Chapter 185: The Path to Redemption (1/2)
”She's alive?” Ricardo audibly gasped.
Calvin shook his head. The woman's body felt as if it had substance, but at the same time, she was too light.
In short, Calvin was holding the woman's spirit.
She was dead...
Long dead.
”Who are you?” The woman asked once more.
She swept her tired gaze across the four and when her eyes landed on the deformed man, she grew terrified.
”You!”
”A monster!”
She pointed at the deformed man and Heisenberg couldn't help but chuckle.
”He sure does look like a monster, but he's not a monster. He's a human being... just a tad more unfortunate than the others out there.”
The deformed man didn't say anything. Although from his trembling body, it was obvious that he was shaken and nervous.
He didn't even dare to look at the woman as intense complicated emotions flashed across his face.
The woman stared at the deformed man for quite a while before she awakened from her trance.
When she was back to herself, she realized that she was still in the arms of Calvin.
”Put me down, please...”
”Oh...”
Despite being dead for a long time, she still seemed to have intelligence comparable to that of a human being. She sure was a remarkable spirit. However, Calvin couldn't classify if she was indeed a spirit or an unidentifiable Spectre.
”What is it that you want from me?” The young lass cut to the chase.
Calvin wasn't about to be outdone as he replied, ”Do you realize that you've died a long time ago?”
”Hmmm?” The young lass stared at Calvin in a frown. Her beautiful facial features frowned, ”Dead...? I'm dead?”
”No, that cannot be... I'm not dead... I'm still alive! Look. I can even touch you!” The young lass stretched her arm and touched Calvin's cheek, ”How can I be dead if I can still touch things? If I'm actually dead, then my hand would've gone through your face.” A smile crept up her lips.
Heisenberg and Ricardo stared at each other.
”Calvin...” Heisenberg was the first one to speak. As a Priest, he seemed to have recognized what was going on with the young lass.
”I know... she's in a state of denial. We need to make her realize that she is already dead, but to do that... She must remember everything.”
”In a state of denial? That doesn't make sense! How can she deny the current state of the village?” Ricardo retorted.
Calvin shook his head, ”She cannot see what we are able to see. Until she accepts the truth that she's dead. She'll continuously deceive herself. Have you heard of the placebo effect?”
When Calvin's words fell, he suddenly realized that he made the wrong decision.
How could these people know about the placebo effect when they were native residents of Las Felipinas?
The deformed man's distorted ears twitched as if his interest had been caught by Calvin.
Calvin took notice of the deformed man's attention, but he didn't say anything as he proceeded to explain, ”It's a medical term which convinces your brain that a fake cure is real by making the fake cure look like the real cure...”
As expected, Heisenberg and Ricardo were still confused but they soon got the gist of what Calvin was talking about.
”So are you saying that we must let her understand that the world she's looking at is fake and that the world we are in is the real one?”
”Yup, that's basically it,” Calvin replied to Heisenberg's question.
”Then, how do we convince her that the world she is looking at is fake?” Ricardo chimed in.
”Leave it to me...” Calvin confidently said.
He had remembered the ritual that the Wise One did into his previous self that involved unlocking memories by diving into the subconscious...
Calvin could simulate the same effects with fewer materials, but this included the cooperation of the young lass. If she did not cooperate, then it was impossible for anyone to enter her subconscious.
Calvin glanced at the young lass and noticed her confusion, 'Damn it would be a huge pain in the ass to convince her to let me go inside her body...'
”What are you people talking about?” The young lass finally spoke up.
”Before we answer that, what were you about to do earlier? Killing yourself?” Calvin riposted.
”Killing myself? Why would I do that?” The young lass's confusion intensified, ”Wait... what was I about to do earlier? Killing myself? No, I can't possibly do that! But why... why can I remember...”
Her eyes darted around until she saw the rope on the ground, ”W-W-What is that?! Is that the rope that I used to try and kill... myself?”
”No, that doesn't make sense! Why would I... Why would I kill myself? I have a loving family... I have a family to...”
”Family...”
”I have a family...?”
The young lass stood in confusion.
Calvin furrowed his eyebrows, ”Are you okay?”
The young lass heard his voice and she stared at Calvin, ”I am... I am okay... No, I'm not!”
”What is going on...? Why can't I...? Why can't I remember?” She muttered under her breath.
Calvin turned to look at Heisenberg and asked, ”Do you have any mystical ingredients there that can affect the subconscious?”
”No...” Heisenberg was quick to reply, ”I'm a Priest, why would I carry those ingredients in me? Do you think that I'm an Illusionist?”
Calvin didn't reply to Heisenberg's question.
Instead, he approached the young lass and pressed on her shoulders, ”Listen...”
”You've been dead for more than five years now and you died because of a particular young man. You need to remember everything. You've got to fight back against something sinister hidden inside you...”
Calvin couldn't detect any resentment at all from the young lass. However, he noticed that she seemed to be longing for something. But this longing was incredibly faint. Although it was tenacious, it was slowly being overcome by her confusion.
'There's a stark difference between her current attitude and her previous personality when we were looking at her from afar... Could it be that she's a Spectre that developed another personality due to her high intelligence?'
'That can be possible!'
'Speaking of dual personalities, there should be one particular being described in the Bestiary that has the tendency to develop a dual personality... But shit... I can't remember it!'
Calvin started to desperately wrack his brain for the information that he needed, but there was just too much information in the Bestiary and he needed time to filter them all.
It was at this moment that the deformed man spoke.
”Freya...” He said.
The young lass quickly froze, ”Why... why does that word sound so familiar?”
”Is that... is that my name...?”
The deformed man gnashed his teeth and replied, ”Yes... Freya. It's your name.”
”You... You know who I am?” Freya muttered.