Chapter 40: How to Make Her Toss and Turn in Guilt
“I’m… I’m sorry.”
Isda’s face was pale: “I didn’t know about your family situation before, I didn’t mean to say that…”
“It’s okay, Miss Isda, you don’t need to apologize. After all, the one who offended you unknowingly was indeed me, and I know you didn’t mean it.”
Rast bowed deeply, his face still wearing an apologetic smile.
His smile bathed in the slanting sunlight, seemingly as light as water but reflecting infinite brilliance.
“As for my parents’ long-ago past, it’s all in the past now. I don’t care about it anymore.”
“I…”
Isda hesitated for a moment but heard Rast speak again: “And as for what Miss Isda mentioned about me following you, that’s also something I had no choice in.”
“I’m all alone here, the only people I know are Hiltina and you, Miss Isda.”
“If I don’t follow you, I have no direction for where to go or what to do.”
“Of course, if Miss Isda doesn’t want me to follow her, you can hand me over to the guards here, or just tell me where Hiltina is.”
Listening to Rast’s words, Isda’s face not only didn’t improve but became even paler, her guilt and sense of wrongdoing becoming stronger.
However, she still noticed the message contained in Rast’s words.
“You said you are alone here, without knowing a single person?”
“Mm.” Rast nodded, looking up at the sky outside the window: “My hometown, as well as the places I once lived, are very far from here. This is like a strange new world to me.”
Isda fell silent, remembering Rast’s vague statements during the psychological inquiry.
At Hiltina’s request, all information about Rast and “Night Echo – Deep Blue Harbor” had been classified, and only Hiltina and Mr. Silver knew the whole truth in the entire Starry University.
Even as a psychological evaluator, Isda only knew that the subject of her upcoming risk assessment was a potential new student at Starry University, a newly minted Night Traveler, and she was unaware of any other details.
Thus, when she first heard Rast’s disjointed remarks about “not remembering his age” and “being told his name by someone in a dream,” Isda thought he was simply resisting interrogation and spouting nonsense.
After all, with her profession as a psychological evaluator, she had seen too many patients with nonsensical talks, each convinced of their own logic and easily capable of leading one astray if not careful. The best approach was to not believe a word they said.
However, upon reflection, having such clear memory fragments, even while surrounded by darkness, and still pursuing light, how could someone who could withstand probing eyes possibly just be talking nonsense?
Though Isda still didn’t believe Rast was truly hundreds of years old, since he looked just like a new student entering Starry University.
But what he said about being alone, being without kin in the Granville kingdom, or having memories so fragmented that even his real name was forgotten… perhaps all of it was true.
And the so-called feeling of having lived for hundreds of years might be the aftereffect of Rast’s memory loss.
Isda spoke softly: “Although I heard you mention it before during the inquiry… But you actually know Vice President Hiltina?”
“Vice President?”
“Yes, as a member of the Twelve Seats of the Round Table, Hiltina traditionally holds a position in the Starry Student Council, and her role is the Vice President.”
Isda thought for a moment: “Theoretically, she should be at the headquarters of the Lionheart Academy’s student council right now, but that’s just theoretical.”
“Vice President Hiltina, known as ‘The Demon of Conquest,’ has a notoriously unpredictable presence.”
“People say, if you want to find her, it’s more likely to encounter her in the echoes of history in the Night World than on the campus of Starry University.”
“The Demon of Conquest?”
Rast noted this term.
“Yes, the Night World is extremely dangerous; a moment’s carelessness can lead to d*ath.”
“Thus, almost all Night Travelers from Starry University choose to delay until the cooling time’s limit… ensuring their abilities, consumable items, and equipment, as well as information gathering, are flawless before entering the Night World.”
Knowing Rast truly seemed to know nothing about Starry University or even this world, Isda took the initiative to explain.
“But Hiltina is different; her progress in Night World conquest is always exceeding expectations.”
“Often, she just returns from one Night World echo and immediately rushes to the entrance of another… as if she has an unimaginable obsession with conquering the Night World.”
“However, it is also because of this obsession that Vice President Hiltina has become the youngest Third Tier and the youngest among the Twelve Seats of the Round Table in the history of Starry University.”
Isda sighed softly: “It won’t be long before she possibly breaks the record for being the youngest Fourth Tier in university.”
“Since the Night World echoes are so dangerous, why does Hiltina still do this?” Rast asked.
Hearing this, he couldn’t help but recall Hiltina’s words to him just before he jumped into the sea at Deep Blue Harbor—
“Every Night Traveler who abandons their glamorous identity in the outside world, walking in a Night World devoid of law and morality, accompanied by history’s echoes, madness, and pollution…”
“Are considered complete anomalies, fanatics, and madmen in the eyes of others.”
…
“I don’t know, and no one in Starry University truly knows either.”
Isda shook her head.
“I’ve heard that the true reason Vice President Hiltina became ‘The Demon of Conquest’ has even made it onto the Starry Daily’s ‘Top Ten Unsolved Mysteries on Campus’.”
“However, some people speculate that it has to do with her past.”
“It is said that Vice President Hiltina’s hometown was destroyed due to a calamity at dusk, and her mother also perished in that disaster.”
“Dusk calamity?” Rast continued to inquire.
“Huh? You don’t even know this?”
Isda seemed surprised: “Since you have inherited extraordinary knowledge and stepped into the long tier of the sequence to become a Night Traveler, this should be basic knowledge.”
“The place I used to live was technologically backward, with very limited information channels.” Rast said gently, “Not to mention the absence of cars, phones, the internet, air conditioning, refrigerators… the only connection to the outside world was the monthly visits of messengers and traveling merchants.”
“I stepped into the long tier of the sequence to become an extraordinary being and a Night Traveler due to an accident; no one ever taught me those so-called ‘common sense.'”
Upon hearing this, Isda’s gaze softened a bit more, even showing a hint of sympathy.
(End of Chapter)
