But a glint of realization flashed in Haida's chestnut-grey eyes. She understood Fran's intention.
"Dr. Fran, are you saying... to set up the 'Mist Within the Door' at the Dreamslumber Flowers Hotel?"
"Correct."
Fran lightly raised a finger and snapped, a gesture of praise for the nun's answer.
"A secluded place, spirituality, and 'non-existence in reality.' Room 408 of this hotel perfectly meets these requirements, doesn't it?"
"That is true," Haida replied.
In truth, the nun wasn't too concerned about accommodation conditions.
During a prolonged hunt in the past, she had constantly changed lodgings and identities to conceal her tracks, even camping in the wilderness for nearly half a month. For her, any place to rest was sufficient.
"It's getting late, you two should rest. I can handle this matter myself."
As she spoke, Fran took a brass pocket watch from her sleeve and checked the time.
It was 10 PM, deep into the night.
At the same time, this action made Vivian flinch briefly.
Whenever this doctor began hypnosis, she would silently take out this pocket watch. Then those unlucky subjects would quietly become completely pliable...
Right now, she was just checking the time, but it still evoked a faint sense of fear.
Simultaneously, Vivian felt an inexplicable longing for this skill. If she could master it... wouldn't interrogating prisoners become effortless?
"Oh?"
Fran raised a delicate eyebrow, noticing Vivian looking at her pocket watch.
"Don't be afraid, Vivian, relax. I don't have the habit of hypnotizing people around me... and if I really wanted to hypnotize you, you wouldn't notice me taking out the watch."
"Ah, no..."
Seeing Dr. Fran had detected her thoughts, Vivian immediately shook her head, somewhat flustered, and denied it.
"I was just... a little curious. If this skill could be used for gathering information and interrogation, it should be quite helpful."
"Hmm... that's true."
Fran could understand her thinking. However, hypnosis and inciting madness in others belong to the domain of the Moth. Without special relics, it's difficult for Secrets-Hunters to achieve similar effects.
"After you finish studying those two books, I can appropriately teach you some general psychology. But reaching my level is very difficult, you know?"
"O-okay. I'll speed up my reading..."
Vivian could sense that this doctor seemed to have an inexplicable enthusiasm for spreading knowledge. As long as she believed you could bear the weight of that knowledge, she would not hesitate to teach.
Fran walked to the bed, picked up her thick-soled small leather shoes along with the black woolen socks inside them, and began putting them on.
She should have known better than to take off her shoes and socks. Entering a dream meant putting them on again, returning to reality meant putting them on yet again...
"I'll go set up the ritual now."
"This process will take some time. Just lock the room door normally, no need to wait for me. I'll let myself in when I return tonight."
After leaving these words, she took the physician's coat from the coat rack, put it on, and left the room carrying her medicine case.
In truth, Haida had the intention to accompany her.
Vivian might already be somewhat sleepy, but her own current state was far from tired.
The main reason Fran didn't bring Haida along was consideration for the injuries she had sustained while fighting the Mirror Maiden earlier. She needed rest.
Sometimes Haida would feel inexplicably uneasy about Fran acting alone, but upon careful thought, she couldn't help feeling her worry was unnecessary.
After all, this doctor was far stronger than herself. One should worry about the "patients" she selected instead...
With this thought, she dismissed the rising distractions, took out the Ash Creed tome Aphoristic Silence, and began to read.
---
Fran strolled along the corridor of the Dreamslumber Flowers Hotel, her steps light, her expression relaxed.
She looked as if she were taking a post-dinner walk.
"What a tiring yet fulfilling day. It seems even wanting a vacation isn't that easy; this is the consequence of being a doctor... But this time, there were indeed some gains."
Luyala got the fragment of the Ant Door, she herself got Karmion's eyeball, and a clinic branch where she could place the Mist.
It seemed Haida and Vivian didn't get anything, ending up as mere laborers.
