Maurice gave full play to his speaking skills and confirmed many questions to Garoni in a calm conversation.
During the conversation, he and Duncan gradually confirmed the status of the female apprentice.
All memories related to Brown Scott's shipwreck six years ago and the subsequent death of her mentor have completely disappeared from Garoni's mind.
No, not only the memory has disappeared, but also the entire cognitive system that supports it——
The death of a person triggers a series of chain reactions, including ripples in the social circle, the handling of the aftermath of the death, memories and emotional ups and downs over a long period of time, and staying in this house for the past six years.
The various detailed changes cannot be solved by simply deleting and replacing a piece of memory.
However, in Garoni's knowledge, the incident of "Brown Scott died in a shipwreck six years ago" never happened, and the series of subsequent reactions triggered by this incident did not leave any trace. She only
She felt that she had lived in this house for granted for six years, during which she had been calmly waiting for her teacher to come back - and now, her teacher had come back and was resting in the room upstairs.
The sharp whistle of the kettle suddenly sounded, interrupting the conversation in the living room. Garoni immediately got up and walked to the kitchen: "Sorry, I'm going to turn off the fire."
Taking advantage of the Sen'jin lady's departure, Duncan raised his head and looked at Morris on the sofa opposite: "Her cognition has been interfered with."
"We should check the whole building," Morris whispered. "If Brown is really here, he will definitely leave something while he is still conscious - he wrote me a second letter not long ago.
letter, at that time he had obviously realized some truth."
"...Let Garoni rest for a while." Duncan said softly.
Morris nodded, and during this conversation, Garoni had returned from the kitchen - she was carrying a large tray with warming ginger tea and some biscuits. This lady with stone-gray skin
He put the things on the coffee table and looked up at the two guests: "You've been waiting for a long time. Let's drink some ginger tea to warm yourself up."
"Thank you," Maurice said while pointing to the sofa next to him, "Garoni, please sit down here first. Sit down and let me tell you something."
"Ah...Okay, Mr. Morris," although Garoni felt a little strange, she immediately sat down obediently in front of her mentor's best friend, "What do you want to say?"
Morris looked into Garoni's eyes: "Lomondsov's set of inequalities."
Garoni suddenly opened her eyes, and a massive amount of knowledge, memory, and logic problems instantly covered all her thoughts. Before she could figure out the general outline of these "information storms", a strong, self-protective wave of
Tiredness has already come to mind.
She passed out silently, snoring quietly and sleeping peacefully.
Duncan looked at this scene expressionlessly and was silent for two seconds before asking: "How long will she sleep?"
"Depending on IQ, Heidi slept for twelve hours, and Garoni should have slept for a little longer," Morris shrugged. "Folklorists are usually not very good at mathematics."
Duncan didn't know what to say for a moment, and he said for a long time: "Why would you use this trick on your daughter?"
Morris' expression was a little subtle: "Heidi insists that her hypnotism skills have surpassed mine - and fathers occasionally have some strange desire to win."
Duncan thought for a while and felt that there was no need to continue this topic, so he stood up and looked at the stairs leading to the second floor.
"Now we can check carefully - if Garoni did not lie, her teacher should be in the bedroom on the second floor now."
The old stairs creaked, and bright electric lights illuminated the corridor on the second floor. Morris and Duncan climbed up the stairs and began to look for the folklorist who had "returned to the world."
The structure on the second floor of the house is not complicated. A straight corridor connects each room, and the doors of most of the rooms are unlocked. Duncan and Morris quickly confirmed the situation of most of the houses and checked in the corridor.
Stopped in front of the door of the last room on the left.
This is the only locked place on the entire second floor.
Morris stepped forward and tugged on the door handle, frowning slightly: "Locked - locked."
"Locked from the inside?" Duncan felt a vague sense of disobedience, and then recalled something, "Garoni said just now that she would deliver meals to the teacher's room every day..."
"Impossible, this door has not been opened for many days - a week or more," Morris said immediately. His eyes were slowly scanning the door in front of him, and there seemed to be a slight gleam in his eyes.
