Leaving the basement where he had sheltered himself for the night, Annan continued towards the second wall.

There are strange patterns to follow, and they only haunt at night, in places where there is no light. As long as Annan doesn't get close to the houses on both sides of the street, he won't encounter weird ......

Before noon, Annan finally passed through the second wall of Hearsa City and entered the inner city.

The streets and houses were much wider and more elaborate than those of the outer city, but the unsettling silence and lingering coldness were clearer, and the sun was shining without the slightest warmth.

Poof-

A few weapons were thrown in front of the house not far ahead, and from time to time a bone spat out of the upstairs window.

Annan bypassed there by a straight alley.

If the skeleton horse was still around, he would have rushed into the royal city. Annan thought. But if it were that simple, the southern kingdoms outside would be holding a banquet to save the princess.

In any case, the leaves of the World Tree allowed Annan to avoid many unnecessary troubles. He walked the streets of a deserted city as if he were sightseeing in a lost city-state.

Only shadows and charred maidens followed him. One is behind and the other is on the wall.

Over time, Annan's shadow became elongated and narrow. The charred girl reappeared, forcing back the strangeness that had quietly approached Annan, and he suddenly looked at the second shadow on the wall in confusion.

The scorched girl is around...... So whose shadow is it?

"It's following me."

Annan pointed to the second shadow on the wall.

The charred girl walks to the wall, touches Annan's "shadow", and begins a fight that Annan can't understand. It didn't take long for her to look back, and Annan read her thoughts, and hurried out of here with the charred blanket in her arms.

And not long after he ran away, the scorched girl was caught by the shadow and caught into the wall.

After Annan ran out of two streets, the charred girl crawled out of the blanket in her arms. He looked at his shadow, and there was no second path.

It seems to shake off the ......

"Let's find a place to stay first."

It's not dusk yet, but the odd oddities are already starting to kick in......

The shelter Annan chose this time was a manor with a wide view, and although the gardens and flower beds were withered, they did not seem to have been destroyed by the strange.

But as he stepped up the steps, a scene suddenly appeared in front of him:

The wagon carrying the barrel passed through the flower-filled garden and stopped at the staircase. The members of the family gathered at the front of the steps and watched as a snow-white giant shellfish sat in a barrel filled with seawater. A boy dressed in rags leaned in and said something to the shell, which slowly opened, revealing a naked girl sitting in the shell, with a timid look, as beautiful and crystal as a pearl.

Annan blinked, and the surrounding area suddenly returned to the gray and cold of reality.

The charred girl looked at him, as if asking to go or stay.

"Take a look at ...... again"

Annan took the initiative to enter the gate, and the hall was filled with collapsed and broken marks of an indescribable fishy smell. Either a feast for adults had just taken place, or thousands of fish had rotted.

The vision resurfaced: at the banquet in the hall where the guests had gathered, the servants had arrived with huge shells, and the gathered guests were silent.

The young man who had changed into clean clothes opened the shell and said something to the girl in the shell, she shook her head to show her disagreement, and the anxious boy stretched out his hand, grabbed the girl's arm and twisted it hard.

The girl in the shell began to cry, and pearls slipped from the corners of her eyes.

The surrounding guests silently exclaimed, and with the proud expression of the master, Jubei was pushed out of the hall by the servants.

In the dilapidated hall, Annan saw the door where Jubei was taken away, and continued to follow him.

Passing the stairs leading to the cellar, Annan saw the illusion of the old days again:

The well-dressed and much fatter boy stood in front of a pile of torture instruments, holding a whip and roaring fiercely at the giant shellfish in front of him.

The girl in the shell was covered in bruises, and she was no longer as beautiful as before. Seeing that she was unwilling to contribute any more pearls, the fat boy threw away the whip fiercely, leaned into the giant shell, crawled towards the naked girl, and stretched out his hand to cut into the girl's pearl-like bright and round eyes. The girl opened her mouth in pain and let out a silent scream, and the intense pain made the giant shell tremble and close suddenly.

The legs that were caught outside the giant shell were kicked a few times and stopped moving.

I don't know how long it has been, the giant shell opened again, and there was no fat boy in the shell, only the sad and painful girl and dozens of magnificent pearls as scarlet as blood rolled out.

One of them hit a boot and was picked up by a thick hand through a handkerchief and held in front of him. The brilliance of the golden tooth hidden under the hooked nose overshadowed the blood of the pearl and the maiden curled up in the shell......

Da –

Stepping out of the last staircase, Annan held up the magic lamp, corresponding to the wine cellar in the illusion just now.

It should be here, the being who lured him in.

"I'm starting to wonder what the weird nature is......"

Annan whispered softly, to the scorched girl and the being who showed him these images, "Neither you nor her...... It's all just victims of bullying......"

The scorched girl did not respond, and Annan continued to talk to herself.

"Maybe weirdness is just a manifestation of an emotion? The princess evacuated the people of the city not because of how dangerous it was, but because tragedy would make it thrive? ”

Bone Luck –

Annan suddenly kicked something, and a sparkling blood pearl rolled into the depths of the cellar. His gaze followed the Blood Pearl, saw what it was hitting and stopped. Annan raised the oil lamp and saw the mountains of blood pearls piled up in the cellar. Under the light of the magic lamp, they turned into eyes.

Annan again fell into illusion. This time he turned into the hook-nosed man and came to the cellar. The battered clothes of servants and captured vagabonds were scattered in front of the shells, and the maiden in the shells sat there in amazement, while the blood pearls around them were about to drown the giant shells.

"The family will soon be revived......" Annan said in a voice that did not belong to him, and he walked towards Jubei involuntarily.

The surrounding pearls began to roll down, drowning themselves, and "Annan" continued to frenziedly and struggled towards the giant shells.

"Annan" was getting closer and closer to the giant shell and the girl, and when he was about to touch it, he suddenly smelled a burning smell.

This is...... The girl in the woods?

Annan suddenly woke up from his vision. At some point, he was trapped in the blood pearls that covered his waist, and he was so close to the blood-stained giant shellfish. In the shell sat a rotting silhouette, outstretched out as if in a hug.

The charred girl had been drowned in blood pearls, and only a charred hand was left to pull at the corner of his clothes.

Annan had no fear, on the contrary, his black eyes showed sadness and tenderness, took out a leaf of a tree from another world, put his hand into the giant shell, and handed it to the girl who was leaning in the shell, bowing her head, like a dead girl who emitted a rotten and fishy smell.

Whispered, "I have no ill will towards you...... I don't want those things...... I just want to help you......"

"Let you stop crying."

(End of chapter)