Adeline forced herself to calm down and began to study the map’s contents closely.
Low houses were densely packed together, forming an intricate neighborhood.
There were no street names, no house numbers, no text labels of any kind.
And no people.
The entire map consisted only of buildings—large and small, tall and short houses and walls—like the ruins of some long-abandoned city.
She tried to identify the types of these buildings.
Some houses left wider gaps between them, probably the main streets.
In some places, the houses formed an enclosed circle with an open space in the middle, like a courtyard or small square.
There were also buildings with especially large outlines, occupying a considerable area on the map—maybe warehouses, churches, or something else.
No people, no animals, no living things at all.
Only buildings—a labyrinth made of buildings.
Adeline stared at the map for several minutes, trying to find any useful clues.
But there were no words or symbols, nothing to tell her where this was or what it meant.
She looked away and began to think about another question.
‘Why did the map disappear and reappear?’
When she picked up the card from the table, the map disappeared.
When she put the card back, the map reappeared.
There was a causal relationship between these actions, and it could be verified repeatedly.
‘So, can the map only be spread on the table?’
Adeline thought about it and decided to test this.
She placed the card on the blanket and waited for a while, but nothing happened.
After a moment’s thought, she carefully got off the bed and placed the card on the carpet.
The carpet was made of thick wool, with a short pile that felt soft and warm to the touch.
She crouched down and waited.
One minute passed, two minutes passed, but nothing changed on the carpet.
It seemed the carpet wouldn’t work either.
She walked over to the wall, lifted a corner of the carpet, revealing the wooden floor beneath.
The floor was waxed—a bit old but still smooth and flat.
She placed the card on the floor, stepped back two paces, and waited patiently.
After about fifteen seconds, a change occurred.
Black ink spread out from under the card, growing familiar patterns on the floor.
Low houses, winding alleys, empty squares.
It was exactly the same map that had spread on the table, only larger because the floor had more space than the table.
Adeline crouched down to take a closer look.
The ink on the floor was just like on the table—it seemed to have grown into the grain of the wood, with no bumps or wetness.
She nodded, picked up the card.
After a few seconds, the map on the floor disappeared, restoring its original luster.
So it wasn’t restricted to the table; the floor worked too.
Adeline thought of another test.
She returned to the bed and picked up the wooden box.
The surface of this box was even smoother than the table or floor, but it was small—only about three times the size of the card.
She placed the card on the box’s surface and waited.
Nothing happened.
After waiting a full two minutes, the box’s surface remained clean, with no ink appearing.
Adeline picked up the card, thoughtful.
‘So that confirms it: the map will only spread if the surface is both smooth enough and large enough.’
Adeline put the card back on the table and watched the map spread out once more.
She stood by the table, her gaze shifting between the box, the card, and the map, her mind working rapidly.
There must be some internal logical connection among these three items.
After thinking for a while, Adeline suddenly had an idea.
In her previous life, she had played many board games—Monopoly, Three Kingdoms Kill, Warhammer, D&D… she had experience with all kinds.
Thinking from that perspective,
‘Could this thing be some kind of board game? The card is like a player’s character card, the map represents the board, and the box is the storage container.’
Adeline was startled by her own idea, but upon closer thought, it made sense.
Swan had said this was an extremely interesting novelty toy given to Herman by a minor noble.
If it really was a board game, then calling it a “toy” would fit perfectly.
She remembered the Harry Potter books she had read in her past life.
They had wizarding chess, where pieces moved and attacked each other on their own—completely different from ordinary chess.
If supernatural powers existed in this world, then it wouldn’t be strange for some kind of magical board game to appear.
‘Maybe this is how Supernaturals entertain themselves. Just like ordinary people play cards or chess, Supernaturals have their own form of recreation.’
And the item in her hand was one of them.
Thinking this, Adeline steadied her nerves.
‘If this really is a board game, it must have rules. Rules can be understood and mastered. And understanding and mastering rules is exactly what I’m best at.’
She took a deep breath and turned her attention back to the map on the table.
How do you play?
‘The method might be simpler than I imagined.’
Adeline smiled slightly.
She pressed down on the card and, as if moving a game piece, shifted it from its original position to a random spot on the map.
The moment she did this, a change occurred.
On the upper left corner of the card’s face, the ink squirmed and drew a small circular pattern.
It was a clock—just a dial, densely packed with countless tiny tick marks, so fine they were almost impossible to count.
From the center of the clock extended a single hand, turning extremely slowly, one tick at a time.
Adeline stared at the clock for a few seconds.
The hand moved at an incredibly slow speed—at this rate, completing a full revolution would take several hours.
She thought for a moment, then moved the card again to another spot on the map, not far from the original location—just a few alleys away.
The clock changed.
The number of tick marks decreased.
Originally, the marks had been densely packed around the entire circumference, but now only about one-third remained.
The hand still moved slowly, but with fewer marks, the time needed to complete a full revolution was clearly much shorter.
‘Sure enough, the clock represents time. Specifically, it’s the time required to move from one location to another. Or, to use a more game-like term, it represents the total time needed to complete a specific command or task. When the hand completes a full revolution, it means the task is done.’
‘So, when the progress bar finishes, what new changes will this “magical board game” show?’
Adeline was very much looking forward to it.
This thing really was both novel and interesting.