Chapter 455: 72. A Frenchman
Upon hearing Fisher’s words, Mikhail frowned and nodded as if he understood Fisher’s meaning. Tang Zeming Asuka, looking back and forth between Fisher and Mikhail, saw that they both remained silent and were deep in thought. She couldn’t help but bite her lip and cautiously tugged at Fisher’s sleeve, whispering,
“Um, I didn’t quite understand what that meant. Are we traveling back to the past?”
Fisher glanced at her, then shook his head, explaining,
“No, we are still within the Duke of Peach’s barrier. The barrier can simulate shadows of the past and generate real feedback with the entrants. The Duke wishes to find the traitor who has colluded both inside and out. However, the shadow of Jianmu Palace was previously obscured by that Trans, so the Duke saw nothing. But now, the previously obscured shadow has revealed its true form. Yet, since it was obscured earlier, there is still no feedback between it and us.
“So, the Gouwen that we knocked out and tossed into the sea to replace is now appearing before us again. The real Gouwen remains outside, within the shadow of fate that has interacted with us. Anything we do here will not affect reality; traveling back to the past is not a simple matter and requires different methods. What we can do now is to find the colluding traitor and also figure out where the lost tears of the World Tree have gone.”
Tang Zeming Asuka’s mouth opened in surprise, and she exclaimed, “We can still travel back to the past?!”
Fisher paused for a moment before responding in a dismissive tone, “Yes, but since this shadow of fate hasn’t interacted with us, we essentially appear here out of nowhere. The Elf King is a being of Nineteen Rank; although it seems Duke Bai was very careful when he entered Jianmu Palace and didn’t dare to casually explore around, otherwise we would have already been discovered.”
Mikhail also stood up from the grass, looked around, and asked, “This is where the Elf King resides; there should be different functional divisions. However, according to the habits of elves, the deeper you go in, the more important it should be. That Trans is likely deep within this palace, just as we might find the Trans when Gouwen goes to have the Elf King treated.”
“Yes, we can only do it that way,” Fisher thought to himself, considering the situation. Currently, only the four of them, who were completely unfamiliar with Jianmu Palace, had entered, while Gouwen had not. If only he had forced him to come along initially, they could have had someone to guide them.
But now Fisher didn’t dare to gamble on whether the spatial rift they were planning to use led to an interactive shadow of fate or a non-interactive one. If it was the latter, they would likely be discovered immediately by the three-legged golden birdmen who had approached them earlier.
To improve efficiency, Mikhail summoned his old friend, the nanobots, which could sift through Jianmu Palace to search for any suspicious entities.
As Mikhail deployed the robots, Tang Zeming Asuka, standing nearby, glanced at the vast, quiet buildings, feeling puzzled. “It’s so big here, but there seems to be no one around. Doesn’t the noble Elf King need anyone to serve him? The previous guest wood had many servants.”
“Who knows, perhaps the Elf King doesn’t like anyone serving him,” Mikhail replied, and nearby, Fisher looked at the still quiet Jianmu Palace as if it hadn’t had anyone but the fox-faced subhumans guiding them. Suddenly, he spoke, saying, “It’s also possible that he doesn’t want others coming in often for a particular reason.”
An illusory interface flickered before Mikhail’s eyes. After a while, he looked in a certain direction and told Fisher and the others, “Gouwen and the two fox-faced subhumans are that way. The Elf King should be there as well. To be safe, I didn’t control the robots to go inside, but that area is just the front hall of Jianmu Palace. It’s quite far in front. The rest of the place seems deserted, meaning that Trans should be in the area behind that front hall.”
“Yes, let’s go take a look,” Fisher said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, feeling he had a rough estimate of the Elf King’s condition. It seemed likely that the Elf King’s state was not very optimistic, at least not as good as that of other mythical beings of the Nineteen Rank.
It made sense given he was nearing the end of his lifespan; Fisher understood what it felt like to be pursued by death, which is why he hadn’t even noticed the robots Mikhail was monitoring.
Thus, their chances of infiltrating increased substantially.
Fisher decisively said to proceed, having Mikhail point out a path leading to the back hall, they immediately set off down that route.
In reality, Jianmu Palace was an immense complex. Just walking from the spatial rift to the boundary between the so-called front hall and back hall took them nearly half an hour.
Along the way, Fisher noticed many strange occurrences.
He saw several side halls and small rooms that seemed to have been empty for quite a long time, littered with a number of messy, uncleared beds and items, clearly places where someone had once lived.
Fisher suspected they were likely places that servants used to live; the other officials and elves would probably not reside in such cramped quarters.
If there used to be servants in Jianmu Palace, as there were in the guest wood, then where had they all gone now?
The surroundings were eerily quiet; despite sunshine streaming through the inner space, and above them was the giant shadow of the World Tree, Tang Zeming Asuka felt no sense of security, only an overwhelming sense of eeriness.
She swallowed hard, wanting to stay closer to Fisher ahead, but unexpectedly bumped into his broad back, causing her to step back, holding her forehead.
“Fisher, sorry, huh?”
She looked up in confusion and saw a familiar figure quickly passing through the corridor ahead of Fisher and Mikhail.
The figure had long black hair and usually wore a gentle smile, but at that moment appeared a little tense and anxious, constantly looking around, heading in the same direction as Fisher and the others. The next second, their eyes suddenly met.
It was a familiar elf, Chuan.
Both Chuan, alone, and the trio of Fisher froze at the same time. They exchanged glances and stood there, stunned.
