"Wait a minute!"
Seeing the dried bodies with human torsos and fish tails revealed as the fine sand was blown away, the old rman was utterly shocked and imdiately squatted down, trembling, picking up a handful of gray-white fine sand and rubbing it in his hands.
"No! No! This isn't sand at all!"
"Hmm."
Leon, who had previously speculated sothing, nodded his head with a sowhat complicated expression and said,
"All the sand on this beach is probably the scales of the Sea Race after being weathered and broken apart...
I've felt it before, the Sea Race's scales have a unique texture. Even when soaked in water, they won't get wet; instead, they dry quickly once out of the water. Only the fine sand ford from weathered scales can aggregate to form such an unusual water-repellent beach."
"But... but... how is this possible?!"
Looking at the "bones" with human torsos and fish tails below, and the vast gray-white beach stretching into the distance, the old rman trembled all over and questioned,
"To form such a large beach with broken scales, countless Sea Race must have died! I... if so many Sea Race died at once, how co I've never heard of it?"
"Because although they are Sea Race, they may not be your people."
After inspecting the dried rfolk bodies beside the black stone monunt, Leon frowned deeply and said,
"If so many rfolk migrated here and all died in this realm, it would definitely affect the entire population of your rfolk tribe, and both us humans and you Sea Race would have records of this.
But neither you nor I know about this, and your rfolk numbers are similar to the other two great mariti progeny, with no noticeable population decline.
So rather than believing soone simultaneously altered the history of both sides and allowed the rfolk to recover to previous levels silently after a sharp population drop, I am more inclined to believe these rfolk are the native inhabitants of this world."
Seems... plausible?
After hearing Leon's analysis, the old rman cald down a bit, then repressed the fears in his heart, observed the conditions of these rfolk remains, and, not without surprise, said,
"You're right! These rfolk are different from us! Although they look the sa size, their skeletons are slightly weaker, and they have an extra pair of ribs and caudal bones!"
"Hmm."
Leon responded absentmindedly after stepping down from a slanted black stone monunt. He examined its front and then asked with a frown,
"Do you recognize the writing on this?"
"Let see..."
He followed and jumped down from the gigantic black stone monunt, rushed to Leon's side to examine, hesitated a bit, then said,
"I seem to understand a few sentences, but don't know the rest..."
"?"
Leon glanced at him upon hearing this.
"So are these really the Sea Race characters?"
"The others aren't, but these last two sentences should be..."
Reaching out, he brushed off the gray-white sand from the stone monunt, checked the sowhat blurred indentations at the bottom, and slowly recited,
"When the song... sinks into the island rock, when scales... turn to bone sand, I will with the sea breeze beco the final monunt of this world... I don't recognize what's after this."
He rubbed the last few unfamiliar characters and uncertainly said,
"Judging by the position, it seems like this is the signature at the end? Could it be the stone mason who carved this monunt?"
Are you asking ? I wouldn't be asking if I knew!
Leon gave him an exasperated glance after receiving the old rman's inquisitive look, then said,
"Let's not worry about this now... The other three sides of this island are cliffs; if you didn't co by air, you would likely only land here, but there's no trace of anyone coming up recently.
Moreover, you just made such a commotion, yet there was no response from the island, so the Scorpion Director and others are probably not here, or perhaps they never ca up in the first place."
"Then... should we just go?"
"No, we should still take a look inside."
Leon shook his head and said,
"We've already co this far."
"...?"
This is your reason?
"I understand your urgency, but let's not rush."
After carefully morizing the writing at the bottom of the black stone monunt, Leon began walking towards the island's interior while explaining,
"One went to search the heavens, and the other the seas, covering all fronts. Even if we helped, it wouldn't speed things up much.
And although the Scorpion Director and others may not be here, there might be secrets about this plane itself. Even if we can't figure out why the seawater is so cold, we should at least discover this realm's na."
"What good does it do to know this realm's na?"
"It's incredibly useful."
After giving the old rman a glance, Leon continued explaining,
"The Cold Spring Realm is on Old Soil, and this realm might be on Old Soil too. Didn't you tell before? The space and ti on Old Soil are chaotic; running around indiscriminately might land you anywhere, where you may never return alive.
Thus, if we can determine this realm's na and characteristics, it might help verify our location, avoid falling into troubleso realms, or possibly find star map records of location and routes on this relic-like island.
If so, even if we can't find the Scorpion Director and others, we might be able to return on our own... Since the Scorpion Director and others don't know we're here, they might have already left this realm, so it wouldn't hurt us to have more preparations."
Fair enough...
Sowhat convinced by Leon's words, the old rman stopped talking and followed him into the deserted island.
As the two ventured deeper in, the dark cliffs on both sides blocked the howling sea wind, and the creaking sound emitted by the gray-white scale dust under their feet began to echo back and forth within the dark cliffs.
When the two sidestepped the narrow black rocks and traversed the base of the "mountain"-shaped island's left valley, the cramped and dim world before them suddenly opened up. In the open field behind the valley stood a collection of pearl-colored palaces shaped like shells.
This ensemble of buildings was surrounded by petrified coral forming a "garden," slightly pulsated like living creatures in the calcium-scented breeze, with gray-white pearl paths running through it, all leading to the massive circular plaza in the center of the complex.
When they erged from the narrow valley, stepping onto a pearl path and heading towards the central plaza, the large shells with wind-eroded cracks on their dos retreated to the sides, according to their original design, arduously giving way to the path ahead.
However, just as Leon and his companion were about to marvel at these "Sea Race" structures, the towering statue at the centre of the plaza, revealed after the shells shifted view, imdiately captivated all their attention.
This... what is this?
Gazing at the statue of the rmaid, with a gentle and lovely smile, eyes pure but cunning, yet beautiful beyond reproach, not only did the old rman's eyes widen in surprise, even Leon beside him was montarily speechless.
"Ev... Evangeline?"
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