Laplace, surprised, began to take in her surroundings.
All around were blooming roses, and on the ground was a garden path paved with long stones. In the distance, a red-topped white-walled house was faintly visible; from the first impression, this seemed to be a wealthy family’s little garden.
But this "wealthy family" is likely not nobility, otherwise the house in the distance wouldn’t be so modest.
Since this was a new place, Laplace did not know the details here, so she restrained herself from moving and instead controlled her power of transmutation to release perception outward.
The perception spread roughly a dozen meters and reached the exit of this small garden.
The archway at the exit was quite festive, not only wrapped with bright roses of various colors, but also had several colorful balloons tied to the top, leisurely floating in mid-air.
It appears that this wealthy family is in the midst of celebration?
Laplace’s perception continued forward, and soon she passed through the little garden and came to the outside of the red-tiled white-walled house.
Near the house, there was also a conservatory, more exquisite than the garden.
However, apart from the conservatory, there was nothing else noteworthy; the fence, gravel path, street lamps, neatly trimmed horticultural trees, lush fruit trees, and the swing under the trees were all very ordinary objects.
Laplace perceived the surroundings and confirmed there was nothing special before focusing on the only two roads available.
One road naturally led into the house; the other path went through densely layered small woods, leaving this home and heading into the outside world.
Faced with these two choices, Laplace did not overly hesitate. She had a premonition that her unexplained appearance nearby wasn’t without reason; with the surroundings so calm, the only sealed location was the large house. So perhaps the answers are hidden inside.
Since she believed the answers were within the house, she decided to leave it for last and first explore the outside world to ascertain her location before returning to the house later.
Having made her decision, Laplace controlled her perception and walked outward.
However, upon passing through the small woods and coming to the gate, Laplace found that outside was a realm of "illusion."
From a distance, one could see abundant "phantoms" of houses, presumably neighboring street houses; but upon closer inspection, it was found that this was not due to distance but because everything outside, regardless of houses or numbers, were phantoms.
Completely illusory, they only had rough outlines; across seemed to be a bell tower, while next to it was a row of cottages?
This should be a city street? Yet only this household she was in was very clear, like truly existing, while other places were vaguely dreamlike.
Hmm... dreamscape?
While Laplace was pondering, the word suddenly flashed across her mind.
From the mirror world before, it showed eliminators from the dream realm; following this logic, could other crystal creations also be related to dreamworld sweepers? For instance, the whip that drew her in here, could it also be a dreamworld sweeper transformed?
Furthermore, could this strange space itself be a dream realm? An actual dream?
The main reason Laplace thought this was due to the odd illusion of the external environment.
This illusory circumstance greatly resembled the scenes ordinary people dream of. In dreams, only the dreamer’s location is vividly visible, while other places are shrouded in illusion because they’re not important; the important thing is the dreamer’s will.
The dreamer perceives the current environment as important, so they only remain in the current setting, and the dream revolves around the events occurring at the present scene, thus the scene during a dream is the clearest. All other places unrelated to the dream can be casually outlined.
It’s like a landscape portrait, where the focus is on the figures in the foreground, with the background needing only a few simple lines to sketch out mountain shapes.
And so, the external illusory street Laplace saw now seemed to be the so-called "background," needing merely a rough outline; the area she occupied surrounding the large house was the "foreground," requiring detailed depiction.
Thinking this way, it indeed lines up with a dreamscape.
If this truly is a dreamscape... does it suggest that the dream’s "entity" is nearby the house? Or rather... within the house?
Laplace pondered while slowly pulling her perception back from the gate.
Now she decided to focus on the large house; she wanted to see if it held the "answers" she sought and if the so-called "dream inhabitant" existed there.
Soon, her transmutation of perception returned to the vicinity of the house.
The house had two entrances: the front door and the back door. The front door was closed, and seemingly there was some kind of law in this house: isolating all probing.
Even Laplace’s perception couldn’t penetrate the locked areas.
Since the front door couldn’t be perceived, Laplace turned her attention toward the back door.
The back door opened in a secluded place, precisely between the glass conservatory and the rose garden, not only narrow and hard to traverse, but also lined on both sides with Big Mary Roses.
The Big Mary Roses grew extremely tall, with thorns on the rose vines sharp and long; ordinary people brushed by them might leave deep wounds.
And due to the ease with which Big Mary Roses prick people, many who cultivate flowers refer to their blooms as blood roses. First, to signify that Big Mary Roses are hosted by the blood of pricked individuals; secondly, because Big Mary Roses have only one color, a vibrant red, really like blood-stained roses.
The road leading to the back door was narrow, and there were easily bruise-inflicting Big Mary Roses, so logically inferred, this shouldn’t be the master’s path.
As expected, it ought to be the path walked by servants.
When Laplace’s perception reached the back door, she found the back door was also locked.
Yet... the difference with the front door was, despite being locked, the back door constantly shook. Like someone inside was shoving the back door.
Along with the door’s incessant trembling, sounds of terrified wails echoed from within.
This scene stirred Laplace’s imagination that perhaps someone was indeed being chased behind the door... the pursued couldn’t flee through the locked front door, thus ran to the back door, and it too was locked, leading to their desperate shaking of the door to try and escape; however, the pursuer had already arrived, leaving the pursued shaking the door and crying out desperately.
The back door’s shaking grew more intense, the wails from inside escalating from fear to a shrill.
From underneath the door crack began the trickling flow of fresh blood...
This seemed to tell Laplace that the hopeless escapee inside was caught up by the pursuer and the attack commenced. The blood on the ground and the shrill screams came from the person trapped in despair.
While Laplace conjured a series of scenes and stories in her mind, the back door was suddenly pushed open forcefully.
As the door swung open, a plump girl, covered with wounds and bruises all over, dashed out from within, running as she screamed in despair.