novelburst
Chapter 139 - 143 Hypnosis
Chapter 139 - 143 Hypnosis
Chapter 139: Chapter 143 Hypnosis
Watching the crystal pendant in Heidi’s hand gently sway, Nina swallowed nervously—although she was told to relax, this was her first time receiving hypnotherapy, and she found it hard to control her reaction.
And while her gaze was captured by the pendant, she also noticed a seemingly simple stone bracelet on Heidi’s wrist. The bracelet, woven with tough silk cord, was strung with many colorful pebbles, some of which bore rune-like marks.
Noticing Nina’s gaze, Heidi smiled and shook her wrist, “I am a ‘student’ of the Academy of Truth, following and serving the God of Wisdom Rahm—although it may not look it, my registration says that I am a clerical worker.”
Clerical worker… not only a mental health physician but also a member of the Academy of Truth?
Nina had certainly heard of the Academy of Truth—despite its name suggesting a scholarly institution, in reality, this “Academy” was one of the four major religious orders of the pantheon of gods. Along with the Deep Sea Church, the Death Sect, and the Fire Transmitter Church, they maintained the civilization order of the Deep Sea era. Unlike the other three churches, the “theological” presence of the Academy was not strong, instead favoring pure knowledge inheritance and the research and promotion of cutting-edge technology. Its believers also built relationships based on mentorship and schools of thought.
Other churches rooted themselves in chapels and sanctuaries, spreading faith and organizing masses on a daily basis. However, the Academy of Truth established countless universities and laboratories in each City-State, where the daily routine for high-ranking clerics seeing lower ones was to throw a difficult question at them, to see if their faith in the Lord had reached the passing score—it was indeed a unique style.
It was precisely because of the Academy of Truth’s special “style” that it had the fewest members among the four major religious orders, with even fewer having the qualification to wear the emblem daily and be officially recorded as clerical workers—because the questions were really hard.
In an average university, it was not certain that a few would qualify to devote themselves to Rahm each year, let alone someone like Nina, a poor child who studied in the public schools of the Lower City District.
To her, Heidi suddenly seemed to be enveloped in an aura, one that, far from relaxing her, only made her more nerve-wracked.
This was the awe of a vocational high school student with aspirations when confronted by the valedictorian of a top university.
Heidi certainly noticed the change in Nina’s expression but was unconcerned, instead casually playing with the pendant in her hand, and began speaking in the same calm tone of voice as before, “Can you tell me about your childhood? You mentioned earlier that your parents died in an accident, that incident might be the shadow in your heart… Would you tell me about it?”
“Actually… there’s nothing I can’t talk about,” Nina thought for a moment, “I’ve told many people, but everyone thinks I was too young back then to remember clearly, they think I’m talking nonsense—Eleven years ago, there was a leak in a factory in District Six, and at that time, there were many Heretics destroying things everywhere. Later, a lot of people were arrested, do you know about that?”
“Of course,” Heidi nodded, “I was only in my teens at the time, and when the accident happened, my family happened to be staying near Cross District, we also saw the rushing crowd…”
“Do you remember a big fire at the time?”
“A big fire?” Heidi tilted her head slightly, unconsciously stopping her play with the crystal pendant, “What fire?”
“See, you don’t know about that fire either—but in my memory, there was always a big fire, and my parents died in that fire, but everyone says I remembered it wrong…”
Heidi listened quietly to Nina’s account and after a while, nodded gently before asking again, “So this should be the shadow in your heart, you fear a fire that only you know exists, and you worry that at any time, this bizarre phenomenon will reappear and take away the people around you, with no one to help you—not even anyone to notice your plight.”
Nina nodded lightly.
