Chapter 1328: Chapter 1328: The Gardener’s Dream
Shard mused:
“Be prepared, right? No problem.”
“Of course, not only do you gain sothing, but I also gain sothing.”
The doctor smiled and said:
“The corrupted gardener corpse you brought, I’ve already dealt with it. While we have the ti, why don’t we take a look at the mories of the deceased together? It might be rewarding. Certainly, it won’t take much ti; after viewing the mories, we can have lunch together and discuss the preparations to counter ‘Goethe’. ”
Entering the mories of a corpse corrupted by a demon isn’t difficult. The doctor brought over a copper basin, placed it over the fireplace fla, waiting for the water to boil. Then, he took out two glass bottles, each containing a pure black eyeball, handed one to Shard, and they each dropped their blood into the bottles.
The eyeballs in the bottles imdiately started spinning; once the blood stain’s color faded, they poured the eyeballs and the slick liquid from the bottles into the boiling basin. Instantly, faintly foul-slling green smoke emanated, quickly enveloping the entire room.
Both found places to lie down in the room, the doctor on the grand leather chair behind the desk, while Shard lay on the sofa. Seeing Shard lying down, Mia imdiately jumped onto his chest, gazing down as Shard gently closed his eyes and entered a dream.
Shard had entered more than one dream alongside Dr. Schneider; thus he was very experienced. However, this ti, once he realized he was dreaming, he imdiately felt sothing was off about the surrounding scene.
In the dream, he sensed coldness, with the sky overhead pitch black.
Looking around, it was undoubtedly the Osenfort Estate in the Randall Valley, more precisely, outside the estate’s fence gate. The ti was nightti, but at the edges of his vision in the night, there seed to be white shadows dancing. Looking inward from the gate, the semi-desolate estate revealed eeriness in the silent night. Looking up at the sky, among the three moons, there were large eyes constantly blinking, as if searching, where the Red Moon and Yellow Moon were, while Silvermoon transford into an eerie face with closed eyes.
The stars dimd, the few remaining stars in the sky ford a complete sentence in Casenric Language:
“You will die soon, I’m watching you!”
Shard suspected he had entered a horror story.
“The distortion is quite severe.”
At this mont, the doctor’s voice ca, accompanied by Shard noticing he was right beside him. Shard’s outfit remained the sa as before, while the doctor changed into an attire more resembling a detective.
“I’m adept at the power of dreams, able to change outfits in dreams at will; isn’t that quite normal?”
The doctor said and then explained the surrounding situation:
“The original scene in the dream must not be like this, but the tornt suffered by the soul and body twisted the mory, creating the scene we see now… A truly pitiable fellow, he must have endured much suffering before and after his death.”
“I didn’t see the gardener’s spirit.”
“Probably still trapped in the estate you ntioned; the body was made into a demon ghoul, so there’s no reason to directly consu the suffering soul.”
The doctor pushed the gate before them; accompanied by a creaking sound, the gate opened wide:
“Let’s go, and see these last mories before death.”
Even the most adept horror writer could likely not portray the estate garden’s scene at this mont. Blood of unknown origin flowed over pathways paved with pebbles; maniacal won’s laughter and whispers ca from surrounding shrubs, the chilly night breeze mixed with corpse stench wafting around, while in the mansion, windows with lights flashed repeatedly, silhouettes standing behind curtains seemingly watching the people in the yard.
But the doctor assured Shard there was no need to worry, just as he said, they indeed didn’t encounter any danger. The owner of the mory, the unfortunate gardener lived in a small house at the garden corner in the backyard; they found him easily.
Compared to the severely distorted garden scene, the gardener’s wooden cabin appeared much more normal. He didn’t fall asleep this evening but nestled by a desk, eyeing an oil lamp with a rice-sized glimr, browsing a book… pirated print, with more pictures than words.
This wasn’t the gardener’s dream, just his mory, hence even if Shard and the doctor intruded into his cabin, he reacted none.
Before Shard could exchange opinions with the doctor about the book, the gardener put it down weariness overcoming him. He stood up, looked at the window, then picked up his coat, and walked into the garden.
Shard assud he had sothing to do, only to find he was rely whistling uncivilly watering the flowers in a corner. Suddenly, the ground started trembling, as if an earthquake occurred within the mory, the gardener also looked towards the direction of the front yard:
“Mr. Osenfort is back?”
“It’s not an earthquake, it’s hoofbeats. But in the mory, it’s intensely twisted into an earthquake.”
