Does the mechanical girl dream of the Messiah?

People coming and going, from left to right, consciously made way for the two girls at the bottom of the map, and no one mentioned their existence, as if this place had become a vacuum.

"Um……"

Faced with that amusing expression, Lunicia couldn't help but groan.

"I wonder if you are a traveler."

"What do you think?"

"I've never heard of that style of clothing." Blinking, Lunicia couldn't help but ask, "It looks like a floor-length robe worn by a wizard or scholar, but also like a modern windbreaker... I'm curious, where are you from, traveler?"

"this one?"

She reached out and pulled her collar, as if to show off her clothes to Lunicia, or as if to show off her gloves and bracelets with intricate patterns. The girl did not get closer to Lunicia because of her polite attitude and words.

"It's a Southern style... certainly not the type that's popular these days."

"South. That's Avis?"

This answer did not surprise Lunisia. If she were to ask which places in the world were the least known and most likely to be the places she did not understand, then "the South" would undoubtedly be a very suitable answer. Of course, there was a premise to this, which was to exclude Hyperborean, the South Pole, and the "Lost World" that had become a wasteland.

"maybe."

The girl chuckled and did not comment on her answer. This answer was no different from affirmation in Lunicia's ears, so she did not ask any more questions and just assumed that the other party was a tourist from the Holy Kingdom of Avis. As for the reason for coming here, she did not care, nor did she think she needed to care. Travelers from all over the world can find their own way here, so why should she care so much?

"How do you feel?"

"what?"

“To this city.”

Lunicia smiled a little sheepishly.

"This is my first time traveling far away... and my first time in a big city like this. I always feel that it's not good to have too high expectations, but I can't help but wonder what a great place this is. Can you tell me about your general feeling so that I don't have too high expectations and feel disappointed after I actually go in?"

"........."

The girl couldn't help but narrow her eyes.

She did not answer immediately, but looked at Lunesia with a complicated look as if she was thinking about something, until the latter felt a little uncomfortable. She then withdrew her gaze and took a step, looking like she was going to leave from behind Lunesia, while giving her answer:

"People who have never seen Gwynthern would probably think this is a nice place... Me? I don't think there's anything good about it. It's just the stone sculptures that look impressive, the city planning without any sense of art, the historical traces that are superficial, and the historical sites that are there just to make up the numbers. Only the gate looks decent. The rich people in Hyperborean might like this kind of thing more, because their brains are frozen like ice sculptures."

"...Gwynthern?"

Completely subconsciously, Lunicia repeated the word in a questioning tone.

She knew it was a place name, at least considering the context, it must be a place name.

If she had never heard of this name, she would be curious, but she would not react like this. There are so many big cities in the world, there must be some that she has never heard of but do exist. Those cities may be prosperous, ancient, and may make Lunicia have too many fantasies, but they will not penetrate her heart deeply with just a name.

If we talk about the reasons.

There was only one explanation - she had heard of it, or even knew about the city called "Gwynthern".

"nothing."

When she heard this subconscious question, the girl couldn't help but turn around and stare at Lunicia's face, staring at her brown eyes. Then, as if she had gained nothing, she shook her head, turned her head away again, and waved her hand with her back to Lunicia, saying goodbye.

“…Don’t worry about it.”

Step by step, she walked so without any regrets that her previous actions and overly concerned reactions seemed like illusions, as if they had never happened.

"that."

Unconsciously, Lunicia also took a step forward. Perhaps it was for some reason that she herself did not understand. Even though she had no intention of keeping the other party, she still spoke like this, letting the mountain breeze carry her words and blow them into the ears of the young lady.

"……May I have your name?"

"No honorifics this time."

The girl didn't look back, but her reaction made Lunicia feel relieved.

"Oh, sorry - my name is Lunitia, Lunitia Aguerres."

"…Ophelia."

