The gloomy weather over the weekend brought heavy snow on Monday.
January 12, Monday morning. Siles stood by the window, quietly gazing at the snowy scenery outside. After a moment, his gaze fell, resting on the set of dolls on the windowsill.
That drew his thoughts involuntarily to the deep-sea dreams he experienced last night.
Nona’s dream, Jonathan Bryant’s dream, and the dream of Nanisal Bryant he additionally wanted to find—none of these three dreams appeared. This made his deep-sea dreams last night seem very peaceful.
He met Emil Harrison once again. Emil swore that he had already figured out how to put that jigsaw puzzle together in reality. So, Mr. Ghost handed the puzzle to him to play with by himself, and then left Emil’s dream.
He went to the mysterious farm and once again observed the planet in the lake.
A regrettable piece of news was that, when he left the dream last time, he had subconsciously zoomed in on the planet in the lake and observed that Nona was in the West District of Lamifa City. That was actually the limit of what he could currently achieve.
In other words, only when he further mastered the power of Akamara could the map possibly zoom in further.
This disappointed him a little, but not too much, as he knew full well that he currently hadn’t mastered much of Akamara’s power.
At least Nona’s sapling still looked very healthy, and that was enough.
Afterwards, he studied that small house. He knocked patiently on the door, though he received no response from inside. He walked around the house and was about to try opening the door, but stopped temporarily because of a sudden flash of inspiration.
He thought, smoke was rising from the house’s chimney, so there should be “someone” inside.
That multicolored smoke billowed from the chimney, slowly spreading into the sky, eventually expanding into a massive dream bubble—his dream bubble. It was a spectacular sight.
But somehow, he just felt that since there was smoke in the chimney, it meant there was “someone” in the house.
It was hard to say where this inspiration came from, but he ultimately remained cautious and didn’t force his way into the small house at this time. He went to the pasture instead, observing the cultivated land and lush grass.
He pondered for a while, and an idea came to him.
Keeping this idea in mind, he first returned to the deep-sea dreams and confirmed that Emil had finished the puzzle. He praised the clever young boy and promised to bring him other toys tomorrow.
Then, he left Emil’s dream. Standing on the red clay of the isolated island, he thought for a moment, and finally opened his hand. He looked down, and a flower appeared in his palm.
It was a rosebud about to bloom.
After seeing roses in the dream last time, he had asked Millicent Austin in reality about the corresponding meaning of roses. Hearing that roses might symbolize prophetic dreams, he inferred that the rose was precisely the unknown symbolic plant of Akamara.
Therefore, he wanted to try planting roses on the farm. Perhaps this action would allow him to master more of Akamara’s power. He could create things at will in the deep-sea dreams—which was his own dream.
Thus, he created a rosebud on the verge of blooming.
He took this rose to the farm and planted it in the cultivated land. He felt his planting technique was very unpracticed, carrying a sense of being simple and crude.
However, when the rose was planted in the soil, he almost felt like he just blinked, and the bud bloomed. That wondrous scene was instantly imprinted in his mind, making him involuntarily reach out and touch the peculiar rose.
Subsequently, Siles woke up.
And that rose…
Now, it sat on his nightstand, still very fresh. When he woke up, the fragrance of the rose quietly lingered around his nose, as if it had never faded.
…He planned to give this rose to Chendo later.
Although roses did possess the symbolic meaning of prophetic dreams, most of the time, roses symbolized love. This was common knowledge.
Moreover, Chendo’s Will stat allowed Siles to safely give this rose to him. Hopefully, Akamara’s power could also guarantee Chendo’s sleep quality.
When this flower truly appeared in reality, Siles finally realized how strange Emil’s experience was. The fact that the young boy hadn’t been scared out of his wits by it was quite miraculous.
This was the power of a god, Siles couldn’t help but think. Illusory things becoming real was incredible, and Akamara’s power added a bizarre hue to this incredibility.
Furthermore… could he farm the land on that farm now?
Siles felt like he had just told a bad joke, yet the reality was that this was actually the case.
On the bright side, they couldn’t possibly starve to death in the future; on the down side, they probably wouldn’t dare eat anything grown in Akamara’s paradise anyway.
Given Siles’s caution, this function would probably just be shelved.
Just past seven o’clock, Siles went out. The snow had lessened a bit, but when he arrived at 32 Lowell Street, a thick layer of white snow had already piled up on the ground. The snowy scenery of Lamifa City always carried a very gloomy atmosphere because the sky was always densely covered with dark clouds.
