Suddenly, a crisp crack sounded very close to her, followed by the heat of the steam hitting the tip of her nose. Her nostrils were suddenly filled with the rolling, sweet fragrance, causing her to flinch as if startled.
Opening her eyes, she saw a pair of fingers as delicate as scallion stalks peeling the chestnut shell, offering a large, glistening piece of chestnut meat to her.
Medeili turned her face away, protesting softly, “Classmate Wang Yue, please don’t tease me.”
“Alright, alright…”
Wang Yue stepped back, realizing that Medeili was fixated on some strange internal conflict. She tossed the peeled chestnut into her own mouth, set the bag on the table, and said, “This is for you. I already finished a bag.”
As the distance between them widened, Medeili breathed a sigh of relief, though her heart felt a sting of loss and longing. Her lips moved as she whispered, “I… I don’t hate you…”
“Want to hear a story about chestnuts?” Wang Yue asked, changing the subject.
“I would!”
Medeili climbed up and sat at the table. She began peeling chestnuts to eat while listening to the story of “Pulling Chestnuts from the Fire.”
Once the story was finished, the two of them stepped outside the vehicle and opened the passage to the Demon Realm. After their brief rest, it was time to get back to work; many things still required their attention.
The most urgent task was helping the Greenhouse Girls recover their memories. There were simply too many memory fragments; the workload was far greater than a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle.
Wang Yue notified the Explorers’ Guild, requesting a team of Night-Watchers to help sort and categorize the memories. With their help, the memory restoration was completed in half an hour, and the Night-Watchers began leading the missing girls back home.
Medeili wasn’t by her side; she had gone to the Guild to fill out the report forms.
The Lesser Lord’s invasion was a Rank 5 difficulty mission. It was estimated to yield seven hundred thousand Merits. While that was a high value, it was a mere pittance compared to the Transcendent Materials piled within the Spire and the value of the Demon Realm itself.
Once their memories returned, the girls broke down in tears. These memories were not pleasant; they were cruel and filled with sorrow.
Greya held her sister tightly, apologizing repeatedly while cursing the Demon Realm’s Lord. Hearing those familiar curses, Lana felt a warmth in her heart. She sobbed, “Sister is back… Sister is finally back…”
Wang Yue watched as the Night-Watchers and the girls departed through the passage.
Finally, the head of the Town Hall said to her, “We will see these girls home. They need candlelight, a quiet environment, warm beds, and psychological counseling… Thank you for your help, respected Lady Witch.”
Wang Yue nodded slightly and saw them off.
Next, it was time to handle the Lesser Lord’s inheritance.
Although she had gained control of the Demon Realm, she was still technically in a hostile relationship with the Lesser Lord’s retainers. Fortunately, there weren’t many combat-oriented retainers, so she returned to the Spire almost without hindrance.
Inside the tower, the Clockwork Heart was destroyed and the mechanical arms were silent. The Lesser Lord appeared to be thoroughly dead.
Unlike the Iron-Flow Giant Stag that had invaded Fishmouth Town, this Clockwork Heart was not a combat model. Wang Yue counted them: there were three hundred and two mechanical arms in total, all equipped with claws, pincers, clamps, rivet guns, hollow drills, and other tools. There were no weapons.
With questions in her mind, she climbed the high platform. She used witchcraft to clear away the corpse and the stains, then inspected the old man’s living environment.
There was no doubt that the deceased old man and the Lesser Lord shared a close relationship.
The platform served as both an office and a living space. There were numerous filing cabinets; she opened them one by one, finding sheet music inscribed with Transcendent Melodies. On the desk sat ink bottles, pens, and various complex vocal instruments.
In the most prominent position sat a brass rabbit. It was round-headed and quite adorable, with a tin-plated clockwork handle protruding from its back. It was somewhat old, its brass luster slightly dimmed.
As her investigation deepened, she pulled several diaries out of a chest.
Reading through them, Wang Yue discovered that the deceased old man was a musician named Joanna. Joanna had begun studying Transcendent Melodies from a very young age. In this field, she had been a brilliant genius with significant achievements.
And her assistant was a peer of the same age named Maxine, who had aspired to be a mechanic.
On that day, the ten-year-old Joanna had written her first Transcendent score. The ten-year-old Maxine had crafted a brass rabbit with red eyes and long ears for that very score.
The two of them had engraved the Transcendent score, which they titled “Miss Rabbit,” onto a music box cylinder and installed it inside the brass rabbit.
They tightened the clockwork, and the melody began to play.
As the heart-crank turned, the rabbit—with its shiny brass shell and seams covered in neat rivets—leaped off the ground. That was the beginning of their dream…
