The Strange Adventures of Hearn the Believer

"Your sister is that angel?"

"Yes."

……

……

"Your Highness Salome."

Hearn paused at the door, turned around, and looked at the Far Eastern princess who was watching him leave from the banquet.

"Are you still having doubts, Your Excellency Hern?"

The princess put her veil back on, her beautiful face hidden behind the mist. Her voice carried a hint of disappointment, but even more so, understanding.

"A minor, harmless problem."

"Ah."

"Your Highness, do you know a girl named Pandora Reinhardt?"

"I don't know her, if you're asking about a young girl."

"...What if we disregard that?"

"Then, I think you must be referring to one of our ancestors, who was born in the late Tertiary period and left a mark on the history of the Rhine Dynasty, though not a particularly significant one. All the descendants of the Rhine know her; some regard her as the child of calamity, while others call her the princess of red blood. As for historians, they prefer to see her as a special symbol—a symbol of the rise and fall of the Yale Empire."

"Uh, let me guess, she must have been a wicked royal noblewoman who, in her later years, did things like using the blood of innocent young girls to maintain her beauty."

The believer tried to lighten the mood.

"Your joke is very considerate, Your Excellency Hern. However, according to historical records, my ancestor, who was given many ominous titles, was in reality just an unfortunate young girl, a victim of an era. She did nothing wrong from beginning to end. In fact, her life was only five years long. At the age of five, she, who was born weak and sickly, completely lost consciousness and fell into an eternal sleep. The emperor at the time, who was also her father, lamented the unfortunate and short life of his young daughter and was unwilling to accept her death. So he ordered the Cult of Mechanics to freeze her, hoping that medical technology would advance enough in the future to awaken her."

Salome Reinhardt sighed for the first time in a long time, as if lamenting the fickleness of fate.

"However, not only did that emperor fail to live to see that day, but the entire Earth Child Civilization also failed to live to see it."

“Your Highness, I have a vague idea of ​​which period your ancestor was born in.”

“You can be more confident. Princess Pandora Reinhardt was born on the day of the Crying of the Gods, at the moment when the sky was completely stained red with divine blood. Countless newborns were born in Thranheim on that day as usual, but she was the only one who did not die. However, even though she was fortunate enough to survive, she was weak and sickly, and there was a decisive difference between her and her blood relatives. She was the first Rhine child in history who could not resonate with the holy light of the Lord of Light, even though the blood of the Lord of Light flowed in the bloodline of the Rhine royal family.”

"The divine right and the royal right are united as one. The rise of the Sons of Earth is due to the blood of the Lord of Light. I always thought it was just a legend until Your Highness admitted that your sister was an angel." The believer recalled the previous scene and the records inscribed in the tombs. "If I hadn't witnessed it with my own eyes in the storm, I would have just regarded those words as the self-aggrandizement of the Sons of Earth nobles."

“My sister… is a different case. This is related to the reason for our trip. I think too much information will only make Lord Hern’s position more awkward. So, if you still intend to stay out of it, I’m sorry.”

Salome nodded and apologized.

The implication is...

"I understand, and I don't intend to change my mind for the time being. Before I leave, could you tell me the final fate of that unfortunate princess? Your Highness Salome, I'm very curious."

"After the day of the Heavenly Cry, Yale went through the struggles of two more dynasties, both of which were short-lived. But the emperor was no longer the biological father of that ancestor, so I have no way of knowing her final fate. It was an extremely chaotic era. The continent was filled with suffering and war, plague and death. It was difficult for the living to survive, so who would care about a dead princess?"

Salome pondered for a moment, reviewed the history of the Earth Children civilization in the Tertiary period, and finally chose a more reasonable answer.

"Lord Hern, I don't know how you learned of this name. If, and I mean if, she hadn't been lost in the chaotic history of the late Third Age, then there is a possibility, a very slim possibility..."

"...Along with most of the Rhine legacy that was fought over by later generations, the vessel that sealed my ancestor also became part of the property of the twenty-seven exiled guilds after the fall of Yale. They embarked on a long journey to find the Promised Land mentioned in the last oracle of the Lord of Light, the eternal Garden of Eden."

"Your Highness, I have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?"

The Nobunaga Hearn pulled a negative from the subspace. It came from the workshop of a man named Valentine. The Nobunaga had put the negative into the subspace as a precaution before the unfortunate police officer's body was cut into pieces by the piano wire trap.

Now, he handed the negative to the Far Eastern princess and the landlady in the clouds.

The two quickly used the light to see the image on the film.

