Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Lost
"Is that for real? You don't know either?" Amon's response surprised Astella.
There was no need for Amon to lie about such trivial matters. While she wasn't sure when this ancient relic from the Quaternary period had "died," it was evident that, throughout the ages, he hadn't fallen out of touch with the times. Instead, he was still energetically persecuting everyone.
— It's astonishing that there exists a secret organization that even he doesn't fully understand. It must be quite powerful!
"Could that being who calls himself 'The Fool' be someone from the Antigonus family?" Astella speculated, using her knowledge of history and mysticism.
According to her mother's records, in the Quaternary, the divinatory pathway controlled by the Antigonus family was also known as "The Fool" pathway.
"If that were the case, how could I not know?" Amon replied.
Astella shot back, "He secretly drank a potion to ascend and didn't tell you, which means he doesn't like you."
Putting aside the facts, don't you have any faults to reflect on yourself?
"Ridiculous. Why would he dislike me?" Amon scoffed.
"You might not realize… cough, I mean, he might have just attained that status not long ago? Perhaps he has been asleep since the Quaternary until now? After all, the title implies 'not belonging to this era'," Astella gestured.
Suddenly, a flash of insight struck her.
Wait—does that mean she herself could be considered "not belonging to this era"?
The answer was evidently yes!
Yes. The fact that Amon had no knowledge of him could mean that this being, who called himself 'The Fool,' had indeed only recently emerged and was not aligned with the entities Amon knew; in fact, they might be quite contradictory!
After all, she had only just crossed over recently!
Could this be the source of her crossing over? Was it just a coincidence?
"What are you thinking about?" Amon asked, a smirk playing on his lips.
"… Uh, a secret," Astella replied.
She was actually considering telling Amon about her crossing at the right moment. Given his high status in a neighboring pathway, he might actually know a lot of secrets, which would be far better than her stumbling around blindly. Moreover, now that she was forced to be around him all the time, even though her character often said nonsensical things, human imagination has its limits. If she went too far, she would eventually raise suspicions. Not to mention she still needed to gather clues from the journals of Emperor Rossell to find "Mr. Door" and a way back home.
She was quite suspicious that Amon knew more than she could imagine. A mythological being who had lived since the Quaternary period likely held the high-sequence authority of "thief of time." He might have already sensed her identity as a "crossing person"—after all, with Emperor Rossell preceding her, she wasn't the first!
Could it be that he chose her for this reason? How much of the mission to investigate "The Fool" was actually his arrangement, merely borrowing the power of the Aurora Society?
After quickly weighing this in her mind and scaring herself half to death again, Astella added, "I do have some connections. Once I'm sure you're trustworthy and I'm mentally prepared to obtain information from you, I might talk to you about it. I suspect it might involve some high-status powers… so at least I'll need to wait until I become a demigod."
In other words: I'll consider telling you once I become a demigod.
While she was still trying to understand this world and considering how to return to her original timeline, to be honest, Astella didn't hold out much hope. — This wasn't "Scarlet Heart"; from the time she spent reading those time-travel novels, few ended up making it back!
But having no expectations was one thing; being crushed by a hammer was another. She still felt she didn't have the mental fortitude to accept that she might have to live out her days hopelessly in this chaotic world—she didn't want that.
"If I said I wanted to know right now?" Amon inquired.
"Then you can just steal my memory; the answer is BBACB." Astella began to babble.
After all, she couldn't stop him; might as well go for it.
Wait…
Before Amon could say another word, Astella suddenly realized something.
She sprang up from her seat: "Oh no, I missed my stop!!"
In her distraction while talking to Amon, she had forgotten that she was on a public carriage heading home!
The passengers turned to look at the beautiful but seemingly crazy girl, erupting in a chorus of good-natured laughter.
Hurriedly jumping off the carriage at the next stop, Astella's face flushed as she tried to alleviate her embarrassment by storming off. Damn it, just a few days ago, she had been the poised and enigmatic "flower on the high ridge," a girl with deep, hidden sorrows. Yet, in less than three days of being around Amon, she had gone completely off the deep end!
"Ahhh…! Why didn't you remind me!" she yelled into the air, throwing a punch.
"Why would I remind you?" he asked, thoroughly amused. "Don't you think I was looking forward to seeing this situation?"
"You just love making a joke out of me!"
She walked around trying to find her way back to the station, but she was in the East District, nowhere near the familiar George Wood District. The area was densely packed with buildings and chaotic in terms of safety. After spinning around and asking for directions a few times, Astella finally… got lost.
She looked around at the identical dilapidated houses and filthy, narrow alleys, the sky growing darker, a faint haze of coal smoke obscuring her vision, and fell into a long silence of despair.
