Chapter 402: 19. Tang Zeming Asuka (5k)
“Mr. Fisher, you seem a bit restless, and it seems you haven’t told me your purpose for coming to the Holy Realm. If you don’t want to say, that’s fine, I understand.”
Leaning against the window, Fisher heard the words from the whale folk named “Gouwen” and couldn’t help but sigh.
They had been here for three days; Fisher gauged the passage of time by the changing light of the outside world. During these three days, no angels had come to attend to them; no one brought them food, and it was as if they had been completely forgotten.
Fisher had been pondering what to do next. He knew practically nothing about the past and present of this place and had no idea how long ago he had traveled back in time.
Terms like Holy Realm, World Tree, and Eastern Continent were now laid out before him like a journey through time, forcing him to digest them in this cramped space for a long time.
But aside from that, what truly worried Fisher was Emhart and the Holy Grail that he needed to find, which was kept by Pandora.
Fisher turned to look at the optimistic handsome whale folk in front of him, who still wore a smile. He had no idea how this guy could remain so relaxed after being imprisoned here for three days. Over the past few days, Fisher had likely figured out Gouwen’s personality. The guy didn’t talk much and mostly kept quiet, just like him; however, he occasionally stared at Fisher, making him feel somewhat uneasy.
Overall, Gouwen was a friendly person. Fisher acknowledged his words but didn’t respond to his question. Instead, he asked,
“Well, sorry to bring it up, but we haven’t had anything to eat or drink in these three days, and we haven’t relieved ourselves either. This shouldn’t be a rule of the Holy Realm, right? Unless the Heavenly Lock the angels believe in is that boring.”
“Ah, that…”
Gouwen smiled as he supported his cheek with one hand and replied,
“This isn’t a rule of the Holy Realm; it’s just that I made a little adjustment for us.”
“Adjustment?”
Fisher raised an eyebrow in confusion, looking at Gouwen, who seemed harmless. He couldn’t grasp the implications of what this guy had said after sitting in front of him for three full days.
With a smile, Gouwen raised his hand and drew a vertical line in the air, as if representing a concept,
“Well, this is a little skill I learned from the medical theories of elves. Although there are many living beings in this world, aside from a few that serve special functions, elves roughly define the common organs as ‘five viscera’ and ‘six bowels,’ each with different functions.”
“And the ‘six bowels’ responsible for ‘metabolic functions’ actually have drawbacks. They tend to be weak and utilize energy inefficiently. If they could be improved, wouldn’t it be much better? My blessing happens to manipulate the flow of vitality to a certain extent, so I tried to enhance the operational efficiency of our six bowels.”
“This way, eating once can sustain us for a long time without the production of waste. If we can maintain this operation for long periods, it could significantly reduce the wear and tear of our organs and vitality, allowing even beings like us whale folk, who aren’t of a higher life form, to live a remarkably long time.”
Fisher wasn’t very knowledgeable about medicine, and the strange medical theories of elves were completely unfamiliar to him, making it even harder to understand.
Watching Gouwen, who seemed a bit excited discussing medical theories, Fisher didn’t interrupt him but began to wonder if Gouwen could so silently alter the operation of his organs to make them function better, could he also easily make them function poorly?
Seeing Fisher deep in thought, Gouwen immediately smiled wryly and waved his hand, explaining,
“Don’t be so gloomy, Mr. Fisher. You don’t need to worry about me harming you. As I mentioned earlier, I am a doctor. And our whale folk’s blessings and curses are closely tied to our personalities. Perhaps because I’m passionate about saving lives, my blessings and curses are all harmless and beneficial; I can’t just randomly damage your organs.”
“No, I’m not doubting you; I’m just curious about your blessing ability. I once met a whale folk who also had the blessing of imparting vitality.”
“Well, that shows that the whale folk girl also has a kind and passionate heart. The abilities of whale folk do not carry through bloodlines to the next generation; even two people with closely related bloodlines can have entirely different blessings and curses.”
“I see.”
But Fisher seemed to forget to mention that the curse of that whale folk girl siphoned life force away.
While the two of them were talking in the cage, Fisher suddenly heard some conversations outside. It had been quiet out there for a while, making the sudden chatter quite startling.
“Over here, there were two prisoners held here before.”
A masculine voice, unfamiliar to Fisher, spoke first, as if conversing with someone nearby. Responding to him was a lazy and pleasant female voice,
“Oh, there are two? Did they both fall from the sky?”
“Not sure. Those two are at a much higher level than this guy. They might be able to come up with all their might. This guy is just an ordinary human; if it weren’t for Lord Raphael, he would have died long ago.”
