Lost Narrative Poetry

"Speaking of which, what should I call you?"

Now that the matter was over, Xia Ran simply put all the doubts and confusion behind her, completely put herself into the state of getting along with her new friends, and asked seriously——

"Yangyi? Shiki? Or can I just call you Shiki?"

"Ryo Ritual is my name, but if you just call me Shiki, I will be happy too."

Putting her hand gently on her chest, closing her eyes, she said: "In this way, at least tonight will be meaningful to me."

"Meaningful..." The magician chewed on this sentence for a while, and then he pointed at himself and introduced himself. "Although you must have known it for a long time, I think it is polite to say that I am Xia Ran."

"I do know this..." The kimono girl opened her eyes, nodded gently, then stopped talking, just stared at him quietly, as if waiting for something.

"..."

"..."

The air became quiet for a while, and only an atmosphere of silence filled the air.

"Well, what should I say now?"

Xia Ran let out a long sigh, feeling that this situation was really the one he was least good at dealing with. He was indeed no longer as worried and anxious as before, but this feeling was equally torturous and made him feel a little uncomfortable.

Are we going to keep staring at each other here? At least give yourself a little arrow that you can click on and have a conversation, right?

"You can say whatever you want, but I've never had any friends, and I don't know how friends talk to each other..."

The kimono girl replied gently, but the words she said made Xia Ran feel a little pitiful for her.

He sighed again, and then quickly sorted out his thoughts: "Then let me talk about it. Although it may be some boring little things, in your opinion, it is probably not a trivial issue... "

"Of course not. If you are really willing to talk to me about this kind of thing, I will be very happy..." She shook her head with a smile and said seriously.

"Okay, let me think about how to say it..."

What is this situation? Xia Ran had no choice but to use her brain, and began to talk endlessly about small things with her, including her daily life, past nightmares, and what she had seen in the mission world...

At first, he felt both angry and amused by this inexplicable development, but gradually he calmed down completely. He just said whatever came to his mind, and she listened to him happily.

The snow keeps falling, and the white fragments bury the darkness.

Fluttering and swaying, like feathers, falling.

I don’t know how much time passed like this. When talking about this encounter, Xia Ran seemed to have thought of something and looked at the kimono girl: "Speaking of which, I am still staying here and not leaving, right? Shiki your reason?”

"It seems like you want to end it as soon as possible. It must be hard for you to be forced to talk to me..."

She couldn't help but laugh, and then glanced at the end of the gray and broad night, then turned back and said softly.

"No, no, no, I didn't think so. I just asked in passing as I thought of it. And you must know what I'm thinking now."

Xia Ran shook his head vigorously. He didn't know how serious he was. He stared at the girl in kimono and said this.

He suddenly felt that she was very pitiful, so he had no intention of leaving her as soon as possible and running away - besides, it was useless to think about it - from just now until now, he had been very serious about trying to be a friend. , have a conversation with her.

"I don't know this, because ever since you said mind reading was too foul, I haven't deliberately read your thoughts anymore..."

She looked away like a butterfly hiding from the sun, not looking at him seriously, but just closed her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, as if she was happy and happy because of his answer.

"Is that true? It's really reassuring."

Xia Ran nodded, indicating that he believed it.

"Then, let me tell you, the fact that you are still able to stay in this world has nothing to do with me. I just know that you will stay until now, so I am just waiting for you here...about the reason why you can continue to stay. .”

The kimono girl explained directly, her tone was as if she was talking about tomorrow's weather, and she looked nonchalant——

"Actually, it's because the will of "the world" has been summoned by your previous actions, just like the state where the King of Knights was frozen before his death... It's not something difficult to understand. You probably just came from before. Now, you haven't noticed what information you have received, right? "

"Huh?"

Xia Ran was stunned for a moment, and then he understood something and opened the page of his unread message prompts. Because of the frequent screen swiping just now, he really never paid attention to the message prompts that appeared later.

Because he subconsciously felt that there would be nothing else worth paying attention to, except the acquisition of free attribute points and payment prompts.

After opening it, he found that a completely different prompt message did appear at the bottom of the page——

The reminder was that it was a contract with rules, and it was flashing continuously. He didn’t know how long it had been reminded, but he hadn’t paid attention to it.

She clicked on the details of the prompt with her mind. The next moment, Xia Ran heard a voice for sure. It seemed like an echo from the void, and it seemed like the shouts of countless people in unison, men, women, old people, children, The voices come together:

"I am prepared to give you the opportunity. In exchange for the fulfillment of that wish, I want to accept your death."

"..."

"..."

