The Strange Adventures of Hearn the Believer

Pandora had been thinking about how to escape, but it seemed hopeless at the moment.

The other party didn't seem stupid, nor did they have the arrogance of an adult like Ys. They wouldn't deliberately ignore a dusty little mouse like her. Such a person was really not easy to fool.

"Well, before that, I didn't know your name." Pandora carefully chose her words, afraid of upsetting the girl.

The other party cast an incredulous look at him.

"?" Pandora gave her an innocent and bewildered look.

"Ugh, so you little brats who haven't even lost their milky scent yet are already approaching puberty, with restless little thoughts in your hearts and your mouths running like little trains, are all unreliable."

"???"

"The night before last, you stayed up half the night, howling and calling someone 'Sweetie' through the door. Now that they've opened the door and let you in, you ask them, 'Who are you?' It's really heartbreaking."

"?????"

“Waaaaah…”

"???????"

Pandora felt her mind was going to be a mess. When the girl opposite her started sobbing, she came to her senses and realized that there was nothing she could do but keep apologizing to her.

"I'm so sorry, so sorry, so sorry, but I really can't remember who you are! Really, I'm not lying to you!" Pandora apologized like a chicken pecking at rice.

"Hmm, I can see that now. You really are a bit dim-witted."

The other person's sobbing stopped abruptly, so quickly that before Pandora could even react, the other person had already leisurely leaned back on the comfortable sofa, even accompanied by a lazy and contented nasal sound.

"Anyway, let's get to know each other again. It feels very unfair to only know your name. Well, I like fairness. Even the devil likes fairness."

Pandora's ears perked up slightly. She had just heard a familiar word, a word that her classmates used to use to describe her in the past, a word that even Mrs. Vanessa had repeatedly tried to stop but ultimately failed to stop.

Rumors spread like wildfire.

"Any one of the long list of names in the prayer you recited the night before last could answer your questions, but that would be too stupid. I'd be so embarrassed. Besides, overly 'difficult' syllables would affect your vocal cord development and even the shape of your permanent teeth... This is no joke. I've heard stories of people whose tongues underwent secondary development into several tentacles and grew sixteen layers of teeth on both the upper and lower jaws after they uttered just one of those names. By the way, what a devout believer! He was subsequently worshipped as a miracle in his tribe."

"..." Pandora was speechless. To be honest, she didn't quite understand what the other person meant. She just found that the pious look of the other person to be very terrifying.

She's still waiting for the girl's reply, about her name.

She's right. It's unfair to always have your name known unilaterally. Although I don't hate it, it's inexplicably sad.

A beautiful young woman, 1.49 meters tall, stood up from the sofa, walked to Pandora, turned her back to the fire, and smiled as she extended her right hand to her.

The bright firelight illuminated the pair of earrings on the other person's ears, turning the silver five-pointed stars into a liquid gold-like color.

"Nice to meet you, young lady. I'm Nobu, and I run a small shop that hasn't opened for business yet. My friends call me 'Boss,' and there's a good chance you'll be my first 'customer.'"

“Ah… well, I’m Pandora. I’m so sorry, I don’t have a surname because my father doesn’t allow me to use his surname, so…” Pandora reached out her hand somewhat flusteredly and placed it in the other person’s palm.

Miss Nobu's hands weren't warm, but they were very soft and delicate, giving a sense of peace.

"Of course, you won't have a surname. How could the bloodline of the last mortal empire's royal family be given the surname of a loyal guard, even though that blind loyalty is truly both admirable and laughable? From Yale to Assyria, the heavenly kingdom established on earth by the gods in the heavens has already moved from dawn to dusk. It is a journey nearing its end, but there are always people who harbor harmless expectations."

“Nobu…Miss, I don’t quite understand what you mean.” Pandora raised her head slightly, looking puzzled.

Miss Nobu's smile remained unchanged, subtle yet genuine. She smiled as she held Pandora's hand and whispered.

"Forget about it. Didn't we just say we have another game to play?"

"game?"

"Yes, a game, a game between the [Devil] and the [Azure Crown]."

