Two days had passed since that fateful encounter between Arthur Leonharth and Chloe von Zeitbern. Now Arthur Leonharth, the great detective who had regressed to the past in his current childlike body, sat alone in his private room within Leonharth Manor, deep in thought.
His eyes were fixed on a unique crystalline pendant dangling between his hands, an oval-shaped gem with colors that shifted between silver and dark blue, its hues changing with the reflection of sunlight or moonlight. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to conceal moving celestial maps within its depths, pulsing with a mysterious secret that refused to reveal itself easily.
He was thinking about the meeting between himself and the mysterious girl in witch's attire, Chloe von Zeitbern, who had introduced herself as a descendant of the Zeitbern family, an ancient German family known for its immense wealth, built from controlling massive shares across various industries throughout all of Europe.
But it seemed that his encounter with that girl, Chloe, if it indicated anything, was that this was only the case on the surface, and that the Zeitbern family might be, like his family, involved in the mystical side.
Of course, this did not surprise him all that much, especially since he still clearly remembered what had happened just two days ago.
•••
After Chloe finished speaking, Arthur and Chloe sat on a wooden bench in one of the distant corners of the park, the very bench Arthur had chosen from the beginning to sit in silence after escaping the crowd following his help in solving the case of the elderly woman's stolen bag. They remained in complete silence, not having exchanged a single word since Chloe had finished speaking, each lost in their own thoughts.
"Well then, Mr. Detective, I believe the time has come for me to depart, as I think I have taken enough of your time, dear great detective." In the end, Chloe was the first to break the complete silence between the two of them with words that sounded ironic to Arthur, especially because they were in a world where the very flow of time did not even move.
But before he could even respond to Chloe's ironic words, he noticed how the world around him began to regain its colors. Instinctively, he also began to feel a driving force he had never sensed before, a force completely absent within the boundaries of Chloe's 'Eternal Domain.' At that moment, and for the very first time, Arthur could feel the flow of time moving again after Chloe ended her special temporal art, the 'Eternal Domain,' thanks to the unique power of his Golden Blood manifestation and his special 'Mystic Eyes.'
When Arthur turned his gaze to the side to ask Chloe about the strange feeling that had just swept over him, he noticed something odd. The mysterious girl in witch's attire, Chloe, had disappeared, and in her place sat a small, stunningly beautiful crystalline pendant.
The pendant was an oval-shaped gem whose colors shifted between silver and dark blue depending on the reflection of sunlight or moonlight. When Arthur looked closely, it seemed to conceal moving celestial maps within its depths, pulsing with a mysterious secret that would not reveal itself easily. The pendant's chain was made of pure, transparent crystal, adding a touch of elegance and elevating its craftsmanship to an entirely new level. Its charm and beauty were unlike anything Arthur had ever seen before.
Beneath the pendant, he found a paper message containing some words, which Arthur was completely certain had come from the mysterious girl Chloe herself.
Then Arthur hesitantly extended his hand toward the pendant, which shimmered with a mysterious light as if it were breathing like a living being. He lifted it slowly between his fingers and felt a gentle coolness flowing through his body, a coolness that was not harmful but more like a reassuring touch.
Then he turned his gaze to the folded paper beneath the pendant. He picked it up slowly and unfolded it with extreme care, as if the words that would appear before him might once again change the course of his life irreversibly. The lines were elegant, carrying a feminine touch and pulsing with the same mystery that had surrounded Chloe herself.
Then Arthur proceeded to read the few lines in the letter that Chloe had left in a low voice.
"To the great detective who has transcended the boundaries of time... remember, this is only the beginning. Search for truth within the folds of the unseen, for the world you know is nothing but a fragile mask hiding behind its depths of greater darkness and mystery. As for this pendant, it is both a gift and a farewell at the same time, but it will guide you if you possess the courage to see what others are unable to look upon. Let the Aether guide you to the truth you seek.
With all love,
The Little Witch of Time."
Then, after reading the letter, he paused for a moment, his eyes fixed on the letters, while his heart beat stronger than he expected. He raised the pendant before his eyes again, to see in its depths those celestial maps changing slightly, as if they had responded to his reading of the letter.
Only then did Arthur realize that this wasn't merely a pendant, but a key to something much greater, and perhaps more dangerous than he had imagined.
