Has the knight lady who married into the countryside fallen into depravity today?

A few days later. Alchemy workshop.

Karen sat in a specially made iron-backed chair, her hands neatly placed on her knees, her ten fingers fidgeting restlessly, her knuckles turning slightly white from the excessive force.

The room was dimly lit, and the walls were filled with glass jars containing all sorts of strangely shaped specimens. The air was filled with a peculiar smell of wood ash mixed with magic potions.

He was unusually quiet and very reserved, like a child who had done something wrong, only occasionally turning his head to secretly glance at Klein across from him with his somewhat cloudy eyes.

Klein was sitting behind a large oak desk, flipping through a thick, ancient parchment book.

The book cover is written in ancient common language as "Soul Resonance and Stripping," and the paper is yellowed with some curled edges.

He read slowly, his expression focused and gentle, occasionally scribbling a few obscure and complex alchemical runes on the draft paper beside him with a quill pen.

The only sounds in the workshop were the rustling of pages turning and the occasional gurgling of bubbles rising from the crucible in the corner.

Leila didn't come in today; she was left to wait in the lobby on the first floor.

The quiet environment made Karen increasingly uneasy, and he felt those sticky whispers in his mind starting to surge restlessly again.

He swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing, and finally couldn't help but mutter softly, "Um... can jellyfish fly?"

Klein paused slightly with his quill pen, and a drop of ink spread across the parchment.

He looked up, his gaze shifting from the pages of the book to Karen's face, which was filled with confusion and unease.

"Won't."

He answered crisply, but his tone was as gentle as a spring breeze, without the slightest impatience.

"Oh." Karen let out a long breath, her tense shoulders slumping as if a heavy burden had been lifted. "That's good...that's good. Otherwise, they would have blocked out the clouds, and it would have rained that salty rain all the time."

Klein looked at him, a hint of pity flashing in his eyes.

He sighed, placed the quill on the pen holder, closed the book, and pushed it aside.

Although Karen's condition improved considerably after leaving the West Coast, the lingering poison from the siren's contamination of her soul still caused her to occasionally utter strange phrases filled with deep-sea imagery.

He stood up, smoothed out the wrinkles in his robe, and walked over to Karen.

"I've studied your blood sample carefully these past few days," Klein said, getting straight to the point without any pleasantries. He knew that for Karen in her current state, overly complex magical theories and alchemical terminology would be meaningless and would only add to her burden.

Upon hearing this, Karen's eyes widened suddenly, and she gripped the edge of the iron-backed chair tightly with both hands, her nails almost digging into the wood.

"The good news is that you haven't completely become a siren's servant yet, and your soul can still be saved." Klein pulled up a high stool and sat down opposite Karen, looking him straight in the eye, trying to soothe his emotions with his gentle and calm aura. "The bad news is that those voices in your head, those whispers from the deep sea, can't be driven away by simply drinking tranquilizers."

Karen's expression froze instantly. Her lips trembled for a long time, and a hint of fear flashed in her eyes before she finally managed to stammer, "Then...then do we have to dig them out with a knife?"

As he spoke, he raised his hand in terror to cover his head, shrinking back like a frightened quail.

Klein was amused by this simple yet somewhat comical reaction. He chuckled and shook his head repeatedly.

"No need for knives. This is an alchemy workshop, not a slaughterhouse." He extended a long, slender finger and pointed to his temple. "You need to use your own will."

Karen looked completely bewildered, clearly not understanding.

Klein patiently explained, "There's a power within you, a life force that belongs to your very being, instinctively resisting the erosion of the deep sea, but you're unaware of it. I've found a way these past few days to forcibly awaken this power. Once it grows stronger, those chaotic noises will naturally stop bothering you."

"Really?" Karen's breathing quickened instantly, her hands clenched into fists, and her eyes blazed with intense desire.

"On the condition that you cooperate with me." Klein stood up and turned to walk towards the control panel. He carefully picked up a glass tube containing a dark blue liquid from a temperature-controlled crystal box. The liquid seemed to have a life of its own, flowing slowly inside the tube and emitting a chilling aura.

"The process won't be comfortable; it will be very, very painful." Klein turned around, looked Karen into her eyes, and his tone became serious. "But I believe you can endure it, right?"