Both of their faces in the cage changed slightly. Fisher turned to look at the entrance of the cage, and in a few seconds, the heavy door sealing them in was opened, revealing two floating angels outside.
The leading figure was an angel, but unlike the “birdman with wings” image described by Eil, this one was tall, with indiscernible masculine and feminine features, clad in a loose, white robe that didn’t show his figure, adorned with beautiful golden patterns. A circular halo floated above his head, and four pairs of golden, translucent wings floated symmetrically behind his shoulders.
“Oh, you haven’t fed them anything these past few days, have you?”
“I don’t know, but there shouldn’t have been any food for them in the three days.”
At that moment, behind the male angel, the female voice Fisher had heard earlier spoke again. As the androgynous angel stepped aside, a slightly shorter, stunningly beautiful angel lazily revealed her alluring features.
Her eyes held a smile, and her languid aura revealed a hint of scrutiny. Her light blue, speckled pupils brimmed with a divine quality, deep and unfathomable. Her short, curly, golden hair swayed, enhancing the oddly charming beauty she exuded.
She wore a loose white robe that covered most of her body, exposing her pale shoulder on the left side. Her bare feet hovered in the void of the dark universe. The halo above her head tilted, hovering close to her crown, whether a crown or an angelic halo was uncertain. Two pairs of beautifully colorful blue and gold, translucent wings floated behind her.
This angel first examined Gouwen and then turned her gaze to Fisher. When her eyes met Fisher’s, she lingered for a second or two before her smile deepened slightly. She spoke to the nearby angel,
“Let’s keep them together; this is strange. Allow me to report this to a few archangels so they can decide to bring some food later; otherwise, they won’t last long here.”
As soon as she said this, the androgynous angel looked at her and remarked,
“Hela, there’s no food for them here. I’m too lazy to go down to the first day to find it.”
The angel named “Hela” merely motioned with her finger. To Fisher’s gaze, a human girl enveloped in faint golden light, wearing peculiar attire and completely unconscious, slowly floated toward their cell.
“It’s fine, I also need to go down to the first day to notify Remiel; I’ll bring it up then.”
“Do as you wish.”
The androgynous angel nonchalantly turned and flew away. Hela tossed the unconscious girl into the cage and took one last glance at Fisher before he could clearly see her scrutinizing gaze. Then with a gentle flick of her finger, the heavy door of the cage quickly closed and locked.
“Finally, an angel has some brains and knows we need food. Oh, they should be far away now, right?”
Gouwen sighed, and then he turned to the girl who had been thrown into the center of the cell. He suddenly became excited, quickly getting up from the spot where he had sat for several days and rushed to the girl’s side, eyes glimmering as he said,
“Fisher, come look! This is the revival technique performed by Archangel Raphael! Goodness, this is truly amazing! Did you see how the golden life energy operates? It’s so precise; it can accurately heal every single cell. It’s simply a miracle!”
No, I think the technique you used earlier was quite miraculous as well.
Unlike Gouwen, who was exuberantly examining the golden light, Fisher focused more on the girl wrapped in the golden light. She appeared to be around 1.6 meters tall, with long black hair; her visage was much softer than that of a Cardu person, quite delicate.
The key detail was the clothing she wore, made of a material Fisher had never seen before, predominantly black, appearing to be some sort of uniform, with perfectly neat stitching that hardly resembled human craftsmanship. Underneath was a white shirt with a red tie, a black skirt that was shorter than knee-length, and knee-high black socks, with bare feet, possibly discarded during her transport.
Fisher squatted next to the girl, ignoring Gouwen who was captivated by the golden light. Suddenly, he noticed a metal tag near her prominently protruding chest with several lines of very familiar text that read,
“2nd Year B Class· Tang Zeming Asuka.”
This text… seemed to match the name on his ring exactly.
In other words, the girl before him could very likely be Tang Zeming Asuka, the creator of the creation association, the Trans, and the Magic Lord?
But it appeared she had just arrived in this world, just like him, not even having changed out of her clothes, still wearing garments from another world. According to the Fate Lord’s information, Tang Zeming Asuka was supposed to be one of the first Trans to arrive in this world. How long ago was that, and what era was he currently in?
“Mr. Fisher, can you help me with a favor?”
“What?”
Just as Fisher was pondering, Gouwen suddenly spoke to him, pulling his thoughts back to reality. He looked up at Gouwen, who had a hesitant expression on his face,
“Could you reach out and pull back the black outer layer of her outfit a little bit? Just a bit, so I can see how Raphael’s healing technique operates within her body.”
