"I can."

Tachibana repeated in a whisper.

He looked at the bonfire in front of him with burning eyes, even if the voice was very small, not like he was talking to Yoshihara Mayo, but like he was talking to himself.

"I can ......"

She muttered.

It can be seen that Tachibana itself is also a little confused and shaken.

But at least at this time, she is not willing to go against her heart, and she is willing to wait for the man who may never see her again.

Yoshihara Mashi saw Tachibana's appearance, his heart softened, and he no longer mentioned topics related to feelings.

Aono was on the sidelines, witnessing the conversation and reaction of the two of Tachibana.

It's rare to feel a little sorry, for him, Tachibana Li is just a passerby in a long life, and the time spent with them is not even as good as that of the regular customer of the cowherd shop, Keiko Shiraishi.

But now it seems that Qingye is afraid that he has left too deep an impression on Lihuali, and it is very likely that he will choose to die alone because of this.

In this regard, Aono apologized for it, but also had a point or two of helplessness - no way, who made him such a sinful man?

"By the way, we're going to move out in a few days, right?"

Asa Yoshihara spoke again.

"yes......"

Tachibana nodded, feeling even lower.

She was actually more sober than anyone else, and she understood more clearly that it was almost unrealistic for Qingye to return to the Lost Land and come to this stone city again.

If they move away from this stone town like this, the probability of meeting again will undoubtedly drop from one percent to one in 10,000.

"But...... Had to move. ”

Tachibana's gaze looked at the blazing bonfire in front of her again.

She suddenly smiled: "I really don't know, is it a kind of luck or misfortune to get this bonfire." ”

"Of course, we are lucky, if it hadn't existed, maybe we would have died the last time we left the city, right?"

Yoshihara Asso also has a complicated look in his eyes.

This burning bonfire appeared here out of thin air a month ago.

There was no warning, no change, as if someone had gathered a lot of firewood here and lit it.

But the burning bonfire itself is a most incredible existence.

It's burning all the time.

There is no need to add fuel, no new firewood to it, and it never goes out.

This alone amazes the townspeople, who try to discover new qualities in various ways.

Among other things, the presence of a constant stream of light and heat is a very useful function.

It is of special significance to the source of the residents of Stone Town, which is scarce in resources.

Someone tried to remove the firewood from the campfire, but once it exceeded the range of the fire, the firewood in the hand would disappear into thin air, and when they came back, they found that it was still quietly in place.

Even though the vast majority of the people living in Stone Town are transcendental, such a scene is still beyond their imagination.

This is an existence that cannot be explained or understood by common sense.

People perceive this almost instantly.

Thanks to what they had seen and heard in the Lost Lands, they were surprised by the sudden appearance of the thing, but they reluctantly accepted it.

At first, people were worried that the bonfire would one day suddenly turn into some kind of man-eating monster, so they stayed away from it.

However, it soon became clear that the bonfire did not show the slightest danger except for the constant burning and heat dissipation, and that even the brave man who had taken the firewood before did not suddenly die.

Out of instinctive human curiosity, and the attempts of some daring transcendents, people have come to the conclusion that mysterious bonfires are harmless!

Oh no, it's not just harmless.

It provides light and heat to people, and gives them a sense of solace in the increasingly cold weather of the Lost Lands.

The transcendents were also surprised to find that they could come to the campfire and look at the flames for a while before going out of the city to explore and hunt.

When you go out of the city, there is a danger that usually jumps out of the shadows, like ...... Subconscious retreat?

It's like hating a certain smell of people.

This discovery can be said to be of great significance to the residents of Stone Town.

Know that in the Lost Lands, danger can come to you at any time.

Maybe it's just a shadow behind you, or maybe it's just a little protrusion on the ground, it can turn into something dangerous enough to kill people, and the slightest carelessness, or even just a few seconds of distraction, can kill you on the spot.

Every time you go out of the city to hunt, there are actually a small number of people who will never come back.

From this point of view, it can also explain why people in the Lost Land like to indulge, like to have banquets and indulge in drinking, which can be regarded as a way to relieve psychological stress.

Like mercenaries and outlaws, they don't actually know if they have the next chance to enjoy themselves, so they will naturally indulge themselves when they can.

- Don't look at Aono's easy journey in the Lost Land, it's because he is strong enough to almost crush all the way.

For any other transcendent, the Lost Lands is a region full of dangers.

Straight to the point.

The first person to discover this was none other than Tachibana herself.

As the spiritual pillar of the inhabitants of Stone Town, and the actual leader's mission, how could Tachibana Li ignore this sudden bonfire.

She studied and observed the bonfire for a long time, and when she went out of the city to hunt, she discovered that the monsters were evading.

Although there is not much evidence for this, Tachibana believes that the reason for this phenomenon has something to do with the strange marks drawn under the campfire.

To confirm this, Tachibana asked someone to copy and imprint similar patterns on fur, sand, and paper.

Something surprising happened, no matter how ingenious and extraordinary people were, they could not completely copy that seemingly simple line, and could only transcribe a roughly similar figure.

Saying that it is "roughly similar" is actually exalting their craftsmanship.

The copied pattern is either a few more lines or a few less, and the overall shape will unconsciously deflect to another form.

At first, Tachibana Li thought it was a problem with their painting skills, but after changing several people who were known for their "ingenuity" in Stone Town, they all had this symptom to a greater or lesser extent.

So Tachibana realized that it was not their problem, but the problem of the sigil itself.