Chendo was making breakfast in the kitchen. He poked his head out and greeted Siles: “Good morning.”
“Good morning, Chendo,” Siles said.
Yesterday, they brought five books (excluding the conversation record) back from the Konst National Bank. Because three of them were in Kansas text, they were left with Chendo. Siles planned to finish reading these books over the next week.
Surprisingly, one of the books in the Kansas text was about the literature of the Age of Shadows. Therefore, this book, along with the conversation record, was Siles’s focus for today.
Siles took off his coat and hung it on the hook in the hallway. He brushed the snow off it. Chendo also came out of the kitchen and gave him a hug.
He muttered, “You are so cold, always like this.”
“It’s snowing outside,” Siles said. “By the way, Chendo.”
He took the rose out of his coat pocket, handed it to Chendo, and said softly in a low voice, “This is for you, Chendo.”
Chendo stared at the rose in astonishment. He said, “This is truly an unexpected surprise… I am very grateful.” He suddenly realized something, “But there shouldn’t be roses at this time of year, right? So this is…”
“I brought this out from the dream,” Siles explained.
This actually made Chendo even more surprised. He said, “You specifically did this for me…” His emerald eyes shimmered with a light bordering on shock and infatuation, “You are too good. I don’t know what to say… You are too good.”
He murmured softly, then leaned in to hug Siles, his lips gently pressing against Siles’s. He said, “I love you. On this cold winter day, you brought a warmth that simply burns me.”
Siles deepened this gentle kiss. Chendo began to pant; holding the rose in one hand, he wrapped the other around Siles’s waist. He was practically trembling, but his beloved deity merely gave him this stingy bit of tenderness, unwilling to go any further.
Finally, he licked Siles’s lips reluctantly, as if trying to leave his scent on Siles, and as if hoping Siles would leave a mark on him. Siles opened his mouth and lightly bit his tongue to make him restrain himself a bit.
Thus, Chendo could only conceal his greed. His outward flamboyance could only maintain a fleeting sense of decency and reserve in front of Siles, but in reality, he wished he could just hang onto Siles’s body.
He kissed Siles’s beautiful, slender fingers, gently pecking Siles’s fingertips.
Siles chuckled softly: “You only dare go this far?”
…Chendo felt that his beloved Professor Noel was provoking him.
But when he really moved to take the next step, Siles reminded him, “The pot is going to burn.”
Chendo: “…”
He said indignantly: “Just keep stringing me along! Sooner or later, one day…”
“This doesn’t seem to be the first time you’ve said that,” Siles said. “I’m a little curious to see how far you can go when that day actually comes.”
He said this with his innate aloofness and reserve, as if the matter didn’t faze him at all, but he knew perfectly well that Chendo could hardly take it anymore.
Chendo said, “I might just make you see me in a new light.”
Siles looked at him thoughtfully.
This gaze actually made Chendo a bit uncomfortable. He coughed lightly and then said, “I’ll go check the pot. That’s our breakfast, after all.”
He took the rose to check the pot, confirming it hadn’t burned—it really was just Siles’s tactic to change the subject!—and then took a glass bottle out of the cabinet, placing the rose inside.
“Can this rose be kept alive?” Chendo asked, confused.
“This is a condensation of Akamara’s power,” Siles said. “Don’t worry about it dying. As for its effects, I’m afraid it might improve your sleep quality?”
Chendo raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing the rose with interest, and then said, “That’s not bad. Can it make me dream of you?”
Siles was about to pull out a chair and sit down, but upon hearing this, he couldn’t help but pause. He looked at Chendo, hesitated for a moment, and asked, “Dream of me?”
Chendo said quite self-righteously, “Since you won’t do anything with me in reality, you should at least allow me to fantasize a bit in my dreams, right?”
Siles narrowed his eyes. After a moment of silence, he said, “Actually, I can go into your dream, Chendo.”
Chendo froze, first looking away with a guilty conscience—he hadn’t actually dreamt of Siles before, had he?—and then, he suddenly grew excited: “So, I really can… with you in a dream?”
He licked his lips excitedly, his eyes flashing with a burning, passionate radiance.
For a moment, Siles didn’t even know what to say.
Could he say he actually admired Chendo’s… bizarre capacity for imagination?
