Monster - Chapter 130
Chapter 130: Star City - The Rebel
After a busy day of running around, Lin Sandie returned to the hotel, cleaned up, and went to bed. She once again returned to the Aztec Tower World.
The moment her consciousness returned to this Tower World, a familiar sensation told her she was finally back inside the little rabbit doll. She couldn't help but sigh softly. She had lost track of how long she had been away from Little Fool. Pie had been constantly sending her on missions to pull lost Sentinels back from the brink of being bedeviled. Even when she could return to her dreams, she couldn't see Little Fool, and the flow of time in reality was different from that in the dream.
It must have been at least a few years since she was last here.
Lin Sandie shifted her gaze and realized that although she was in the original rabbit doll, the surroundings were completely unfamiliar. She was in a dim little room, the rabbit doll propped up on the lower bunk of a wooden bunk bed. A seven or eight-year-old girl sat on the floor, using the bed frame as a desk, practicing basic grammar.
The little girl had long red hair and cute freckles on a pale face, a sign of malnutrition. She had no pen or paper; her small finger pointed to the words in the workbook as she repeated them one by one to commit them to memory.
Lin Sandie watched the girl for a while, knowing that she, unlike Lou, couldn't sense her presence. She raised her gaze to observe the room.
The room wasn't large; the bunk bed alone took up most of the space. Judging by the items in the room and the girl's appearance, she was still in Great Britain within the Aztec Tower World. However, this was no longer Little Fool's villa, but more like the cheap housing of the poor.
Did Little Fool get angry with me, throw the rabbit doll away, and then this little girl who needed a toy picked it up? ①
Lin Sandie quickly made her assessment. Otherwise, given Little Fool's personality, it was unlikely she would have lost her by accident.
Not wanting to deprive the little girl of her cherished toy, Lin Sandie quickly searched the vicinity for anything with a rabbit symbol so she could return to Little Fool's side. Unfortunately, within her scanning range, she couldn't find a single thing related to a rabbit.
Right, I can buy an item I can possess from the online store.
Lin Sandie opened her points panel and saw a zero.
…She seemed to recall transferring all her points to Little Fool after buying her that birthday present.
Remembering this, Lin Sandie didn't lose heart and began to think of another way.
During this period, she had been undertaking missions assigned by Pie almost every night she slept. Because of the different rates of time flow, dream time was several times longer than real time. Under such rigorous training, even though Lin Sandie held immense resentment toward Pie, she had to admit she had grown much stronger—strong enough to stand on her own.
Is there a difference between the worlds of bedeviled Sentinels Pie threw me into and this Aztec world? Lin Sandie wondered. She focused her mind and released her "Island." Immediately, her spirit form, which had been possessing the rabbit doll, was fully revealed. It was a tall, slender figure formed purely from a mass of tangible black fog. The figure had no facial features, looking exactly like a ghost.
Lin Sandie contracted her "Island" to a certain size and moved it with her will. Her spirit form, contained within the "Island," moved along with it.
This way, I can go find that little rascal. Lin Sandie looked at the back of the little girl who was still studying diligently, her mind picturing what Little Fool looked like now. It had been too long since she had last seen her; she didn't even know what she looked like or how old she was.
Why did Pie arrange my life and Lou's this way?
Lin Sandie turned and left the small room, passing through the wall to the outside. A thick fog hung in the air, and not a sliver of sunlight could be seen in the gray sky.
Pie can control time and space, so chronological order is meaningless. From my perspective, my first contact with Lou was when I was forced to make my blood oath. I was on the verge of death, and Lou, purely on a whim, gave me a blood transfusion and saved me.
Because of that, I came to Aztec in my dreams, and my fate became entangled with Little Fool's.
But from Little Fool's perspective, her first contact was with Pie, with that silent goddess statue. She simply regarded that statue as her mother… She was a believer favored by Pie, and I… I exist because of her.