It's like when facing some monsters that are difficult to shape, you can clearly see their appearance when you see them, and remember them in your heart, but when you look back and think about it carefully, their appearance begins to blur, and it seems that in the storage and recall of memory, a fatal error has been made, and a line of "Error warning!" appeared. ”

To put it simply, the imprint itself is probably a thing that ordinary people cannot understand.

It is also known as the "unspeakable." ”

But surprisingly, even the chaotic graphics can also have the effect of making the weird evade.

It's just that the effect is much weaker than that of the people who have been illuminated by the firelight, and it is even more useless in the face of stronger enemies.

Regardless of the rationale behind this, in order to reduce the casualties of her companions, Tachibana simply brought them to the campfire to warm her hands before each hunt.

They were also asked to carry the "Badge Mark" with them and draw them around Stone Town to prevent terrifying monsters from breaking into Stone Town like the Lost Mists last time.

This approach has been very effective, and there has been no negative impact for the time being.

So much so that later, their routine banquets were held around this bonfire.

Seem...... Everything is going in a good direction.

But.

All the gifts of fate have already marked the price code behind them.

One day, Tachibana and a few more acutely inspired transcendents were talking around the campfire when they suddenly saw some fragmentary images in the firelight.

If one or two of them had seen it, it might have been a hallucination.

But the problem is that everyone present has seen those pictures.

The picture shows one of them being killed by a serpentine creature that emerged from the dirt while hunting outside the city.

People were surprised, but most people didn't pay much attention to it.

On the contrary, Tachibana Rei took matters into her own hands, and repeatedly instructed her partner who died in the picture to be careful.

Three days later, the accident happened!

The man did encounter the dangerous snake, but instead of being killed by it, he narrowly escaped and survived.

The transcendents are beginning to understand that the images they see are likely to be not mere images, but another form of foresight of the future!

As a result, Tachibana Li's time by the campfire became longer and longer.

Three or four more successful prophecies followed, with Tachibana successfully preventing some of the accidents from happening, and a few times failing to prevent them.

Tachibana quickly learns that the best way to avoid those future events is not to show up where the unexpected will happen.

This was soon confirmed again.

It was three days ago that Tachibana Rei saw that their entire hunting party of transcendents had been blown into a pulp by a group of bombs that fell from the sky.

Tachibana simply canceled the hunt, even though the food reserves in Stone Town were a little scarce, which would cause people to be subconsciously uneasy.

But it turned out that Tachibana's decision was the right one.

On the third day, the entire inhabitants of Stone Town could see the dense cluster of jellyfish floating in the sky—not jellyfish living in the water, but dangerous creatures floating in the air that could explode at any time.

People had never seen such creatures before, but that didn't stop them from understanding their lethality - new mutant creatures could appear in the Lost Lands every moment, and even though the variety of new monsters increased dramatically during this time, people could still understand them.

The power of the occasional falling explosion also made them slightly staggered.

If they had really acted according to the original plan, they would have all been killed.

This is the dialogue between Yoshihara Asa and Tachibana Li.

Without its warning, they would have died a few days ago.

And the reason why Tachibana Li now says "I don't know if it's lucky or unlucky" is also because of the picture she saw yesterday.

This time, the venue on the screen is not somewhere outside the city, but right here!

Inside this stone town!

"The Lost Mist, the Lost Mist Again!"

Tachibana Li gritted her teeth and said very unwillingly.

"Why, it's coming again, coming here again?"

At that time, it was obviously impossible for Tachibana Li to know if the Lost Fog had changed, and in the picture she saw, she could only see the black fog in the sky, overwhelmingly attacking.

There are all kinds of unnamed horrors hidden in it.

It's even more dangerous than the last time.

Because this time, the reliable figure is not by her side.

During this period of time, the development of Stone Town can be called "thriving".

Although the last Lost Mist caused them to lose a lot of combat power, on the other hand, it also swept away the existence of the betrayers among them, which was equivalent to removing impurities.

Coupled with the fact that they had experienced such a dangerous event together, the whole town was more united, as if it had been twisted into a rope.

There is also a magical bonfire that seems to be a gift from God, and the life of the transcendents is not to say "living and working in peace and contentment", but also to reluctantly enter the "well-off life", which is several times better than the previous dangerous situation.

But the prophecy in the bonfire was undoubtedly slashed at the waist of Stone Town.

This trend was forcibly curbed, and they were forced to leave their homeland and leave Stone Town.

Tachibana explained this to the residents last night.

Everyone who heard the news was stunned and showed strong disbelief.

But the words that came out of Tachibana's lips no one could doubt them.

The word "uprooted" could not be more appropriate here.

For these transcendents, Stone Town is undoubtedly a second home.

They had been living here for years, building the town with their own hands, and now they were forced to leave because of the images they had seen in the prophecy...... It can well be imagined.

This is true for other residents, and even more so for Tachibana.

Don't forget, she's a child born in the Lost Lands.

Her hometown is not somewhere in the watch world, but in the Lost Lands, in this town.

But none of this is so important compared to life.

"I'm not a kid anymore."

Tachibana Li said firmly, facing the bonfire.

"I'm going to ...... for me Responsible for everyone. ”

"Even if you never see Aono-kun again, there's no way around it."

Speaking of which, Tachibana's voice was still uncontrollably low.

In the final analysis, no matter how strong she is, she is just a girl under the age of twenty.

Yoshihara Asa also sighed slightly in his heart.

He hugged Tachibana in his arms.

"I really want to...... Goodbye Aono-kun ......"

Tachibana muttered softly, making such a wish, and she looked ahead, but all she could see was the dark night.

But in the next moment, her eyes widened.

Because...... The living green field appeared in front of her eyes like this.

Aono was indeed standing in front of her.