Chapter 2772 Rabbit Girl <TOC> Chapter 2774 Time Bodies and Gift-Words
Translator: SumTLMan
No sooner had Angel finished speaking than Daus’ eyes lit up again.
If the memories inside Elderstone are less than a thousand years, then even a torrent of memories shouldn’t be too overwhelming, should it? I should be able to withstand it, shouldn’t I?
Thinking this, Daus quickly crowded up to Angel. This time he did not gesture with his hands again, but directly broke through the silencing seal the Black Count had set and opened his mouth to ask: 「If it’s only less than a thousand years, then with my physical constitution, I should be able to adapt, right?」
「Of course you can.」 Angel nodded, looking at Daus: 「That’s why I first asked whether you wanted to try.」
Daus felt a surge of delight and instinctively wanted to nod, but as the words reached his mouth he suddenly hesitated, especially as he looked at Angel’s calm, indifferent demeanor; a sense of danger slowly rose from the bottom of his heart.
Although Angel did not appear overly proactive, this kind of doing by not doing gave him a déjà vu of 「inviting the monarch into the urn」.
Daus grew a bit hesitant.
After pondering for a long while, Daus ultimately swallowed back down the words in his throat: 「Leave it, let me do it.」
In his book, Angel’s 『black history』 was simply too much, and with a foreboding of danger in his heart, whether or not inspiration was at work, prudence was the better course.
On the other side, seeing Daus’ wavering and retreating look, Angel outwardly showed no expression, but inwardly heaved a quiet sigh. Sure enough, trying to set up Daus was difficult at any time……
As Angel silently sighed with emotion, Kael suddenly spoke: 「I seem to have read a paper, in a symposium that held memory to be the essence of life, where, in defining memory, they counted emotions and feelings among it. By such a definition, if memory can be recorded, then the emotions wrapped up within it should also be counted within the scope of memory, right?」
「In that case, if the memories recorded in Elderstone are actually not pleasant, perhaps even all dominated by extreme emotions, then would the holder of Elderstone also be affected under such negative emotions?」
This question raised by Kael instantly drew everyone’s gaze.
If what Kael said was true, then the memories recorded by Elderstone were a big problem indeed!
Angel gave Kael a deep look, then nodded and said: 「Elderstone’s 『being alive』 characteristic incorporates that school’s theoretical doctrine, so you’re not wrong; it will indeed have a certain effect.」
Not only will it have an effect, but recording a large amount of memory in a short time will also throw your thinking into disorder; amidst the chaotic memories, you might even lose yourself, that is, a shaking of the ego-persona.
At that time, you may start to doubt your self.
That classic question, 「Who am I?」, will likewise become the ceaseless query overflowing from the chaotic memories.
This may sound a bit exaggerated, but in reality the situation might be even worse.
For example, Angel had read on a holographic tablet a kind of novel themed around transmigration; after transmigrating into someone else, there would often appear a plot of the original body’s and the transmigrator’s memories merging.
Such plot points in novels are always glossed over, taking the transmigrator’s viewpoint and encompassing all the memories.
But might there be another possibility: the transmigrator actually died during the transmigration process, the memories without a host-persona flowed to the other world and finally merged with the original body of that world. The original body remains the original body, with a fully autonomous persona; it is merely influenced by the transmigrator’s memories and mistakenly believes itself to be the transmigrator. In fact, his persona has not changed at all; he is only influenced by memory and has produced an illusion.
Though this is a conjecture, if the memories in Elderstone are too many and the emotions included too profound, it can indeed cause someone to develop confusion of the self.
It can be said that this is Elderstone’s greatest drawback: it will exert a certain influence upon all cognition, including values, worldview, and outlook on life.
Only, what Angel did not expect was that the first to discover Elderstone’s hidden danger would be Kael.
In fact, Kael’s thinking of this layer did not come out of nowhere. Before this, when everyone signed the True Word Book contract with the Sovereign of Wisdom, their true visages were revealed, and behind Kael’s true visage there abruptly appeared an abnormal human-shaped silhouette. Although everyone, including the Sovereign of Wisdom, said this was not a big problem, most likely some remnant souls unconsciously attached to Kael, it would have no effect.
