Scroll went up to the third floor of the castle with a large stack of documents and met Nightingale, who was yawning and about to leave, in front of the office.
"You're still awake?" The latter stopped and raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"Probably because I'm getting old and can't sleep recently." Scroll smiled and shook her head. "Where's His Majesty? Is he asleep?"
"Yes, he went back to his bedroom half an hour ago."
"Then why are you still in the office?" She covered her mouth and said, "Are you eating His Majesty's snacks?"
"Uh... ahaha." Nightingale was slightly stunned at first, then she coughed twice and said, "Yes, I ate his spicy shredded beef and took two sips of Chaos Drinks. Don't tell His Majesty."
This time it was Scroll's turn to be stunned.
What's wrong with her... Why did she reply so directly? In the past, as long as Nightingale was not caught on the spot, she would never admit to it.
But when she thought that she and Vendy often stole Nightingale's drinks, Scroll didn't know what to say for a while.
"Well, I'm going to bed..." Nightingale looked away and walked to the second floor. "Don't stay up too late. I heard from Roland that the older you get, the more serious the sequelae of lack of sleep." She looked up at the bottom of the stairs and said, "Good night."
"... Good night," Scroll replied inexplicably, then turned around and walked into the office.
Although the fire in the fireplace had been extinguished, the remaining heat from the heater was still there, and there seemed to be some lingering fragrance in the air. It seemed that Nightingale had been here for a long time.
Without thinking too much, Scroll skillfully opened the bookcase, sorted the documents in her hand into the processing column, and then took out the documents that His Majesty needed to solve.
They were all extremely long lines of equations. From the handwriting, Scroll could tell that some of them were Roland's, Anna's, and Celine's. One of her daily jobs was to bring these documents to the Arithmetic Academy, let the group of astrologers calculate the answers, and then hand them over to the central carrier for verification.
From the written description, these things should be related to His Majesty's new experiment. However, she could not understand how he could determine the dimensions of a device that no one had ever seen or even imagined just by calculating on a piece of paper. It was as if the numbers on the paper were not numbers, but an outline of reality. To her, this was no different from predicting the future.
Every time Scroll saw Anna's elegant notes, she couldn't help but sigh in her heart. This girl, who was born in Border Town, had already reached a realm that they couldn't understand at all. Everyone had been sitting in the same office at the beginning, watching His Majesty's interesting scientific experiments, and anyone could have a word or two. Now, the only one who could follow His Majesty closely was Anna.
However, she did not feel any sense of loss in her heart. Instead, she was filled with pride.
Because they were her sisters.
Scroll sat in front of Roland's desk and flipped through the documents as usual, intending to memorize all of them. This way, even if there were any omissions in the distribution calculation, she would be able to find them in time.
But this time, she noticed something strange.
"Am I … seeing things?"
Scroll rubbed her eyes and found that there were strings of characters floating behind some formulas, as if they were the answers to her questions.
If this was an examination paper or a household registration file, it wouldn't be surprising. Ever since she mastered the technique of quick searching, she could often tell where a document came from and everything related to it at first glance.
The problem was that this was the first time she had seen this information.
Not only could Scroll not understand the meaning of the arithmetic formulas, but even the "answers" floating behind them were also unclear. It was difficult to even understand them.
Moreover, not every formula had similar strange symbols behind it. Most of the columns were still blank.
If she stared at those illusory symbols for a long time, she would even feel dizzy.
It seemed that Nightingale was right. Staying up too late really had an effect. Scroll sighed softly. Unfortunately, she hadn't been sleepy lately, as if her brain was always working at a high speed.
Should I ask the hospital to prescribe some sleeping ferns tomorrow? She couldn't help but think that this thing didn't have much side effects on witches. Taking it once or twice shouldn't have any effect.
After reluctantly memorizing all the information, Scroll suddenly felt a strong sense of dizziness, and even her consciousness became a little blurred. Her body involuntarily leaned forward, and the pen holder on the table was accidentally knocked down.
But this dizziness came and went quickly. In just a few breaths, she felt that she had returned to normal. Not to mention any discomfort, her thoughts seemed to be much clearer than before.
Scroll blinked her eyes, and after confirming that she was really okay, she smiled bitterly and bent down to pick up the pen holder.
It was also at this moment that she felt as if she had been struck by lightning.
Because the appearance of the floor … had changed.
She would never mistake His Majesty's office. The floor was made of pine wood from the Misty Forest and covered with a layer of wool carpet. Although the appearance was a little old, His Majesty had never changed it. And now, the carpet under her feet was still wool carpet, but the material of the floor in the distance had changed.
It had changed from wood to stone.
How is this possible?
Scroll cautiously raised her head, and her heart continued to sink.
Not only the floor, but the whole office seemed to have changed. The recliner that Nightingale usually sat on had disappeared without a trace, and in its place was a row of old iron filing cabinets. At first glance, it looked a little like the archives in the Administrative Office.
But I should have been in the castle before!
That's right, the French windows!
That was His Majesty's favorite decoration, and also a characteristic of the office. As long as you looked out, you could see the city of Neverwinter under the curtain of the night —
Scroll suddenly turned around and pulled open the velvet curtains behind her.
What she saw was only a gray brick wall.
Without a doubt, this was no longer His Majesty's office that she was familiar with.
She stood up in a panic, rushed to the wall, and knocked twice. The wall did not move at all — from the steady echo, she could tell that it was obviously not an illusion, but a real entity.
Scroll felt a trace of despair.
Anyone who was suddenly transferred to a completely closed and unfamiliar place would probably feel a strong sense of helplessness and vulnerability.
"No …" She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. It was not accurate to say that it was completely closed. In the corner between two rows of filing cabinets, there was an inconspicuous iron door. It was almost the same color as the cabinets, and if one did not look carefully, it would be easy to miss it.
It seemed to be the only exit in the room.
Where would the iron door lead to?
Was it a trap or another wall waiting for her outside?
Scroll resisted thinking about these questions, and slowly held the door handle.
"Click —"
The iron door opened with a click.
A ray of golden sunlight shone into the room, and then the silence was broken. Countless sounds rushed in along with the cold air — there were noisy conversations, beeping whistles, and endless footsteps. In front of her, countless people were hurrying along with their heads down. Occasionally, some of them would glance at her, and their faces revealed a little bit of amazement.
And behind this group of people, there were huge, mountain-like buildings rising one after another, occupying Scroll's entire field of vision.
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