He simply said, “I will be going to the deep-sea dreams tonight. Chendo, do you need me to inspect your dream?”
Chendo stood there, hesitating indecisively for a while. During this gap, Siles had already served himself some porridge and set out the side dishes.
Then he heard Chendo say, “Alright. But you can’t be scared by me.”
Siles: “…”
What exactly was Chendo doing in his dreams?
Siles cast a suspicious glance at Chendo.
The matter of the dream date seemed to be quietly settled just like that.
While they were eating, Chendo casually mentioned something to Siles: “The landlord of this house asked me if I was still willing to buy this apartment. He said he wants to invest in some projects in the Lamifa City development plan, so he’s in urgent need of cash.”
This news surprised Siles slightly. However, considering the infrastructure projects in Lamifa City were indeed in full swing, it wasn’t surprising that someone would want to get involved.
“How much is he asking for?” Siles asked.
“Five thousand Duke coins,” Chendo said. “I might be able to haggle it down a bit.”
Siles compared this with some information he had heard and said honestly, “That sounds a bit expensive.”
“If I can buy it for four thousand Duke coins, it would be worth it,” Chendo said. “It can serve as an investment; I also want to purchase some real estate in Lamifa City.
“As the Lamifa City development plan progresses, the prices of these residences will probably slowly rise.”
On this point, Siles agreed with Chendo’s opinion. He said, “That’s also a good idea. Chendo, you can decide this matter yourself.”
After all, the Praia family wasn’t lacking money, and Chendo was the sole heir. Acquiring more real estate in Lamifa City as an investment was a good idea.
Chendo nodded, then asked, “So, when do you plan to buy a house?”
Siles calculated his savings. The cash he could directly take out right now was around five thousand Duke coins, which included income from The Revenge of the Rose and Fredman’s travelogue, the bounty previously given by the Church of the Past, his salary from Lamifa University, and so on.
This was already a substantial asset, but if he spent it all, it would mean he was penniless.
However, Siles also remembered that Professor Bright had mentioned the School of Literature and History would likely give him some rewards during the end-of-term evaluation because of his paper.
He estimated that might be a figure between a few hundred and a thousand Duke coins.
So he said, “Perhaps, before the spring break begins?”
Chendo’s eyes suddenly lit up.
Siles added, “However, I have to go to Middleton during the spring break, so we probably won’t be able to move in that quickly.”
Chendo sighed in frustration. He looked like he very much wanted to kick the spring break visiting scholar matter right off Siles’s schedule; after all, that would allow his wish to be fulfilled sooner.
After breakfast, Siles went to the study on the second floor with Chendo.
“Do you want to read the conversation record first?” Chendo asked.
Siles nodded.
So Chendo opened the ancient file. He sat opposite Siles and began translating it for him word by word. For a moment, Siles suddenly realized that the conversation record also took place in a moment very similar to the present.
The two sat facing each other, the atmosphere quiet and peaceful.
“Could you tell me in detail about your daily lives? Aside from drinking at the tavern, eating, and sleeping, do you have nothing else to do?”
“This is our life. Life, for us, is just like this.”
“Don’t you feel this is too…”
“Dissolute?”
“…That’s not what I meant.”
“Oh, I can understand. In the eyes of you nobles, people like us are probably just vagabonds, worthless trash, and good-for-nothings… But this is also our way of survival.”
“But does the deity you believe in wish for you to do this?”
“Do you think we are walking the path of our deity, or our own path?”
“(My silence.)”
“A difficult question to answer, isn’t it? I’m not drunk right now, so I’m speaking to you about this very soberly. When my love died, it was hard for me to distinguish which was more despairing: the deity abandoning us, or my love abandoning me.”
“…So your faith isn’t that devout?”
“You are a noble; you probably also believe in a deity, right? What does a deity mean to you?”
“…A high and lofty light.”
“So you believe in that One… He seems to have disappeared long ago.”
“Perhaps… no, our topic has gone astray.”
“I mean, the deity has disappeared, but will faith disappear?”
“…No, it wouldn’t.
“That’s what I thought, too. We embark on a journey, searching for a destination we might never reach. That is the end of life, the beginning of death. That is the home for strangers in a foreign land, the final stop for wanderers. Don’t you think everyone is born wandering?
“(I shook my head.)
“A noble, as expected. But I—we—are different. We seem to be born with nothing to rely on, so we take the very state of ‘having nothing to rely on’ as our reliance.