He was immediately so shocked that he was speechless for a moment.

"Your Highness Salome, thank you for the information, so I won't keep you in suspense any longer—the good news is that you still have a group of your fellow Sons of Earth surviving in Thranheim, the bad news is that they seem to be on the verge of extinction, and we have absolutely no way of locating this place, only that it is deep in the northern continent, a secluded and desolate place."

Hearn, grateful for the other party's sincerity, chose to reciprocate. He gave the two women ample time to think and weigh the pros and cons, and after bowing, he took his leave first.

……

Chapter 95 Saints (Part 1)

As the fiery sunset reached its zenith, the faithful Hearn slowly walked back to the ground. His shadow stretched long and slanted in the setting sun as he gazed at the blood-red fading light on the horizon and let out a long sigh.

This is the entrance to a prison in the Gozan Autonomous Region within Silver City. After a series of power transfers, a troublesome big cat has been brought here.

Over the past two hours, the woman had brought cigarettes, alcohol, and snacks to have a long talk with the large, furry cat, and also brought a letter from the princess of the Far East, which made the talk much more relaxed.

No one is interested in the banter between two old men, so the believer briefly organized the information she had gathered on this trip. After learning that Salome Reinhardt was safe and sound, the furious Joshua calmed down, remained silent for a long time, and finally let down his guard and told her a story about "Joshua".

Black Panther's real name is Gross. He comes from a tribe that roams the northern border of the Rosetta Forest. It was a time when the Rosetta people had just returned to the surface. The power struggle over the ancestral land of Rosetta in the center of the Forest was at its zenith. Like most small Rosetta settlements of that era, they chose to stay away from the core area of ​​the Forest and settle on the edge of the Forest and the Great Plains.

Before the arrival of the Quaternary Period, about 287 years ago in the autumn, this small tribe welcomed a group of visitors who should have long since become extinct.

A group of children of the earth.

Their numbers were small, less than a third of the Rosetta tribe, and they were in dire straits. The entire group consisted almost entirely of elderly people, women, and children, worn down by wounds, hunger, disease, and the exhaustion of the long journey.

They claimed to be the last survivors of the Yale 26th Brigade, who were attacked on their long journey to the Great Plains east of the continent and north of the Rosetta Sea. Most of the men were killed in the battle, leaving only the elderly and women to escape with their infants.

They fled here.

Originally, based on the millennia-old blood debt between the Dark Species and the Children of Earth, this last group of exiles should have been sent by the people of Rosetta to "reunite" with their compatriots.

But whether the big-tailed tribe took pity on them or the tribal leader was simply a heartless saint, they allowed these children of the earth to stay. They confiscated their supplies and any weapons they might have, placed people under their supervision, and provided them with enough food and lodging to sustain them.

Just like Rosetta, the goddess of abundance, nature, and life worshipped by the bigtails, the forest generously and equally sustains most species that venture into the woodland, whether or not they are followers of Rosetta.

The life of the Bigtails is very long, long enough to rival that of the Woodland Elves, who are also native to the Tree Sea, and long enough for the lives of the Earth Children to vanish like the wind.

After the day of Heaven's Weeping, it was as if a deadly poison had been added to the bloodline of the Sons of Earth. Plague shrouded the life of this once invincible divine creation for centuries until they were completely wiped out.

The adults among the Children of Earth moved so fast that the Rosetta people, whose average lifespan was measured in millennia, couldn't even react. More than ten years passed like smoke. By the time the Rosetta people came to their senses, all the Children of Earth who had fled to the tribe had returned to dust, becoming part of the vast energy cycle of the Tree Sea. Only a group of children who had grown up in the Rosetta tribe remained—the children of the Children of Earth…

Two hundred and eighty years is a very long time for the children of the earth, so long that it takes the lives of several generations to measure. Two hundred and eighty years is not short for the Rosetta people either, as it accounts for a quarter of the lives of most Rosetta people.

Love that transcends race is not uncommon in any place where species live together, and the Rosetta race itself has many subspecies scattered throughout Thranheim. After more than two hundred years, the small tribe gradually developed into a medium-sized tribe composed of most pure-blooded Rosettas, some Rosettas and Earth Children mixed together, and a very small number of pure-blooded Earth Children.

The big cat named Grus was born in that tribe. He was a hybrid of the Son of Earth and the Rosetta. Unlike most of the pure-blooded Rosetta people who had a beautiful appearance and humanoid features that conformed to the traditional aesthetic of the Son of Earth, as well as some beast-like characteristics, the hybrid of the two races lost the good genes of both parents. His appearance became extremely atavistic. Apart from his upright physique, everything else was consistent with the beast-like characteristics of the Rosetta bloodline in his parents.

