"A difference in perspective, you say?" Kurian asked, studying Rover as she gave a quiet nod. "Although I did consider asking for your help to uncover the meaning behind the token, I think it's something I need to handle on my own first."
Kurian's lips curved faintly. "Quite a competitive spirit you've got. Hmm… would you mind coming to my room for a while?"
Rover frowned, prompting Kurian to correct himself.
"Don't worry, it's regarding the request you made." With that, he motioned for Rover to follow, and she fell into step beside him.
They soon arrived at Kurain's room. Using the access he had received from Sanhua, he unlocked the door and pushed it open.
Darkness greeted them on the other side. Yet, Kurian did not reach for the switch. Instead, he turned slightly toward Rover, his voice lowering as he asked, "Do you know what your fatal weakness is right now?"
"I have a case of severe amnesia?" Rover ventured. Kurian gave a small, knowing hum. "Oh, that explains your weakness quite well."
"Hm?" Rover raised a brow, confusion flickering across her features. Kurian continued, his tone playful. "The clues you uncovered… were they based on logical reasoning, or rational reasoning?"
"I don't quite get your questions. Besides, didn't I say that women don't like questions wrapped in riddles?" Rover shot back with a sassy remark, prompting Kurian to respond, "Alright then. Just answer this one."
He gestured toward the switches as he spoke. "There are three switches here, and only one of them turns on the ceiling light."
"Now, if you were outside the room and could operate the switches from there, but were only allowed to peek inside once, which switch would be the correct one to turn on the light?" Kurian asked the basic three-switch and one-light problem.
Rover wondered if this was even a challenge as she began to answer, "That's easy. First, turn on the first switch for ten minutes, then turn it off and flip the second one."
"After that, enter the room. If the light is on, it's the second switch. If not, touch the bulb. If it's hot, then it's the first. Otherwise, it's the third." Rover delivered the classic solution without breaking a sweat, prompting Kurian to say, "Hmm, but is that really the most effective approach?"
"Do you have a better solution?" Rover asked. Kurian pointed toward the gap beneath the door before explaining, "Simply turn off the lights in the corridor, then switch on the lights inside the room one by one. Peek at the door sill. When you see light spilling through, you've found the correct switch."
Rover mulled it over. It was a clever line of thinking, but she countered, "That only works if you can darken the corridor first. What if you can't?"
"The answer is the second switch," Kurian replied adamantly, prompting Rover to frown and ask, "How can you just assume that without any reasoning?"
"Oh, I am using reasoning," Kurian said, a smirk tugging at his lips. "But unlike your logical approach, I'm using rational reasoning."
"Rational reasoning?" Rover echoed.
"Jinzhou's City Hall is quite an opulent place. I doubt it would hire an incompetent builder," Kurian explained, speaking from the practical perspective of both a designer and an ordinary person.
"When designing a room, it's common to place the light switch about one and a half inches away from the edge of the door jamb, and in this room's case, that position corresponds to the second switch." Kurian flipped it, and the lights came on, illuminating the room.
"You don't have to be perfectly precise," he added. "You just have to hit the target."
"So, are you suggesting that I'm just textbook smart?" Rover asked.
"Bingo," Kurian smirked and replied without hesitation.
'His attitude kind of pisses me off.' Rover held back the irritation bubbling inside her as Kurain said, "Here, take this."
"Hm?" Rover looked at Kurian as he offered her some bread. "Your eyes look a bit sunken. Eat this with the confit I gave you, and get some rest."
Rover took the bread on instinct, then paused and asked, "Why are you helping me so much? I thought your policy was not to help unless you were paid."
"Oh, I'm not that heartless," Kurian laughed lightly. "But if you want to pay me, maybe you could stay the night?" He winked.
"Eww, no thanks," Rover snarled. "However… thank you for the help."
"My pleasure," Kurian replied. He closed the door, then tapped his terminal, retrieved his firearms, and began polishing them with meticulous care.
'Earlier…' Kurian's thoughts drifted back to the incident when he had been unable to fire due to misplaced hands. 'Hmm… how did I make that mistake?'
Though it appeared to be a genuine mistake, for Kurian — who had once been the second-best gunner in his previous world — such an embarrassing misplacement felt deeply unnatural, perhaps even faintly ominous...
Several hours passed as Kurian sat cross-legged, trying to still his thoughts. He wondered, 'Maybe I've overused Kami, and my brain is starting to fail.'
Beads of sweat gathered along his brow. His expression tightened, jaw clenched, as an intense heat began to swell from within him.
Suddenly, a vision bloomed in his mind as he found himself in a dark room. Kurian recognized the place instantly — he had seen it twenty years ago, in a dream, on his way to Rinascita.
"This place…" Kurian murmured, scanning his surroundings for any trace of his former self. There was nothing. Nothing, except a crown resting alone, woven of thorns and flowers.