“(After pondering for a moment) I think I understand what you mean. You’re saying you set out on a journey to find something, but in the end, the journey itself became the meaning of your life. Is this how you interpret deities?
“Interpreting deities… Oh, you arrogant noble. I don’t interpret deities; I only interpret my own faith. Every person, every god, every believer of a deity—they all try to find the meaning of their own lives.
“…To think we are discussing such topics after the gods have disappeared.
“This is the Age of Silence. The gods remain silent even in the face of humanity’s blasphemous acts. But ah, but ah—why did my god leave?
“You think He merely left, and didn’t… die?
“Of course, of course… He abandoned us and embarked on His own journey. He was going to fight the shadow. And we… we are powerless, we can’t do anything, we can only follow in His footsteps.
“…The shadow?
“Yes, the shadow. You are a believer of that One, you must know this. Mr. Klimo—’Beneath the light, there must be a shadow.'”
Reading up to this point, Chendo subconsciously stopped. He raised his eyes and looked at Siles.
Siles softly repeated the phrase: “‘Beneath the light, there must be a shadow.'”
They both fell silent for a moment.
Chendo said with confusion, “I have never seen any related records in the Praia family, including this so-called ‘shadow’.”
Siles said, “From their conversation, at least during the Age of Silence, there were still some people who knew of the ‘shadow’s’ existence. But after that, the situation seems to have changed.”
Chendo nodded in agreement.
“Besides…” Siles thought for a while, “You can tell from their conversation that the shadow and the light accompany each other. So, is the ‘shadow’ related to Lusmi?”
In comparison, the fact that the Klimo family—that is, the Darrow family Siles was familiar with—were believers of Lusmi didn’t surprise him as much. He even felt a sense that his expectations had been confirmed.
Of course, after the Klimo family became the Darrow family and moved from Kansas to Konst, this faith seemed to slowly disappear. The younger generation didn’t know much about their ancestors’ past beliefs, and the elders of the family didn’t seem to want them to know.
“Judging from this sentence, it means there must be light to have a shadow,” Chendo said. “So are Lusmi and this so-called ‘shadow’… coexisting side by side?”
This statement reminded Siles of their conversation with Detective Jon Mansfield not long ago. Jon had said that some people falsely claimed to be believers of Lusmi, but were actually believers of the “shadow.”
Furthermore, Ligadia embarked on a journey to fight the “shadow”? This wasn’t too surprising, except that Aldous Gershwin’s deep understanding of the matter made Siles feel a bit unexpected.
Siles asked, “Are there any other places in the conversation record that mention the ‘shadow’?”
“Let me look,” Chendo said.
Siles waited patiently.
After a moment, Chendo said, “I found two more places. I’ll read them to you.”
Chendo’s deep voice continued to resonate by Siles’s ear.
“…Do you wander everywhere? Since when?
“A long, long time ago. Since the Age of Shadows. That was already several hundred years ago. Ever since my god disappeared, we embarked on our journey. We follow His footsteps; even if we cannot walk with Him, we will follow the tracks He left behind.
“So, regarding the Age of Shadows…
“I know what you mean. My god and the god you believe in both disappeared at that time. Shadow, shadow… That was a terrifying era. The world was turned upside down, and both gods and men were dragged into it… all covered by that shadow. Blood-red hues invaded everyone’s dreams.
“…Indeed.
“By the time the Age of Silence arrived, things had actually improved a lot. Because that noisy sound disappeared. People could stay quiet… everyone. The entire world, just the same.”
Chendo paused here, turned the page, and read the second passage regarding the “shadow.”
“Can neither gods nor men contend with the ‘shadow’?
“No… no, I don’t think so. The alcohol might be clouding my mind, but I still deny that possibility… Honestly, Mr. Klimo. That’s not how it is… The development of events is the exact opposite.
“…What? What do you know?
“I mean… contention. The ‘shadow’ is not the earliest god; the ‘shadow’ is a later god. A later god cannot possibly defeat the earliest gods, but… but, it is the ‘shadow’… it is the ‘shadow’, ah.
“Is there a difference in power between gods?
“Of course. Of course. (The poet laughed vaguely.)
“(I maintained a confused silence.)
“The world favors certain gods more. Oh, I don’t dare say any more, and I don’t know any more. These things are merely passed down by word of mouth—I’m only telling you this because I’ve been drinking.