It was as if they were cursed by their bloodline, whether the curse came from the children of the earth or from the Rosetta people.

As a teenager, Grous the cat was a good kid who hadn't been through the wringer of society. He was stronger than a pure-blooded Rosetta or a pure-blooded Earth Child, and his mind was as inquisitive and thoughtful as that of an Earth Child. The tribe was very tolerant of hybrids like him and was willing to accept them from any of the three factions.

Aside from those few pure-blooded earth-born old men who taught him swordsmanship, who were particularly keen to push him to the limits of his potential.

Generally speaking, it was a carefree childhood.

The change occurred when Gross was thirteen years old. By then, he was already a big cat over 1.85 meters tall. He could easily overpower his sword instructors with brute force. But when he came to his senses, those old men of the Earth Children had transformed from ruthless instructors into old men drinking tea and playing chess by the roadside. No matter how much he provoked them, they would no longer step into the arena to take his moves.

That year, a new face came to the village.

He was a pure-blooded Son of Earth male, probably in his late twenties, in the prime of his life. He looked travel-worn, his whole body shrouded in a wide white robe, and his head wrapped in a turban to conceal his Son of Earth characteristics. He claimed that he came from the Far East across the ocean, and was a descendant of the twenty-eighth Brigade, which was outside the original twenty-seven Brigades. He had traveled west alone, returned to the ancestral land of Thranduil, and finally found his way here by relying on the resonance in his bloodline.

After the traveler from the East recounted the whole story from the open space in the center of the tribe, the situation spiraled out of control.

The angry crowd swarmed forward, dragged the man off the platform to the ground, and beat him mercilessly while pinning him to the dust.

However, it was not the pure-blooded Rosetta people who made the move, nor the mixed-bloods like Grus, but rather the few pure-blooded Earth Children.

Two hundred and eighty years have passed, and only a handful of pure-blooded Earth Children remain. They do not refuse to integrate into the Rosetta tribe, nor do they fail to repay the Rosetta people's kindness. They simply carefully maintain the purity of their bloodline and guard some ancient secrets.

At that time, the last pure-blooded descendants of the Twenty-Sixth Brigade no longer concealed their anger, which had been suppressed for more than two hundred years, when facing their compatriots from across the ocean.

They angrily beat the visitor from the Far East, cursing him as a shameless traitor and a coward who betrayed his people. They forged a lock from fine steel and had the tribe's high druid enchant it. Then they bound the Far Easterner's right hand and neck in the steel lock, put shackles of the same material between his feet, and drove him out of the tribe, exiling him to the vast plains far from the fertile forest, leaving him to fend for himself.

Young and strong, and full of curiosity about the world outside the tribe, the big cat Grus secretly followed the exile group away from the tribe. After the pure-blooded earth children of the village embarked on their journey home, he rescued an earth child who was hanging upside down from the treetop by his fellow earth children under a dead tree, and was surprised that the other was unharmed.

Then, the big cat Grous learned his name.

His name was Joshua, and he was a saint, a saint of the Lord of Light.

……

Chapter 96 Saints (Part 2)

As a boy, Grus followed that man to many corners of the Thranheim continent, and their destination was the former capital of the mortal empire called Yaru, which was also the past center of the entire Sons of Earth civilization.

Three hundred years is not a long time for a civilization, but when they measured the earth with their own feet and trekked to the place where the original twenty-seven caravans originated, all they could see was endless yellow sand.

The last traces left by that once invincible mortal empire are now buried beneath the sea of ​​sand.

Joshua stood silently in the sea of ​​sand for three days and three nights. When dawn broke on the fourth day, he told Gross that he could go home.

When the two returned to the small tribe on the edge of the forest, seven years had passed since Grus left the tribe.

Over the course of those seven years, Grus grew into an outstanding warrior. He fought against most of the magical beasts that roamed the continent of Thranheim, and also clashed with many intelligent races with malicious intentions. He grew from an ignorant boy into a mature and experienced young man.

He grew from a self-taught swordsman with basic sword skills in two hands into a devout paladin.

Throughout his seven-year journey, the man named Joshua never removed his shackles, even though it was easy for him, just as his initially angry compatriots had not inflicted any harm on him.

