Yuan Shikai did not go wake the three women directly. Instead, he went to the dining room and looked at the pendulum clock hanging on the wall.
A Witch's methods were truly impossible to guard against. They had nothing to do with strength, only with rules.
Of course, if one was strong enough, one could ignore the rules.
But as long as one did not possess overwhelming power, one had no choice but to follow them.
Even someone as strong as him had fallen for it and nearly ruined his reputation in his later years.
Looking at this pendulum clock, it seemed to possess power from an even more ancient era, perhaps dating back to the Age of Gods.
He really wanted to take it apart and see what it looked like inside, but after thinking it over, he decided against it. It belonged to someone else, after all.
He came to the guest rooms on the second floor and pushed open the first door. Sajyou Manaka was sleeping inside.
The sound of the door opening did not wake her. Even though the Laughing Clock's time had already ended, she was still immersed in her dream.
Yuan Shikai called out to her, but she did not wake up.
Watching Manaka murmur continuously, Yuan Shikai became curious about what she was dreaming of.
Yuan Shikai leaned closer to listen, wanting to hear what she was saying and what wonderful dream she was having.
Then Yuan Shikai's expression turned strange, because he understood what Sajyou Manaka was dreaming about.
"Love me, keep going, I can't take it anymore...!"
Taken separately, those words might have suggested an intense and exhilarating battle was about to take place.
But heard together, they represented another kind of intense and exhilarating battle.
Though both were battles, they