Chapter 655

Chapter 40: The Mark of Mese

“Do you not believe me?”

I deliberately frowned and looked at her with a twisted face.

“No, no! That’s not it!”

The little girl became flustered after seeing my expression, waving her hands frantically: “Betty believes in Sister. Betty… Betty is just afraid that if Grandpa finds out, he will scold me to death… Because Grandpa told me that some things are… are not meant to be known by outsiders… If that happens, it could very well reach the Church, and then the town would be in big trouble, and all of us…”

The more she spoke, the more entangled she became, lowering her head and twisting her fingers together: “Actually, Betty… doesn’t know much either. Grandpa said I was too young to understand too many things, so he only told me a little bit… Most of what I know is from overhearing… Oh, Sister, can I not say anything?”

“No.”

I turned away, dropped the fire stick, and reached out to pinch her face: “Tell me quickly! I won’t tell anyone else.”

“Ouch… Sister hurts…”

The little girl winced, trying to lift her head and shake off my hand, gently rubbing her cheek, her face full of distress: “Alright then… Sister saved my life today, so you’re like my benefactor now. I’ll tell you a little bit, but you can’t tell anyone else, nor can you tell Grandpa. This is something I’m telling you… otherwise Betty will get punished…”

“Okay, okay.” I nodded repeatedly.

Betty paused, tightened her fingers even more, lowered her head, hesitated for a moment, and finally began to speak slowly: “In fact… we are just ordinary people living in the desert… Although poor, we live quite peacefully every day. We don’t have many ideals or ambitions… Perhaps we did long ago, but now everyone just wants to live undisturbed on this land…”

She suddenly raised her head: “Sister, we are descendants of the Amikil Mountains, an ancient and great immortal clan. In our veins flows the blood of those who once had the power to move mountains and fill seas.”

!

I widened my eyes: “You mean…”

“Are you surprised, Sister?”

The girl looked at me, her face serious, but soon broke into a smile.

“There’s nothing to be surprised about. We no longer have such powerful abilities. Apart from our silver hair and sky-blue eyes, the rest is just like any other commoner. We are all just insignificant parts of this era.”

She touched her silky long hair, her smile reflecting in the flickering firelight, bright and clear: “And our bloodline has gradually diluted over hundreds or thousands of years. Or perhaps, we were always just a group born from a cruel war… an abominable and deformed creation. Yes, I heard Miss Elina say this before. Silver hair, blue eyes, an abominable creation…”

“…”

Silver hair, blue eyes…

Isn’t this… the characteristic of the Apolista people?

I was somewhat confused and didn’t know what to say.

Only a few faces flashed through my mind, including the woman named Elina, Sister Teresa, and Carlos… They all, like the little girl in front of me, had bright silver hair and sky-blue eyes.

That means—

“Sister, let Betty tell you a story.”

Standing up from the bonfire, she stretched her arms and let out a soft breath. “This story is about when Betty was eight years old. One night, she had a nightmare and couldn’t sleep. Her grandfather came over to keep her company and told her this story.”

She walked over to the side and picked up the leftover animal bones on the sand one by one. “It was a very frightening dream. In it, there were many people who died on a battlefield drenched in blood. Many more were buried under the yellow sands, their families captured, shackled with heavy chains, and locked in cages, not knowing where they would be sent…”

“They all had the same hair color and eye color as me. The scene in the dream was incredibly realistic, and I still can’t forget it even now. After waking up, I couldn’t hold back and told my grandfather about it, and he then told me about what happened thousands of years ago.”

The little girl paused again.

“Grandfather said that the Immortals living in the Amikir Mountains were a peaceful and kind race who disliked conflict. They were naturally beautiful, immortal, with silver hair like the stars and deep blue eyes. They were enthusiastic about helping the weak. In the past, they had helped humans with many things… They once lived in peace with humans until war approached.”

The little girl threw the animal bones she had picked up into an empty corner. “The Western Army advanced, claiming righteousness, and entered the territory of the Immortals. At that time, many natives of the Eastern Continent had already formed families with Immortal males or females, and they had small children. These children, regardless of gender, had the same silver hair and blue eyes as me.”

“Oh…”

I could almost imagine some of the things that might have happened here before.

“The descendants of humans and Immortals were called Mese people in the past. Grandfather told me that in the language of the Immortals, the word ‘Mese’ means a peaceful love, a symbol of freedom… Unfortunately, such freedom and peace, the admired love, were ultimately crushed by the terrible war.”

The little girl threw away the animal bones and sat back down by the bonfire, hugging her knees and curling up, gazing at the flickering flames with a calm expression.

“Our ancestors mostly sided with the Immortals when the war arrived, so they were seen as shameful traitors by humans at that time. Some of their names are still carved on the Sinstone in the Holy City… This is what Grandfather told me, and he heard these stories from his father, my great-grandfather.”

The little girl sniffed. “After the war was lost, the Immortals lost their powerful abilities and no longer had any chance to resist. The Western Army invaded their homeland and massacred all the men. As for the women… they were all captured, treated as slaves by humans, sold, and given to those in power, officers, and those who won the battle. Then… then…”

Then, they became toys for others to enjoy freely, or were exiled and thrown into filthy, stinking tents and cages, used as military prostitutes, fainting every day under torture and humiliation, awakening in disgrace. Every time they opened their eyes, they saw not the dawn’s light, but endless nights, boundless darkness and pain, until death came.

Betty could never bring herself to say such things.

And judging from the furrow in her brow, her grandfather probably wouldn’t tell her such nauseating and cruel facts in detail either.

“The women who were imprisoned, although they lost their powers, their bodies remained immortal. Grandfather told me that to those evil people, this was a very, very interesting thing…”