Karen stared intently at the cold glass tube, his throat dry. He glanced back at the closed door.

He thought of Lyra waiting in the hall, her rough hands from working day and night, and the silver anchor pendant around her neck that she never took off.

He gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and sat up straight again. The cloudiness in his eyes faded, replaced by a resolute determination.

"Come on." He closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and adopted a submissive posture. "As long as I can stop hearing those singing fish, as long as Lyra stops crying... I'll do whatever it takes."

Klein walked over with the glass tube and gently tapped his shoulder with the back of his hand, offering him a silent encouragement.

"Open your eyes and drink this first."

Karen suddenly opened her eyes, snatched the glass tube, tilted her head back, and without any hesitation, drank the dark blue liquid inside in one gulp.

This stuff is completely cold.

There was no real sensation of the liquid sliding down the esophagus into the stomach. As soon as the liquid passed the throat, it transformed into a storm of extreme cold, penetrating directly into every part of the body.

pain.

An excruciating, bone-chilling pain, as if tearing one's very soul apart, erupted instantly.

"Ugh—!" Karen gripped the armrests of the iron-backed chair tightly with both hands, her fingernails scraping against the metal surface with a teeth-grinding, ear-piercing sound.

He gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his neck, his already pale cheeks turning deathly white, and even a fine layer of frost appeared on his eyebrows.

At that moment, he felt the dark, deep sea in his mind boil over, with countless tentacled monsters screaming and trying to drag his consciousness into the abyss.

Klein stood to the side, calmly retrieving the now-empty glass tube. His tone was even, yet carried an undeniable authority: "Focus your attention on those jumbled voices in your head! Don't run away, use this pain to smash them! Shatter them, and you win!"

Karen let out a low, suppressed groan.

He was trembling violently, sweat mixed with icy water streaming down his forehead, but he bit his lip hard and stifled the scream that was about to burst out of his throat.

He needed to win this battle for Leila in his mind.

Meanwhile, in the lobby on the first floor.

"Bang—thump—"

The dull thud and suppressed groans penetrated the thick floorboards and carried faintly down.

Leila sprang up from the wooden chair as if she had been electrocuted.

Her hands were clenched tightly together, gripping the silver anchor pendant around her neck, her knuckles turning pale from the excessive force.

She tilted her head back, staring intently at the ceiling, her eyes instantly turning red, tears welling up in them.

"Karen..." she murmured, her voice trembling violently.

That was the person she had loved for so many years, and she couldn't bear to see him suffer even a little bit.

Reason was completely overwhelmed by worry at this moment, and she took a step forward, rushing towards the stairwell without regard for anything else.

However, a slender yet strong hand wearing an exquisite leather glove firmly blocked her path.

"Go back." Ophelia's voice wasn't loud, but it carried the imposing authority of a knight who had given orders for many years, leaving no room for argument.

Leila stopped and turned to look. She looked like a mother wolf protecting her cubs, her eyes filled with anxiety, defensiveness, and even a hint of hostility.

"He's receiving treatment up there. Rushing up now will only disrupt the process and make him suffer for nothing. It won't do any good." Ophelia said calmly, withdrawing her hand that had been blocking the air. She pointed to the chair next to her. "Klein promised to heal Karen, and he will never go back on his word."

Leila bit her lower lip until it bled, hesitating but not taking a step back.

Seeing Lyra's expression, Ophelia slightly raised her chin.

"Klein has always been sensible," Ophelia said, her voice softening slightly, a hint of undisguised pride in her tone. "He's much more reliable than you think. Instead of going up and making things worse, you should stay here and wait for him to come down quietly."

Leila took a deep breath, and her tense shoulders finally relaxed.

She knew Ophelia was right.

She slowly retreated to the wooden chair and sat down again. Her hands, however, remained tightly gripping the anchor pendant, as if it were her only lifeline.

"It will be alright, right?" Leila asked softly, her voice filled with a deep plea, as if she were asking Ophelia, or perhaps a god.

Ophelia walked over, pulled up a chair, and sat down opposite her.

Looking at the resilient yet fragile woman before her, she recalled Klein's figure as he stayed up all night researching formulas in his study, and a faint smile curved her lips.

"Of course," she replied firmly.

