Pastor's Tantra

If "Ms. Nelim" were still here, she would definitely come over and curse her angrily when she heard a "good singing person" like Yunus call herself a goblin.

But after Yunus finished speaking, nothing happened.

The room was empty, as if the little guy hiding under Aiwass's hair had never appeared.

"why is that?"

Yunus was stunned.

"Because you were so depressed that you drove Ms. Nelim away."

Aiwass raised the corners of his mouth slightly, joking with teasing and malice.

"……Really?"

"——Obviously, fake."

Sherlock's cold voice came from outside the door: "Open the door."

Aiwass walked over, opened the door, and let him in.

Yunus's smile seemed a little forced and nervous, and he returned to the smooth singing tone before: "Dear Mr. Sherlock, I have a doubt..."

"——You want to know when I came."

Sherlock directly interrupted Yunus's words, skipping the long politeness: "I just arrived not long ago, but I have already heard what I need to hear."

"...In this case, it is really a pity; the wine has been drunk by us..."

"-I have also known your identity for a long time, Your Highness. Aiwass told me. Yes, I have known it from the beginning. I will stand by Her Majesty the Queen-no matter which queen it is. So I am right You have an angry attitude.”

Like a player who quickly skips the conversation, Sherlock quickly responded to the doubts that Yunus had not raised yet.

Looking at Yunus who was speechless, Sherlock tilted his head slightly and said calmly: "Do you have any more questions?"

Although he seemed quiet and rational, Aiwass felt that he was a little angry.

"I think……"

So Aiwass pulled Sherlock to find a place to sit down, and at the same time said with a smile: "What Mr. Yunus is curious about is probably... how did you realize the problem."

"...Do you want to hear me praise you, Aiwass?"

"You might as well talk about it."

"Of course it's the secret knowledge you told me - the knowledge about fairies."

Sherlock chuckled, no longer looking at Yunus, but looked back at Aiwass: "Those things mentioned in Eagle Point Village."

"...Eagle Point Village."

Yunus murmured: "Yingjiao Village in Muwan County?"

"I guess you must be Anastasia who you met nearby."

Aiwass, who was standing next to Sherlock, glanced at him and declared directly: "Besides, she is alone."

"That's true...what's going on?" Only Yunus didn't quite understand the situation.

"This brings up the habits of goblins," Sherlock did not deliberately ignore anyone, but responded, "Have you heard of the goblin forest?"

"...Fairy Forest?"

"Well, I guess you haven't heard of it. To put it simply, if a clean path with few fallen leaves suddenly appears in those deep, lightless dense jungles, it means that this is the fairy forest - it will open the path from time to time. The tunnel to the Fairy Kingdom.”

Sherlock responded.

Yunus frowned: "Of course I know about the 'Land of Joy'! It's the fairy tale wonderland that the bards dream of! But there are obviously fallen leaves here..."

"——That's because it hasn't been opened yet. The sacred number of the Twin Mirror is two, and the passage to the Fairy Kingdom usually opens at two o'clock in the morning."

The person who answered was Aiwass.

He looked at Sherlock and smiled: "Sure enough, you noticed it too."

"I know for sure, because I am a witness. But you - how did you find out?"

Sherlock asked rhetorically.

Aiwass replied: "Because Miss Nelim is too young."

"...Wait, wait, I don't understand. Is there something wrong with Miss Nelim? Or is she Anastasia?"

Yunus was a little confused.

Sherlock raised his eyebrows and continued to tell the riddle prompts: "Have you met Miss Nelim before?"

"Of course not! I just saw it for the first time today..."

"But she said she came to see you."

"But then...oh..."

Halfway through Yunus' words, he suddenly reacted and remembered something. The words stopped abruptly.

Sherlock said: "Underage fairies will definitely live in the country of fairies. Fairies do not have the ability to move instantly. And that melancholy ballad - the song you sang when you played the piano last night - if you were not very good at it before If you sing it often, I think she came to you because of this song."

Yunus was silent for a while: "This is... a new song I wrote after I came to the Theocracy. It was not the first time I sang it last night, but the first time I sang it was a week ago..."

Aiwass on the side knocked on the back of Sherlock's seat, attracting their attention.

He chuckled: "What an irony. As a well-known bard, the first song of 'Happy Yunus' to attract goblins was actually a sad homesick nursery rhyme."

