Chapter 134: Hometown

Chapter 134: Hometown

Hearing Miss Justice’s greeting, the Fool Klein suddenly felt a strong surge of emotion.

After learning her identity, status, appearance, and circumstances, he gained a deeper understanding of the lighthearted cheer, vitality, and sunny brightness naturally present in Justice Audrey’s tone. He understood where their essence came from. Yet Klein did not therefore envy her, resent her, or believe she lacked the tempering of suffering. Instead, in a world whose underlying rules were filled with chaos, distortion, and madness, he felt that the existence of such a young lady was truly rather good.

A faint smile appeared on his face. He nodded lightly and responded to Miss Justice’s greeting.

After the Tarot Club members had finished greeting one another, the Hermit Cattleya pushed up her glasses, turned slightly, and saluted the blurry figure shrouded in gray fog at the head of the bronze long table.

“Honorable Mr. Fool, I have three pages of diary this time.”

The Queen of Mysteries is finally online again…

Klein lampooned inwardly before smiling and saying, “Very good.”

A few seconds later, after receiving permission, the Hermit Cattleya manifested the diary pages and watched as they “leapt” into Mr. Fool’s palm.

Klein casually glanced down, and his heart suddenly gave a soft huh.

He discovered that the diary provided by the Queen of Mysteries this time seemed to belong to Emperor Roselle’s early period and did not look as if it contained important information.

Normally speaking, when unable to distinguish importance, one would certainly choose later diary entries first. That would maximize the chances of restoring the mystery of Emperor Roselle’s “assassination”… I believe the Queen of Mysteries has sufficient intelligence…

While Klein inwardly muttered in doubt, he began reading the first diary page seriously.

“September 21st. Arrived in Saint-Milon, officially beginning my first diplomatic visit with a delegation.

“Feysac’s weather really is a bit cold. It isn’t even October yet, and it already looks like it is about to snow. No wonder the local specialties are all kinds of coats, cold-weather clothing, and strong liquor!

“Damn it. The people here are outrageously tall. As expected of a nation of giant descendants. Still, I want to say this: I hate being looked down on!

“Tonight, I am going to a tavern to find a Feysac beauty and get drunk together!”

Upon reading this, Klein suddenly suspected that Bernadette, the Queen of Mysteries, had offered these diary pages because she wanted to ask whether she had a brother or younger brother with Feysac blood.

Suppressing the tsk-tsk in his heart, Klein’s gaze moved to the second entry.

“September 22nd. I seem to have blacked out…

“What happened last night? Where is my Feysac beauty? I actually couldn’t outdrink her!

“The embassy people told me that girls here can often drink better than men…

“I need to restrain myself when visiting taverns in the future. It would be bad if some auntie picked up my corpse…

“The liquor here is truly fierce. My head hurt for an entire day. Fortunately, it wasn’t my ass that hurt. Sleep early, sleep early. Tomorrow I will visit the Twilight Giant Hall.”

“September 23rd. The Twilight Giant Hall truly is grand and majestic, like myth descending into reality. That group of buildings seems entirely prepared for giants.

“As a pagan, I could only walk circles outside it. Even the square at the foot of the Twilight Giant Hall is rich with the aroma of alcohol!

“There were quite a few people there. Some knelt. Some sat. Some were playing bone flutes. The sound had a leisurely, expansive feeling.

“I met a Feysac man playing a bone flute. Even compared to his countrymen, he was ridiculously tall—visually, nearly three meters.

“His name is Onega. He claims to come from one of the Feysac clans with the purest giant bloodline. When he plays the bone flute, he looks melancholy, as if he does not belong here, yet does not know where to go. He looks far more like a poet than those Intis fellows who only know how to circle around women’s skirts. Speaking of which, I cannot help complaining again: those bastards actually take pride in catching diseases in that regard. They are simply disrupting the social market!

“I chatted with Onega for a while and brought up my earlier question. He said he was merely missing his hometown.

“The problem was, he was a standard Saint-Milon native and had never left this place.

“Onega did not answer me immediately. He played his bone flute for a few more minutes before saying that what he missed was the source of the giant bloodline: that Giant King’s Court from myths and legends.

“He told me that he and the Feysac people of his clan often dream of towering mountains, immense walls using those mountains as their base, palaces, towers, and all kinds of buildings forever bathed in the glow of dusk. It is very similar to the Twilight Giant Hall, yet even more unbelievable, more epic, and more miraculous.

“Without needing anyone else to tell them, Onega and his people are certain that this is the Giant King’s Court.

“By the end of our conversation, Onega slowly stood and thanked me for listening. He said he was going to leave Feysac to search for the Giant King’s Court, to search for the hometown of his spirit and soul.

“He believes that the easternmost region of the Sonia Sea may hide the road leading to the Giant King’s Court.

