What Can You Even Do?

A musty scent of an abandoned room washed over him, and a dead silence filled the empty auditorium.

The entire room was clear at a glance, with no anomalies in sight. Even so, Lynch held Monia back. Under the little girl's terrified yet curious gaze, he reached down and pressed his palm against the floor.

【Authority, Death, Ability, Gaze of the Dead.】

【Authority, Death, Ability, Death Omen.】

【Authority, Concealment, Ability, Mystery Intuition.】

Caution was the parent of safety. Lynch immediately activated all of his detection abilities, conducting a thorough search of his surroundings.

He saw no wandering souls, sensed no death scene, and the concentration of mysterious filth was relatively normal.

It was slightly elevated, but within an acceptable range. At worst, this suggested that an individual deeply connected to the mystery—or perhaps a heteromorph themselves—had briefly stayed here. But it was only a brief stay. The most likely scenario was that an ineffective ritual had been conducted here.

When a ritual failed, the environmental contamination was caused solely by the mystery of the materials themselves, leading to a slight increase in the local filth concentration. However, if a ritual succeeded, it would become a full-fledged mysterious event, causing the filth concentration to skyrocket.

This was all knowledge he had gleaned from Instructor Valente recently. Lynch felt as though he had finally paid off all the study debts from his previous life.

But at least it could actually save his life.

“No matter what, do not leave my side.” A glowing green skull floated out of Lynch's hand. He pressed it into his chest to strengthen himself, then walked around the entire stage, checking front and back before finally relaxing slightly. “Lead the way.”

The eerie green orb of light left the little girl dazed. Extraordinarily obedient now, she led Lynch onto the theater stage.

A large number of messy footprints remained on the stage, looking as if they had been repeatedly trampled by dozens of people. However, one particular area had been swept completely clean; this was likely the site of the ritual.

To Lynch's disappointment, all traces of the ritual had been thoroughly scrubbed away, leaving behind no clues.

“This is where we performed the ritual. But to keep the etiquette teacher from finding out, we cleaned it up carefully every time.” Having witnessed Lynch's Death Coil, the little girl had become incredibly cooperative. She obediently handed over a few pieces of paper. “This is the last ritual I found.”

Lynch took them, glanced over them casually, and nodded with a calm, confident expression.

He couldn't understand a single thing.

He could read the words, of course. They detailed the steps of the ritual and the types and quantities of materials required. The list even included expensive gold dust and pearl powder, along with things that sounded bizarre and creepy, like ebony sap and spider compound eyes.

But in the world of the mystery, true understanding did not mean simply following instructions. It meant being able to analyze the underlying meaning and symbolism, the way Madam Bessie or Miss Valente did.

It seemed he would have to keep studying in the future. He couldn't degrade into a reckless fool like that unnamed police officer. Since she was so rash, he had to keep an eye on her.

Sighing, Lynch handed the papers back. “Whether I look at them doesn't matter much. No matter what effect your ritual was supposed to have, it never succeeded. Not even once.”

“How is that possible? Then what about the things that happened to me...”

“I already had a theory before, and I only came here to verify it. As it turns out, my guess is likely correct.”

Lynch cast a pitying look at the little girl and explained in a rapid-fire manner:

“First, how did your classmates connect those incidents to you? It might be easy to judge over a long period, but it has only been three days since the day before yesterday. Yet they started fearing you even before today, and you don't spend all your time at school. Given how often these incidents occur, it's highly absurd that they could pinpoint you so accurately. Did you never suspect anything?”

Monia opened her mouth, her expression a mix of bewilderment and embarrassment, before shaking her head.

“Second, if word of this had truly spread, everyone in the school should be terrified of you. But from what I observed when we entered, the teachers treated you completely normally.”

“But they're teachers.”

“They are human beings first, ordinary people who also feel fear. Either none of the teachers are afraid of you, or they don't know. But the most likely scenario is that they know but don't care—because none of it is real. It's all just a play staged against you.”

The little girl was utterly dumbfounded, her eyes staring blankly at Lynch.

“Just now, seeing that girl with the silk scarf from the adjacent grade being bullied by her classmates made me think of this possibility, which is why I came here to verify it,” Lynch explained. “Sure enough, it seems highly likely that a portion of what you experienced was orchestrated by them... Fuck.”

Even as Lynch was speaking, the sudden, sharp whistling of a heavy object tearing through the air reached his ears.