But they were looking at the issue from the perspective of bystanders, thus more calm and objective. Kael, as the person involved, was actually not as calm as they imagined; regarding this strange human-shaped outline, he took it very much to heart.
Moreover, what Daus said earlier also had reason: Kael’s character and behavior were indeed a little strange, clearly an academic who loved research and ought, like Vai, to be a homebody; yet while loving research he was at the same time keen on exploring various ruins. The two hobbies ran in parallel, and their natures were poles apart.
In Daus’ view, this contrast was indeed a bit much; perhaps he was being influenced by the remnant soul of that figure behind him.
Kael had not felt much before, but after hearing Daus’ words and thinking carefully, he indeed had spent too much effort on exploring ruins. The cost paid and what he himself gained were completely out of proportion, yet he just wanted to explore ruins; and no matter what kind of ruin, as long as he heard of it, he felt itchy to go probe it out.
Including this time: upon learning that beneath the Garden Labyrinth there was a hidden 「ruin」 that had not been investigated by anyone, Kael was beside himself with excitement.
It was as if some magic were driving Kael to have to do this.
This was very abnormal.
Therefore, along the way Kael had in fact been pondering whether his character and his actions really had been influenced by the remnant soul’s memories.
With this as a premise, as soon as Kael heard of Elderstone’s effects, he immediately associated them with himself and, at the first moment, began to think about the links among the memories, emotions, and character that Elderstone recorded; hence his line of questioning.
And after Kael pointed out Elderstone’s hidden danger, Daus at the side let out a long sigh of relief in gratitude, fortunate, fortunate that he had not impulsively chosen to try…… if because of the memories in Elderstone even his own persona were altered, then he would truly have suffered a huge loss.
Thinking of this, Daus cast a look full of resentment at Angel. As expected, this fellow had no good intentions, a typical 「white on the outside, black within」, full of sly, bad to the bone little schemes!
Angel ignored Daus’ look and drew the topic back to the mask.
「You should still remember the Sovereign of Wisdom’s words, right? He said he would give us a surprise. If this were an Elderstone that had never been used, it would indeed count as a big surprise. But an Elderstone that has been used, even carved into a mask, does that count as a surprise?」 Angel shook his head and answered his own question: 「Personally, I don’t think so.」
「If this isn’t the surprise, then what is the so-called surprise?」
Angel’s question also sank everyone into thought.
Vai: 「For now we’ve only obtained this one mask; if there really is a surprise, perhaps we still need to look to the mask…… since my ancestor says Elderstone doesn’t count as a surprise, could it be that the memories inside are the surprise?」
This idea was not only in Vai’s mind; Angel had thought of it as well, but
「If the memories were a surprise, Daus wouldn’t have refused.」 Angel answered in all seriousness, not feeling at all that there was any problem with his words.
Everyone was taken aback for a moment and then quickly reacted: so Angel’s consecutive two 「suggestions」 that Daus wear the mask were using Daus’ inspiration as a tester…… thinking it over, it did make a certain sense; Daus’ refusal was most likely because he sensed danger. If even he felt danger, then those memories truly weren’t of much use.
Daus also realized it, but at this point his heart had already gone numb…… heh, oh man.
「If neither the memories nor the mask are the surprise, then why did they leave the mask behind?」 Vai asked in puzzlement.
Moreover, it even took three trials…… no, two trials, for them to obtain three broken masks. Wasn’t that just meant for them to piece it together?
Since they were to assemble the mask, it shows that this mask definitely has significance. Only, what exactly is that significance?
At present no one could answer this question; they could only sigh and let it pass.
「What I actually care more about is why that little girl in the rabbit outfit left directly earlier, clearly it was Angel’s turn, and she was even staring fixedly at Angel!」 Daus seemed very dissatisfied with this; even though the Black Count had warned him earlier, he again brought up old matters: 「Anyway, I just feel something here is a bit off.」
Daus tried to steer the topic onto Angel, only Angel did not mind at all, because he truly did not know the specifics.