•••
While the last words of the letter lingered in his mind, the world around him gradually dissolved, as if a heavy curtain of fog had lifted, revealing the present once more. As he emerged from the whirlpool of memories, sitting in his own room within Leonharth Manor, his gaze fixed on the mysterious crystalline pendant, gently swaying between his hands.
Threads of sunset light reflected on its surface, shifting between silver and dark blue, and shimmered faintly like the interrupted breath of a living being, evoking in his mind the first sensation he had felt when touching it in the park. He sighed deeply, feeling a weight overwhelm him, the weight of new knowledge that could no longer be ignored.
He raised the pendant once more before his eyes, watching the celestial maps move slowly within it, as if guiding him toward a path yet to be discovered. "My next steps…" he murmured, his voice so low he could barely hear it himself.
He was fully aware that this pendant had not been left for him in vain, and that Chloe, the mysterious girl in a witch's attire, had drawn for him a path that would be far from easy. Yet the question weighing on his mind now was where to begin. Should he first return to investigating his family's secrets and their connection with the mystical world, a world whose threads were starting to unfold before him bit by bit? Or should he delve directly into the corridors of the mystical side of this world, searching for more threads and evidence related to the Aether, the mystical arts, and the various powers and organizations that controlled the balance of this world?
Or should he delve into the deeper and more pressing question, the true identity of the cult or organization that had caused his death and the loss of everyone he loved on that accursed night in the manor, five years before his regression in time to the present? Just thinking about it reignited the fires of determination within him to uncover the truth about the cult and destroy them once and for all, yet at the same time, it stirred in his chest the heavy weight of mysteries that remained unanswered.
He pressed his fingers against the pendant, his eyes gleaming with quiet determination. He knew that sooner or later, he would have to face that unknown and mysterious world. Yet he was not afraid; instead, a faint spark of enthusiasm kindled within him. The game had already begun, and all that remained was for him to choose his next step with utmost care.
"Hmm, why choose only one when I can delve into and pursue them all?" This was the conclusion Arthur reached after much thought. In the end, whatever path he chose would ultimately lead him to the next mystery, so why not begin investigating them all at once?
Thus, Arthur's journey to uncover the secrets of the hidden world had begun anew, or was about to begin, that is, if not for the fact that the pendant given to him by the mysterious girl, Chloe, had started behaving differently.
The small gem at the center of the pendant, the oval gem with its silvery-blue gleam, suddenly began glowing with a strange purple-silver light. At first, it was merely a weak spark, barely visible, but it gradually grew stronger until it filled the room and surrounded Arthur from all directions.
At that moment, it seemed as if a star was exploding inside Arthur's room in the old Leonharth family manor. The light was very strong, like bright sunlight at midday.
Arthur then found himself in a strange space, familiar in a disturbingly uncanny way, as if he had visited it before in a distant dream. The sky above was studded with countless stars, yet they appeared shattered and torn, like the fractured surface of a broken mirror reflecting mysterious light from every angle. Above him hung a black sun, harsh and terrifying, more akin to a black hole consuming everything around it than to a sun, and beside it a golden moon shimmered in majestic silence, like an eternal eye observing all existence and creation. Stretching before his eyes were endless waters, a vast ocean of shifting colors, blending every hue into swirling patterns, as if it were a living mosaic or a pulsing tapestry of life, creating a chaotically enchanting scene that both inspired awe and struck terror at the same time.
Yes, thanks to the mysterious pendant, Arthur had found himself once again in the space of the 'Eternal Dream World'. No sooner had he realized where he was than a tremendous sound thundered around him, like the roar of thunder in the heart of an endless storm. The mysterious space of the 'Eternal Dream World' was filled with its echoes that reverberated like waves of an angry sea, until it seemed as if the sound alone was capable of crushing all existence. At the same moment, the world around him began shaking violently, as if its fabric were about to be torn apart and collapse at any moment.
The voice echoed with the same strange words, in a language he did not know or fully understand, just as the last time. Yet, as had happened during his previous visit to this space, he was still able to perceive their meaning with complete clarity. It was as if the essence of the words and their intentions had been transmitted directly into the depths of his consciousness.
"It seems that fate has brought you back here, bearer of the Golden Blood..." the voice came deep and full of power, "and your Mystic Eyes have seen something of the true secrets of mystery, and your determination to find the truth has not weakened even after you witnessed and glimpsed what you glimpsed..."
The words flowed like a river of echo, filling every corner of this strange world, and Arthur stood in the midst of all this, trying to understand what was happening to him.