After the rescue incident, life beca calm and peaceful, with no sudden events at all. Even extraordinary cris were pathetically few, as if the outlaws fled the Great Rift overnight, leaving behind only the Hunter to patrol his territory.
Bologue has been quite idle lately, so much so that he feels uncomfortable. He’s been trying to calm himself by doing other things. For instance, he is currently sitting in the small outpost house, flipping through the "Golden Thesis," trying to understand the details of the Triple Law.
Humans, Demons, and Debtors are distinguished by the integrity of their souls. Humans possess intact souls, Demons have lost their entire souls, and Debtors have broken souls.
The Alchemy Matrix is implanted in the soul, allowing humans to normally undergo the trials of the Triple Law and ascend. Demons, having lost their entire souls, lack the foundational cornerstone for the Alchemy Matrix to extend, thus cannot ascend.
Debtors are between the two; their broken souls can serve as a cornerstone for the growth of the Alchemy Matrix, but due to the fragility of their soul, this cornerstone is unstable, making the ascent for Debtors extrely difficult and perilous.
Fortunately, such defects don’t affect Bologue. As an Undead, no matter how dangerous sothing might be, he only needs to resurrect.
Suddenly, Bologue’s train of thought was interrupted by the sound of snoring. He turned his head to see the napping Palr.
As expected, Palr’s personal belongings have increasingly filled the small outpost house over ti. First, it was novels piling up under the bed, then boxes of snacks and beer. He even brought a tape recorder to play songs occasionally in the outpost house.
Hmm... Bologue quite enjoys this aspect. As partners, the two of them surprisingly share a similar taste in music.
Bologue isn’t that rigid. Aside from occasionally nagging Palr, he doesn’t interfere much and sotis even actively tries to get into these things.
For example, so novels.
Bologue rarely reads novels. He spends his spare ti learning various extraordinary knowledge to quickly catch up with the understanding of this era. Thus, his entertainnt is limited to watching movies and listening to music... if demon slaying counts.
Recently, whenever Bologue has so free ti, he flips through the pile of novels Palr brought. One novel that caught his attention is titled "Night Hunter."
Aimou ntioned this book. During a ride on the subway with Marion and among the supplies transported to the Desperate Outpost, this book was also included.
Amidst such curiosity, Bologue started to read this story, though due to ti constraints, he has only read the beginning.
"Ah..."
Palr let out a loud crow-like cry before groggily sitting up from the bed, indicating he had woken up.
Their work has truly been leisurely lately, with only two patrols a day and hardly any special occurrences. Bologue has been tracking the whereabouts of the Gray Trade Association, but it seems as if these guys never existed, leaving no traces at all.
Bologue even asked Yas about their progress, but their situation was similar to his, as if the Gray Trade Association vanished, leaving the investigation at a stalemate.
Palr is the only one benefiting from this impasse, ecstatic and claiming it’s his lucky day.
"Speaking of which, Bologue, the Vow Festival is coming up soon. Do you have any plans?" Palr asked, glancing at the calendar.
"Not really... I’ll probably be here on duty. What about you?" Bologue didn’t have any particular feelings about the festival.
The day after tomorrow is the Vow Festival, a day when Oubos rose from the ravaged land. After a month’s preparation, the entire city is ready for the celebration.
"On duty? That’s too boring!" Palr’s voice rose.
"There’s nothing much to do anyway, so being on duty here is fine. Why, are you going to join ?"
Bologue looked lightly at Palr, knowing he was a lazy dog who would never work on duty during the Vow Festival. That’s why Bologue had taken up the task right from the start.
"No, I’ll pass. I have things to do during the Vow Festival," Palr said.
"What kind of things? Celebrating with Serey and the others, or racing down the streets?" Bologue could easily guess Palr’s private life.
"How could it be? It’s the Vow Festival, after all." Palr protested loudly.
Seeing this, Bologue smiled slight and pressed, "So what are you going to do? Better co up with a decent lie."
Bologue knew his partner too well. Palr was cunning and nimble, slackening at work but becoming reliable in dangerous situations.
That’s why Palr often spouted nonsense, supplented by his peculiar childhood experiences. It seed that the Clarks family had a touch of codic talent.
After a mont of silence, Palr said.
"I’m going to call my fiancée. She’s a chatterbox, but fortunately, her family requires her to sleep by ten, so I can catch Serey’s party after ten... It seems you guessed right, since the final stop is always the Undying Club."
