Chapter 1326: Request

Testing the changes in Scroll’s ability after her upgrade did not take long.

She and Anna had discussed nearly everything before Roland arrived. The answers that surfaced beside equations were not imagination—nor were they obtained through calculation, but through a search of memory. She had once memorized vast quantities of repeated data, and the answers emerged the moment she encountered familiar expressions again. For complex functions, if every sub-expression had been committed to memory, the combined result of any shuffled combination could be solved at once, even without understanding what the equation meant.

The work was heavier than searching physical archives and test papers. She had always been capable of it; what had changed was that now it happened without effort. Her main ability had evolved substantially.

But for problems she had never memorized—or only partially memorized—no answers came.

Which meant that for calculating the reliability of newly designed prototypes, they would still need the Design Institute and the central carrier. Scroll’s involvement would simply reduce the workload considerably, once all the relevant materials had passed through her memory.

The main focus of testing then shifted to the Archives in the Realm of Mind—still only a small, plain room, with its gray walls and the particular silence of a space that had no windows and no history.

The first thing to verify was whether objects could move between the two worlds. As a Transcendent, Scroll’s method of entering the Dream World was fundamentally different from the God’s Punishment Witches and the Nightmare Lord. The God’s Punishment Witches relied on the light beam to reach it. The Nightmare Lord had trespassed on her own, the crossing altering her body in the process. Scroll’s passage was more like a link—like driving a small car into a parking lot—with both body and mind kept intact, complete.

If she could carry things back out of that lot, the implications would be enormous.

Reality declined to cooperate. Scroll could bring objects already on her person into the domain, but nothing from within the domain could be carried back to the waking world. Not a pebble. And “bringing in” was not quite accurate to begin with—the tested objects never vanished; they remained in her hand throughout.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty.” After the last test, Scroll stared at her empty hands. “It seems my abilities are still lacking.”

“No—this was within my expectations.” Roland exchanged a glance with Anna, his conclusion already settled. The Archives was likely identical in nature to the Dream World: both carried some power to distort reality. Within the scope of Scroll’s comprehension, a copy could be made from the original, which would appear, on first inspection, as though something external had been carried in. Bringing it back was another matter entirely.

The realization quietly relieved him—the way a faint sound in the dark, once identified as wind, stops being anything to fear.

Scroll was not the only person who could carve a domain in the Realm of Mind. From what Valkries had revealed, the King of the demon clan possessed not only the Presiding Holy See but a phenomenal command over domains—within one, he was something close to a god. If objects could move freely between worlds at anyone’s convenience, the Battle of Divine Will would become far more dangerous, far more unpredictable.

Next: the capacity of Scroll’s domain.

Since his conversation with Lan, Roland had suspected the Dream World was simply one domain among many in the Realm of Mind—abnormally large, but bound by the same underlying rules. One such rule was likely the admission of other consciousnesses.

After Scroll’s upgrade, her light beam key had grown to roughly one meter. Still short of the Chosen One’s requirement, but as a witch she now ranked fourth in all of Neverwinter, behind Roland, Leaf, and Evelyn. Her light beam could accommodate four God’s Punishment Witches standing shoulder to shoulder.

If those ancient witches had entered the Dream World because their light beams fell within the Dream World’s own beam, could they enter the Archives by the same means?

The results were gratifying. Even while awake, Phyllis was able to reassume her appearance from four centuries ago through Scroll’s domain. The hypothesis held.

The vague outline of the Realm of Mind sharpened a little more in Roland’s mind.

One complication: the number of people who could enter did not scale directly with the light beam’s range. Even when all four God’s Punishment Witches pressed close to Scroll and fell asleep simultaneously, only one could reach the Archives.

One was already enough.

The last important matter was the Archives’ position within the Dream World—its orientation inside the broader Realm of Mind. If the skyscrapers Scroll had glimpsed were truly a scene from the Dream World, then she and Roland ought to be able to meet inside the Realm of Mind itself.

Just as they prepared to run the test, Anna reached out and called for Scroll to stop.

“Your Highness?”

Anna was quiet for a moment. “Ever since I met Roland, I have never been jealous of anyone,” she said, her voice unhurried. “I thought that meeting alone was the greatest gift my life could offer.” A pause. “Even when I learned that the God’s Punishment Witches could enter the Dream World—they had suffered so much; it felt like their due. But right now…” She paused again, as though the words had surprised her on the way out. “Right now I am genuinely a little envious of you.”

