If "Ms. Nelim" were still here, she would definitely come over and curse her angrily when she heard a "good singing person" like Yunus call herself a goblin.
But after Yunus finished speaking, nothing happened.
The room was empty, as if the little guy hiding under Aiwass's hair had never appeared.
"why is that?"
Yunus was stunned.
"Because you were so depressed that you drove Ms. Nelim away."
Aiwass raised the corners of his mouth slightly, joking with jest and malice.
"……Really?"
"——Obviously, fake."
Sherlock's cold voice came from outside the door: "Open the door."
Aiwass walked over, opened the door, and let him in.
Yunus's smile seemed a little forced and nervous, and he returned to the smooth singing tone before: "Dear Mr. Sherlock, I have a doubt..."
"——You want to know when I came."
Sherlock directly interrupted Yunus's words, skipping the long politeness: "I just arrived not long ago, but I have already heard what I need to hear."
"...In this case, it is really a pity; we have drunk all the wine..."
"——I have known your identity for a long time, Your Highness. Aiwass told me. Yes, I have known it from the beginning. I will stand by Her Majesty the Queen——no matter which queen it is. So I am right
Your attitude is very angry."
Like a player who quickly skips the conversation, Sherlock quickly responded to the doubts that Yunus had not raised yet.
Looking at Yunus who was speechless, Sherlock tilted his head slightly and said calmly: "Do you have any more questions?"
Although he seemed quiet and rational, Aiwass felt that he was a little angry.
"I think……"
So Aiwass pulled Sherlock to find a place to sit down, and at the same time said with a smile: "What Mr. Yunus is curious about is probably... how did you realize the problem."
"...Do you want to hear me praise you, Aiwass?"
"You might as well talk about it."
"Of course it's the secret knowledge you told me - the knowledge about fairies."
Sherlock chuckled, no longer looking at Yunus, but looked back at Aiwass: "Those things mentioned in Eagle Point Village."
"...Eagle Point Village."
Yunus murmured: "Yingjiao Village in Muwan County?"
"I guess you met Anastasia around there."
Aiwass, who was standing next to Sherlock, glanced at him and declared directly: "And, she is the only one alone."
"That's true...what's going on?" Only Yunus didn't quite understand the situation.
"This brings up the habits of goblins," Sherlock did not deliberately ignore anyone, but responded, "Have you ever heard of the goblin forest?"
"...Fairy Forest?"
"Okay, I guess you haven't heard of it. To put it simply, if a clean path with few fallen leaves suddenly appears in those deep, lightless dense jungles, it means that this is the fairy forest - it will open the path from time to time.
The tunnel to the Fairy Kingdom."
Sherlock responded.
Yunus frowned: "Of course I know about the 'Land of Joy'! It's the fairy tale wonderland that the bards dream of! But there are obviously fallen leaves here..."
"——That's because it hasn't been opened yet. The sacred number of the Twin Mirror is two, and the passage to the Fairy Kingdom usually opens at two o'clock in the morning."
The person who answered the call was Aiwass.
He looked at Sherlock and smiled: "Sure enough, you noticed it too."
"I definitely know, because I am a witness. But you - how did you find out?"
Sherlock asked rhetorically.
Aiwass replied: "Because Miss Nelim is too young."
"...Wait, wait, I don't understand. Is there something wrong with Miss Nelim? Or is she Anastasia?"
Yunus was a little confused.
Sherlock raised his eyebrows and continued to tell the riddle: "Have you met Miss Nelim before?"
"Of course not! I just saw it for the first time today..."
"But she said she came to see you."
"But then...oh..."
Yunus suddenly realized what he was saying and remembered something. His words stopped abruptly.
Sherlock said: "Underage goblins will definitely live in the land of goblins. Goblins do not have the ability to move instantly. And that melancholy ballad - the song you sang when you played the piano last night - if you were not very good at it before
If you sing it often, I think she came to you just because of this song."
Yunus was silent for a while: "This is... a new song I wrote after I came to the Theocracy. It was not the first time I sang it last night, but the first time I sang it was a week ago..."
Aiwass on the side knocked on the back of Sherlock's seat, attracting their attention.
He chuckled and said: "What an irony. As a well-known bard, the first song by 'Happy Yunus' to attract goblins was actually a sad homesick nursery rhyme."
