Chapter 302

Chapter 88 Let’s Eat First

There was a moment of dizziness in my consciousness.

When I came back to my senses, it seemed as if I had returned to that black castle nestled against the mountain and bathed in moonlight.

The wind and snow raged outside the window, and the icy waves battered the wooden windows, making them creak loudly.

Where am I…

In the huge room, the stone walls were pitch black. On the left side of the wall hung several oil paintings. In one painting, a mother and daughter with black hair were holding hands and playing in the snow; in another, a younger sister and two older brothers were crawling in the snow, with a silver-white fox ahead; in yet another, a child with pigtails was riding on her father’s neck, dancing with excitement; in the last one, a petite girl sat at the piano, with moonlight spilling in through the window, casting an unclear light on her face… Each scene felt familiar.

But in all the paintings, everyone’s faces were blurry, as if distorted by some mysterious power, making it impossible for me to see clearly.

On the right side of the room, opposite the paintings, next to the warm fireplace, there was a row of neatly arranged bookshelves. The shelves were filled with various books, but upon closer inspection, they seemed to have no titles. The leather covers were bare or covered in childish, colorful doodles. Beside the bookshelf stood an ebony desk with a candlestick on one corner. The flickering light illuminated a book open on the desk, and next to the book was a plate of doughnuts… Wait, doughnuts?

…Is this Sante堡?

It looks so much like it…

But there are many strange things… At least, Sante堡 doesn’t have rooms laid out like this. This place feels like a combination of my father’s study, my bedroom, and the living room…

“How is it?”

“Yah!”

A sudden voice startled me, almost causing me to jump. My heart raced, and my gaze darted around warily, reaching behind me to find Captain Gray, but my hand grasped nothing.

“I thought about it for a long time. I thought about what you said, then created such a dream…”

…This is a little girl’s voice.

Is she talking to me?

Where…

“…I call this a dream… I don’t know if it works… Oh well, it’s troublesome anyway… But I still managed to do it! Hehe, isn’t it amazing!”

The childish and rambling voice sounded as if it was right beside my ear, yet also coming from far away outside the window, echoing uncertainly in the room, making it impossible to determine where it was coming from.

But it seems… there’s no hostility.

I relaxed slightly. I straightened up from my defensive posture, furrowing my brows in thought.

Two seconds later, I recognized this voice.

This was the dream from the terrace… and even earlier, after battling the Gate of Truth… I heard this voice at the end.

“Sister, I found you.”

Her voice sounded rather happy.

No mistake…

It’s that little girl who called me “sister.”

“…Who are you?” I asked tentatively.

But the little girl seemed not to hear me. She was apparently talking to herself: “But I can’t bring people in… It feels so complicated, so difficult… I can only do it like this… Ah, ah~”

The little girl shouted meaningless, song-like syllables, as if trying to prove she could transmit sound, forgetting that she had been speaking all along.

“Just leave a message… But I can’t make my sister see me… Hmm…”

She seemed troubled.

But after a moment of silence, the little girl became excited again.

“Sister, I haven’t changed much! Really! Although I couldn’t see anything in the mud, I touched everything—face, nose, belly, and so on. They all seem about the same size, and my hair is the same length… I wonder if it looks the same as before… But I definitely haven’t turned into a monster! How great…”

Wait a minute.

What did she just say… She was in the mud…

I suddenly realized something.

Hey hey hey…

“Right, Sister. Did you see my crow? I made it look like goat cheese. Isn’t it similar? Hehe~ It went looking for you!”

Crow…

Crow!!!

Suddenly, a tremendous sense of shock surged through me, my body tingling as goosebumps erupted on my arms and back. I couldn’t hold back a shiver, my mouth slightly agape, staring at the empty room, unable to speak for a while. My dark pupils filled with disbelief.

How could this be…

“The crow is made of mud. Sister, these mud seems to listen to me~ It’s amazing! I can make them turn into crows, four-eared rabbits, and all sorts of animals… I can make them run far away, see what they see, and even let others see what I want them to see through their eyes… Whoever I want to see the crow, they can see my crow… As long as I don’t want them to, nobody can see my crow, it will hide itself~ Hehe! Isn’t it fun?”

What kind of joke is this…

What kind of ability is this!

“Are you the Abyss!” I shouted in the room.

“But there’s one thing I don’t like, if the small animals are too far away… It doesn’t work as well… If they’re farther, they might die. What a pity… But it doesn’t matter, the crow still helped me find you! I just wanted to take a breath, sleeping in the mud is so stifling… I didn’t expect you to be so close! So happy…”

“Are you still here?!”

“Answer me—”

If she’s still here…

No… something’s wrong…

She can’t talk to me… What I heard should all be pre-recorded…

“The city wrapped in shiny eggshells, is it the Order City? That’s great… I’ve never been there before… It’s so beautiful…”

What do you plan to do to the city…

“Where are you! Come out—”

“I was a bit scared to let the crow in, I just… gently touched the eggshell. I didn’t expect it to be so easy to pass through… Isn’t the eggshell of the city supposed to be powerful? How could it be so simple…”

The little girl completely ignored my questions. She muttered in confusion but quickly forgot about it.

“Never mind! Forget it. Anyway, it’s so exciting to meet Sister so soon~ Did you hear the message I left for you? I’m not sure… It’s too far… The crow flew for a long time… Wait? Something seems off… I got it wrong…”

As she spoke, her voice gradually faded.

The room fell silent again, only the sound of wind and snow remained.

I stood there呆呆地, breathing heavily, my chest heaving.

Abyss…

That’s the voice of the Abyss…

That black crow is her ability… She said she can make others see what she wants them to see… That dream on the terrace… and even earlier… that strange and eerie dream started when I looked into the crow’s eyes…

I still remember the feeling of being immersed in fear at that moment. Just like this room, everything… though absurd… could be touched.

