“According to what you say...”
Lin Gui put away the scroll and looked at Eve.
“You seem very confident about surviving the 'Hero's Expedition'?”
His tone was calm, yet he pointed out a cold hard fact.
“Since the descent of the Demon God, there have been nineteen Dark Tides and nineteen Heroes.”
“Nearly a hundred elites of various races embarked on the journey, heading for the Demon God's fortress.”
“In the end, fewer than ten returned alive.”
He paused, his gaze landing on Eve's face.
“And the Saintess... is the primary target.”
“The survival rate of previous generations is frighteningly low.”
“I remember that out of the nineteen times, only one Saintess returned alive.”
“The first Saintess, Cecilia.”
Eve listened quietly, her face showing no ripples of emotion.
Lin Gui continued, his voice carrying a hint of inquiry:
“And that first Saintess seems to have... vanished without a trace afterward.”
“Rumor has it that she went into seclusion after her return and never came out, while others say she fell long ago.”
“Her identity and fate have also become taboos within the Church.”
Hearing this, Eve only smiled softly.
In that smile, there was none of the Saintess's etherealness, nor her usual playfulness.
There was only a cold, almost stubborn calm.
“Before I witness with my own eyes...”
She raised her eyes slightly, dark undercurrents seemingly swirling in the depths of her purple eyes.
“Before you trample that Pope beneath your feet...”
She spoke clearly, emphasizing every single word.
“I will not die.”
“Then you'll probably have to wait a very long time.”
Lin Gui shook his head and put the scroll away.
The Pope of Light possessed Mid-tier Epic strength.
The trouble was not the man himself, but the massive, deeply rooted power behind him.
By the day Lin Gui was strong enough to face an Epic Rank expert, the one he would have to face would certainly not be just a single Epic.
But that was a matter for the future.
Although the mission was bizarre, the reward was already in hand.
Lin Gui was not someone who insisted on getting to the bottom of everything.
He turned around, preparing to lead Eve away from these ruins.
Just as he took a step out of the doorway...
He suddenly felt a chill over his head.
Lin Gui looked up in shock.
A dusty brick with old stains on its edges was falling right from the gap of the half-collapsed beam above him.
With precise accuracy, it met his upturned face.
“Smack!”
A dull sound.
The brick made intimate contact with his forehead.
Lin Gui could not even let out a cry of surprise.
He only felt his vision go dark as countless stars exploded before his eyes.
Then, his consciousness sank into darkness.
“Thud.”
He fell straight backward, kicking up a small cloud of dust.
He had passed out clean and quick.
He didn't know how long he slept.
In his daze, Lin Gui heard Eve's worried, soft calls.
And some... chaotic, faint sounds.
It sounded like children holding back laughter, adults speaking in hushed voices, and even a few soft meows mixed in.
Rubbing his throbbing forehead, he slowly opened his eyes.
His first thought was: Ridiculous.
It had always been him knocking others out with bricks, yet today he was actually taken down by a brick falling from who-knows-where?
What was even more bizarre was that before he collapsed, he had clearly used Wind Listening and magic perception to thoroughly investigate.
Inside and outside the house, besides Eve and himself, there was absolutely no third living creature.
So this brick... had appeared out of thin air?
It couldn't possibly be a coincidence, could it?
Rubbing his forehead where a bump had formed, he struggled to sit up.
Only then did he realize he was resting his head on a soft, warm lap.
The faint, sweet fragrance belonging to Eve lingered at the tip of his nose.
“You're awake?”
Eve's voice came from above, carrying concern, along with a hint of... hard-to-conceal oddness and unease.
“Um... we have some 'business' at our door.”
Business?
Lin Gui listened with a look of utter bewilderment.
His post office was in Avalon; where would business come from in a ghostly place like Blackwater City?
However, some faint, indistinct “voices” began to reach his ears.
They were chattering, fragmented and chaotic:
“It's him! He's the one who sent me here!”
