Inside the carriage, the pouring rain could be heard from the inside. The driver, who was already prepared for such cases, wore a waxed coat that was resistant to water.
Victor wore a somewhat distracted expression, different from his usual self.
Next to him sat TIME's Twin, who was wearing a blue frilled dress; she was the one who handed him a blue towel.
Blue seems to be a favorite of this girl.
The two of them didn't talk much that week; he had never been able to learn her name, but strangely enough, whenever he had a mental breakdown at the mansion due to the fact that he never got proper psychological sleep since arriving in this world, she was always there to comfort him.
This fact was unknown to Victor, since all those breakdowns happened when he was alone, or at least he believed himself to be alone.
She was like a safe island in the middle of a storm.
He handed the blue towel back to her.
"Thank you." —Jack
She nodded; she didn't speak much, but her actions spoke for her.
Jack exhaled as he looked towards Victor, who stared into the distance blankly.
"I need your help." —Jack
Victor looked at him; his energy from last week seemed to have dissipated, and he was a lot more neutral.
"Explain." —Victor
Jack hesitated a little; he was planning his words.
"I died." —Jack
Victor's mouth twitched a little; he was amused.
"A few days over a week ago..." Jack struggled to remember for how long he had been in this world in days; he used the week as an anchor for time. "...I have, or I think I have died due to the disease."
"Before that point, I don't have any memories, and I keep waking up in a foggy wasteland that is filled with instability." —Jack
"And... I... I..." —Jack
TIME's Twin moved to his side of the carriage as she patted his head; she comforted him without saying a word.
"I can't take it anymore; I feel numb, I want to sleep properly." —Jack
"I want to ask if it's possible to change the artifact we are currently making." —Jack
Jack had thought about this for quite a while; after a week of learning from Victor, he learned that direct mutations of the body with Instability involved too much danger.
So rather than attempting to fix his body, he decided to change the artifact they were currently making.
What they wanted to make was a ring that increased the user's strength indefinitely while removing atrophy, without having the body get negative effects apart from increased hunger due to muscle mass.
It was quite a hard goal; thankfully, with the drafting paper, most of the side effects, like the body adapting to the ring, ugly muscle adaptations, or lack of flexibility, were removed or altered towards something else.
The effects themselves were decent, but from Victor's words, one could reach superhuman levels of strength while retaining the current body shape, but after that it would plateau, and during the exponential increase, one would have to eat multiple meals a day and go to the bathroom just as much.
Not only that, it took a paper the size of a small living room carpet, with almost two hundred statements, most of which were done by Victor.
Victor, hearing this, moved his hand, tapping his knee; he didn't have a cane to tap on the ground, so this was the next best option.
Jack was already prepared for the worst, even being thrown out of the carriage.
Of course, the Blonde Girl would not let Victor do such a thing, even if he wanted to.
Victor moved his other hand over his mouth, tapping it in a thinking manner.
"Hmm... this fits with the other thing." —Victor
Fits with what?
Jack didn't interrupt and let Victor speak.
"Do you remember when I said I'd find you a place to work at?" —Victor
"Yes..." —Jack
"You see, the Count is recruiting elite people to raid a warped space due to lack of troops." —Victor
A warped space...
Jack remembered the story Aldric told him about; it was about a Minor Noble having his house turned into a Warped Space and him becoming a Devil of Sleep.
Suddenly it clicked.
"You mean that the devil can be of use?" —Jack
"Indeed, not only will you be well paid, you will get the opportunity to gather more instability in the ring, and you will get the Natural Artifact of the Devil." —Victor
"You will also get housing as a freebie." —TIME's Twin
"..." —Both Jack and Victor were left speechless.
She doesn't speak much to people she is not familiar with due to her past; this was a rare instance where she spoke in such manners, usually reserved for TIME or her mother.
Victor added to that dialogue and spoke again.
"You will also need that; after Aurus returns, I will only stay at most two weeks before returning up north." —Victor