She did not lower her voice. She said it plainly, in front of everyone, and the room went briefly electric.

“Wow—” Mystery Moon slapped both hands over her face, leaving a deliberate gap between her fingers. “Why does my face feel hot?”

“Silence.” Lily’s glare was sharp. “Don’t interrupt.”

“Anna—” Roland started.

She gave him a small smile, then turned to Scroll. “So I have a small request.”

“Please say, Your Highness. Whatever I can do.”

“When he has spoken to me about the Dream World before, there were only descriptions. No images.” Anna’s tone was entirely serious. “Can you be my eyes? Take pictures of the apartment where he lives, the places he usually goes, the scenery there—and bring them back for me. If you record them in the Book of Magic, I should be able to see them too, yes?”

“Of course. Leave it to me.”

“Woooow—” Mystery Moon’s voice filled the room. “I want to see it too! The whole city, if you can!”

“You—shut up—”

Lily had barely moved before the others tumbled forward.

“Can you get a picture of the legendary plane that carries over a hundred people?”

“I want to see what a plaza that holds ten thousand people at once looks like!”

“And me! And me—”

Lily stamped her foot and rushed in with the rest of them.

Inside the Mist, Nightingale exhaled softly.

This was probably the reason Anna was ahead of her.

A smile pulled at the corner of her mouth—the kind that had a little bitterness in it.

She had never believed her own feelings were any weaker than Anna’s. But only Anna could say such things openly, in front of everyone, without a flicker of hesitation.

Her courage was as clear and hard as a gemstone.

Once Scroll had memorized every request—patient and methodical, filing them one by one into whatever inner space she kept such things—she finally lay down on the couch in the office. The leather creaked once and settled. Roland leaned over the mahogany desk and prepared to sleep as he did during his afternoon break. Phyllis, Ling, and Faldi arranged themselves nearby, the room going quiet in the particular way that rooms do just before something begins.

Roland swept his gaze over the room and let it rest on Anna. She gave him a small nod.

“Now,” he said. “Let’s begin the tenth test.”