Fisher frowned, protecting Tang Zeming Asuka behind him. Mikhail also cautiously tightened his grip on his mechanical arm, but Chuan glanced them up and down, his wariness gradually dissipating, replaced with an expression of ambiguity and urgency.
“You… are you also the Trans left beside the King?”
His voice was warm and reassuring, but Fisher keenly noticed him looking at the Tang Zeming Asuka hiding behind him. Yet when she peeked out, Chuan momentarily faltered and withdrew his gaze in disappointment.
“Also?”
Fisher remained silent for a moment, suddenly looking around and feigning wariness as he cautiously asked, “Who are you? Why are you here?”
“Don’t be afraid; I mean you no harm,” Chuan quickly waved his hands, explaining, “I saw your companion in the front hall while waiting to see the King. She begged me to save her, but when the King arrived, she panicked and fled. I don’t know why the King left you, but… perhaps I can help you?”
Indeed, Chuan had met that Trans.
If he guessed right…
Chuan was the traitor colluding with the Trans.
However, Chuan’s inquiry piqued Fisher’s curiosity. Why did the Elf King keep that Trans by his side? What had happened in the empty Jianmu Palace, and why did they steal the tears of the World Tree?
Thinking about this, Fisher’s wary expression gradually softened, as if he had developed some trust in the elf before him. Mikhail, who usually didn’t smile, was stunned by Fisher’s fluid act.
“So it’s like this. But she is now in the back hall where the King resides; you’re an elf, aren’t you afraid of intruding into the King’s back hall?”
Chuan was slightly taken aback, then smiled bitterly, saying, “In the King’s eyes, a spirit like me, who has neglected my service, would probably already be considered intrusive. I just cannot understand what meaning there is in such service. Is it really worth treating vibrant lives like items just to maintain a numerical value?”
Fisher remained silent for a moment, as if he was familiar with the place, walking ahead towards the back hall, saying casually, “In that case, please enter with us. But unfortunately, we too have snuck out today, and we had no chance to go out on the scheduled day, so don’t expect us to lead the way for you.”
Chuan looked at the cautious Tang Zeming Asuka behind Fisher, increasingly convinced of their identity.
He inhaled nervously, then chose to follow Fisher, entering the back hall where the Elf King lived and resided.
Similar to the front hall, the environment here remained desolate; although elves revered nature and generally wouldn’t trim overgrown weeds or similar things, usually, elven architecture was mixed with plants and decorations. However, the desolation here came from an exceptionally eerie and motionless silence.
Chuan frowned, looking around at the environment, saying, “Jianmu Palace shouldn’t have been like this before. When I used to come to serve, there were many servants and attendants, and performances of song and dance.”
As they ventured further in, Fisher gradually noticed some strange papers scattered across the ground like litter, covered in black writing. Looking up, he saw that the writing was peculiar, resembling characters he had seen from Jahl Uzz before, though he hadn’t encountered these particular characters before.
Duke Chuan squatted down to pick up a crumpled white paper, perplexed as he read the words on it, “This is not our language; is it yours?”
Mikhail glanced at the text. His miniaturized computer’s artificial eye flickered a moment before quickly deciphering the meaning.
The paper was filled with eloquent lines that read, “Two hearts exhaust their warmth, turning into two enormous torches; two souls merge into a pair of mirrors, double light reflecting interest in the mirror.”
Mikhail murmured, “The Flowers of Evil, in French.”
“In French?”
Chuan and Fisher turned to look at him simultaneously, and Mikhail stared blankly back at Fisher before speaking, “Yes, these are the writings left by our… companions; it’s the language from their place.”
“Ah, I see.”
Chuan nodded in agreement without probing further. But after letting go of that paper, Mikhail picked up another sheet and found something else noteworthy.
Most of these papers contained various poems, some of which Mikhail recognized, while others were outside his search computer’s knowledge, possibly original works.
What was noteworthy was that though all the poems were written in the same hand, they contained not only French but also German.
This meant that that Trans was capable of both French and German?
As they walked forward, Mikhail quietly shared this discovery with Fisher and Tang Zeming Asuka. The latter found it very intriguing and quickly asked in a low voice, “So, this Trans could be French or possibly German?”
“No, it’s likely a French person. The way she wrote in German lacks the naturalness of her French, suggesting she learned it later.”
Mikhail analyzed thoroughly, and Fisher silently noted this in the back of his mind.
In the vast courtyard, they walked for nearly ten minutes, yet not a single living creature was sighted. According to reports from the robots Mikhail had sent ahead to scout, this place was remarkably large, but aside from the papers they had seen scattered on the ground, no living creature was in sight.
In the empty Jianmu Palace, there was nothing alive, only a variety of exquisite decorations and items; the patterns on those items varied but bore the same mark featuring three differently shaped petals—a symbol whose meaning related to Jianmu Palace or the Elf King remained uncertain.
“Hey, have you all noticed a faint smell of blood?”
Just then, Chuan, walking ahead, wrinkled his nose and spoke up.
They stopped in front of a structure, and unlike the previous desolate buildings, the front of this crimson structure hung two lanterns, seemingly indicating that someone lived there.
After Chuan spoke, Fisher frowned slightly and looked towards the half-covered entrance of the building.
Inside, amidst flickering sparks, an extremely faint scent of blood slowly wafted out.
*The Flowers of Evil, a collection of poems by the 19th-century French poet Charles Pierre Baudelaire.*
*There will be one more update later.*
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*(End of Chapter)*
