Chapter 303: Scars on the Tree
Under the cover of night, Eagle Point Village was unusually quiet.
Not to mention the sounds of fighting outside, even the chirping of insects and birds could not be heard.
But this is obviously unreasonable.
Aiwass had long realized the incongruity.
Because generally in rural areas like this, there should be a lot of insects, snakes, birds and animals.
Unlike Glass Island, where the Inspection Bureau frequently conducts sanitation inspections and various pest and rodent control companies hand out flyers on the streets, Eagle Point Village, nestled deep in the forest, is a village where even wild wolves wandering the streets in the middle of the night is quite common. It's not impossible to find a snake in your blanket when you wake up.
Not to mention all sorts of little bugs.
Even though insects are not active in winter... after being in Eagle Point Village for a few days, Aiwass didn't see any ladybugs, spiders, slugs or other insects.
Not only were there no wolves howling or cats meowing, but even the sound of birds flapping their wings could not be heard.
"Aren't there any hunters in your village?"
Aiwas asked Haina.
Haina hesitated for a moment: "Well... maybe yes, maybe not."
"This is the most outrageous response I've heard this month."
Sherlock complained, "It's either there or it isn't. How can there be 'maybe'?"
"We are in Muwan County."
Haina, strolling back and forth in the room, replied with her hands on her hips, "If you want meat, you have to find the herders. There's such a large area of sheep and cattle. Although the village occasionally has game, it might be bought from Bagpipe Town or exchanged with other villages."
Now she is not sure whether the fight outside is over, so Haina does not dare to go home.
But Haina had nothing to do, was full of energy and extremely excited... so she could only walk around the room, and from time to time she would run to tease the griffin that was about to fall asleep.
Liz had almost fallen asleep three times in the corner, but was woken up by Haena every time.
The key point is that after waking it up, Haina didn't do anything with it, but quickly patted its head and soothed it to sleep. Then she walked around the room a few times and couldn't help but go find the griffin to play.
There's nothing we can do about it.
After all, the three people other than her - Aiwass, Sherlock and Lily - are not easy to disturb.
Lily was introverted and quiet. Even when chatting with her, she would just smile faintly and listen silently. Only when Aiwass approached her would she show a little more reaction.
She wanted to play with Edwards, but now that he was a minister without any responsibility, he was too powerful for Haina - she was afraid of Edward as the Inspector General, and now Edwards was much more powerful than Edward.
Not to mention Sherlock.
He was reading a book over there... Haina leaned over to take a look and found that it was a book about astrology.
There were large amounts of letters, numbers and symbols in it, and Haina felt dizzy at the first sight of them.
Of course, if she was forced to recite it, she would probably be able to memorize the whole thing, but understanding it would be difficult.
To her relief, even the wise Sherlock found the book difficult to understand. Little Sherlock frowned in thought, looking like his younger brother working hard on his homework – a very cute sight.
But perhaps because Sherlock also had a headache watching it - Haina's rhythmic behavior of passing by him repeatedly made Sherlock angry and he put the book down with a thud, raised his head and cursed a few words.
He really hated Haina's restless behavior of circling around everyone and making noise in the middle of the night, and sharply commented that she was "an energetic donkey warming up for tomorrow's work."
So Haina didn't want to get close to Sherlock anymore.
It was stupid, she knew she was not as smart as Sherlock. But the donkey was not happy to hear it.
——She is at least a pretty girl who is popular in school, so being called a donkey is too much!
At least it has to be a cute animal like a horse or a dog!
"Come to think of it," Aiwas said thoughtfully, raising his hand to stop Haina from spinning around. "When you were little, you would run around with your friends, right?"
"Of course, otherwise there wouldn't be anything fun to do here." Haina nodded.
"Have you ever been near a forest?"
“We often play in the forest.”
Haena replied.
Hearing this, Sherlock suddenly frowned and looked up, then asked, "Are you playing in the forest?"
"...Yeah, what's wrong?"
Haina felt guilty and wondered if she had said something wrong.
"That's a huge problem."
Sherlock frowned like a little adult: "Your adults are just going to let you run around in the woods like this?"
"What's wrong?" Haina was a little puzzled. "It's not like we're going to the swamp. How dangerous is that? ... The swamp doesn't allow us to go. But just saying it's definitely useless, we still go every month, hahaha..."
Haina said things like "As long as you haven't been discovered, you haven't been there" and "No one has really gotten into trouble anyway", and she was eager to talk about her childhood adventure experiences.
But Sherlock interrupted her: "Aren't you adults worried about bad guys, wild animals, or poisonous insects in the woods?"
Hearing this, Haina was stunned.
She finally realized something: "Maybe...ah, didn't Aiwass say that our village is in a fairy barrier? That must be the reason, right?"
"Aren't they afraid that you'll be captured by goblins?"
Sherlock asked in return.
Hearing this, Haina finally fell silent.
She hissed softly and fell into confusion.
Yeah, why?
Aiwass vaguely guessed something.
He asked gently, "Senior, how much do you know about these forests?"
"Ah, Aiwass, please stop calling me senior. I've already graduated..."
Haina waved her hands awkwardly: "Just call me Haina."
Now, just hearing Aiwass's polite and intimate address, she felt like she was sweating profusely.
How could she have the face to have a young and powerful minister, the current patriarch of the founding family, a member of the Round Table Hall...or even the future Prince Regent of Avalon and the future Speaker of the Round Table Hall call her senior?