……

Chapter 69 The Silence of the Lambs (Part 6)

"Yord."

"I'm here, Mrs. Vanessa!"

"Here!" is enough.

"Yes, Mrs. Vanessa!"

Jeanne.

"To!"

“Shugus”.

"arrive."

“Yulenka”.

"To!"

……

"Marcus."

"arrive."

"Pandora."

……

"Pandora?"

"Reporting to Mrs. Vanessa! Pandora is still not at school today."

"..."

The wind and snow outside the window were heavy, and the pale sunlight shone only briefly through the glass into the old classroom.

On the podium, the middle-aged female teacher took off her glasses, which indicated mild presbyopia, and her gaze lingered on an empty desk in the corner of the classroom.

With a soft sigh, the stagnant classroom began to flow again.

"Let's begin class. Please turn to page seventy-three of your science textbooks."

The dark and sunless underground world requires a lot of courage to reach each place.

The courage to jump into an abyss.

The dusty little girl in the newsboy cap had no idea how others measured her "courage."

But isn't hope just such an elusive thing? Like a light in the dark night, even if it's only a tiny spark, after a night, the corpses left by moths drawn to the flame will always fill the nearby ground.

What is it that I, like a moth drawn to a flame, am seeking?

Pandora actually knew the answer very well.

The darkness was fleeting, and the descent ceased to be long from that day onward, as if a runaway thief had received a formal invitation, and the long-sealed "door" had been opened for him.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw the familiar, pale courtyard bathed in a deep blue light.

Pandora breathed a sigh of relief.

She carefully skirted the mountain of grey elf bones and quietly peeked out from the door of the ancient shrine at the end of the crossroads on the west side of the courtyard.

Unlike her previous carefree and unrestrained state, Pandora felt awkward when the real person suddenly appeared in what she had always thought was her secret base.

Her gaze swept quickly across the courtyard and soon spotted her target.

Miss Nobu was still the same as always, except that she was wearing a white lab coat.

"Hey, little puppy from the Earth Child's family, don't you think we've been running into each other a little too often lately? If this keeps up, people will start gossiping."

The teasing words drifted from the flowerbed in the courtyard.

Realizing her presence had been discovered, Pandora stopped hiding. She cleared her throat somewhat awkwardly, just like her father had, and walked along the flower-lined path, thinking herself calm and natural—but her heart was actually pounding.

“Good morning… good morning, Miss Nobu.” When she was close enough, Pandora greeted her softly.

"Is it already morning?" Miss Nobu turned around.

“…” Pandora was silent for a moment, feeling that it was indeed meaningless to dwell on morning and evening in such a dark and gloomy place. She looked up and noticed that Miss Nobu was wearing a pair of dark red-rimmed glasses today.

“Um… is Miss Nobu nearsighted?” Pandora couldn’t help but think of her teacher, Mrs. Vanessa.

"Well, it's just a little decorative item. You can think of it as a hair clip or something." Ms. Nobu smiled slightly after hearing this, and she raised the watering can she was holding in her right hand slightly. "As you can see, this place is so boring. But life has to go on, so we need some novelty and hobbies."

Pandora nodded, deeply agreeing with her point of view.

In some ways, this dark and bottomless abyss is similar to the city of Ys above, both being cages sealed off by the external environment. Miss Nobu passes the time by reading, gardening, and dressing up, while Pandora herself engages in all sorts of reckless acts in an attempt to escape this hellish place, Ys. The two arrive at the same destination by different paths.

“Although employing child labor is wrong everywhere, what can I do when thieves always sneak into my place and pick flowers?” Miss Nobu handed the silver watering can to Pandora. “Go water the other flowers for me. There’ll be a reward when you’re done.”

Knowing she was in the wrong, Pandora blushed upon hearing this. She lowered her head, took the water bottle, and hurriedly ran away.

"welcome."

Miss Nobu walked ahead and stopped by a door. She turned around and gestured to the little girl behind her.

This is the first time Pandora is no longer walking this path alone. This journey home, illuminated by the brilliant Milky Way, has now branched off into a new path, leading to Miss Nobu's residence.