"Probably because it was only in this song that he really spoke the truth."

Sherlock Cree commented.

"——In short, the fact that Miss Nelim is here means one thing."

Aiwass replied: "There is an entrance to the Fairy Kingdom nearby.

"As a bard, you should know the fairies very well. Only those invited by the fairies can see the invisible passage in the dense forest and enter the fairy forest. But it is also possible that the fairies take the initiative to go to the material world. Abduct those innocent, lively, good-looking and versatile children.”

Having said this, Aiwass said meaningfully: "And if these children enter the fairy forest and play with the fairies..."

"...I will forget time."

Yunus murmured to himself and continued.

A flash of enlightenment flashed in his eyes, and he obviously understood: "I remember that those children who entered the country of fairies... when they come back, their former playmates of the same age may become old people or even die of old age. .”

Sherlock nodded: "Yes, for humans, this is a painful thing. Especially when you come out of the country of goblins, you find that there is no one you know well around you. What you have learned Things are completely useless in the new era; the elders you used to rely on have now turned into dust; your former partners are still friends who separated not long ago to you, but to them you are already a person. A stranger.

"I can't find a place in the new world. I have no talents, no family, no friends, no shelter...I am alone and wandering. I may even forget the human language directly, or get used to the fairy kingdom like a fairy tale world, And lost the ability to survive in the material world...

"For them, death has become a kind of relief. The better choice is to give up their human identity and become a goblin."

"...becoming a goblin?"

Yunus opened his eyes wide.

Could it be that Nelim is...Miss Anastasia?

"I know what you are thinking, but unfortunately - it's probably not. Or, it might be... but it doesn't make sense whether it is or not."

Aivas ruthlessly interrupted Yunus’s thoughts: “You think too much about fairies.

"Fairies are indeed innocent beings, and they can even give up their own lives for happiness... Do you think it is possible for a human being to become a real fairy? For fairies, the human soul is too boring. .

“In fact, the goblin’s transformation magic is closer to the Moon Child’s transformation ritual.

"As long as humans live in the country of fairies for a long time and eat fairies' food, they will gradually lose traces of being human. If they feel scared and insist on going home immediately, they will probably disappear for only a few years or more than ten years; if they are If you listen to the plea and continue to stay here, maybe forty or fifty years will pass.

"If they continue to be detained at this time and have dinner with the goblins here...then it will be almost impossible for them to go back. Because these children have forgotten human language after eating the goblins' dinner. If they continue to stay Here, you will lose your common sense as a human being, completely forget your parents and family, and no longer want to go home. Then you will lose the rich emotions that belong to humans, and finally, you will forget your memories as a human being.

"At this point, can they still be said to be the original human beings? Even the color and shape of their souls are different.

"But this is only the case for humans. Staying in the fairy kingdom for a long time means death. Then..."

Aiwass said meaningfully: "What about elves?"

Elves' sense of time is five to seven times that of humans.

Even if fifty years of separation passed by in one leap, to the elves... it was only less than ten years.

——And in these "just fifty years", all the values ​​​​of the elves have been solidified.

And even if the Elvish language is lost, it is not a terrible thing for Elf children with long lifespan to relearn the language. After all, my parents and friends are still alive, and the whole world has not changed much.

Even if you lose your feelings, it's not a big problem - it just so happens that you can prevent Ning Pa. The strong influence of the path of beauty can also prevent the influence of the path of dusk... This is called fighting fire with fire.

"——Think about it now."

Aiwass said meaningfully: "Master Maxim obviously loves his daughter very much. The headband with the words 'Anastasia, I wish you well' is the Master's handiwork. This should be Maxim. Made with my own hands...

"Such a person, when we mentioned Anastasia, he did not feel sad for her parting, nor was he proud of her going to the giant tree. No matter how I tried to induce the topic, he did not talk about it. Any stories about Anastasia as a child—did he really not miss Anastasia?

"Or let's put it this way, Mr. Yunus. When you gave him this hair tie, did he show a complicated expression of nostalgia?"

"……No."

Yunus shook his head slowly: "He quickly handed the hairband to me, and then told me... Anastasia died more than twenty years ago, but when I met her It was just a few years ago. And Mr. Maxim told me that she had never been to Avalon...because she had been a tree since she was very young."

"-Yes, this is the key."

Sherlock narrowed his eyes and interjected.