Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

-

55. Destroyed

This time, Crazy John didn't hide anything from Charles.

He answered whatever Charles asked, and he spoke without reservation.

Including the origin of the wishing well in Diesel:

"In the beginning, there was no wishing well in Diesel, nor was there the Wishing Square next to us now... At least that was the case thirty years ago, when we left the White Tower and just returned to Diesel."

"This wishing well, or rather, the limited wishing machine that appears as a wishing well, was excavated from the ruins of a former civilization in Diesel."

"Initially, when we discovered the limited wishing machine, Long Jin and I were overjoyed."

Crazy John said, with a look of nostalgia on his face:

"I still remember that Long Jin excitedly told me that we might be able to rely on that limited wish machine to save our poor and backward motherland that was ruled by war and death."

"Although making a wish to the Limited Wishing Machine requires a certain price, Long Jin and I have both studied in the White Tower, so we have mastered the method of limiting the price to an acceptable range. Therefore, both Long Jin and I firmly believe that the Limited Wishing Machine can make our weak country strong."

"As for why it has become a wishing well and why it appears in the Wishing Square next to us..."

The old man shook his head and smiled bitterly:

"Sorry, I don't know."

Charles couldn't help but frowned when he heard this:

"You don't know?"

"Yes," the old man answered frankly after taking a sip of wine, "I don't remember."

"I don't remember what happened after we brought the limited wish machine back to the capital, nor do I remember why Diesel went from being in constant war to being peaceful and tranquil today. I don't even remember..."

He paused, his expression becoming dazed:

"I don't even remember, Long Jin... No, Your Majesty, why Your Majesty seems to have become a different person."

After saying this, he smiled self-deprecatingly, put down his glass, turned his head, and his sight seemed to be able to see the wishing well not far away through the wall of the tavern.

"But I know," the old man said quietly, "all of Diesel's anomalies are probably related to that limited wishing machine."

Charles agreed with Crazy John.

In his and Lacelle's guess, the reason why Diesel became what he is now is probably because the Emperor made a wish to the limited wishing machine.

The emperor's inexplicably good reputation, the wall of sighs that separated Diesel from the outside world, and those seemingly normal but actually weird Diesel people...

They are probably all related to the emperor's wishes.

But what kind of wish could create so many anomalies?

Or maybe the wish the emperor made was not a single wish, but a grand wish that was a combination of many wishes?

Charles couldn't understand.

"If only Rachel were here," this thought suddenly popped up in his mind, "If she were here, maybe she could guess what the Emperor wished for."

But soon, he temporarily ignored this thought and continued to ask:

"So, the reason you brought us to the Wish-Making Square to make a wish was to let us discover Diesel's abnormality and start an investigation?"

"Yes."

"Then why," the hero frowned, "why didn't you tell us the details from the beginning?"

Crazy John was stunned when he heard this, then he raised his hand and pointed above his head.

"Do you remember that 'wall'?" he asked.

"of course."

"In that case, I believe you must have realized the nature of that 'wall'?"

The old man spoke softly, but his eyes fell through the window of the tavern to the street outside. He fell along with the raindrops falling from the sky, shattering on the ground and splashing tiny water droplets.

"——In fact, it is not a 'wall' in the true sense, but a kind of cognitive pollution."

"Birds and beasts can pass through that wall. Wind, frost, rain and snow can also pass through that wall. The omnipresent magic can also ignore it... Only humans can't. To be more precise, only those who discovered Diesel's abnormality can't pass through that 'wall'."

"But it doesn't actually exist. Its only function is to tell you, to tell your soul and body, to tell your subconscious mind—"

"You can only go this far and not beyond."

"So, it can even be said that what prevents you from passing through that 'wall' is not something else but yourself."

Crazy John tapped the table with his fingertips:

"Once you are deemed insurmountable by that 'wall', you will never be able to leave Diesel again."

"At first, those who were left behind would still try to struggle and do everything they could to leave Diesel, but after a while, they would despairingly discover that this was impossible."

"In the end, they will always be part of Diesel, and they will stay in Diesel, forever."

"Although you are not from the White Tower, you have the witch lady from the White Tower by your side, so you should be clear about the White Tower's philosophy - let the mysterious remain mysterious. No matter what, we should not let more innocent people be implicated and become part of Diesel from now on."

The old man explained to Charles with a serious expression:

"So, at most I am only responsible for bringing certain people to the wishing well. As for whether those people have noticed Diesel's abnormality and whether they will investigate further, that depends on their abilities."

"People with ability will naturally notice the abnormality of the wishing well, and then follow the clues to discover the abnormality of the entire Diesel; people without ability will often be tempted by the wishing well, and may not even discover the abnormality of the wishing well..."

"The former don't need me to deliver intelligence to them, because they can investigate the truth of the incident by themselves; the latter don't have the ability to solve the anomaly, and they don't have to stay here forever just because they discovered Diesel's anomaly..."

Crazy John's expression was somewhat bitter:

"And this is the most appropriate solution I can think of."