Leaving behind a short, pleasant but uncommon name, the gray-haired girl took another step. This time, she did not stop for anything. The travelers in front of her unconsciously made way for her, and then returned to their usual hustle and bustle, until the figure disappeared at the end of the street and on the other side of the gate to the dome.

It's like a signal that we will never see each other again, but also like a foreshadowing that we will meet again.

His body, which was not tall to begin with, leaned slightly forward, as if bent by something. He looked tired and helpless.

……

"It feels like the way you speak today is a little different from usual."

Ella's physical strength has returned to normal. The adventurer course not only strengthens the physical fitness, but also the recovery ability. The physical recovery speed of professionally trained adventurers is naturally much higher than that of ordinary people. Moreover, she and Ashlee are now truly doing nothing. They just chat and watch people coming and going in front of the gate of the sky.

"If Ella doesn't want to chat, there's no need to force it."

"Do I look like I'm going to say that?"

"This is the result of the analysis."

"What analysis?"

"Ella is not trying to build a good relationship with the individual Asheselin. She is just trying to divert attention because she is restless. By the way, I'll give you a hint. You can't get past the crowd and see what's going on inside the door from this direction. You don't have to keep looking for opportunities to observe inside the door."

"..."

Ella was speechless for a moment. She suddenly had an illusion that her physical strength had not recovered after resting, which made her feel like she was about to die.

"I wasn't looking inside the door."

"Ah, is that so?"

“That doesn’t seem to be a rhetorical question.”

"By the way, by observing the flow of people from here, we can roughly judge the general situation inside the door. It's very stable now, with people coming and going, just like a river, flowing from top to bottom and finally returning to the source..."

"Of course I..."

"Wait, it looks like some high-profile rising star... is moving outward."

"..."

Ella didn't reply, but her eyes moved back to follow Ashlee's words.

But at first glance, you can't tell that the flow of the crowd is any different from before. It's still noisy and bustling, and it seems that only an orderly chaos can be seen. If an inexperienced person were to observe it, it would be difficult to draw any useful conclusions.

For people like Ashlee and Ella, it was easy to see the clues. Although it was not obvious, the crowd was unconsciously making way for a path. Even if the parties involved seemed unaware, they still moved to the sides under some kind of silent influence to make way for the unknown retrograde. They seemed to be in perfect harmony, but everyone knew that they neither knew each other nor had anything in common. It was because of them that they had created a corner of the stage, as if waiting for the spotlight prepared for the protagonist.

A gray-haired girl with a side ponytail was walking out slowly from there.

She just walked forward in an ordinary manner, but this gave people a strange feeling, as if one could understand her disdain just by looking at her expression and her posture - or even worse, her disdain was contempt for the city behind her. It was not that she was disdainful, but that the city behind her was completely ignored in her eyes. It seemed that this prosperous ancient city with a long history was no different from barren mountains, ruins, grasslands, and snow in her eyes. They were all just boring scenery.

It seemed that there was nothing in this city worth her turning back or taking another look.

It seems that the presence or absence of pedestrians around makes no difference. No matter the atmosphere and thoughts, sounds and emotions, limbs and souls, their existence will not shake the girl's mood, and their disappearance is meaningless to the girl.

But there is an exception.

The girl looked over and stared at Ella and Ashlee with a half-smile, gloomy and tired expression. She said nothing, just nodded to them, then turned around again and walked down the stone steps, still without looking back, as if there was nothing behind her worthy of her attention.

"..."

Ella's caution made her keep her body tense and her hand on the hilt of the sword, but until the girl turned and left, nothing dangerous happened, so her effort was wasted in silence.

The crowd looked no different from before, no one realized what had just happened. It seemed that just as they did not exist in the girl's eyes, the eye-catching girl did not exist in their eyes either. Those with pointed ears, those who were short and strong, those with scales and horns, those with fish-like faces, and those who were ordinary, no matter which of them, had no place for the girl in their hearts.

Be it chatting, arguing, physical contact or eye contact, it had nothing to do with the girl. She seemed to be a complete outsider.

