Chapter 634

Chapter 19 Historical Remnants Part 1

“Miss, I understand your concerns. Of course, you wouldn’t easily trust us. So, let Miss Elina tell you herself. Some things are actually written in the books down in the cellar… You all are about to do great things. I am just an old man… cough, cough…”

He coughed and took out his pipe, filling it with tobacco from a pouch at his waist while stepping back and bowing: “Cough! I am just a plain old man, able only to contribute a little bit. Help Miss Elina, do some insignificant tasks… This way, my heart feels at ease…”

After saying this, Robert the old man smiled at me again, his face full of wrinkles, then turned and walked away slowly.

Yes, he would naturally support that woman…

But this isn’t the answer I wanted…

I didn’t stop the former mayor again. Instead, I stood in front of the mud house, watching his hunched back disappear. My eyes flickered, and I bit my fingernails as I sank into thought.

Hmph…

He must have seen what I wanted to ask, but pretended not to. He rambled on about useless things instead…

This old man isn’t stupid…

Although he appears simple and honest, he knows everything. The truth about the gods and the world, the residents of this town probably know too. Even young girls know something… It’s impossible for Elina to have told them all.

If it was just a matter of cooperation, that woman wouldn’t need to reveal all the truths to the townspeople. Such facts might not be accepted or believed by ordinary people. To avoid unnecessary trouble, she should try to hide more.

In other words…

Many things, the townspeople here already knew long ago. Perhaps many years ago, they had already learned about the existence of gods and understood what the abyss truly is. This is why the townspeople can accept the Door of Truth and choose to cooperate with Elina rather than seeing her as a demon or heretic.

They must know what the church has done and part of the truth about this world…

But these matters, the former mayor doesn’t want to talk about much.

It’s not because he’s trying to hide things from me or has ill intentions towards me. The former mayor simply doesn’t trust me as an outsider, just as I don’t trust him…

Forget it…

If there’s another chance, I’ll talk to him more.

When the former mayor’s figure was far away, I turned and entered the mud house, returning to the cellar. Soon, the veiled women brought hot meals. They were similar to last night’s, purple lizard meat and dry bread, still nearly a full table, except no beetles were served.

These women might gossip behind my back, but in front of me, they behave very cautiously and timidly. Each one lowers their head, not daring to breathe heavily, not even daring to express any opinion on my ability to finish a whole table of food, showing no surprise, just quietly clearing the dishes and leaving.

Around noon, the little girl named Betty really did bring me a knife.

The knife was a curved Damascus blade, long and sharp, over half a meter in length. Though it wasn’t as finely crafted as those from the central workshop, it was clearly very detailed. It was likely the best knife the town could offer.

Though I don’t really need a knife, former Mayor Robert…

The method made me feel even more secure. In the face of uncertain recovery of my strength, having a sharp weapon in hand was always a good thing.

The people in this town… mostly men and women, their attitude towards me was indeed respectful; they would grant almost any request. I also understood the reason behind it.

Ultimately, what they respected was my identity, the heir to the Goddess, the guest brought by Eluna.

These townspeople might regard me as an angel or something similar of the Goddess of Sin, but they didn’t respect me as a person. They had done nothing for them, and their respect was only for the deity and the power bestowed upon me by the deity…

In these two days, I ate very well every meal. Each meal could be as much as ten servings of some kind of lizard meat. At night, there was soup too. This should be considered quite luxurious in the town. Once, I saw old Robert squatting at the door of the mud hut, smoking his pipe, with a bowl of dark, unknown grass leaves by his feet. He would occasionally grab a handful and chew on it with dry bread. There was only half a loaf of bread, which was their daily food.

Even if I saw such scenes, I wouldn’t be polite about it. The water for bathing could be delivered once every other day, but when it came to eating, I would never compromise or settle unless absolutely necessary. I tried to eat as much as possible because I could genuinely feel my strength recovering, although the speed of recovery was very slow.

I no longer ran around recklessly, staying properly in the cellar, only occasionally stepping out of the mud hut to breathe fresh air, bask in the sun, and greet old Robert when I saw him.

The old man seemed to live in a slightly larger mud hut across the diagonal with a courtyard. Once, I saw the little girl hiding behind the wall of the courtyard, peeking at me through a broken hole in the wall. She fled like a startled rabbit after I discovered her.

Two days passed quickly, and the woman named Eluna hadn’t returned yet.

On the evening of the second day, I saw old Robert again and asked him once more. The old man said that Miss Eluna might have been delayed by something on the road and told me to wait patiently for another two days; she would definitely return.

We chatted about some trivial matters. I told him I was from the Valen Empire and asked if he knew any recent news from there. The old man told me he didn’t know. The information in Mese Town was very closed off; there was no church, and no news would be sent here. Many people, including himself, couldn’t read. They didn’t care much about external affairs, so he couldn’t tell me anything.

However, from his mouth, I learned that the nearest town was east of this town. It took three to five days to get there after crossing the Yellow Mountain. That place was somewhat more prosperous than here. The men in the town would go there from time to time to exchange the lizard meat they hunted for cloth, salt, and simple daily necessities. Sometimes they would also exchange for coins.

This was much closer than I had imagined before.

But according to what the old man said, that town was only slightly more prosperous. There was a market for trading, but it was mostly self-sufficient. No foreign merchants would go there, and there was no church. It was probably a remote and impoverished settlement, just like here, which made me a bit disappointed.

After dinner in the cellar, I continued to spend the remaining time reading those documents and sorting out clues.

After browsing through the notes of that woman, I found two incomplete ancient books on the bookshelf. These were what I spent almost all my time on these two days.

Among them, one of the ancient books, as the woman had mentioned earlier, recorded part of the truth of history a thousand years ago.