Paimon asked, "What if they used precise instruments to carve the marks instead?"
Dehya shook her head again. "People often say that a Kamera's photo can never replace the scenery painted by an artist, because the former has no soul."
"So I can tell at a glance the difference between carved sword marks and those made through genuine martial training."
Lumine said, "So that idea is ruled out."
Dehya continued, "So there shouldn't be any more doubts, right? By the way, is this that new game the scholars have been playing lately, the one called brain teasers? It's quite fun."
[Cyno: Brain teasers. I'm very good at them.]
[Kaveh: Are bad jokes considered brain teasers?]
[Cyno: You still owe me 500,000 Mora.]
[Kaveh: This... this... bad jokes are brain teasers.]
"Well then, it's getting late. I'll escort Miss Dunyarzad to Nilou's place. See you later."
After they left, Lumine thought for a moment and said, "Time isn't looping. Perhaps we're not in reality."
Paimon nodded. "Yes, that's true. Can we find any new angles?"
Lumine said, "Let me think. I suddenly feel that something is very strange."
"Why have we never considered leaving the city?"
Paimon suddenly realized, "Oh, right! Leaving the city. It's such an obvious thing to try, yet we never did. If we could see whether time outside the city is also stuck on the same day, that would confirm a lot of things."
[Ningguang: Indeed. No matter how big this world is, it always has boundaries. However, regarding leaving the city, I think you must have tried it before, but retained no memory of it.]
[Paimon: Why do you say that?]
[Ningguang: If the Akasha had rewritten everyone's thoughts so that no one would think of leaving the city, then Lumine wouldn't have thought of it either. Since the current Lumine did think of it, she must have thought of it before as well.]
[Paimon: But all those memories were lost?]
[Lumine: That seems to be the most likely explanation. Inside the dream, stepping beyond its boundaries might reveal something unimaginable.]
[Yae Miko: I'm getting more and more curious. This would make a rather good novel.]
[Furina: Novels are text. This is a film.]
[Paimon: This is a livestream. It said so itself. Huh?]
"It's really strange. Were we too focused on the details before, or were we too exhausted to think of it?"
Lumine fell into thought. "It's very strange. I feel like we should have thought of this much earlier."
Paimon continued, "Maybe we should go ask Nahida about it. Did we forget something about leaving the city?"
Back at Nahida's place, Paimon greeted her warmly. "Nahida, we're back."
Nahida said, "You're back quite early today. Did you make new discoveries?"
Paimon said, "Sort of. We've basically confirmed that time isn't looping, and this probably isn't reality. But at the same time, we have a new question."
Lumine said, "The new question is: what would happen if we left the city? Have we really never tried leaving the city?"
Nahida said, "In my memory, you mentioned plans to leave the city twice."
[Lumine: As expected. Leaving the city caused us to lose many memories.]
Paimon scratched her head vigorously. "Plans to leave the city? We have no memory of that at all. What happened after? What did we say when we came back?"
Nahida thought for a moment. "You never mentioned the results of those two trips. In fact, on the nights of those two planned departures, you never came back at all."