The stained glass eyes that moved were definitely not normal. This Gothic building stood beside the city square, its stained glass scanning the people in the square. Yet, they were all playing normally, completely unaware.
I led Older Brother Jayad to a flock of pigeons. Quite a few people were feeding them breadcrumbs here. Older Brother Jayad and I pretended to watch the pigeons. There were also many children watching the pigeons nearby, of course, all from wealthy families.
My own experience taught me to pretend I hadn’t seen anything strange, just like everyone else around. That way, those bizarre things probably wouldn’t come looking for me, as I had no grudge against them.
“Older Brother Jayad, can you see the eyes moving over there? On the windows. Be careful, don’t look too obviously, don’t let them know you’re looking at them,” I said.
Older Brother Jayad carefully pretended to glance casually at that section of buildings, without showing any unnatural expression. Then he lowered his head and said to me, “No, I didn’t see anything. It’s just very ordinary stained glass.”
As expected, Older Brother Jayad’s perceptions were actually different from what I could see. Or rather, he might only be able to see under specific circumstances, such as when his eyes glowed golden.
To confirm, I took him to another strange scene. This time, I took a little adventure and went to the site of the first murder, where a female ghost whose eyes had been gouged out was lingering. Every time I passed by, she would look at me with her dark empty eye sockets. I strongly suspected that she actually knew I could see her and was just not coming to confront me.
Perhaps it was a matter of settling debts? It was so lucky to encounter such a reasonable and understanding ghost sister.
I brought Older Brother Jayad here, still adhering to the principle of not disturbing her, keeping a safe distance. I said to Older Brother Jayad, “At the entrance of that alley, can you see anything?”
“Uh, isn’t that where the murder happened last time? Should I be seeing something?” Older Brother Jayad asked hesitantly.
“Just tell me what you see,” I said. From Older Brother Jayad’s tone, he seemed to have seen something, but wasn’t entirely sure.
“I see a shadow there, as if the light is distorted. I can vaguely see a human figure, it looks like a woman,” Older Brother Jayad said.
“If I told you I saw a girl with no eyeballs, would you believe me?” I asked. Just as I suspected, Older Brother Jayad and I saw different things.
“I believe you. Considering I’ve seen ghosts today, what is there not to believe?” Older Brother Jayad said. Today’s sights and sounds seemed to have somewhat overturned his worldview. Older Brother Jayad had heard others talk about ghosts before and believed in their existence, but believing and seeing them with his own eyes were different. He had never seen one before, and ghosts were a distant concept to him.
It was like hearing on the news about a crazed murderer. Most people would scoff at the cruelty but wouldn’t be too scared. But if they discovered in reality that a murderer was right beside them, they would undoubtedly panic.
“Okay, let’s not disturb her. Let’s go, Older Brother Jayad. Remember from now on, no matter what you see, pretend you didn’t. Unless those guys actively attack you,” I reminded him.
Once one steps into this mysterious world, there’s no turning back to normalcy. It’s impossible to go back to living happily like a normal person, pretending to know nothing. I believe that as long as Older Brother Jayad can see mysterious things, he will be able to see more in the future, eventually seeing the same things I do. After all, going from seeing nothing to seeing something is the hardest part.
And it’s not just him. Can I see all things? Is what I see the truth? I don’t think so. Just like before, I could only see maggots writhing on my arm, but today I can see them crawling. Older Brother Jayad still only sees them writhing. There’s been a degree of change.
Older Brother Jayad can’t see the eyes moving on the stained glass, but I can. But is that all there is to this picture? Could the figures painted on the glass actually be moving their entire bodies, but I just can’t tell? Or is it possible that the painting isn’t of people at all, but a terrifying and Unspeakable Evil God, appearing as humans only in my eyes?
The more I thought about it, the more uncertainties filled my mind, and I began to doubt the existence of the entire world. Is what I’m seeing still not real enough, or is my illusion getting worse? Is the reality perceived by ordinary people the true reality?
“Parul! Parul!” Just then, Older Brother Jayad suddenly interrupted my thoughts, shaking my shoulder.
“W-what is it?” I saw a mixture of seriousness and worry on Older Brother Jayad’s face, and asked hesitantly.
“We’re home. And just now, Parul seemed absent-minded, almost walking into the river,” Older Brother Jayad said.
“Ah!” Only then did I realize that the river channel was right in front of me. I had almost stepped into it just now. Ever since I had that Nightmare that day, I’ve been a little afraid of this river, not even wanting to get close to it.
“And just now, Parul’s expression was so scary. Even though you were smiling, it was a little… bizarre,” Older Brother Jayad said, somewhat uncertainly. Originally, he wouldn’t have cared about such trivial things, but he had been so frightened by the female ghost today that his courage had diminished considerably.
“It’s okay, you did the right thing. From now on, if you find me acting strangely, wake me up immediately,” I said.
Upon returning to the cave where we were staying, I began to prepare to draw the Summoning Circle for the Demon. That makeup box was haunted, so to avoid further complications, I decided to sacrifice it today. The magic circle was drawn on the ground. To ensure accuracy, I followed every detail of the Witch’s Notes. Just to make sure the circle was round, I had to smooth and correct it several times.
Older Brother Jayad also helped me draw the summoning circle. In fact, he did most of the work, slowly carving it onto the ground with his Dagger. I didn’t do much, getting out of breath after drawing just a little. My stamina was still too weak. Finally, we completed a summoning circle that looked perfect from the outside. I wrote Gremory’s name and placed the makeup box in the center of the magic circle. The preparations were complete. The only remaining step was to drip my own blood onto the makeup box.
However, I didn’t immediately proceed with the final step. One reason was that I wanted to wait until the dead of night, to avoid Bartholomew’s Subordinates passing by the door unexpectedly. Another was that before summoning a Demon, I wanted to try another method that might be safer. I hadn’t even read the Bible I brought back myself. Since Older Brother Jayad could master a Miracle by looking at a few pictures, I should be able to as well.
