Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

After she vomited cleanly in the trash can, Ella didn't ask any more questions afterwards. She just gently patted Lunicia's back to help her relieve the discomfort.

"Feeling better, Lady Luna?"

"Not at all..."

It was really not good at all, it felt terrible. Seeing that miserable scene once was enough. Even if the giant sword in my hand was too sharp to feel anything when cutting the human body, the feeling of blood and flesh sticking to my face was still disgusting. The innocent girl was lying on the altar, her pale face expressionless. It was not the "tranquility" without pain, but the "nothingness" of simply giving up the struggle. The twisted limbs, the fragments of black iron, the silver stars blooming on the ground, the sound of ridicule, everything made me feel disgusted and painful, and I didn't want to recall it at all.

But, we must remember.

I must recall, force myself to recall every detail, otherwise I will not be able to justify my "previous failure", I will not be able to justify the lives they entrusted to me - I will not be able to justify every sin I have committed.

"Ashe, what do you think..."

"Perhaps it would be better to leave her alone for a while? First find her a place to stay, and then--"

"——But we can't give up yet!!!"

Suddenly, Lunicea shouted like this.

It seemed that the passers-by in the distance also heard this powerful and energetic shout. Regardless of whether they were startled or not, they all cast their eyes over, and then looked away in confusion. They could only see three female adventurers who were on good terms with each other, and had no idea what they were doing.

Of course, it wasn't just the passers-by in the distance who were startled, but also Ella Hepper.

"Luna-sama??"

The shout filled with anger, unwillingness and self-encouragement was so sudden that she was completely unable to react.

"Oh, it looks like you've recovered."

“No recovery at all!”

Lunicia gritted her teeth.

"So, what happened, Lady Luna?"

In this regard, Ella could only carefully ask the question that Lunicia was very familiar with again. Of course, she would not feel annoyed by this kind of thing at all. On the contrary, it was really great to have the opportunity to be cared for by Ella again. She was so moved that she wanted to cry again, but now was not the time to do such a thing.

So what should I do? Needless to say, this is not my first time doing this, so I am familiar with it.

"In short, although I know you will definitely believe me and believe what I am going to say next, I still have to say this first - next, I, Lunicia Agris, the Holy Knight of the Glorious Temple, will say every word as a fact. Those facts are crucial, but I am not sure if I will miss anything or if I will not think carefully enough, so please listen carefully and attentively to every syllable and every word I say next."

"I will. Please continue, Lady Luna."

Ella got into the game as quickly as ever.

Ashlee had some doubts: "Since both individual Ashlee and Miss Ella believed in Luna, why did they make such a statement?"

"Ah, this, it's mainly for practice, it might be useful later."

"practise?"

Now it was Ashatherine's turn to be confused.

"That's not the point," Lunicia cleared her throat, "Anyway, this actually happened..."

Trains came one after another, and tourists waiting on the platform changed one after another. They might be from the Marie region in the south, or from the countries in the east, but most of them were local residents of Muirand. No matter in which group's eyes, these three girls who did nothing the whole time, neither waiting for the train nor visiting, but just sitting on the bench and chatting, looked so puzzling.

“…That’s probably it.”

Perhaps because she was too worried, and the worry turned into anxiety, Lunicia did not even consider "choosing a place to stay first" this time, and just sat on the bench in the corner of the lobby square and told everything to her travel companions. Having learned from the previous lesson, Lunicia carefully avoided the words "time travel back" and just like what she did three days ago, she only said what would happen and her own judgment, but did not say "why she knew it".

If asked, it’s “I’ve been through this once.”

Ella and Ashatherine didn't think it mattered, but for Lunicia, who had done this once before, the pressure this time was a bit greater than last time - after all, last time she only had to describe what happened within three days, but this time she had to describe what happened within six days. Even if she tried to reduce the content of eating, drinking and having fun, Lunicia still felt a little overwhelmed. After all, as mentioned before, she was not the type who was good at preaching.

