Chapter 59: Escape Clause

“…He’s a friend of mine,” Selene and Richter quickly found the caravan leader, Selene’s current “father,” after deciding on their next course of action.

But perhaps because that swirling mass of colors that was his head was too much for her, her speech was slightly unnatural… Unlike the “Scholar of Sin,” who was a god, an inhuman being whose mere appearance was frightening, this “father” had a human body, human movements, and a human voice. Everything except his head was normal, perfectly triggering her uncanny valley effect.

This wasn’t how a daughter should treat her father.

The “father,” sensing something amiss, paused for a moment. The colors on his face also stopped for half a second, then began to spread from his head, like tentacles.

Richter, without hesitation, pushed Selene to the side, lowered her head, then stood in front of her.

“I’m ■■■’s son, a member of the caravan. I ran into Selene at Mrs. ■■■’s place… We heard there was a painter in the caravan and wanted to visit him. Uncle, do you know which carriage he’s on?”

Unlike Selene, he didn’t even try to act. In the eyes of the caravan members, he was currently the “son of a colleague.” This wasn’t how one spoke to their elders… But strangely, the “father,” who seemed to be about to attack, stopped when he heard Richter acknowledge his identity.

It seemed that as long as they maintained their assigned identities, they wouldn’t trigger some kind of hostile mechanism.

The “father” nodded slightly.

“There is indeed a young painter, about twenty years old, who joined us in Nymph Fu… I think he should be at the end of the caravan.”

“Thank you, uncle,” Richter didn’t hesitate and pulled Selene away.

The “father’s” deep voice came from behind them.

“Be back soon. It’s getting late.”

It’s getting late?

Selene unconsciously looked up. The sun, which had been fixed at noon, had somehow moved westward. The bright, dazzling light seemed to have withered like old parchment… It was now dusk.

But when they went into the carriage, it had been bright and sunny… Did time suddenly accelerate when they said they were looking for Jose?

After giving an appropriate response, Selene and Richter quickly made their way to the end of the caravan. Unlike the front of the caravan where the “father” was, it was very sparse here. Almost all the carriages were moving forward without drivers. The sounds of whips cracking and horses neighing could be heard, but there were no human sounds.

In this world in the box, the animals, plants, and inanimate objects were all normal. Only the people were strange… Why? If the goal was to trick them, wouldn’t it be better for it to be more realistic?

Though she’d quickly realized the truth after entering this place, Selene had truly been tricked. If it hadn’t been for her “father’s” inhuman appearance, she might not have realized it. Even then, she had still fallen into a state of amnesia. What was wrong with her, anyway? Why did she keep losing her memory?

If they assumed that the strange appearances of the people in the box were unintentional…

Was it because many years had passed, and he couldn’t remember the details of the people in the caravan? No, that wasn’t right. Superhumans should have enhanced memories. And based on this logic, he shouldn’t remember the details of the carriages, but the carriages were all accurate replicas of “north-south trade route carriages.” He had even made distinctions in minor details, like the wheel styles of the North and South Continents, and the nonexistent driver’s whip frequency.

If someone who didn’t know the truth entered here and didn’t see any of the people, they would definitely think this was a normal caravan traveling between the North and South Continents. They wouldn’t notice anything unusual.

It was unlikely he’d leave such an obvious flaw after being so meticulous with the details.

So, the abnormalities of the people in the box were intentional?

Did he want them to snap out of it, to avoid being lost in this fake world?

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…Contradictory.

What was Jose trying to do?

“Hey—Is there anyone called Jose?! Someone’s looking for you!”

While he was pondering the way out and the anomalies, Selene, who wasn’t good at deduction, shouted.

Simple and effective. A panicked voice soon answered her.

“Ah, it’s Miss Selene! I’m here!”

Then, from an inconspicuous carriage, Jose emerged, waving enthusiastically.

There seemed to be someone else in the carriage, who pushed Jose from behind, causing him to stagger forward and land on the ground.

Then Louise popped her head out. She first looked at Richter, whose height had changed but who was still recognizable, then at Selene. She was clearly surprised and confused.

“No, how did you get in here?”

Her voice was full of disbelief, and she spoke quickly,

“Shouldn’t you have told Duquesne after discovering the anomalies, and waited… Why?”

Louise had a lot to say, but remembering that a possibly-fake “Jose” was listening, she skipped to the point.

