The Strange Adventures of Hearn the Believer

"Just because of that inexplicable 'instinct'?"

"Because I don't know Miss Nobu's name yet," the little girl said softly.

"Hmm?" The devil was slightly taken aback. Her gaze shifted, and she looked at the girl again, as if she were seeing her for the first time, meeting her inch by inch.

"What did you just say?"

"I mean, Miss Nobu has never told me your name. How can anyone trust someone who won't even say their name?" The gray-haired girl blushed, as if she had used up all her courage, and with a hint of hysteria, she blurted out the words that she had kept hidden in her heart for a very long time.

"..."

"……snort."

"Ok?"

After a long silence, a soft, abrupt, and unexpected laugh responded; and from there, as if unable to be suppressed, it gradually spread.

The owner of the courtyard, Miss Nobu, laughed without the slightest hint of ladylike manners, laughing like an innocent child without a care in the world. Compared to Pandora, who matured prematurely due to Ys's external environment, she was more like an innocent child, an unpolished gem, an angel fallen to earth, or rather, a devil.

Isn't He a devil?

Pandora thought to herself.

After a moment, the laughter subsided. Miss Nobu seemed to have laughed until she was tired, bored, or annoyed. In any case, she stopped her pointless prank and returned to normal, or at least that's how it appeared.

She sat up from the deep blue flowerbed, her body completely free of mud, as if she were someone else who had just been rolling around in the flowerbed.

"I'm sorry, Pandora, it was my fault." Her first words were an apology.

“Oh…” Pandora was almost able to keep up with Miss Devil’s thought process. In short, she wasn’t very surprised and just responded softly.

"It seems to be what you expected, about my apology." Miss Nobu sat in the flowerbed with her arms crossed, pouting as if in doubt.

"Ha... I'm just getting used to it..." Pandora sighed helplessly. She didn't know if it was just her imagination, but after spending so much time with Miss Nobu, she felt the psychological burden constantly shifting towards her.

"Really? Then I'm really growing to like you more and more. How about it? How about working for me? It's just some trivial work, Pandora can handle it perfectly well, don't worry." Miss Nobu gave an OK sign.

“If I could get out of Ys.” Pandora also sat casually in the flowerbed. Compared to the exhaust fumes and dust of the lower city of Ys, this gray elf courtyard was practically a spotless paradise. The mud was no big deal to the thief who had been roaming around in the lower city.

“No problem, hand over the Azure Crown.” Miss Nobu smiled and held out a hand as if asking for it.

“I don’t have such a thing!” Pandora retorted angrily, which was also the second reason she had just rejected the other party. “Why would Miss Nobu insist that a brat like me, who barely survives in the lower city of Ys by petty theft, would have such a thing as a treasure that only gods possess?”

Yes, if that crown of the heavens is truly, as Miss Nobu says, the holy crown of the radiant lord whom all humanity in the Third Age worships, then how could such a treasure have fallen into the hands of a thief like her? And if she were truly so lucky, how could she still be living a life of ignominy in this frozen wasteland to this day?

Her response was not a rebuttal, but a silent gaze.

The gaze did not last long. The owner of the gaze stood up from the flowerbed, came to the little girl, sat down again, and reached out to pat the old clothes on the little girl's gray mouse-like body. Soon, Pandora became as spotless as her.

"Do you know why I just apologized, Pandora?"

"I don't know, Miss Nobu."

"The reason for my apology is actually very simple. When dealing with a rare—I mean, one that I have rarely encountered in my life—a genuine, unadulterated little girl, I habitually used the same bad attitude I would use with a terrible adult or a thousand-year-old woman pretending to be a child. I apologize for my mistake and am willing to make amends for my rudeness."

“…” Pandora remained silent. She admitted that she still held a sliver of hope, or rather, she was still harboring a thieving heart. Petty thieves who are used to petty theft will never give up their thieving heart.

The little hamster's expectant gaze, like that of a mouse eyeing food, naturally caught the eye of Miss Nobu, who was standing nearby, and she smiled slightly.

At this moment, they seemed to have become friends again, and the effects of the invisible corrective force from before vanished.

"There are three types of compensation, this is the first, and it can be kept as a memento."

She casually removed her right earring, revealing a more exquisite silver key embedded within the twisted, five-pointed star-shaped silver ornament. Only now did Pandora see the true nature of the silver key—a small, lifelike snake coiled around it, intertwined with ancient, alien script, radiating a mercury-like luster.

With a magical touch, she transformed it into a pendant and gently tied it around Pandora's delicate neck.

The little girl seemed startled as she felt the coolness on her neck, the icy touch of metal against her skin.

