After Enya received the woman’s agreement, she took another look at the woman who still had her head pressed to the floor and hadn’t raised it even for a moment.
After that glance, Enya slowly walked toward the breach in the wall.
Her feet stepped on the ground, making frantic, successive sounds. She walked into the sunlight in her dazed state, her silver-white hair shining even more brilliantly under the light.
Enya looked out at the street outside. This area was located within the affluent district, and there were still many people who hadn’t been turned into Heartless Puppets by them.
Although the commotion here had drawn attention, there was now a larger-scale chaos erupting in this town-city. No one was interested in investigating what was happening here.
Cries and wails could be heard intermittently from the distance. Enya paused briefly, then turned her head to look at the woman kneeling on the floor and asked the first question she wanted to know.
“Who are you?”
“……”
The woman’s previously motionless body gave a slight, almost imperceptible tremble upon hearing Enya’s question.
Taking a moment to think and to quell the fear stemming from her body’s instincts, the woman finally raised her head a little and answered.
“Those black-cloaked people wearing white masks you encountered outside earlier… they are Puppet Masters, also known as Performers. They are responsible for controlling those Heartless Puppets.”
“And I am a Face Peeler. I use the tools bestowed by the Superior to cut into people’s hearts. All Heartless Puppets are made by my hand.”
Having said this, the woman, with her slightly raised head, turned to the side.
She looked not far behind her, where there was a headless male corpse kneeling, and a head lying on the ground.
That head, having fallen to the ground, was stained with dust and blood. Its already messy hair now looked even more like a tangled bird’s nest.
She and he were both facing sideways, only their positions were inverted in life and death.
In this gaze between the living and the dead, the deceased appeared more peaceful, while the living woman’s face didn’t know what expression to wear.
That emotion was very complex…
Enya turned slightly. The black low-heeled boots she wore stepped on a piece of rubble, making a crack sound.
Upon hearing the sound, the woman immediately withdrew her gaze.
“He was the Playwright. He sketched out stories from all accidents, performing them in this town until the Theatrical Transformation was complete.”
“Theatrical Transformation?”
Enya seized the key point in the woman’s statement. Everything before was just contributing factors, but these three words were the ultimate goal.
They had done all those previous things for the sake of “Theatrical Transformation.”
The woman lowered her head again, pressing it against the floor, and explained to Enya in a voice tinged with a tremor.
“Some people are gears, some are curtains, some are ropes. Every person is a component, and the stories are its lubricant. When everything is ready, you just need to wind the mainspring, and then the stage will operate on its own.”
“When the stage begins to operate, new stories will be produced continuously from afar. And we will collect these new stories, offer them to please the Superior, and thereby receive the Superior’s blessings.”
“We come from the Golden Opera House. We are just a low-level troupe. We have been working on this for seven years. If… if you hadn’t come, this stage would have been completed in five years and officially put into production at that time.”
Golden Opera House…
Enya narrowed her eyes slightly.
This was the name of an organization. It wasn’t recorded in the Heretic Cult records, indicating it was essentially a hidden organization.
Just like that Scholar Association, it claimed to be a Scholar Association but was just using a shell.
Who knew if it was real?
Similarly, the Golden Opera House might not necessarily be a group that actually performs operas. It could also just be…
…a group of bad guys using that name.
As for what the woman said about Theatrical Transformation, stories, the Superior, and blessings, Enya understood it quite clearly because it was indeed simple.
You could actually think of it as farming…
The so-called Theatrical Transformation is just a sown field waiting to grow.
The so-called stories are the wheat and rice.
These people are tenant farmers.
To obtain rewards from their master, the Superior, they must work diligently day and night without rest.
What they create and what they receive are not proportional. Moreover, the damage caused to the world by their actions is immense and unacceptable.
Enya took a deep breath but didn’t do anything to the woman.
She asked the next question.
“What is the relationship between the Golden Opera House and the Golden Town?”
“Both names refer to it, but what they do is different. The people of the Opera House and the Town are not the same group.”
The woman answered truthfully.
Enya nodded inwardly.
This matched her speculation.
After all, the matters here were also related to masks. Sylvia, who came from the Golden Town, also used mask-related magic.
Among the nobles of White Stone City, many had already been secretly turned into Heartless Puppets by Sylvia at that time, controlled by her pulling strings.
White Stone City had been completely infiltrated many years ago.
However, Sylvia was more restrained, so Enya didn’t see those discordant elements. And before Enya went to the White Stone City Lord’s Manor, Sylvia had destroyed everything.
Destroying the evidence and eliminating the witnesses!
“Heh heh…”
Thinking of this, Enya gave a light laugh.
This laugh caused the woman kneeling on the floor to tremble inexplicably. She felt as if several sharp blades were pointed at her spine, ready to pierce through her at any moment.
