Lin Gui stared at the girl for a long time.
In his mind, he rapidly connected the recent series of bizarre events.
The mission that completed without a recipient signing for it.
The excessively clean glass bead.
And these invisible “senders” surrounding them at this moment...
An absurd yet logical hypothesis suddenly surfaced.
He spoke tentatively, his voice a bit dry: “Are you... that ‘Moro Troy’?”
The little girl behind the window frame nodded timidly.
She looked up at Lin Gui and confirmed in a small voice, “Um, I’m Troy.”
“I ‘stuffed’ myself into the letter...”
“In the hope that you would take me ‘back’ to my hometown.”
She paused, seemingly wanting to express her gratitude, but she used a form of address that caused Lin Gui to freeze instantly: “So... thank you, little brother.”
Little... brother???
Lin Gui’s mouth hung open slightly, his face a mask of bewilderment.
Using the faint light from his Eyes of the Netherworld, he examined Troy carefully.
She was short, with a childish face and a slender build.
No matter how he looked at her, she appeared to be an ordinary human girl of about twelve or thirteen.
And she was calling him... little brother?
Lin Gui’s lips twitched a few times before he couldn’t help but ask, “How... old are you?”
Troy tilted her head and seriously counted on her transparent fingers.
“Hmm... if we count from when I was alive...”
“I should be twenty-eight years old.”
Lin Gui: “...???”
He took a deep breath. “Are you sure you’re not lying to me?”
Troy seemed a bit embarrassed, leaning against the window sill as she spoke to Lin Gui.
“Well... ever since I became like this...”
“My appearance hasn’t changed.”
“When I ‘passed,’ I was about this age.”
She raised her head, her eyes clear yet carrying a faint trace of the weight of time.
“And that was already... sixteen years ago.”
“So by the count of time, I’m twenty-eight years old now.”
She paused, her tone becoming a matter-of-course: “You look... twenty at most, right?”
“So, calling you little brother is correct.”
“Ah, haha... alright then.”
Lin Gui rubbed his still-aching forehead and decided to accept the title.
“Then, ‘Sister’ Troy.”
He looked at the ghost girl who appeared childish but claimed to be twenty-eight.
“You just said you ‘stuffed’ yourself into the letter.”
“How exactly... did that work?”
Seeing that Lin Gui didn't seem angry, Troy grew a bit bolder.
She floated up and sat on the window frame, her two feet swinging casually.
“It’s... exactly as it sounds.”
“I stuffed my ‘true form’ into the letter.”
“And then I dropped the letter on the post office counter.”
Troy floated by the window and began to explain at length.
“If it wasn’t for finding those seven copper coins to weigh down the letter...”
“I would have given it to you long ago.”
“I wouldn't have waited until you were almost leaving to send it.”
She seemed to have gone a long time without speaking to the living, and once she started, she couldn't stop.
“Later, I was even afraid you’d peek...”
“So I specifically wrote a reminder on the outside of the envelope.”
“Otherwise, if you found it was empty... with only a glass bead inside...”
“You would definitely have thought it was a prank.”
Lin Gui quickly raised a hand to interrupt her.
“Wait.”
“You just said... ‘true form’?”
“What is your true form?”
Troy blinked her semi-transparent eyes.
“It’s the bead.”
Before her voice finished trailing off...
A glass bead landed lightly in her open palm.
“Here, this is it.”
Lin Gui’s pupils shrank slightly.
He stared at the bead, falling silent for quite a while.
It reminded him...
Back in the Silent Sea, of the merman’s soul that was sealed within a glass bead.
The other party had said that there were “many” such beads at the bottom of the sea.
But Lin Gui hadn't expected it.
Inside the Wall of Sighs, within the ruins of Blackwater City...
He had seen the exact same thing again.
The Silent Sea and the Wall of Sighs...
Was there some kind of connection between these two deadlands?
He temporarily suppressed the rising doubts in his heart.
Instead, he thought of something else—
So, the reason the system mission was completed so mysteriously...
Was because he had personally pocketed the “recipient’s” true form?
“In other words...”
Lin Gui pointed at the bead.
“The one I just picked up in the house...”
“Is the true form of the person you wanted me to ‘deliver’ it to?”
Troy nodded vigorously, a happy smile blooming on her face.
“Yes! That’s my brother’s true form!”
“I didn't expect him to still be ‘alive’...”
“I’m just so happy.”
She paused and gave Lin Gui an embarrassed look.
“He originally wanted to thank you in person.”
“But...”
She pointed at Lin Gui’s eyes, which were still swirling with grey light.
“Your eyes... are really scary.”
“Oh, no, they’re too scary for a ‘ghost.’”
Lin Gui pointed at his Eyes of the Netherworld, which were still filled with grey light.
“Why?”
He actually had a faint guess as to why, but he still wanted to hear the perspective of the ghost in question.
Troy floated closer, tilting her head as she seriously considered her wording.
“I... I can’t really explain it clearly.”
“It’s just... from deep within the soul.”
“When your eyes look at us like that...”
She shrank back slightly as if remembering the sensation.
“I can’t help but be afraid.”
“It’s like... being watched by something of a much higher rank, something ancient.”
“There’s an urge to kneel down and submit.”
She raised a semi-transparent hand, gesturing.
“The feeling is like—”
“The sign that appears when a ‘Netherworld messenger’ floats up from underground to drag away disobedient ghosts.”
She looked at Lin Gui, a lingering fear in her eyes, yet also a hint of curiosity.
“That’s why everyone is so afraid of you.”
“They all thought...”
“You were a ‘Netherworld messenger’ come to catch us.”
“Then aren't you afraid of me?” Lin Gui asked.
Troy shook her head, the timidness on her face dissipating significantly.
“I’m not afraid.”
“Because I know you aren't a Netherworld messenger.”
Lin Gui raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
Troy floated a bit closer, her expression suddenly becoming somewhat... mischievous.
Lowering her already ethereal voice, she spoke with a hint of cunning, “Because...”
“Netherworld messengers are ‘ghosts’ too.”
“And ghosts...”
She paused, her eyes crinkling as she revealed a mischievously curious smile that didn't match her childish appearance.
“...ghosts don't have little babies with elves.”
Lin Gui: “.......”
Slap.
Lin Gui propped his hand against his forehead, his expression complex.
It seemed that in the future, when being intimate with Theia...
He would have to scan the area with his Eyes of the Netherworld first.
He needed to see if there was a ghost crouching in some corner and watching them.
Eve let out a soft cough from the side.
Although she couldn't see Troy, she had heard the conversation between her and Lin Gui.
She had also heard the part about having babies with an elf.
Eve looked away, the tips of her ears turning slightly red.
Clearly, she too recalled certain scenes that were inconvenient to look back upon.
Rate on N.U.
