The villainous magical girl's daily mission is to find fault.

Who is Kraken?

The hyacinth asked a question out of curiosity, and the albatross patiently explained:

"Actually, I saw the name in a book. It refers to a huge monster from the ocean, and that's what I called the hydra."

"Do you know the Hero Association's naming rules for Unknown Monsters and Witches? They're actually named by the person who first discovered them. I'm not sure if I should be the one to do it... but since I've always been the only one here, it doesn't seem like a big deal."

"Hmm? But what about Senior Akashi and Lilac..." Upon hearing this, Hyacinth quickly raised her question.

The albatross laughed and replied:

"They are actually... how should I describe them... like the natives of this place. They usually behave exactly like the people I remember, but there are also many things I don't understand."

"Actually, these things aren't that important. I've always considered them to be the people I remember. It's just that every time Kraken wakes up, I have to explain it to them again, which gets quite troublesome after a while."

This explanation was as good as no explanation at all; Hyacinth was still completely confused.

What does "I'm the only one here" mean? Why are Akatsuki and the others "natives"? Albatross's words are really puzzling.

The real Chi Xue and her two companions are actually living peacefully in the real world. Two of them are even using the Divine Stone video communication to check on their situation. Senior, won't your treatment of your former companions provoke their complaints?

However, everyone on the other end of the Divine Stone communication channel instantly became furious, especially a certain golden fox who was sitting in a chair, ready to leisurely watch the hyacinth travel program live. After hearing the albatross laugh and say those words, its tail quickly became thick and swollen.

"Did you hear that?" Nightingale asked nervously.

"I heard her clearly," Xin Yuehu replied sullenly. "Creating a 'shadow' in one's memory in the world of mental images is not difficult, but why is she acting as if she knows nothing about it?"

"Her condition doesn't seem to have changed much from before," Qiu Baiyang frowned, "but that's exactly what I'm worried about..."

"Was the albatross that Hyacinth saw really the one I know?"

The hidden meaning in what you just said is very clear:

Albatross is the true controller of that dilapidated mental world. In this dilapidated mental world of "Millennium", she is the only real "living person", with the addition of Hyacinth, who is the only one who can enter it on her own initiative for some reason, and a few unlucky missing victims.

Everyone else, including the three magical girl seniors, Akashi Yuki, Shizuka, and Aki Shiro, who could interact with the hyacinth... were all just illusions.

But Albatross herself seemed completely unaware of this. Judging from her words and actions, she seemed to still be in the stage of "this place is just what I want" and did not even realize that these changes were caused by her thoughts.

What kind of state is this? If the master of the mental world is the albatross, then how did she manage to endure all these long years alone? Su Tianqing couldn't understand.

Considering that there was a giant hydra in Millennium that would occasionally snatch people in, the fact that the albatross could endure such an environment for so many years... suggests that its mental fortitude has probably surpassed that of humans.

The hyacinth continued chatting with the albatross.

We talked about the cotton candy machine by the roadside, watched the soft old bread on the vendor's bicycle with curiosity, tried pedaling a few times on a rickshaw, and stopped to watch in front of the cassette record store.

The world was deserted.

Albatross can rattle off a lot of details, from the various types of tapes and comic books in tape stores and comic book shops to the "latest" movies released in 200X, or the colorful tapes and stickers that cost a dollar a large roll, he can name them all with ease.

The senior spoke with great pleasure, but Hyacinth felt a little strange listening to it—it was full of a sense of history.

While cassette players and Walkmans are certainly interesting, and semiconductors may seem intriguing at first glance, smartphones and advanced information networks offer unparalleled convenience.

At first glance, human-powered tricycles seem quite novel, but once you think about today's electric vehicles and interconnected public transportation systems, it seems that such things can only exist in the dustbin of history.

The two walked along the road from its starting point to its end. At an intersection, they slowed down and their conversation gradually moved from superficial daily greetings to something more profound.

"...There are some things I can't convey to you, and I hope you can understand my difficulties." Albatross replied with a wry smile when the hyacinth tried to ask about the truth of the millennium.

"To be honest, I don't know how this world came to be."

"It was as if it appeared out of nowhere... Perhaps my prayers were answered, or perhaps I had some different thoughts at that time? I don't quite understand."

"Actually, I'm not very smart, far less so than Qiu Baiyang and Chi Xue. I just instinctively feel that 'this thing should work,' and then I'm willing to do it."

Just then, they arrived at the intersection of Qiuxi Road. Several bronze statues stood in the middle of the road. The albatross walked to the front of one of the statues of a young girl, examined it for a moment, and suddenly said:

"Miss Hyacinth".

"Do these bronze statues still exist in the Qiuxi Road you know?"

"Hmm? I remember a few are still there, but the paint has been repainted, like this one and this one..."

Hyacinth stepped forward and pointed out several sculptures that she remembered to the albatross.

In the middle of an old section of Qiuxi Road, there once stood several fashionable statues to showcase the appearance of Qiuxi Road as a bustling commercial district in Chengdu.

However, with the development and changes of the times, as well as the wear and tear from wind and sun over time, several bronze statues were damaged, so their number had to be reduced and reorganized.

"I see... So many things have disappeared..."

The albatross looked somewhat disappointed and walked over to one of the bronze statues that had since been demolished, carefully examining every detail of the sculpture.

Her fingers brushed across the folds of the statue's clothing, from its shoulders to its back, circling around as if trying to memorize its current state.

Soon, the albatross realized it couldn't completely memorize the details of the statue, and reluctantly gave up, its fingers falling back from the bronze surface to its side as it whispered:

"Not everything can last forever... Even these statues that I thought would last forever will be dismantled and destroyed over a long period of time..."

Seeing the albatross so dejected, the hyacinth quickly said:

"Although many things have disappeared, many things have been preserved."

"Senior, do you know that yesterday when we were mowing the lawn at the sports center, there was a soccer ball..."

"!"

The albatross shuddered.

She suddenly turned her head and looked directly at Hyacinth, her eyes bright and piercing, startling Hyacinth into stopping herself from saying what she was about to say, wondering if she had said something wrong.

"What did you say happened to the soccer ball on the lawn?" Albatross asked quickly, afraid that Hyacinth wouldn't continue.

"Ah...it's quite an interesting thing. The Hero Association said they found a soccer ball manufactured last year under the meadow, but the meadow was last renovated when..."

"200X," Albatross interrupted, saying the year Hyacinth had intended to say.

Her expression became visibly excited, the girl's joy was palpable, and she paced back and forth with small steps, talking to herself.

"So it's true... Mengmeng's theory was indeed correct... If that's the case, I can use other methods besides bronze statues..."

After muttering and talking to himself for several minutes, the albatross excitedly jumped in front of the hyacinth and grabbed the girl's hands.

"You've arrived just in time, Miss Hyacinth!"

"If it weren't for you, I might still be in the dark... It's so wonderful!"

After expressing her sincere gratitude, before the hyacinth could even respond, the albatross immediately activated her flying magic and soared into the sky with a whoosh.

"I have important things to take care of, so you can wander around here on your own for now!"

"Ah? Goodbye, senior—"

Before he finished speaking, the albatross had already disappeared among the buildings.

Hyacinth blankly lowered her right hand, which she hadn't even had a chance to beckon, and looked down at her palm.

Hmm...did I say anything strange just now? Hyacinth wondered.