Chương 268: Things Have Changed

The weight of mental fatigue sometimes felt like the heaviest thing in the world, but at this point, Gilepre was getting used to bearing this crushing sensation. He knew what to expect. Every time he succeeded–Every time he survived one of those so-called 'shifts', he knew that what would follow would be worse. It would be more difficult, it would be less forgiving…

Oddly enough, his situation was so bad that the best outcome following a success would be for the next part of this seemingly endless trial to be a curveball. He knew all too well that the main shifts were absolute hell. At this point, all of the automatons were active except for the leader of the Gal Clown Gang, and it was absolutely miserable every single time without fail. The amount of times he had only barely squeezed out victory was simply maddening to think about.

He had to track the movements of twelve automatons, each with different ways of attack, each with tendencies, each with their personalities, each with their own brew of unpredictability, and he had to juggle dozens of different tools at his disposal to deal with them. The sheer pressure that was on him was astounding, and he had to do this to survive. It wasn't just a fun little challenge.

If they caught him before the end of a shift, they wouldn't just bop his nose and tell him that he lost–They would tear him apart limb from limb and paint the walls of this nonexistent place with his blood. … So far, he owed his survival to his curiosity and inquisitive mind.

Without those, he wouldn't have found out about certain ways to deal with the automatons that were definitely the most efficient available, and which he never would have figured out on his own, but as the saying went, curiosity was also dangerous. He hadn't just encountered the odd clown costumes deep in the backrooms.

He had also nearly been cornered by costumeless automatons one time, and another time, an automaton of a very different style to the clowns had appeared after the end of a shift, and had tried to lure him over into the backrooms. As curious as Gilepre may be, he wasn't curious enough to get anywhere near this thing. The agent's curiosity had also led him to finding things he felt like he would have rather not known about.

He was uncertain whether these were intentional parts of this foul trial, or if they were things seeping out involuntarily, but he had learned a lot about the experimentations of the master of the Nightmare Plague. There was a clear link between the concepts of mechanistry, nightmares, curses, and ghosts. They kept coming up… … Gilepre frankly felt like he was being made witness to deep recesses of an insane mind. Two things came up the most, however. A project concerning a mask, and a project concerning suits.

They seemed to be the most important of the bunch, despite appearing to be the most 'normal' amongst them all. The man sighed–Now was not the time to be daydreaming about such things. Until he made it out of this nightmare alive, all of this knowledge was useless, so there was no point in overthinking it.

"This is different from usual…" Usually, when he was thrown into something other than the regular shift, it would be an odd 'game', or some sort of maintenance task. One time, he had needed to do some cleaning all over the building, and the only threat was Klein, Kleinn, and Kleiny spilling drinks and tipping trash cans over to mess with him. This time, he found himself inside what looked like a different security office. It was a smaller one, with a simple door, a worse computer, and the smell of old.

Looking around the office, he quickly understood that he indeed would have to face another shift, but in a different building, with different automatons. Now, this was an annoying curveball to be thrown his way. This risked messing with the habits he had developed to deal with the main kind of shifts. He was going to need to learn new things, which would potentially pollute his mind… He presumed that this was the entire point of this in the first place.

"Focus…" In any case, it seemed like this place actually only had four automatons, and they were very clearly not anywhere near as advanced as the clown girls. Those things were bulky beyond belief, and seemed to have exteriors made out of steel, with some fabric and clothes thrown on top. It seemed like an amateurish job compared to what he had gotten used to, and the same feeling carried over with the building. It was much smaller, had no upper floor, and was clearly much cheaper in general.

Glown's Wonderland was always squeaky clean when it was time for a shift to begin, but some grime and such was left over here. Clearly, the cleaners weren't paid enough to particularly care.

"Can these things even move on their own?" He got confirmation not when he saw it happen, but when he heard one of them take a single step forward and then jump off the stage. They were perhaps even bulkier than they looked. It sounded way worse than a full suit of plate armour tipping over. The following steps also told Gilepre that they were way slower than the clown gals as well. This made him suspicious. Was it only because this was technically the first shift in this place, or were the threats unexpected ones?

He stayed on his guard and analysed each of the four automatons closely–At the moment, only one was moving, and it was some sort of dogfolk that looked like a black and orange mountain dog. The 'leader' of the bunch was actually meant to represent a human farmer. In general, everything was farm-coded. From the attire of the automatons to the automatons themselves. This made sense. Gilepre had actually seen these robots before.

They had been on one of the posters he had seen before running into the bizarre clowns deep in the backrooms. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The name of this bunch was 'Frank and the Farmyard'. With Frank being the human farmer, accompanied by his loyal dog and a bull on stage. The latter was even more massive than the rest, probably in an effort not to make the characters too similar to one another.

As for the fourth automaton, he wasn't directly on stage with the other three, and judging by the fact that it looked like a raccoon, Gilepre could only assume that it was supposed to play a bit of an antagonistic role in the band. The man paid close attention to everything, but the shift went by without a hitch. The dog never even made any move toward the security office, and the rest never budged at all. A small note drifted down from the ceiling once the shift ended.