"Amon, senior, Your Highness." She weakly pleaded, "Please use your 'decoder' ability to help me."
For some reason, since she became an "apprentice," these lost incidents happened frequently, even near her home. It made her seriously doubt if her sense of direction was flawed.
"Sure," Amon chuckled, "I dare you to listen."
"Let's skip it… thanks anyway." Who knew where he would take her?
Damn maps, still navigating for you!
"But you don't need to worry; this isn't your fault." Amon casually explained, "It's normal for you all to get lost under the influence of that high-ranking being."
"Is it that 'Mr. Door'?" she asked.
"Hmm? Yes." Amon confirmed, "That's your ancestor from the Abraham family, Bethel Abraham."
"Ancestor… He's still alive… Is he the true god of the 'Door' pathway? Does he know about the 'Full Moon Curse' we're under?" Astella felt a stir of emotion. Although she knew thousands of years separated them, the potential blood connection brought her a sense of closeness amid her lack of familial companionship.
Amon said, "He is considered the closest being to a true god at that time, a 'King of Angels.' During the latter part of the 'War of Four Emperors,' he was jointly banished by the 'Goddess of Night' and the 'Lord of Storms,' trapped in the starry sky for about eighteen hundred years. As of now, we can only say he hasn't died yet. The 'Full Moon Murmurs' you hear are actually him calling for his descendants. Unfortunately, your life levels are too low, and you die upon hearing it."
"…"
Oh wow.
"Does he… know about this?" she struggled to digest the information.
No way, no way, the kind of whispers that drove the original host to suicide actually came from their ancestor's "plea for help"? Couldn't he save us, his bewildered descendants—of course, if he called out until his own descendants died, no one would come to his rescue!
"Maybe. But there's nothing he can control about it… haha." Amon chuckled, his tone nonchalant.
"… I see. He's probably half-mad by now." Astella sighed. She could understand; after all, being tossed into the chaos of storms and stars for over a thousand years could drive anyone insane. While it was genuinely pitiful, was there no one to sympathwayize with the deranged descendants of Abraham?
"So, as long as we save him, the Abrahams won't have to hear those whispers anymore, right?" A glimmer of hope ignited in Astella's heart.
"Yes indeed." Amon smiled, "If you plan to rescue him, I can provide help when necessary. After all, he's an old friend of mine. Of course, by the time you become a demigod, hearing his whispers won't drive you out of control anymore. If you're willing, you could even have a chat with him if you feel lonely."
"To think you're friends with my ancestor, how long have you been alive…?"
Astella couldn't help but consider the possibility that Amon was boasting. After all, she could also say she'd seen three U.S. presidents, albeit on an LCD screen; didn't that make her a veteran of three administrations?
"Anyway, it's always good to aim for becoming a demigod."
She didn't believe that Amon would help her unconditionally. Who knows what schemes this top-tier "con artist" might be plotting? After all, he could switch to the "Door" pathway! What if one day she joyfully welcomes back Mr. "Door," rescues her kin from dire straits, only for that great ancestor to turn around, don a monocle, and parasitize all the Abrahams with a hop and a skip... Just imagining that terrifying scene made listening to ramblings seem not so hard to accept.
As she was lost in her musings and wandering aimlessly in the East District under the streetlights, a burly man suddenly lunged at her from behind, choking her neck. Immediately, a handkerchief covered her mouth and nose, the pungent smell overwhelming her senses, and Astella's vision went black.
"Damn, I'm so careless...!"
She tried to hold her breath and reach out to touch the attacker's body to cast an "electric shock spell." But then she remembered the recent frequent disappearances of people in the East District and the names of missing young men and women listed in the newspapers. After a moment's thought, she rolled her eyes and went limp, pretending to lose consciousness.
If it was just an ordinary crime, even if she couldn't confront them head-on, she could try to rescue those trapped. And if it involved something more significant, she had an extra "teleportation" ring in her pocket; at worst, she could protect herself—surely she wouldn't be so unlucky as to run into a demigod right after stepping out!
Seeing Astella successfully "faint," the man who attacked her, along with another equally burly man, lifted her like livestock onto a carriage and stuffed her into the dark compartment.
The carriage quickly rolled out of the alley and rumbled forward. The area returned to its usual calm.
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Author's Note:
The female protagonist here is quite reckless. Having just fled from school, she lacks awareness of counter-surveillance and experience in handling incidents; she's far from cautious enough. It's part of adolescence, especially since the original character wasn't very old before crossing over. She'll grow after suffering a few setbacks.
Additional Note:
In the original work, it wasn't explicitly stated whether the apprentice pathway's tendency to get lost was due to Mr. "Door's" influence. This is an addition by the author.
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