Especially Haida. This nun contributed the most in facing the Mirror Maiden, even getting injured in the process.
But the valuable things in Karmion's room were limited, each taking what they needed, and none of the items were something Haida could use.
Oh well, just give her more employee benefits later...
Arriving at the location of Room 408, there was only a blank wall. Fran lightly knocked on it with her knuckles, and the wall responded with the dull, solid thud of concrete.
"Solid. Perhaps there was never a room here originally... or maybe there was, but it was later filled with concrete."
Of course, regardless of the room's state in reality, it didn't affect her setting up the ritual. The Fog Street itself didn't exist in reality either; it just needed an access medium.
Fran took a small scalpel with a mirror-like blade from her medicine case, cut her fingertip, and began drawing a ritual array with her blood.
"Door, riddle, key. The mist shrouding the end surges incessantly. Stars entwine like eyes, thin gloom as thought."
"I desire to witness."
"I desire to seek."
"I desire to comprehend."
After reciting the final passage of the prayer, the ritual array covering most of the wall gradually began to operate. The originally dark red, dense blood plasma rose like mist, transforming into a hazy grey-white aura swirling around Fran.
As the pale grey mist coalesced and then dissipated, Room 408 of the Dreamslumber Flowers Hotel had been transformed into part of the Fog Street Clinic.
Or rather... a branch.
However, Fran's current condition wasn't great. She had not only expended a significant amount of spirituality but also lost a lot of blood. Consequently, she appeared somewhat weak and sickly.
"Haven't used this ritual in a long time; a bit out of practice."
She raised a hand to rub her eyes, alleviating the weariness on the level of spiritual awareness.
Throughout the process of setting up the ritual, Fran had been holding the Swaying Heart-Clock, using its mental disturbance ability to cover the area around herself. After all, the Dreamslumber Flowers Hotel had good business; guests and attendants passed by from time to time.
If someone saw her drawing a ritual array with blood here, she'd probably be considered a dangerous element... which wouldn't be good for her reputation. She was a proper doctor, one who valued her reputation highly.
"Let's go back to the clinic first to check on Sigrid. Her research on crafting should have some progress by now."
As she spoke, Fran's slender figure was gradually enveloped by the pale grey mist until she completely vanished.
Stepping into the mist realm, the surroundings gradually became familiar. It was no longer the ornately decorated Dreamslumber Flowers Hotel but had transformed into a broad, empty street. The streetlights cast a dim, yellowish-orange glow, with night moths swirling around them.
But upon closer inspection, one would find there were no real moths around the lights. Those small, dark things seemed to be merely flickering shadows.
She appeared before a clinic that was noticeably much smaller.
This was the branch constructed using Room 408 as the foundation. However, it currently hadn't been renovated or furnished; it was just a bare shell. While barely habitable, it was rather shabby.
Since Foy City was separated from Norlington by the Abyssal Sea, she still needed to travel some distance to return to the original Fog Street Clinic.
Moreover, currently, only Fran could make this journey.
If others tried to travel alone from the Foy branch to the Norlington main clinic, the most likely result would be getting utterly lost in the mist... The lucky ones might appear in some corner of these two cities.
The unlucky ones would simply fall from the Fog Street into the Abyssal Sea.
Fran lightly lifted her neck and looked at the sky.
"It's not snowing anymore?"
Although still covered by a layer of gloomy clouds, the blowing wind wasn't as piercingly cold as a few days ago. Moreover, the accumulated snow by the roadside seemed to have completely melted.
Plum Moon had arrived; winter in Norlington had officially ended. However, the chill accumulated over the past months still faintly lingered.
"Sigrid, are you home?"
Arriving in front of the Fog Street Clinic, Fran pushed open the door and walked in. Since the doctor was away, the wooden sign hanging on the doorknob had been flipped by Sigrid to the "Closed" side.
"Dr. Fran?"
Sigrid looked somewhat surprised at Fran entering the room.
