Hope's Neighbor

"You have the ability to teleport people with you, don't you?" Elizabeth suddenly said.

Hope glanced at Elizabeth. "You were awake back then?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Can you take us out of here together?"

"I need a place where no one can see me."

"I'll close my eyes."

But there was still this guy...

Hope hesitated and walked behind the wall. He wanted to try it first; he always felt like he was being watched.

"No good." He opened his eyes. "Even through a wooden wall, that thing is still watching me. Its 'gaze' isn't blocked."

Elizabeth didn't respond to Hope's words. She looked at him, her expression urgent. "Come here, quick!"

"What?" Hope was confused.

"Behind you!"

Hope turned around and saw transparent liquid seeping in from the wooden wall behind him.

His legs were unsteady, so he couldn't leave immediately. Elizabeth took the initiative to change position, walking over to Hope. The transparent liquid sensed the Wooden Amulet's approach and slowly retreated.

But the result of this was that the space in front of Paul was left open. The transparent liquid brazenly entered through the wooden door and flowed toward Paul.

There was only one Wooden Amulet.

"Wait here," Elizabeth said.

Without waiting for Hope's response, she strode quickly toward the transparent liquid. The liquid recoiled at her approach, and she drove it back out the door.

She hesitated at the wooden door, but her steps didn't stop.

"Wait!" Hope tried to call her back. Outside the door was nothing but that liquid. The Wooden Amulet could certainly drive it away, but no one knew if that driving was like a wet blanket facing a wildfire.

At the edge of a wildfire, a wet blanket could provide decent protection, but once you entered the heart of the blaze, the wet blanket would eventually turn into a fireball.

Elizabeth didn't listen at all. She stepped one foot out of the room. The transparent liquid lurking outside, like a mouse seeing a cat, timidly fled quickly, clearing a space for her.

She didn't stop. She took another step forward. This time, all the transparent liquid moved. The Wooden Amulet, like a light chasing away darkness, expelled every trace of the liquid from the corridor. They all retreated into the wooden wall behind, seeping through the gaps in the planks, vanishing without a trace.

The Wooden Amulet was clearly not a wet blanket. It was Leviathan, the legendary giant beast dwelling in the deep sea, the lord of the ocean. It brought the entire ocean, quenching the flames—whether wildfire or hearth fire, it made no difference.

Hope finally caught up with Elizabeth's steps and walked out of the room. Before him stood a solid wooden wall, stretching from the second floor's floor to the ceiling, extending left and right to the outer walls.

It had neither windows nor doors. It stood opposite Hope's room, looking like another exterior wall. But Hope knew, based on the structure of Whateley House, that behind this wooden wall should be a new room much larger than his own.

This new room was almost the size of the entire Whateley House. Apart from Hope's small room, the second floor of Whateley House held only this.

And this room had no entrance or exit, because it wasn't meant for people to live in.

Elizabeth sat down weakly on the floor. Hope sat on the other side, touching his back. Cold sweat had soaked through.

He guessed Elizabeth's condition wasn't any better than his—after all, the dress she wore was clearly thicker than Hope's shirt.

"That was too risky," Hope said. "You should have thrown the amulet out."

"I was scared," Elizabeth said. "What if it didn't leave, but just went around the amulet? No one could get it back, and we'd lose our last line of defense."

Hope said nothing.

"What... what was that thing?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't know." Hope shook his head.

"But it's right..." Elizabeth pointed at the doorless wooden wall before them. "It's right next door to you... Is that a room?"

"It should be... I've lost my memory. Coincidentally, starting from last night, I have no memory of anything before that. So I have no idea what it is."

"From last night?"

"Yes."

"Then does that make me one of the people who knows you best in the world?" Elizabeth suddenly said.

Hope froze, then let out a wry laugh. "It seems so."

He turned serious. "This..."

He was trying to figure out how to refer to that thing. "This monster might have been raised by my family."

Elizabeth nodded.

Hope took a breath and finally said what he'd been wanting to say. "Can you tell your elder about the situation here and ask if he can offer any help?"

This plea for help had made Hope hesitate for a long time.

Because he was a foreign soul who had just arrived here, knowing nothing about this place. After experiencing the Great Night Hawk, the "Fishman" Robert, and the transparent liquid, this world had shown him its dangerous and terrifying side without restraint.

To the point where even asking for help had become dangerous.

With his current understanding of this world, he couldn't distinguish good from evil at all. Maybe Elizabeth's elder was also a cultist. Worse, he might have some connection to the Whateley family and pass Hope's cry for help to Old Whateley or Wilbur.

If that happened, both Hope and the residents of Dunwich would fall into an even worse situation.

But for now... no matter what, he was willing to trust Elizabeth.

"I'll tell the professor. Even if you didn't say anything, this place is too strange." Elizabeth replied, seeming somewhat hesitant. "You... you seem to be a member of a cult family?"

Hope laughed: "No need for 'seem,' it's obvious. I am."

"I'll tell the professor about you. He's killed many cultists."

Killed many cultists, huh. So Elizabeth's elder was part of the righteous faction... well, killed many cultists... Hope's expression stiffened.

"No, that won't include you!" Elizabeth explained. "Professor Armitage is a very good person. He's gentle."

"That's good." Hope said. "But there's one thing I hope you can tell that professor."

He hadn't remembered the name of the professor Elizabeth mentioned, so he substituted with "that professor":

"The Whateley family seems to have the ability to sacrifice all of Dunwich. I don't know how they do it, but they seem to have been preparing for this for many years. Don't evacuate the residents of Dunwich, because the remaining ones might be immediately sacrificed to the evil god."

"All... of Dunwich?"

"That's what they told me."

Elizabeth nodded solemnly: "I'll pass it on."

Looking at Elizabeth's face, Hope completely relaxed. He felt he could see a bright future ahead.

"Then I'll wait for your good news."