“He said that after thousands of years, giants have never forgotten their hometown. Now it was his turn to follow the footsteps of his ancestors. This road, unless it reached its destination, would never stop.

“He began playing his bone flute again, gradually walking away amid that leisurely yet sorrowful melody.

“Hometown…”

Hometown…

Upon reading this, Klein felt for the first time that his emotions and the emperor’s had reached one hundred percent resonance.

Although Roselle had only written those seemingly repeated words at the end and had not elaborated on what was in his heart, Klein completely understood the rise and fall of the emperor’s emotions in that moment. That was because he and Roselle, like Onega, both had a hometown of spirit and soul.

After sighing inwardly, Klein flipped to the second diary page.

“January 10th. Visited Sonia Island.

“This place is also known as Ancient Elf Island, with large numbers of elven ruins and remnants of old customs.

“On my first day, I was shocked. The elves actually make blood curd? They actually like eating animal organs and are skilled at using spices?

“They even invented chopsticks?

“Thinking back to the elven images on the murals, aside from some blue-haired ones, the rest of their facial contours, hair colors, and eyes are close to Asians on Earth. Could these be fellow townsmen?”

Right. Back then, I had also vaguely wondered the same. But when I considered that it was impossible for so many people to transmigrate here in one go—enough to nearly form an entire race—I also wondered whether I was overthinking it… There is no reason that habits, foods, and utensils that could appear on Earth could absolutely never develop here…

Klein read onward with great interest, wanting to know whether Roselle had explored the cause.

“January 13th. These past few days, I have been busy collecting local artifacts, ancient texts, and folk legends. I forgot to write my diary for several days.

“Although many things were taken long ago by the major Churches, I still obtained some valuable material.

“In various legends, there are records of the Elf King Soniathrym inventing chopsticks, cooking delicacies with animal organs and blood, and being skilled at distinguishing spices. They all tell stories of this ancient god being the ancestor, the first elf, who, for certain reasons, led His people away from the Western Continent, which exists only in myth, and came to the Northern Continent.

“Could this one be the true fellow countryman, the first transmigrator?

“And then He reproduced an entire race? Ancient gods are omnipotent, including giving birth?

“He seems to have had a wife, also an elf. Mm… I have fallen into deep thought.”

“January 16th. Further investigation shows that the elves may truly have nothing to do with transmigrators. At least, they left behind no symbols related to Chinese or English.

“From beginning to end, they should have used Elvish. It gave me not the slightest sense of familiarity.

“Furthermore, those common inventions did not appear before my arrival, nor did many famous sayings. What existed were only proverbs and fables with similar meanings but completely different examples.

“For now, all objects and legends do not support my hypothesis. This leaves me a little disappointed, yet also relieved. If I truly met another transmigrator, or several of them, I really would not know how to face them.”

“January 17th. I dreamed of the hometown I was almost about to forget.”

As expected, the emperor initially abandoned that guess…

Klein turned the page again and looked toward the final diary page.

“April 2nd. My daughter really is clever. She is not even one year old yet, and she can already speak! Although she has only learned a few words for now, I believe her progress will not be slow after this!

“In this regard, she inherited it from me!

“I looked left and right and felt that she looks somewhat like me back when I was on Earth. Could the soul also bring some degree of heredity? Haha, let us treat it as true.

“Bernadette. This name is quite good. One immediately knows it will belong to someone beautiful. But in my heart, I keep feeling restless, wanting to give her a Chinese-style nickname.

“Sigh. She cannot meet her true grandfather and grandmother…”

“April 3rd. The sudden feelings from yesterday nearly made me unable to sleep. Fortunately, I know meditation.

“However, this also made me consider a question: should I privately teach Bernadette Chinese?

“No, no. If she understood the diaries I wrote earlier, as her father, I might as well find a block of tofu and slam myself to death. In my daughter’s heart, her father must be filled with radiance.

“But writing diaries in Chinese is already the last bond connecting me to Earth and the past. My daughter should, to a certain degree, inherit this bond.”

“April 6th. After several days of consideration, I have decided to teach Bernadette two Chinese characters as special symbols. I will tell her that these are protective incantations given to her by her father, and that she must remember them forever.

“She does not need to understand their meaning. She only needs to remember.

“These two Chinese characters are:

“Hometown.”

Hometown…

Klein repeated the word once more, his eyes even growing a little hot.

He finally understood why the Queen of Mysteries, Bernadette, had chosen these three diary pages. It was because they contained the protective symbols her father had left for her:

“Hometown.”

At this moment, Klein seemed to see a river of emotion. It flowed quietly on the surface, while countless undercurrents surged and churned beneath the water.

Klein then withdrew his gaze, made the diary vanish, and looked up toward the Hermit Cattleya.

“What is your question?”