Chapter 505 Fairy Tale
This is the Andersen manuscript I bought at the auction last time for three thousand one gold coins. I originally hoped to learn new magic from it, but I didn’t discover any hidden secrets.
After that, I ran to a small village outside the city and followed Sebastian to search for clues about Pierce. Then there were a lot of other things, and the result was that this fairy tale book was left behind, and I didn’t have time to study it.
Speaking of magic books, there are even more useful wills and ghoul manuscripts, obtained from Moore and Sherris respectively. I haven’t had time to study either of those two books. As expected, there are still too many things.
“Fairy tales? Ah, I want to listen, I want to listen. It’s been a long time since anyone told me fairy tales. My mother used to tell me fairy tales often,” Lorna immediately said with anticipation.
“Fairy tales? I haven’t heard of them. Tell us, tell us, I want to listen too!” Via also became interested. As expected, they are both children.
“If you want to listen, sit by my side.” I sat half on the bed, leaning against the wall, with Via and Lorna sitting on either side of me. Looking at the fairy tale manuscript in my hand, plus the burning fireplace, at least the atmosphere was there.
“This is Andersen’s manuscript. It is said that many secrets are hidden in it. I wonder if you two can find them out,” I said with a smile.
This is also one of my goals. Via is powerful, and Lorna has high inspiration as a ghost. If they read with me, perhaps they can find some secrets.
“There are secrets? Tell us quickly!” As expected, their interest began to be aroused, so I opened Andersen’s manuscript and started to tell the first story.
Let’s start with the shortest story, beginning with The Little Match Girl. This is a story I’ve heard since I was a child, about a poor girl who was forced by her family to sell matches on the street on Christmas Eve and eventually froze to death on the street.
“This little girl is so pitiful. Why didn’t her father let her go home?” Lorna listened with tears in her eyes, as she was very sympathetic to the plight of the little girl in the story.
“Such a father is too much, too hateful. The little girl should have decisively escaped from him and gone to live a happy life on her own!” Although Via didn’t shed tears, she was also indignant.
I knew that this story would resonate with both of them at the same time, so I told it first. Both Lorna and Via have complicated relationships with their fathers and would surely sympathize with her.
I have to say that children of this era have simple minds. They haven’t been exposed to too many other books, TV shows, or the internet. Therefore, fairy tales are still very attractive to them, and they listen with great interest.
However, they could not understand the deeper meaning behind it. For example, Lorna questioned why her father didn’t let her go home, but she didn’t realize that her father was probably just as poor and destitute. If she didn’t come out to sell matches, the whole family would starve to death.
Via felt that the little girl should leave home and go it alone. This was also her own choice, but she never thought that the little girl was not a vampire like her. The result of being helpless would only be a tragic death.
In the final analysis, neither of them belongs to the lower class of society. Although Lorna’s family was struggling for a while, they were far better off than the poor. Her father, a chemist, also loved her dearly. At least before Pierce went mad, they had a happy family.
Of course, there are deeper issues that they have not seen, which is the root of the satire in this fairy tale: social problems, the oppression and exploitation by rulers, and the suffering of the people’s lives. These things are too complex, and it is impossible to expect them to understand.
“Well, have you noticed any secrets?” I asked. The little ghost and the vampire shook their heads: “No.”
“It doesn’t matter if there aren’t any. Just consider it as listening to a story. The next story is The Little Mermaid.” I began to read the second fairy tale, which is a story about a little mermaid who sacrificed everything for love.
While reading, I gradually immersed myself in the story. That familiar feeling reappeared. I turned into a mermaid swimming freely in the water and saw a handsome prince when I floated to the surface of the sea. But why did the prince’s appearance seem a little familiar?
“Ah!” The illusion came and went quickly. Suddenly, I woke up with a start. Looking closely, I saw that I had already reached the last page of The Little Mermaid. I had finished telling the story.
The little ghost was crying beside me, but her tears were incorporeal and disappeared when they dripped on me.
Via also looked a little sad. One would feel bad after listening to this story, a girl who gave everything but got nothing in the end.
“By the way, do you two feel anything?” I quickly asked. I indeed felt the same sensation as at the Trade Fair last time. Back then, it was the same, I fell into an illusion, as if I had entered the storybook.
“Mmm! It seems like it, a very strange fluctuation,” Via nodded and said. As expected, there was a change.
“It feels like Sister Parul has assimilated with the manuscript and is emitting the same fluctuations,” Lorna also said, wiping the tears from the corner of her eyes, a little unsure.
Unexpectedly, even Lorna had a feeling, and it was clearer than Via’s, providing more accurate observational results.
However, I still couldn’t completely understand what she said. What does synchronization mean? Why did I feel nothing when I read The Little Match Girl, but have an illusion when I read The Little Mermaid?
I couldn’t figure it out. Perhaps it was because I read the first story with the intention of studying the secrets hidden within, and as a result, I found nothing. It was the same last time.
But when I read The Little Mermaid, my mindset changed. I purely told the story, and then I fell into an illusion. Is this possibility true?
So, I completely calmed my mind and began to speak with the pure intention of telling a story, “The third story is quite long, but I think you will like it, The Snow Queen.”
This is the story of Gerda’s selfless rescue of her childhood sweetheart Kai. It is composed of many small adventure stories, with twists and turns, and is very exciting. The two little girls were quickly captivated.
But I waited in vain for the illusion I expected. It wasn’t until I was halfway through the story that I suddenly noticed a faint magical fluctuation from the manuscript.
However, this time it was not resonating with me, but with the two little girls on either side of me. They also emitted the same fluctuations, and their expressions were entranced. They had completely fallen into the story.
How could this be? This time it wasn’t me, but the two of them who fell into the fairy tale. I couldn’t understand it at all, but in order to continue observing, I had to keep telling the story.