“…You already know enough. Why do you know about the ‘shadow’?
“Because, before my god left… someone… had a conversation with Him. Oh, that devout believer, that devout believer… He followed my god’s will, he saw through the truth. He passed down a portion of that truth.
“…Who was he?
“I can’t just tell you so easily… I can only say… he embarked on a journey much earlier than us. He is my ancestor… you can also call him Gershwin… He set sail out to sea, he rushed into that vortex of ocean and stars, he will die without a burial place, he will become that messenger bird…
“You are drunk. (I was thrown up on. Sigh.)”
Reading up to this point, Chendo couldn’t help but chuckle, as if amused by a small ripple in the long river of time. But shortly after, his expression turned serious.
Siles’s gaze fell on the dusty parchment. He wondered, who had ever read this conversation record?
When Graves Klimo, considered an “abandoned piece” by his family, had these conversations with Aldous Gershwin, who was bitterly condemned by nobles as “lower class,” could he have imagined how many secrets of the past and the world were hidden within?
When Karakak left his hometown—which had erupted in mist due to a fallen god—and drank and chatted with this impoverished wandering poet, Aldous Gershwin, who had painfully lost his love, did he ever think that an ancestor of this poet had once met with a high and mighty deity?
No one had expected it.
“…Then, let’s organize this information,” Siles said in a low voice.
Chendo nodded. His gaze fixed on Siles as he simultaneously said, “A great catastrophe occurred during the Age of Shadows, pulling both gods and men into it.”
“What was the noisy sound? What was the blood-red dream?” Siles asked.
Chendo shook his head. He casually jotted down these two questions, then suddenly paused—he seemed to have also caught Siles’s quirky habit of taking notes anywhere and everywhere.
“The shadow is a later god. There are differences in power between gods. The world favors certain gods more,” Siles said. He paused for a moment. “This doesn’t seem surprising, yet it also seems…”
Chendo looked at him, somewhat troubled.
Siles murmured, “…The world?”
They remained silent for a moment. Chendo did not interrupt Siles’s train of thought.
However, Siles subsequently shook his head, choosing not to waste time on the question that was troubling him.
He shifted topics: “Aldous Gershwin’s ancestor… an even earlier Gershwin, had a conversation during the Age of Shadows with Ligadia, who was about to embark on His journey.”
Chendo nodded and said, “This should be the Praia family’s final record regarding Ligadia.” He looked at the conversation record in mild amazement. “I didn’t expect to find the answer here.”
Siles continued, “Gershwin obtained some information from Ligadia—the truth of the world, one should say. Afterward, he embarked on a journey, following Ligadia’s will. That means he very likely went to do something on Ligadia’s behalf.
“According to Aldous, this Gershwin set sail out to sea to deliver a certain message—was it for Amois? But, a vortex of ocean and stars?”
He said with some confusion, “Amois and Lusmi?”
“‘Stars reflected on the sea.'” Chendo softly recited the phrase. “It seems Amois indeed has some connection to Lusmi.”
Siles nodded, but then furrowed his brow. “It’s hard to say what exact relationship they have. It seems Lusmi is related to the ‘shadow.’ Light and shadow… this sounds a bit complicated.
“Moreover, their conversation didn’t mention spiders, only the ‘shadow.’ What exactly do spiders refer to?”
Siles was troubled by these questions.
Chendo, too, rarely let out a sigh: “There really are quite a lot of mysteries from the past.”
Siles nodded in agreement. He said, “The thirteen Old Gods, plus Antinam, and this unknown ‘shadow.’ A total of fifteen deities.”
Chendo propped up his chin, saying a little strangely, “Why has Antinam never appeared in these past archives?”
Siles couldn’t help but freeze.
He thought for a moment, then said, “Because He didn’t appear until the Age of Mist?”
“That sounds even stranger,” Chendo muttered. “So is He also a ‘later god’?”
Siles didn’t know the answer to this question either.
However, in a sense, he surprisingly hadn’t considered one possibility all this time—could Antinam be the “shadow”?
He didn’t know why he had constantly overlooked this question. Was it because in various materials related to the “shadow,” the “shadow” always seemed incredibly malicious and appeared to have caused many disasters, thus clashing sharply with Antinam’s current image?
After thinking for a moment, Siles shook his head. He took off his glasses, leaned back against the chair, and subconsciously pinched the bridge of his nose. He heard the prompt [Knowledge +1] chime in his mind, but didn’t show anything on his face.
