Monster - Chapter 91
Chapter 91: Leading Her Away
"I understand," Lin Sandie said after the illusion manifested by Red disappeared.
"Okay, but I can't take it anymore. I need to leave her mindscape for a bit. If we both stay in a state of Spirit Separation for too long, we might not even realize it if danger approaches. Plus, this place is making me unbearably hungry. Do you want to leave and rest for a while too?" Red flicked its tail, a bit agitated, already expecting to have points deducted for this mission.
"I'll try one more time." In truth, Lin Sandie was also too hungry to stand. While watching the illusion Red had manifested, she had been sitting against a tree trunk, and she spoke as softly as she could to conserve energy.
"Don't force it. A Guide's number one priority is to stay alive and sane." With those final words, Red's form dissolved into a wisp of light smoke and vanished before Lin Sandie.
Pie can travel through time, so I'm currently inside Little Fool's mindscape from the first time she became Bedeviled. It's not synchronized with real time. Lin Sandie leaned against the tree, her head bowed as she processed the information she'd gathered.
This meant that in three or four years, Little Fool would leave Aztec for the Main World and become a Sentinel.
Where will I be then?
Lin Sandie let out a deep sigh and rubbed her face, trying to clear her head. Pie's meddling was making her dizzy and confused.
Now wasn't the time to dwell on that. Her objective was singular: lead the Bedeviled Little Fool out of this hell of hungry ghosts. The relationship between Pie and Lou, Little Fool's future with her—all those questions would have to wait until she finished the task before her.
Letting out a breath, Lin Sandie stood and walked toward the dining table. The little monster was still eating frantically. Occasionally, when crumbs fell to the floor, she would even jump off her chair, get down on the ground, pick up every last one, and put them in her mouth. She ate with such care and concentration, not wasting a single morsel.
"You should eat more vegetables and fruits," Lin Sandie said, once again manifesting some vegetables and fruits on the table.
The little monster looked up at Lin Sandie, then back at the table. All the vegetables and fruits disappeared, and a platter of fragrant roasted chicken appeared before her.
She reached out, grabbed a chicken leg, opened her wide mouth, and bit down. She tore off a piece of rich, juicy meat. Some grease dripped from the corner of her mouth, and the little monster immediately stuck out her tongue to lick it up. Lin Sandie saw her cheeks bulging, stuffed so full that tears welled in the corners of her eyes, but she continued to chew with all her might.
Lin Sandie swallowed. She wanted to sit down and eat with the little monster too, which annoyed her. The hunger was affecting her temper as well.
"Stop eating!" Lin Sandie grabbed the little monster's hands and spoke sternly, face to face, just like when she had first met Little Fool. Back then, Little Fool could never stop eating once she started, and it would infuriate Lin Sandie.
She had spent a long time training Little Fool in table manners, such as not smacking her lips, not wasting food, not eating to excess, and having a balanced diet of meat and vegetables…
Little Fool learned some things well, and others not so well. But she couldn't stay by her side forever. She would grow up eventually, and she would learn what was right and wrong, what she could and couldn't do.
Lin Sandie had always thought this way. She had been Little Fool's companion—like family, a teacher, a friend—but she had rarely concerned herself with her inner world, just like any parent. That was why, when she realized the little monster before her was Little Fool, she wanted to cry.
So this is how Little Fool sees herself, in her own mind, in her own spiritual world?
So ugly, so wretched, so… so lowly…
"Little Fool, you're not like this. Stop eating," Lin Sandie said to the little monster, her eyes red-rimmed.
The little monster, having swallowed the piece of chicken she just tore off, seemed impatient. She opened her mouth at Lin Sandie and let out a shriek so sharp it could pierce the soul. Lin Sandie trembled all over, blood seeped from her nose, and her head felt as if it had been struck hard with a hammer.
Dizzily, she let go of the little monster and staggered back. Lin Sandie was trembling, on the verge of fainting.
Without a single glance at Lin Sandie, the expressionless little monster grabbed the chicken leg again and continued to eat with effort. The veins on her face bulged as she swallowed too forcefully.
Lin Sandie covered her bleeding nose. After the initial dizziness, the shriek had actually cleared her head. At least the hunger was no longer so unbearable.
"You little brat," Lin Sandie cursed under her breath. Her form wavered a few times, and she transformed into a palm-sized rabbit doll. The rabbit had a round, cute head with long ears, a pair of red eyes, and an "×" stitched over its mouth with thread. The moment the rabbit doll appeared, it fell onto the grass.
Lin Sandie noticed the little monster's eating movements pause. She looked over, her emotionless eyes seeming to grow a little guilty. After getting a clear look at the rabbit doll, the little monster, who had been sitting at the table, immediately hunched her shoulders, then gently turned her back to Lin Sandie. But before that, she reached out and sneakily snatched another chicken leg.