Let alone Daus feeling puzzled, Angel himself wanted an answer.
「Thinking about this now is useless; since we’ve already obtained the mask, let’s treat it as the surprise. As for the specifics, when we meet the Sovereign of Wisdom, we should get clarity.」 As Angel spoke, he casually tossed the mask, preparing to throw it to Daus to hold.
Only Daus flickered aside, dodging the mask. At the same time his eyes showed suspicion, an expression of 「You’re trying to set me up again.」
This time Angel truly was not trying to set up Daus; he had purely noted that earlier Daus had proactively handed over the mask fragments for him to appraise, so returning the mask to him was proper. As for the two extra fragments, the Black Count did not care, and neither did Angel; giving them to Daus was no matter.
Only, Daus already seemed to have an overreaction; unwilling even to make a judgment, he directly resisted any move from Angel.
Angel shook his head and did not explain, but instead summoned a Magic Hand and had it hold the mask. After it was later determined how to allocate it, they would then hand it over.
After doing all this, Angel stretched lazily and said: 「We’ve stayed here for a long while; it’s time to get back on the road.」
Only this time, they had taken but a few steps when they stopped again.
Because in the space right before them there suddenly appeared an abnormal sensation of light.
This abnormal sensation of light was like the firelight warped somewhat by scorching when a blazing flame burns.
For an anomaly to appear out of thin air, there was certainly something wrong.
「Could it be that the relay trial from before still isn’t over?」 Daus muttered under his breath as he looked at that strange light: 「Don’t tell me it’s like the duel before, after the formal wizard’s trial is over, now it’s the apprentices’ turn? The Sovereign of Wisdom is too idle, isn’t he?」
The apprentices’ turn?! Hearing this, Kael and Vai looked at each other, weren’t the two of them just making up the numbers; did they really have to undergo a trial?
As their hearts grew extremely uneasy, that abnormal sensation of light underwent a new change.
The halo erupted, shooting out countless rays.
These rays did not tangle into a mess; rather, they interlaced with great regularity.
As large numbers of rays crisscrossed, before them there emerged prisms composed of light and shadow; countless prisms combined to form a prism-plane full of geometrical beauty.
At the instant the prism-plane appeared, everyone could vaguely see a line of pattern meandering across its surface.
It was as if an invisible painter were using this assemblage of prisms as a palette, sketching with ink.
As the pattern continuously extended, filled, and completed itself, in the end this line presented a human silhouette within the prism.
It was a silver-white long-haired girl dressed in heavy, splendid robes. Her hair was very, very long, not only past her waist, but with more than half draping down by her feet, the strands spread like a fountain of splashing quicksilver.
The girl’s face was pale and colorless, and her lips were chalky-pink to the point of almost losing all blood-hue; were it not for those long eyelashes and the faint light-and-shadow of her nose that manifested her three-dimensional features, it would even be possible to mistake her for a faceless person.
Yet even so, the silver-haired girl did not look like a real person; together with the prism’s regular geometric patterns, she instead resembled a fragile porcelain doll hidden behind a mirror.
This suddenly appearing girl left everyone both puzzled and wary.
The puzzle lay in whether she was linked to the previous three 「questioners」, and the wariness lay in that the girl had appeared…… inside the mirror-surface.
Ever since they learned the truth of the Demon God of Mirrors, they had maintained a high degree of vigilance toward every mirror-surface in the underground sewers. Even if this was a mirror of light in the air, it was no exception.
Under everyone’s gaze, the girl opened her eyes.
It is worth mentioning that her irises were a very rare heterochromia.
One side was an emerald-green eye, the other a clear-yellow eye.
With the heterochromia together with her dress and features, she all the more resembled a porcelain doll exquisitely carved from porcelain.
After the girl opened her eyes, she still remained within the prism and did not walk from the 「void」 into 「reality」; however, her voice did pass through the prism into everyone’s ears.
「My name is…… Laplace Gleipnir Luigi.」
Chapter 2772 Rabbit Girl <TOC> Chapter 2774 Time Bodies and Gift-Words
Thanks for the chapter