Hope's Neighbor

"Do you have the ability to take people with you when you teleport?" Elizabeth asked suddenly.

Hope glanced at Elizabeth. "Were you conscious back then?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Can you take all of us away from here?"

"I need somewhere no one can see us."

"I'll close my eyes."

But there was still this guy...

Hope hesitantly moved behind the wall. He needed to try it first. He had the constant feeling that he was being watched.

"No." He opened his eyes. "Even with a wooden wall between us, that guy is still watching me. Its 'gaze' isn't blocked."

Elizabeth didn't respond to Hope's words. She looked at him anxiously. "Come here, quickly!"

"What?" Hope asked, confused.

"Behind you!"

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

His legs weren't working well, so he couldn't get away at once. Elizabeth took the initiative and moved to his side. The transparent liquid sensed the Wooden Amulet's approach and slowly retreated.

But that left the space in front of Paul exposed. The transparent liquid brazenly entered through the wooden door and flowed toward him.

There was only one Wooden Amulet.

"Wait here," Elizabeth said.

Before Hope could respond, she hurried toward the transparent liquid. As soon as it saw her coming, it all receded. She drove it back out the door.

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

"Wait!" Hope tried to call her back. The area outside was covered in that liquid. The Wooden Amulet could certainly drive it away, but who knew whether it was like a wet blanket facing a wildfire?

At the edge of a wildfire, a wet blanket could provide decent protection. But if it entered the heart of the blaze, it would eventually become a ball of fire.

Elizabeth didn't listen at all. She stepped out of the room, and the transparent liquid gathered outside scattered like mice fleeing a cat, timidly making way for her.

She didn't stop, but took another step forward. This time, all the transparent liquid began to move. The Wooden Amulet was like a light driving away the darkness. It drove all the transparent liquid out of the hallway, forcing it back into the wooden wall farther down. It seeped through the cracks between the boards and disappeared.

The Wooden Amulet clearly wasn't a wet blanket. It was Leviathan, the giant beast said to dwell in the deep sea, lord of the ocean. It brought the entire sea with it and extinguished the flames. It made no difference whether the fire was a wildfire or a hearth fire.

Hope finally caught up with Elizabeth and left the room. Before him stood a solid wooden wall, stretching from the second-floor boards to the ceiling and reaching from one exterior wall to the other.

It had neither windows nor doors. Across from Hope's room, it looked like another exterior wall. But Hope knew that, given the layout of Whateley House, there should be a new room inside the wall, much larger than his own.

The new room was almost as big as the entire Whateley House. Aside from Hope's little room, it was the only room on the second floor.

And it had neither an entrance nor an exit, because it wasn't meant for people to live in.

Elizabeth sank exhaustedly onto the floor. Hope sat down on the other side and felt his back. Cold sweat had soaked through a large patch.

He guessed Elizabeth was in no better shape than he was. After all, her dress was obviously 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 they didn't leave, but went around the amulet instead? No one would be able to get it back, and we'd lose our last defense."

Hope said nothing.

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

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

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

"I guess so... I've lost my memory... It's strange, but I haven't remembered anything from before last night, so I really have no idea what it is."

"Since last night?"

"Yeah."

"Does that make me one of the people who know you best in the world?" Elizabeth asked suddenly.

Hope froze, then chuckled. "It seems that way."

He turned serious. "This..."

He thought about how to refer to that thing. "This Monster may have been kept by my family."

Elizabeth nodded.

Hope took a breath and finally said what he'd been wanting to say. "Could you tell your elder about what's happening here and ask whether he can offer any help?"

Hope had hesitated a long time before asking for help.

He was a soul from another world who had only recently arrived here, and he knew nothing about this place. After encountering the Great Night Hawk, Robert the Fishman, and the transparent liquid, this world had shown him its dangerous, terrifying side without holding back.

So even asking for help had become dangerous.

With what little he knew about this world, he couldn't tell good from evil. Maybe Elizabeth's elder was also a cultist. Worse still, he might have some connection to the Whateley family and tell Hope's plea for help to Old Whateley or Wilbur.

If that happened, both Hope and the residents of Dunwich would end up in an even worse situation.

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

"I'll tell the professor. Even if you hadn't asked, I would have. This place is too strange," Elizabeth replied. She seemed a little hesitant. "You... you seem to be a member of a cult family?"

Hope smiled. "There's no 'seem' about it. It's obvious. I am."

"I'll tell the professor about you. He's killed a lot of cultists."

He'd killed a lot of cultists? It sounded like Elizabeth's elder was part of the righteous faction... Right, he'd killed a lot of cultists... Hope's expression stiffened.

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

"That's good," Hope said. "But there's one thing I hope you'll tell the professor."

He hadn't remembered the professor's name from what Elizabeth had said, so he referred to him as "the professor" instead.

"The Whateley family seems to have the power to sacrifice all of Dunwich. I don't know how they can do it, but it seems they've been preparing for this for many years. Don't evacuate the residents of Dunwich, because the remaining residents might be sacrificed to the Evil God immediately."

"All of... Dunwich?"

"That's what they told me."

Elizabeth nodded gravely. "I'll pass it on."

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

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