In addition to the situation mentioned "last time" and the rumors about the fourth day celebration, this time it also includes the information collected in the "first three days", such as the history of the founding of Muirand, the existence of the "Northeast District" and the Muirand City Guard, such as... the exploration of the Alexandria Cathedral, and the battle situation on the last day.

Even if I talk about it now, it still seems like a dream - like a nightmare.

The unreasonably powerful Rose, Colette who fell on the altar, the five people on the platform... When talking about the final scene, the edge between dreams and reality seemed to become blurred. After all, for her who was in a fuzzy state at that time, how big was the difference between reality and dreams?

Just as Lunicia knew and remembered, neither Ashatherine nor Ella would question the surprising and puzzling things she said. No matter what their reasons were, they all showed unconditional trust in Lunicia. It was precisely because of this that Lunicia felt that she had let them down: all hopes were placed on her, but she ultimately did not make things develop in a good direction.

Neither Ashlee nor Ella responded immediately. Ashlee seemed to be concentrating on thinking, while Ella stood up immediately after listening and began to walk around with a wary look on her face. After a long while, she slowly walked back without explaining what she had just done.

Actually, what she did was very simple. She just wanted to confirm whether there was a fourth person who heard the conversation besides them. She had been doing this since the middle of the process and just strengthened it at the end. Of course, no one was found to have eavesdropped in the end. Who would eavesdrop on the private conversations of these three young adventurers?

"So... um... what do you say?"

This situation made Lunicia feel a little embarrassed, so she could only ask again.

"Lady Luna, this is not a good place to discuss this topic."

"So just like Ashetherin said before, we should just find a place to live first. What do you think, Luna?"

"Hey, is it inconvenient?" Lunicia tilted her head, "As for accommodation, there is a suitable place..."

I don't need to tell you where the right place is, I'm sure all readers already know it. Lunicia is also that kind of person, once she has decided on a way to do something, she will stick to it before passively finding a new solution, just like now, they finally stayed in the Pasipatio Hotel as if it was destined by fate.

"Just as Lady Luna thought the last time, the event beneath the Cathedral of Alexandria was indeed some kind of ritual. The experience the last time has proven this."

"Yeah..." Lunicia looked a little hesitant, "But it's weird."

"Does Lady Luna find it strange?"

"I've never heard of that prayer, but judging by its content, it should be a prayer from the lineage of Alexander the Great... The sacrificial ritual of the Orthodox Church is essentially exchanging sacrifices for divine power, following a rule that is not clear but does exist. Generally speaking, the higher the 'value' of the sacrifice, the more blessings that can be exchanged, but sacrificing a living person..."

Lunicia hesitated, not knowing whether she could come to a definite conclusion for her statement.

As far as she knew, Zerhal where she was, prohibited any form of living sacrifice, whether the object was ordinary living people, animals or evil gods' followers, because it was to prevent believers from forming the wrong idea that "life force can also be used as a sacrifice." The effect was not significant in Lunisia's opinion. After all, the act of believers burning their own lives in exchange for the blessing of the gods was essentially a sacrifice of life force. If the sacrifice of living things was prohibited without prohibiting self-sacrifice, it would probably be difficult to play a role in guiding thinking.

Lunisia does not have a deep understanding of other orthodox churches, so she cannot be sure whether in other remote places, among the believers of other gods, offering living people - such as criminals and prisoners of war - as sacrifices is an act allowed by the church.

What happened “last time” proved that, although the result was very unexpected, the sacrificial ceremony was indeed successful, which made Lunicia particularly puzzled.

"...In any case, it is not certain that it is a sacrificial ritual targeting the god Alexander."

Although it sounds like self-deception, Lunisia can only come to this conclusion.

"Even so, this ceremony is a little too simple."

Ella looked puzzled.

"Hmm... yes..."

This also confused Lunicia.

