...Return to reality?
Annan looked at the last side mission, slightly startled.
What did this refer to?
Was it about me in the nightmare... or Evelyn Miller?
"But speaking of this name..."
Evelyn Miller — Annan had not heard this name for the first time.
It was included in the password Benjamin used to determine whether he was in a nightmare or not, and it was right in the first section.
Putting aside the possibility of it being a coincidence, Benjamin very likely knew this Evelyn. Even at a younger age, he had been impressed by this name...
"...Does that mean this could be the distant past, several decades ago?"
Annan fell into thought.
So, in the original history... what did Evelyn Miller do, and what had she accomplished?
He touched his left wrist, groping his own hand in the extremely dim light, trying to figure out the shape and depth of the wound.
Thanks to the weakening of the Curse Binding by Annan, such slight pain had become imperceptible to him. But Annan could distinguish the position of his wounds through the difference in touch... After all, blood had already flowed down his left arm, and based solely on sight, Annan couldn’t ascertain the exact location of his wounds.
Soon, Annan noticed something.
Annan’s eyes slightly brightened.
— First of all, he could be sure that it wasn’t a scrape caused by struggling against the rough handcuffs.
This was clearly a cut on the back of the hand caused by some sharp instrument.
Judging from the depth of the wound...
Annan felt for the handcuffs.
As expected — on the side of the handcuffs close to the wall, there was a thin blade, feeling somewhat like a razor blade... very thin and slightly flexible.
From the very beginning, Annan felt that the size of the handcuffs was not quite right — they were clearly a size too large and could never hold the slender-wristed Evelyn securely in place. A forceful struggle should be enough to pull a hand out of them.
The discovery now told Annan why he was on his knees when he entered the copy. Only in this position could the bladed side be far enough away from his skin... If he were to stand up now, his wrists would get cut.
Annan calmly explored with his hands.
He used his clothes to press against the blade and found that it retracted as soon as it was pressed.
Therefore, Annan immediately realized that the blade must be part of some mechanism.
"...Where’s the other end?"
Annan pondered briefly, steadying the handcuffs with his right hand to keep the blade away from the back of his hand, and slowly stood up from the ground.
Feeling a bit numb in his legs, Annan ignored it.
He followed the chain up to the wall with his hand.
When he touched the fixed point on the wall, Annan twisted it casually and found that it could actually move!
An instant brightness flashed before Annan’s eyes.
He steadied the fixed point and turned it left and right a few times. Annan immediately noticed that turning it counter-clockwise would make the blade protrude a bit more; turning it clockwise would make it retract a bit.
This did not resemble equipment for imprisoning people... it was more like a device for torture.
Annan kept the palm of his left hand upward, using gravity to place the blade below. Then, he turned the fixed point to the left, repeatedly.
When Annan had turned it as far as it would go, the blade had completely retracted.
Without hesitation, Annan dislocated his left thumb and withdrew his hand from it.
Then he didn’t leave but started turning the fixed point in the opposite direction — because Annan realized that the first side mission requirement "maintain the integrity of the body" might refer to this situation.
As Annan turned it to the right for a while, the blade stuck out again... And after some time, the fixed point began to wobble, as if a screw was about to come loose.
This blade was clearly connected to the chain. Annan kept turning it — when the blade was half protruded, the fixed point dropped off with a clang, leaving the chain with a sharp blade on the end, falling to the ground.
The handcuffs and the blade had been separated into two parts.
The handcuffs were still closed tight, seemingly needing a key to open... but it no longer mattered.
So that’s how it was. Turning clockwise, the chain was twisted outwards, which extended the blade, and turning counterclockwise tightened it, retracting the blade...
"...So you’re saying, if I couldn’t forcibly escape, the blade would have to cut into the skin of my wrist about one centimeter before the chain could be removed from the wall?"
Annan slightly furrowed his brow.
I always felt this doesn’t seem like any sort of prison...
Just to be safe, Annan still picked up the heavy iron chain from the ground.
Annan used Evelyn’s intact right hand to grasp the original anchoring point—while the other end of the chain was a sharp and slender blade edge.
It might be used as some sort of weapon...
After all, Annan had already checked himself... Evelyn had no silverware on her, nor was she a Swordsman or a Wizard. Annan couldn’t use the skills of his own body.
But if the enemies were just ordinary people... Using this heavy iron chain to kill one or two people would still be no problem.
After obtaining the weapon, Annan first set his left thumb back into place. The abrasions caused by the rough technique made it temporarily unable to grip tightly. But that didn’t matter, considering his left wrist was also injured and originally couldn’t exert much force anyway.
"...Could it be Evelyn is left-handed?"
This thought surfaced in Annan’s mind but was quickly dismissed.
Dragging the chain, he walked around the room but found nothing.
So, he could only approach the door, dragging the chain along.
It wasn’t the kind of sturdy metal prison door one might expect in a jail—instead, it was an ordinary wooden door.
Of course, the door was locked.
However, this was no trouble for Annan.
He lifted the chain high and slammed it down hard on the door lock!
On the sixth blow, Annan finally smashed the lock off!
Without any courtesy, he kicked open the wooden door and walked out.
Before him was a corridor leading to the left and right.
It was still very dim outside, and there was no light in the hallway.
Not to mention a green fire lamp, Annan couldn’t even find a candle.
A strange exclamation was heard.
Annan suddenly turned his head towards the direction the sound had come from, his gaze sharp.
It was not far to his left—beyond the dark corner.
As if the girl, who made the noise, abruptly stopped because of the sound of the dragging chain, didn’t utter another word, and swiftly ran away from the direction of Annan.
Annan just squinted his eyes slightly, silently watching in that direction.
If he were to act according to his usual methods, he should have immediately chased after her and knocked her out with the chain before dragging her back for interrogation.
But at that moment, Annan remembered his second sub-task: Do not converse with anyone.
So he didn’t chase after her but let the sound of her footsteps fade away.
"She runs quite fast..."
Annan murmured to himself.
...Since he wasn’t to converse with anyone,
The safest course of action for him was to move in the direction where no one was present.
Thereupon, Annan turned to the right without a second thought.
This time, he didn’t drag the chain; instead, he grasped it in the middle with his partially recovered left hand, looking like a cowboy ready to lasso a horse...
But just as Annan lifted the chain, he suddenly felt something when touching it, and realized something.
He paused for a moment, then crouched down.
Carefully, he felt the floor with his right hand.
—There was a water trail.
Annan also had a water trail behind him—that’s because Evelyn’s trouser leg and shoes were soaked. Oddly enough, there wasn’t any source of water in the dungeon to wet her up to the knees...
Yet this water trail came from in front of Annan.
Annan narrowed his eyes slightly and looked back.
This must have been left by the person who made a noise just now.
That means... she came from the same place as he did previously?
And she must have walked from right to left—
If he followed the direction of the water trail, he could find the next clue!