Charles was silent for a moment and nodded, indicating that he could understand the old man's difficulties.

Then he raised a new question:

"What about those tall and thin figures? Since you guided the two White Tower investigators who arrived in Diesel before us, you should know about the existence of the tall and thin figures, right?"

Ciel said, looking into the old man's eyes.

He was worried that the old man would be like the guy behind the counter, who would turn a blind eye to the keyword "Slender Man", or to be more precise, in the old man's cognition, "Slender Man" would be replaced by another noun.

After a moment, he realized that his worries had come true.

Because Crazy John raised his glass to him, and then under his gaze, the old man first raised his glass to him in greeting, then put it to his lips, tilted his head back, and drank the non-existent beer in the glass.

Obviously, before this, Crazy John had already finished the beer in his glass.

"..."

Charles was silent for a moment, but did not show any abnormality.

He guessed that what Mad John had just heard was that he wanted to have a drink with Mad John - so he also picked up the glass in front of him and drank the cheap beer that had just been filled in it.

After drinking, he decided not to ask for information about the "Slender Man" anymore, and instead changed his approach:

"Do you think that Diesel's emperor is still sober?"

This question obviously did not trigger the cognitive filter that hangs over the minds of every Diesel person.

Crazy John heard Ciel's question clearly, but his expression became strange.

"I... don't know." He replied.

This answer really did not satisfy Charles, so he asked:

"Don't know? How could that be? Not only did you go to the White Tower to study with the Emperor, you also met with Diesel after he became what he is now, and you even assassinated him so many times..."

"But I really... don't know."

Crazy John shook his head with a complicated expression:

"At least when I met him and when I assassinated him, he seemed to be no different from the old Longin Tyr. He was still humble and kind, and still wise and far-sighted."

"You know what," the old man sighed, "after I failed to assassinate him for the eighth time, he even discussed the future of Diesel with a traitor like me."

"He didn't seem to care at all about my presumptuous behavior towards him. I could sense that he was at most a little... disappointed in me."

"We were once master and servant, classmates, and close friends who could talk about anything. But now he sits on the throne, the king of Diesel, and I have become a traitor, kneeling before him."

"I often think that if someone else sat on the throne, I would have been beheaded long ago. But he, Long Jin, has forgiven my crimes more than once. From this point of view, he seems to have not changed at all."

“But I always feel like he has changed.”

"I can't tell you what has changed about him, so I can only answer you, I don't know..."

The old man told Charles with a bewildered look:

"—I don't know whether he is normal or not."

Ciel nodded.

Although Crazy John did not provide him with very valuable information, the information was still quite useful to him.

At least, after confirming the emperor's condition, he could find an opportunity to take Lacie to meet the emperor.

However, new problems also arise:

"If the emperor was still conscious, why didn't he ask for help from the outside world?"

Charles asked in a low voice:

"Based on this, if the emperor did not take the initiative to ask for help from the outside world... or even from us investigators who entered Diesel, can we simply conclude that there was something wrong with his condition?"

Crazy John was stunned.

Something is wrong with the Emperor...Longin Tyr?

Charles's crude reasoning seemed to have touched upon some memories that the old man had almost completely forgotten. So, after a brief struggle, the old man said in an unclear voice:

"I seem to remember something... I remember... Long Jin once said to me... he said..."

"——Diesel was destroyed thirty years ago."

[To be continued]

-

56. Returning Home

After finishing their respective investigations, the witch and the hero gathered at the Wheat Ear Tavern as agreed.

It was still early, and it was raining and cold outside, so there were only a few guests in the pub, sitting scattered around the bar and at the small round tables below.

Charles was sitting at a small round table in the corner.

Although it was daytime, the lighting in the pub was still not very good. The lights were dim, and the light and shadows were intertwined, making it very dark.

Lacee stood at the door and looked toward Charles. She saw that guy with his head down, his black hair disheveled, lonely and helpless, like a mushroom whose roots are nourished by rain and which pokes its head out of the soil little by little in the dark.

Quite cute.

She muttered to herself as she walked into the tavern and tiptoed around behind Charles.

She was obviously quite nervous on the way.

The conjecture that "all Diesel people are the product of wishes" is really too scary. It is so scary that when Laceel hurried over, she always felt that every Diesel person she met would suddenly go crazy and launch a sneak attack on her.

So she deliberately put her hands into her cloak and clenched her wand in case of emergency.

But until she arrived at the tavern, she didn't find the opportunity to take out her wand.

Although it was a rainy day and there were not many people on the road, every Diesel person that Laceel met was still humble and polite, just like what she and Charles felt when they first entered Diesel -

Under the rule of that great, benevolent, wise and intelligent emperor, Diesel had long since become a paradise where people did not steal on the streets and did not lock their doors at night.

But the more this happened, the weirder it felt.

Thinking of this, Miss Witch suddenly lost interest in joking with Mr. Brave.

This is the same reason why she chose to confess to the priest and try to form an alliance with him.

Let’s put aside the love affairs for now, some things are always more important than others.