That was far from the only thing that shocked Flora.
Soon, all sorts of startled cries came from inside the house:
"What? Dorothea was hypnotized?"
"Vanessa reached the third rank?"
"Elsa died again?"
"It really wasn't Dorothea who did it?"
"Heavens, Simon? What's he doing here?"
"He wasn't controlled by [It], but Maeve was?"
"Maeve even turned into a monster? And then she was saved?"
"Maeve and Simon both joined the cult?"
Miss Elegy sat in her chair, her expression no longer shocked, but bewildered.
She began to wonder whether she had been hypnotized too. Was any of this real? It was far too absurd!
Eating Dorothea's cooking with a numb expression, she could only marvel at how bizarrely everything had developed. She had only been away for two days, yet so much had changed.
"Then does that mean the books I brought aren't needed anymore?"
Miss Elegy felt a little deflated.
"Books?" Vanessa's eyes lit up. Abandoning even her meal, she pulled Dorothea along to look at the books.
The Mourning Poetry Society certainly had deep reserves. Although Flora said the society had already lost most of its historical texts, the number that remained was still astronomical. Just picking out those that might prove useful had filled an entire carriage.
Vanessa and Dorothea immediately began leafing through them. To Vanessa's delight, she discovered that having Dorothea help beside her made her research much faster.
"Dorothea-"
"I'm here."
"Enter [Rationality Mode]!"
"All right."
"Summarize the first five chapters of this book for me!"
"All right." Dorothea rapidly scanned through the pages, taking in ten lines at a glance, and soon spoke. "This is an occultism text from the latter half of the First Era. It contains several classic cases. The first is..."
Although Dorothea's judgment in [Rationality Mode] still needed