Chapter 96 About the Two Catherines

How did things turn out this way?

X, dressed in somewhat cumbersome women's clothing, felt the sunlight on his face, staring blankly at Heathcliff across from him, who looked completely uncomfortable.

He was stammering as he spoke sweet nothings to himself.

Yes, sweet words.

Damn it! Why did they suddenly start acting?!

First, Catherine suddenly pulled out a golden branch, and now X knows that she is the real Catherine.

Another one is Emily Brontë, an esper from England like Shakespeare. Logically speaking, Catherine should resemble her.

It's just that X met Catherine earlier, so he turned against the Heavenly Gang.

Then these two "Catherines" had a wonderful chemical reaction.

Golden Bough brought out Emily's supernatural abilities. This British lady, who also possessed superhuman abilities, generously covered the entire facility and even extended into the vicinity. Fortunately, the place was very remote, otherwise, who knows how much trouble might have occurred.

Lucky guests were randomly selected to participate, and the event is currently a limited-time event featuring nine members.

Haha, they're hopeless.

The employees were the most desperate; both of their supervisors had vanished without a trace, and finally, Abram, who had been holed up in the construction department, was brought back out.

This barely managed to quell the chaos; it was effective, but not much, since they were short-handed.

The God of War, Bo Ming, ran away from home; the Blood Demon father and daughter disappeared without a trace; the head of the administrative staff vanished on the spot; and the execution bullet also disappeared without a trace.

Even Chuuya Nakahara, who was visiting, and Ryunosuke Akutagawa, who was visiting his foster mother, were arrested.

Summoned by the Blood Demon father and daughter, Cervantes, with food still stuffed in his mouth: Wait, where did I come from? Is this still Tokyo?

"Hey... are you still listening? Hey..." Heathcliff stared at the "girl" opposite him, feeling utterly hopeless, as if he were about to die.

The script he received was to play himself, a street urchin named Heathcliff, a natural performance, which wasn't difficult, until he turned to the later episodes.

The boy's expression grew increasingly grim; what was all this nonsense?!

However, as one of Emily's superpowers, he is subject to more constraints than others; in other words, he has to be a perfect male protagonist.

He is now performing the scene of "Heathcliff seducing Isabella".

The problem is that X, the manager of Isabella, drew the lot.

It's not that changing gender would solve the problem, but... it's so strange. He still has a human head. If he had his original clock head, he wouldn't feel so uncomfortable.

X also tried to finish the scene quickly. To be honest, X didn't expect Heathcliff to be able to endure it this long. It was too difficult for the child.

“My dear Heathcliff.”

X tried hard to keep his expression straight, but Heathcliff's face started twitching and his eyes started darting around unnaturally.

Oh no, he's going to burst out laughing!

X kept giving Heathcliff meaningful glances, telling him to be patient, that their scenes were almost over, and to hold on!

Don't laugh, if you laugh, I'll want to laugh too.

“What’s wrong, my lovely…Isa…quack,” a duck-like voice uncontrollably squeezed out of Heathcliff’s throat.

Right after that duck's quack, it seemed as if the non-existent director was finally enraged, and the scene began to rewind rapidly, quickly returning to "Heathcliff and Isabella's first encounter".

That's it, all that acting was for nothing.

X was forced to force a ladylike smile onto her face, her golden eyes filled with emptiness.

The male protagonist is the same; Heathcliff, who dresses himself up in a glamorous manner to seduce Linton's sister, seems to be covered by a dark filter.

This unreasonable role-playing is different from the previous nine-person group. There won't be a situation where enemies appear if the character doesn't fit the image. Instead, if the role is not up to par, the role will be reversed.

It's as if someone is actually filming a movie, and they can't tolerate the slightest mistake.

Not far away are the Twilight God of War Cabbage, who plays Edgar Linton, and "Catherine," except that Catherine looks exactly like Isabella, a white-haired version of Catherine.

At this moment, the lovely long-haired "lady" was so angry that she pulled up the grass next to her, while "Edgar Lyndon," who also had long white hair, was trying to calm down his "wife," who seemed to want to eat him alive.

Unfortunately, he wasn't as tall as "Catherine." Luckily, Adam, who was also wearing a dress, had difficulty moving around, which prevented him from successfully flipping the heads off these two clumsy actors.

Their actions were once again deemed to deviate from their character portrayals, and time began to rewind.

The repeated setbacks fueled the anger of the person behind the scenes, and this time they went back to the very beginning.

Don Quixote, who was assigned the role of Old Earnshaw, the Blood Demon, returned home carrying a coat wrapped around a miniature version of Heathcliff.

With a pained expression, Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Adam, who were expressionless, greeted their father.

The coat was opened, revealing Heathcliff wearing the same mask of pain.

"Look what I brought you!"

The white-haired Blood Demon, like a true old father, showed his children his spoils—no, the children he had found.

Looking at the head of the Earnshaw family and the sycophantic Akutagawa, who was playing along, Adam suddenly felt that he couldn't see the future of Wuthering Heights at all.