Without a moment's hesitation, Lynch scooped Monia into his arms and rolled across the floor. The instant they cleared their original position, a rushing wind howled past his back, followed by the deafening crash of a heavy object slamming into the ground.

The massive echo reverberated through the auditorium. Terrified by the sudden turn of events, Monia's face turned deathly pale as she stiffened like a shivering stick in Lynch's arms. Lynch had no time to worry about her, keeping her pressed down as they rolled several more meters before finally stopping.

Only now did he have the leeway to look back, a cold sweat breaking out as a wave of lingering fear washed over him.

It was the curtain support frame from above the stage. It had plunged from a height of three stories, landing squarely on the section of the stage where the ritual had been performed, smashing a massive crater into the wooden floor.

Aimed so precisely, this was absolutely no accident. He had to be extremely cautious.

Realizing this, Lynch quickly abandoned his position and dashed off the stage.

Sure enough, another whistle echoed from above. This time, the entire framework at the top of the stage collapsed. Tracks, pulleys, crossbars, and various fixtures came crashing down in a thunderous heap, completely destroying the stage.

Damn it, that was close. Thank goodness he had moved a step ahead.

He aimed his gun toward the ceiling, but there was no one to be seen. Silence reclaimed the theater once more, as if what had just transpired was merely a common accident.

Lynch sneered. Holding tight to Monia, who was on the verge of tears, he watched as the previously static, fine sand inside his hourglass suddenly began to flow. It moved from the bottom upward, quickly filling the upper chamber from the lower one.

Disaster grade mystery relic, Secrets Beyond Time, activate.

After a brief moment of mental disorientation, Lynch came to his senses only to find himself still holding Monia in the same spot. Nothing seemed to have changed, yet he felt as though he had transformed into a phantom. No matter what he touched, he could exert no physical influence on it.

This had to be the effect of temporarily deleting oneself from time. As expected of a disaster grade mystery relic.

Before Lynch could fully grasp the feeling, a rustling sound suddenly echoed from the entrance. The side door with the broken lock was pushed open, and several figures slipped inside.

“It fell, it fell!”

“It definitely hit them! Haha!”

“I told you it would work.”

At this moment, despite being mentally prepared, Lynch still felt a chill in his heart, a surreal sensation washing over his mind.

The ones who had entered were none other than Monia's dozen or so classmates—a group of little girls, all around twelve or thirteen years old.

They were seriously contemplating murder, all while maintaining the elegant demeanor of young ladies.

Seeing these children, Lynch's suspicions were mostly confirmed. He sighed and stopped hiding, revealing himself directly behind the group of girls as they prepared to rush onto the stage.

“So it really was you all along, orchestrating this panic to terrorize this child.” Holding Monia's hand, Lynch's sudden voice gave the girls a fright. “Destroying those items and telling her she was the source of it all... were you trying to drive her mad?”

“How could that be?” The leading girls quickly regained their composure, offering demure, close-lipped smiles. “We were just playing a joke on her. There was no malice.”

“A joke.” The girls were actually quite delicate and beautiful, each no less charming than Martha back home. Yet looking at them, Lynch felt nothing but waves of disgust. “I suspect you were also the ones who had her searching everywhere for mystery rituals. She merely liked occult knowledge since childhood; she wouldn't have been so fanatical about performing mystery rituals on her own.”

“We didn't force her. It's just that we like mystery rituals too. If she could find one, she'd be allowed to be our friend.”

“Ah, I see.” Lynch's lips twitched. “It seems she was originally the one being bullied in school too, just like that student with the silk scarf. To fit in with you, she desperately sought out mystery rituals. And you? You handed her a fake one?”

“What fake ritual? We didn't do anything. We were just playing this joke on her.”

“Heh... quite a funny joke indeed,” Lynch said, nodding thoughtfully. “Though your joke is a bit too lethal. Aren't you afraid of actually killing someone?”

“It's just classmates playing around. If she dies from that, she's simply too fragile, hehe.” The girls laughed dismissively. “Besides, what can you even do to us? If you were Count Valente himself, we might be a little scared, but you aren't. We haven't done anything, and you have no proof. Do you really want to make enemies of all our families? Hehehe, so this is just a fun game.”

“It seems you truly know nothing about the world of the mystery.” Lynch smiled instead, patting Monia's head as he sighed. “You've made a mistake—one that concerns your very lives. I think you will find out very soon. Right now, in fact.”

“Huh?” The girls' smiles grew tense.