The voyage from Norlington to Foy Port in Gormouth took a full half-month. By time calculation, she should have just disembarked. How could she suddenly return to the clinic?
"Shouldn't you be in Gormouth right now?"
Although she guessed Fran had probably returned to the Fog Street through some special method, Sigrid was still curious about it.
"I opened a temporary branch in Gormouth. Using that as a medium allows me to return to the Fog Street."
Fran explained gently, then sat back on the plush sofa in the main hall.
Come to think of it, lately she often found deer hoof prints on the spot she most frequently sat on this sofa. When it came to sleeping, Luyala truly had a natural talent. Even while sleepwalking, she always managed to find the most comfortable spot.
"Dr. Fran, you don't seem to be in good condition... Are you injured?"
Sigrid took Fran's hand, which bore black sutures, and felt a slight, cold chill from her skin.
This wasn't normal.
The temperature in Foy was higher than in Norlington; logically, catching a chill shouldn't be so easy. Besides, this doctor simply couldn't "catch a cold."
"Encountered a Mirror Maiden at the hotel, expended a bit too much spirituality. Also, the ritual for setting up a branch is the strenuous kind."
"Not actually injured, just need to rest for a while."
To keep Sigrid from worrying, Fran explained to her.
Mirror Maiden?
As a talented artisan, Sigrid had seen descriptions of this type of mythical being while leafing through the secret histories of her cult.
The deceased who passed the Blade Stair trial, carrying a bone-deep chill, and a sharpness that draws blood upon touch... Ancient and dangerous. It was said the deity they served was one of the fragments after the Primal Sun split.
Sigrid was originally somewhat worried, but remembering that Dr. Fran had even encountered remnants of ancient banyans from the Order of Dust era and Time-Aphids while exploring ruins... she gradually let go of her concern.
"It seems you always encounter such strange things every time you go out for a house call. Is being a doctor really such a dangerous profession?"
"Evidently, only my situation is like this..."
Fran promptly corrected her view of doctors.
As they talked, Sigrid held Fran's hand and breathed a warm breath onto her palm.
Back when she was still in the Sun-Forgers cult, a senior sister artisan liked doing this to her in winter. It seemed to bring warmth back to cold fingers.
Fran flexed her fingers; indeed, she felt a faint warmth begin to flow.
If anyone else performed the act of breathing, it would probably just be a comforting gesture with no real effect.
But Sigrid could genuinely transmit warm spirituality. As one of the fragments of the Primal Sun, she possessed a certain nature of a Sacred Spawn. With mere thought or action, she could bestow simple "blessings."
"I am a bit curious, though, about how that Mirror Maiden would react if she saw you."
At this point, she couldn't help feeling some regret. If she hadn't assigned the crafting research task to Sigrid, she probably would have come along on this dream dive too.
The deity the Mirror Maiden served was a past self, or rather, a "phase," of the Primal Sun. And Sigrid was one of the fragments of the Primal Sun. If the two were to meet face to face... she really wanted to see what expression the Mirror Maiden would have.
"But, I'm not very good at combat... I'd probably only be able to turn into a blade and try to help Sister Haida, right?"
Sigrid considered it from her own perspective, but clearly, she didn't grasp what Fran was actually curious about.
"Oh, right, Dr. Fran, I've already crafted a finished product of the 'Combi-Stake Crossbow'... although I encountered some difficulties during the process, Lady Tinúviel gave me a lot of help."
"Tinúviel?"
It was an unfamiliar name. But Fran quickly realized it was the name Sigrid had given the AI.
"It seems you two get along well." Fran also had a certain interest in this AI.
Generally, ship AIs from the Dark Age of Technology had complete STC databases, but most would lose data over the long passage of time and through Chaos corruption. She wondered how much this one still retained...
"However, I hope you maintain the most basic vigilance towards 'Tinúviel.' She can be a friend, a tool, or an unpredictable danger. You need to judge for yourself how to treat her..."
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