At the beginning of his journey, Joshua told Gross that he would bear the shackles imposed on him by his people, experience their suffering firsthand, measure the land soaked with the suffering and blood of the Sons of Earth with his own feet, find the final whereabouts of the other twenty-six caravans, repay the sins left by his ancestors, and finally, go to the capital of Yale to return to the source of everything, where the divine revelation was found.

Joshua ultimately fulfilled all his promises, and Gross was captivated by his character and faith. As the sole witness to this seven-year pilgrimage, Gross chose to embrace the Holy Light at the coming-of-age ceremony presided over by Joshua and subsequently became Joshua's disciple.

When the two returned to the forest, they were not as lonely as when they set out.

The Children of Earth eventually went extinct. They traveled all over the southern continent, searching in the directions chosen by the twenty-seven groups that had started their exile, but in the end they could not find the Children of Earth civilization that had successfully multiplied.

What the big cat found ironic was... yes, ironic—during the seven years of pilgrimage with Joshua, through his mentor's daily dictation, Gross had become intimately familiar with the history of the Sons of Earth in the Third Age and the teachings of the Lord of Light. He knew the many hardships that the rise of the Sons of Earth brought to the remaining fourteen divine creatures, which is why he felt ironic.

It turns out that the small tribe located on the edge of the forest was not an exception. After traveling all over the southern continent, their only gain was a small number of mixed or pure-blooded Earth Children found in some other species settlements.

Including the ancestors of the Grus lineage, all twenty-seven brigades of the Yale Empire that remained on the continent of Thranheim suffered annihilation without exception, leaving only a few sparse bloodlines that were fortunate enough to survive in relatively tolerant settlements of other divinely created species.

Now, those among them who identify as part of the Children of the Earth have become Joshua's followers, following him back to the edge of the Sea of ​​Trees.

On that day, the holy light of the Lord of Light was rekindled in the world of Thranheim after more than three hundred years. Joshua showed the glory of the Creator to the Sons of Earth in the Rosetta tribe and read aloud to all his followers who knelt before him, kissing the earth with tears in their eyes, the divine revelation that the great Creator had sent down upon the desert of the ruined city.

"Lord, command us to go to the North."

"In the bitterly cold land of the far north, there are compatriots suffering greatly, an eternal Eden, and the last drop of blood from the Rhine."

“Our Lord once bestowed His crown upon the Rhine, so that we might be rich and prosperous, and now we shall return the crown to Him.”

"When the stars are in their proper place, the last Rhine will return His crown to the heavens, our Lord will regain His divinity, and His light will once again shine in the heavens, just as His kingdom once shone on earth."

……

As a devout saint and one of the first disciples, Gross should have gone along with them.

But before he was to depart, Joshua forbade him from going, and instead sent him alone to the Far East across the ocean to the mysterious land of the dragon people, to deliver his letter to the leader of the twenty-eighth legion of the tribe.

And, take with him the name Joshua and the sword he never parted with, as a token.

In January of the 185th year of the Resurrection Era (Fourth Age), Joshua led his followers from the northern part of the Rosetta Sea of ​​Trees, heading north to search for the lost Eden located deep in the north, and then disappeared without a trace.

In February of the same year, the twenty-one-year-old Gross—this young saint who inherited his mentor's name and sword—boarded a passenger ship bound for the Far East at the port of Silver City, south of the Rosetta Sea.

……

……

"This year is... the 198th year of the Resurrection Calendar, the Frost Month (December), which means this happened thirteen years ago."

The believer concluded his review of this long-forgotten history, comparing his archaeological findings over the past few days with the information he had gathered from 1, Salome Reinhardt, and Joshua. There were many points of agreement, but many gaps and mysteries remained.

"Their information observation points are too subjective. It would be better if there were enough macroscopic and objective observation points to record information."

The believer shook her head, then turned and walked towards the Cloud Inn.

Although Yunzhong is no longer open to the public, people with connections like him are naturally not excluded.

On her way back, the woman unconsciously recalled an incident that had occurred two hours earlier.

……

"If I'm interested in the letter left by the first 'Joshua,' would you tell me what it contains, my big cat friend?"

"...For the sake of saving His Highness Reinhardt, Hern, you must swear that you will not reveal a single word about the contents of that letter."

“I swear to the Lord of the White Moon and the Lord of Ether that if I reveal even a single word about the contents of that letter, the Great Creator will unleash His divine fire and reduce my body to ashes.”

"..."

"how?"

“…Fine, I’ll trust you one more time, Hern.”

"uh-huh."

"It took me two years to cross the ocean to reach the Far East, and I never looked at that letter once until I handed it over to the father of the current prince, and only then did I learn its contents."