Chapter 120: The Wanderer

"certainly."

Oropus replied softly, "I'm fine."

I just felt a little regretful for some reason, as if I saw a feather being blown up and then falling.

This misty and phantom-like form made Oropus lose his eyes and vision. He could only vaguely sense the round head of the curious one and a hint of purple.

In his fragmented memories of the long time he lay on Bayun Island, only the "singing grass" on the ground swaying gently in the wind, its stems and leaves covered with velvety thorns, resembled this feeling...

Oropus wondered whether his regret was that he couldn't see the child's appearance with his own eyes, or that he couldn't have a normal acquaintance with him.

If he used elemental vision, he would be able to sense the child's outline;

But this was seen with the heart. In Oropus's perception, the demon's lack of language ability could only compare the child to a young singing grass - even on a windless day, it would vibrate with the thunder and grow leaves that looked like flowers to protect the real, fragile flowers.

As it grows, the fine, soft-thorn-like hairs on the stems, leaves, and calyx of the singing grass will gradually become hard. In the memories of the land here that Oropus sensed, there were humans picking singing grass and wrapping it around their bodies to make tattoos.

At first, Oropus only regarded him as a temporary companion.

...And now when he looked at the strange one, what was reflected in his eyes was the singing grass that had grown along the edges of his wounds and bones over the past thousand years. They trembled without wind, as if he still had a heartbeat.

Although it did not heal or seal the cracks in the corpse, Oropas felt a little comforted.

Intellectual dissipation and condensation into stone is a process in which one feels that one's thoughts are gradually becoming rigid, numb and vague;

Extracting it from it is like using a needle to pierce the hair follicles one by one on a scalp with alopecia areata...

To the demon, this was no different from the wear and tear caused by time, not to mention that he had already died.

So he said:

"I can sense that you are not human."

"However, you still have a soft and sympathetic heart, just like a human being, the curious one."

The curious man was stunned and involuntarily pressed his hand on the empty heart inside. There was a hard object inside the clothes - it was the movement given to him by A Chong. Since then, he pretended that it was his own heart.

"If it were a thousand years ago, you would have been one of those little people I would have worried about and been willing to die for."

The [Crystallized Bone Marrow] pendant emitted a faint and lustrous glow and gradually floated up. The black gas rose towards the heart of the furnace like a floating silk thread and soon merged into it.

"My beloved demon god..." Oropus sighed, and then he thought of Impas again. "In the last moments, I am willing to love you."

He couldn't explain the feeling; perhaps the Demon God wasn't good at dealing with his own emotions. Oropus remembered how he had given his love to many people, and when his intellect was extinguished once again, it was shared among the descendants of the God of Thunder.

But at this moment, Oropus felt very calm and content, as if it was because there had been a human being who was willing to love him... He had already received love, protection and care, and knew what it felt like to be loved.

So, that was all it took for him to feel satisfied.

"Wait! Orobas you——"

The curious person subconsciously reached out to grab it, his eyes wide open, staring at the pendant in front of him, with a strong force, trying to pull it together and not letting go, even the sound of the bell at the end of the veil was disturbed and became rapid and high-pitched.

"Don't you want to say goodbye to him properly?"

"But this is not separation, child." Oropas' voice was gentle and steady. "We are just waiting for the next reunion."

"...I, I don't believe it." The curious one frowned and shook his head, his voice light but firm, "You're lying to me."

"But this is what Impas said to me." Oropas was distressed for a moment. After all, he said it with his own mouth, that he should love the child during the last period of time, even though it was very likely that it would not be of much use to the child.

“…”

"Then, I actually saw him again."

When Oropus saw the expression of the enchanter when he heard that he was willing to love him, he would remember himself facing Impas - he always thought of that memory that did not exist in reality.

If you always love others, it will be difficult to learn how to be loved.

Even though Oropus claimed to be a normal demon, compared to the strong sense of unworthiness of other demons in that memory, he still had many complex emotions such as surprise, discomfort, awkwardness, and tension.

The curious person moved his lips but said nothing.

But Oropus looked at the strange man in front of him who quickly returned to normal, and felt a little happy that he had met many humans who were willing to love him early, not just Impas.

——Of course, Impas is undoubtedly the most emotionally revealing human among them. He often has this ability to make others feel close, cared for, and trusted.

In this regard, Impas is indeed a very good teacher.

Even though they had never formally interacted in real life, Oropus had learned a lot from him, at least including how to actively express love.

"I've heard the ballad he sang to you. Do you want to hear mine?"

Upon hearing this, the curious person thought a lot at that moment.

