Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

"Answer me, tell me what you want, what you really want to do. You want to save Colette, right?"

“But, but…!”

"But that's Colette's own idea, so you can't force her to change it. You can't impose your desire to 'save you' on her and make her give up the ritual and her dream, right?"

"Ms. Luna..."

When saving others, Lunicea looked particularly serious.

This seemed to be the first time she had seen Lunesia trying her best to do something other than fighting. Ella couldn't help but think so. Perhaps this was what the savior should do.

"Um……"

Rose nodded slightly.

She did not show hostility because of the secret being exposed, or perhaps, before she wanted to show hostility, Lunisia's gentle words convinced her to think about her true thoughts. She didn't care about the ceremony, the four major families, or the obligation to protect Mulande. She had no sense of responsibility to keep secrets that did not belong to her. She was just a dragon who wanted to protect her only treasure.

"That's not right, since Colette wants it that way, so we can't stop her by force..."

"But, is it really like this?"

"……I don't know either……"

She is a blood-colored dragon, a naive, simple and cruel disaster, but also a patron saint who will give everything for the precious things and fulfill their wishes. She is a dragon who cannot keep secrets, her joy, anger, sorrow and happiness are clear at a glance, and she cannot be conquered by force, so Lunicia will choose to present everything equal and unreserved heartfelt words.

"Some things become unclear when you are the one involved." Ella seemed to be infected by the aura emanating from Lunicia, and she persuaded with cold but gentle words, "Colette must be feeling pain, but neither Colette nor Rose can jump out of their own position and look at this matter from other angles, whether it is the ceremony or her dream, so why don't you tell us everything, your past, and why Colette has such an idea."

"I'm not very good at this kind of thing..."

Lunicia shook her head gently: "It's okay."

"I'm not very good at telling stories. Unlike Colette, who can turn stories into ballads... It might take a long time to tell. Is that okay?"

"I will always listen to everything you say and everything you have been through."

Lunicia smiled gently, as if to dispel the uneasiness in the dragon girl's heart.

"So please tell me."

About your things, about what happened in the past on this land.

A story about a girl and a dragon that happened at the end of summer.

Chapter 71: The Sky of Remembrance

It's like a satire, a story that a modern critical writer would write.

In the city on the top of the mountain, where Colette Xi Caroline is the most fanatical and sought after, no one can accurately tell her life experience, her origin, and everything about her. People only know that she is an adventurer who graduated from the Bard Academy and is also a part-time opera singer. She is a popular celebrity, but almost nothing else is known. She is not in Muirand most of the time. Where is she at that time? When did the female companions around her meet her? These things are unknown. Together with her origin, those contents that would dominate the bestseller list if they were written seem to be deliberately ignored, like some kind of unspeakable taboo.

Perhaps it was because those who had discovered something in the investigation finally chose to withdraw their hands and not let the hot information burn them, or perhaps the four major families took the initiative to issue warnings, using some shady little tricks to make those unscrupulous intelligence dealers "quit while they were ahead" - in general, in the end no one was able to dig out the whereabouts of this popular celebrity.

Naturally, no one would know that she was born into the Byron family, one of the four major families.

No one knew that she was the child of Ludovit Byron, who was hidden in the cradle. People could not see her childhood, nor could they see through the veil that shrouded her. This was exactly what everyone expected. People needed a hazy and brilliant idol that could generate many fantasies and speculations. The four major families needed a secret that would never be exposed. For Ludovit Byron, the head of the Byron family, this was probably a scandal that could never be exposed.

Or maybe, it’s the same for all four major families.

Since learning about the forgotten ritual, the four major families have been thinking about how to use it. They analyzed the notes left by the sages in the past and finally analyzed the process of the ritual and learned the truth about the sacrifices required for the ritual. According to their research, although the ritual was first used with four legendary strongmen as sacrifices, it was only because they wanted to imprint the ritual on this land, so they paid a higher price than normal, so that later generations can start the ritual again with fewer sacrifices.

The form of sacrifice they finally chose was the "girl", who was the least valuable and easiest to obtain for them.