This was to be expected, he thought. Because they had just learned that in the past, a believer of Ligadia had once set sail.
He shifted his focus to this matter.
A moment later, he said, “From Gershwin—I mean, the earlier Gershwin—judging from his actions, Ligadia seems to have had a pretty good relationship with Amois?”
Chendo was taken aback and couldn’t help but ask, “Why do you think so?”
“Ligadia’s final instruction before leaving was for a devout believer to deliver a message out at sea. And the deity directly related to the sea is most likely this God of Warriors and Pirates,” Siles explained. “This message must have been incredibly important; that’s why Ligadia specifically informed the believer. But since it was His last communication before departing, why choose to inform Amois instead of another deity?”
As he spoke, Siles thought of a few other things.
In Conan Fremont’s book, he mentioned narrowly escaping death in his youth. It was the churning seawater that delivered him to the shore, allowing him to evade death. Although it was unknown whether this was orchestrated by Thaddeus, it at least proved that the sea was also associated with death and seemingly harbored no malice toward humanity.
Furthermore, in the deep-sea dreams, the dream bubbles of humanity ultimately formed a boundless ocean; meanwhile, the shattered dream bubbles of the deceased became isolated islands within the sea. Dreams were also connected to the ocean.
In Akamara’s pasture, a map of the planet emerged in the lake. That could also be considered an alternative scene reflecting the imagery of “stars falling onto the sea,” even though the “sea” was rather small.
Ligadia, Amois, Thaddeus, and Akamara. Siles silently recited the names of these four deities in his heart.
Subsequently, the names of the remaining deities flashed through his mind.
Lusmi, Personari, Trisli, Atkinya… Hoodoka, Menavaca, Elco, Timiafa, Brancani…
Thirteen Old Gods.
The relationships between Them were complex and intricate; They seemed to devour each other, seemed incredibly intimate, and seemed to turn against one another as enemies. They spent a long, distant era together with humanity, and finally, fell like rain into the deathly stillness of the Age of Silence.
Siles let out a slow sigh.
Chendo said at the right moment, “I’ll read through this conversation record again later to see if there’s any more useful information, but I think that’s all there is regarding the shadow.”
Siles nodded and said, “Being able to learn this much is already an unexpected delight.”
They had spent nearly the entire morning on this conversation record. Of course, the harvest was indeed worthy of their time. Siles also couldn’t help but feel that the time and energy spent finding this conversation record was completely worthwhile.
Chendo even joked, “You should go looking for more books and documents that haven’t had full volumes available before.”
Siles thought for a moment, then couldn’t help but shake his head. “It seems I’ve already found them all.”
Even Fremont’s complete collection of A Lifetime, which seemed the hardest to assemble, was finally obtained with the help of Professor Calverley.
Chendo widened his eyes slightly, looking at him in astonishment. Then, he couldn’t help but laugh, saying, “You truly are the darling of fate—no, I should say, you control fate.”
Siles merely brushed off the remark with a smile.
“It’s time for lunch,” Chendo said. “The snow outside seems to have stopped. Why don’t we eat out?”
“Of course,” Siles replied.
They went to a nearby restaurant for a meal and then took a leisurely stroll outside. A thin layer of snow covered the ground, and the temperature was quite low. They planned to walk from Lowell Street to Hayward Street and back.
However, as they passed by 6 Hayward Street, they unexpectedly ran into a postman.
“Oh, are you Mr. Siles Noel?” the postman, who seemed to recognize Siles, asked. “There are two letters for you.”
Letters?
Siles was slightly surprised. He thanked the postman and took the two envelopes.
“From where?” Chendo asked.
Siles hesitated for a moment, then said, “Chester and Alva.” He paused. “To think their letters would arrive at the same time.”
Chendo offered an objective evaluation: “These two really do coincidentally end up together, whether in the Ashless Lands or now.”
Siles smiled at the remark. Of course, he also thought it was quite interesting that Chester and Alva could become such good friends despite their age difference.
He put the letters in his pocket and said, “Let’s go. We’ll head home and see what’s written inside.”
Chendo held Siles’s hand in immense satisfaction and said, “I’m so glad… you call 32 Lowell Street ‘home’.”
Siles froze slightly, only then belatedly realizing the word he had subconsciously used. It invisibly revealed certain thoughts of his—thoughts he hadn’t even fully understood himself until now.
