Holding on to the stairs, he took two steps at a time and reached the destination. Hitzfeld looked at the wall breathlessly and saw the number "5" on it.
"Hello." A dry voice suddenly sounded, "Do you want to borrow or pick up a book?"
"I want……"
While gasping and looking back, Hitzfeld's right eye suddenly widened and his body took a big step back.
The person standing before her was... a dummy?
About meters tall, wearing a white shirt, black suit, and long trousers. Although this thing can move and try to imitate the movements of a living person, its face is basically a wooden doll!
"You seem thrilled to see me."
The puppet tilted its head at her.
"It's very strange, because normally guests who can go up to the fifth floor...wouldn't be surprised by my presence."
"..." The girl carefully moved back to her original position and tentatively touched the puppet's face with her fingertips.
"Is this considered teasing?" The puppet suddenly looked down at her.
"No!" She shook her head like a rattle.
"I just want to see if it's a mask or real wood..."
"It's made of wood~" The puppet's mouth formed a faint smile, "Walnut wood that's over thirty years old, with the evil essence purified by holy water as the heart. How about that? I dare say I'm definitely the most beautiful puppet on the fifth floor!"
"Is...is that so?"
For a moment, Hitzfeld didn't know whether he should interrupt its narcissistic process, so he had to continue asking according to its words.
"Then, are there any other puppets on the fifth floor... No! I mean guides... Are there any other guides?"
"No."
As soon as this question was asked, the puppet's face immediately fell.
"I am the only guide on the fifth floor, and the only puppet on the fifth floor."
"..."
So this is what the most beautiful means.
"Actually, you don't have to be too sad."
Seeing it lower its head and look extremely sad, Hitzfeld's heart softened.
"I also looked at other floors when I came up. The wood grain, the wood grain... and the luster of the other puppets are not as beautiful as yours."
"Really!"
His hands were directly pulled up and turned seven or eight times.
"You are so kind, my dear! Thank you! Walnut will always remember you!"
"+皿φ三三三"
The Hitzfelds were almost dizzy.
"I...I want to carry a book!"
If she doesn't find a way to stop this thing, she will really be tortured to death.
"Bring the books... OK... You have the sign in your hand, bookshelf No. 53... I'll take you there..."
The puppet immediately stopped spinning, took her hand and started moving forward.
"that……"
"What's the matter, guest?"
"You just said your name is Walnut?"
"Yes~ Because I am a puppet made of walnut wood, so Walnut is my name."
"Who gave you the name?"
Hitzfeld stared at its wooden fingers curiously.
"Who allowed you to... move and speak?"
"It's the great master Aardman."
"——And the former master, the God of Golem."
God of Golem?
"Bookshelf No. 53, here we are."
Kurumi's voice suddenly became very, very soft.
"Please keep your voice down, sir."
"There are other guests here browsing books, and we try not to disturb them."
Is this the bookshelf number 53?
Hitzfeld looked up, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
In front of her was an aisle sandwiched between bookshelves, but she kept looking up... and saw that the top of the bookshelf was almost level with the five-meter-high ceiling.
Take another look at the small iron sign next to the bookshelf.
[5-53，道森文社，1943-12-29]
"..."
The place is right.
But no one told me there were so many of them.
How do I move this?
I turned around to ask Walnut, but I turned around twice and still couldn't find it.
This weird puppet that appears and disappears out of nowhere...actually just left her here like this!
Helplessly, Hitzfeld simply walked into the bookshelf and scanned the various book titles with his right eye.
Nightmare Tales...
The Perfumer's Quick Guide...
Perfumes, Herbs, and Poisons…
Lilith Dawson's Notes...
……
and many more.
Lilith...Dawson?
Hitzfeld remembered the name; the book about the Slit-Mouthed Wolf... Foul Creatures and Nightmares, published in 1941, was written by this guy.
But the key is -
"Dawson?"
frown.
Take out this book "Lilith Dawson's Notes".
He quickly walked back to the entrance of the bookshelf and stared at the small iron plate, carefully comparing it with the character painting.
...exactly the same.
"The Dawson in Lilith Dawson is the Dawson in Dawson Literary Society?"
