Chapter 712: 12. Unawakened
“Please inform Princess Isabel that Mr. Fisher wishes to have a word with her.”
Before long, Captain Alagina seemed to have crossed through the current clamor of Saint Nali and arrived somewhere; this place should be the half-collapsed Golden Palace due to the war.
“Yes.”
The response came in Nali language, still possessing some vigor, suggesting it wouldn’t delay for too long.
At this moment in the Spirit Realm, Fisher held the intercom with his back to the glowing screen behind him, relying on the muffled dialogue mixed with “crackling” sounds from the intercom to speculate on the current situation in Nali.
Captain Alagina seemed to be conversing with the remaining soldiers of Nali tasked with maintaining order and assisting Isabel. From the moment he left, Fisher knew there were a plethora of messes for the novice Isabel to handle, and she might not be able to arrive so quickly, but the waiting time still lingered longer than Fisher expected.
He tapped his fingers against the iron table beside him, measuring time as well as his racing heartbeat.
After quite some time, Fisher finally heard Alagina moving forward again.
Next came Isabel’s voice,
“Captain Alagina! I’m here. Sorry, there’s a lot on my mind, and the soldiers couldn’t find me for a moment, causing you to wait.”
At that moment, Isabel’s voice sounded somewhat fatigued, but in greeting Captain Alagina, she still exuded an unrestrained vitality. Alagina, of course, didn’t mind, or rather, she was somewhat disinterested in coming here.
“It’s alright, here.”
“This is Mr. Fisher’s intercom, right? Is it still connected? Mr. Fisher?”
“I’m here.”
“Ah, Mr. Fisher, then I’ll take you inside now, Captain, you too.”
“You can take the intercom with you; Fisher will talk to you first. I won’t go in.”
“Ah, I understand. Thank you, Captain.”
Isabel hesitated for a moment but quickly moved in the direction where Fisher could not discern. With Isabel now holding the intercom, Fisher felt she was moving more slowly than Alagina, yet seemed to be getting closer to the expected location for this call.
In fact, Fisher’s intent was quite obvious. Perhaps both Isabel and Alagina knew who he wanted to speak with at this moment.
“Mr. Fisher, it’s great that you’re alright. The captain said you’re currently in the Spirit Realm, which must be very far from here, right? I don’t quite understand these things.”
While walking, Isabel couldn’t help but lower her head to look at the intercom in her hands,
“Yes, very far. What about Nali? Is everything alright over there?”
“Well, how should I put it? I can only say it’s not that bad, I guess.”
Isabel evidently intended to say something more, but before she could finish her thought, she fell silent, prompting Fisher to ask,
“What’s wrong?”
Isabel shook her head, forcing a smile as she said,
“Really…”
“Mr. Fisher wants to talk to your sister, right?”
“Yes.”
“…”
“Tap tap tap”
Fisher sensed that Isabel had something left unsaid; instead, only the sound of footsteps came through the intercom.
“We’re here, Mr. Fisher.”
“Good.”
Then, the footsteps gradually slowed down, as if they had stopped somewhere and hadn’t moved for a while.
Fisher’s heartbeat quickened, and he straightened his posture against the iron table.
He unconsciously began to pace along the edges in front of the screen, his gaze and ears fixed intently on the intercom that occasionally transmitted muffled sounds. He might have been contemplating his rhetoric, perhaps wanting to apologize to her, or maybe…
Or perhaps, he no longer knew what he wanted to say; he simply waited eagerly and nervously for that person’s voice.
But after all, he only held a mechanism intercom in his hand, and the distance between them had crossed the Spirit Realm, crevice, and reality, which was likely very far away.
“…”
However, in such waiting, the other end of the intercom suddenly fell silent.
As Fisher pondered, he seemed to sense something was off and leaned in to listen intently to the sounds coming from the intercom.
“Whoosh”
It seemed he heard a bit of the sound of Isabel rubbing her sleeve, but no footsteps came, as if she was standing still, hesitating at what she saw.
“…Isabel?”
After a moment of silence, Fisher’s voice boomed from the intercom, startling Isabel, making her voice tremble.
