When the day dawned, the scent of water lilies wafted from the small pond in the garden outside the window, and a row of robins stood outside the window and jumped on a telephone pole.

Someone outside the bedroom rang out: "Good morning, Mr. Traveler in a foreign land." I'll bring you breakfast. ”

This voice is the same singing that lasted until 12 o'clock after Mayor Kesso left. Shang Luo, who was originally in a daze, woke up immediately.

"Mr. Traveler, are you there?"

"Yes." Shang Luoha, who was wearing pajamas, put on his school uniform and went to open the door.

Karin stood in the doorway with a tray of creamy mushroom soup and toast in her hand.

Today, Karin changed her hairstyle and tied a blue headband on her head to let her hair hang down from both sides.

"Thank you." Shang Luo took the tray. After last night's narration by Mayor Caesor, his mood is now a little complicated, and he doesn't know what to think of this "Karin" in front of him.

To his surprise, however, Karin also stood there after taking the tray, as if she had something to say.

Her eyes were so close. Jean Shang Luo also confirmed her identity - these eyes turned out to be the same as if he had seen Caesar in Alexander's Night, and there was a faint light in his eyes.

"I'm sorry." Karin's eyes dodged, "I"

"Is there anything you'd like to say?"

Karin was really trying to say something. Just hesitating, she still shook her head: "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. Anyway, let's have breakfast. Rest assured, it was Karin's mother who did it. The soup she made was delicious, really tasty. ”

With that, Karin turned away and walked to the other end of the hallway.

[Now when you mention Karin, you may have to put a quotation mark. 】

Shang Luo nodded. He had thought that only Mayor Cayso knew about it, but now it seemed that "Karin" herself knew.

"She's hesitant."

[I recognized her expression, and 89% was apologetic.] 】

"What is she apologizing for?"

[Maybe I'm apologizing for my birth.] After all, she is Karin's impersonator. I just don't know when she started knowing. 】

"I'm afraid I knew it from the beginning. The mayor of the town said that she studied very hard, and often helped the family with household chores, and was as perfect as a treasure from God. I'm afraid that from the beginning, what drove her was to apologize, but what did she have to apologize for, and she didn't have the right to choose. ”

[Nope.] Changelings are also new beings, and they can't decide when or where they will be born. It's sad to be born in someone else's shell. 】

"But at the end of the day, this home belongs to Karin herself." Shang Luo put the tray on the dining table indoors. This thick soup with bread gives him a sense of soy milk soaked fritters, and the taste is also very familiar to him. And, as Karin says, it's delicious.

"Anyway, I don't want to put Karin in quotation marks just yet. It's a tough question to decide, but at the end of the day, the biggest victim is Karin herself, and her family. Even this one. The 'Karin' in quotation marks is also a victim. It's a tragic story, and everyone is teased by the power of the forest. ”

This is the inescapable karma of the Romans. Anyway, what are you going to do? 】

"Karin, with Karin's own interests first, that's all I can do. After making sure Karin herself is protected, think about the others. I'm not an angel, and I can't get the best ending for everyone, I can only help those who need it most. Tsk, why is this problem so difficult, like the trigger of the tram in my hand, and I want to control whether I hit and kill one person or a group of people. ”

[Well, then what would you choose?] 】

"The premise of this question is that you have to hit someone to death no matter what, right? So I can only do the math, so since I have to kill people anyway, then I can only kill the one with fewer people. This was certainly not the happy ending, and it also made my compassion suffer. But – my compassion has boundaries. My compassion will not overflow, it will eventually stop at the borders of the rites. But I'll try to. ”

He sighed: "And I'm not without a choice, am I?" Who made this question, and why do I have to answer it according to his train of thought? I still have a chance, I should have lifted the tram! ”

[Don't speak ill of the train!] The tram is so cute, why are you scolding it. 】

"Where are you? How do you always like to empathize with strange things, like folders or something... By the way, you're weird in the first place. But it's a metaphor, a metaphor. ”

[Nor can parables.] The tram is the most innocent, it doesn't know anything, it has been held hostage in front of it, and it has to splash blood. Woo woo ~ the tram is the most pitiful. 】

"Okay, well, I'll change the analogy when I think about it."

He continued to eat. The taste of the bisque is really good.

"Good morning, strangers from Aurora." Titus looked refreshed, "Did you all sleep well last night?" It's time for class. ”

"It looks like someone is playing a broken record." Wen Yuan held his head, "I didn't hear clearly, but the people who slept next to me were more tormented." ”

"Is there one?" Han Xingzhi was stunned for a moment, "I can sleep upside down, so I don't feel it." ”

"Xuan Xiu is really good, but I seem to have eaten too much qi, and I can only fall asleep after playing the game for a while and running out of qi." Lu Liang yawned, "But I seem to have heard it too." But I was playing a game at the time, and I didn't seem to hear me very clearly. That's the closest place to Shangluo, right? ”

"Ah, yes. It's a broken record. ”

In a sense, it was a broken record. Unlike mythology, the forest sends not an ugly little monster, but a daughter who has become "perfect" because of guilt. However, she was still crippled, and she from the forest could not escape the wear and tear of time, and she was broken. Even she knows it.

Titus gave him a meaningful look, then tapped on the blackboard:

"Well, then, our Introduction to the Occult class is divided into two parts, and before the second half of the class gets to the theory, the first half of our class will be devoted to the object of this mission: the Golden Bough and the Forest King. The so-called myth is the history that is revealed through stories, and it is the eternal continuation of history. ”

He said exactly what Mayor Cayso had said - and it didn't surprise Shang Luo, because that's what he told Mayor Mare.

"The king of the forest that we are dealing with, whose origins are far older than written history, is the 'Witch King'. The Witch King does not refer to the mana kings in the game, the Witch King is an anthropological term. It refers to the early history of human civilization, the early human shamans and chieftains were a collection of rulers who were both gods and men, and were one of the first forms of human power. There are quite a few Witch Kings who still reign until a relatively recent time, such as the King of the Forest. Yes, it can still be the secular ruler of Lake Nemi, that's true. And yet..."

"I don't want anyone who still has a choice to go down this bloody road... It's a terrible road. ”

(End of chapter)