“Why don’t you do it yourself?”
“Uh, Mr. Fisher… actually, I’m already married.”
“So?”
“Mr. Fisher probably isn’t married yet, right?”
“Well, sort of.”
“Oh? Does your wife not prohibit you from getting close to other women?”
“Uh, I don’t think so?”
“That’s good; it seems your wife should be a kind and reasonable person. My wife is not like that; she’s extremely volatile, and I’m quite submissive. So, can you help me pull back the black outer layer covering her abdomen a little? Just a bit.”
“…”
Fisher was momentarily speechless.
However, due to the dazzling golden light enveloping the girl, they momentarily didn’t notice that the eyelashes of the girl being surrounded were starting to tremble slightly.
Where… am I?
She thought to herself.
It seemed like she was at school.
After classes in the afternoon, she should have gone home, but her classmate Ayumi had invited her out to eat, so she didn’t go straight home after class but stayed in the classroom to read. Eventually, feeling too sleepy, she had dozed off on her desk.
But why…
Why was she now lying on the ground, and why did she feel so uncomfortable?
It seemed there were two people talking nearby. It was noisy, but their speech was intermittent, and she could hardly hear what they were saying.
“She just… an ordinary person suffocated… Raphael… revival technique.”
“So?”
“The operational method is very exquisite… a bit more… can’t see… just a little opening… this opportunity is rare.”
What?
Open what?
Tang Zeming Asuka squinted slightly, feeling a headache, but only saw dazzling golden light and two blurry figures in front of her, completely unaware of what they intended to do.
Until the tall shadow next to her sighed, seemingly unable to stand the insistence from the other side, he nodded and said,
“I understand. I’ll just open a little.”
“Thank you, Mr. Fisher.”
Fisher?
Who is that?
Are there foreigners in school?
Wait, why… can I understand their language?
Isn’t it… Japanese?
No?
Why can I understand it?
Ah, ha, am I dreaming?
Namu Amida Buddha… I hope it’s just a dream.
Tang Zeming Asuka smiled silently, thinking she was dreaming. She closed her eyes peacefully, preparing to drift back to sleep. However, she felt a bit regretful that this dream was so strange and seemed meaningless, wondering why she couldn’t dream of something good in this dream.
Though, as long as it wasn’t a nightmare like before.
Just as Tang Zeming Asuka was about to fall into a deep sleep again, she suddenly felt the male figure beside her gently grasp her school uniform coat, slowly pulling it open to the side.
That real touch and the nearby conversation awakened her drowsy mind instantly. Soon, a blush erupted from her lower abdomen, as if she was being steamed alive.
She snapped her eyes open and quickly hugged her chest, sitting up, yelling at the two peculiar figures beside her,
“Pervert! Freak! Why is even dreaming about these things?! Stay away from me! Pervert!!”
Fisher and Gouwen each took a step back, exchanging glances before Gouwen took the initiative to wave at the girl,
“Calm down, calm down, miss. We are not bad people; we mean you no harm. This is not a dream, but reality. Though it seems you are much more outrageous than Fisher showing up here; at least his level is higher than most beings, while you are just an underage human girl. How did you end up in the Holy Realm?”
“Eh? Holy Realm? What is the Holy Realm? Is this a new term from Heisei? Am I just a fellow born in Showa who can’t keep up with your train of thought?”
Tang Zeming Asuka scoffed, thinking it was another prank by her classmates. Her popularity was quite poor due to being held back a grade and transferring schools; the female students in her class were not friendly towards her, except for one friend named Ayumi.
So, was this some trick from the boyfriends of those girls in class?
No, how could those girls, looking like that, have foreign handsome boyfriends?
Tang Zeming Asuka first glanced at the tall, dark-haired foreigner who had retreated a step, sitting silently against the wall without saying a word. She swallowed nervously, then turned to look at Gouwen. When she saw Gouwen’s handsome face with a gentle demeanor, she did not realize anything was strange until large, non-human ears, fins, and a tail shimmering with light came into her view, turning her face pale.
“Monsters… monsters…”
Her legs weakened, and she retreated to the corner of the room, afraid to approach Fisher. She feared he might also be a man-eating ghost wearing the skin of a handsome man, especially since he had just tried to lift her clothing as though preparing to feast on her.
“This is all a dream; wake up, wake up.”
“Namu Amida Buddha… Namu Amida Buddha.”
Watching the young black-haired girl curled up in the corner of the cell, her hands clasped together and trembling incessantly, Fisher squinted slightly and unconsciously touched his chest.
There lay three completion manuals.