"Probably because, only in this song did he really tell the truth."
Sherlock Rui commented.
"——In short, the fact that Miss Nelim is here means one thing."
Aiwass replied: "There is an entrance to the Fairy Kingdom nearby.
"As a bard, you should know the goblins very well. Only those invited by the goblins can see the invisible passage in the dense forest and enter the goblin forest. But it is also possible that the goblins take the initiative to go to the material world.
Abduct those innocent, lively, good-looking and versatile children."
Having said this, Aiwass said meaningfully: "And if these children enter the fairy forest and play with the fairies..."
"...I will forget time."
Yunus murmured to himself and continued.
A flash of enlightenment flashed in his eyes, and he obviously understood: "I remember, those children who entered the country of fairies... when they come back, their former playmates of the same age may become old people, or even die of old age.
."
Sherlock nodded: "Yes, for humans, this is a painful thing. Especially when you come out of the country of goblins, you find that there is no familiar person around you. What you have learned
Things are completely useless in the new era; the elders you used to rely on have now turned into dust; your former partners are still friends who separated not long ago to you, but to them you are already a
A stranger.
"I can't find a place in the new world. I have no talents, no family, no friends, no shelter... I am alone and wandering. I may even forget the human language directly, or get used to the fairy kingdom like a fairy tale world.
And lost the ability to survive in the material world...
"For them, death has become a kind of relief. The better choice is to give up their identity as humans and become goblins."
"...become a fairy?"
Yunus opened his eyes wide.
Could it be that Nelim is...Miss Anastasia?
"I know what you are thinking, but unfortunately - it's probably not. Or, it might be... but it doesn't make sense whether it is or not."
Aiwas ruthlessly interrupted Yunus's thoughts: "You think too much about fairies.
"Fairies are indeed innocent beings. They can even give up their own lives for happiness... Do you think it is possible for a human being to become a real fairy? For fairies, the human soul is too boring.
.
"In fact, the goblin's transformation magic is closer to the Moon Child's transformation ritual.
"As long as humans live in the country of fairies for a long time and eat fairies' food, they will gradually lose traces of being human. If they feel scared and insist on going home immediately, they will probably disappear for only a few years or more than ten years; if they are
If you listen to the plea and continue to stay here, maybe forty or fifty years will pass.
"If they continue to be detained at this time and have dinner with the goblins here...then it will be almost impossible for them to go back. Because these children have forgotten human language after eating the goblins' dinner. If they continue to stay
Here, you will lose your common sense as a human being, completely forget your parents and family, and no longer want to go home. Then you will lose the rich emotions that belong to humans, and finally, you will forget all your memories of being a human being.
"At this point, can they still be said to be the original human beings? Even the color and shape of their souls are different.
"But this is only the case for humans. Staying in the fairy kingdom for a long time means death. Then..."
Aiwass said meaningfully: "What about elves?"
The sense of time of elves is five to seven times that of humans.
Even if fifty years of separation passed by in one leap, to the elves... it was only less than ten years.
——And in these "just fifty years", all the values of the elves have been solidified.
And even if they lose their Elvish language, it is not a terrible thing for Elf children with long lifespans to relearn the language. After all, their parents and friends are still alive, and the whole world has not changed much.
Even if you lose your feelings, it's not a big problem - it happens to be able to prevent the contamination from Ningpa. The strong path of beauty can also prevent the contamination from the path of dusk... This is called fighting fire with fire.
"——Now look back and think about it."
Aiwass said meaningfully: "Master Maxim obviously loves his daughter very much. The headband with the words 'Anastasia, I wish you well' is the Master's handiwork. This should be Maxim.
Made with my own hands...
"Such a person, when we mentioned Anastasia, he did not feel sad for her parting, nor was he proud of her going to the giant tree. No matter how I tried to induce the topic, he did not talk about it.
Any stories about Anastasia as a child—did he really not miss Anastasia?
"Or let's put it this way, Mr. Yunus. When you gave him this hair tie, did he show a complicated expression of nostalgia?"
"……No."
Yunus shook his head slowly: "He quickly handed the hairband to me, and then told me... Anastasia died more than 20 years ago, but when I met her
It was just a few years ago. And Mr. Maxim also told me that she had never been to Avalon... because she had been a tree since she was very young."