Before Palr could finish his sentence, Bologue burst into laughter. He couldn’t have predicted that Palr would tell such a lie; his partner indeed had an irresistible codic charm.
Bologue’s laughter gradually stopped, while Palr remained serious and grew more solemn, Bologue’s smile also gradually stiffened.
After a long silence, Bologue slowly spoke.
"Are you... serious?"
"What do you think?"
Palr looked at the awkward Bologue, a smile beaming on his face, as if he had won over Bologue in so way.
"No no no, how could soone like you possibly have a fiancée?" Bologue didn’t understand.
"What do you an by soone like ? I’m a rightful heir of the Clarks family! Becoming an unfortunate debtor is just sothing that happened later, but before that, I was really shining brightly!"
Palr rarely sounded assertive, shouting repeatedly.
"Don’t you understand what it ans to be from a big family? It’s quite normal to have a fiancée!"
Bologue fell silent again, while Palr ca over, patted Bologue’s shoulder, with a look of deep-seated concern.
"Partner, I know your ntal state has issues, but ah, you can’t just give up on yourself like that."
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"You’re too idle, find yourself a girlfriend, stop thinking about Demons, cutting through those things every day won’t lead anywhere." Palr spoke with the tone of soone with experience.
Bologue raised his hand intending to hit Palr, but this guy reacted faster, moved sideways to dodge, with a mischievous smile.
"Then I’ll rely on you for the Vow Festival, partner!"
Palr laid back in bed, reached for a book, and didn’t forget to give Bologue a thumbs up.
"Sigh..."
Bologue sighed helplessly, another reason for his duty was that he truly didn’t have much to do during the Vow Festival.
He didn’t have family to et, nor friends to celebrate with... Actually, he did have so friends, like Palr, Geoffrey, Serey, etc., but everyone had their own plans for the Vow Festival.
Thinking about this made Bologue feel much lonelier, ever since coming out from the Black Prison, the whole world had changed, Bologue was like a ghost traveling through ti.
Bologue shook his head, trying hard not to think about these disturbing things, he was an Undead, with endless years awaiting him, if he got defeated by these trivial matters, then he would be too fragile.
"I’ll go see Teda." Bologue ntioned to Palr before pushing the door and leaving.
He planned to ask Teda about the Vow Festival plan, if Teda also didn’t have any plans, they could accelerate their research pace.
Just like their investigation of the Gray Trade Association, the research on Bologue’s Alchemy Matrix had also hit a bottleneck.
Initially, Teda’s research was on the Alchemy Matrix of a Seeker of Glory, Xilin had almost completely exhibited this power, providing a wealth of data for Teda’s research, but now it was different, Bologue was rely a Condenser, he had no ability to fully unfold the power of the Summoning Hand.
This kind of thing can’t be rushed, Bologue can’t possibly ascend to a Seeker of Glory in just a few days, it sounds too ridiculous.
Teda realized that this would be a long-term task, along with Bologue’s ascension, this power would gradually reveal its full picture in front of them.
Ascending to the second-floor experint area, Bologue saw Aimou busy at the workbench, aside from taking care of Teda’s daily life and a few auxiliary tasks, Aimou’s most important task every day was learning Alchemy.
It might be because of her identity as an Alchemy Puppet, Aimou was exceptionally adept at learning these things, and during her learning, she could apply learned knowledge to her own body.
Teda once ntioned, the gel-like substance mimicking skin on Aimou’s torso was made by Aimou herself, not only does it look nice and mimic skin, but also has strong shock absorption and protective ability to stabilize Aimou’s internal chanical structure.
Bologue took a few more glances, only to see Aimou’s pitch-black arm slowly becoming illusory, until it completely dissolved into nothingness, like a shadow, she extended her hand into another piece of tal.
This was the first ti Bologue saw this, and he didn’t know what it was, but he guessed it might be Aimou’s "Secret Energy", she could be regarded as an Alchemy Armant with self-awareness, so so of her strange abilities were quite normal.
At the end of the corridor, Bologue saw Teda, they nodded to each other, then stood together, watching from a distance through the safety glass, Aimou busy at the workbench.
"She really loves Alchemy, it’s just like us humans, pursuing our own souls, she’s also researching where she originally ca from."
In Teda’s words, there was a hint of philosophy, but Bologue didn’t agree, he shook his head.
User Comments
0 comments from readers