Volume 13 - CH 9

Chapter 9: After the Vacation

Location: Taiwan Time: 10:46 AM

“Aiya, what’s the point of exposing my identity so quickly?”

The air in the room suddenly snapped like a strained balloon. Not refuting it, Ashis wore a smile as he briskly spoke.

I took a step back, abruptly remembered that Senior’s condition wasn’t well, and rushed back to the bed, raising my gun at that Ghost, who had been disguised for a long time.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already said many times that I only came to vacation, and won’t make a move against you for the time being, so you can put away your little toy.” Stretching his hand out, he separated the mouth of my gun from him, then looked toward Senior: “How about it? Will you accept the treatment?”

“I don’t need you interfering.” Indifferently refusing, Senior looked at him: “Get out of our sights.”

Ashis…Or should I say Andellar, his appearance started to slowly change, before turning into that real face that I still remember even during nightmares.

I’m still very afraid of him.

“But I occasionally do rather want to interfere.”

Just when I noticed that something was wrong, my whole hand suddenly turned numb, and Minas fell on the ground. I saw a silver needle just being removed from my hand.

Senior moved almost at the same time, however, maybe because of the imbalance, his movements were a step slower than Andellar’s. Before he could make the move to attack, a silver needle pierced straight into the back of his hand.

“It’s best if you don’t fire at random, or else it would be bad if I accidentally break his hand.” Before I was going to fire at the back of his head, Andellar spoke first, so I instantly didn’t dare to be rash.

“Just what are you up to.” Looking at the needle in his hand, Senior didn’t have any expression of fear, and still had that kind of attitude like he was going to immediately attack.

Who knows whether or not Andellar’s needle really was that effective, the totem marks on Senior actually began to slowly recede.

Does he really want to help?

“Like I said, I occasionally want to interfere a bit. It’s rare for me to not want to make a move or whatnot on you guys during vacation.” Continuing to put a needle on Senior’s neck as well, Andellar spoke with a smile that looked very strange: “Aih, have you suddenly discovered that it turns out I can still be a good guy?”

“I hope your so-called ‘good guy’ isn’t your ancient memories at work.” Senior suddenly said something that baffled me, and Andellar’s hand seemed to pause for a moment.

What is “ancient memories” referring to?

No one gave me an answer, just like the many times they were unwilling to speak.

“If it were my ancient memories at work, right now both of you would already be in Bishen’s residence as guests.” After the silence stretched on for a while, Andellar pulled the needle back out, and at the same time, the marks on Senior all disappeared too: “How is it? More effective than your medical team’s, huh.”

Immediately pulling his hand back, Senior stood up, coldly snorting as he looked at him: “Traitor of the medical team.”

Not saying anything, Andellar shrugged, letting the needle vanish on his hand, before glancing at me. I immediately leaned toward Senior: “Looks like your alertness is quite strong. I couldn’t invite you over even after changing faces, how disappointing.”

To be honest, it’s not that I’m alert…It’s simply my subconscious!

“If you’re done playing games, just leave our place.” Senior frowned, as if he was a little hesitant: “Don’t raise a hand against the people on this ship. If you can do that, I’ll pretend I didn’t see you.”

I froze for a moment, looking at Senior.

I shouldn’t have misheard, right..I actually heard that Senior was going to pretend he didn’t see him!

Senior didn’t respond to me, and didn’t even look at me, as if he hadn’t been eavesdropping on my thoughts just now.

Andellar folded his arms, revealing a slightly interested smile: “Such a moving suggestion. However, these past few days you’ve also been pretending you didn’t see me. Then alright, everyone will each take a step back. I honestly only came for a simple vacation, so I wouldn’t raise a hand against anything on this ship, except for the food served in the restaurants; that should be enough, right?”

Hearing his words, I suddenly understood it. Senior knew from the start that he was Andellar, which was why he strongly forbid me from going near him. Then directly telling me was to…I think “not directly” telling me was the right thing to do, otherwise I would’ve been scared from the beginning.

“If you can keep your promise.” Senior told him.

“Of course.” Glancing at me, Andellar started moving toward the door, only speaking to me at the end: “I suppose my invitation for drinks is still in effect. If you change your mind, you’re welcome to come find me.”

I think I won’t be changing my mind for my whole life.

Then, Andellar left.

A large commotion arose onboard.

This is normal. If there’s no commotion, then it’d be strange.

Then the personnel from the Guild used a rapid miraculous power to fix that huge broken hole at sea, and not long after fixing it, all the ice sealing the hole receded.

It took less than half a day altogether.

The ship immediately went back on course at a fast speed.

“Yang Yang!” After I walked out of the room to let Senior rest and closed the door, something suddenly rushed over from the side, almost sending me flying. Looking closely, it turned out to be my mom: “You scared me half to death. Are you guys alright? I heard that the ship seems to have crashed into rocks or something and is now undergoing repair.”