The four major families fought over who would take on this responsibility, but finally reached a peace agreement, with the four families taking turns to train the sacrifice, and the next family would take over every generation. At the beginning, if there was no need for a sacrifice, the chosen girl would become a servant in the family and would not be allowed to leave the house for the rest of her life, so as to prevent these seemingly loyal tributes from leaking secrets. But later, this rule was relaxed, and the more favored girls could go out freely after completing the tribute courses, until the day they were needed to dedicate themselves to the gods.

In any case, the girl was eventually born into the Byron family, as a secret that could never be mentioned.

The ones serving the girl were the most loyal confidants and the mute servants who would never reveal the secrets. Born with the destiny of being offered as a sacrifice, the girl spent her childhood in the Byron family's villa. In that complex three-story building and back garden, she read stories about heroes, went through the necessary training to become a professional and adventurer, and spent every day that seemed to have no hope.

Until that day.

It was a day in late summer. Colette, who had been tortured by the adventurer course and was almost unable to move, finally recovered some mobility and could run around without help. She never liked the interior of the mansion, which was too dark even with the lights on, and she didn't like facing the group of black-clad servants who were too silent and made people feel uneasy. Whenever she had the chance, she would run to the courtyard with tree walls and flower beds to do her little adventure.

She knew that in the corner of the courtyard that no one else knew about, there was a stone corridor that was difficult to pass because of collapse. The house connected to the courtyard was not built later, but was the original stone house occupied by one of the four major families at the beginning of the founding of Mulan. The house itself was later renovated, but the courtyard, apart from some new plants, still retained almost the style left by Schitzberg, so there would be some corners that were not paid attention to. As long as there was no accident or something incredible, no one would put too much energy in this small villa.

Colette didn't know all this, at least she didn't know it at the time. She was locked in the annex and didn't even know where she was in Muirand. She was just instilled with a sense of responsibility, a sense of responsibility for the land she had never seen and the people she didn't know at all. She was just attracted by the ancient corridor, and driven by the most simple girl's curiosity, she climbed over the collapsed stone railings, passed through the narrow gaps between the ruins, and came to the land that was too wide for a girl.

An almost endless grassland covered with white flowers.

There was no sun or moon, but the sky was extremely bright with a few wisps of clouds floating in it.

And some relics that are too old, even seem older than the entire Muirand, and who knows how long ago they came from.

The stone temple seemed to have been abandoned for a long time, and the last visitor seemed to be an unknown time ago. After all, the only passage was unknown, and no one came to repair it even if it collapsed. Perhaps Schitzberg had been here before, and no one had been here since then. There was no dust here, as if there was no filth in this world, only bright and beautiful scenery, as if it was deliberately showing such scenery to someone, so such a place was chosen.

There, the girl saw a flawless white egg.

The egg, placed in layers of colorful silk and resting on soft cushions, seemed to be sleeping. The sound of its heartbeat attracted the attention of the young girl Colette, who walked forward to get close to the thing that she didn't know whether it was dangerous or safe. She even stretched out her fingers, gently stroked the smooth eggshell, pressed her body against it, and hugged the warm egg.

What she didn't know was that when she did these actions out of a sense of security, the bloody young dragon also stared at her through the white eggshell with its eyes wide open with curiosity.

She loved the vast and beautiful scenery, even though she couldn't feel the temperature change or the passage of time, at most there was only the breeze blowing across her cheeks from time to time, and a forest she had never been to and didn't know what was in it. There was an endless sky that seemed to never be seen in the outside world, no sun, but a fascinating blue, and those gray poisonous clouds that were different from the ones she saw on weekdays, white and elegant clouds.

She loved the ancient and dignified stone ruins. Although they were not wide, they were just a short walkway and a small temple that seemed to be enshrining the white egg. However, the bricks and stones exuded a reassuring antiquity, as if they were basking in the eternal sunshine. A certain solemn and great atmosphere was deeply imprinted in them, magnificent yet gentle, and together with the mosses that crawled all over the cracks in the stones, they formed a cradle.

She also loved the white egg.

