Ch. 15
Chapter 15
Luo En was rummaging through his pack, hunting for a length of rope sturdy enough to truss up the mayor.
Strictly speaking, he only needed to carry word back to Lady Mercury, yet bringing the culprit in person would be even better.
Had the villain been a hulking brute, Luo En might have measured his own chances first.
But the figure before him was a frail old man who looked too weak to stand—hardly someone he could let walk free.
Luo En declared, loud and clear, that this was not a lawless land; every crime would meet its reckoning.
Yet, confronted with Luo En’s intent to haul him away, the mayor stayed eerily calm.
Only the snow-white squirrel in his arms squealed and bared tiny teeth, warning Luo En that one more step would cost him a bite.
“What’s your name?” the mayor asked, sudden and quiet.
“Luo En.” He answered without hesitation.
He dimly recalled that his body’s original owner had possessed a surname—something long and convoluted—but the exact syllables were gone.
So Luo En always gave only his given name. Don’t ask; if you do, the answer is “I forgot.”
“Luo En... Everyone who comes here learns the truth,” the mayor said.
It wasn’t the first time he had confessed his crimes aloud. “But none of us can leave. What good will knowing do you?”
“If no one can leave, why are you the only one here?” Luo En wasn’t a fool; the hole in the mayor’s logic was glaring.
He hadn’t spotted a second agent dispatched by Lady Mercury—only a dying old man.
Besides, Luo En himself had walked out of town yesterday. The claim was nonsense.
“Because everyone else is dead,” the mayor murmured, voice heavy with regret. “Each time, only I remain.”
“So out of all those corpses, you’re the lone survivor?” Luo En snorted.
Even in a fantasy world, reason counted for something; he refused to swallow a tale without logic.
The mayor met the skepticism with the same composure, even pity. “I’m one of the mages who cast the spell. The magic has cursed me. Frozen Time will erode me, but it can’t grant me death.”
Luo En didn’t take the words at face value. He turned and tried to leave.
No blizzard barred his way; he could explore elsewhere at will.
Still, before he walked off, he braved a few nips from the squirrel and tied the mayor to a chair—just to be sure the culprit wouldn’t vanish.
Identity confirmed, location secured: Lady Mercury’s reward was as good as his.
...
...
Following his memory, Luo En planned to scout the route, then drag the mayor back to Lilian.
Though that dragon maid claimed she wanted no part, once the murderer lay at her feet she’d have to summon Lady Mercury.
How dragons talked to dragons across distance was none of his concern.
Yet it didn’t take long for Luo En to sense something was wrong.
He was certain he hadn’t lost his bearings, yet after every bout of dizziness he snapped back to the exact spot where he’d started.
Each loop, the same hallucination replayed itself.
He had listened to the same exchange at least twenty times by now; he could probably recite it word for word.
Hours had passed, but the sky above refused to darken.
He finally questioned his system. “How long has it been?”
[Answer: Five hours have elapsed since you first believed yourself lost.]
“Then it should be night.” He craned his neck at the unchanged sky.
[Under normal circumstances, yes. However, Otherworlder, you are currently within a Time-Disrupted Zone.]
“How do I get out?”
[Please provide the system with additional details; otherwise analysis is impossible.]
“What good are you?” Luo En snapped.
He wanted an omniscient, omnipotent system, not a half-broken search engine that tripped him up at every turn.
“Do you believe me now, Luo En?” The mayor’s voice drifted over at the perfect moment, as if he had eavesdropped on the exchange with the system.
“I believe,” Luo En admitted, cornered.
“The instant you set foot here, you were trapped. Unlike me, you will die when time catches up.” The mayor’s tone remained slow, almost gentle.
“Then how do I leave?” Luo En asked, not expecting an answer.
To his surprise, the mayor gave one. “Stop the spell, and everything ends.”
He paused. “The moment the magic breaks... all these people will wake.”
He had not frozen the worshippers of the Evil God on a whim.
The deity had granted them flame and brute strength, yet in return stripped away their reason; that was the true horror of its gifts.
A handful might retain their minds, but they were rare exceptions.
Most were doomed to slide into madness.
Realizing Winterless Town was incubating an army of monsters, the mayor had turned to the Mage Tower’s forbidden spell.
“So you actually don’t want anyone to lift it?” Luo En stared straight at him.
He had thought Lady Mercury had sent him on a simple errand; clearly, he was wrong.
Then again, errands didn’t earn you a whole territory.
The mayor opened his mouth, hesitated, then let a single word fall like the toll of an ancient bell. “Yes...”
The drawn-out syllable weighed heavy in the air, thickening the gloom.
Though the curse tormented him, he had never chosen to end the spell.
To keep from watching everyone and everything he knew slide into madness, he chose to remain trapped inside the Time Prison.
At first he had considered ending the spell, but the years ground him down until he felt nothing at all; time’s torment no longer caused him pain.
“Then why tell every newcomer the truth?” Luo En’s face was blank now. He could feel the stalemate closing in on them like a vise.
Each visitor endured the same illusion, the same replay of everything that had happened, yet if the Mayor kept silent, no one would ever learn that he was the one behind it all.
“Does it really matter... Luo En?” The Mayor’s eyelids drooped, his voice low and heavy.
“It matters,” Luo En answered.
The Mayor let the words roll out, slow and sepulchral. “Because only you... are still ignorant of the truth...”