When you know that a story is bound to lead to tragedy, it is inevitable that you will feel a little sad inside.
Reading Nettie Meyer's diary, Lu Yu and the others seemed to follow her back to the wild Silent Mountains hundreds of years ago.
Although Nettie, the protagonist of the story, wrote the words "There is no place for us in this world," she remained optimistic in her diary and daily life.
On the sixty-second day in the Silent Mountains, Rebecca watched her mutilated right hand collapse emotionally. It was Nettie who hugged her, comforted her, and gradually calmed her down.
It was Nettie who stayed with Rebecca during her down days, encouraging her to help everyone do what she could.
In the end, Rebecca, who was not regarded as a useless person by the elves, gradually came out of the haze.
Nettie also works hard to brighten the mood in difficult situations.
For example, on the 100th day after arriving in the Silent Mountains, Nettie actually informed the elves who were exiled here, prepared some food as small gifts for the game, and celebrated in a grotto that served as a refuge.
"Congratulations on living for one hundred days. Our goal is to live for another thousand days!"
Lu Yu couldn't help but marvel at this spirit of joy in suffering.
Perhaps it was because Nettie's charisma was so strong that the celebration was very successful and was well received by all the elves.
Although the diary did not record what games they played, there were more than a dozen unfamiliar handwritings on that page.
Here are the winner's signatures collected by Nettie.
It would be great if such wonderful times could last forever.
However, they are just a group of children who don't even have much magic. They are elves who have physical disabilities and are discriminated against and exiled.
From time to time, Lu Yu would see information about the death of his companions in Nettie's diary.
As time goes by, more and more people die, and the joy of harvesting materials in the diary becomes less and less.
Even though Nettie always tries to inspire people around her, this kind of encouragement seems to be resistant and can only last for a short period of time.
Numbness, helplessness, and despair prevailed in the race against time.
However, Lu Yu also discovered that although most of the elves in the cave, Nettie, had some abilities, their survival had a lot to do with Vanessa.
Not many elves who can use magic appear in Nettie's diary, and the strongest one is this girl named Vanessa.
Vanessa, who was born aphasic and later blind, has long played the role of protector.
Relying on her sense of smell to find herbs and her hearing to locate prey, Vanessa can bring much-needed supplies to the elves every time she goes out.
With her strength, she could have managed to survive on her own, but she chose to distribute the supplies she found to the elves in every nearby cave.
Because she has a good relationship with Nettie, Vanessa often brings Nettie more things.
On days when she didn't need to go out, Nettie held Vanessa's hand and climbed to the top of a mountain not far away, describing the surrounding scenery to her.
Every time at this time, Vanessa would open her empty eyes and follow the direction Nettie pointed in, trying to weave colorful pictures from her past memories.
"Don't you want to get out of here?"
Two hundred and thirty-seven days after arriving in the Silent Mountains, Nettie asked Vanessa this question.
In the diary, she always felt that Vanessa was capable of escaping from this hell and heading towards a wider world.
But Vanessa used her fingers to trace on Nettie's palm and wrote two questions.
"I can't see or speak. What can I do if I leave here?"
"What will you do if you leave me?"
In fact, Vanessa still had something to say, but Nettie knew it because she had the same expectations as Vanessa.
"They haven't forgotten me yet."
Aesop once told Lu Yu that the reason why most of the exiled elves did not choose to escape was because their respective families gave them an illusory promise.
As long as you rely on your own strength to gain a foothold in the Silent Mountains and reclaim land, you will be able to prove to outsiders that you are not inferior to anyone else, and then you will be able to enter the family gate without being discriminated against by anyone.
Children who have lived in strange eyes since childhood are really eager to be respected and needed.
What seemed like a blank check to Lu Yu was, in the eyes of these elves, an opportunity worth fighting for with all their strength.
Therefore, even though the cultivated land was destroyed, they still did not give up.
Even if their companions died one by one, they were unwilling to give up.
This group of abandoned elves are like people about to fall into the abyss, clinging to this life-saving straw that may be broken at any time and unwilling to let go.
Nettie wrote in her diary.
"I really want to encourage her, praise her, and let her know that even if she is blind and unable to speak, she still shows her super magical talent, and there is always a place for her in this world... Vanessa is different from us,
She shouldn't die trapped here."
"But I can't say it."
"Without her, I and those elves struggling on the edge of life and death will die... I am a selfish person. As her friend, I failed to do what a friend should do... I'm sorry, Vanessa."
Vanessa continued to protect the elves near her, and had to go on various adventures in order to obtain the necessary supplies.
