The Strange Adventures of Hearn the Believer

"Then can we ask Sister Az to help the teacher with public relations? How can you not care about your image, teacher?"

"It doesn't matter. I've never cared about that kind of empty fame since I was a child, and I care even less now."

The believer proudly raised her head.

Then, a pair of small hands immediately cupped her cheeks and pulled her back.

"Teacher, how can you say such things? Even when you were a child, you were a princess on the moon. How can you be so careless with your own wings?"

"What princess on the moon? The teacher is just a poor boy from a flower shop in the countryside who fends for himself. Don't listen to your Kaguya sister's nonsense."

"But Kaguya patted her chest and guaranteed that what she said was true, and if she was lying, she would be cut into eight hundred million pieces."

Upon hearing this, the believer felt a dull pain in her forehead, thinking to herself that her elder sister was really going all out to get back at him.

No wonder he agreed to cover for him so readily; he was waiting for him here all along.

Therefore, he turned his head away, turned away from the small hands that were pinching his cheeks, adjusted his mood, and then reached out to lift his beloved disciple's face.

Cinderella obediently allowed him to lift her chin, and a smile appeared on her pretty face that Miss Xue Ni had never seen before, let alone dared to imagine, like the first melting of ice and snow and the blooming of spring flowers. Her violet eyes were just as they had been when they first met, as if they saw the bright stars and reflected their light.

"In short, don't listen to your Kaguya sister's nonsense. The real princess shouldn't be the teacher, but Charlotte herself. From Yale to Assyria, you are a princess of heaven on earth. A princess of the Rhine cannot follow her teacher astray and put the blame on herself. Do you understand?"

"No, unless you promise me, teacher, that you will never do anything like that again. Besides, since you're not a princess on the moon, I'm not some princess of the Rhine. I'm just a little snake from a ditch, living in the cold frozen earth. When I was about to freeze, I slipped into your garden and survived. Later, you kind-hearted teacher opened the door and took me into your home. Now my surname is Hern, and my name is Charlotte. I have no connection to that earthly paradise, just like you have no connection to the moon... Ee..."

Charlotte paused, as the believer lightly flicked her forehead.

The believer's face darkened, and the image of his wise older sister rolling around laughing in the bedroom began to appear in his mind.

Forget it, I'll deal with her when I get back.

The most urgent task now is to correct the strange knowledge that Kaguya has instilled in this girl.

"Stop your nonsense. Now, forget everything Kaguya told you, understand?"

"Hmm, I understand..."

……

The believer walked casually on the sea, while Charlotte obediently followed beside him.

Even so, he didn't really care what Kaguya said.

He knew his students' character better than anyone else, including his sister.

This girl, like him, is a born actress, a master of acting, spouting lies like a broken record, playing the most pitiful and innocent while wielding the most ruthless tactics.

Although it was a bit impolite to talk to Kaguya, to be honest, he didn't think that Kaguya's words could change his student's personality in any way.

Just like how so many people couldn't change him back then.

This girl is quite stubborn in some ways. She has long since developed her own set of right and wrong concepts and has her own logic for acting.

This was exactly what the believer had hoped for. Over the long years, he repeatedly threw the little snake he had brought from the frozen earth into the starry lower realm, both to cultivate her abilities and to hope that she could use her own eyes to recognize and witness this complex world, until she finally came to a conclusion and possessed her own mature values.

Although the cause was rather unintentional, there is no denying that this was a small violet that was watered with his blood.

Even in his youth, he had tended to many flowers and plants, and was a skilled gardener.

Unlike Aoko, who appears delicate but is actually careless and knows nothing about teaching and educating, Shinjo, who comes from a florist background, knows very well what it takes to make a small flower grow into the shape she desires.

Ample sunlight, abundant nutrients, stable soil and water, and necessary pruning.

He certainly wouldn't do anything so heartless or cruel as to "prune" her away. He simply sent her to the mortal realm, to experience right and wrong in the world, to face choices, to choose to "take up" and to choose to "let go," just like he had in the past.

What comforted him was that the child never hesitated when choosing to "let go," just like he had done when he was a teenager.

However, he knew firsthand how painful it was to swallow bitterness in private, so he allowed the child to cry in front of him and shed tears in his arms.

In short, this was the first time the believer had tried raising cubs, and the results were quite remarkable.

Since Kaguya claims to have been cared for by this child every day for the past six months, it means that Charlotte has already secretly slipped into the Time Realm and is thriving there.

If he can do this, his qualifications and abilities are beyond question. Saying that he has no talent is just the little girl being modest in front of him.

What remains is one's mindset, or rather, one's beliefs...

To be fair, I think this is a big problem.

He used to think that this girl was letting go more and more effortlessly and gracefully, but now he felt that she had gone astray...

Charlotte, what do you think of Kaguya-neechan?

"She's a very easy-going and friendly older sister. She gave Charlotte lots of delicious food and fun toys."

"What if Kaguya-neechan stabs me in the back someday?"

"Then just in case, I'll go and kill her now."

"No need, our sibling relationship is very harmonious."

"I see. I'll add that to my list of options."

"..."

