Night World Players

Chapter 278 Returning to Hiltina's Hometown to Meet the Parents
In the inner city of the capital, there is a secluded but beautiful villa.

Last gently pushed the wooden door in front of him, and it creaked open.

The room's furnishings are not luxurious but very complete. In addition to a spacious living room, the adjacent kitchen is furnished with brightly colored wooden furniture, and the furniture has a very cohesive design with faint golden maple leaf patterns.

Compared to a royal palace, this place feels more like the home of an ordinary resident with some means of income. It is not luxurious or extravagant, but it has a comfortable feel with every piece of furniture carefully arranged and the overall arrangement quite harmonious.

"To be honest... if I hadn't known beforehand, I really wouldn't have believed that this was the Empress's bedroom."

Last casually leaned back on the sofa.

"Because this isn't a palace at all. I wouldn't bother living in such an empty and desolate place."

"This is a building that my father built to a one-to-one replica of our family's old residence in Autumn Leaf Territory, which is the mansion of the Ranger family... It's exactly the same as my old home in my childhood memories."

“My father recently went back to Qiuye Retirement Home alone, leaving this place to me.”

Hiltina's voice came from the side, carrying a hint of languor.

She twirled the pen in her hand, signed her name on a military document, then closed the pen cap and pushed aside the mountain of documents piled on the table.

After doing all this, the girl with long chestnut hair turned around and looked at Rust, who was already lying on the sofa as if they were old friends.

"What, our busy man has finally decided to come back?"

She walked to the sofa, raised her hand to stroke Last's face, and a hint of a smile appeared in his light brown eyes.

"You're tired of playing outside with your Xiao Ai, so you've finally spared some time to spend with me?"

"It's more accurate to say that our Empress has only now finally finished dealing with the trivial matters that came with her ascension to the throne... I rushed over as soon as I received your summons."

Last smiled and reached out to take Hiltina's small hand that was resting on his face.

However, the chestnut-haired empress had already withdrawn her hand, winked at him, and a graceful smile appeared on her lips.

"To be honest, although I was mentally prepared beforehand, the sheer volume of affairs that piled up after I actually ascended the throne still exceeded my expectations."

"Looking back now, my father was in such a hurry to step down and hand over the reins to me after less than 20 years in office that it seemed a bit like he was trying to shirk responsibility and run away."

Hiltina sat down on the sofa, leaning on Rust's shoulder, closed her eyes wearily, and rubbed her temples.

"That being said, I still forced myself to make time today... because there's a place I absolutely have to see."

"Is there a place?"

Last asked with a hint of doubt. Although he had been called over by Hiltina, who had taken time out of her busy schedule, he really didn't know where she was referring to.

"Of course it's your hometown, that border town called Canaan."

Hiltina blinked.

"After all, we're already engaged."

"According to Granville's custom... before the formal marriage, both parties are required to visit each other's hometowns, which is known as 'going to the ancestral home to meet the parents.'"

“You have already met my family, whether it be my father or my sister, Rust.”

"And that's not all."

"Back in the echoes of history in Frozenwater Town, in that dream woven from the pollutants of the evil god, Rust, you witnessed firsthand the scenes from my childhood, when my mother faced death with such composure, and I was at my most ignorant, vulnerable, and vulnerable."

She gazed into Rust's eyes: "You know everything about me, whether it's my family, my past, my background, or even my most timid self as a child."

"However, I know absolutely nothing about your past, Rust, or what you experienced in that border town when you were a boy."

"You're about to get married, but in my eyes, your past is still shrouded in mystery..."

"But Xiao Ai knows everything about you, and has seen what you looked like at first..."

Hiltina lowered her voice slightly:

"That would be too unfair to me."

"However, that Canaanite town ceased to exist more than two hundred years ago."

Hearing Hiltina's soft words, Last was slightly taken aback.

"Xiao Ai and I just visited the Three Sages Snow Mountain a while ago. A new town has been built there..."

"As for the name Canaan, apart from a very few locals, no one remembers it anymore."

Under the influence of "space-time collapse", the town from more than two hundred years ago has not left behind any ruins or even the slightest trace of its existence.

“I know that even if we go to the original coordinates of Canaan now, we won’t see anything except the newly built city-states.”

Hiltina paused for a moment.

"However, the word 'Canaan' has never just represented an ancient place name that has vanished, has it?"

"Even though Canaan in the real world has long been buried in the dust of history, in the depths of the night world, in someone's heart, Canaan has never truly disappeared."

Last paused, then smiled helplessly: "Little Ai even told you something like this?"

"Of course, after all, we'll be spending a very long time together, until we're all old and gray... so of course we need to build a good relationship in advance."

"Xiao Ai has already promised me that she'll let me go and see the fragments of the night world, which are woven from past illusions and memories."

A sly glint of triumph flashed in Hiltina's beautiful eyes.

Then, she gently placed her hand in Rust's hand.

"So, let's go."

"Take me to see the home where you were born, raised, and nurtured—"

"A homeland called 'Canaan'."

……

The space between reality and the night world.

The mental world constructed from the memories of Raste and Amys, and the historical reflections recorded in the Night World, is also the newly born Canaan.

"Oh, it's Little Last."

"Hey, why didn't Xiao Ai come back with you this time?"

"And who is this lady?"

When Rast and Amys appeared hand in hand in Canaan, the busy people in the Canaanese town immediately cast slightly surprised glances at them.

They were all people who once lived in the town of Canaan, but perished in the natural disaster more than two hundred years ago.

