Deep Sea Embers

In the forest shrouded in the dusk sky, Lucretia followed the elf woman holding a strange long-handled weapon, trekking deeper into the dense forest.

The opponent walked very fast, even in a rugged forest with overgrown vines and no roads at all, his footsteps seemed to be running on a flat and wide road - this kind of extreme adaptability to the forest and special footwork One can't help but think of the "classical skills" mentioned in some ancient elves' legends. In those descriptions, elves once lived in a vast country full of "forests", and they could move in the woods like a breeze. Jumping around, instead of being like modern elves, who have long forgotten many skills of harmonizing with nature in the city-state full of high-rise buildings.

Lucretia certainly couldn't keep up with such a pace - she knew it without even trying.

The witch lady has always refused outdoor activities. Even when she had to go out, she would use various spells to get on her way. Therefore, after she was thrown away by this elf woman for the first time, she decisively turned on the phantom wind, and from time to time she would Turned into flying pieces of paper and passed through the forest, so as to keep up with the opponent's speed - anyway, father is not here.

The only thing she was worried about was how the weird elf who appeared in this "dream" would react after seeing this scene, but it turned out that the other party didn't react at all when he saw these weird spells of hers, just like at the beginning At that time, the elf did not realize that the "uninvited guest" in front of him was a human being. Instead, he wanted to take him to the place called the "Wall of Silence" like an invitation to his fellow humans.

Seeing this situation, Lucretia had some vague guesses in her mind, so she deliberately did some more obvious and inconsistent things to verify her guesses - she simply stopped from time to time and used magic to create some comparisons. Big movements, like suddenly summoning giant flower vines, or creating some explosions in the air.

The elf still showed no abnormal behavior - at most she stopped when Lucretia deliberately delayed her time and waited patiently for the other party to catch up.

Lucretia temporarily stopped her "test" and began to follow the other party with peace of mind. At the same time, she controlled the "puppet medium" in the distance in her mind and described the situation on her side to Duncan:

"After my testing, this elf is indeed not the 'dreamer' of this dream. She should be the 'product' or a component of the dream... Her cognitive and behavioral patterns have obvious limitations... It seems to be a With a layer of 'normalization filter', the abnormal performance of outsiders is 'normalized' in her eyes. This normalization may be to maintain the stability of the dream.

"I have not conducted a higher-intensity 'test', and I don't know what the upper limit of this 'normalization' is, but in theory if my behavior is too outrageous, it may cause the cognitive reset of this 'elf', or it may Leading to more intense 'rejection' from the dream world... Now I need to continue the investigation, can't take the risk...

"Ah, you have entered the neighborhood where the 'mutation' occurred? Great, then I hope you can find the 'dreamer' from the real world side. If you lock the source of the dream, you should be able to directly intervene here as usual. ..."

"By the way, what's your name?"

A voice suddenly came from the front, interrupting the communication between Lucrezia's mind and the distance. Miss Witch stopped immediately and looked up to the front.

The elf girl with a long-handled ax in her hand and a wonderful blue silk thread woven in her blond hair was turning her head and looking at this side curiously.

"You can call me Lucrezia," Lucrezia said frankly, "Why do you suddenly want to ask me my name?"

"The more people know their name, the more people may remember themselves," the elf not far away said seriously, "My name is Shirin, you have to remember it."

Lucrezia noticed the worry and tension in the opponent's eyes.

Along the way, she noticed the worry expressed by this strange elf more than once - and the tense atmosphere always permeated the entire forest, just like the "undertone" of the dream itself.

After a little hesitation, Lucrezia asked, "What happened?"

The elf named Shirin opened her mouth, but didn't say anything. It seemed that she didn't know where to start, and she seemed to feel that certain things should not be disclosed to "ordinary people" at will, so in the end she just shook her head gently. He shook his head and said: "Don't worry, Sirandis will protect us, everything will be fine... Let's go quickly, it is no longer safe outside the Silent Wall. Corrosion may appear in the area outside the wall at any time. If you meet people like me The ranger is your blessing."

Erosion - Lucretia immediately noticed this special word, then silently remembered it in her heart, and then followed Shireen's wind-like footsteps again, heading towards the depths of this seemingly endless forest. trek.

…

"Agou, did you hear anything?"

