The Letter

Leyn shook his head. "That letter contains only two sentences, and the content is simple. It looks like a plea for help from someone in dire straits." "Didn't say what the trouble was?" Lumian secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Whether it was Aurore's letters to her pen pals or the replies her pen pals sent back, none could be just two sentences. "No." Leyn sighed softly. You came just because of one plea letter that says nothing? Aren't you afraid it's just a prank? The people of the Tribunal aren't as eager as you. Aren't you being too kind, too good-hearted, too full of a sense of mission? Lumian mocked them in his heart. By habit, he should have said these things directly, but considering he still needed to extract information from them, he couldn't anger them or break off the conversation, so he forcibly swallowed the words back. Still, Lumian knew Leyn wouldn't tell him everything. Coming to Cordu Village to find someone over a plea letter that explained nothing—they must have other considerations or reasons. "Uh..." Lumian touched his chin, proposing with a "nothing to lose by trying" attitude, "Why don't you let me see that letter? Maybe I can tell who wrote it from the handwriting." Valentay, his hair powdered, showed an expression of "Do you take us for fools?" Lia smiled and said, "You can identify handwriting?" "Barely." Lumian looked completely sincere. He then added in his heart: Being able to identify Aurore's and my own handwriting counts as knowing how. "Useless." Leyn shook his head again. "Every word in that letter comes from the little blue book. The whole sentence is pieced together from cut-out slips of paper." Very cautious... This method seems somewhat familiar—I've heard too many of Aurore's stories? ...Since it's a plea for help, why hide one's identity this way? Afraid the letter would be intercepted and bring retaliation? Or perhaps there's something wrong with the letter itself, and they don't want to be exposed to others' eyes? Lumian tried to analyze the letter writer's mindset. He deliberately showed an expression of sudden realization and said, "Most households in the village have little blue books. You're finding people to chat with, wanting to confirm through them whether their little blue books have similar damage?" "But that person could simply buy a new little blue book without anyone knowing, use it, and throw it away." "That's only one direction." Leyn said calmly. "Any other directions?" Lumian didn't treat himself as an outsider at all. Leyn thought for a moment and said, "Since there's a plea for help, there must be an offender. Something is definitely happening, and that will surely leave traces." "Very reasonable." Lumian showed an expression of sympathizing with Leyn and the others' difficulties, as if he had felt it himself. He solemnly promised, "My cabbages, I'll keep an eye out for you, hope to find some clues." "Thank you." Leyn responded politely. Lia had already adjusted her mindset and asked inquisitively, "Since we're friends, I have a question I'd like to ask you." "No need to be polite." Lumian smiled and gestured. "When you call us cabbages, why did those villagers in the tavern laugh?" Lia was very curious about this. Although the term was embarrassing, since it was said to be common local slang, it shouldn't provoke laughter by rights. Lumian answered sincerely: "Cabbage in slang means little cutie or darling. 'My cabbage' or 'little cabbage' is mainly used in two situations: between close friends, and elders to juniors. 'My rabbit,' 'my little chick'—those are similar." He placed stress on the word "close." Immediately after, he innocently added: "At the time, I only hoped we could become close friends." He wore an expression of "I'm very pure, I don't know what veiled meaning this 'close' has." I see you want to be our elder... Lia finally understood why those villagers laughed. Although Lumian's explanation might not be true, at least it was logically convincing to her. Leyn nodded in agreement: "Anything else?" "No." Lumian didn't want to seem too eager, lest they think he had a problem and investigate him and Aurore. Older sister can't stand an investigation! After seeing Lia and the others off amid the jingling of bells, Lumian sat at the entrance of the Old Tavern, waiting for that mysterious lady of unknown purpose to wake up. After a while, his companion Raymond came over. "Lumian, have you decided which legend to investigate next?" Raymond asked as soon as they met. These past two days, on this matter, he was even more eager than Lumian. After all, he didn't have that strange dream, nor another way to obtain treasure. "Not yet." The owl had even come to his door; before confirming the situation, how could Lumian dare to investigate the truth of the legend? He casually found an excuse: "The Lent Festival is in a few days. Let's properly celebrate the holiday before considering it." "Hmm." Raymond thought it made sense. "So I don't have to be a crop watcher for now. I'll go after the Lent Festival. Even if someone is grazing livestock these few days, they can't cause too much destruction." "In other words, you don't need to leave the village for the next few days?" Lumian asked in return. Seeing Raymond nod, he said with a smile, "What a coincidence. I