With a slight breath, Hitzfeld became excited.
Could this Lilith be the owner of 221 Iris Street? The person who founded Dawson Literary Society?
Is she the lady's friend? Is she the one who wrote back to invite me to visit?
After a moment of excitement, the blood cooled down again.
wrong……
She frowned slightly.
Although it was an invitation, he never showed up for 40 years and instead asked me, the guest, to help clean the house.
What does she want to do?
That note?
Because the chain was too coherent, Hitzfeld quickly connected the events of "being invited to Weinport", "finding the note", and "coming to the library to pick up books".
Even now, it seemed to her that the amount of the travel expenses might have been calculated.
400 goli was just enough for her to clean the house, and it would be enough for her to eat and stay for a round trip.
And perfume...
She knew that the lady also knew how to make incense, so this arrangement made sense.
"Is that the purpose for me to come here?"
After pondering for a while, she sat down on the floor next to the bookshelf and opened the first page of "Lilith Dawson's Notes".
[If it was 10 years ago... no, even if it was 1 year ago, someone told me that I would abandon the career I love in the future, I would have cursed him loudly and told him to die quickly.]
It was indeed a note, and the tone of the recording was very casual.
[All changes occur when I merge with Ivan.]
[I will never forget the late autumn of 1942.]
[That was the first time I heard...that name...]
Chapter 33: Chrysanthemum Fly Part 2
[In the late autumn of 1942, Ivan and I had a child.]
[This should be a very satisfying thing. As a wife, I should take good care of my health while fulfilling my responsibilities and staying by their side to accompany them.]
[But there were too many evil incidents that year... The Eclipse Church was like crazy, constantly creating one incident after another, using various methods and means to attack the Xieyang Stone Carvings in every city.]
[The organization is short of people, very short of people. So short of people that I have to accept the task and go on a mission with Night Crow in a week...]
This record is very complicated.
Including the disputes and disagreements with 'Night Raven', and Lilith's confusing description of the mission location.
[The chrysanthemum larvae apologized for the chiseled lace and the slender lace]
[It is so close to the capital, but it has not received their attention for so many years. As a large town, it lacks sufficient defense force and was taken advantage of by those fanatics.]
[Honestly, although I have seen far more bloody scenes than these when I was younger - I am sure that those scenes have not been forgotten even in my years as an instructor - but I have never seen such a large-scale corruption infection.]
[The intelligence was not delivered in time, so by the time we arrived here, thousands of local residents had been killed or injured.]
[The dead have all turned into puppets without exception... or perhaps dummies made of other materials. They have completely lost all signs of life, as if they were made of wood from the beginning. The expression of each puppet is 'smile'...]
[Those infected who are still alive call them 'golems'.]
[They chant a name: (crossed out)—all of them chant, praying to it, worshipping it like possessed.]
[On the first night, I discovered that this corruption was transmitted to others through collective chanting. I saw with my own eyes that some passers-by were attracted by those lunatics, stopped to listen to their chanting of praises to (crossed out traces), and then their expressions gradually became dull, and they staggered to join the queue and chanted the name together.]
[That was a chorus of hundreds or thousands of people...]
[Despite those ridiculous songs, Night Crow and I ordered the local police department to quickly suppress them, and after a detailed statistics, we distinguished the old infected people and those affected by this action, and found that those who were attracted were also infected.]
[Beginning with the limbs, their bodies begin to 'golemize'. When this change spreads to their heart or brain, they will die and become a dummy like the previous deceased.]
[At this stage, they are completely safe... As long as they are kept out of reach of ordinary people and their singing is not spread, they will be harmless until they die.]
[That is, no deeper corruption breaks out.]
[It was as if their life essence was sucked out by something at the moment of death, and they did not meet the conditions for the birth of a nightmare at all.]
[At first, Night Crow and I were relieved about this situation... Because once the corruption of these dead bodies broke out further, there would be thousands of nightmares, and we would not be able to deal with so many.]
[But the good times didn't last long. On the seventh day of our imprisonment to prevent the further spread of this corruption... that is, the eternal night, a greater terror descended.]