She did not think that the killings she and her group committed "last time" had satisfied the conditions for the ceremony in advance. Even if she had to choose sacrifices, it was obviously not the guards who were responsible for guarding the ceremony site. Instead, she should fill in more irrelevant people, such as obtaining death row prisoners from prison, or purchasing the required population from human traffickers. Sacrificing her own guards and subordinates was an insane behavior that did not fit with Lunicia's understanding of what happened at the ceremony site "last time".

If so, the ritual was too easy, too simple, and too casual. Evil gods often had lower ritual requirements than righteous gods, and it was easier to exchange for gifts and power, but it didn't mean that it could be accomplished casually.

Taking what you all know as an example, Anders massacred the entire town, locked his soul in the narrow gap between reality and dreams and tortured it repeatedly, creating several fellow ghouls. Only in this way could he barely communicate with the Twins of Blasphemy, and in return, he provoked the evil god to take action.

The consequences of the ceremony in the Cathedral of Alexandria were almost equivalent to the presence of gods themselves, but no preparation was required in advance. It didn't matter if the ceremony site was blown up into a mess. Even if the sacrifices prepared in advance died, replacements could be chosen. According to Lunicia's judgment at the time, it was herself and Ashtherin who replaced the original sacrifices and were offered in the ceremony, which ultimately allowed the ceremony to be completed on time at twelve o'clock. This situation was almost completely against common sense.

"Luna has a lot of questions to figure out, so..."

"One at a time, right?"

Lunicia smiled in a nonchalant manner.

Chapter 51 Day 1: The Girl's Thoughts

Honestly speaking, this format was definitely not a good choice for Lunicia. On the first day, she held a meeting based on the experience of the "last time", exchanged information, and then did a bunch of things that she didn't know whether they were meaningful or not, and finally faced the same ending on the third day. But she didn't seem to have any choice. After all, she was the only one who knew what had happened, and she was the only one who could reproduce these things in the form of words to her two travel companions.

"Okay, first of all..."

"First of all, Luna already knows who is behind this, right?"

"Huh? Ah."

Although it was a good idea to get to the point quickly, Ashlee's slightly jumpy train of thought still made Lunicia hesitate for a moment before she nodded and gave a positive answer: "Yes, um... but it doesn't seem to make any sense. I only saw their faces, but I don't actually know them, so I don't know who they are..."

The helpless, frowning, reluctant middle-aged man, the condescending old man, and the last one, the middle-aged man whose strength Lunicia could not tell at all, Lunicia was absolutely sure that they were the masterminds of the whole thing, but she only described the characteristics in her memory, those characteristics that she saw from afar at the altar door, seemed not enough to find their true identities, which made Lunicia quite distressed.

"Actually, it doesn't need to be so troublesome." Ashithelin continued, "Luna doesn't need to know who they are. All we need is for Ashithelin to be able to know who they are, that's all."

"Huh? What does that mean?"

"Put your face close to me first."

"Face?"

Without waiting for Lunicia to react, Ashethelin moved on her own. She reached out and gently grabbed Lunicia's shoulders, pulled her body towards her, and then leaned her body forward, so that their foreheads were touching each other.

"Wait, wait, what are you doing?"

"I hope you're not looking for an opportunity to do something to Lady Luna - you're planning to do something, right? What should I do?"

"Ella may not know, but Luna should still remember it. When we were ambushed by snipers in Nosavi, I used this method to tell Luna the enemy's distribution."

"So, this is indeed the case..."

Now Lunicia also remembered that when she was in Nosavi, Ashetherin would use "I" as the first person, but now it seems that she only calls herself "Individual Ashetherin" or "Ash". Should we say that she is completely used to this name or something else? It's really amazing.

"Anyway, what should I do next?"

"As the subject of the prayer, Ashe only needs to think for a moment if she wants to transmit data to Luna in this way. However, if Luna, as the object, wants to transmit data in the opposite direction, she probably needs to concentrate, um, concentrate on recalling the appearance of the five people that Luna has seen."

"I see. I'll give it a try."