can't leave the village these past few days either." "Why?" Raymond asked in confusion. Lumian lowered his voice, looking serious: "This morning, I met that owl. The owl from the sorcerer legend. It said that if it weren't for the church in the village and the god's gaze, it would immediately take my soul and cast it into the abyss..." Raymond listened, both shocked and afraid. His whole body began to tremble: "Really?" "I knew we shouldn't provoke such an evil creature..." Just as he was whispering, he suddenly saw a smile on Lumian's face. "..." Raymond then remembered his good friend's nature. "You're pranking me again, lying to me?" He was both angry and anxious. Angry at himself—he clearly knew what kind of person Lumian was, clearly had been tricked many times, why did he still fall for it? "You believe such an outrageous thing?" Lumian chuckled "hehe." That was the lie, to keep you from being unable to bear the pressure and going straight to the church to confess... Lumian silently added in his heart. "Huff..." Raymond relaxed. Lumian then cautioned him: "Although that story I just made up, I also wanted to tell you that investigating the truth behind the legend might be dangerous. If you can avoid leaving the village and departing from the church's protection, try not to leave." After speaking, he silently muttered two sentences: This is the truth. The story just now was indeed mostly made up, only a small part was true... If it weren't for the fact that I need a helper for many things later, I wouldn't remind you. I wouldn't tell you Aurore's warning in another way. What's it to me whether others live or die... Raymond thought of that momentary fear just now and nodded understandingly: "Okay!" He no longer talked about those legends, but instead asked: "When voting for the Spring Spirit, who will you vote for?" The Spring Spirit was the main character of various celebrations during the Lent Festival, a symbol of spring. In the Dariège region, the villagers generally elected a beautiful, unmarried girl to play the role. "Ava." Lumian answered indifferently. "Hasn't she always wanted to play the Spring Spirit once?" "I'll vote for her too." Raymond secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Yesterday Ava had hinted to him to vote for her, so he felt he had to help her, help her get more votes. ... Outside a house not far from the Old Tavern. Leyn, Lia, and Valentay didn't rush to find someone to "chat" with. "Was it really okay to tell that guy so much?" Valentay asked, covering his mouth and nose with his hand. The air here was filled with a faint smell of domestic poultry manure. Lia fiddled with the silver bell on her head: "I don't know if there's a problem. I can only confirm one thing: my divination result tells me he is one of the useful helpers." "When you can't break open the situation, appropriately leaking some information so that relevant people act out of fear is a very effective investigation method." Leyn explained his intention. "Next, we'll observe him more, see what he does or who he contacts." ... After Raymond left, Lumian entered the Old Tavern and saw the lady who had given him tarot cards again in her usual seat. Today she wore a white lady's shirt, light-colored loose-legged trousers, and had a round straw hat decorated with several small yellow flowers placed beside her. She really had a lot of clothes in her suitcase, changing every day, unlike Lia and the others who were so shabby... Lumian thought as he approached and sat opposite her. During this process, he casually glanced at her breakfast: A plump meat pie with thin sauce inside; Several cream rings; Seasonal fruit cut into chunks; A cup of light-colored transparent drink with some impurities. These couldn't be provided by the Old Tavern... Lumian pointed at the drink and asked as if they were old friends, "What is this? Doesn't look like wine." "A 'Venus Holy Oil' specialty drink." The lady answered casually. "Cinnamon water steeped with sugar and vanilla, then mixed with poppy flowers. Invented by a bar in Trier." The word "Venus" comes from Emperor Roselle the Great. He mentioned in a story that this was a woman comparable to a goddess of beauty. "Where did you get it? Did you mix it yourself?" Lumian suspected that even Dariège couldn't provide such things. The lady smiled: "As a traveler, obtaining the right things at the right time is a professional instinct." "I don't understand." Lumian was very honest. He then said: "I dealt with that monster before. This time I encountered two more dangerous kinds..." He described the three-faced monster and the monster carrying a hunting rifle separately, and finally said: "I feel they both have power beyond normal humans. I can't handle them. Is there any way to deal with them?" The lady took a bite of a cream ring, her eyes shifting slightly, and said with a smile: "I dare not say about the three-faced monster, but the one with the hunting rifle—you can completely solve it on your own, as long as you make good use of your special quality." "My special quality... What's special about me?" Lumian was both surprised and confused. I don't even know myself! The lady smiled at him and said: "That's your dream. As the master of the dream, you naturally have special treatment. You just haven't discovered it yet."}