"Ashe, that is..."

Ella subconsciously asked Ashlee, but the latter did not respond in time.

When Ella couldn't help but look over, she found that Ashlee was staring in the direction where the gray-haired girl left, without saying a word.

"...Ashe, that person is gone."

"Yes. Individual Ashtherin has already observed this - don't worry, Ash will definitely not make mistakes in this matter."

"is it?"

This rhetorical question was redundant. Of course, Ella didn't need an answer. She was just like Ashlee, staring at the direction where the gray-haired girl left. The travelers who came later were still climbing up. They seemed to be discussing the magnificence of the Muirland Theatre and the roles of the recent opera heroines. They seemed to be completely unaware that such a striking woman had just walked by them. It seemed that she had melted into the mist in the mountains without a trace.

"So, who is that? Her eyes are similar to yours, and you don't look like you don't know her at all."

"negative."

After a moment's silence, Ashlee replied.

She seemed to be lost in thought again like before, but she recovered much faster this time. She had obviously thought a lot but did not get the answer she wanted.

"There is no record of 'her' in my mind... but there is a sense of familiarity. The moon is always hanging in the sky, and humans associate various things with the celestial body hanging in the dome, but they have never touched the celestial body itself. If humans stop on the moon, will they associate the things under their feet with the moon?"

"It's interesting, but I haven't seen the moon."

"excuse me."

"That's not the point, so?"

“…Give the conclusion first.”

Ashetherin stared at the stone steps leading down the mountain.

"She is not human. Moreover, the individual Ashetherin cannot determine what she is."

……

"Sister Ophelia! Here!"

Looking down, on the stone platform, a girl with brown ponytails was waving at her. Ophelia couldn't help but raise her eyebrows, first waved in response, and then cast her gaze to the people behind the brown-haired girl.

"…Didn't I tell you to leave first? Why are you still here?"

"Hey, aren't you waiting for Sister Ophelia?"

"Lena... forget it."

Looking at Lena's embarrassed look with her tongue sticking out, Ophia thought for a moment and finally said nothing. She turned her eyes away from Lena and looked at the silver-haired elf and the silver-haired girl beside her.

——No matter how many times I watch it, I always think that they really look like mother and son…

Muttering to herself, Ophelia inadvertently saw what the silver-haired elf was holding.

"Julietina."

"……What's up?"

Although she responded out loud, the elf girl called Julietina still did not raise her head.

"What are you looking at?"

“Fashion magazines.”

Raising her eyes and glancing at Ophelia, Julietina once again returned her gaze to the book.

Her emerald green eyes gave people the feeling of a black cat, smart and indifferent to the world. It can be said that she is focused, or she is narrow-minded. Of course, if she really said that, she definitely does not look indifferent. It seems that compared to Ophelia who was walking down the stone steps, the not-so-thick fashion magazine in her hand can attract her attention more.

"Well, fashion magazines..."

Although Ophelia's expression looked calm as usual, her tone was obviously different from before.

"What were you watching before?"

"The Dragon Calendar."

"Yeah, that's right, the Dragon Calendar - why don't you continue reading that? I think it goes well with the little pet next to you. The length of time she sleeps should be comparable to that of a dragon, which is a good thing from a biological perspective."

--Snapped.

With a crisp sound, Julietina suddenly closed the book in her hand.

"Although I felt offended when you advised me not to watch that, but later on I think you did make some sense. Are you going to bring it up again now?"

"Did I say that?"

"Yes, Sister Ophia said at the time... 'If you want to know about the history of the dragon race, why don't you just ask me instead of reading those toilet paper-like books?'"

"Really? It seems my memory is not as good as it used to be. Sophie, are you still asleep?"

"Don't change the subject."

Although the elf Julietina's tone was a bit dissatisfied, her body remained motionless, and she looked like she was providing a good sleeping environment for the silver-haired girl named Sophie who was sleeping on her shoulder.

"Okay, then I must emphasize that..."