Pillar of Yita

”Dolifen is very special,” Gita said, wrapping herself in a blanket and sitting on the bed with her feet together, her small hands holding a steaming cup of water, placed between her knees and chest. Surrounded by everyone, she didn’t dare to raise her head and only whispered, ”People call it the ’Shadows of the Past’ because many places there are haunted by echoes of yesteryear.”

She had been awake for a while, only vaguely remembering a brief moment before her awakening and the times when Hilveld and Fang Hong took turns caring for her.

And just the thought of still nesting in someone else’s bed made her involuntarily shrink her neck and her cheeks flush even more.

Fortunately, the others seemed not to notice this—

The small room was nearly filled with everyone present, including Fang Hong, Atira, Reed, Luo Yu, Tianlan, and Xiesta—apart from Hilveld. This meant Parker could only sit on the table, his short legs hanging off the edge.

Chris stood outside the door, watching the scene with some curiosity.

When this young man had first seen Hilveld, he nearly froze in amazement. It was probably because he hadn’t expected to find such a beautiful person in this world, and even after quite some time—after she had left—he still hadn’t come back to his senses.

”What do you think?” The Lion Person turned his head, baring a ’kind’ smile at the young man, ”Have you never seen such a beautiful human girl before?”

”Ah, I certainly didn’t, sir—” Chris startled, hurriedly waved his hands in denial, for how could he dare to entertain improper thoughts about a noble girl.

With a pat on the shoulder from Reed’s enormous paw, he shook his head, ”No need to explain, lad, she’s not interested in you—not now, at least. Right now, this human girl only has designs on a certain fool.”

”Designs...malicious designs?” Chris instinctively looked towards Fang Hong.

He then saw approval in the Lion Person’s pale silver eyes and was astonished—thinking to himself how impressive Brother Ade must be, not only for his surprising performance in the Continental League.

In reality, too, he was enviable—

Of course, Fang Hong was oblivious to the distasteful thoughts of these two. He was asking Gita, ”Echoes of the past?”

Gita nodded lightly on the bed.

Everyone had come rushing over because of her sudden awakening.

As for Chris, he was brought along by coincidence while answering Fang Hong’s questions, never expecting the girl to speak out after hearing what he said.

He had heard she was a Natural Historian. But Chris was skeptical; let alone a Natural Historian, every Scholar he’d seen at Elpaxin—no matter their age—all had substantial beards, the old academic sort.

And then Gita’s gaze turned towards him: ”Mr. Chris... must know something, right?”

The young man jerked in surprise, quickly nodding. ”Miss Gita is correct, Dolifen is indeed a strange place. The workers often say that it’s haunted. My father always warned me and forbade anyone from our logging camp from getting too close, even though we’re quite near to it.”

”Haunted?”

”Saying it’s haunted may not be quite fitting,” Chris replied somewhat troubled: ”You must know that it’s a town abandoned for many years, yet it keeps reenacting the past; sometimes amid ruins, a perfectly intact street block suddenly appears as if it was a scene from decades ago. People are also dressed in clothes from that era, living their old lives just like nothing had changed at all.”

”Of course,” the young man answered, ”That’s only what I’ve heard, I’ve never been there myself. It’s often adventurers who come by our logging camp, and I heard these rumors from them, sirs and ladies.”

”So it’s like a phantom scene?” Tianlan asked.

”Saying it’s a phantom might not be entirely accurate, Sister Fuli,” Gita coughed softly twice, answering in a low voice, ”Because in these Shadows of the Past, everything is real. It’s said that adventurers have done business with the people inside, and the objects they bought and the money they got didn’t disappear after leaving Dolifen.”

”What?” Tianlan’s eyes widened, ”Are you saying that those streets and people are real, existing in that ruin for decades? How could that be possible?”

”Fuli,” Atira seemed a little overwhelmed by the girl’s wild imagination and interrupted with a helpless expression, ”don’t keep interrupting Gita.”

”Oh—” Tianlan stuck out her tongue embarrassedly.

But this time, it wasn’t Gita who answered, it was Chris.

The young man shook his head, ”That’s not the case, Miss Tianlan. There definitely aren’t any residents in those ruins, I can testify to that. In fact, that phenomenon only appears for a few days every few months; otherwise, it’s just a lifeless dead city.”

”A few days?”

”Yes, a few days—because that must be related to the third artifact within Dolifen, I guess.”

”The third artifact?” Fang Hong also couldn’t help asking.

”Brother Ade,” Gita tugged on his sleeve, looking a bit strained, ”All the strange phenomena in Dolifen City are actually centered around three special objects within the ruins—they are what people refer to as Dolifen’s three artifacts.”

Having just recovered from her injuries, the girl seemed to struggle a bit. After finishing her words, she began to breathe slightly, her cheeks as pale as paper.