Night Journey

Chapter 126 Return to Silence
"You don't want to see me again... because I'm a huge nuisance?"

Cillian smiled helplessly and answered with a forced smile.

Rolf did not respond, continuing to look at his book. In the slightly oppressive silence, Cillian wanted to find a topic to break the deadlock, but after thinking about it for a long time, he still didn't know where to start.

In the end, Cillian fell silent, as if in despair, leaving only the rustling sound of pages turning.

This strange state lasted for about ten minutes before Rolf finally finished reading the passage, inserted the bookmark, closed the book, and placed it on the other side.

Only then did Rolf finally look at Cillian.

"Oh, you're dressed very formally. Looks like you're in quite a bit of trouble."

"Forehead……"

This statement caught Ciri off guard, and the words he had painstakingly prepared in his mind became incoherent and rambling.

"Ha ha!"

Rolf liked Cillian's fleeting moment of embarrassment.

"Speak plainly, Cillian."

He added, "But let me make this clear first, I plan to relinquish my power and retire. Perhaps in a while, this technical position will be taken over by someone else."

Cillian was stunned, forgetting even the question he was about to ask, and spoke up.

"Retirement? Why..."

"What do you need for retirement, and why?"

Rolf looked at him like he was an idiot. "I'm so old, it's time for me to enjoy my retirement."

"Do you really want me to die suddenly on the job?"

Hearing this self-deprecating remark, Cillian couldn't help but smile, and the atmosphere lightened up.

“Spending your retirement in Hell City? That sounds like a good option,” Cillian said.

"I don't plan to stay in Hull City."

Cillian looked surprised.

"I will leave Hull City once the power transition is complete and all the troubles are dealt with."

Where do you plan to spend your retirement?

"My hometown, the place where the yoke is tied."

Rolf added wearily, "But unfortunately, after all these years, who knows where it went."

"I plan to travel along the Dawn Corridor to the Inner Flame Outer Ring, where there is a cluster of volcanoes, and the Wan Shu Crucible Casting Court is located there."

It's the nearest foundry to me; perhaps I can find out the whereabouts of the chainmail flail there.

Rolf then proceeded to explain his retirement plan, covering everything from his general vision to detailed specifications.

After talking for almost twenty minutes, he finally came to his senses and started talking about serious matters.

"Oh, sorry, I'm retiring. I'm finally able to unload this crushing responsibility, so I can't help but feel a little excited."

Rolf looked at Cillian with a smile and spoke.

"Let me tell you about yourself first."

Cillian nodded, sat up straight, placed his hands on his knees, and took a deep breath.

"I want to know information about the Giant God, the Sleeping Lord."

Rolf's smile froze, his smiling eyes opened, revealing seriousness and solemnity, and his relaxed face tightened again, the wrinkles pressing into shadows.

Cillian waited anxiously for his next reaction.

Before meeting Rolf, Cillian searched through the books in the public library and obtained information through various means, but the information about the giant god, the Sleeping Lord, remained a blank.

Left with no other choice, Cillian decided to risk meeting Rolf, hoping that this highly experienced spirit craftsman could tell him something.

"About... the Giant God, the Sleeping Lord?"

Rolf repeated Cillian's question and asked in return.

"Logically speaking, you shouldn't know about the existence of the Sleeping Lord."

Cillian replied, "It was by chance that I passed through the curtain."

"I'm afraid it's not just a coincidence, is it?"

Even Bruce couldn't be fooled by such words, let alone Rolf.

Cillian shrugged, responding with silence.

Rolf didn't dwell on the matter too much and went on to ask.

"what are you planning to do?"

Cillian emphasized, "Chief Rolf, I assure you that I will not drag you into this trouble."

"Are you sure?" Rolf asked skeptically. "If you really didn't intend to involve me, then you shouldn't have come to see me in the first place."

Cillian was speechless for a moment; he really had nothing to say about it.

But he still retorted.

"But you're still willing to see me, which means that even if you don't want to get involved in my troubles, you're still somewhat interested in them, right?"

Rolf sneered, put the blanket aside, and stood up from the bench.

Cillian sighed, bracing himself for the possibility of being kicked out of the mansion by Rolf.

"I've been lying down for a while, and my body is getting a bit stiff..."

Rolf stretched, then sat back down on the bench and pulled a blanket over himself. Cillian blinked, somewhat confused.

“You’ve asked a troublesome question, Cillian.”

Rolf frowned, but still answered the questions.

"What aspect do you want to know? Is it the past of the giants, the power of their destined return, or the current state of the deluded?"

Cillian was somewhat dazed, not expecting things to go so smoothly, and quickly spoke up.

