Stray

    The whole stone room is illuminated by the ever-bright lamp on the stone wall, the blue flame is very weak, not much brighter than the moonlight. The pale trunk stood among the bones and remnants of feathers, and the blue bird fused at the top was thin and lifeless. She barely supported her eyelids, her breathing was barely detectable, and a few slender feathers fell to the ground, between the two adjacent blue bird skulls. In this patch of blue and white, only two things stand out—a neatly dressed human skeleton leaning against a tree trunk, in a posture like a nap, peaceful and serene.

    A particularly striking thick-covered book rests beside the corpse's hand bones. The spine of the book was embedded with a lot of precious ores, which shone with a warm dark red luster in the darkness.

    "...Lavinia." Nemo looked away from the unusually dazzling book and murmured the name over and over again. "Is this a translation on your own whim? Don't make such a joke, Dylan."

    "Oh, of course not," cried Jesse, "I dare not, you don't know what the name means—yes, the Lavinia you think of ."

    The "God" of Vincennes.

    But she is obviously not a real god, Nemo can vaguely perceive this. She was too weak, fragile like a crystal statue full of cracks that would break into tiny fragments when touched.

    "Do you know how much these are worth?" Jesse raised his chin at the corpse on the ground, "I finally got into this place that day—to tell you the truth, I almost lost my life— Then she came up with a forest ballad. Ouch, that emotion is really miserable. It's so miserable that I can't help but help."

    He rubbed his slender and beautiful fingers on the weird neck ornament on his chest: "This little thing can make me understand their words. It's a pity that she is dying, there is no way to use it to give each of you A 'revelation'. Or I'll definitely bring you to see her early in the morning."

    Nimo ignored Jesse, who sighed loudly, and exchanged glances with Oliver, carefully approaching the alien tree bird. His movements were very light, not stepping on even a small skeleton. Lavinia's eyes have no pupils, and it is difficult to find her actual sight from the starlight.

    "You... hello." Nemo stood five or six paces away from the tree trunk, so that the weak blue bird would not bow his head too much. At this distance, the appearance of the skeleton became clearer and clearer. It was not the bones of a young man. A few strands of gray hair were scattered on the delicate embroidery. And the book became more eye-catching at this distance. Even if Nemo had not received any systematic magical education, he could still feel the warm fluctuations it radiated.

    Lavinia let out a hard gasp, and then a voice. She didn't seem to have spoken for a long time. The sound was beautiful, and it was a bit close to the petals that had been deliberately dried—withered and fragile, with a faint breath of death.

    "Guests who can convey their thoughts..." she said softly, the inflection of the tone was slightly different from the blue bird language Nemo had heard. "bless you."

    "...Bless you too, dear Lavinia." Nemo didn't know what to say for a moment. The beautiful and strange creatures in front of him existed in the world and were still breathing. A little is enough to make him forget about the problem of a full stomach.

    "I know your purpose." Lavinia took the lead in speaking, not knowing if it was because of the environment, her voice was extraordinarily ethereal. "This... Jesse Dillon is not lying. The residents of Vincent Town are indeed my countrymen."

    "You know what's going on out there?"

    "Yes, but I just woke up. In your words... it should be a return to light." She sounded very calm, and seemed to be indifferent to the impending death.

    "You—"

    "I'm not a god, I'm just an ordinary priest." Those beautiful, speechless eyes turned to Nemo. "It may be that the real God wants me to bear witness to my own folly, that I personally facilitated my own prophecy."

    "What's going on in Vincent Town? If you don't mind..." Nemo hesitated for a while, but asked again.

    "That's the blessing of the blood that I personally accomplished. They...they were once the most fearless warriors, separating us from the dangerous humans." She let out a soft moan.

    It should have been a story of love and sacrifice.

    More than 200 years ago, the Grace Bluebird was almost wiped out by humans. Willard's team migrated and struggled in smaller and smaller living spaces, and the number dropped to almost one-third of the original. The priest at the time made a terrible prediction that the tribe would be completely destroyed in more than two hundred years.

    No matter how they grow, no matter how they struggle, there is no bright future for them. Grace bluebirds are really too rare, and there are far more races that use them as materials. Under that prophecy, the entire tribe fell into silent despair.

    The warrior and his friends stood up.

    They were the most vulnerable of the clan - born with flaws and unable to hear the words of their clan. Usually, they can only communicate with the priests in the sacrificial language. They were the most silent at the moment, and then some of the healthy members—the blue birds who loved their compatriots deeply, made a request to the priest.