The doctor explained to Shard.
The gardener felt curious about the master’s nightti return, hence he cautiously moved towards the front yard amidst this eerie night. It was evident he was quite familiar with the yard he tended, bypassed pathways, and ca to the front yard, hiding in the shrubs to secretly watch the ongoing conversation.
At this mont, all surrounding light dimd, moonlight converged on Osenfort standing by the horse in the yard, like a spotlight on a stage. This ti, without the doctor’s explanation, Shard knew it was rely a twist in the mory.
Accurately speaking, it wasn’t one Ston Osenfort standing beside the black horse, but two. One was the person Shard recognized, the other dressed identically like the first, had slightly dark skin, and eyes were entirely black, without any whites visible.
“Demon essence? Appearing in the form of Osenfort.”
Shard asked the doctor, the image appearing also in old curator Fernandez’s description.
“Most likely yes.”
The doctor nodded cautiously.
“You’ve done well.”
The abnormal Osenfort said to the normal one, the normal Osenfort clutching his own forehead, looking fatigued:
“I will fulfill our agreent, you don’t need to co see
frequently.”
“You are not soone who keeps promises, I need to constantly urge you to fulfill our contract.”
The abnormal Osenfort said.
“How dare I defy the contract with you? You are a demon.”
Ston Osenfort said tiredly, and the gardener who was eavesdropping on this scene was startled upon hearing the word “demon.”
Hence, both Osenforts turned to look at his location.
The scene completely froze, as if the world had been covered in a gray layer, or as though soone had stopped ti.
The doctor and Shard remained unfrozen, the blue-eyed psychiatrist sighed lightly:
“Originally, there should be more, that is, what happened after he was discovered. But the tornt he suffered was too great, subconsciously forgetting the events that followed. Fortunately, the mories retained are enough for us to judge, the demon’s true form, or sothing close to its true form, looks like Ston Osenfort. The Stone Mirror Demon likes to appear as its contractor, also serving as evidence of its identity. Next, your investigation focus is how to provoke the opponent, making it appear in front of you.”
Shard nodded, but didn’t expect a third voice to appear in this frozen world:
“Truly unexpected, to encounter such an interesting situation.”
“Hmm?”
Shard and the doctor looked towards the center of the courtyard, where the slightly darker-skinned Osenfort was staring at them.
“Doctor, this…”
“There’s a small amount of demon power attached to the gardener’s corpse, don’t worry, I can handle it.”
“Would the demon’s true form find out?”
“If others intervene, yes; if I intervene, no. This is a dream I constructed.”
As they were speaking, the demon had already walked towards them, seemingly oblivious to their previous conversation:
“Well then, would the two of you like to play a ga with ? If you win, I can offer you a remarkable gift — longer life, an eternal blaze, a Midas Touch stone, or sothing else you desire?”
The demon smiled at the two of them, and Shard had never seen such a smile on the real Osenfort’s face.
“It’s rely a slight power of the demon, it can’t offer us anything. Of course, even if we lose, we won’t have to pay the price. Detective, play with it, see what its ga is.”
The doctor said, stepping back to stand behind Shard, who then nodded to the “Osenfort”:
“Alright, I’ll play. What are we playing?”
“Very simple, guessing cards.”
The demon said, as three glowing cards appeared before it. They were three Roder Cards, naly Sun 1, Moon 1, and stars 1:
“I’ll shuffle the cards, and you guess where stars 1 is.”
As it spoke, the three cards overlapped and quickly swapped positions in mid-air.
Shard silently watched this, and when the three cards separated, floating back up with their backs facing upwards, he reached out to uncover the one on the far left:
“This one isn’t it.”
Turning it over revealed [Genesis: Darkness].
Then he turned over the middle one:
“Obviously, this one isn’t it either.”
Turning it over revealed [Genesis: Death].
Shard chuckled, revealing the last card:
“And this last one isn’t it either.”
Turning it over revealed [Genesis: Balance]:
“So, my answer is that stars 1 is not among these three cards at all.
The demon paused for a mont, then burst into laughter.
The laugh was extrely sharp and harsh, and amid the laughter, the surrounding scene shattered like glass, and the doctor placed his hand on Shard’s shoulder:
“Detective, the dream should wake now.”
Only the laughing demon remained standing:
“Truly interesting, I look forward to you encountering my true form.”
Its entire body, in the impending disintegration of the dream, turned into a stream of black light, rushing towards Shard’s face.
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