Chapter 1326 - Request

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations It didn’t actually take too much time to test the changes in Scroll’s ability after she upgraded. In fact, she and Anna had already discussed almost everything before Roland arrived—the answers that appeared after the equations weren’t her imagination; however, it also wasn’t obtained via calculations, but through a search through her memories. Because there were large amounts of repeated calculations in data that Scroll had once memorized, the answers emerged in Scroll’s mind immediately when she coincidentally came across them once more. Especially for those complex functions, if every little small expression among them had been memorized, then the combined expression after shuffling combinations could also be quickly solved, even if she didn’t actually understand the equations and their specific meanings. Compared to searching test papers and archives, the work involved in doing this was much heavier. It wasn’t that she couldn’t to it in the past, it was just that now she could do it subconsciously. Undeniably her main ability had evolved substantially. However, no answers would appear for the problems that she had not memorized or only partially memorized. Thus, in order to calculate the reliability of newly designed prototypes they still needed to rely on the Design Institute and the central carrier. Except now, after the information had all been read by Scroll, the workload would be decreased significantly. The main focus of the testing would be on the “Archives” in the Realm of Mind—although it was currently only a simple small room. The trading of objects between the two worlds was the first that had to be affirmed. After all, as a Transcendent, the way that Scroll entered the Dream World was fundamentally different to the God’s Punishment Witches and the Nightmare Lord. The God’s Punishment Witches had to rely on the light beam to reach the Dream World and the Nightmare Lord trespassed by herself, causing even her body to change. Scroll’s method, however, was more like a link, like driving a small car into a parking lot, both her body and mind maintained a high completeness. If it was possible to take the goods inside the car park away with her, then it would have huge significance! But reality proved that there was no free lunch in the world. Scroll could “bring in” portable things on her person into the domain, but was unable to bring the things in her domain and in the Dream World back to reality. Not even a single pebble. Also, ‘bringing in’ wasn’t a completely accurate way to phrase it. Because the objects tested didn’t actually vanish and still remained gripped in her hand. “I’m sorry… Your Majesty.” After numerous tests, Scroll stared at her empty hands and said dispiritedly, “It seems like my abilities are still lacking.” “No, this is actually within my expectations, there’s no need for you to be bothered.” Roland exchanged glances with Anna, having already formed a conclusion in his heart. The Archives was most likely the same as the Dream World—they both had some amount of power to distort reality. As long as it was within Scroll’s range of comprehension, a copy could be made out of the original and it would appear at first glance as if something from the outside had been brought into the Realm of the Mind. However, bringing something back was impossible. This made Roland secretly relieved. After all, Scroll was not the only person who could carve out a domain in the Realm of Mind. From the intel acquired from Valkries, the King of the demon clan not only had the ‘Presiding Holy See’, he also had a phenomenally powerful control of over domains. When he was in a domain, he was almost no different from god. If goods could move between the two worlds at someone’s convenience, then the Battle of Divine Will would become filled with more dangers and uncertainty. Next, they tested the capacity of Scroll’s domain. Since he talked with Lan, he had guessed that the Dream World was one among the many domains in the Realm of Mind, it was just that it was abnormally huge. Although he wasn’t able to be like the demon King and do as he wished in the Dream World, there was likely still some universal commonalities between the domains, like admitting other consciousnesses. After upgrading, Scroll’s light beam key grew to around one meter. Although it was still below the requirements for the Chosen One, as a witch, she was already ranked fourth in Neverwinter, behind Roland, Leaf and Evelyn. The range of her light beam could hold four God’s Punishment Witches standing shoulder to shoulder. If these ancient witches could enter the Dream World because their light beams were just covered by the Dream World’s light beam, could they enter the Archives through the same way? The results of the test filled Roland with excitement. Even while awake, Phyllis was able to once again regain her appearance from four centuries ago through Scroll’s domain. This undeniably proved his hypothesis. The the vague outline of the Realm of Mind gradually came to focus in his mind. The only thing was that the number of people who could enter didn’t seem to be directly proportional to the range of the light beam. Even if the four God’s Punishment Witches stuck close beside Scroll and fell asleep, only one could reach the Archives. Of course, it was already enough that one person could enter. The last important matter was locating the location of the Archives, in particularly it’s orientation inside the Dream World—if the skyscrapers that Scroll saw was a scene inside the Dream World, then she would definitely be able to meet with Roland inside the Realm of Mind. Just when they were about to initiate the test, Anna called for Scroll to halt. “Your Highness?” “Ever since I met Roland, I’ve never been jealous of anyone, because I thought that just that meeting was the best gift in my life,” she said slowly. “Even when I knew the God’s Punishment Witches could enter the Dream World—they had suffered so much hardships—so, to them the Dream world was more like a sort of compensation. But… right now I’m really kind of envious of you.” She didn’t try to conceal her words from the other witches but declared gracefully in front of everyone, causing a small uproar in the group. “Wow… why does my face feel a little hot?” Mystery Moon hastily covered her face with her hands, but intentionally left a gap between her fingers. “Silence, don’t interrupt!” Lily glared at her. “Anna…” Roland couldn’t help but begin. Anna gave him a small smile and then looked at Scroll. “So I have a small request.” “Please say, Your Highness, as long as it is something I can do,” Scroll said gently. “In the past when he talked about the Dream World with me, there were only descriptions and no images. Can you be my eyes and take a picture of the apartment that he lives in, the places he often goes to and the scenery over there for me to see?” Anna said seriously. “If you can record the pictures in the Book of Magic, I’ll probably be able to see it too right?” “Of course you can, leave it to me.” “Wooow—” Mystery Moon immediately cried, “I want to see it too! It would be best if you take pictures of the entire city!” “You shut up!” But even before Lily could grab her, the other witches followed noisily, “Can you take a picture of the legendary plane that can carry over a hundred people?” “I want to see what a plaza that can hold ten of thousands of people at a time is like!” “And me, and me—” Watching her sisters surrounding Scroll and Anna in a tight crowd, Lily stamped her foot and also rushed forward. Inside the Mist, Nightingale sighed softly. This was probably the reason why Anna was ahead of her, right? She couldn’t help but reveal a bitter smile. Even though she had believed that her feelings were no less stronger than Anna’s, only Anna could shamelessly say such words under the gazes of everyone. Her courage was as dazzling as gemstone. After memorizing everybody’s requests one by one, Scroll could finally lie down in the couch in the office. Roland leaned over the mahogany desk, planning to fall asleep like he did during his afternoon break. Apart from the two, Phyllis, Ling and Faldi prepared themselves. Roland swept his gaze over everyone and finally rested it on Anna. Anna softly nodded her head at him. “Now, let’s begin the tenth test!”