If this is truly her ability… it goes far beyond just

It was just about “being seen.” This ability was incredibly terrifying, making it hard to guard against, but the little girl seemed to think about it quite simply… The words she had just said were all spur-of-the-moment, dictated by her mood and interest, without any consideration for whether others could understand… She must be very young.

But she actually knows me!

She knows my name is Peylo, she knows what my home looks like, knows that my parents have black hair, knows I have two older brothers… Perhaps she knows even more, things that I had told her before.

Clearly, she is different from the endless abyss and all the abysses I know. She retains her sanity, has emotions, and can communicate properly, using human language instead of Abyssal Language.

And if she isn’t lying to me…

She still retains her human form and seems to retain her memories. She is an existence like me, or perhaps even more so… Because she remembers me, but I don’t remember her.

Damn it…

What’s going on…

My head is a mess.

“Ahh, how disgusting…”

After a while, the clear voice of the little girl echoed again in the room.

!

I was first startled, then quickly responded when I realized, looking up and shouting, “Where are you? Can you see me? Can you, answer me, a few questions?”

Has she returned…

This abyss recognizes me.

Not only does she recognize me, but she is also very close to me… At least that’s how it sounds. Her attitude towards me is friendly, and she still retains her human memories. From the way she speaks, this abyss should still be a simple little girl… Maybe…

Maybe there’s a good chance she is an existence like me, one that doesn’t harm humans recklessly.

She seems to want to find me, but I am currently in the illusion she created. I want to try communicating with her.

Perhaps… I might learn something from her.

For example, what exactly happened after I disappeared. What do those instruments, the surgical chair… mean. And in that damp office, who is the owner of the black thorn cloak hanging behind the door… If that was an illusion created by the abyss, then the one who created it must know the truth!

She must know who… or what, turned us into this.

However, the little girl did not respond to my questions.

“There are so many people outside… My little lizard can see them… Sister, are they treating me as a terrible monster… They’ve built a golden wall around me…”

She spoke as if talking to herself, with a tone of frustration, sounding somewhat gloomy.

“I’m almost ready to go out… But I’m scared… I wanted to scare them away with mud, but they’re too strong, my mud doesn’t work, it’s all blocked by the golden wall… But I want to go out to find you…”

“Sister, why haven’t you come yet…”

The little girl’s words stopped again.

After a short pause, the clear childlike voice echoed again in the room.

“They seem to be doing something bad…”

The tone was urgent, as if she was very anxious.

“Can you tell them I’m still inside… Sister, do you think they’ll enter the mud, will they do something terrible to me… They’re all armed, they look so fierce… I’m, I’m a bit scared…”

“But you didn’t come looking for me…”

“If you don’t come, I’ll never talk to you again…”

“Peylo Sister…”

These voices…

Don’t seem to be recorded at the same time.

It feels like the little girl is saying these words with different moods at different times. Gradually, she started to become disheartened.

“Do you know, I’ve been in the mud for a long time… a really long time… I don’t want to stay here anymore, it’s so dark… I want to go out…”

“Why didn’t you come looking for me…”

“You clearly saw my crow… You definitely saw it…”

“Then I’ll tell you, I woke up…”

“Peylo Sister…”

Her innocent words were filled with anxiety, and later even turned into sobs.

“Besides you, I don’t know who else can help me…”

“What should I do…”

Suddenly, I felt a bit sad.

She must feel very helpless and afraid…

I’ve felt this way before.

That’s why she created the home I once described to her and hid here, talking to herself.

“Sister, the mud is getting colder…”

“That voice is speaking in my head again…”

?

What voice…

“I feel a bit unwell. Sister, I don’t feel good…”

“Peylo Sister…”

The originally bright and lively voice of the little girl gradually became a bit strange… as if she was suppressing something.

“I feel a bit strange…”

“I’m scared… I want to go out… I need to think of a way so they won’t find me… They can’t see my little lizard, there must be a way to hide me… I want to try… when the golden wall opens again…”

After a brief silence.

“Sister.”

“I’m so hungry…”

“I’m going out. I want to eat something… I really want to eat something…”

“Hmm…”

“I’ll leave the little snake here… I’m, I’m too hungry… Sorry Sister, I’m too hungry… I might…”

After the little girl finished speaking, I waited for a long time, but didn’t hear her voice again.

… She left.

A moment later, I confirmed this fact in my heart.

Undoubtedly.

She was hungry, and she thought of a way to get out. She avoided the church’s surveillance and went… to the capital city.

Terrible…

Recently, many people have disappeared in the capital city, including that drunkard who wanted to do something to me.

That’s not a normal event… That’s because the abyss is lurking in the capital city… in the form of a human child… Yes, that must be it! Why didn’t I think of this earlier… She must be in the capital city… Those fleeting glances must be because she was watching me… She found a way to make herself invisible to others, and then ran to the capital city, hiding somewhere to watch me… But…

If she really wanted to see me, why didn’t she come directly to me…

Rumble…

The room collapsed before my eyes. A blinding white light flashed again, and I couldn’t help closing my eyes. When I opened them again, the abyss mud wrapped around my body once more.

After a long while, I suddenly jolted awake.

I have to get out…

This new abyss… her last words were already off.

Maybe she’s too young, and doesn’t know how to control herself, unable to resist the abyss’s terrifying instincts… the intense desire to devour.

I need to tell Margaret this.

But before that…

In the darkness, the corners of the teenager’s lips curled up in a sinister smile, unbeknownst to her.

In the next moment, the abyss mud began to churn wildly around her.

… Before that, I need to eat.