The Strange Adventures of Hearn the Believer

This azure-silver iron dragon will carry Charlotte to a corner of the dragon's memory that has long been forgotten, to a place that will soon be completely forgotten by him—after the little fellow returns from there.

Realizing what had happened, Cinderella's pretty face turned as red as if it were bleeding. Her mind went blank, and she was so dizzy that she could hardly stand up, until the believer calmly placed her on her shoulders and whispered in her ear.

"Charlotte, you are right. Teachers do not like vague words, but value tangible reality. You have proven with your actions that you are qualified and with the long passage of time that you are loyal. Therefore, in return, teachers will give you an opportunity, an opportunity to eliminate the unease in your heart forever."

This train will take you to the place we originally agreed upon. Along the way, you will encounter group after group of meaningless phantoms. Life and death are in your hands, and you will have to make your own judgment. Yu Yi will still be with you, so there is no need to feel lonely.

There was only one thing that was real there: a sword, a sword called "Feixiang" (非想). It was reforged from the relics of two of the teacher's deceased friends, and it was the last memento the teacher left in the world before his passing. The echo of "All Things Return to One" still lingers on that sword.

Take the [Unthinkable] back to Thranheim, to find your lost half of heaven on earth, to find Chloe who has reached the [Wisdom] Ring, and when you meet again, it will restore you to wholeness;

After you ascend to immortality, your teacher will personally crown you at the highest point of the astral plane, atop the Tree of Life, on the ring of the Crown.

……

Chapter 162 Interlude: Eden

A rift opened in the void, and the believer stepped out, seeing the picturesque mountains and the mirror-like blue sea.

It was not a lifeless, merciless sea like the Shi Hai, but a primordial ocean that nurtured countless lives.

The hilltop is covered with lush trees and dense shrubs.

Below the hill, the iron-gray hut, covered with lush green vines, has long been covered in dust, a testament to the passage of time.

Everywhere you look is a vibrant green, so full of life it seems to drip with moisture.

To the east of the hill, the sun rises, and just a few dozen steps ahead lies the azure sea. The sound of the tide crashing onto the beach is carried by the sea breeze and brushes past your ears.

The believer did not linger, but slowly moved eastward, eventually stopping under a grove of broad-leaved trees. Under the shade of the trees was a white wooden deck chair, and on the deck chair was a woman with green hair, wearing a white gauze swimsuit with a skirt, lazily sunbathing.

When the believer slowly strolled over, the woman took off her sunglasses, revealing a captivating light in her emerald green eyes.

"Boss, you're so kind, meow~."

"Aren't you kind-hearted too, boss lady?"

The believer's words were loaded with meaning; the sight of everything coming back to life along the way naturally put him in a great mood.

He ignored Azriel's coquettish tone, walked straight past her to lie down on a nearby lounge chair, and took a delightful sip of the original mixed fruit wine, letting out a pleasant sigh.

"Huh? So that means I can go home now, meow?"

The self-proclaimed subordinate, the unicorn devil, keenly noticed the change in how her boss addressed her.

"What else can I do? I can't exactly make you work overtime until tomorrow, can I? It's almost ten o'clock already."

"You rascal! You have no conscience at all! How can you treat people like this? You went off to have a secret rendezvous with a young girl and left me stranded on this desolate planet in a sandstorm. I'm so heartbroken!"

Azriel flipped the believer over and pinned him down on the chaise lounge, pressing down on his shoulder with one hand while using the other to begin undressing him.

"Great Lord of Hell, ruler of the sixth level of the Nine Hells, Queen of Pleasure who has opened her brothels throughout the realms above and below, and Lady Rosetta, creator of the fox cubs of Thranheim, may I ask if your divine authority over life is just for show? You've only managed to revive a planet in the material world, and you have the nerve to complain in front of me? And what's with that hand of yours?"

The believer pushed aside the slender hand that was wandering into his clothes and grabbed her wrist, telling her to stop.

"It didn't take much effort, but it did take a bit of thought. After all, it was the last business deal that Charlotte personally handled. As a good older sister, I naturally had to prepare a surprise for my good younger sisters. Who knows, she might come back someday. You rascal, what's the meaning of this?"

Azriel struggled for a while, only to find that her wrist was still firmly stuck in mid-air by the believer and could not move an inch. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at him and then said coquettishly.

"What do you want to do?"

"I'm asking for overtime pay, meow."

"Didn't I tell you you were allowed to leave work?"

"Then it's time for you to pay your taxes, meow."

"Is it acceptable for you to just come up and attack like that?"

"What are you pretending to be? Look, your fingernails are all fixed, aren't they, meow?"

"I didn't do it myself, Charlotte fixed it for me. Is there something wrong with my fingernails?"

"The reason why little Charlotte made you so smooth is because when she came to report to me last time, she saw bloodstains on my shirt and asked me how a monarch could be injured, meow."