"Secondly, do not believe those harmless prayers. Mortals speculate about the gods with their own desires, believing that if there is light above the sky, there must be darkness, a duality, hence religion arises. It is said that the ancient hero Agrippa was unparalleled in his time, so he shot an arrow into his heel, and thus it is said that he died there. What the eyes see is not the truth, and what the ears hear is not the ultimate truth. If you are trapped in the fog, you might as well ask your own heart. My name is not something unattainable. I write it in your hand, so you can look at it in your spare time. Whether you remember it or forget it, for now, this is the reason you have sought."

As she finished speaking, Pandora felt as if strokes were being traced across her palm. Though curious, she suppressed her impulse and held her breath, waiting for what was to come.

"Thirdly, it is about regret, apology and explanation."

“Miss Nobu…”

"You came at the wrong time."

"Ok?"

"Damn you, wretched, pitiful daughter of Hephaestus, if you had met me a few years earlier... it's too much trouble, I'm too lazy to calculate. Anyway, if you had met me a few years earlier, let alone something as trivial as leaving Ys, even severing your miserable fate would have been a piece of cake for me. Although it would still be a piece of cake now, it's not the same as it was back then."

The white-clad devil sighed softly, his sea-blue eyes fixed on the little girl before him.

I will not grant your wish until you can offer something of equal value to it.

"why?"

"Because overly cheap gifts and generosity always produce enormous evil consequences; before I was a devil, I helped a little girl like you break free from the shackles of fate, but in the end she willingly became a puppet of fate again, and indirectly destroyed everything I cherished in the first eighteen years of my life. Later I became a tearless devil, and like other devils, I regarded equivalent exchange as the ultimate principle."

“…I understand, Miss Nobu.”

"So, what's your answer?"

"As before, I cannot exchange my 'freedom' for something I have never had in the first place."

"Really? I'm sorry."

Yes, it's a pity.

“Pandora, this may be the last time we meet. You know, the devils’ lives are quite busy. I’ve lingered here for a long time, and I have to head to my next potential client.”

"Yes, I will miss you, Miss Nobu."

Pandora nodded, her voice sincere, though a lump formed in her throat—she truly loved this devilish lady, loved talking with her, tending to the blooming blue flowers in the courtyard together, reading together in the warm study, and savoring strange-sounding but delicious foods during breaks.

When she was with Miss Nobu, although she was sometimes teased and sometimes it was terrifying, the white wind of the frozen land did indeed stay away during those warm and happy times. The suffering that every child who grows up in the lower city of Ys suffers in life seemed to have never existed in her life.

And now, Ms. Nobu is leaving.

For a fleeting moment, Pandora felt she could understand the thoughts of the girl who had so many terrible consequences. If Miss Nobu had been as mysterious, reliable, knowledgeable, and charming as she was now, then her reluctance and jealousy as she prepared to leave would have been magnified infinitely, perhaps leading to that irreparable end.

Miss Nobu seemed to have sensed her thoughts, her dangerous gaze sweeping over Pandora's face with interest.

Pandora was used to this, and she tilted her head slightly and solemnly promised.

"Miss Nobu, please rest assured, wherever you go in the future, the little girl named Pandora will not cause any huge 'bad consequences' to affect your life, because there is no business relationship between Pandora and Miss Nobu, no generous charity, nor cheap reward. I will no longer expect to gain freedom from you, that would not be good for either of us. I will find my own way to leave Ys. Ten years, twenty years, fifty years, it doesn't matter. I have secretly memorized all the design blueprints of the ancient aircraft. Right now, I just lack the materials and technology, but the latter two can be found in a desperate place like Ys if I look carefully. One day, I will reach the outside of that endless white wind and see the outside world with my own eyes."

"Roar—?" Upon hearing this, Miss Nobu narrowed her eyes. "What an arrogant brat! You're not afraid of biting off more than you can chew when you talk big. How do you know if the outside world is really as fertile and paradise as you people of Issu imagine? You don't even know what the true nature of the White Wind is, or what happened to those unlucky guys who broke through the White Wind earlier."

"Hmm..." The little girl, who had finally mustered up the courage, seemed not to have thought that much about it at all. She had made the promise, but she got stuck when she was slightly criticized, and her face became a little hot for a moment.

“However, it’s very interesting, I like it very much.” Miss Nobu smiled, her face radiant.

She had laughed exaggeratedly, and she had also only scratched the surface. This devil, whose emotions were extremely polarized and whose joy and anger were invisible, revealed such a real and pure smile to the little girl for the first time. For a moment, Pandora was somewhat lost in thought.

