Eldritch Horror Theatre

She actually moved over to make room?

The Red Moon’s care was heartwarming enough, yet once Fu Qian realized the problem, he quickly saw just how insistent she was.

After all, a single glance showed that the Red Moon on the Chair had genuinely shifted to the left, clearing half a seat for him.

Even the crowd around them was already pressing in toward the seat.

All in all, it carried the unmistakable weight of a mother’s love, leaving no room for negotiation.

Behind that gesture, however, lurked the massive risk of wasting nearly twenty-four hours of emergency response time.

The Burial Scroll had just entered its cooldown, and in his normal state, he had no way to trigger the Homecoming effect on his Ring.

Even if he took the risk of swallowing the Ring to use Insight, there was no guarantee what he would get out of it.

He had even tried the upgraded Chair inside The Bookstore, and it lacked coordinates for the Half-Step Moon all the same.

If he planted himself down right now and got sent back to The Bookstore, the Tilanqi production line in front of him would very likely keep running at full throttle for another day and night shift.”Won’t I leave this place the moment I sit down?”

Thankfully, not only did Fu Qian lack a rebellious streak, he was more than happy to communicate with his elders. Rather than overcomplicating things, he chose to point it out directly.

”Don’t worry. That only happens when someone sits on it alone.”

The direct approach worked wonders, and his worry vanished in an instant.

The Red Moon softly explained the special mechanics of the seat, letting him know it would not activate when two people shared it.

So she really had packaged that power up and gifted it to him?

For Fu Qian, not only was one worry put to rest, he had even gained an extra piece of the puzzle.

Given the Red Moon’s immense power, and inside her own domain no less, suppressing the Chair’s effect shouldn’t have been difficult at all.

Yet it had come to the point where she had to work around its mechanics just to keep him from being teleported away?

That seemed to confirm his earlier guess: to make it easier for him to get around, she had condensed the power to open doors and teleport anywhere right into that Chair as a gift for him.

Such support was undeniably even more heartwarming, even if there was still a contradiction in it—weren’t you sitting there all by yourself just a moment ago?

Yes, either she stood above the mechanism and could ignore the teleportation effect outright, or she had to use the mechanism and play by its rules.

The Red Moon’s explanation right now felt like something that wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny, leaving the faint impression that her mind was only normal on the surface.

”That puts my mind at ease.”

Nodding as he accepted the Red Moon’s kindness and sat down, Fu Qian grew all the more concerned about her state.

”Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?”

Before he could find an opening to show his concern, and right after he confirmed he really hadn’t been teleported away, the Red Moon sharing his seat turned her head and chided him in mild reproach.

...

She could even tell that? He had even taken special care to finely sculpt the print on his shirt.

Well... thinking about it, it wasn’t all that strange. The Red Moon had always looked like a practitioner of the flesh-and-blood pathway anyway.

After ”smoothly” severing herself from Annalise, it made sense that she would be even more adept in that area.

Though slightly taken aback, Fu Qian quickly reasoned it out.

Besides, this wasn’t the first or second time a similar situation had been laid bare in front of the Red Moon.

Last time, she had even specially gifted him a set of Armor. It was just a pity that with his Transcendent Perception restricted, much like Sword Three Short of One, he couldn’t easily summon it at the moment.

On top of that, he really couldn’t be blamed for this—he hadn’t even had time to go back and change before being snatched straight out of the bar and brought here—oh? Just as he opened his mouth to offer an excuse, Fu Qian felt a finger tap lightly against his back.

It wasn’t the one speaking to him, but another Red Moon who had crowded close, half-crouched on the ground.

Just as noted earlier, within the span of a few sentences, the Red Moons filling the place had surged toward them like a tide.

Of course, the one who had suddenly raised her hand harbored no ill intent.

As that finger touched down, a power that had long been on standby sprang to life.

A heavy weight settled over his body, and from the neck down, he was sheathed in dark silver Armor.

As expected of its maker, she could pull that off with effortless ease.

Even if it did carry the distinct feeling of someone patiently and meticulously tending to a special-needs child.

”Thank you. Something went a little wrong up here, though I found a folk remedy and things are already improving.”

Sighing inwardly, Fu Qian tapped his temple, sharing a bit of life’s troubles while making sure to emphasize that everything was under control.

”That’s good. It’s the same for me. I feel like I’m getting better and better...”

The relief on the Red Moon’s face showed not a trace of pretense, and readily accepting good advice, she pointed at herself as well.

”For the longest time, it felt as if I had stepped into an endless labyrinth, never able to find the way out because I couldn’t tell what was right.

”Until that name, and my child... I finally had a way to tell right from wrong.”

Endless tenderness filled her eyes. Though only the Red Moon on the seat was speaking, the rest pressed in even closer, their hands and faces already brushing against him.

...

So there were only two Anchor Points in total? Her true name, and her identity as ”Mother”?

As someone with strong empathy, and backed by days of research, Fu Qian felt he could still grasp her meaning accurately even if the Red Moon’s words were a bit stream-of-consciousness.

[Annalise is Tilanqi, Tilanqi is Annalise]

The curse wrought by that phrase appeared to be the root of the Red Moon’s madness.

Describing that tug-of-war over her sense of self as an endless labyrinth was quite fitting.

It even vaguely explained why her maternal instincts had been on such heavy display from earlier until now.

When trapped in a labyrinth, the worst thing to lack was a marker—or to put it in fancier terms, an Anchor Point.

And by the looks of it, aside from the name Tilanqi, the fact that she was his ”Mother” was also being used by the Red Moon as a key element to define herself.

He was flattered, though frankly, it only made him worry more.

Even an entry established less than a year ago was being pressed into carrying such a heavy burden. With this sense of someone clutching at straws and struggling for dear life, was the Red Moon’s ”awakening” truly reliable?

He wasn’t casually doubting the might of an Ancient Higher Being, of course, but there was already a precedent right there.

The last person who had desperately tried to purify herself, Classmate Su Gao, had ended up putting herself through a spiritual death by a thousand cuts.

To say nothing of the triple-digit number of Red Moons right in front of him—no matter how he looked at it, the result seemed far from ideal.

”That sounds promising. You’re looking quite well, too.”

Sweeping his gaze across the faces turned toward him, taking in those identical features, Fu Qian still played along with polite well-wishes—wait, they didn’t seem quite so identical after all.

Without letting it show, Fu Qian brought his gaze back to the face beside him, having clearly caught sight of something a moment ago.

Part of the Red Moon’s true appearance was a pair of emerald-green eyes patterned with mysterious fractured lines, which paired with her red hair to striking visual effect.

Yet on one of the faces just now, a trace of blood-red had bled through that emerald green.