"Why Blue Jay?"
Faced with Cinderella’s question, Ewen was silent for a while, trying to say sothing several tis, but the words extinguished at his lips, as if Ewen couldn’t provide an exact answer either.
"I like birds, especially the Blue Jay. Its plumage is beautiful, and it holds a unique feeling as one of the few blue hues in nature."
Ewen explained to Cinderella. As an author, no matter how mysterious and reclusive Ewen was, he inevitably had to communicate with people. People often asked Ewen this question, so Ewen had long prepared a set of responses to handle such situations.
Cinderella said, "You’re lying."
"Why?" Ewen didn’t understand, "You’ve read my books, you know this, I genuinely love birds, that’s a fact."
Cinderella certainly knew that. In the story of "Night Hunter," Ewen didn’t describe the real nas of the hunters but instead used bird nas as code nas one after another.
In reader exchanges, so suspected Ewen was actually an ornithologist, while others believed Ewen was just too lazy to co up with nas and bought a "Bird Anthology," picking random bird nas for character naming.
Cinderella furrowed her brows tightly. Ewen indeed seed truthful, but she still shook her head vigorously, "No, I just feel you’re lying, and you’ve already said it, authors are masters of deceit."
"Oh? Does that an we’ve switched roles?"
Ewen found the situation amusing, "Earlier, you were deceiving , now it’s my turn, so guess, which parts are true?"
Cinderella thought for two seconds, her head stiffened, unable to comprehend, her voice raised a few pitches, "Hey! Your pen na, is that it, just that simple?"
"Otherwise? What did you think, it’s so complex?"
Ewen burst into laughter. He loved seeing Cinderella flustered—it was more interesting than fighting.
"After getting off the train, I arrived in a small town. As usual, I worked several jobs, living in a dark, damp basent. Whenever I rested, I began to write. Only after finishing the first manuscript did I realize I needed a pen na."
Ewen recounted his story of creation, "People always say a na is crucial, for a while I agonized over what kind of pen na to choose."
"I thought for a long ti, then I noticed a corner of the newspaper; it was a science section precisely discussing the bird species Blue Jay."
Ewen fluently repeated the newspaper’s words, clearly rembering them even after so many years.
"The plumage of the Blue Jay is beautiful, possessing a unique allure rarely seen in nature."
Ewen explained to Cinderella word by word, "I thought, why conform? Why attach aningless symbolism to a pen na when I could be more whimsical."
Cinderella raised her voice, "So you used Blue Jay as your pen na? Just because of a damn newspaper!"
"Yes, what’s aningful is not the pen na, the significant part is that mont. If the newspaper had introduced Red Falcon or similar birds, my pen na might very well have been Red Falcon."
Ewen spread his hands, effortlessly shattering all of Cinderella’s illusions about him.
"Do you have anything else you’d like to ask? Sothing about story plot design, character arrangents?"
Ewen felt addicted to this; watching the girl’s innocent fantasies crumble bit by bit had an indescribable thrill.
"Well..."
Cinderella’s gaze towards Ewen completely changed; sotis, Ewen seed more detestable than demons. Demons rely sought to kill, but Ewen aid to utterly destroy her dreams.
"Such as..."
"Shut up!"
Cinderella threw the half-eaten apple at Ewen. She regretted asking Ewen, wanting to block his mouth before he completely shattered her beautiful fantasies.
Ewen couldn’t stop laughing. He had longed for such interactions with readers, believing it improbable, yet he truly encountered it.
After a while, the room beca peaceful again, Cinderella sat on a nearby chair, staring blankly out the porthole. Eventually, she failed to see whales and, like Ewen, was temporarily detained on the Horror.
Ewen remained unnoticed, but Blue Jay wielded a certain social influence and maintained a friendship with Nolen.
It could be said that Ewen’s identity was exceedingly complex, causing the Tide citizens and Special Operations Group to montarily not know how to deal with him. With matters far more important than Ewen, he was temporarily set aside, calmly recuperating on the Horror, as if forcibly on vacation.
As for Cinderella’s identity, Ewen casually made up a story to brush it off.
Ewen said to the angry Cinderella, "You’re now like my niece, better behave."
When questioned by Bologue and others, Ewen spontaneously concocted this story, unsure of Cinderella’s true identity.
This wasn’t a perfect lie; anyone checking Ewen’s identity relations could easily uncover the deceit, but these Condensers evidently didn’t care.
"What niece!"
Cinderella raised her hand to knock Ewen’s head, but her arm length was far shorter than Ewen’s. Ewen simply raised his hand to hold her head, making her unable to reach him.
Cinderella continued, "I dislike this Identity Card."
"Identity Card?"
Ewen didn’t understand the term. Cinderella often used words he didn’t comprehend, leaving Ewen no choice but to attribute it to generation gap.
"Haven’t you played tabletop gas?" Cinderella retorted, "Role-playing Identity Cards?"
Ewen was entirely unfamiliar, "What is that?"
Cinderella paused silently, cautiously inquiring, "Have you heard of ’Journey of Absolute Night’?"
Ewen didn’t understand what Cinderella ant, "Of course, that’s the setting in my book."
In the "Night Hunter" setting, hunters would cruise aboard ard trains, hunting demons along the way, this journey being terd as Journey of Absolute Night.
Cinderella was taken aback, she pursued further, "Ewen, do you know your novel has been adapted into a tabletop ga?"
"Ah?"
Ewen pondered for a long ti, "I need to check the contracts."
Cinderella scread, "Are you truly Blue Jay? You don’t even know this!"
Ewen responded, "I’m just an author, I only type on a typewriter. I’m clueless about how to handle such matters; specialized fields have their expertise, I leave these things to my editor."
"You’ve never played this even once?"
"No... I live alone, there’s no one to play with," Ewen tried recalling, "I rember recently my editor mailed this thing to , it’s probably stuffed in a cabinet..."
Listening to Ewen’s nonsense, Cinderella felt as if sothing inside her was crumbling bit by bit, turning into dust.
"Let explain, tabletop gas are where everyone plays different roles, imrses themselves in the ga, collaboratively completing the storytelling. The Identity Card encompasses all information about the role you play, such as character story, ability values, etc., and determines your position in the story."
Cinderella described to Ewen, her wine-red eyes keenly fixed on him.
"For example, if everything we’ve experienced were a ga, then ’Cinderella’ is my role na—her backstory being a girl wanting to see whales for strange reasons, with mundane ability values but incredibly lucky and quirky..."
Cinderella beca increasingly excited, comparing with Ewen again, "Ewen is the player, Blue Jay is your Identity Card, the na of the role you will play. Does that make sense?"
Ewen nodded uncertainly for the first ti encountering tabletop gas; he liked the Identity Card concept.
"It’s like wearing a mask and performing on stage."
"Exactly," Cinderella affird, "You don’t have to be yourself, you can act out another role."
Ewen recalled a remark, unable to rember whose it was, "Sotis wearing a mask is ironically removing it."
"Yes!"
Cinderella was exceedingly thrilled, "Masks can conceal your appearance, allowing you to unleash your true self without constraints, no matter what your nature is!"
Ewen felt Cinderella was implying sothing, yet her wine-red pupils were pure, she simply found it intriguing.
Just as Ewen intended to say sothing, a knock sounded, and the door was once again pushed open.
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