Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: The Mansion of Reversed Time
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Hmm. Quite a satisfying meal.
In the end, two fresh fingers had been added to the shop's belly.
Of course, one more candy and one more pill had sold, so supplies were running low.
But I was planning to stock up on the next items anyway, so it wasn't a big deal.
"Shop, feeling full now?"
Yeah, not bad.
"Then make as many wristwatches as you can."
Nothing stopping me.
But your bedroom will get farther away again.
"This time it's a solid investment, so it's fine. Oh, before you make them, craft a decent bag to carry the watches in first."
Check the drawer.
Inside were eight wristwatches of a suitable design and one eco-bag.
"This should be enough."
So, what now?
"I'm going to trade these for new goods."
'Trade,' huh.
Not robbery under the guise of trading?
"Yep, a proper trade. It loves timepieces."
Hope your confidence doesn't stem from some sunken delusion.
I lightly raised my hand and flashed the sign for mountain (山).
What are you doing?
"Expressing my heartfelt desire to gaze upon a beautiful mountain."
山
"You wanna see a mountain too?"
That's 'fuck you.'
Oh.
I'd roughly guessed the shop knew a lot, but I didn't expect it to know even this.
"Ahem."
To swiftly change the subject, I pointed at one of the wristwatches.
"Anyway, there's a place I need to go to enter that tale."
Tell me.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ A remote mansion in the mountains, untouched by humans for ages, overgrown with weeds.
The massive wooden door creaked uselessly, its hinges long rusted.
I drew tentacles from the shadows.
Come to think of it, it had been quite a while since I'd last used them.
BAM!
With a thunderous crash, the door shattered into pieces.
"No owner around anyway, so who cares."
Straight ahead, half-collapsed rotten stairs greeted the visitor, with dust piled thick below like a winter snowfield.
I scanned the mansion roughly and climbed the intact parts of the stairs.
Passing three doors along the corridor, I opened the fourth.
Inside was a tidy room with somewhat worn curtains and a bed.
And beside the bed stood a single pendulum clock, ticking away.
Everything else had long broken down and stilled, so its solitary operation felt eerie—but that did nothing to diminish the true oddity of the place.
The real strangeness was that the clock hands spun backward.
The minute hand moved from 12 to 11, and the hour hand followed slowly.
"Looks like I came to the right place."
I grabbed the hands and turned them to their proper direction.
Gradually, the dark grime on the bed faded, dust flew away, and the wallpaper's discoloration vanished cleanly.
Ding— Ding— Ding—
With an inexplicable chime, the hands stopped moving. When I let go, they resumed spinning counterclockwise.
Hanging nearby was a calendar marked 1723.
"And now it begins."
I twisted the doorknob and stepped out. The mansion had reverted to a pristine past state.
"Oh! You've awakened, guest."
I usually used 'guest' myself, but this time, it wasn't me speaking.
The voice belonged to a middle-aged man in a suit, with foreign features.
"Yes, the bed was quite comfortable."
"Haha, thank you. It's a new mattress we brought in recently—they say it has springs."
He acted as if he'd known me forever.
Not an actual acquaintance, of course. Just the tale's gimmick.
These things flowed naturally with casual responses.
"No wonder! Such fine hospitality—I'm grateful."
I could see the man's wrinkles vanishing in real time, as if he were growing younger.
In fact, my own skin was probably doing the same.
This tale wound back everyone's time.
Not too fast yet, but the speed would pick up over time.
Time for me to get moving, then.
The core concept here was finding clues within a time limit to unmask the culprit.
But since I already knew everything, no need for sleuthing.
That said, with recent events I hadn't foreseen popping up...
Better play it safe.
Just to be sure, I'd check the clue spots and confirm they matched what I remembered.
I headed to the room at the far end of the opposite corridor.
Inside: bookshelves lined with volumes and a small dial safe.
Normally, you'd flip through books for numbers to crack the code.
But the devs cheaped out on variations—only three password patterns.
Memorize those three, try them one by one, done.
"Thought this was lame back in the game, but look at it helping now."
I knelt and spun the dial.
"35-90-25-10, no. 15-80-55-91... open."
Inside was a single paper reading 'MIDDLE AGE.'
'Middle age.' Exactly as I recalled.
As I stood, I felt my eye level drop slightly.
Proof my time was regressing.
"Gotta check my exact condition."
This body was part of the tale, so I wondered how it'd change going further back... but not worth the risk.
Mirror should've been in the bathroom.
Descending the stairs, different people from the man earlier were there.
"I hope you rested comfortably?"
His wife and child.
They looked utterly ordinary, like regular folk.
"Yes, your kind hospitality left no room for discomfort."
Behind her, a boy peeked at me furtively.
About ten years old.
"Ed, say hello."
"Hi, Ed."
I waved at Ed. The kid, shy, hid completely behind her.
"Sorry, he's a bit shy with strangers."
"No, it's fine. Kids that age are all like that."
Normally, you'd chat them up for clues, but I didn't need the hassle.
"Yeah, seems legit."
"Pardon?"
"Ah, nothing."
I bid hasty goodbyes and slipped into the nearby bathroom.
Like in the game, the mirror was huge—bigger than most windows.
"Feels like I looked like this about five years ago."
Hmm...
Definitely handsomer back then, maybe.
Ding— Ding— Ding—
As if telling me to quit bullshitting, the chimes rang out again.
Meaning the regression speed was accelerating.
Judging by my state, at this rate, I'd be a baby in two hours.
Time to wrap this up fast.
I crossed the hall to the master bedroom.
Knock knock—
"Come in."
A young man's voice filtered through the thin wall.
"Then, pardon the intrusion."
Inside were the man, his wife, and Ed.
But the adults had regressed to high school age, and Ed—who'd walked fine earlier—was now crawling.
"Time to end this. You're the culprit behind this tale."
My finger pointed at their child, Ed.
"Wah."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Truth be told, this tale hid a simple trick.
The calendar pointing to 1723 seemed innocuous at first glance.
But brush up on history, look again, and inconsistencies pop.
For starters, the man's suit. Suits didn't go mainstream until the Industrial Era.
So what's the issue?
The Industrial Era began in the 1760s.
Dig deeper: spring mattresses and plenty else were post-Industrial inventions.
How's that possible?
Time here had been flowing backward long before I arrived.
Thus, by rough math, only 'Ed' qualified as middle-aged.
In the game, you had to crack it in under two hours max—tough without a guide.
"All my time flows into the past."
Ed had somehow shifted to middle-aged form.
Probably his true appearance.
"Time flows too fast. Ever backward, backward, backward! The moment I perceive the present, it becomes the past. Does this world hold nothing but the past?"
Weird rants were standard tale fare, so ignore and get to business.
"How about a trade with me?"