However, as Amys and Rast both ascended to the angelic realm, the mental world constructed from their memories became increasingly real.

Although it is a world of mental images, a manifestation of the mind, a past illusion woven from the image in Raste's memory... the illusion is so vivid that it is no different from a living human being.

These residents had lived their entire lives in this border town and had never seen this stranger, Hiltina. Hiltina's clothing style was completely out of place in Canaan two hundred years ago, naturally arousing everyone's curiosity. "Well, Xiao Ai has some things to attend to and won't be back for a while."

"As for this one... she's a mountaineer I met by chance in the snow-capped mountains; she comes from the distant Granville Empire—"

With a smile, Rast began to explain Hiltina's identity to the inhabitants of Canaan.

However, his words were interrupted by Hiltina the next moment.

"Nice to meet you, everyone from Canaan."

Hiltina took Last's hand, then walked up to him and spoke in a remarkably clear voice:
“My name is Hiltina, and I come from the royal family of the Granville Empire.”

"In addition, I am also Last's fiancée, with whom he is already engaged."

As she spoke, Hiltina bowed slightly, giving the townspeople a standard knightly salute:

"From now on, I hope you will all give me your guidance."

……

pat.

The wooden door quietly closed, shutting out the sounds of wind and snow outside, as well as the curious and gossipy gazes of everyone.

"Hey Hiltina, when did you become so blunt?"

Last didn't breathe a sigh of relief until he returned to his cabin.

"Really? But everything I said is the truth, whether it's my background or our relationship as your fiancée."

Hiltina blinked her light brown eyes.

"It was obviously done on purpose. Even though it's all the truth, we still have to consider how much everyone can take it."

Last let out a sigh of relief: "The royal family, the new empress of the empire... it's a bit too exciting for people who have lived on the frontier their whole lives. There should be a gradual process."

"Is that so? But I think this is a process that everyone has to go through and cannot escape."

A smile curved Hiltina's lips: "After all, this town in the world of your mind is... a very important place for you and Xiao Ai, isn't it?"

"In that case, I will inevitably have to visit often in the future, and everyone in the town will eventually know all about it."

"Or is someone simply afraid of revealing to their fellow villagers that they are actually a player who has two... no, several players at the same time?"

"Hiltina, you're really getting better and better at understanding people's hearts."

"Thank you for the compliment."

……

A moment later, Hiltina began to look around the entire house.

The cabin that belonged to Rust and Amys was simple, but it had a unique warmth to it. The firewood piled up in advance, the night light that was never turned off... everywhere you could find traces of their life together.

The first floor houses the living room and kitchen, which is also where Rust and Amys usually dine.

However, Hiltina wasn't interested in the first floor. Instead, she went up to the second floor, entered a bedroom, and began to examine it closely.

This is a room that belongs exclusively to Last.

The space is neither too big nor too small.

There was a single bed and a wooden table. On the table sat a cheap wooden toy, which was rather rough in workmanship and did not look like a product of an industrial assembly line, but rather a piece of woodwork made by a craftsman.

Against the wall is a wooden bookshelf, filled with all kinds of handwritten books.

Hiltina looked closely and found several handwritten fairy tales about knights and heroes defeating dragons and upholding justice in the corner of the bookshelf.

Directly opposite the wooden table is a window, through which one can see the boundless lake and wilderness outside Canaan Town, with the faintly visible peaks of the Three Sages Snow Mountain at the edge of the wilderness.

Hiltina imagined Rust as a child.

A well-behaved little boy sat on the edge of the bed, struggling to play with the wooden toy that the carpenter uncle from town had given him that day.

Imagine a slightly larger version of Last.

A teenager, by the dim light of a candle at night, through the ink-stained words in a handwritten book, fantasized about the heroes who defeated the dragon in fairy tales, the knights who maintained order, and the scenery beyond the town, with its snow-capped mountains and desolate wilderness.

Thus, the ideal and desire to be a "partner of justice" was planted in his heart.

Spring warmth, summer days, autumn days, winter nights…

One year, two years...

He grew up slowly in this simple room, eventually appearing before her and becoming the light that redeemed Hiltina in her life.

"What a blessing."

"Hiltina said softly."

Last reached out and brushed the dust off the bookshelf, gazing at the books that had once captivated him in his childhood, books he had devoured day and night.
"Who says it isn't?"

……

The night had grown deep without anyone noticing.

Outside the window, the flickering candlelight in the town went out one by one, leaving only the vast sky that took one's breath away.

And then there's the twinkling stars, a winter night sky so beautiful it could soothe any wound.

"This town called Canaan is indeed a very beautiful and peaceful place."

"No wonder, pure people like you and Xiao Ai can be born here."

Hiltina gazed at the distant night sky and spoke softly.

She opened her mouth, as if she wanted to say something more, but then, as if she sensed something, Hiltina's expression shifted slightly.

It's not just Hiltina.

Almost at the same time, Last also sensed the slight ripples stirring deep within his soul.

That was Dean Yin using his "Moon" sequence to send a message to himself, who bore Dean Yin's soul imprint.

Given Rust's understanding of Dean Silver, the fact that this reclusive ferret was so eager to send messages to both him and Hiltina simultaneously meant that the information must be extremely important.

As expected, this turned out to be true.

After Dean Yin's soul fluctuations were completely deciphered into clear text, both Hiltina and Rust were slightly taken aback.

"The seventy-second, and also the final, end-night world..."

"It has already appeared."

(End of this chapter)