Enya turned to look at her and asked her third question.
“Do you know Sylvia?”
“I do not know.”
“Do you know the Lord of a Thousand Faces?”
“……”
The woman fell silent, but not because she was unwilling to answer. She simply didn’t hear the question. This sentence was blocked by a restriction engraved in her brain. She couldn’t receive any information containing ‘Lord of a Thousand Faces.’
Enya detected that subtle fluctuation on the woman but didn’t attempt to do anything about it.
That thing was equivalent to an anti-tampering command.
If anyone tried to extract information about the Lord of a Thousand Faces from the woman’s soul, it would be triggered immediately, resulting in the soul’s annihilation and the brain’s melting.
But this was already information.
It indicated that behind both the Golden Town and this Golden Opera House was the control of that Lord of a Thousand Faces.
Having obtained what she wanted, Enya vanished from the study.
Everything fell into silence. It was only after a long while that the woman slowly raised her head. She was actually surprised that she was still alive.
She knelt on the floor, glanced at the huge breach opened in the wall, then looked back at the man behind her.
He died quite peacefully, just without closing his eyes.
The woman walked over, helped close those blood-red eyes for him, held his head, and said, “You worked hard.”
After a while, she tore off the exquisitely beautiful face skin from her own face, revealing her true appearance.
It was a very ordinary face, and that face was filled with sorrow and regret.
Later, she committed suicide.
Enya returned to the previous inn.
The carriage was still parked at the entrance. The street was empty, devoid of any living souls.
The people nearby were all Heartless Puppets. Without the Puppet Masters, they self-destructed. They couldn’t be saved unless time was reversed.
Parit had changed into clean clothes and taken over Wendy’s driving duties. Wendy and Lucia stood to the side, waiting.
Their positions were both maids. Since the mistress hadn’t boarded yet, according to the rules, they certainly couldn’t get on.
Wendy originally wanted to get on, but seeing Lucia, who had changed into a maid outfit, standing by the door without any intention of boarding, Wendy had no choice but to stand on the other side.
Lucia was also very curious about Wendy.
After all, elves were indeed very beautiful in appearance, and that aura wasn’t something an ordinary human woman could match.
The long, light bluish-green hair, the exposed smooth forehead, the tall stature, the graceful figure—all undoubtedly indicated this was a mature and steady elf elder sister.
Wendy was an elder sister?
That was Lucia’s first impression.
Facing an elf she had only heard about in stories but never truly seen, Lucia couldn’t hide her excitement at this moment.
It’s just that the two spoke different languages, so it seemed they could only communicate by staring at each other.
Enya descended from the sky, landing right beside the carriage. Her arrival made both maids show signs of nervousness.
After glancing at Lucia, who had changed back into her maid outfit, Enya nodded, which flustered Lucia greatly.
Lucia performed a curtsy. Wendy followed suit, copying her.
Enya walked between them and boarded the carriage, then told the two to get on as well. Subsequently, the carriage headed out of the town-city.
She didn’t plan to stay here any longer. The matters here were already concluded.
This border town belonging to White Stone City, originally maintaining an eerie calm, had that calm shattered.
The chaos of White Stone City hadn’t reached it, but after its own illness erupted, it also fell into chaos. Large numbers of people who could run were already fleeing.
They all headed east, toward the prosperous Qingshui City. Acting in unison, they actually formed a procession.
The carriage Enya was riding in happened to be in the middle of this procession.
Inside the carriage, Enya sat somewhat lazily on the comfortable leather chair and looked with amusement at the two stiff maids sitting opposite her.
She said to Wendy, who was sitting properly upright.
“Why so stiff? I’m not going to eat you. You know, employees who always know how to please the boss are the ones who get the chance to make big money with the boss, right?”
“Mmm…”
Wendy was a bit confused by this.
Enya laughed at her, then sighed, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally speaking to Wendy in Elvish.
“If I’m happy, maybe the position of Head Maid will be yours in the future. Doubling the salary wouldn’t even be a problem.”
“Huh?!”
Wendy was still confused, but upon hearing ‘doubling the salary,’ she instantly understood completely. She then fixed her gaze on Lucia.
After sizing up this competitor of hers, Wendy felt she had already won, and by a large margin.
She was an elf. Whether it was looks or seniority, she was better. How could she lose to a mere human?
Lucia suddenly felt she was being looked down upon, but here she could only lower her head.
After all, she didn’t have anything special about her.
Just as the atmosphere had eased a bit under Enya’s handling, she suddenly spoke to Parit, who was driving the carriage outside.
“Stop for a moment. Someone is delivering a message.”
“……”
Parit pulled on the reins, and the carriage gradually slowed down.