Chapter 52 Chapter 52: The 'Fool' Siliya
Chapter 52: The 'Fool' Siliya
"What the... why is there a child here?"
It's hard to describe the sheer weirdness of this situation. It's like walking into an 18+ restricted venue, only to find a ten-year-old girl inside, and everyone around just ignores her as if it's perfectly normal.
That's exactly how Seele feels right now, because she simply can't imagine what could possibly cause a little girl to run into the depths of the Fragmentum.
Besides, why does she seem to know Kevin?
Turning her head to look at the little girl who indeed appears to be only around ten years old, Seele feels an indescribable sense of eeriness... Why can she appear here completely unharmed? Why does such a little girl seem completely unfazed by the monster carcasses littering the ground?
Even though there are indeed many monsters in the Fragmentum that resemble humans in form, they shouldn't look exactly like a little girl.
Unable to make sense of it all, Seele could only turn her gaze to Kevin. That's when she noticed that his usually unflappable expression actually showed a slight flicker of emotion. In Seele's eyes, this was already quite a startling change.
"I truly didn't expect to encounter this here as well."
Kevin let out a soft sigh. His words seemed partly directed at Seele, partly at himself: "Just like how these Fragmentum creatures more or less possess certain familiar characteristics, the Fragmentum has an instinct for [simulating] things. It wouldn't be strange to see monsters here that look exactly like those who have passed away."
"And if intense emotions reach a certain critical point, or perhaps triggered by other conditions, this space might also generate phenomena akin to [spatial silhouettes] based on the memories of the deceased—"
"Even from a physics perspective, they are real, existing life forms. However, due to the fault lines, they possess highly unstable quantum properties and cannot be defined as humans in the objective sense..."
In simple terms, it's like using data to construct a real life form in the real world... but her essence is still just 'data' built from the memories of the deceased.
"...Huh?"
This explanation filled with various technical terms left Seele, who hadn't attended school for long, feeling like her brain had short-circuited. Meanwhile, the vivid little girl standing right in front of them happily clapped her hands: "So did big brother come back to play with Siliya? Or has big brother already found Uncle Stepan for Siliya!"
Such a response was completely mismatched with what Kevin had just described, but that was the reality... The 'silhouette' before them didn't possess thinking abilities beyond the confines of its original memories, and thus couldn't give any direct response to Kevin's explanation.
Wasn't it terrifying? Here was a little girl standing right in front of you, seemingly able to communicate with you, yet the truth was she was just a 'robot' that could only respond within fixed parameters.
At this moment, Seele felt goosebumps all over. She didn't understand what Kevin was saying, but her intuition told her this little girl was definitely not normal.
That's right, this little girl before them was the very same one Kevin encountered on his first day in Belobog when he first entered the Fragmentum. He hadn't expected that the Fragmentum on this planet was, to some extent, interconnected. The names Siliya and Stepan were also revealed by this little girl back then.
Back then, she knew nothing no matter what he asked. The only information she ultimately revealed to Kevin was the name Siliya and that there was an uncle very close to her who told her to wait here for him.
At first, Kevin genuinely thought this was just a tragic story about a little girl abandoned in the Fragmentum by a wicked uncle...
"So you're saying this little girl standing before us actually died in the Fragmentum long ago. And the reason she appears here is because she still holds strong attachments in her heart, so under the influence of the Fragmentum, she became... some kind of ghost?!"
It took Seele's brain a good while to reboot before she could piece together a somewhat reasonable explanation in her mind. Although theoretically quite off the mark, descriptions like 'attachments' and 'ghost' seemed rather fitting?
"You could say that... Would you like to hear this child's story?"
"Well... tell me?"
Seele, who appears rough around the edges, actually likes children very much. Otherwise, why would she run over to Natasha's place every day to help? Most of her dislike is just an act put on because she doesn't know how to communicate properly.
How could anyone not be concerned about a ghost wandering in the Fragmentum?
"Setting aside other factors, this is actually just a clichéd story about power struggles—"
"Once upon a time, there were two sisters who lost their parents and depended on each other in a remote suburb. Because the elder sister was exceptionally talented and intelligent from a young age in all aspects, she passed the selection and became the successor to the [Supreme Guardian]. From then on, the previously unnoticed sisters began receiving widespread attention. However, most people only cared about the dazzling elder sister and overlooked the mediocre younger sister. Only one minister was willing to give the younger sister equal attention."
"Just as the bond between the minister and the younger sister grew deeper day by day, and on the eve of the elder sister's formal inauguration as successor, that exceptionally intelligent elder sister suddenly disappeared. The minister then vigorously promoted the mediocre younger sister as successor, telling everyone that the younger sister was as exceptionally talented as her sister."
"In the end, history proved that the younger sister's ascension was entirely a political fraud meticulously orchestrated by the minister. The younger sister performed extremely mediocrely in all aspects and was more than willing to follow the advice given by this closest minister. As a result, the minister's influence expanded daily, even beginning to extensively enact oppressive and extortionate laws to amass wealth."
"Finally, one day, the people's discontent erupted completely. The rebel group successfully imprisoned that utterly foolish [Supreme Guardian] in a box and pushed it off a cliff. However, they never found out where that truly scheming minister had gone. The clever minister had already escaped with his wealth long before disaster struck."
"As I said, it's a very clichéd story. The development of human civilization always seems trapped in endless internal strife."
"Only in this story, that minister's name was Stepan. And that [Supreme Guardian] who was promoted due to incompetence and pushed off a cliff due to incompetence was given another name by the people of that time—the 'Fool' Siliya."
There are illustrations here. You can view them after updating to the latest version.
There are illustrations here. You can view them after updating to the latest version.
There are illustrations here. You can view them after updating to the latest version.
No comments yet
Be the first to share your thoughts!