I saw my dad and Ming Yue behind my mom, and in the very back was the five-colored rooster head.

“Are you guys okay?” Dad came over and looked me up and down: “Where’s your senior?”

“Uh, he’s sleeping. It swayed a lot just now, huh…” Haha-ingly brushing past it, I saw that my family members were all fine as well and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

“If he doesn’t feel well, does he want to go to the sickbay below and have the ship doctor take a look? It’s better to not put on a front.” Mom seems like she kind of wants to go into the room.

Right now Senior is silver-haired and not black-haired; you guys will get frightened.

I immediately stood in front of the door: “It’s probably only seasickness. He’ll be okay after sleeping. Let’s not disturb him.”

“Alright, we’re currently prohibited from going on deck. Yang Yang, you two can’t run around.” Mom gave up on opening the door and instructed the five-colored rooster head and I.

“I know.” Of course, the deck would prohibit…the kind of remnants like a war had occurred.

“Your dad and I are going to ask the staff onboard about the situation. You guys are to stay in the room for the time being and not fool around everywhere.” After confirming that we were all safe and sound, Mom told us like this.

“We got it, hurry and go.” My sister quickly replied, then pushed them away.

The number of people in the corridor began increasing, and most of them were quite flustered. It could be that, after waking up, they immediately heard that the ship crashed into rocks and got scared, with many rushing to find a staff member to clarify the situation.

“I’m going back to my room. Don’t do any more weird things, you two.” After sending them off, my sister didn’t intend on staying to chat, leaving on her own after saying this.

I wouldn’t do weird things! That’s the five-colored roster head!

“So rude, this uncle has never done any weird things.” Someone who often does weird things protested that he didn’t do weird things to my sister’s back.

All the weird things have been done by you!

Taking advantage of the crowd growing smaller, when I was about to go down to see Yuli and their situation, beside me, the five-colored rooster head suddenly opened the door.

“Senior is still resting—” Too late to stop him, the door was already opened.

And so, I saw that there was an extra person inside.

“Hey, you two kiddos.” The assistant, who had bounced out of who-knows-where, waved at us quite cheerfully: “Happy holidays.”

Senior was sitting on the bed nearby, his complexion not too good as he glared at that extra person.

“Why are you here?” The five-colored rooster directly asked the question in my heart.

“I came over with the other people from the Guild, of course. Even the sea people disturbance and the Ghost Tribe appeared; of course my medical personnel had to come as well, to see if there were any injured people.” He glanced at Senior meaningfully, smiling very happily.

“So annoying.” Probably having just fallen asleep when he was woken up, Senior seemed like he wanted to throw him right out of the balcony.

Speaking of the assistant, I think I remembered something strange.

“That’s right, how was the barbecue gathering for you guys?” Standing by the bed and helping to examine Senior, the assistant threw out such a gossipy subject: “I heard that it really became noisy later.”

That’s right! I finally remembered it!

On that day of the barbecue gathering I remember seeing the assistant, but he later disappeared just when we started stacking the charcoal. I kept thinking that it was my misconception and that I saw the wrong person.

“Where did you run off to that day?” The five-colored rooster head opened the fridge and pulled out a box of snacks, sitting nearby to replenish his energy.

“You guys didn’t notice? I later went to tend to Yido to let him come over, and just when I wanted to continue on back to barbecue, I was called away by the medical team as soon as the call connected…No one actually left me my share of it and they were all obliterated without a trace, so cruel.” Suddenly grabbing the hand that he was treating, the assistant revealed a you-guys-are-all-scoundrels expression.

The owner of that hand immediately pulled back and even punched him.

So that’s how it is. No wonder I kept thinking that I saw him and thought it was my misconception.

“It was all fate.” The five-colored rooster head sent him a conclusion.

The assistant humphed a few times, but didn’t continue to chitchat with the five-colored rooster head, checking Senior over slightly before standing: “Did you control the imbalance yourself?”

Senior shook his head.

It was Andellar…

“That’s strange, the one who helped you control it has to be pretty strong, directly releasing the excess ice. But I suggest you don’t do it like this often, because the body recovers a little slower…However, his skills really are good; they’re top-notch. Is he also from the medical team?” The assistant was amazed for a moment and curiously asked.

“No, he was just passing by.” Casually replying, Senior’s attitude made it clear that he didn’t want to answer.

“Aih, if he wants to join the medical team, please remember to let me know.”

I think you definitely wouldn’t welcome that person to join; you’d probably perform the highest level of annihilation.

The five-colored rooster head didn’t speak, and most likely thought that we weren’t doing anything. But I think it’s more like he didn’t want to speak, because the feeling Ashis gave him was too strange, so he didn’t say it.