"How did you answer?"

"To be honest—[I got caught by your teacher] meow."

"Hiss... I was wondering why one of the violets in my nursery was growing crooked. Turns out it was you who was secretly watering it." The believer gasped, suddenly realizing.

"You promised to let me take care of them, but now all the good ones are like you, and all the bad ones are like me, right?" Azriel pinched his shoulder, her eyes full of resentment and grievance.

"I'm sure you've scratched my back until it's bleeding quite a bit, but I haven't complained to the little girl. What kind of mother are you?"

"That's why I wear a red shirt and black suit to work now. Who knows when you heartless bastard will suddenly pop out from some corner, drag me into a dark room, ravage me, and then leave me to clean up the mess alone, sob sob sob... Speaking of which, that little bitch Lucy has started wearing red shirts lately too. Oh~, I see, I get it, meow!"

"We'll see through it but not say it. Our Chief Executive still has some face to save."

So you're saying I'm shameless, meow?

"Your approach of resorting to violence right from the start is quite shameless."

"Then why did you never mention the matter of having a sense of shame when you left your childhood haven and were riding the waves in the world?"

"Stop-stop-stop, Az, you've been using a lot of new codes in your late 'lazy jokes,' and my codebook hasn't caught up yet. Why don't you explain to me what 'riding the waves' means first?"

"【Riding the Waves】is just 【Riding the Waves】, you jerk, you're so annoying, why do you have to make me spell it out?"

"I've only just started university, and my manners are still developing, so please help me, Teacher Az."

"Last time it was the [Head Nurse], and this time it's the [Teacher], right? I've noticed that your lineage is full of [Bad Students], meow."

"It has nothing to do with the little girl; the problem lies entirely with me."

"Here it comes, here it comes again, and it's trying to pin the blame on itself again, meow."

"I've always been indifferent to such trivial matters. By the way, Mr. Az, are you still going to give me extra lessons?"

"Make up for it, of course you have to make up for it. A bad student like you has to stay up all night to make up for it. Don't even think about getting out of class before the sun rises in hell tomorrow morning. Seriously, if I were even a hair's breadth stronger than you, I would have locked you up at home long ago, you dog who doesn't know what male virtue is, so you wouldn't run around all day making me wear a cuckold's hat!"

"Keep making things up, I'm listening. After I finish, I'll go do a year-end gift for Lucy. That workaholic is probably still working overtime right now."

"Ahem, let's talk about 'Riding the Waves' instead, meow~."

"uh-huh?"

"Look, Iota, you are the gentle breeze that accompanies you to sleep after you lost the bright moon, meow."

"Yep."

"And you, a child of the vast sea who traverses the stars, set sail from the harbor of your childhood and gallop across the starry sea. Naturally, there is a gentle breeze blowing on your sails from behind, meow."

"Hmm, that makes sense, but something still feels off. And if there's wind, where are the waves?"

"I'm just a free spirit, meow."

"what?"

"Iota is the 'gentle breeze,' others are the 'white waves,' and you are the 'riding the waves,' meow."

"..."

"Meow"

After a moment of silence, a soft, abrupt, and unexpected laugh was uttered, and from there it spread like uncontrollable ripples.

Since returning to the mortal realm, the believer had not laughed so freely and unrestrainedly as she did now.

My childhood was gloomy and repressive, while my youth was unrestrained and carefree.

After resolving the bloody destiny that haunted his childhood, he indeed lived in the human world just as he had thought when he changed his name and surname without flinching in front of all the demons. He became someone who resembled Aozaki Aoko, yet was different from her.

The boy who once wandered alone in the Far East, as graceful as a poem, as sorrowful as ice, and as brilliant and fleeting as a summer flower, has finally faded away with time. Revisiting the past is certainly valuable, but how could someone like him, who lives in the present and focuses on the future, linger in the past and pace back to square one? Thus, he has ultimately become the bard/knight who once served the Death Princess of the Sariel family, the lecherous rogue dragged into the mortal world of hell by the restless angel of death, and the desperate thug who indulged in the pleasures of heaven and hell for the sake of a moment of enlightenment.

He and Miss Sariel had made a pact that they would not have time to die, and the winner would be the one who gave up death first, with the loser unconditionally granting the winner one wish.

He lost, and he lost badly.

She won, but she won badly.

Iota wanted him to calmly accept her death, and then do whatever he wanted to do, to quell his lingering resentment, and to live the life he desired.

He asked her why she insisted on doing so.

She said she had completed the path she was meant to walk in this world and upheld the principles she was meant to uphold. Now she had no other attachments, except that she could no longer bear to see him drifting along aimlessly. She would not allow him to become despondent and heartbroken because of the death of another woman. Therefore, she was going to fight a war that belonged to women. Her death would open the door to the Azure Silver Sea and also ignite the long-extinguished fire in his heart.

