Chapter 196: 192. Objects of Memory

192. Objects of Memory

The door slowly pushed open a crack. The corridor outside was silent, and the sky was gradually brightening; although the wind and snow were still pouring down, the light had become much clearer.

Kelake peered through the gap to observe the movement outside the room. Seeing no one passing by, he felt a bit more at ease, so he slowly closed the room door again.

Sitting on the bed in Walunte's room, Kelake clasped his fingers together, lowered his head, and fell into deep thought.

He was thinking about how to proceed with his next step, trying his best to survive for a longer period of time.

Thinking of time, Kelake couldn't help but think of the pocket watch he still carried with him. He opened the pocket watch and watched the hands slowly turning on the dial; his heartbeat seemed to slow down along with it.

"It's a bit strange to say, but there isn't a single timekeeping tool in this Castle." Kelake recalled every room in the Castle he had been to; even in the master bedroom of Count Bluebeard, there was no clock. This made him curious about how the people living in this Castle usually judged time.

Thinking carefully, even when everyone was reporting what they had done before the time of Count Bluebeard's death yesterday, no one provided accurate time figures.

This was actually quite unreasonable; after all, if there were no relatively precise time scales, this world could not have achieved its current level of civilization.

Unless... time in this world might be abnormal.

Thinking of this, Kelake couldn't help but associate it with his suspicion about the reality of the world. This world was truly filled with unreasonableness and oddities everywhere; books that did not fit the era of the world had appeared, and now there wasn't even a tool to record time.

"Is there a possibility that the time shown on my pocket watch is correct?" Kelake couldn't help but think this. At this moment, the time shown on the pocket watch was 11:37 AM, only three hours having passed since the time point he saw when he first arrived at the Castle.

"Could it be that three hours is the true flow of time in this world?" Kelake couldn't help but have such an absurd thought.

Humans are creatures that survive based on perception. Suppose someone were thrown into a fake world where the flow of time was artificially manipulated; then, a person placed in such a fake world, without any tools to measure the scale of time, would believe that the time they observed was the correct time.

Of course, a prerequisite for this hypothesis to hold is that the person's physiological functions must be able to adapt to the time flow of the fake world.

Is this possible?

It is! In the world Kelake was familiar with, there existed all kinds of supernatural, mysterious powers. If he were influenced by some kind of Abnormal power and his physiological functions adapted to the time flow of this fake world, then his hypothesis could be established.

"Could this be the truth of this world?" Kelake frowned tightly. He felt the truth was more than this; judging from the tone of Butler Walunte earlier, the truth of this world was definitely even crazier than what he could imagine right now.

"And there is also that Cat Tooth Bracelet. Why could people who touched that thing see the memories of the bracelet's owner?" When Kelake and Milaier touched that string of Cat Tooth Bracelets, they both saw the memories of Miss Hela.

The mother in Miss Hela's memories was not as approachable as she described in person; she was a complete lunatic.

In the memory, the existence that appeared to be Miss Hela's younger sister died, and subsequently, Miss Hela's mother said to let "her" be the younger sister.

Growing up under such a mother, Miss Hela's inner heart was definitely far removed from her beautiful appearance, and the fact that she knew how to perform evil demon-subduing arts could confirm that her soul must be ugly and twisted.

Thinking of this, Kelake suddenly had a flash of inspiration, because he recalled a detail: when Walunte and Hela appeared as a fused monster, when Walunte said he "didn't quite understand," Walunte's gaze had briefly lingered on the Cat Tooth Bracelet for a moment, and then he revealed an amused smile.

Kelake's expression became grave: "He knew all along that people who touched the Cat Tooth Bracelet would see Miss Hela's memories, and because he saw that I had touched the Cat Tooth Bracelet at the time, he said that I had indeed learned something, but through observing my expression, he realized that I hadn't reconstructed the full truth of the matter..."

Kelake's eyes gradually brightened, and his train of thought became clearer: "So that's it. This Castle might contain other items similar to the Cat Tooth Bracelet. People who touch them will be influenced by unknown powers and see the memories lodged in the objects. As long as I see enough memories or see the key memories, then I will be able to know the full truth of this world."

He immediately stood up and looked at the room, guessing whether there would be other items here that would allow him to see the memories of others.

But once he thought of Butler Walunte's meticulous, perfectionist style of doing things, such important items must be carried on his person. The fact that he had searched this entire room and couldn't find a single Abnormal Item was the best proof of this.

"Damn it, doesn't this mean I've hit a dead end again?" Kelake secretly hated, feeling a wave of powerlessness. "To get the truth of the world, I must make contact with Butler Walunte, who has turned into a fused monster, and approaching him is a dead end for me."

With a fluctuating expression, Kelake's reason was slowly being worn away as time passed. However, he didn't stand there passively for long before he suddenly made a decision: he was going to take a gamble!

After tiptoeing out of Butler Walunte's room, Kelake, with a grim face, bit the bullet and returned along the same path he had used to escape.

The reason he was returning along the same path was, on one hand, that he wanted to confirm whether Miss Milaier was dead or alive; on the other hand, he wanted to investigate Miss Milaier. If she were dead, her body would be in that vicinity, and her room was not far from the room of Miss Hela that had caught fire.

If everyone in this Castle had items lodged with their memories—let's call them Objects of Memory for now—there must be such things on Miss Milaier or in her room. If he could obtain them, perhaps he could see Miss Milaier's memories and be one step closer to the truth.

This was the only Object of Memory Kelake could think of that he might have a chance to get his hands on.

Arriving at the corridor of the Castle maids' rooms again, he approached Miss Hela's room once more with a nervous heart. He saw that large scorched marks were left at the room's entrance; the fire in the room had probably already been extinguished, and no smoke or fire was flowing out from the doorway.

Arriving at the door and glancing into the room, Kelake's heart immediately tightened.

It was a mess, devastated; the wardrobe had been torn apart fiercely, and scorched clothes were everywhere. However, Kelake did not see Miss Milaier's corpse.

Miss Milaier was actually not dead? Or rather, perhaps she didn't die here?

Although he didn't know what had happened at the time, Kelake sincerely prayed that Miss Milaier could live on safely.

While thinking this, Kelake arrived at the door of Miss Milaier's room and turned the doorknob.