Night Journey

Chapter 111 Painting
Thanks to the city sanitation bureau's overtime work, the frequent outbreaks of chaotic incidents were effectively brought under control. Every day, neat gunshots rang out at the execution ground, and the citizens' uneasy hearts gradually calmed down amidst the bloodshed.

Ciri stood by the Flower River, the orange-red sunset casting a blood-red hue on its surface.

He stared at the river for a long time, his gaze seemingly trying to penetrate the water and reach the dark riverbed, or perhaps he was pondering some difficult problem, his thoughts already drifting far away.

"Hey, Cillian, what are you daydreaming about?"

The sound woke Cillian. Turning around, he saw Maefuni walking slowly towards him, bathed in the sunset, carrying two small cakes.

After rounds of arduous negotiations, Cillian finally reached an agreement with Mefuni.

Maefoni is willing to help Cillian solve problems such as funding and components. In return, Cillian needs to fill Valerie's vacancy and, as a friend, keep Maefoni company on her boring days off.

"Oh, really?"

Cillian hesitated whether to accept the small cake, knowing how possessive Mefuni was of her food.

"There are two copies. What's okay or not?"

"oh oh."

Cillian took the small cake from Mefuni, leaned against the riverbank railing, forked off a piece, and put it in his mouth.

A delicate sweetness filled Ciri's mouth, moistened his dry throat, and comforted his tired body and mind.

Cillian glanced at Maefoni out of the corner of his eye; she was beaming with happiness at the sight of the little cake.

He sighed.

"Ugh……"

Accompanying Meifuni on her trip was no easy task.

Cillian always works the night shift and often squeezes in time to act as the Reverse Falcon late at night.

His days off were a rare opportunity for him to catch up on sleep. He would usually sleep until the afternoon, and every time he woke up, the numbness and comfort that came before his soul always made Cirion feel nostalgic.

But before dawn today, Mafone knocked on the door of the Cillian family's house. Before he could figure out how she got the address, Mafone dragged him on a morning run.

Even though Cillian was a superhuman, he found it difficult to keep up along the way.

"It feels much better to have someone to run alongside me."

"You have no idea, it's like I'm cursed, I always encounter big problems every time I go for a morning run."

"First, I encountered you, who was almost shot dead; then, there was the hanged corpse in the square; and then there were the corpses that filled the Flower River..."

Wow, can you understand that feeling of being full of wonderful expectations for a new day, only to have them shattered by cruel reality? Your whole day's good mood is ruined.

Listening to Maefuni's rambling, Cillian's dazed consciousness gradually cleared, and he belatedly realized that Maefuni was always there when he took action.

However, she usually appears as a victim.

"Damn it!"

Meghanie cursed, unaware that the culprit was right beside her.

Cillian's expression was subtle, a mixture of absurdity and a desire to laugh.

When it was fully light, the morning run was over, and Mefone took Cillian to one of the Love family's many properties in Hel. The butler thoughtfully prepared a bathroom and a change of clothes for him.

Clearly, Maefoni had already planned her day off, and all Cillian needed to do was accompany her.

After resting for a while, Cillian accompanied Mefuni to the Ink House, a place where they often held team-building activities.

Even now, Cillian doesn't quite understand the specific operating model of the Ink House. Some people read and paint here, while others drink and make merry, or play board games.

"Don't think of Ink House as something complicated. Just think of it as a club for fun."

After speaking, Maefuni pulled Cillian to an art studio.

She skillfully found her own canvas from a pile of canvases, and then picked up her paint box and paintbrushes.

Once everything was ready, she commanded Cillian to sit in the chair.

Cillian wanted to refuse, but thinking of Maefuni's beauty and kindness, he obediently sat down.

Thank goodness, MaeFone didn't ask her to pose in any strange positions, nor did she ask her to take off her clothes.

Ciri held the Boiling Sword in both hands and asked without moving.

"You can actually draw? I've never heard you mention that before."

Meifuni peeked out from behind the easel. "It's not a particularly outstanding skill, nothing much to say."

"Do you feel that your drawing isn't good enough?"

"Hmm... if I say this out loud, people will just think I'm showing off."