"This is…" Kurian knew that crown all too well. "Legacy of the Sunmelter Iblis: the Thousand Rose Thorny Crown."
In his former world, Iblis had been one of the Demon Lords who earned Ferdinand's genuine respect. He was also the one who had bestowed this crown upon Ferdinand, along with the Florid Staff of Redundancy: Fraudulency.
'What is this doing here?' Kurian tried to make sense of the artifact's presence, but no explanation came to him.
'No… the crown had a specific function. Remember.' He forced himself to recall its purpose, and the memory surfaced. "Pricking Crown."
The crown possessed a singular ability: it would prick the wearer whenever a calamity was about to descend upon them.
As he recalled its function, unease flickered in Kurain's eyes after a long time. He knew the crown was not random, and if his mortal sense was correct, it heralded a calamitous trial for him.
"Haah." Drawing in a sharp breath, he stepped toward the crown and placed it upon his head.
The instant it touched him, Kurain jolted awake from his stillness as the first rays of dawn crept across his face.
Faint birdsong echoed outside, but his head throbbed as thousands of phantom needles stabbed it.
"Hehe." Kurian, however, let out an unexpected chuckle and murmured, "I'm in danger."
"Anyways, I suppose I should retrieve my sword from the blacksmith first." Shrugging off the ominous prickling sensation, Kurian decided to secure his weapon for now.
After leaving the room, he sent Sanhua a thank-you message for the late-night lodging and headed to the blacksmith's shop, located near the Hanxu Academy.
"Here is your sword," a young blacksmith said, handing it over. The moment Kurian's fingers closed around the hilt, a strange sensation ran through him, the prickling growing sharper.
"Hm?" He unsheathed the blade to inspect it. Aside from the repaired chip, nothing seemed out of place.
'Am I just getting paranoid?' he wondered.
Regardless, he needed to be on the front lines. He paid the bill and left the shop. Once he was gone, the young blacksmith let out a heavy sigh, clenched his fist, and whispered to himself, "I'm sorry."
Kurian was walking outside the academy when a familiar voice called out to him. "Kurian?"
"—!!?" Kurian turned toward the sound and addressed the tall, red-haired man. "It's been a long time, Mortefi. How have you been?"
"So-so, I guess," Mortefi replied, then added, "Mind having a little chat over some coffee?"
"Hm, sure. Also, could I get a quick diagnosis?" Kurain asked.
Mortefi frowned slightly. "Is everything alright?"
Kurian answered with uncertain honesty, "Maybe not."
Aside from the two old friends catching up on each other's lives, the three maidens gathered at Panhua's restaurant, just as they had promised the day before.
Over bowls of spicy noodles, they talked about the tokens, the conversation drifting naturally until Rover mentioned a series of strange dreams she had.
Chixia, ever curious, leaned in. "What were they about?"
"Well, there was this woman with silver hair I saw in my dream," Rover said. "But the other one was stranger — I saw like a silhouette of a man with three arms." Even as she spoke, the memory felt deeply unsettling.
"Okay, the second one sounds kinda creepy," Chixia said. "Speaking of creepy, some of my patroller friends saw something disturbing yesterday, too."
Yangyang chimed in. "What did they see?"
"They said they spotted a weird man slouched on a bench in a really secluded part of the city," Chixia replied.
A shiver ran through her as she continued. "What freaked them out was his skin. They said it looked like worms were wriggling inside him. His whole body kept convulsing, like something was crawling beneath the surface."
"Okay, that's enough. Seriously, talking about worms while eating noodles really kills your appetite," Yangyang said, clearly not wanting to hear any more.
Rover agreed, though she could not stop a troubling thought from surfacing. 'Could it have been him? But why would his body behave like that?'
As the three continued chatting for a while longer, near the gates of Jinzhou at Hanxu Academy, Kurian had just finished his diagnosis.
Mortefi stared at the holographic scans, his hands hovering over the data points marking fifty-one distinct areas of recent trauma.
"What have you been eating?" Mortefi blurted out, his voice cracking with a mix of scientific fascination and pure dread. "Your physique is terrifying. These fractures seem to have formed recently, yet they are healing at an unprecedented speed. What's going on?"
"Hm," Kurian let out a hum, causing Mortefi quickly suppress his curiosity, "Sorry, I shouldn't pry."
"No, it's fine. I think it's okay to tell you," Kurian said before asking, "You know what my active resonance skill does, right?"
"Yeah… I—" Mortefi's eyes widened, and Kurian nodded. "It's exactly what you're thinking."
"Y-You're insane," Mortefi said, his body trembling as he grasped what Kurian had done to achieve such an impossible physique.
"Haah." Mortefi steadied his breathing before continuing, "Aside from your monstrous body, everything else seems normal. Still… Kurian, is everything really alright?"
"No…" Kurian replied. "Since yesterday, I've been feeling something stirring within me. It's an odd sensation."
"What are you feeling?" Mortefi asked gently.
"Fear."
To be continued...