……

……

Inside the room, Klein took a half step back, his eyes fixed on the brass dial on the control panel. His slender fingers rested on the edge, and with a "click," he precisely shifted it to the highest setting on the right.

He wasn't going to just stand by and watch.

If Karen, an ordinary person whose mental defenses are riddled with holes, were to withstand the whispers of the deep sea, this workshop would definitely need a completely new set of anti-magic flooring today, and maybe even the ceiling would have to be torn down.

Taking a deep breath, Klein pressed down hard on the central crystal hub that served as the array's eye.

"Buzz—"

A powerful, low-frequency hum instantly emanated from deep within the stone slab, causing even the dust particles in the air to vibrate.

The originally dull alchemical array patterns, like greedy blood vessels, were instantly energized by immense magical power.

The pale blue halo seemed to have a life of its own, rapidly moving and intertwining along the intricate grooves of the stone slab, eventually forming an impenetrable pillar of light that completely confined Karen, who was sitting in the iron-backed chair, to the very center.

"Ugh... sea... water..."

Karen let out a low, indistinct growl, like a trapped beast, and his body convulsed violently.

The biting white frost spread visibly from his eyebrows all the way to his temples, and even tiny ice crystals formed on his eyelashes.

It was a chilling cold that didn't belong to the human world; the person was so cold that they shivered uncontrollably on the iron chair, and the chains rattled as they were broken.

Klein remained unfazed, casually pulled over a rough parchment, and dipped his pen in thick ink.

At the edge of the magic circle, three high-purity crystal pillars for testing stood in a triangular shape.

Just as Karen screamed in agony, the central crystal pillar began to vibrate at a high frequency.

The alchemical liquid inside, which was originally as clear as spring water, became murky and turbid as if ink had been added.

Immediately afterwards, several dark shadows, as if they were alive, coalesced and took shape within it, like tangled clumps of hair, frantically wandering and colliding inside the narrow crystal tube.

The concrete manifestation of the will of the deep sea has finally been forced out.

"It actually works? Looks like my calculations were correct."

Klein muttered something under his breath.

He wrote with lightning speed, the pen tip scratching against the parchment, quickly and accurately recording the values ​​of the magic peaks and troughs.

Interestingly, seemingly sensing the danger of being stripped away, the shadows inside the crystal pillar began to violently ram against the tube walls.

They even produced a sharp, piercing chirp, like thousands of steel needles scraping against glass, desperately trying to break through the alchemical confinement and return to Karen's warm brain, which they had come to regard as their nest.

"Quiet down, experimental materials should act like experimental materials."

Klein spoke in a gentle tone, casually picking up a small brass hammer from the table, and with a flick of his wrist, precisely struck the top of the crystal pillar.

"when--"

The crisp tapping sound traveled instantly along the magical circuit of the magic circle.

The shadow was suddenly thwarted, letting out a shrill cry that was barely audible to ordinary people. It instantly shrank into a ball and frantically darted around at the base of the crystal pillar, no longer daring to crash upwards.

However, before the echo of the brass hammer had completely faded, Karen, sitting on the iron-backed chair, suddenly raised her head and let out a short, heart-wrenching scream!

"ah--!!!"

Klein's relaxed expression vanished instantly. Without warning, countless fine cracks appeared on Karen's pale skin, as if a fragile parchment, aged for millennia, had been forcibly torn apart.

Fresh blood gushed out unimpeded from the ruptured capillaries.

Scalding blood mixed with the still-unmelted, cold frost on Karen's skin, pooling into glaring red lines on her chin.

Tick, tick.

Thick blood splattered on the floor, creating shocking splashes of blood.

The parchment in Klein's hand was instantly crumpled into deep creases.

Something's wrong!

He had mentally rehearsed the underlying logic of this stripping array no less than twenty times.

The magic frequency band has been rigorously screened and should not cause any substantial damage to human skin and flesh.

"Ugh...kill...kill me..." Karen gasped for breath, the veins on her forehead bulging like earthworms.

The madness that had been suppressed resurfaced. His eyes rolled back, bloodshot, and he struggled to stand up, but was held firmly in place by the binding force of the magic array and the heavy iron lock.

The blood flowed even faster.

Karen felt as if she were about to shatter from the inside out.