    We can be sacrificed, they pray. As long as our loved ones live.

    The priest was moved, and they negotiated a rather extreme plan. The bluebirds who stand up will turn into enemies, learn everything from the outside world, and protect the tribe with the knowledge of the enemy. And that mighty priest can indeed help them do that.

    Blessings implanted in the blood are passed down from generation to generation, and the price is naturally very high. Brave bluebirds must learn everything from standing and step into the turbulent unknown. The priest named Lavinia was twisted by the blessing of defying the law—she was destined to accomplish it with her life force, and then fell into a statuesque drowsiness and came to an end.

    "That's the last thing I remember...but I was woken up by the singing." After the flat narration, her eyes were wet and desperate. "It's so weak, but it's terribly noisy - Mr. Dylan's arrival has let me know the time, and we can't escape the fate arranged by the gods in the end."

    The starry eyes finally filled with tears.

    "...and I'm the culprit. So I beg you—please help Mr. Dylan, you can take anything from me."

    Nemo conveyed Lavinia's meaning in a low mood. Now even Ann can't be bothered to make a joke. The unknown two hundred years in Vincent Town are like a poisonous cloud, obscuring the sun not at all. Oliver bowed to the lonely and feeble blue bird and agreed to her request.

    "We promised Mr. Dylan, since he really didn't lie..." Oliver paused for a moment, waiting for Nemo to convey the sentence to Lavinia. "Then we will do our best to help."

    She closed her tearful eyes wearily. At the same time, the swarm of incantations at the door spread out obediently, making way for a wide passage. The team left the darkness, and Nemo finally looked back at the human skeleton—he wanted to ask a question, but the atmosphere was really inappropriate, so he could only give up.

    "Dylan can agree to the next three-day deadline, which means that he can at least stabilize the blue bird for two days." Oliver slowed down and walked side by side with Nemo, "I I kind of want to go back to Vincent Town to see."

    "I agree." Nemo rubbed his face hard, as if he could rub away those anxiety and depression. "This situation is a little weird."

    “…You look in a bad mood,” Oliver said tentatively.

    "I hate this." Nemo shook his head, and the icy stone walls on either side slid behind his vision, looking more like a nightmare than before. "I can't tell...but...well, don't worry, it must have been too depressing in that place just now."

    He was unable to express exactly how he felt. There are enough books by Nemo, and the tragedies in the books always have a clear attribution - there must be someone who unleashed evil and made countless sacrifices for selfish desires. On the other hand there will always be mistakes, and there will always be steps that are not perfect. Mix these up and you get a reassuringly "reasonable" tragedy.

    The attribution is now ambiguous.

    "I'll take this." After confirming that Nemo at the end of the team walked out of the stone room, Jesse said casually. He picked up the book next to the human skeleton and waved it casually towards Lavinia. "Of course, I'll give it back to you."

    "Why are you lying?" The meeting seemed to have drained her strength, and Lavinia was breathing hard, at this time her volume was not as loud as a normal thrush. "You can clearly hear... and understand our words."

    Not a single word of Jesse Dillon is true.

    She still remembered the sight of this man appearing in front of her. He didn't bother at all, those incantation flying insects shivered against the wall, trying to stay away from him - the stranger walked in just like that, without even looking at the blue bird bones scattered all over the place.

    "Beautiful lady." His thoughts came to her mind neatly, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

    Lavinia couldn't tell the beauty or ugliness or expressions of humans, but she even forgot to answer at that moment. She flinched after a long absence, and the blond human made her feel like a poisonous reptile, or a thorn entangling her internal organs.

    "You look troubled." Seeing that she didn't answer, the blond youth added. "Well, I really have no ill will. You see, I am your last chance."

    She finally gave in.

    Lavinia is strong enough, even if she is weakened to this point, she can distinguish this - the person who comes is stronger than herself, and she can't estimate how much stronger. The former priest wouldn't be so desperate to trust a strange human being, but she definitely didn't want to anger the people in front of her.

    "...they won't believe my truth." Jesse flipped through the ancient book full of mana and answered her question in a whisper means to complain. "And it's more fun that way, isn't it?"

    The eccentric scaly neck ornament reflected soft light on his neck, Lavinia knew very well - that neck ornament could only be regarded as the "key to the door" here, other than that, There's nothing special about it.

    The so-called "revelation" that makes people understand the sacrificial text did not exist from the beginning.

    (m..=)