"show off?"

Meifuni stopped writing and muttered to herself.

"What? As expected of the Lof family's children, they actually have the money to study such useless things..."

Meifuni shrugged. "While they're certainly right." "But I still love painting. It's very valuable to spend a lot of time and energy capturing a moment in my own way."

"Ah."

Cillian responded with a nod, recalling how he had learned to draw a few things in order to make a jigsaw puzzle for Mick.

Mick really liked his drawings because they were very ugly and difficult to put together. The best drawing was Tim's; it's hard to imagine that someone as big as him could create such delicate things...

As Ciri continued to think, his thoughts grew heavy, and drowsiness followed, causing his consciousness to become hazy.

“I like to draw characters with very different personalities, each with their own unique style, and you are one of them... Cillian?”

After speaking for a while without receiving a response, Maefuni peeked out and saw that Cillian had actually fallen asleep.

"hope……"

A surge of anger rose within Mefuni, and she intended to wake Cillian, when suddenly a ray of sunlight shone down.

Ciri slept with his sword in his arms, as if he had finally gotten a moment's rest after an unknown long journey. Bathed in sunlight, he looked as peaceful as a sculpture covered in moss.

Mefuni swallowed her words, stared at Cillian's sleeping face, and hurriedly began to write.

"Cillian, what kind of person are you really?"

Meifuni thought to herself.

Although he was only a few years older than me, he seemed to have lived for hundreds of years. His eyes often held a coldness and maturity that did not belong to his age, as well as a bloodthirsty and manic nature.

Is this his nature, or did he experience something later in life?

Mefuni kept fantasizing, becoming completely absorbed in Cillian's own story.

Cillian slept until around noon before slowly waking up. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Maefuni packing up her art supplies. Painting time was over, and it was time to move on to the next activity.

He belatedly realized, "I...I fell asleep?"

"Yeah, it's pretty impressive that you can fall asleep in this position."

Meifuni wasn't angry; she just smiled and said it.

"Let's go, we should get something to eat."

Mo Wu prepared lunch for the two of them, and Cillian was dragged around by Mefuni like a follower.

As time passed, the two of them moved from the streets and alleys to the riverbank.

As the orange-red sunset fades, time returns to the present.

Cillian sighed deeply. It was the first time he had accompanied someone on a trip, and he felt inexplicably tired... That's true, on his days off, he either slept soundly or read books.

Since becoming familiar with Hull City, Cillian rarely went out for walks anymore. He preferred to stay at home and chat with Bruce about random things.

Maefuni was still in great spirits, so healthy and energetic that compared to her, Cillian felt like a boring old man.

She leaned closer and whispered.

"You know what? Everyone's terrified of rivers these days."

"Because of the corpses on the Flower River?"

Cirien forcefully removed a malignant tumor buried deep within Hel City, but the flowing poisonous blood still affected many people.

Meifuni reminded them, "It refers to a river, not just the Flower River."

"Were the other two rivers affected as well?" Sirian asked dismissively. "I remember that after the incident, didn't the city council immediately block the river channels to prevent the pollution from spreading?"

"Yes, that's the problem."

Meifuni suddenly stopped, and like a groundhog, she looked around warily. After confirming that there were no suspicious people, she moved a few steps closer to Cillian and whispered in his ear.

“I overheard the elders chatting, and they said that some citizens reported finding similar bodies at the bottom of the Shanghe and Huihe rivers.”

"Meifuni said cautiously."

"A corpse covered with mycelium and spores."

In an instant, the weariness and exhaustion vanished, and Cillian suddenly remembered his first night acting in the name of the Reverse Falcon.

At the bottom of the river, I also found a large number of corpses. I thought they were the remnants of the sacrifices made by the evil claws, or some kind of method of storing chaotic power in the corpses.

Clearly, things weren't as simple as they initially thought.

"Ah, it's ironic."

Mefnie didn't notice the change in Cillian's expression, and she continued.

"Cities named after confluences have become afraid of rivers."

Ciri stared at the blood-red river surface, in which the towering buildings of Hel City were reflected in the orange-red light.

(End of this chapter)