"Are you really not going home?" Miss Nobu leaned against the door and pointed to another half-open door in the starry sky not far away. The door was simple and unadorned, just like the kind in an old house. It was old and even creaked, but it was surprisingly reassuring and very cozy.

"I'll be back before the sun goes down," Pandora muttered to herself, turning her gaze away from the front door of her house.

“Actually, I have quite a few empty rooms at home, so I can just go to sleep when I’m tired of playing.” Ms. Nobu’s eyes were bright.

"?"

"Forget about it." Nobu's gaze drifted into the distance. "Anyway, I never expected a lamb like you to fight with me in the first place."

She opened her door and went inside, with Pandora following a few steps behind, before casually closing the door behind her, completely bewildered.

It was still that warm and cozy room. Pandora was told to sit on the sofa and rest for a while. Miss Nobu told her not to look at the books on the bookshelves on the walls of the room, and then disappeared around the corner of the corridor.

The atmosphere in the living room was drowsy. After Pandora's eyelids fell and rose for the eleventh time, Miss Nobu returned with a tray, and the room was soon filled with a faint sweet fragrance and the scent of flowers and plants.

"This is the agreed-upon reward, for watering the flowers in the courtyard."

Ms. Nobu placed the tray on the coffee table in the middle and then sat down on the sofa on the opposite side.

On the tray were several simple square-shaped pastries, snow-white in color and delicate in texture, quite different from the fluffy texture of baked pastries in Pandora's imagery. The surface of the pastries was imprinted with the image of a cherry-white flower in bloom.

Pandora retains the keen sense of taste typical of children, but having rarely attended school, her vocabulary is quite limited. When Miss Nobu's food enters her mouth, all she can say is "delicious" or "not delicious."

Actually, Ms. Nobu's cooking skills have always been very good, but some of her creations are just too stimulating for Pandora's taste buds.

Such situations always occur simultaneously; when Ms. Nobu's dishes or desserts are served together, there will always be some that she can accept and some that she cannot.

These delicate, snow-white pastries with a slight pink tinge are "delicious," so correspondingly, the two drinks with a slightly sweet aroma are likely "not delicious," or rather, "too strong."

Pandora ate the pastries in small bites like a little squirrel, but her gaze timidly drifted towards the two steaming ceramic cups.

One cup was still on the table, while Miss Nobu held the other in her hand. She leisurely sipped her snacks and hot drink as if nothing was wrong, her brows sometimes furrowing and sometimes relaxing.

"What is this dessert?" Pandora really didn't want to touch the drink left for her, so she tried to stall for time.

“Cherry blossom cake,” Miss Nobu replied calmly, her voice devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

"Cherry blossoms?"

"These delicate plants that bloom in early spring are unlikely to be seen in the permafrost of Issu."

"Oh." Pandora lowered her head and continued to savor the dessert, wisely refraining from asking where the cherry blossoms in the pastry came from.

Ms. Nobu seemed to have been opened up and started talking.

"That hopeless brat dares to tell me I don't have cherry blossom cakes to eat. What's he so smug about? I can make a whole container of them in no time when I get home."

She picked up another untouched cherry blossom cake, took a bite out of it, examined it for a moment, and then put it down with a slight frown.

"..." Pandora kept her head down and ate silently, not daring to utter a sound.

“However, a dessert without heart is always a bit lacking,” Miss Nobu sighed softly.

"Is it not tasty?" Pandora looked up, puzzled.

"It's not about whether it tastes good or bad, it's just that there are some things beyond taste that I can't taste in the pastries I make myself." Miss Nobu's lips curled up slightly, as if she were smiling or mocking herself. "You can't taste things that don't exist."

“But… when I eat Miss Nobu’s desserts, I always feel warm inside… as if the cold winds of Ys have completely gone away.” Pandora replied softly, her voice hesitant and broken.

Miss Nobu stared at her silently for a long time without saying a word.

Pandora was flustered by the long, silent gaze. She quickly gave in and lowered her head, not daring to meet his eyes.

"..."

"..."

"you……"