Lin Sandie had always had this feeling—that she existed because of Little Fool. Under Pie's arrangement, she traveled through time and space; her life and Lou's were like a Mobius strip, tightly intertwined. No matter which direction they went, they would always meet.
But what was the reason for all this? Lin Sandie could never figure it out. Why would Pie make such a convoluted arrangement?
Following the pull between a Sentinel and a Guide, Lin Sandie soon found Little Fool's current location. She was at a racecourse on the outskirts of the city. The grounds were vast and empty of spectators, with only a few children of nobility chatting amongst themselves.
Lin Sandie spotted Little Fool at a glance. The last time they met, she had only reached Lin Sandie's shoulder, but now she was almost as tall. She was wearing a white shirt, a black cinched jacket, and a black helmet. Black trousers and knee-high boots accentuated her long, straight legs—the riding attire for women of this era.
She's grown up. Lin Sandie watched from a distance, the corners of her mouth turning up in a smile. Looking at that face, though still youthful, which was already recognizably Lou's in its delicate beauty, a sense of pride inexplicably swelled in her heart.
Just then, Lin Sandie noticed Little Fool lean close to a similarly dressed noble girl and whisper something in her ear. The girl immediately turned to look at her, a gentle smile gracing her round face.
…It seems Miss Tudor must be Little Fool's first love. Lin Sandie watched the two girls in the distance with a hint of bitterness. While sighing inwardly, she warned herself not to take away the time that belonged to Little Fool. Little Fool had her own childhood and must have her own adolescence. She wasn't, and shouldn't be, her entire world. She would experience the bitterness of first love and everything any other girl would experience. And right now, she just needed to be like an adult, like an elder, and support her.
But changing her skin color for a first love is a bit much… Lin Sandie noted with displeasure that Little Fool's skin had gone from a healthy tan to an unhealthy pale white.
Lin Sandie slowly approached. Once she was within a certain range, Zhao Jinyu, who had been about to resume her equestrian practice, suddenly stopped. Her gaze turned cold as she looked in Lin Sandie's direction.
"What's wrong?" Miss Tudor asked, puzzled by the sudden coldness in Zhao Jinyu's expression.
"I just remembered something urgent I need to take care of. I need to step away for a moment, is that alright?" Zhao Jinyu's cold expression vanished. She took the reins of Miss Tudor's horse, who was already mounted, and looked up at her, asking with a gentle expression.
"Of course. Will you join me for lunch?"
"Naturally."
You little brat… Lin Sandie cursed silently with a smile, trying to ease the anxiety in her heart. Vaguely, she knew what she was about to face. Lou had once said she had betrayed her, but she never knew what that betrayal was.
Following Zhao Jinyu, Lin Sandie arrived at a lounge the racecourse provided for the nobility.
"Let's break our binding," Zhao Jinyu said, getting straight to the point. Without any extra words, she opened her points screen. The blue screen displayed a circular sphere named Aztec, with two portraits next to it. The top one was a rabbit doll with a round head, red eyes, and an "×" for a mouth. The text next to it read: Code Name: Little Rabbit (Guide), Mental Power 506, Stamina 102, Points 0.
The portrait below was the grown-up Zhao Jinyu. The text next to it read: Code Name: Little Fool (Sentinel), Mental Power 152, Stamina 425, Points 26014.
"I refuse. I have something to tell you," Lin Sandie said with a frown.
"I don't want to hear it!" Zhao Jinyu refused to listen to a single word from Lin Sandie, her voice devoid of emotion. "I've waited long enough for you, Little Rabbit."
"No, if you break our binding, you'll regret it. In the future, you'll always…" Lin Sandie's words stopped abruptly as several invisible lines wrapped around her neck and began to tighten.
"You know me, Little Rabbit." Zhao Jinyu's face remained emotionless. She tapped the screen a few times, and a contract made of blue light points slowly formed in the air. It was a grayish-white sheet of paper, and words materialized upon it, each one seeming to carry a certain power. It was the contract between the Sentinel, Little Fool, and the Guide, Little Rabbit.
