As soon as she entered the village, Sevia noticed countless hostile stares. Every household had their doors and windows tightly shut, and a few townspeople peered through small cracks in their windows with wary eyes.
"Excuse me..."
"Get lost."
"Is there anything I can help with..."
"Why haven't you disappeared yet?"
"Sorry, I..."
"Where did this brat come from? She’s so clean. Must be another one from those sons of bitches. Their words sound nice, but they're just down here to extort things."
"The people are almost all dead, what's left for them to rob? A bunch of damned bloodsuckers."
Whenever she tried to speak and seek help, the townspeople would curse under their breaths and silently lock their doors and windows tighter.
After hitting a wall several times in a row, Sevia did not feel discouraged. Walking along the small path by the fields, she noticed that not many crops were growing. Following the previous night's rainfall, the soil in the fields was heavily compacted in large chunks; this was a phenomenon that only occurred when the earth had not been turned for a long time.
If this was the case, it seemed the labor force in this village had been depleted to a certain extent years ago.
Arriving at the center of the village, a standing statue caught her attention. The statue's appearance was brand new, clearly maintained recently by someone specific. The man’s posture was solemn and majestic, his gaze deep and far-reaching; a fur-lined cloak rested on his shoulders, and the sharp sword in his hand was held like a scepter before him. The patterns on his armor were carved with incredible delicacy, making him look like a work of art.
What kind of king would have his own statue erected in the middle of a village and send people to polish it regularly while his kingdom was in such a state of misery?
Sevia stared in a daze for a moment. When she snapped back to her senses, she discovered a large black rat lying in the king's arms. Its small, round black eyes sparkled with a cunning light, and it was even larger than the one she had seen under the city walls.
It... it was as big as two pomelos!
Sevia wasn't particularly afraid of terrifying monsters, but she was truly quite scared of rodents like this—their grimy, coarse fur and small black eyes that constantly radiated ferocity and cunning made them look like walking Petri dishes.
She took a quiet step back. The black rat seemed to sense the girl's repulsion, arching its back as if it were about to pounce at any moment.
Suddenly, a long wooden stick reached out and struck the black rat's back, knocking it to the ground.
"Squeak—!"
"Go! Get out of here!" a woman's shout rang out.
Startled, the black rat twisted around and scurried away past her legs.
Sevia looked up and met the eyes of an old woman. She was not tall, with a hunched back, leaning on a cane.
A piece of worn cloth was wrapped around the woman's head, tightly concealing her jaw and the hair on her forehead.
Compared to the other villagers here, this woman appeared much cleaner, though only relatively speaking. Her wrinkled skin was likewise covered in a thick layer of grime that obscured its original color.
"Little girl, where did you come from?"
The old woman asked softly, taking out a wet wipe from her robe to wipe away the dust on Sevia's cheek. Beneath the gray, coarse cloth hood, as the dust was removed, a clean and delicate face was revealed, her eyes like bright autumn water shimmering with a soft luster.
At first glance, she didn't seem stunning, but the more one looked, the more their gaze was drawn by the girl's inner resilience. She was like a budding flower of winter; or perhaps, she had already bloomed magnificently once before.
"You're quite beautiful. You don't look like a lord's daughter."
Even after the hardships of a long journey, that innate temperament would not fade just because her face was obscured by dust. Sevia knew she couldn't hide it from the other woman, but she didn't explain herself, because she truly didn't know where she had come from.
To her, the self was both the most foreign and the most familiar thing. She possessed a complete self and knew clearly that her ultimate goal was to pursue that self, to redeem unfulfilled obligations, to carry out noble ideals, and to reunite with those who had brought her memories of beauty, pain, and longing.
Yet she felt little sense of belonging toward this complete self. This deficiency stemmed from the loneliness accumulated during her journey and her fragmented memories.
Her mind contained a vast amount of memory shards; the recollections of too many people had rushed into her head at the moment she killed her self. The joys and sorrows of countless individuals played out in her mind every day, and sometimes she couldn't even distinguish which memories belonged to her past self.
Simply put, she only knew what she had to do, but not who she was or why she had to do it.
Her past did not belong to her.
Yet she had to rush toward an unknown future for a past that wasn't hers.
Once this thought took root, it would sprout rapidly like a toxic seed, embedding itself into every part of her consciousness, making her question herself over and over: Why? What was the purpose of all this?
Whenever she fell into a vortex of self-doubt, the demon in her heart would take the opportunity to whisper in her ear, longing to occupy everything and tear her consciousness into pieces.
At times like these, Sevia would feel for the feather in her heart. That warm, precious feather would soothe her restless soul until it reached a state of calm. Then, she would pick up the torn pieces of her consciousness and piece them back together into an even stronger wall.
Perhaps, before reaching the journey's end, all doubts would find their answers, and she would find a home for her self.
Seeing her silence, the woman shook her head and asked, "Little girl, you at least know what your name is, right?"
"My name is... Tang..." Sevia opened her mouth and held her forehead, feeling a sudden, unexplained needle-like sting.
"What's wrong, little girl?"
"My name is..."
Sevia stubbornly bit her lip, trying hard to search through her past memories. Like countless previous attempts, it was meaningless, only causing her more pain and sinking her deeper into the vortex of fragmented memories.
"Sevia," she said, her gaze lacking conviction.
"My name is Sevia."
"Come with me, little girl," the woman said with a nod. "I think you need some help."
...
Oasis, Light-Chaser Garden location.
Before leaving, Xu Xiaoyou twirled a pen between her fingers, reviewing the resumes of players and admitting those who met her requirements into the guild.
Just then, her inbox received a letter from an "Unknown Visitor."
": Sevia."
": My name is Sevia."
Xu Xiaoyou looked up, her eyes slowly widening as she set aside all the tasks she was currently handling.
Just as Xu Xiaoyou was about to ask about the other person's situation, the outline of the letter began to become transparent and ethereal. Before it completely turned into fine points of light and scattered into the air, a new message from this unknown visitor popped up, making her eyes tremble.
": If you see this message, please give... me a warm hug. The world is so cold..."
"I’m about to lose my way."
"Sevia? : I'll wait for you in Pangard."
"Unknown Visitor has logged off."
Rate on N.U.