“He even opened a post office and helps people deliver letters for only 7 coppers!”
“Oh my gosh, it's my first time seeing a black-haired, black-eyed human. How magical!”
“Everyone, stop talking! If we scare him, we won't be able to ask him to deliver letters for us...”
“Didn't any of you notice? This human big sister is so pretty, prettier than all the girls I've ever seen...”
“Her purple eyes look like they're hiding a starry sky.”
“She seems to be a priest. Can we ask her to guide our souls to peace?”
“........”
Lin Gui looked around in astonishment.
It was already late at night, and only the 【Glimmer】 shining from Eve's fingertips dispersed the limited darkness.
Ruins, broken walls, and empty streets.
There wasn't even a ghostly shadow in sight!
Then where... did these voices come from?!
He suddenly recalled that back in the City of Bounties, the dwarven envoy Blackbeard had casually mentioned—
Blackwater City was “haunted.”
At the time, he had only dismissed it as a boring rumor, but now...
Lin Gui frowned and hesitated no longer.
A gray light swirled in his eyes as 【Eyes of the Netherworld】 instantly activated!
The moment his vision shifted—
“Aaaaaah!!!”
“It's the messenger! The messenger of the Netherworld is here!!”
“Run!!”
A series of terrified, shrill, and horrific screams suddenly erupted!
Immediately after, Lin Gui saw...
Several pale blue, translucent humans of various shapes were crowding behind the ruined window frame opposite him.
The moment they were “seen” by him, they leaped up like startled rabbits.
Turning into blurry streams of light, they whooshed away, slipping into the walls, the floorboards, and the shadows outside.
Vanishing without a trace.
Leaving behind only a scattering of fine soul-dust that slowly drifted like the trails of fireflies.
Lin Gui: “...”
He froze in place, keeping Eyes of the Netherworld active.
Holy crap, I've seen ghosts.
“After the sky went completely dark...”
Eve's voice was very soft, carrying a lingering trace of confusion.
“They appeared.”
She looked down at Lin Gui resting on her lap and began to narrate what had happened after he fainted.
“At first, I felt 'gazes.'”
“Many... curious, cautious 'gazes.'”
“Peering over from the cracks in the walls, the holes in the floorboards, the shadows outside the windows...”
“Then, I heard voices.”
“Just like those... fragmented voices from earlier.”
“They were very blurry at first, like wind blowing through cracks.”
“But later, they became clearer and clearer.”
She paused, seemingly still digesting the bizarreness of it all.
“They seemed to be... discussing you.”
“Discussing your post office, your letters, and your... hair and eye color.”
“They also mentioned... 'delivering letters' and '7 coppers.'”
Actually, Eve hadn't been afraid when she first heard the voices appearing out of thin air.
She had assumed they were just some wandering specters.
Wandering specters were far too common within the Wall of Sighs.
But the problem was...
The intelligence of these 'specters'... was ridiculously high.
They were almost... just like living people.
Just then—
“I-I'm the one who told them.”
A weak, childish, and somewhat timid female voice suddenly came from the direction of the ruined window frame.
“Please don't be angry...”
“They only... want to ask you for help.”
Lin Gui and Eve turned their heads at the same time.
Only to see the pale blue, translucent figure of a little girl carefully poking half of her head out from behind the broken windowsill.
She looked to be about seven or eight years old, with two thin braids.
She wore a faded, old-fashioned floral print dress.
At this moment, her eyes, which also shimmered with a faint light, were stealing peeks at Lin Gui.
Her gaze was filled with unconcealed fear.
Particularly when her gaze met Lin Gui's Eyes of the Netherworld, which still swirled with gray light.
She visibly shuddered, like a startled small animal.
Yet she forced herself not to pull back.
She only repeated once more in a voice as soft as a mosquito's buzz:
“They... are not bad 'people.'”
“Really.”
Rate on N.U.