“I’ve changed my mind. I don’t mind being generous again for the third compensation, but you’ll have to pay a price—it’s going to be a painful process.”

"Miss Nobu?"

"Ah, lovely daughter of Hephaestus, listen well. This is a devil's oath, an oath that can never be altered or renege upon, from ancient times to the present. Only the gods can render it powerless before it is fulfilled. And you are unfortunate; the devil you have encountered is the most unreasonable of all. His oath is beyond the power and ability of even the gods to change, for in the silent years of the Father, the gods are but dust beneath His feet. Here, I pay homage to the last vestige of royal blood of that long-vanished earthly kingdom—Yale." I swear: Whenever you manage to breach the barrier of the White Winds and reach any corner of Thranheim, the moment you open your eyes, I will stand before you, even if you are no longer you, and I am no longer myself; then, I will take you on a journey through all of Thranheim, overlooking this arena where the gods once played from the highest point of the astral plane, and finally, I will grant you one wish, the wish that you most urgently and desperately desire at that time, whether or not it is related to your destiny entangled by the twin serpents of mercury.”

"Now, remember my name, and then go on to do the way you should go."

……

Chapter 72 The Silence of the Lambs (Part 9)

At midnight, the entire lower town of Issus was quiet, with only the howling of the sub-zero wind. Every household had its windows tightly closed and its lights off, with the few remaining lights coming from the heating towers located in the lower town.

Pandora habitually wrapped her tattered cloak tighter around herself and walked silently along the base of the wall.

"There is nothing new in the world of the divine, but there is a lot in the world of human wisdom."

Just minutes earlier, the mysterious lady had said her final goodbye, packed her bags, and set off for another place. And Pandora, just as her last message had said, returned from the world of the divine to the world of human intellect. The gears that had once stopped started turning again the moment that door closed.

The time spent with that lady was undoubtedly joyful, carefree and unrestrained. The many troubles and misfortunes of the city of Ys, born under the white wind, faded away in those brief but precious moments. And now, those worrying troubles have returned, just like every day of the past thirteen years.

Pandora lowered her head and looked at her palm. In the dark night, a dim color came into view.

Miss Nobu said she had written her name on her palm, but she suppressed her curiosity and only carefully examined it after leaving. What she saw was the mark that she found most difficult to decipher—it wasn't some obscure character. If it were text, she could understand it with her talent. But in reality, it was a emblem, a pale silver emblem, a key surrounded by two small snakes with their heads and tails intertwined. It looked exactly like the pendant that was hanging on her chest.

“Ha…” Pandora sighed with some regret. Her talent had always been limited to various unknown characters, and she was naturally not good at abstract emblems.

The mischievous young lady left it as a riddle in the end, and now she can only move forward with that riddle in mind.

The current task is to reconstruct the design drawings of the Shangji aircraft. This work may take one to two years, but if sufficiently sophisticated drafting tools can be found, the time required will be further reduced.

Having learned from her experience working with Morgan and his associates, Pandora was well aware that her immature status would put her at a natural disadvantage when dealing with adults who had ample resources and resources.

There must be other countermeasures. She has a certain grasp of the underworld in the entire lower city of Ys, and it seems feasible to negotiate without showing herself.

Born with the greed inherent in the Son of the Earth, countless working groups like Morgan's were active in the shadows in this icy city beneath the white wind, and that man was simply one of the luckiest among them.

Well, perhaps the most unfortunate one, it seems from the lady's unspoken words that Morgan and his group encountered some misfortune after breaking through the White Wind.

Pandora wondered if she should be grateful that they had moved up their takeoff time at the last minute, causing her to miss her chance and thus escaping disaster.

However, missing that takeoff and then accidentally meeting that lady was perhaps the greatest stroke of luck.

At least, at this moment, this frail body, walking in the sub-zero wind, no longer shivered or struggled to move forward. Instead, it was as if it were walking in a greenhouse. One of the harshest external environments in Ys had lost its effect on this little girl, and she had given up.

Pandora had a clue: these anomalies were probably due to those strange snacks. The lady seemed to really value the unfinished deal, and before officially opening the door, she painstakingly prepared all sorts of odd foods for her every day.

Unfortunately, Pandora was unable to deliver what she expected in the end, wasting the lady's good intentions.

In the lower city of Ys, alleys crisscross like earthworms. Pandora has been using different secret passages to enter and exit the Grey Elf ruins beneath Ys each time she travels. This has left her no choice but to be careful. Morgan and his group took off on the eleventh day of Frost Moon, less than a week ago. The atmosphere in the entire city of Ys is extremely tense. This is an unprecedented event. In the nearly two hundred years since the beginning of the Fourth Age, for the first time, a Ys person has successfully broken through the barrier of the White Wind and traveled to the outside world using the long-forgotten flying technology. Although most people do not know the details, there are no secrets that stay hidden forever. Moreover, the old man Morgan made a show of breaking through the Great Froststorm with a three-colored trail of smoke. The probability of witnessing this is infinitely close to zero.