The believer silently began to bite her fingernails, pondering deeply which ingredient she had added wrong that had caused this girl's thought process to become so distorted.

"Teacher, although there are no bacteria on your body, your nails are very beautiful. Proper care can enhance your appearance. Please stop biting your nails. Charlotte will take care of them for you if needed."

Charlotte crafted a complete set of care products from the misty sea and, keeping pace with him, offered her suggestions respectfully and considerately.

"..."

The believer reluctantly withdrew her finger from her mouth, which had just touched her teeth, thinking to herself that her freedom limit was even lower than before.

"Charlotte, you know better than anyone who I am, so you understand that I don't need anyone's care. A girl your age should spend her precious free time making some excellent friends, such as that princess from the Lord of the Flies. I will contact Beelzebub the Elder another day to create a suitable occasion for you two to meet, such as a social dance."

He proposed it in this way.

"Teacher, that Ms. Fly just revealed her true colors in a recent interview. I think she's far more interested in you than in me. Her willingness to interact with me is nothing more than an attempt to get in touch with you. Charlotte isn't good at dealing with such a scheming bitch... cough, such a well-mannered princess, so please reconsider."

Cinderella responded casually with this.

"Okay, it seems Az is probably not lying to me."

"Has Her Majesty Azriel arrived as well?"

“I left her outside, and now she’s clinging to my neck, crying and screaming. She can’t come in.”

"As expected, Teacher and His Majesty also have a romantic entanglement. Charlotte has already made a note of it. Please rest assured, Teacher, this is something that will absolutely not be known to the two teachers' wives."

Charlotte nodded and took out her notebook to jot down another entry.

The believer pretended not to see her actions and turned her gaze to the starry sea.

"Who can resist a good woman who's cuckolded? Back then, in order to get me to perform in the opera 'Messiah,' which celebrates the glorious achievements of the Lord of the White Moon's Etheric Light leading the Seven Kings of Heaven to sweep away the Nine Hells at the wedding of the Divine Child and Lilith in the Garden of Eden of Heaven, and to satisfy my perverse pleasure of kissing Lilith deeply in front of all beings in both Heaven and Hell, your sister Az put her head on her belt to orchestrate everything for me. She even broke off one of her horns, exchanging her dignity for the belief that she had abandoned darkness and embraced light in Heaven. And all of this was just for a bet I made with her. Before I finished performing that scene of 'Messiah,' everyone just thought of me as an actress, but she still did it anyway."

“I see. Now I understand where the prayer in the Grey Elf Ruins, ‘Cain who killed his brother, the black serpent in the Garden of Eden,’ came from. Over the years, I have visited many altars in the lower realms, and most of those prayers are related to the power or divine authority of teachers, but I have never been able to find the source of these two.”

"Charlotte, you know that I only believe in two principles."

Yes, "Good people should be rewarded" and "A life for a life."

“That’s right, a life for a life. Since that White God executed Teacher’s manager Iota in front of all beings in Heaven and Hell, then Teacher should kiss His bride Lilith deeply in front of all beings in Heaven and Hell at His wedding, and then grind Him to dust in front of everyone. An eye for an eye, it’s fair, isn’t it?”

"It is indeed very fair."

……

Chapter 160 Dragons (Part 2)

"That's it. Now, please switch to your left hand, teacher. Wait, no need, I'll just sit here."

"Thank you."

On the white sandy beach, the believer casually placed a few beach-style woven lounge chairs and laid out various fruit juices, drinks, and snacks on the table. Then, with a bored look in his eyes, he let Charlotte do his nails.

In the end, he couldn't resist the girl's insistence.

While letting her left hand be manipulated at will, the woman lazily opened her eyes and stared at her carefully polished and smooth right fingernails. Perhaps because she was thinking of some old stories, her vision became slightly unfocused.

It began as the stolen soul from the moon, then as the demon born of concepts, and now as the final primordial fire.

Thinking about it carefully, his life to this day, his love for humanity, and even the word "human" itself, all stem from the cause that Aoko planted back then.

If he hadn't met her, he probably would have emerged from the thicket of thorns, albeit later, or with more wounds. But without a doubt, he would have been so shallow that his humanity would have been nonexistent, and his love for life would have been stripped away as an impurity, leaving him only a monster roaring at the moon.

Before she had emerged from the thicket of thorns, the woman had cared for others, such as Shiki, who had not yet regained her senses when they first met.

The devout woman could spend a lot of effort decorating her doll-like appearance, but rarely put any effort into herself.

When it comes to himself, he always does whatever is most convenient and efficient.

Take manicures, for example.

The believer had done the manicure for the girl quite a few times, but once the shy girl regained her senses, she took the job back herself.

As for the believer herself, she was almost always just a fleeting glimpse of a blue flame, mentioned only briefly.

In addition, he has always been like this in many other details of life.

Because of the ups and downs of my life, I had no time to savor it.

After his ascension, he was left alone in the City of Sin, contemplating death and indulging in unrestrained behavior. He had no chance to calm down and deal with these things.