Whenever she had the chance, she would come here through the narrow gap. The silent servants didn't care about her. As long as she didn't really disappear, as long as she ate the necessary food every day and didn't suffer from any serious illness, the servants wouldn't care what she did. The same was true for the man who claimed to be her father. Even if the girl tortured herself to the brink of death with the adventurer course, he would just let the doctor cure her and wouldn't ask anything else. She seemed to unconsciously regard the egg that made a heartbeat as her friend. Every time she came, she would sit in front of it, flipping through the books she brought from home, or telling it about her own experiences. Only in front of the white egg would she talk a lot.

As if she wanted to tell the white egg everything that she couldn't tell anyone else, she told it day after day about her anxieties, anxieties that others were unwilling to listen to.

She didn't understand what she was.

It's Colette Xi Caroline, or an object named "Colette".

"My friend, my nameless friend. Please listen to my voice, listen to my words, listen to my dull and boring language. I cannot tell anyone but you. Please forgive my sins and accept my questions."

She would always hum like this, using the voice she learned when she was training as a bard, half speaking, half singing. I don't know if it should be called precocious or just a dead end.

"My friend, who am I?"

This is the girl's question that no one can answer.

"After spending so much time with you, I still don't understand who I am."

"My father called me a hero... My father hoped that I could become a hero. He became my father because of blood, but can he become my father because of his actions? I got the name Colette because of my birth, but can my actions and my future make me Colette?"

"I am a priestess who was born only to be sacrificed one day. People have given me this identity. People's expectations have made me a hero... Is a hero the real me? But now I am not a hero. I am just fragile and powerless, like the moon in the water that will break at the slightest touch, or the snow in late spring. I cannot be a hero now, but because people call me a hero, I am a 'hero'... That's all..."

"I'm just here to tell you all this..."

"What should I do instead...?"

How long can this kind of days last? This leisurely days spent in self-torture and wandering in the sky?

The uneasy girl never knew that on the other side of the eggshell, a pair of blood-red eyes were always staring at her.

"…I've talked to you so much."

The girl's fingertips gently brushed across the white eggshell, as if she was confiding or talking to herself.

"But I still don't know your name. What is your name? My friend... my only friend."

The girl stared at the white egg that was making a heartbeat sound, and suddenly burst into laughter.

"Hehe... Sorry, I forgot you wouldn't answer me about this."

"Maybe I will leave tomorrow... maybe the day after tomorrow... maybe the day after tomorrow... maybe a month later? A year later? Ten years later? A hundred years later? When will that day come? People don't tell me anything, and I can only wait anxiously for tomorrow, waiting for my last day which will come at an unknown time."

"That shouldn't be a sad thing..."

"My friend, do you know what death is? You who have not yet been born probably cannot understand the meaning of the end of life. That may be my end, the end that will definitely come to me. I don't know what kind of ceremony it will be, and who will end my life. Will it be someone else? Or myself? If possible... I hope to do it by myself..."

"Maybe, at that time, I can become 'myself'."

"I was raised for this, I grew up with this goal, I wanted to be a hero... at that time, can I become a 'hero'? Maybe at that time, I can also know what it feels like to be my true self. That would be a good thing... maybe... it must be a good thing, not a sad thing..."

"…But, I don't know. I don't know if you will not be born when that day comes?"

"Before the inevitable end comes... I really want to hear your words... I really want to know your name..."

However, even if I tell you many times, you will never know it.

To the girl, the white egg was just a mute friend, a person to whom she could confide her innermost thoughts. But if she had to say something, it was actually unknown to the girl. She didn’t know what the egg was, when it would hatch, and even less did she know if the thing inside the egg would also regard her as a friend.

However, the girl Colette herself didn't care.

She just felt sad for no reason.

"But...thank you anyway, my friend."

She slowly stood up and performed a standard skirt-lifting gesture towards the white egg.

"During this period of time, it is because of you that I don't feel lonely..."

But after that?

Will I feel lonely afterwards?

After experiencing the feeling of being accompanied by someone, after experiencing the feeling of not being alone, she seemed to start to fear, fearing the journey that she had to go on alone. The silent servants would not accompany her, nor would her father who always had a cold face, nor would her mother who disappeared. This boundless grassland, the endless sky, and the small stone temple would eventually become faded photos deep in her memory. She came into this world alone, and it seemed that she would leave alone in the end.