"I want to know everything! Everything about the Lord of Sleep!"

"Oh? That's a very long story."

Rolf looked up at the clear, bright sky and asked with a smile.

"Want to have lunch together?"

……

"No one knows the exact origins of the Giant God Sleeping Lord, and even if they did, they would have mostly forgotten them under the influence of the power of the Destiny of Return to Silence."

As Rolf spoke, he cut open the steaming sausage on the plate.

"The earliest records of it in history begin in the Third Age, the Age of the Gods."

That was a very distant and mysterious era. Scholars deduced the possibility of its existence step by step by examining the various sacred relics that surfaced in the spirit world.

In the age of the gods, countless wondrous creations rose from the earth, and the giants assembled their respective legions, igniting a divine war that swept the world.

Rolf took a sip of the wine to moisten his throat and continued.

"No one knows how that war of the gods ended. All that is known is that shortly after the war ended, the world ushered in the most glorious Fourth Age, the Golden Age."

At this point, Rolf suddenly changed the subject and asked a question in return.

“Cillian, do you think I’ve gone off-topic? I was supposed to be telling you about the Sleeping Lord, but I’ve given you a history lesson instead.”

Cillian shook his head and replied.

"The Spirit Craftsman, who is known for his rationality and logic, would not do such a foolish thing. Surely this history must be inextricably linked to the Sleeping Lord?"

Rolf nodded, then asked in return.

"Now imagine, Cillian, that a divine war once took place in the world, waged by countless giants."

Even though that era is so far in the past, why do we only have a vague outline, and know nothing even about the ultimate winner?

Cillian pondered for a moment, as a terrible conjecture gradually overlapped with an idea he once had.

"It is the power of the Sleeping Lord... the destiny of returning to stillness, that deliberately concealed those histories."

"Yes, even in Hull City, in order to cover up certain dark histories, those documents are buried deep in the Level 3 archives, let alone the whole world."

Rolf casually reveals a corner of the truth to Cillian.

"No one knows what the Sleeping Master's purpose was in doing all this. In any case, under the Sleeping Master's influence, many important historical events have been deliberately concealed..."

Cillian picked up where he left off.

"Thus our history is riddled with holes."

Rolf pressed the bell, and the wind-up servant filled another glass of wine for him.

"The power of returning to nothingness possessed by the Sleeping Lord is truly terrifying. No one knows what history he has hidden, or what real people and things he has reduced to nothingness."

He's like a gardener, constantly pruning the branches of history, allowing it to grow into the shape he envisions.

Cillian asked, puzzled, "Why would the Sleeping Lord do this?"

“Who knows?” Rolf sighed. “The last recorded mention of the Sleeping Lord in history occurred during the Dark Ages of the Fifth Age.”

Rolf's gaze suddenly sharpened as he stared intently into Cillian's eyes and whispered.

"That was the last time the Sleeping Lord tried to interfere with history. With the power of returning to stillness, he completely evaporated everything from the realm of reality. This act also cost the Sleeping Lord a heavy price, leading him to an irreversible state."

Rolf didn't continue, as if waiting for Cillian to add something.

Cillian hesitated for a moment, then realized with horror what was happening and felt a chill run down his spine at the prospect of that possibility.

"It's hard...could it be said..."

Cillian's throat was as dry as rough sandpaper, and his words sounded incredibly heavy.

"Does the Lord of Sleep want to erase the fact of the Dayless Catastrophe?"

That calamity ended the Golden Age, caused countless giants to fall, shattered miraculous creations, and even caused the Sea of ​​Origin to be in constant turmoil.

It's unbelievable... that a giant actually dared to try to completely erase it.

Cillian didn't know whether to revere the Sleeping Lord's courage and sacrifice, or lament his ignorance and recklessness.

"The Lord of Sleep not only wants to erase the Cataclysm of No Day, but he also wants to use the power of Silence to completely end the crisis affecting the world."

Rolf recounted his terrible past.

"The Sleeping Lord attempted to completely annihilate the chaos, evaporating it entirely from reality."

After he finished speaking, Xilian felt as if the air had solidified into invisible bricks, one by one, piled up on his chest, making his bones creak.

The sky was bright and clear, and the sunlight was warm and comfortable, but it couldn't dispel the chill in Ciri's heart.

"As for the result... it's obvious."

"The Lord of Sleep failed. He not only failed to eradicate the chaos, but he also could not conceal the fact of the Dayless Catastrophe. In the end, his self, under the influence of the power of returning to silence, also moved towards nothingness."

Rolf lamented the Lord's impending doom and poured wine onto the meadow.

(End of this chapter)