While Cyril surveyed the surroundings through the doctor statue's eyes, he saw several more pumpkin carriages arrive. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make out who stepped down from them.
He couldn't see their general appearance, their clothes, or their faces.
"Has something been done to the statue's vision?"
As he murmured to himself, he heard a clear, somewhat familiar woman's voice:
"Everyone is here. Today's gathering will begin."
Cyril curiously looked around, but couldn't spot any changes in the surrounding statues. As he wondered how these people would communicate, the knight statue to his left suddenly came to life.
He saw the knight statue, clad in full armor and holding a sword and shield, take two steps forward. It planted the longsword in its hand into the ground, then spoke in a low voice:
"I'd like some leads on obtaining the Beyonder Characteristic or a Mystical Item for a Sequence 5 Scarlet Scholar of the Moon pathway."
After a brief silence, Cyril saw the Werewolf statue opposite him come to life as well. It spoke in a hoarse, low female voice:
"Recently, some members of the Rose School of Thought from the Southern Continent came to Backlund. One of them might be a Scarlet Scholar."
"Can you find them, or confirm whether one of them is a Scarlet Scholar?"
"No."
Cyril watched the knight and the Werewolf calmly exchange questions and answers. At the same time, two images appeared in his mind: one of them chatting normally, and another of all the statues remaining perfectly still.
...A hallucination?
"I thought some kind of spell had brought the statues to life, but this really is the simplest and easiest way."
After a pause, he looked at the "knight" seeking a Scarlet Scholar's Beyonder Characteristic. He suspected the