Haina was no longer the youthful, naive, and high-spirited woman she had been when she first joined the Supervisory Bureau. She had grown up a bit and understood more. Her interactions with Aiwass were less frequent... Their close relationship stemmed solely from Aiwass sharing with her the forbidden secret of the Silver Crown Dragon becoming a Pillar God.
From that moment on, they were accomplices. Because they shared a forbidden secret, both knew the other also held it, and both knew the other hadn't reported them immediately—they were thus tied to the same rope.
It was from then on that Haena was forced to join in many of Aiwass and Sherlock's plans. As a result, she knew more and more, and now she could no longer escape.
Now that she fully understood what the name Aiwass meant in Avalon, she wished she could go back in time and punch her foolish self twice.
Aiwass just smiled, easily seeing through what Haina was worried about: "It's okay, Senior Sister. From the first time I called you Senior Sister, you gave me a kind response... From then on, I can call you Senior Sister.
"I later called you by your name 'Haina' to show closeness. But now the situation is different. Calling you by your name has become a matter of business, while calling you senior has become a form of intimacy. So I will naturally choose the more intimate name."
"But……"
"Nothing much."
Aiwas tapped the table lightly with his fingertips, and the tapping sound gently interrupted Haina's words.
Although he no longer uses a wheelchair, the habits he developed back then still remain.
"You are the Grand Arbitrator's last disciple."
Aiwass said lightly: "At the age of twenty-two years and two months, he has already reached the fourth energy wall.
"Who can say...you won't be the next Grand Arbitrator?"
"Ah no no no no no, I can't no no no no."
Haina was so frightened that her face turned pale and she kept shaking her head and waving her hands.
She did not feel the vigorous fighting spirit inspired by her ambition, but only felt tremendous pressure.
Even though Haina didn't understand politics, she knew intuitively that the Grand Arbiter was a powerful figure protecting Avalon. Without him, Avalon would be immediately dragged into war.
So what does the next Grand Arbiter mean?
It means that I have to take on the important task of "protecting the country"!
In other words, if Avalon is dragged into war when the position of Grand Arbitrator is in his hands, it will be his responsibility!
——That’s all because my ability is not as good as my teacher’s!
Thinking further, if Avalon was destroyed because of this... wouldn't I be a sinner?
Haina felt her hands go numb at the thought that future history books would list her as the direct cause of Avalon's demise.
How could she possibly bear this level of responsibility...
Aiwass smiled and did not continue to pursue.
Instead, he returned to the previous topic: "Senior, did you carve a hole in a small tree on your way to school?"
"Ah, did you notice it?"
Haina was a little embarrassed. "Sure enough, its location is too prominent... Yes, when I was in middle school, I carved that little tree on the way to school. When I came back a few days ago, I found it was still in the same place. The location of the tree and the location of the scar are exactly the same as before. I was really touched. It's as if nothing has changed."
"...carved a knife?"
Sherlock suddenly realized something.
He raised his eyebrows, closed the book, put it down, and sat up straight.
"You're not using that tree to record your height, are you?"
“…No, no?”
Haina hesitated.
She has a terminal disease that makes her feel guilty when questioned by Sherlock.
"Is it accurate?"
Sherlock simply asked back.
“That’s pretty accurate.”
Haina was a little confused.
"Are you sure the mark is the same width as when you carved it?"
"It's the same. I remember it clearly. The depth is the same, just a layer of scar."
Haina replied confidently, "Not only are the carvings, but even the shape of the crown is exactly the same. That tree is very beautiful. I rarely see trees that look so much like trees... There seems to be something wrong with this statement, but just understand the meaning!"
Sherlock gasped, "No, you've never suspected there was something wrong here?"
Even Lily couldn't help herself.
She spoke softly, "Haina... a sapling is different from a fully grown tree, and so are trees and people. Scars on a person don't grow larger with age, but scars on a sapling will gradually widen. Though it's slow, the marks you left behind will inevitably change shape."
"It won't rise, but it will grow longer and thicker..."
"——No. I probably won't understand what you're saying."
Aiwass sighed. "When a person lives in a village where 'trees don't change' from birth to age thirteen or fourteen, how can she realize that trees do grow?"
"What are you talking about? Of course I know that trees grow..."
Haina said casually.
But she was suddenly stunned, covering her head and muttering in a low voice: "No, wait..."
The common sense in her mind kept changing - her hometown would not change and the trees would grow.
Two completely different common senses repeatedly rose and fell in her mind, making her feel for the first time how illusory the world was. Her pupils continuously emitted a faint yellow aura, which was then shattered by the clear blue.
Seeing Haina's intense reaction, Sherlock looked at Aiwass with some admiration but also some confusion: "When did you find out?"
"Just now."
Aiwass replied: "Because I know very well how close the explosion was to the woods and how powerful it was.
"But after the explosion, a deep crater was left on the ground. However, the trees were completely unharmed, with only a few branches falling off."
He looked at Haena, who was holding her head with her pupils trembling violently, and said softly, "So both of you actually didn't understand what I meant.
“I didn’t mean to tell Haena something as trivial as, ‘The tree will grow, so the marks you made will be distorted,’ or ‘The tree that was little back then shouldn’t look exactly the same now.
"——I wanted to ask, what did you use to carve the marks on the tree back then?"
The first chapter is nearly four thousand words long!
Wait for the cat to eat, there is still the second chapter meow~
(End of this chapter)
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