Xia Ran was silent for a moment, and he understood what the sound meant almost instantly.

Just like what happened to Artoria, Inhibition seemed to have taken a liking to him and planned to sign him as a wage earner.

Just like the moment Arturia summoned the will of "the world", her time has stopped. As long as the contract is not completed, she will always linger in the history of the Battle of the Sword Fence. Time Won't move forward.

Xia Ran's current experience is probably similar, except that he is not in a dying state, nor is he fixed in a certain period of history. It's just that at the last moment, the suppression of him completely disappeared.

Therefore, he has been able to continue to stay in this world until now without being excluded.

Wait, if you say so——

"If I had never agreed or rejected this contract, would I have been stuck in time?" He looked at the "Two Ceremonies" with anticipation.

"Of course this is impossible."

The kimono girl showed a peaceful smile and calmly denied his whims——

"Only if you can be of use, it will give unlimited opportunities and use you as a prop to drive you, provided that you can be of use to it."

In other words, if he never explicitly agrees or refuses, the inhibitory force will not waste its power on him and keep him in this world.

"Ah, what a pity..." Xia Ran sighed a little disappointedly. He was not too surprised that he received the contract from Inhibition Force.

——Even Shirou Emiya can do it, there is no reason why he can’t do it.

"Then what will happen if I sign this contract?"

"Isn't it very clear? It will give you the opportunity to return to this world in the future, but as a price, if you really die in this world, it will accept your death..."

She looked at him and continued speaking in a matter-of-fact tone.

"In other words, if I don't die or die in this world, this contract will have no binding force on me?" Xia Ran pinched her chin and thought carefully.

"As long as the contract is established, your information will be absorbed by the mechanism, and then sent to the throne to be burned as a spiritual base... Just like the King of Knights, her body is not in the seat at all, which means she is still a living person , but because the contract was signed and there is information about her, she can still be summoned."

The girl shook her head and said, she knew everything, so she answered without any concern, as if she didn't think this was an issue that needed attention at all.

"Take the Holy Grail War you just conducted as an example. Borrow information from the heroic spirit body located in the Throne of Heroes, and then instill this information into the framework of the class. The clone of the heroic spirit created is a servant..."

"Although there is no way to summon your body, as long as the information is recorded here as a spiritual base, then your information is likely to be summoned as a servant, maybe in the past, maybe in the future, or maybe in another world. A world line..."

"Like a clone?" Xia Ran nodded as if he understood, "Although it is not directly controlled by me, I can only know what "I" did after the fact? "

"Yes, because the information that makes up the Servant will return to the seat when the Servant dies or the summons ends. Naturally, the main body can know its own actions as a Servant in a recorded way like reading a book."

She glanced at him and explained casually.

"But the premise is that you return to this world and you can update the information through the contract with the restraining force... You can know what "you" have done, and the changes in the information brought about by your own growth will also be given to everyone here The spiritual records bring about changes. "

"It sounds like a very interesting idle gameplay...but I have to think about it carefully." The magician nodded seriously.

No wonder I received such a contract. No matter how much my emotional restraint is, it is not a loss. It is originally a defense device for the "human world" made by people's unconscious collective. It absorbs countless records and countless powers. Before the end of human nature, will exist forever.

"Xia Ran, I also want to ask you something... Although it's a bit regretful, after I ask, our conversation will end today. That's why I came here."

At this time, the kimono girl said seriously, looking at him with pupils that were several times more mature than she looked.

"Oh, tell me, I'm all ears..." Xia Ran quickly stopped other random thoughts and responded.

"What is it that you want to get?"

She quietly took a step forward and reached out to touch his face. Her pupils were transparent when she extended her hand, and there was endless depth in them. She seemed to be able to see the lack of humanity in the pupils deep in the human heart. There was only something like a god. temperament.

"——Tell me, what is your wish? As long as it is a wish, I can usually make it come true."

It is indeed this!

Xia Ran had expected it, so he started thinking seriously. At this moment, many thoughts flashed through his mind, but none of them were the correct answers.

He was very sure that she was definitely not just here to be a wish machine for him, there must be a more profound reason, and he only had one chance, and if he said the wrong thing...

His thoughts turned a thousand times in an instant, and Xia Ran seemed to have made a decision. He looked directly at her, responded to her with his eyes, and expressed his innermost thoughts word for word——

"Tell me, what is your wish? Can I help you realize it?"

Maybe it’s the story of the cat with nine tails…

Maybe it's just because she feels pity for her...

Maybe there is no reason, just taking this opportunity to ask directly...

But she smiled.