Going to the center of the mountains where high-level monsters often haunt, and facing hordes of monsters alone, are all things she has done before.
It was also because of this that Vanessa returned to Nettie several times with her body nearly dying of serious injuries.
Most of the exiled elves complained about their bad luck before, with a disabled body, and all the desperate things they encountered when they came to this world.
Or after the collapse, they curse the gods for being unfair and think that everything is the gods' malice.
But after seeing Vanessa constantly fighting for them, some elves collapsed.
"Why can those people outside the mountains sit back and watch us being torn apart by wild beasts?"
"Why can my parents be so cruel and abandon me here?"
While Vanessa was in coma, these elves attacked passing traders outside the Silent Mountains and plundered their goods.
This incident shocked several nearby knights. They arranged baits, set up ambushes, and after the disabled elves successfully committed the crime twice, they wiped out these "mobs".
They did not kill these elves, but instead escorted them back to the royal capital. After a roll call in the capital, people from the corresponding families would take them back.
Nettie knew about this because a group of guards came into the Silent Mountains after that and informed them of the fate of those who were brought back to the family.
At the same time, it also brought "support" from various families for reclamation - small amounts of supplies that would be delivered at regular intervals.
This action that seemed completely perfunctory to outsiders was an affirmation in their eyes. They worked harder and harder to reclaim the land near the cave. At the same time, disabled elves were still being exiled to the Silent Mountains.
Despite their lack of strength, in the long life-and-death struggle with the monsters, the elves still figured out how to deal with them, and gradually gained a firm foothold by making various traps and tools.
In addition to the fact that supplies are still tight and it is still extremely difficult to deal with the high-level monsters that appear from time to time, it has become easier for the elves to cultivate the land than when they first arrived in the Silent Mountains.
In the diary, Nettie happily described this time as "the reward of hard work". Until now, she was still looking forward to returning to her hometown and proving herself to her parents in person.
If she wasn't injured.
"Day 576 of the Silent Mountains."
"My left hand was cut by a strange monster. It was severely swollen. There was light mucus flowing from the wound. The pain was obvious."
"My companions were all thankful that I had saved my life, but my head suddenly felt dizzy and my hand holding the pen became very heavy."
"Day 578 of the Silent Mountains."
"I have a fever, I have no intuition in my left hand, and my whole body is very hot. I can only dictate the diary and let people write it down. Fortunately, Vanessa found me herbs that can suppress toxins. After taking them, my body feels much cooler."
"The monsters in the mountains have been very active recently, and we are facing a lot of troubles when we go out to find food. I heard that many companions in several nearby caves have been injured because of this. However, we must start stocking up on food for the winter, otherwise we may not be able to survive the coming crisis.
Cold winter."
"Five Hundred and Eighty Days in the Silent Mountains."
"Vanessa decided to go out and try her luck. Vanessa never lets anyone follow her, because no one can cooperate with her, and following someone will only distract her."
"Before she left, she wrote the words "get well soon" in my diary... Although it's not the first time I saw it, I still want to say that she couldn't see it, but the words were written more beautifully than me. Sure enough, Vanessa is the best.
Already."
"Five Hundred and Ninety Days in the Silent Mountains."
"Vanessa hasn't been back for ten days. She rarely goes out for such a long time. With her strength, she should be able to run away even if she can't defeat him... God, please bless Vanessa."
"Six Hundred Days in the Silent Mountains."
"The toxins in my body have been completely eliminated, and I can make a fist with my left hand. I want Vanessa to see how I look after recovery... but Vanessa has been out for twenty days."
Twenty days, thirty days, then a quarter.
Nettie, who wrote Vanessa's name in her diary every day, never saw the girl who brought her small gifts again.
The girl who stepped on the bleak wind of late autumn and walked into the depths of the Silent Mountains disappeared.
The girl who would continue to squeeze herself so that the elves could go home left.
As winter turns to spring, the notes left by Nettie in her diary become messy after struggling through the cold winter.
"I killed her, she could have avoided taking risks..."
The departure of her friend crushed Nettie's strong heart. She wanted to encourage herself as she encouraged others, but found that no matter what, she couldn't get out.
Nettie still kept a diary, but there were no words in the diary that made people feel full of energy.
lifeless.
After Vanessa disappeared, the names in the diary that once seemed familiar to Lu Yu began to disappear one by one.
Rebecca died together with the monster in order to protect the cultivated land.
Aaron died in battle to protect his injured companions.
There are fewer and fewer people around Vanessa, and more and more companions are buried in the cave.
At the end of the diary, Nettie wrote down all the wishes she still remembered from her companions.
Finally, she left what she wanted to say to the two people.