have been erased. No matter how hard she tried to remember, not a single image appeared.
This left her mental state appearing quite poor. Even after a night's sleep, her sense of fatigue hadn't vanished at all.
She sat on the bed with her eyes closed, leaning against the headboard for about half an hour before she felt her spirit recover slightly.
She got out of bed, changed into her clothes, put on her black robe, and checked that she had all her belongings. Only then did Syl open the door and walk out of her room.
This floor was reserved for the Pope, the Saintess, and the Archbishops, so there was no one around, making it feel somewhat empty.
But once she reached the lower floors, nuns and monks gradually began to appear in the stairwells and hallways, busy with their respective duties.
Through her walks in the hallways these past few days, Syl had gained a rough understanding of the Church of the Goddess of Hope's departmental complexity just by looking at the doorplates; it could almost rival a small nation.
On her way to the dining hall, Syl happened to run into Aishala and had breakfast with her. After eating, Syl bid Aishala farewell. Once Aishala had applied a small golden shield to her, Syl put on her glasses and headed out.
Time was of the essence. Besides completing the clown's advancement task, she also needed to investigate the "Conspiracy Beneath the Haze" and search for any potential magic potions.
Unfortunately, the "Mana Tide" salon only met once a week, otherwise Syl would have definitely gone back to try her luck.
The morning air was a bit chilly, and the gloomy sky made it hard to feel any joy.
"I hope it doesn't rain..." Syl adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose and tightened her clothes.
Before long, Syl arrived at the inn from yesterday. The innkeeper and guests ignored her as she went straight upstairs to the room she had rented last night, turning the handle and walking inside.
Since she hadn't left anything inside, Syl hadn't bothered to lock the door.
The curtains in the room were still drawn. After closing the door, Syl took out her wallet and pocket watch, placed them on the table, and whispered softly.
"Clown."
Space distorted and instantly snapped back to normal. The tall clown appeared in the room.
"Phew... I actually feel more energetic after becoming the clown," Syl laughed at herself. "Is this what they mean by 'my spirit is much better now that I've lost my mind'?"
After tidying her clothes in the bathroom, Syl took her wallet, pocket watch, and cane, then walked out of the room.
Her destination today was still Ivisa South District. Being unfamiliar with the area was a hurdle for her investigation, so Syl decided to use her identity as the clown to pay a follow-up visit to a "patient."
It was Edward, the boy who had been smashed to pieces a few days ago and sewn back together by the physician.
Syl didn't want to use the physician card again, at least not until the clown card advanced. She was traumatized, and she feared something bad might happen if the physician card walked up to one of her stitch-works.
Upon reaching Ivisa South District, Syl walked and stopped along the streets. Although she wasn't very familiar with the roads and her memory of that night was a bit fuzzy, she could still remember bits and pieces if she saw that alleyway.
"I'll wander for ten more minutes. If I can't find it, I'll use the physician card to search..." Syl thought as she roamed around Ivisa South District.
Fortunately, Syl's luck was good—or rather, she hadn't gone very far into Ivisa South District that night. She soon found the alleyway, which still bore bloodstains.
To the right of the alley was a bakery. It was clearly of a lower class than the one Kaili ran by the river. After glancing at the curious passersby staring at her, Syl straightened her clothes and walked into the bakery.
*Ding—ding—*
The wooden door caused the bell hanging on it to jingle.
"Oh, welcome, Sir... Madam. My, you're tall." The shopkeeper was a middle-aged plump woman who was currently covering her mouth, looking at Syl in surprise.
"Hello, Madam," Syl greeted politely before getting straight to the point. "Do you happen to know Edward? A boy, tall and thin, looks about seventeen or eighteen."
It took a while for the middle-aged woman to look away from Syl and snap back to reality. She wiped her hands on her apron. "...Edward? Which Edward?"
"Um... he has a sister. The one who had an accident a few days ago," Syl added more details.
"Oh, little Edward," the woman seemed to recall something and said confusedly. "I haven't seen him around these past few days. It seems his sister hasn't gone to the factory lately either."
Factory? His sister looked less than ten years old.
"I see..." Syl took a one-shilling coin from her pocket and placed it face down on a bread basket. "Then could you tell me where his home is?"
"His home... 44 Buer Street. I forgot which floor exactly," the middle-aged woman thought for a moment before offering a kind warning. "Beautiful lady, I suggest you don't go looking for him."
"I've felt he's been a bit strange lately. He keeps one of his eyes wrapped in cloth all day," the woman pointed toward her eye and shrunk her neck. "I... don't laugh at me for saying this, but I actually saw something moving under the rags... goddess of hope above... it was truly terrifying..."