It was only after adopting this little snake that he was forced to return to his old ways, using the same carefree attitude he had back then to torment this little bean sprout that cried at the drop of a hat.

In the blink of an eye, the little crybaby who used to sneak into his backyard has grown up. She's finally stopped crying so much, she's become more independent, and she's become more demure, well-mannered, and graceful—she's starting to resemble a young lady.

Time always flies by too quickly, especially for time travelers like him. When he finally came to his senses, he found himself being the one being taken care of.

This was a familiar yet unfamiliar experience for the believer.

The reason he was familiar with it was because he had once been a passerby in the world, observing the lights of countless homes.

The reason it was unfamiliar was that after his ascension to immortality, he believed that such things were destined to be unattainable for him.

The vast, silvery sea before him, which originated from nothingness and was created to fill the void in his heart, and which then exercised the power of plunder, was the heartless thing that had returned to its original state and bestowed blessings upon the lower realm.

That ocean of mental images ascended to the mortal realm at the moment of His ascension, leaving behind countless records of the Great Flood and other similar events in the Book of Revelation in the lower world.

All beings fear Him, respect Him, and believe in Him, bestowing upon Him countless illustrious, holy, and divine names.

Apart from……

“夏洛特.”

"You've just finished working on your index finger with your left hand, you can't leave it yet, teacher."

"Don't worry, I'm not leaving for now, but there's something I've always been curious about."

"So there are other things you're curious about?"

"Of course, when you were five years old, after waking up in the life support pod underground in Ys, staggering around trying to escape the mechanical cult's iron lumps, falling into the abyss with injuries, and landing in my garden, what were you thinking before you crawled into that clear spring?"

"Hmm... I think the outline of that pool is ugly."

"This is the outline of a water droplet falling into the ground."

"Also... I think the color of that spring water is very beautiful."

"At that time, your internal organs were almost completely shattered. Did you still have the mind to pay attention to these things during your last moments of lucidity?"

"Of course, because it was so warm, and the surroundings were so cold, as was my blood-loss body. I knew I was about to die, so I struggled to climb those twelve steps and into that spring... At that time, I was just thinking that it would be so good to die in such a warm place."

Even if it's actually my blood, even if your life will no longer belong to you from now on?

“My teacher, as you know, the women of the Rhine family were cursed by the White God from the moment they were bestowed with the [Azure Crown]. The entire family, dynasty, kingdom, species, and civilization became the cornerstones protecting His rule. The so-called ominous child of calamity, the Crimson Princess Pandora Reinhardt, was just a five-year-old girl who was born on the day of the Heavenly Cry, lost consciousness at the age of five, and was stuffed into a life support pod until she awoke nearly two hundred years into the Fourth Epoch. The concept of life had never existed in her world. When she awoke in the abyss, she had forgotten even her own surname, only remembering that she was called Pandora. This name was so foreign to her that it felt unreal. Rather than a name that held kinship and was full of affection, it was more like a cursed symbol, telling her that [your past will catch up with you sooner or later, and the White God's curse has never ended]. Uncle Vladimir Vladin, although mentally unstable, was the last surviving citizen of the Heavenly Kingdom to arrive in Ys from outside the White Wind. As a guard, he was absolutely loyal, yet he never dared to let me call him father.”

"He never told you that his original name wasn't Vladimir Vladimir, but Vladimir Joshua Vladimir."

“This is something Pandora should know, and it has nothing to do with Charlotte.”

"You're really clear about things. What if you start fighting when you meet again?"

“That’s something you should figure out, teacher. If you’re not willing to get involved, then I’ll give everything Pandora Reinhardt has to that child.”

"Charlotte, don't you have any attachment to your real name at all? Perhaps that's the last thing the Rhine Dynasty left you."

“Teacher, I’ve said before that name has no real meaning for me. It’s more like a persistent curse than a heartfelt blessing. What’s completely different is that whenever you call Charlotte, I feel genuine joy. Because whenever you say the name you gave me, I deeply feel that I belong to you and feel happy about it. That’s the warmth and connection that a name should have.”

"Girl, first of all, I have never regarded you as an object or a tool, let alone a 'thing'; secondly, I didn't put much thought into naming you two. If I had to say, I hesitated for a moment between Charlotte and Charlotte. Considering that the former was not very auspicious, I chose Charlotte, a slightly boyish name for you. Its meaning is 'health.' Your teacher hopes that you will grow up healthy and become a cheerful girl with a sense of humor, imagination, and artistic talent. After all, you were really too petite back then."

"For a snake that is about to freeze to death, is there a warmer name/blessing than this, teacher?"

"I think so. After all, I don't have much talent for naming things. Both names were inspired by the books I read when I was asking you two to help me water the flowers."

"Teacher, it's not that you lack talent, but that you're too gentle, the kind of gentle that's sharp-tongued but soft-hearted. You're so gentle that you're not good at telling the truth, so gentle that you'd rather be the bad guy than let others have their way, so gentle that you would never give me a warm name, but leave her with that cursed original name—the one left behind after losing Charlotte in Pandora. Actually, I've always been curious, curious about what kind of name you would leave that child after you took me away, and what kind of educational approach you would take towards her."