Heathcliff felt a wave of dizziness. He had indeed grown up with Catherine, but this wasn't the "Catherine" he was looking for!

Adam felt he could strangle him on the spot, and sure enough, the small figure in the skirt snorted coldly, turned around and went upstairs.

As Akutagawa watched his "sister's" departing figure, he felt that his role had been stolen. Shouldn't he be the villain here?

Fortunately, it wasn't deemed unqualified, and the story continued, albeit with some bumps along the way.

The scene changes, and Akutagawa is getting married. His bride is much taller than him, and at this moment, Atil Rimbaud has a melancholy expression.

He was originally just working and chatting with his child, but then...

Rimbaud, with his long black hair styled into a bun and a trailing white veil draped over it, and holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand, said: "Teacher, it seems that I was forced into marriage many times, without your knowledge."

And... this wedding dress is so tight, he can't breathe. He's been suffocated by it every time he's been married.

With the two working together seamlessly, the plot progresses at lightning speed.

The eldest generation of Bloodhounds died with resentment, and "Catherine" was bitten by a dog and stayed at the Linton family's house. Heathcliff showed no reluctance at all; he almost immediately ran back to Wuthering Heights.

Upon arriving at Thrushwood Manor, Adam, who had been bitten by the imposter "Penny-pincher," grabbed the Linton family's "little daughter." When the real NPCs, the Lintons, returned home, they were completely unaware that their "daughter" had been swapped with the unexpected little guest.

On the contrary, she felt that her son and daughter looked very alike, referring to their hair color.

Once X's "injury" had healed, he returned to Wuthering Heights in Adam's place. Heathcliff breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the change; it didn't matter who it was, as long as it wasn't Adam.

This "Catherine" always gave him a creepy feeling, as if if he continued to talk to her, he would turn back into that twisted beast in the next moment.

Time flies.

Rimbaud happily finished filming and left, leaving behind only her poor husband and son.

Yes, Harley-Dawson is Don Quixote, the little one.

Practice makes perfect, and the story quickly returned to its original state.

Having reclaimed her identity as Isabella, X followed Heathcliff, who felt he was close to death, back to Wuthering Heights.

At this moment, the already down-on-his-luck Ryunosuke Akutagawa was drunk and slumped against the wall.

Akutagawa, a well-behaved young man leading a fulfilling life, is sitting in a corner contemplating life. He can't drink alcohol, so he drank a lethal dose of cola and is currently burping.

At first glance, it looks exactly like a drunkard's burp, and even the expression of a brain that seems to have run away from home is no different.

Yes, Akutagawa felt that if he kept drinking, he would turn into cola.

Little Don Quixote was playing all alone, all by himself.

The blonde girl was having a great time and didn't look lonely at all.

His expression became quite interesting when he saw the two who had "eloped" back to Wuthering Heights.

Heathcliff's heart leaped into his throat. He looked at Don Quixote's increasingly bright amber eyes and knew something was wrong!

"Hindley, keep your little brat in check."

Heathcliff racked his brains and came up with a brilliant idea that would neither deviate from the character nor allow Don Quixote to cause trouble.

Akutagawa, who was burping from a cola: Why am I still in this scene?

However, he also noticed that Lady Don Quixote was clearly excited and knew what he had to do.

So the junior high school student decided to capture "his own son" and bring him to justice. He was going to have dinner with Ms. Liangxiu and Yin that night, so how could he let this kind of thing delay him!

X watched as Don Quixote, being led away by his young, alcoholic father and shooting pitiful beams of light at him, slowly looked away, pretending he hadn't seen anything.

He'll be offline soon! He can already see Rimbaud, who has successfully finished filming, waving to him—he really can.

Rimbaud, who had finished filming, and "Old Earnshaw," who had left the show early, were watching them act together.

However, compared to the quiet observer Rimbaud, the white-haired Blood Demon was clearly eager to make a move. He hadn't had enough fun yet, and he could still act. But because of his seniority, he always ended up killing off his character almost as soon as the game started.

X noticed it too, seemingly because of his special connection with the Golden Bough. Only he could see the person who had finished filming, not even Heathcliff, who was part of Emily's superpower.

The urban idea king, who had finished filming early, looked deep in thought. X's heart suddenly jumped. Could it be that this Don Quixote is going to cause trouble for him too?

However, as if he had received a signal from his supervisor, Rimbaud went up! Don Quixote sat back down in the empty chair, his attempt to cause trouble thwarted.

Don Quixote, who was being led to the door by Akutagawa, suddenly stopped in her tracks. She heard her father's voice and sensed something hidden in her blood.

X was unaware of the subtle uses of the Blood Demon's Affinity; all he knew was that his filming was almost over! Finally, he didn't have to act anymore!

But the next moment, an unexpected event occurred: a messenger appeared in the supposedly enclosed environment.

The "messenger" who happened to be passing by was also surprised. He was just going to the amusement park! Where did he end up? Is this still Japan?

Following the note in his hand, he knocked on the door of the somewhat eerie mansion.

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Author's Note: Wuthering Heights (Limited-Time Reprint of The Nine)