“I still have to go down to greet the ship doctor. It seems like quite a lot of people fell and got hurt during the commotion just now, and will be staying here till tomorrow morning. If you have any problems, you can come find me again.” After the assistant briefly spoke about his whereabouts, he made sure that Senior was fine before leaving.

The room returned to silence again, leaving only the sound of the five-colored rooster head still chewing food.

With a crash, Senior straightforwardly fell back onto the bed, sweeping away the thin blanket beside him at the same time and continuing to sleep.

The surroundings were very quiet. I backed away and opened the bathroom. The ballfish inside was still there, and its small eyes were thin, with the feeling of being asleep.

Grabbing that ballfish, I threw it into the sea outside.

This time it probably won’t run back again, right.

Senior and the five-colored rooster head seem to have no intention of going out for now.

“I’m going to look for Yuli and Yǔ lǐ.”

For some reason, I keep feeling uneasy.

Although Yuli and Yǔ lǐ weren’t exactly fond of casually dealing with other people from the start, their retreat before was a bit too fast, so fast that it was like they were in a hurry.

The amount of people outside were decreasing slightly, but after going down the stairs, I saw some staff members being surrounded…the staff is so hardworking.

Swiftly going down, I occasionally encountered a few maintenance personnel below who should be from the Guild. There were probably still a few who stayed to look into the situation after fixing it.

I didn’t really dare to disturb them, gliding straight down to the lower floor.

The bottom was quiet. I walked up to that pair of doors, and this time the door was slightly ajar and didn’t have that damn lock, making me feel even more strange.

“Yǔ lǐ?”

Lightly pushing the door open, the room was a bit dark and gloomy like before. However, I could see Yuli lying on the bed as usual right away. Standing beside him, Yǔ lǐ saw me and first made a “quiet” gesture at me, before walking out of the room.

“Why did you run back here again?” Closing the door, he directly asked gruffly.

“I came to see if you guys got hurt…” Yǔ lǐ looks like he was completely fine, but Yuli’s condition isn’t too clear: “The Guild had someone from the medical team come over. If necessary, I can help you guys find him.”

Yǔ lǐ shook his head and sighed: “You honestly can’t figure out the situation. We’re still considered enemies. If there’s nothing wrong, you should run over here less often. If the staff members on the ship saw, it wouldn’t be good for you guys either. They would think that you’re secretly working together with us.”

“They’ll probably think that we’re going to finish you off later.” Kind of like that. After all, the Guild’s reputation is still considered quite exceptional…Wait, why are my thoughts heading over there, “It’s not that, Yuli’s condition…”

I didn’t continue speaking, because Yǔ lǐ‘s expression changed. He probably knew what I was going to say next: “It’s the same as what you know. I said that your people must have long since figured it out.”

“Since this is the case, you should let Yuli quickly go to the place of rest…”

“This is Yuli’s decision.” Cutting off the words I was just about to say, Yǔ lǐ looked at me: “You’re not a bad person. Those people from the Guild aren’t bad people either. I can very bluntly tell you, the reason Yuli is staying here isn’t entirely because of our residence. Although everyone thinks this is the case, only Yuli and I know.”

Looking at Yǔ lǐ, I very much wanted to know their reason, and I think he might say it.

I really want to know.

And I suddenly thought of something. At the very beginning, they once said that their residence was stolen and sold, which means that the source of this ship’s building materials itself is very dubious? It wasn’t bought from the same workmanship?

Yǔ lǐ once said to Yuli while fighting: “it didn’t break”, this sentence. At first I thought that might be along the lines of their former residence, but thinking about it now, their residence should have already been melted down into who-knows-where.

Then that means…

I raised my head to look at Yǔ lǐ. He had his arms folded with raised eyebrows, as if he was also waiting for me to finish thinking: “This ship is made from faulty materials?” For some reason, I suddenly thought of this conclusion.

“This ship’s hull, because during the construction at the very beginning, the contractor had connections with certain places, so a large amount of it was acquired from materials of unknown origin and so forth, among them our residence. Different materials contain different substances, so the resulting ship isn’t as stable as you think.” Yǔ lǐ paused and continued to tell me: “You think the ship would actually get such a big hole just by being hit by a shark? You’ve seen that leader of the sea people too. His head isn’t a steel hammer.”

That’s true.

Wait a minute, then that means the ship we went on is actually an easily broken ship!

Just who was it that picked the cruise ship!?

I think it was my sister…Forget it, I don’t dare to do anything to Ming Yue.

“Only Yuli and I know about this matter, but I guess after seeing the sea people disturbance this time, your senior has probably guessed it too. He seems to be a lot smarter than you.”