"No more eating!" Lin Sandie said sternly, rematerializing at the dining table in her Spirit Separation form.
"Wuu…" The little monster, who had been eating with relative composure, started to frantically stuff the food in her hands into her mouth.
"I said no more eating! You'll make yourself sick!" Lin Sandie, as if scolding the Little Fool she had just met, scooped her up and snatched the half-eaten chicken leg from her hand.
The little monster who had just attacked Lin Sandie with a shriek now seemed terrified. While quickly chewing the food in her mouth, she whimpered and struggled, trying to get other food from the table.
"You're full now, you know? Little Fool." Lin Sandie softened her voice, carrying the little monster away from the table.
"Wuu…" Held tightly in Lin Sandie's arms, the little monster still struggled to get back to the table, relentlessly trying to eat as if she had truly lost all reason.
"If you keep this up, I'm going to get angry!" Lin Sandie couldn't help but speak in a stern tone again. "And what is this stuff you're eating? I've told you many times, you need to eat your vegetables and fruits too."
The struggling little monster suddenly stopped. She looked closely at the black fog holding her. Only two hands extended from the fog, yet it felt like she was being held in a full embrace.
The little monster suddenly grabbed Lin Sandie's fingers, her eyes filled with tears. She looked at Lin Sandie.
"Don't be angry. I'll listen to you. Don't be angry."
A jolt went through Lin Sandie. She saw the little monster in her arms dissolve into a wisp of thin smoke, and her own consciousness was suddenly pulled away.
Red, who was taking a deep breath to re-enter its partner's mindscape, noticed that its partner, sitting beside it, was crying.
The light had returned to her eyes, but tears were streaming endlessly from them, as if they would never stop.
"Zhao, are you okay?" Red asked cautiously. Its usually expressionless partner suddenly crying like this made it a little flustered.
"I'm fine. I think I was Bedeviled. Thanks for pulling me out." Zhao quickly lowered her head and wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand. She didn't know why, but the moment she came to her senses, an indescribable sadness weighed on her heart, causing the tears to flow.
"Uh… I don't think I was the one who pulled you out. My memory of the mindscape is a bit fuzzy, but I remember someone else entering your mindscape," Red said, baring its teeth, a little guiltily.
"Who?" A Sentinel who falls into a Bedeviled state is unaware of their own condition, because it's a combination of various subconscious thoughts and mental trauma. If they could remember everything clearly, it wouldn't be called "Bedeviled."
"I think it was a woman… The only impression I have left is of a very calm woman. Also, your mindscape this time was so disgusting. I feel like every time I went in and came out, it was like I hadn't eaten for half a month. Just that feeling of being so, so, so hungry."
"I also remember being constantly hungry, like I was back in my childhood."
"Was your family poor when you were a child?"
"No," Zhao shook her head, then asked, "That woman who entered my mindscape, do you have any other impressions of her? Anything at all."
"Let me think. Logically, a Guide who doesn't have your permission and isn't contracted with you shouldn't be able to enter your mindscape. Hmm… I think I talked to her. She said… she said… the Lord God sent her. Ah! Maybe she's the Lord God's successor, no, no, no… I'm a bit confused. Anyway, we definitely talked about the Lord God, and about the Lord God's successor."
"Why would the Lord God's successor come to my mindscape? I'm just a nobody."
"I don't know." Red stared with wide, innocent eyes at its partner.
"Forget it."
"As long as you're out of the Bedeviled state, that's what matters. Let's pack up and head back to the Main World. Sigh, I wonder if they'll deduct our points. I guess I failed to pull you out."
"…Sorry for the trouble."
"Nothing to apologize for," Red said casually. "By the way, you said you'd have fifty thousand points when we get back. What are you going to exchange them for?"
"'Hole'," a single word came from Zhao's mouth.
"'Hole'? What's that?"
"It allows me to jump to another Tower World even when I don't have a mission."
After hearing its partner, Red curiously brought up its own light screen to look up this wondrous item, the Hole.
Hole, exchange price: 50,000 points.
Positive Effects: None
Negative Effects: None
【Special Effect】Walk into it, jump to another Tower World.
"That's way too expensive! Just to jump to another Tower World costs fifty thousand points! You could get a B-rank weapon for that! What Tower World do you want to go to? Is it that important?" Red cried out after reading the description for "Hole."
"The Tower World where I was born. To find someone."
"But you can't stay for too long, right? After all, you have to leave immediately when there's a mission. The 'Hole' can only be used once, right? Isn't that a huge waste?"
"So I'll save up my vacation time."
"Alright. Oh, right!" Red suddenly thought of something else.
"What is it?"
"That woman who went into your mindscape said she'd find me for a drink when she's free. We'll see her in the Main World then."
"Mm," Zhao replied, reverting to her usual taciturn self.
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