In the lush and endless dark forest, Shirley suddenly frowned, and then she bent down and hid behind a bush while vigilantly observing the movements around her, while carefully asking Agou who was hiding in the shadows.

Agou's voice came directly into her mind: "The sound of wind, trees, and unknown birds are all normal sounds on the surface - but the atmosphere is very weird, and it's getting weirder and weirder from just now. I don't know I know how to describe it, it's like... the environment itself is transforming, and the surrounding trees are no longer trees, but something that is gradually taking on a malevolent..."

Shirley suddenly got goosebumps, her eyes were nervous, and she looked around at the unknown towering giant trees, one arm has gradually transformed into the characteristics of a deep demon: "Agou, what you said is a bit scary Oh, there are damn trees everywhere here..."

"It was you who asked me to say it, and I told the truth about my 'feeling'," Agou replied in a muffled voice, "I advise you to be serious, the perception of the deep hound has always been keen-this forest is gradually It's going wrong."

"Any fool knows something is wrong here..."

Shirley murmured, and cautiously left the bush where she had just hidden—even though she didn't know what was going on here, her intuition told her that it was best not to stay in one place for a long time.

Plants are everywhere as far as the eye can see. The lush and gloomy jungle is a scene that she, a girl who was born and raised in a narrow and crowded slum, could not imagine. She only learned from the conversation between the captain and others not long ago. I had heard of such a place, but I didn’t think that I was just taking a nap, so I was brought here—if my guess is correct, this place should be the "nameless person" mentioned by both the captain and Lucrezia. dream".

Feeling the eerie atmosphere around her, Shirley suddenly had a regretful expression on her face: "Shouldn't I take a nap while doing my homework..."

"I think it has nothing to do with whether you doze off when you do your homework when you enter this weird 'foreign land'," Agou's figure gradually emerged from the shadows, condensed into the floating smoke and dust, and it followed Shirley. Alert all around muttered, "But the sentence itself is correct - you shouldn't take a nap while doing homework."

"The main reason is that I get a headache when I count," Shirley muttered, as if she wanted to talk about some everyday topics to divert the tension brought on by the gloomy atmosphere here, "and I also know a lot of basic words, Why do we need to learn arithmetic..."

Agou was listening silently, it seemed to want to keep quiet, but after a few seconds of silence, it continued to mutter as usual: "I still need to learn some arithmetic, even for myself..."

Shirley pursed her lips, and couldn't help muttering: "Agou, why do you want me to learn these things so much... I feel that you are more motivated than the captain..."

Agou didn't speak for a while, and after a while, when Shirley was about to forget the topic, it suddenly said: "Do you still remember the seventy-two pesos?"

Shirley was stunned for a moment, and after a moment, she opened her eyes slightly, as if she finally remembered something from the faded childhood memories.

A slightly complicated expression appeared on her face, and she whispered embarrassingly: "You... still remember, it happened so long ago..."

"I will always remember that a bastard who can kill thousands of people, with a few scrawled pieces of paper, can defraud a child out of his reward for working through chimneys in a factory for several days - if I could read at that time, you could You don’t have to be hungry for those days, and if you could read at that time, you wouldn’t have to crawl into those dark and dangerous chimneys - being an apprentice copying numbers in a pump room is better than that."

Shirley fell silent.

After a while, she whispered: "But now you can read. Not only can you read, you can also learn at the same pace as Nina..."

"What if I can't stay with you all the time?" Agou muttered.

Shirley was stunned for a moment, as if she didn't know what to say for a moment, and then subconsciously said: "Then Captain..."

"The captain may not always protect you - he is very good, and he takes good care of you now, but subspace is unpredictable after all." Agou shook his head, "Shirley, you have to rely on yourself."

Shirley lowered her head. After a few seconds, she gently shook the chain connected to her arm: "Agou, what did you mean when you said you can't stay with me all the time?"

"...Don't think so much, I'm just making an analogy," Agou sighed in his throat, "I don't want to leave you, but I'm not sure about the future. After all... I have a 'heart' , and there has never been a deep demon with a heart in this world. No one knows what changes will happen to me. Maybe 'human nature' will make me have a life limit like you humans. Maybe my reason will change with the years. The growth is gradually reduced, and maybe one day, my 'heart' will disappear again..."

"Agou," Shirley suddenly interrupted. She stared and tugged on the chain in her hand, "You... stop talking."

"Okay, I won't say anymore."