On the altar, a man committed suicide with a sword.

Perhaps other people will be watching me, perhaps they will witness my true birth, perhaps they will call me a hero, perhaps they will engrave my name in the future - but they will always be the existence called "others" who cannot approach me.

Maybe it's time for me to leave.

And, never look back.

Only by forgetting this small refuge, forgetting the vast sky, and forgetting the silent friends under the sky, will you not feel lonely if you have never experienced meeting others.

"I'm leaving now."

Consider this a farewell, and then embark on a journey of death all alone.

——Click, click——

It was as if echoing the girl's farewell.

The crisp, cracking sound echoed in the small stone chamber.

Outside the window without glass, the bright blue sky casts light and the lonely shadow of clouds. A gentle breeze blows over the stone temple and the grassland, swaying the white flowers and shallow grass, blowing the tiny moss on the stone pillars. The leaves in the woods rustle, as if singing an ancient ballad, a lullaby for children.

The girl couldn't help but turn her head and look in the direction where the voice came from.

At some point, tiny cracks appeared on the originally smooth and flawless egg. The cracks seemed to be stretched open by something, becoming denser and more obvious, until the eggshell completely split in the middle with a crisp sound.

The dripping mucus evaporated in the blink of an eye. The blood-red dragon wings stretched out, and the membrane opened lazily. The girl in the eggshell stretched lazily, shook her head, and threw away the white debris stuck to her hair.

“…It’s Rose.”

The girl's expression was innocent and pure, like a blank sheet of paper.

It was a girl whose identity was unknown. She had a human body, but narrow vertical pupils. Her eyes were like crystal rubies. Beautiful ruby-like scales covered her wrists and ankles, and occasionally appeared in other places, as if she had not yet decided where she should appear. Her long, slender tail covered with dragon scales swayed, as if to show her inner joy. She retracted her sharp claws, tilted her head towards Colette, and showed a happy smile.

"My name is Rose."

……

"That was... my encounter with Colette."

That must have been the happiest time in Rose's life.

Too warm, too nostalgic, too happy, just a little recollection, a happy smile will appear on her face. That is the most precious treasure of the Dragon Girl, and it will never be lost.

Just by seeing that expression, Lunicia felt as if she had gained the same joy and happiness. She could understand Rose's feelings, both now and in the past.

"You really are a dragon."

Ella also had a look of emotion on her face.

Although she usually doesn't care much about things outside of Lunicia, it doesn't mean that she can't appreciate the weight of other people's words.

"Well, although they haven't seen my parents... they are also dragons, right? They are dragons like Rose."

The memory in the egg is not long. At the earliest, there seemed to be other people in that hazy dreamlike memory, the hero called Muirander of Schitzberg, but if you trace it back further, it is a chaos that is difficult to remember. You don’t know who gave birth to you, nor do you know who placed you in this demiplane and has been taking care of you. For a long time, you were just floating alone in the silent, colorless and invisible fetal sea, half asleep and half awake, until the arrival of the girl Colette.

"Although I can't respond to her, but... I have been listening to her voice, from the beginning to the end, until I was hatched, always and always, with Colette."

Because he couldn't talk to her, because he couldn't dialogue with her, because he couldn't respond to her loneliness, Long tried hard to grow, learn her language, imitate her posture, wanting to be the same as her, wanting to hold her hand, wanting to hug her, wanting to tell her his name. It was not just a baby bird's attachment to something it saw for the first time, but a true resonance with her from the bottom of his heart.

"Colette would bring snacks, picture books, and other beautiful dresses. She didn't want others to know about my existence, so I was always there, accompanying her in that demiplane..."

"We studied and lived together there. Because no one paid attention to her, she always had plenty of time to accompany me. I listened to her singing the new songs she learned every day, her stories of heroic adventures, her seemingly similar experiences every day, her complaints about the boredom of the servants in the mansion, and her complaints about her father who never had a good face... It was because of Colette that I knew so many stories about this world."

"I am very happy to watch her grow up day by day."

"I'm so happy to hear that she can go out. That way, Rose can be with her anytime."