Ever since he set out on his long journey, he has been waiting and learning, learning to grow up, learn to take responsibility, learn to love, so that he will no longer be the clingy shadow that follows A Chong.

It is not a burden to anyone, it will not be a hindrance, and it will not be abandoned again.

When Chong finishes his trip with Inazuma and starts a new one, he also wants to go. He can wave to him calmly and watch his back go away...

Originally... being able to solve this incident alone, which even Niwa found difficult, was the final exam that the Stranger prepared for himself.

—But he said he loved me...

—But he said he wanted to love me as a human being...

——Like a human being...

He learned how to love, but he really didn't seem to know how to be loved.

"I... I want to listen." The curious person's eyes, as purple as distant mountains, were filled with tears.

——Niwa, is this what growth is?

——Why... am I a little sad?

A blazing fire ignited in the heart of the Imperial Shadow Furnace, and the deep black smoke it produced roared and rolled together.

Oropus did not respond. In the windless movement, he seemed to blend in. Then the curious person vaguely saw the shadow of a giant snake.

He was standing on the back of the giant snake, together with a young man whose face could not be seen.

That seems to be...A Chong...?

The curious man suddenly felt much more at ease and touched his heart.

"In that case, how about I make you the first General of the Great Snake under the throne of Impas, the Demon God of Music?"

He heard the familiar voice announce in high spirits.

So that's how the dream I couldn't remember even after waking up started, the curious thought.

…

Oropas's intellect was awakened when Ming Chong passed by the corpses on Bayun Island. At that time, he heard inspiring and cohesive calls, and thought that it was not the human being in his countless dreams, the one he loved most, but a grave.

In front of the grave stands a blank stone tablet, waiting for anyone to comment on it.

Then, he passed by the grave calmly, just as he had been in his dreams countless times with his heart agitated.

Only when he returned to reality did he realize that he himself was the grave.

Impas frequently looked back at the hill called "Head of the Serpent God" and then headed towards his unknown journey.

In fact, Oropus was sulking. Because Pas was afraid of trouble and deliberately didn't come to see him, he didn't take the initiative to speak.

Thinking about it carefully, it was indeed a beautiful dream. After waking up, he should not ask Impas to have the same relationship with him as in the dream.

Just as Impas once braved the wind and waves on the sea on a broken raft, Oropas was willing to stay quiet and wait for him to finish his journey and come home to visit him.

But before that, Oropus will not stand in his way.

His past resentment was forged into a powerful force, so Oropus used that song to tell a story of being loved.

…

"Good night, Oropus."

The curious one reached out to hold the pendant that had once carried Orobas, but the [Crystallized Bone Marrow] that fell on his palm gradually weathered into sand and flowed away through his fingers.

"..." The curious one pursed his lips, clutching the remaining knots and ornaments in his hands in disappointment. He lowered his head and muttered to himself after a long while, "This is fine..."

"From now on, you will not hate anymore."

Oropus's hatred for the demon god will not be exploited by anyone.

The Eightfold God Child, who was blocking the door of the forge of a poor craftsman who was staying there, shook his head with pity and was about to turn his back to let the curious person grieve alone for a while, but he heard a small inhalation.

Um?

Is there a twist?

Yae Shinko immediately turned around to look back, but unfortunately, she had missed the most exciting part.

——

The curious person stared in amazement as the remaining part of the pendant disappeared in a stream of light and condensed into a photo with a faint sense of power. In the photo, he was standing on the back of a silver snake, looking at Ah Chong with his hands on his hips and a proud face.

Turn it over, and there are two lines of words on the back:

[Light Cone: Bedtime Story]

[To Oropus: (Write down what you want to say, and you will get a reply from the other party...)]

…

…

"Is the painting finished? Is it finished?" Ming Chong grinned as he watched the curious person fall into a long silence, and patted the shoulder of the fragile and poor painter Awang, who was standing beside him with his mouth open and also stunned.

Awang's small body was swaying, and his thoughts were like a small boat drifting in a storm.

——Why did Lord A Chong snap his fingers just now?

——Why did the situation on the side of the strange person change so drastically when Lord A Chong snapped his fingers?

——Hmm? Why?

--what happened?

——What are you looking at now?

"Alright, alright!" The frail painter Awang managed to hold back his harsh touch, his eyes gleaming frighteningly. "Master A Chong, please take a look."

I don't know what happened, but...Aaaaaaa! I want to draw, I want to draw, I want to draw!!!

At this moment, Ming Chong, who was in a state of strange excitement, walked up to the painting and saw the same scene as the "Chosen One".

yimanli.jpg

Yaejinko pinched his chin and stared in the direction of Awang, lost in thought...