I’m so sorry I’m not that smart in the first place. Since I know it, Senior must know about it as well, is that it!?

Then how will Senior handle this matter?

The words that Chifuyu told me over the phone that day abruptly echoed in my ears.

Village guardians wouldn’t harm humans.

So, they’re still protecting people. Even in this place, it’s still the same.

Yǔ lǐ looked at me and I looked at him. We suddenly didn’t know what to say.

Then, he opened his mouth first: “After Yuli leaves, I will stay here.”

“Nn!” I nodded. In fact, I more or less guessed it already, because Yǔ lǐspecifically stayed behind, so it was easy to guess.

“You don’t need to come here anymore. We’ll be sealing our room. This bottom room on the lower level of the ship is particularly prone to damage. Your senior should advise the ship owner to change or strengthen the bottom rooms, and I’ll be here until my eyes close.” He paused and sighed: “Sometimes, the nature of the village guardians really is damning enough to make one hate it.”

Looking at Yǔ lǐ, I suddenly understood this sentence very well now.

“Then, then I wish you guys peace.” I know, once I leave now, I really won’t see them again.

From inexplicably meeting them at the very beginning to the inexplicable departure at the end. I suddenly thought, if I could have more power like Senior and the others, maybe we could’ve still become better friends…

“You’re going to leave this ship soon anyway. I’ll tell you a story one last time.” Yǔ lǐ looked at the corridor below that still had some fragments. It was the traces of the fight just now, but they were already patched up slightly by the maintenance team. He glanced at me and walked out of the room into the corridor. I followed after him, then we came to the nearby leisure area.

Yǔ lǐ directly sat down on the ground, and I sat down too.

“Have you ever heard of an ancient rumor, a story about the Dark Cult?”

“Eh?”

I think, my heart seems to have skipped a beat.

That word, I first heard it near my home.

At that time, there was a Ghost who chased me through many streets.

[T/N: from V1C7]

And so, he said to me: [Found you, descendent of the Dark Cult…]

I’ve tried asking other people many times, but no one gave me an answer. I thought of going to the library to search, but my heart always told me that the library was very dangerous and not to go.

The library’s mechanisms made me afraid, but everyone’s evasive attitude further made me feel that something was amiss.

So I told myself, the library is too scary; knowing those things isn’t that big of a deal anyway. Thus, I stayed like this until now.

As if he didn’t see me spacing out, Yǔ lǐ was in a world of his own as he spoke on: “In ancient times, there used to be such a legend. God gave birth to the world, the world gave birth to life, and life formed the races. God’s seeds germinated in the world, and shadows stained the evil buds black, letting his messenger scatter them around the world. Later on, the messenger incited the greatest war, causing the world to split into two. We called the two worlds ‘the original world,’ and ‘the sealed world.’ ”

I watched Yǔ lǐ, and didn’t interrupt, letting him continue on.

I know, in his words are some of my keys, the keys to those strange codes.

“Humans and a small number of races lived in the original world, and the majority of races and a few humans lived in the sealed world. After that, a long time passed again. The messenger’s race was passed down and the people of the sea world called him: [The Dark Cult].”

“The Dark Cult?” Hearing his story, I suddenly felt a little afraid, because before, everyone all said that wasn’t anything good, and now Yǔ lǐ confirms this even more.

“Nn, the Dark Cult. They are messengers of the shadows, with strong powers, bringing disaster everywhere they go. The races spent a long time hunting the Dark Cult, until the Dark Cult as a clan was nearly extinct, until everyone was able to feel at ease.” Narrating it as if he had personally seen it, Yǔ lǐ paused and continued: “After that, the largest Elven war broke out. Evil Ghost King Yelu crossed over from the Prison World and violated the restrictions, establishing a palace in the sealed world. He wiped out nearby different races and finally caused the largest Elven war.”

“Leading the war at the time was the prince of the Icy Fang Clan, who united different Elven aristocrats, Fairies, the Beastmaster Clan and so forth. It took long, long years to finally exterminate Ghost King Yelu, and during the war, they also discovered that among the faction of the Ghost King was a member of the Dark Cult, which should have long since died out. After the war, the Dark Cult member disappeared, and everyone spread the news that he died. After that, the Dark Cult Clan was truly gone. The two worlds never saw the Dark Cult ever again.”

Yǔ lǐ‘s story seems to have come to an end.

Although he said it was a story, I think it was more like he was stating a truth, a truth that had once occurred.

For some reason, that truth is starting to make me afraid.

I suddenly didn’t want to know what the Dark Cult is.

After it was silent for a long time, Yǔ lǐ turned his head, staring at me with his green eyes. That pair of eyes were so clear that they made me feel as if I could see my own reflection in them.

“Has anyone ever told you that you have the smell of the Dark Cult on you?”