Rumors spread like wildfire throughout the ice city that had been silent for hundreds of years. Secret societies that had been plotting for years were in turmoil. The Iron Paladins from the Upper City's Mechanical God Cult were out day and night, maintaining a cold and pale order with their blazing chainsaws and large-caliber steel-core bullets.

No one knows what the Mechanicus cultists are thinking. Pandora doesn't understand either. When deciphering documents and reconstructing design blueprints, Morgan's research team did consider the possibility that the Mechanicus had already mastered aircraft technology. However, with the successful takeoff of Morgan's team and the subsequent inaction of the Mechanicus, this hypothesis was largely overturned.

The aircraft cabin was destined to be small. Including the crew and the minimum necessary cargo, the maximum number of passengers was four, with the possibility of adding a half-grown brat like her. Although Morgan's team was an elite force, each member was a local troublemaker who was good at their own way in a certain field. Even with the headcount reduced, there were still eleven people. In the end, he selected two trusted pilots who also served as his henchmen, and set off with a passionate young reporter who adored him.

Oh, right, and Pandora too. She's the unsung hero behind the scenes who deciphered numerous lost documents and made great contributions to the entire "Leap of the White Wind" project. Everyone usually thinks this drab little girl is Professor Morgan's niece or something, an insignificant supporting character who just hangs around in the studio. Only a very small number of members know the fact that she was the one who deciphered every single lost document—a chilling and unbelievable fact.

Only a very, very small fraction... including the lucky few who ultimately boarded, including Morgan, there were only five...

"Oops!"

A chilling fear, so different from the cold wind, invaded Pandora's mind the instant she thought of this, to the point that her back began to be uncontrollably soaked with cold sweat in the extreme weather of minus twenty degrees Celsius.

She finally understood the meaning of the young lady's last words: in the Garden of the Mind, everything was still, and no one would disturb their secret rendezvous; but when they finally waved goodbye, and when Pandora chose to return to the world of the Mind, the gradual development of things, the tragic cycle of cause and effect, would force her to confront the seeds of disaster left behind by a previous mistake.

The purge of secret societies by the Mechanicus began five days ago, and the remaining members of the Morgan Group were naturally the first to be targeted. But who were the first former Morgan Group members to be exposed to the Mechanicus?

It was her! It was Pandora herself! She had been to that semi-enclosed launch site hidden between the high cliffs of the Great Hollow, and had narrowly escaped the guns and bombs of the Iron Paladins of the Mechanicus who had gotten there first. They knew that a child had escaped, and one of the group members abandoned by Morgan knew the truth about her deciphering the lost documents!

On a night when the temperature was below minus twenty degrees Celsius, Pandora looked up and gazed at the church at the highest point of the city of Ys, nearly a kilometer away, and at the gallows hanging on the cliff edge of the church. Even though her eyesight was naturally much better than that of the residents of the lower city of Ys, and even though "they" only drew one irregular black dot after another in the darkness, she prayed from the bottom of her heart that among the corpses hanging in the cold wind of the night, there would be no trace of that person.

If he was one of those tainted individuals, then the time left for her was far less than the ten, twenty, or even fifty years she had promised that young lady—no one could prove that he had endured torture and abuse before his death, and that he hadn't mentioned it to the priests of the church.

If he was lucky enough not to be one of those black spots... no, not just him, but all of them, everyone who had seen her in Morgan's steam workshop, everyone who had worked with her for the past two years, working tirelessly together for the "Leap Over the White Wind" project, but ultimately failing to be chosen by Morgan to board that aircraft, there were still seven of them.

Aside from Pandora herself, there are six left.

In the quiet, snow-swept alley, a girl who seemed about to collapse at any moment let out a soft sigh. The faint white mist quickly lost its warmth and disappeared without a trace. The girl adjusted the tattered newsboy cap on her head and wrapped her gray cloak tighter around herself.

A moment later, a petite figure flashed past the alley entrance, but it wasn't heading home.

……

Chapter 73 The Silence of the Lambs (Part 10)

"Yord."

"I'm here, Mrs. Vanessa!"

"I've reminded you many times, just answer 'Here!'"

"Yes, Mrs. Vanessa!"

Jeanne.

"To!"

“Shugus”.

"arrive."

“Yulenka”.

"To!"

……

"Marcus."