“Ah?! Mr. F-Fisher! Uh, sorry, Mr. Fisher, my sister hasn’t awakened yet. She can’t talk to you for now; maybe later, when she wakes up, I will quickly find Captain Alagina for you. How does that sound?”
“…”
Fisher tightened his grip on the intercom, his pacing stopped abruptly.
He blinked, staring at the intercom, and after a moment of silence, he softly said,
“Okay.”
“…Sorry, Mr. Fisher.”
Isabel’s voice on the other end sounded somewhat low. However, it was difficult to discern the reason just from the surface.
“It’s alright, but I’m going to leave soon, so I might not be available to receive messages from reality at all times. Just tell her I called. If it doesn’t work out, we can talk when I return.”
“Mm, when my sister wakes up, I will let her know you called, especially since she… And now her eyes… She will stay here at the Golden Palace.”
“Okay, take good care of your sister, let her rest well, and wait for my return. I’ll come see her when I return and cure her eyes, so don’t worry.”
“Really? Thank you, Mr. Fisher!”
“No problem. Just return this intercom to Alagina; I’ll talk to her about a few things and then head out again.”
“By the way, Mr. Fish…”
“Buzz.”
Suddenly, the intercom emitted a buzz, and Isabel stuttered, unable to comprehend the mechanism’s creation. She understood that from the now-silent intercom, Mr. Fisher had already hung up.
She clutched the intercom, her slightly parted lips forming the unfinished word “teacher” that vanished into nothingness, flowing out from her mouth.
At this moment, she stood in the still-standing rear courtyard of the Golden Palace that had yet to fully collapse.
The once peaceful manor filled with the sounds of birds and flowers had now become a scene of devastation due to the earlier conflict. Amidst the rubble, a few rundown houses barely managed to provide shelter, while the front yard had been turned to ruins by Rafael’s dragon spear.
In contrast, the residential area of Saint Nali’s commoners had suffered no damage and had not experienced significant loss of life.
Isabel’s golden eyes flickered slightly as she slowly raised her head, catching sight of the dimly lit dilapidated houses ahead, revealing the scene of a bedroom through the broken walls.
In that dark room, puzzling as to why no candles were lit, she saw, in the fading sunlight, a figure lying sideways on a bed, facing away from her, with a shadowy visage indicating heavy bandages wrapped around golden hair.
At that moment, before the rickety house, several loyal guards stood at the entrance, one of whom was the soldier who had just sent Isabel the message that Alagina had arrived.
In their hands, they held a flag upon which was written,
“Do Not Accept”
It was upon seeing this flag that Isabel had hesitated. She knew her sister had awakened and was lying alone on the bed in that rundown house.
She must have just woken up not long ago, for Isabel could vaguely see the still-wet ink on the flag.
Isabel’s expression was complicated as she held the intercom, speaking towards the room,
“Sister, he has already hung up.”
“…”
Inside, there was still silence. Isabel gazed into the darkness, softly saying,
“Earlier, you wished for death so much, being sucked into the crevice by that law; do not say that I am just a mere human. Just looking at that crevice makes my legs weak; those stronger than me won’t dare to approach, fearing that they will be swallowed by it. It was Mr. Fisher who dashed in to save you; he nearly got left behind too.
“Mr. Fisher does not hate you; he knows he made mistakes, so he hates himself.”
The room remained silent, and upon seeing this, Isabel couldn’t help but slightly purse her lips.
She raised her hand to wipe her eyes, then addressed the inside once more,
“I’m leaving now. Rest well, sister.”
Having said that, she turned to leave.
However, because her eyes couldn’t see through the darkness, when the last rays of the setting sun hit the ground, the scene inside the house was known only to Elizabeth herself.
Thus, Isabel couldn’t see that inside the rundown house, lying sideways on the bed, Elizabeth was now struggling to sit up, revealing the large patches of dried blood on her heavily bandaged body.
Elizabeth, having no eyes, couldn’t see the direction Isabel had departed; she could only listen intently.
Yet after listening for a while, she inevitably heard her own voice.
Elizabeth heard herself say,
“I know, but I also hate myself.”
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(End of Chapter)