Gilepre wasn't just taken by surprise by the note, but by how quickly the shift had been. It seemed like the shift here was shorter than at Glown's Wonderland.

"What is this?" Thank you for filling in for the night! Here is a bonus as compensation: There was an ink stain where the bonus was supposed to be written.

"Huh… So the scenario here is that I was called in to fill for an absent night watcher? I get the feeling that in this scenario, the guy before me isn't absent of his own accord…" After a period of rest, he was thrown back into this other place once more. It seemed like this intermission was going to last for a while. The plan was definitely to eventually throw him back into the absurdly difficult Glown's Wonderland once his time here had made him rusty. This was definitely an evil move.

"Hopefully, they are easier to deal with. There are only four of them, at least…"

It actually took a very long time for anyone to be able to safely enter Aesther. Following the disappearance of the Leader of the Republic, his prime minister had taken over his functions, and everything had begun moving at a neck-breaking pace. The entire continent soon became aware that things had changed in Aesther.

Tanaya Uolip had been in cahoots with the monarchists, and not long after taking over the powers of Ganiel Kalersky, she gathered all of those loyalists to the old crown, put the nation on lockdown, and proceeded to lead what was already being called an historical event in the forms of the 'Crimson Months'. The countless corrupt bureaucrats were marched to the dusty guillotines and promptly executed for the most part.

The useless bureaucrats who did not provably engage in corruption were instead taken off their functions. Speedy, public trials took place, where all of the officials found guilty of treason were also executed in a manner far less swift than decapitation. The nation's entire paradigm shifted overnight. The diseased republic was dissolved and branded a dark age of history, as the monarchy was brought back from the dead. Palux Aestherblood, of the old royal bloodline, came out of hiding and ascended to the throne.

Tanaya Uolip was first named as the foremost advisor, but not long after–To the surprise of no one–She became queen of Aesther. It turned out she had already been secretly married to Palux for years… Johnpol Jimeni maintained his status of archmage and became an advisor as well, while Padri Golk switched from Minister of Defence to Warmaster. As for the assembly… None of its members kept their lives. The few who managed to leave Aesther were unable to find refuge anywhere else.

No one wanted those considered to be the most corrupt people of the entire continent. As such, they were sent back to Aesther anyway. Everything changed rapidly, but despite it all, Aesther's neighbours did not seem willing to act–Certainly due to the well-known rumour that Palux Aestherblood had already made an agreement with Algo Irmandelt Rootriska before even truly ascending to the throne.

It was not yet confirmed, but everyone operated under the assumption that the reborn Aesther was already a part of the great continental alliance. … Due to this whole mess, despite the revelation of Leton Nebulo, Binibelle and the others had been unable to go into Aesther without risk. Only now that the Crimson Months had come to an end and that the situation had stabilised over the course of an additional month was it possible to step into Aesther without running into trouble.

"It is certainly quite impressive how swift this regime change occurred. The people really must have been tired of the republic…" Yeldt couldn't help but comment as they walked through the streets of the capital. He and everyone else would have expected signs of destruction, but in truth, nearly the entirety of the military had immediately sided with the monarchists–In fact, most of the soldiers had been fervent monarchists to begin with. This resulted in very few confrontations.

The damage was only localised to a few areas.

"Hard to believe people were being executed in droves not so long ago… I can barely smell the stench of blood" Gontra scratched her nose, as though thinking it wasn't working properly.

"They must have used some cleansing spells. I hear that alongside the crown, the church that had also been chased out came back. I think they specialised in purification and such, so they probably could have dealt with the blood" Hortus shared his piece of trivia with a satisfied smile on his face, just before they reached the main gates of what was no longer the House of Freedom, and instead simply the royal palace.

"It has been months since Leton Nebulo told us his sister was here. How can we know she didn't relocate?"

"You always bring down the mood, Hilene. Breathe in and out, relax! We're to find out and ask around" The halfling approached one of the guards standing near the main gates, presenting a seal she had gotten using her connections.

"Hello, I am Binibelle. Would you happen to know of a woman called Mara Maeve Maya Nebulo?" The guard looked at the seal for a few moments and then proceeded to rub his chin.

"Nebulo, like the automaton guy? I don't know for sure, but we do have a lady called Maya. She's the Silent Knightess, if you've heard of that title. She's training the three Unwanted Presences Bastard Kalersky summoned""The Silent Knightess, heh? Would it be possible for us to meet her?"

"You'll need proper authorisation to get in. Things are still a bit hectic, so we are being careful. But with your reputation, Miss Binibelle, it should only take a day or two. His Majesty will probably want to speak with you, as well" The guard pointed the group to a nearby inn, where they could stay until the authorisations were made.

"Do you think the Silent Knightess is Mara Nebulo?" Jupo replied before his master.

"That is highly likely… Have we ever mentioned our theories about this Maya?"

"Start theorising again, and I swear… I won't hesitate to harm that handsome face of yours…"