“Have you had any stress recently?” Heidi asked further, “In terms of your studies, your daily life, these recent pressures might magnify the long-standing gloom in your heart…”
Nina fell silent for a moment before speaking hesitantly, “It’s probably because my uncle has been in poor health, and it’s been getting worse lately, which worries me…”
She paused, then hurriedly added, “Ah, but now his health is better, and I feel like I’ve relaxed a lot too, and these past few days, I haven’t had that strange dream…”
“Worried about a family member’s health, hm…”
Heidi mused softly. As she listened to the girl across from her murmuring as if in a dream, she watched Nina half-asleep leaning against the headboard and casually set down the crystal pendant.
As a “psychiatric doctor” who studied at the Academy of Truth and dealt with the Transcendent realm, she didn’t need to use methods like shaking pendants or lighting medicated smoke for hypnosis treatments—just a few words would suffice.
The only purpose of this pendant was to attract Nina’s attention, helping her relax and lowering her defenses against “words.”
Miss Psychiatrist let out a soft sigh and looked tenderly at Nina, who had completely relaxed and was gradually falling into a deeper sleep.
“You can tell you’ve had a tough life… all the tension and anxiety are buried deep within you, and you’ve grown used to this way of life. You hope it will make those around you more comfortable, yet you neglect yourself—now just relax, have a good sleep, leave all the pressure in a dreamscape that will soon dissipate. When you wake, those anxieties will no longer concern you.”
In the half-dream state, Nina’s voice softly arose, “…Thank you…”
Heidi smiled and, to further help Nina relax, she seemed to ask nonchalantly, “By the way, your uncle was ill before? What disease did he have? I saw Mr. Duncan earlier, and he seemed quite healthy.”
Nina was silent for a longer time before she spoke softly, “Just a bit of physical weakness, he’s… completely recovered now…”
However, Heidi could no longer hear Nina’s response.
The moment she asked the last question, she had already slumped at the foot of Nina’s bed, falling into an even deeper dreamscape than her patient.
On Heidi’s right wrist was a handwoven bracelet made of stones—a common identifier worn by Believers from the Academy of Truth, symbolizing that the wearer was a monk trained rigorously, graced by the God of Wisdom Rahm, and steadfastly against the mad power of heresy. Each runic stone on it represented a divine attention from Rahm.
Seconds after a flicker of light, one of the agate stones on the bracelet emitted a slight cracking sound before disintegrating quickly into dust and vanishing with the wind.
Down in the shop on the first floor, Fenna was asking Duncan a few more questions, partly to understand if there were any details overlooked from the museum fire, and partly to confirm if Duncan and the others were affected by the Sun Shard.
In the conversation, the initial awkwardness and estrangement of a first meeting gradually faded, and the atmosphere became friendlier and more familiar.
Duncan could feel that the “Judge” from the Deep Sea Church, who held a high position, was truly concerned about the safety of the survivors from the fire—not just to combat heresy or investigate clues. Her attitude was genuinely and earnestly sincere.
He did not know if this young Judge could care so much for every person in the City-State or if it was just out of a connection with Heidi that she showed concern for the few people in the antique shop. Yet, Fenna’s demonstrated sincerity was enough to leave a good impression on him.
“Speaking of which, Miss Heidi and Nina have been upstairs for a while, haven’t they?”
In the course of the conversation, Duncan thought of his niece and subconsciously looked up at the stairs leading to the second floor.
“Indeed,” Fenna realized as well after being reminded and slightly furrowed her brows, “Usually Heidi’s treatment sessions are quite swift…”
“…I think you can’t use Miss Heidi’s usual treatment method as a standard, physical hypnosis and kinetic anesthesia are swift on anyone,” Duncan’s lips quivered, “But the time they’ve taken is indeed too long… Could something have happened?”
Fenna shook her head, “No, Heidi is a trained professional from the Academy of Truth; she wouldn’t mess up a typical hypnotic treatment. She must have gotten into a conversation with Nina, she does that sometimes—too much dealing with paranoid heretics, and talking to a normal person is like a novelty to her. Shall we go check on them?”
“Let’s go up.”
Duncan and Fenna then rose to go upstairs, arriving one after the other at Nina’s room. Before they could even push open the door, they simultaneously heard noises from the room—
Two overlapping snoring sounds.