Mr. Schuster:
I should have listened to you and not done those foolish attempts.
My hands are shaking. I'm trying my best to make this letter legible, but whether it will even reach you is uncertain. I've kept it with me the whole time, and I don't know if it will disappear on the way, or if there will be nothing left on the paper. But I have to write this down and tell you what happened.
I prepared for that ceremony for a year. I thought I was well-prepared and understood the meaning of those warnings. I should have respected those warnings, that they should not be opened or touched. But I treated those words as clichés meant to scare laymen.
I don't know how to describe the ceremony. It was so normal, without any mistakes. I followed the instructions step by step, recited the prayers, drew the incantations correctly, and made all the necessary preparations.
But nothing happened. I waited all night, and nothing happened.
I thought I had failed, really, I wish there was nothing at all.
But I succeeded, I just happened to succeed. It just hadn't shown itself yet; it was waiting for me to discover it, waiting for me to think everything was fine, waiting for me to start to realize that those rituals were nothing but a farce.
Then it came, Schuster.
I don't know what it is, but it's always been there—in the corner of the wall, on the ceiling, in the teacup. When I close my eyes, it's right inside my eyelid; when I open my eyes, it's nestled in the corner of my eye.
In my dream, a face was pressed against mine, so close that I couldn't tell if it was a dream or if I saw it with my eyes closed.
When I look in the mirror, the person in it is no longer me. It is wearing my clothes, standing in my place, and making my expression, but it is not me.
I tried to drive it away, tried purifying incantations, tried holy water, tried burning incense and bleeding, tried re-performing the reverse ritual, but nothing worked. I tried to get away from it, ran into the street, ran into crowded places, but it was no use; no matter where I ran, it was there.
I don't know what else it will do to me, nor do I know what it wants. I only know that it is still getting closer, that it is already everywhere, that it must be waiting, that it has been waiting, waiting for me to admit that I have seen it, waiting for me to admit that it is there, waiting for me to speak.
I can't, I absolutely can't do that.
Schuster, you told me I shouldn't have touched that power, but I didn't listen to you. Now I know I was wrong, I was really wrong. You have to save me, you must save me.
I know you can do it. You've seen more, you know which doors shouldn't be opened. You have to teach me how to close the door I've opened.
I will come to find you. I don't know how to find you yet, but I will. You must help me when I do.
If I'm no longer able to speak normally by then, if I look abnormal, please still recognize me. It's still me, it should still be me.
Because it's here, it's watching me write this letter right now. I know it's watching, it won't let me stop writing, you understand what it is, you understand what it wants.
So I've finished writing. I'll come, I'll come to find you. You have to let me in. It doesn't want me to come to you; it keeps hindering me. You have to wait for me; you must wait for me.
But if I've already arrived by the time you read this letter, please, don't let it in.
The flame of the Nehir Elesha match was getting closer to his fingers, but Isaac found it hard to take his eyes off what was in front of him.
The face was sensually present, hanging right in front of him, but another sense told him that it didn't exist, it wasn't here, he hadn't seen it.
Two conflicting judgments tugged at each other, causing his vision to blur for a moment.
The face moved a little closer, and a deeper color seeped from the edges of the dark red outline, like liquid flowing down.
He began to feel that his memories were also somewhat off. He remembered investigating the massacre scene at the nursing home, remembered pushing open this door, and then—
Has it always been here? I saw it the moment I opened the door?
No, there was nothing there at all back then—but why is it always here in my memory, in this room, right in front of him?
When did it appear? No, did it only appear when the door was opened? Or was it earlier—
Isaac's thoughts grew increasingly confused; that face seemed to be invading his memory, like a hallucination, making the past blurry and uncertain.
"Tsk tsk, that's rare. Looks like I'll have to use a Sanity Save."
The sense of stability brought by the unfolding of the Check Domain arrived before Carlo's voice. A phantom appeared, and Isaac tried to divert his attention, only to see that this time there was only a phantom of a die.
And... a six-sided die?
The dice spin and stop, revealing a 3.
"Three points, a bit wasteful, but Asa, you're quite rational and can afford to squander them."
As the dice's phantom image dissipated, Isaac felt a sharp pain in his head, as if something had pierced his skull from the inside.
The pain spread rapidly, overshadowing the blurriness caused by the previous conflict; the face before him began to fade, its shape dissolving.
o
The flame burned down to its last bit, he let go, the match fell to the ground and went out, plunging the room back into darkness.
But this time, the tinnitus subsided. Isaac fumbled for a third match, struck it, and the flame flared up again. The face was no longer in front of him.
The dark red smear marks on the walls were still there, but they no longer writhed like before; they were just dried stains. The ceiling was empty and unremarkable.
He looked around, reached for the door, grabbed the handle, and pulled.
The door opened smoothly, and light streamed in from the hallway, seemingly indicating that everything had truly returned to normal.
After confirming that no one was in the corridor, Isaac decided to leave the eerie room, closed the door, and flicked out the fire with a match.
"Boss, what's going on?" he asked in a low voice, "Just now—"
That strange thing, and the Sanity Save —these are the questions I want to ask.
"Let's talk about them one by one. First, let's talk about Sanity Save. This is considered an employee benefit. Letting employees go crazy or become stupid under your nose is a sign of the boss's incompetence, so I have preventative measures in this regard."
"Rationality-related checks are different from normal checks. When faced with certain situations, you may not even have the opportunity to ask me for support. Therefore, Sanity Save are triggered directly by me when a contracted employee is seriously mentally unstable."
"As for how it works, it temporarily deducts a portion from your Sanity Points to offset the mental erosion, so it's more appropriate to call it a saving throw."
"The salvation is achieved using a six-sided die. The number rolled is deducted from your Sanity Points as the cost of the salvation. Afterward, as long as you don't dwell on it or scare yourself unnecessarily, your sanity will return to its original level. The exact time required depends on the individual."