Concentrating was not difficult for Lunisia, who often meditated. The real difficulty was just recalling the images of the five people she saw when her consciousness was blurred.

If one were to rank these five people based on the recognizability of their facial features, the ones that impressed Lunicea the most were probably the old man in the lead, the middle-aged man who turned his head away, and the middle-aged man whose depth was unclear.

The old man in the lead had a typical Muirander - or Highlander, or Turian - tall face, dark gray hair, and deep indigo eyes. Of course, the most eye-catching thing was his temperament, like a deep well that was difficult to shake and produce ripples, ancient and unpredictable; the middle-aged man who turned his head away did not have many features in terms of appearance. If you must say, black hair was not common in the southeast of the continent. He might be a descendant of those mechanical consultants of the Gunasalan Kingdom. As everyone knows, this ancient country that is proud of magic does not care much about mechanical technology. The black hair was mottled with silver threads, and the deep wrinkles on his face, the furrows between his eyebrows, and the heavy dark circles under his eyes made him seem older than his actual age, as if he had more troubles than others.

The middle-aged man's appearance was not particularly distinctive, he was strong and well-defined, except for the scar on his forehead and the bloody smell that seemed to come from a long battle. These made his originally featureless appearance somewhat recognizable at a glance.

"How about it?"

"The records have been completed." After separating their foreheads, Ashlee sat back on the armrest of her favorite sofa. "Next, we just need to compare these faces with the database to find out their identities."

"That's what I said, but where is the database?"

“It’s everywhere.”

Ella thought for a moment and said, "According to the analysis from last time, these people are likely to be great nobles or even members of the four major families. They need to run around for the political issues of Muirand and show up in public. Generally speaking, they are not unknown people, which means that their images and names are actually very easy to find."

"That's right, very smart, Ella."

"It's better to say less of this kind of insincere compliment."

"Let's change the subject then. In addition to the identity of the master of ceremonies, there is another matter to consider."

When Ashatherine said this, Lunicia seemed to hold her breath involuntarily.

"Rose, and Colette...right?"

"Yes."

As long as we continue to think about countermeasures, it will be impossible to bypass this problem.

One is the powerful enemy standing in front of him, the seemingly invincible dragon girl; the other is the bard who is waiting for the arrival of twelve o'clock underground as a sacrifice. Both of them are indispensable parts of this ceremony.

Whether as an invincible enemy or as an innocent person who was almost killed by Lunicia herself, the two girls who only met once left a deep impression in Lunicia's memory. It seemed that whenever Lunicia recalled those peaceful and pale faces, she would feel bitter in her heart.

"They are all beauties. From the perspective of the puppet's aesthetics, this cannot be denied either."

"What are you talking about... No, wait, I don't think I sent both of their appearances over at the same time?"

"Those kinds of things are everywhere. Just look for them and you'll find them." Ashlee pulled out a piece of paper as if performing a magic trick. "This is a poster posted in the hotel lobby."

"Ah, I didn't notice at all..."

"Ashe actually cares about this kind of thing."

Ella took the poster from Ashlee with a helpless look on her face and spread it out on the coffee table. It seemed to be a poster based on a photo from an awards ceremony. Colette and Rose were wearing costumes from "Sitzberg", and they were holding the trophy together. All that could be seen on the poster were smiles of happiness and pride, without any fear or despair about the future, about that twelve o'clock.

"It seems there is some other information in the newspaper archives. What is gossip?"

"I don't understand either." Lunicia looked at Ella's position, "Does Ella know?"

"It's about the romantic affairs or private lives of famous people... Why are you asking about this all of a sudden?"

"This Weekly Laguna says that Colette and Rose are actually a couple—"

"puff----"

The one who showed excessive excitement about this was, without a doubt, Lunetia.

"Wait wait wait, what the hell, what are they? A couple?!"

"That's what it says. It seems to be true... Oh, this Alley Newspaper also says that. So gossip is just that kind of thing."

"No matter how you look at it, this is too outrageous!"