“I did plan to do that, but unfortunately, this one made a little mistake,” Richter sighed, glancing at Selene, who had no idea what was going on, but intuitively felt that she had messed up. “We can talk about the details later. Now… aren’t you going to introduce yourself?”

Jose, seemingly confused, but realizing that these three knew him, paused, then nodded.

“My name is Jose. I’m a painter from Mittal.”

He scratched his face awkwardly, smoothing down the wrinkles on his clothes.

“I heard the scenery here is quite nice, so I wanted to come and take a look, and paint a good picture…”

Richter, who knew all about this, nodded, pondered for a moment, then, in a surprised and admiring tone, exclaimed,

“Wow—Uncle, you’re a great artist!”

“It’s ‘brother.’ I’m almost thirty, but I’m not that old!” Jose instinctively retorted, but it seemed as if he felt that it wasn’t appropriate to say that to a child, so he coughed slightly, “You can call me ‘mister.’ That’s fine.”

“Ah, Mr. Jose,” Richter naturally changed his address. “To be honest, I’ve always wanted to learn how to paint, but I haven’t been able to find a good teacher…”

“Well…” Jose hesitated. “My skills aren’t that great…”

“It’s enough to teach a student,” Louise, realizing that Richter wanted to take Jose away so that she could talk to Selene alone, said.

“Just some simple lessons, as a way of reinforcing your own foundations.”

Jose didn’t insist. He was someone who enjoyed teaching. Now, he had the perfect opportunity—the student was a little boy who knew nothing about painting. Teaching the basics was well within his capabilities. And with a child’s short attention span, it wouldn’t take up too much of his time.

“There’s still some time before sunset, and the light is good,” Jose said.

Though he vaguely felt that he was being manipulated, he didn’t mind and quickly pulled out some paper and a brush from his luggage, starting with the basics, drawing lines.

Due to the environment, their skill levels, and their enthusiasm, this process was rather slow. They went into the carriage, while Louise and Selene stayed outside.

“…Did you casually touch something again?”

Louise blinked.

“Ah, probably?” Selene hesitated for a few seconds.

Though she knew this was Richter’s friend who was also trapped in this world, she had no idea how to interact with her, having lost her memories… She decided to be direct.

“Actually, I have amnesia. I don’t remember anything about the real world. But it should only be temporary. I feel like something is blocking those memories. Maybe I’ll remember everything when I get out.”

Louise blinked and exclaimed,

“Ah—Amnesia again! When we first met two years ago, you said you had amnesia. When you found the 《Ascension Tantra》 over a year ago, you said you had amnesia. And now it’s happening again. Do you have some kind of strange constitution where you lose your memory whenever something big happens?”

Not noticing the mockery in her voice, Selene thought for a moment, and said earnestly,

“If you say so, maybe I do have some strange constitution. After all, you and Richter came in here and you’re both fine. I’m the only one who lost my memory.”

Louise was truly surprised this time.

“Are you serious?”

“… Aren’t you paying attention?” Selene tilted her head.

“… Fine, I believe you have amnesia,” Louise rubbed her forehead. “Do you really have some strange constitution? But let’s save that topic for later. Let’s talk about more important things.

“First, do you know how to get out of here?”

Selene honestly shook her head.

“The 【Scene in a Box】 world is node-based. There’s no real time, real souls, or real matter. Everything is just a manifestation of the caster’s mana,” Louise said softly. “In other words, its principles don’t go beyond modern magic systems. It can still be classified as a node-type spell, but the amount of mana and precision required far exceed the limits of an individual. And based on the Ron Wies theorem, the ratio of mana that can be used inside and outside the boundary is one to five hundred. And the value that can be received from outside is about one-fifth of the mana needed for casting, so we need to… And also, according to 《Theory of Domains》 and 《Gods and Men》, every boundary spell has a duration. This duration is determined by the mana required for casting and the precision of the casting, and is inversely proportional to the number of high-level souls within…”

Selene quickly felt dizzy.

Seeing this, Louise skipped to the conclusion.

“You’ve always been curious about this… Theoretically, if we could use a spell inside that’s equivalent to three standard forbidden spells, we could directly break this world. Alternatively, we can wait for three days, three days in the real world, and then we’ll be forcibly expelled. Or we can try to kill the caster, or fulfill some special condition… Right, there’s also the option of the master of this world letting us out.”