, "There are no signs of damage to the door lock."
"...So, it's just that Garoni 'thinks' she delivers food to her teacher's room every day, but her teacher actually hasn't opened this door since many days ago," Duncan said, slightly
He glanced back at the stairs leading to the first floor, "Cognitive interference continues."
Morris didn't speak, just raised his hand and knocked lightly on the light yellow door.
There was no response from the room.
"Brown, it's me," Morris said. "If you are inside, open the door - no matter what your current condition is, don't worry, we can solve the trouble you encounter."
Still no response from the room.
Duncan stared at the door quietly, feeling that the situation... was not unexpected.
Finally, he sighed softly: "Let me do it, Maurice, we may still be a step too late."
Morris' expression stiffened for a moment. He seemed to want to say something, but his lips trembled twice and he still didn't say anything. He just stepped aside silently.
Duncan didn't use any fancy means, he just stepped forward and bumped it, and the ordinary wooden door, which was not very strong, was hit with a loud bang and the lock was broken, leaving it wide open.
A room almost completely shrouded in darkness appeared in front of the two of them.
There were no lights on in the room, and the window facing the street seemed to be blocked by something, so that the light from the street lights outside could not shine into the room. Only the light from the corridor illuminated a small area at the door, and under the light
Where the light cannot shine, you can vaguely see something shadowy covering the roof and floor.
Duncan was the first to walk into the room. He raised his right hand, holding a ball of green spiritual flames in his palm, and fumbled for the light switch next to the door with his other hand.
After the light was turned on, everything in the room finally became clear.
"This is..." Morris, who followed him into the door, saw the scene inside the house and exclaimed in a low voice in shock.
Some kind of gray-black, mud-like substance was scattered throughout the room, covering the floor, contaminating the walls, and even firmly adhering to the roof. There was also half-melted "mud" coming from the dirty roof.
It hangs down from the dirt and hangs in mid-air, looking like a curved and swollen blood vessel, or some kind of weird stalactite hanging.
In just a moment, Duncan was reminded of the scene he saw in the bilge of the Obsidian.
These weird and horrifying "mud"... look exactly like the conditions in the Obsidian's bilge!
The muscles in Morris's face tensed.
Frankly speaking, he didn't believe that his "old friend" had really returned to the world from the beginning. He knew that there must be some kind of out-of-control supernatural phenomenon behind this incident, and it might even be related to the curse of the deep sea, but...
Even though he had vaguely expected it before opening the door, he still felt a huge shock after actually seeing this scene.
"Replicas of the deep sea...it seems that they will eventually become like this," at this moment, Duncan's voice interrupted Morris's daze, "We are too late after all. It's a pity."
Morris blinked, then shook his head vigorously, as if to get rid of the complicated thoughts in his mind. He walked towards the depths of the room, carefully avoiding the "mud" groups scattered on the floor.
Stopped at a table.
The table was also covered in mud, and there was the largest mass of mud accumulated between the table and the bed.
"...He wrote two letters. At least at that time, he still had some sense," Morris said softly, "He must have noticed something abnormal about himself..."
"His sanity lasted at least until the moment he locked this room. After that, he could no longer control the development of the situation," Duncan also came to the desk and said thoughtfully while observing the solidified mud around him.
, "These replicas from the deep sea seem... all different. Some have no sense at all, some even retain their original memories and can survive for a period of time like ordinary people, and some... are like obsidian.
Just like the captain of the ship, he was completely twisted into an alien shape, but his soul remained from beginning to end."
"Like some unstable experimental product?"
Morris said casually, and at this moment, something suddenly entered his sight.
There was a piece of paper, pressed against the edge of a mass of solidified mud, with the outline of an arm vaguely visible.
"This is..." The old scholar opened his eyes wide and carefully pulled out the piece of paper while exclaiming in a low voice, "Mr. Duncan, look at this!"
Duncan immediately approached him, and on the dirty paper, some words that were no longer clear came into his eyes——
"To investigators, here are the changes that occurred in my body during the final stages:"