A wave of sorrow washed over Lin Sandie. Yes, she knew Little Fool's personality. She had always been an unsheathed sword—extreme, willful, intensely possessive, and dependent on her. Once she made up her mind, she would never change it. Just as she had been determined to find Little Rabbit and searched for hundreds of years, she was now determined that Little Rabbit was not worth waiting for, not worth being bound to.
And in her youth, she was even more so.
"You have to listen to me!" Lin Sandie gritted her teeth. She looked directly into Zhao Jinyu's eyes, disrupting her thoughts. The lines around her neck loosened. Lin Sandie enveloped both herself and Zhao Jinyu in her Island, about to use further mental pressure to make her listen. But just as she made her move, invisible spikes suddenly appeared from all directions within the Island, piercing straight through Lin Sandie's spirit form. A pained scream escaped her.
"I said I don't want to hear it!" Zhao Jinyu lifted Lin Sandie's entire body with the spikes. At the same time, her invisible lines wrapped around Lin Sandie's wrists and pierced her fingertips. Black fog dispersed, dripping like fresh blood, as the floating contract flew toward Lin Sandie.
A Sentinel was inherently better at offense than a Guide, not to mention that Zhao Jinyu had also been tempered by many missions over the past few years. And she was dead set on breaking her binding with Lin Sandie.
Lin Sandie clenched her fists, preventing the dripping blood from touching the contract. At the same time, she controlled her "Island," shrinking it to envelop Zhao Jinyu until she was briefly immobilized. Blood dripped continuously from Lin Sandie's spirit form. A pair of golden pupils suddenly opened on her featureless face. They swept over Zhao Jinyu, causing the latter to tremble and freeze.
"Listen to me, Little Fool. If you break up with me now, you will spend the rest of your life searching for me in regret." Flustered, Lin Sandie pushed Little Fool to the ground, her words lacking any persuasive skill. She remembered Lou's lonely expression, her regretful words, and it made her desperately want to change a fate that was bound to happen.
"Who do you think you are?" Zhao Jinyu sneered. "I can take care of myself just fine without you."
"I know you can take care of yourself. The reason I left is because I can only enter Aztec in my sleep. It's not that I don't want to be by your side."
"So you haven't slept in years!?" Zhao Jinyu roared. She hadn't seen Little Rabbit for several years, which was why she had decided to stop holding out hope for her, why she had thrown the rabbit doll she once treasured into the river.
Now, all she felt for Little Rabbit was infinite hatred.
"No, I had other missions. Pie assigned me other missions. It's not that I didn't want to come back to you."
"You… I've met the future you. You were always looking for me. You… you were in so much pain…" Lin Sandie's voice grew choked as she spoke.
"I don't believe you! I don't believe anything you say! And I don't want to hear any more!" A white bear roared, breaking through the restraints of Lin Sandie's "Island." It was Zhao Jinyu's Quantum Beast. It swiped at Lin Sandie in a fury. The latter watched the attack in disbelief as blood splattered from her body. A giant bear paw slammed down on her head, and Lin Sandie's entire body was thrown onto the contract. Her blood soaked the grayish-white paper.
Zhao Jinyu retracted her Quantum Beast, pulled a small knife from her boot, and slit her wrist, letting her crimson blood drip continuously onto the contract.
In that instant, it felt as if something had been ripped from her soul. Zhao Jinyu's eyes turned red. Tears streamed down her face as she watched the completed contract vanish from the ground, watched the figure made of black fog disappear before her.
"Goodbye, Little Rabbit."
"Goodbye…" Zhao Jinyu crouched down, her face wet with tears. Being with a Guide who always disappointed her had been painful, and she didn't want to continue that pain. But as she said goodbye, she discovered that her pain had not been alleviated in the slightest.
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