Later, she left hell and returned to heaven.

Later, he held a funeral for both her and himself.

Later, he also went to heaven and performed the scene "Messiah" at the wedding of the White God.

Later, he decided to keep his promise, just as he had mentioned to her: if he lost the bet, he would reopen a small shop, fill it with flowers and plants, and become a merchant who sells "dreams".

The heart he drew in his youth had actually died long ago, on the night he ascended to heaven, on the night of his eighteenth birthday, and on the night he lost everything.

That's why he ended up like a dog, wandering into hell, in that mad city of sin, lost and dejected, living a life of debauchery and despair, with no will to live.

In the final days of his youth, he painted a dragon's body all by himself, and then in hell, the Death Princess repainted a dragon's heart.

Since then, the sum of the primordial fire in the world has been two times eight, which the White God calls the beginning, and He calls the end.

……

After a long while, the dragon of the end finally laughed its fill of joy, its emotions, and its heart.

He laughed until he was done, then casually wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes.

He wiped away that tear, as if he had completely soothed the immature version of himself from the past.

When his violet returns from that place, he will bury that unforgettable past completely.

In the end, dust returned to dust, and ashes returned to ashes. The master of the realm of time was the one who never once had the thought of returning to the past to eliminate regrets.

"Feeling better?"

The one-horned devil asked softly.

"I'm feeling much better. A question that had been bothering me for some time has been answered: how to face you and how to face them."

"Appreciate further details."

"On the way here, I originally planned to use that [door] as a boundary. Inside the [door], I would be the naive boy they knew who said one thing but meant another. Outside the [door], I would be the arrogant and greedy dragon of the end that you all knew. I would entrust my [childhood] to [human wisdom] and my [human world] to [divine wisdom]. From then on, the two would run parallel and never intersect."

"what about now?"

"Now, I am moved by Charlotte's persistence and courage, and I admire your composure and meticulousness. Even though I have already buried my eldest brother with my own hands, I am still just the youngest of the sixteenth generation. I am still young. Compared with you who have spent a long time before I ascended to immortality, I still have a lot to learn, a lot to do, and a long road ahead. So I have decided to become a true dragon again and let them see what I am like now."

"There's plenty of time, isn't there? Little Sixteen."

"Please spare me that title, it just sounds weird, Xiao Wu."

"Hiss... that does sound a bit weird. Let's change it, let's change it, meow."

"Of course, as a thank you gift, I'll also tell you a joke, Azriel."

"Don't tell me any jokes about snails or toads. And that 'KnockKnock' guy knocking on the door at the party won't do either. He's already off work and doesn't treat you like his boss. If you try to fool me, don't blame me for skipping the formalities and biting you right away."

"How could that be? Actually, the joke is quite short, similar to the one you just mentioned, 'Riding the Waves'."

"Oh? Well, that makes me really interested, meow."

“Azriel, look at this once lifeless star. Now all things are reborn, the mountains are like paintings, the sea is like a mirror, and the fields stretch for thousands of miles. Yet, there is not a single living being. Don’t you think it resembles the eternal and indestructible Eden of heaven?”

“Apart from the fact that they are eternally indestructible, they are otherwise exactly the same.”

"Then look at this broad-leaved tree beside us, which shelters us from the wind and rain and provides shade. Doesn't it resemble the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden?"

"Not like...wait, like, very like, extremely like!"

Azriel had originally intended to deny it outright, thinking that this ordinary plant dared to compete with the Tree of Good and Evil in heaven. However, when she noticed the ambiguous smile on the believer's lips and the fact that he had let go of her hand at some point, Azriel's emerald eyes lit up, and she suddenly realized what he meant. She quickly changed her mind and said something else.

"So, I think you look a lot like Lily now, no, you look exactly like her."

"Huh? You idiot, are you laughing your head off? I'm Azriel, not Lilith! Look at me more closely, meow!"

Although he had already figured it out, the one-horned dragon still couldn't quite get into the mood in time.

The believer reached out with amusement and lifted Azriel's emerald green hair. When her fingertips lingered on the broken stub in Azriel's hair, her playful gaze finally softened into tender affection.

He was an actor who grew up surrounded by women, and he was used to the coldness of the world. He had a difficult life from a young age, with more disappointments than successes, but he was destined to be with a few good women.

With this longing in his heart, he suddenly became too lazy to engage in any more riddles or tell any more refined, dry jokes.

However, an actor is still an actor, and he was in high spirits, so he had no choice but to finish the performance.

"It's normal that you can't respond. Before Lily fled to the mortal realm, she probably didn't have the face to tell you guys that she came to me to complain because she didn't want to be subservient to her elder brother during their wedding night. So she made a vow to elope to me, the [Black Serpent] who had been entrenched in her library for 6,471 days and nights. Now that you are in the [superior] position and I am in the [inferior] position, if you are Lilith, then who am I? And what should you do?"