He thought for a while. Just as Chendo was almost getting nervous, thinking he had said something wrong, Siles suddenly smiled. He said softly, “Yes, Chendo. That is our home.”
Chendo looked at him, his gaze softening in that instant. Heaven knew how many times he had described himself as “hopeless,” but right now, he still helplessly said, “That couldn’t be better. I love you.”
He only used this equal form of address when saying “I love you.” Usually, out of his own etiquette and habits, he always referred to Siles with the formal “you” [您]. Only at this moment, only when uttering these simple three words, would he use the informal “you” [你].
Because of how much he anticipated receiving a response from Siles… how much he anticipated receiving Siles’s love.
“I love you too,” Siles said.
Chendo couldn’t help but smile, his eyes curving slightly. He only revealed this expression in front of Siles, making him look nothing like the arrogant, wild, and insolent explorer from when they first met.
Or perhaps it was just that, in front of Siles, he could never be that way again. He could only willingly admit that because he so deeply loved and yearned for Siles’s existence, it was impossible for him to be the old Chendo anymore.
The flame of love had scorched his soul, leaving an eternal brand upon it. Yet he gladly endured it, willing to let Siles control his everything.
This was Chendo’s view of love: open and sincere.
Siles leaned in and hugged his lover—his Chendo—and said, “It’s time to go home.”
After returning to 32 Lowell Street, Siles opened the letters from Chester and Alva, and was surprised to realize that both were actually about the matters Siles had asked them to investigate during their last meeting.
In Doctor Chester’s letter, he mentioned that he had already asked several doctor friends for information regarding Doctor Hubert Fox at the Darwin Hospital in the West District.
There was indeed a doctor who had once been colleagues with Hubert Fox, though that was a long time ago, when the latter was still working at the Darwin Hospital in the East District.
According to this doctor, the East District Darwin Hospital seemed to have implemented a strange rule at the time—”He was vague about it,” Chester added.—And Hubert was the most enthusiastic supporter of it.
Shortly after that incident occurred, the doctor left Darwin Hospital, and Hubert was seemingly transferred away not long after, heading to the Darwin Hospital in the West District.
“As for what this strange rule actually was,” Doctor Chester wrote, “I asked some friends and finally learned that it happened three years ago. At that time, Darwin Hospital decided that whenever any young child was admitted for treatment, they could not be accompanied by their parents, but instead by caregivers arranged by the hospital. This was because some higher-ups in the hospital seemingly believed that the parents’ excessive worry and anxiety were interfering with the treatment process.
“Of course, visits were allowed, but long-term bedside accompaniment or nursing was forbidden. This strange rule caused a minor uproar, but it quickly lost its impact because the vast majority of parents actually didn’t have the time to accompany their sick children anyway.
“However, some doctors thought this was utter nonsense. And for various other reasons—I wasn’t able to extract the specific details from those in the know, but in short, Darwin Hospital had seemingly been making them unhappy for even longer—many doctors chose to resign at that time. Patients and ordinary people outside the hospital probably thought this was just normal turnover and job transfers, but some of my doctor friends exhibited a very… unpleasant and resistant attitude.
“They all held a very strange attitude toward Darwin Hospital, and said that if any of my friends wanted to go there for treatment, it would be best to dissuade them. However, they were vague about their reasons for doing so.
“In short, this is all the information I managed to gather. I hope it helps your investigation.”
Siles stared at the contents of the letter thoughtfully.
Three years ago, Darwin Hospital’s strange rule, the mass resignation of doctors—this all matched some of the information he had obtained previously. Three years ago, the reputation of the East District Darwin Hospital suddenly plummeted.
And three years ago, this strange rule targeting young child patients made Siles realize that it was probably around then that Jonathan Bryant initiated his plan.
The true nature of his evil plan might have remained unknown to anyone until now, but ultimately, someone had caught glimpses of the details. Those resigning doctors were very aware of the problems at Darwin Hospital, but for various reasons, they maintained their silence.
This caused Siles to sigh softly.
Finally, he shook his head and turned his gaze to the other letter—the letter from Alva.
He was very eager to see if Alva had managed to find any news related to that mysterious painter over the past period. Ever since realizing that the painter was indeed connected to the annihilation of the Darrow family, Siles had become even more curious about him.
His eyes fell upon the words on the stationery.
