There were not many pedestrians at night, the road was clear, and the ox cart was familiar with the road. It left the city of Neras from the west. The driver hung two lights on the horns of the ox and drove toward the suburbs.
Renne, who had basically expected what scene he would see, asked Dami again if he wanted to go back, but still received a "no" answer.
After thinking about it, he decided to take Dami with him.
This kid has shown a maturity far beyond his years, and maybe it doesn't hurt to let him know some things.
The two men followed the bullock cart in the dark.
The bullock cart walked westward for several miles, and finally stopped in front of a cliff. The driver turned around here, pointed the back end of the cart at the cliff, then got out of the cart, and lifted the cloth covering the back of the cart.
I jumped on the cart and used the shovel from before to sweep the "hearts" off the cart.
After shoveling, the driver squatted down and picked up the remaining fragments of "peach hearts" with his hands and threw them down the cliff.
Then he led the bullock cart to the side, sat down and leaned against a nearby tree to rest.
After Ren and Dami watched all this, he took the child around to the cliff, and the two of them looked down.
It turns out that the cliff is actually a large pit, more than ten meters high, but it is not completely dark.
Some huge rats several meters long were moving at the bottom of the pit, their eyes glowing with a faint white light, illuminating the ground in front of them.
Ren and the others looked down from above and saw that there were not only the "peach heart" that had just fallen down, but also all kinds of messy things at the bottom of the pit.
To be precise, it's garbage.
Those big rats were scurrying around in the garbage pile. After the ox cart dumped the "heart", a rat immediately surrounded it, swallowed it in one mouthful, and then slipped into the depths of the pit.
“Are our wishes garbage?”
Standing next to the big pit, Dami suddenly asked.
"No... not entirely, at least not yours." Ren replied.
A child, full of longing, made a wish in front of the most worshiped sacred tree, looking forward to seeing his mother again. However, in the blink of an eye, this wish was thrown into the trash. It was really cruel.
Ren put his hand on Dami's shoulder, "I found a man, let's go see if he is your father."
After saying that, he grabbed Dami and jumped into the pit.
The mouse that had just eaten the "heart" walked to the center of the pit for a while and stopped in front of a small hill.
Under the light from the mouse's eyes, a figure was sitting on his knees on the hill. The big mouse squeaked at him twice, as if to intimidate him, but the other party in turn roared at the mouse twice and shouted back.
He kept waving his fists. Seeing this, the big mouse barked twice more and slipped deeper into the pit.
After the big mouse left, Renn took Dami to the underground of the hill. Only when he got closer did he see clearly that the entire hill was actually made of the "hearts" of the light of hope. Many of them were broken.
It's even rotten, and it looks like the rat will overturn the oxcart and carry the "peach heart" here.
Once the mouse left, Ren could only use some nearby luminous plants to see clearly the bottom part of the "peach heart" pile. The piles several meters high were pitch black, and through the moonlight, he could vaguely see a figure on the top.
As if he was rummaging for something.
Dami shouted softly toward the top: "Father?"
There was no response, so Ren led him up and he called out again: "Father?"
But the man above was still doing his own thing. He knelt on the pile of "hearts" and kept turning his hands to push the "hearts" on the surface away. Many "hearts" slid down the slope and rolled.
Arriving at the feet of Ren and the others.
Suddenly, the person above seemed to have discovered something, but was accidentally pulled down by him. He rolled and crawled after it, and finally caught the fallen thing at the feet of Ren and the others.
That is a red "peach heart".
At this time, Ren also saw clearly that the figure that fell in front of him was a man. It was too dark to see the specific condition of his body, but through the man's messy hair, he could also imagine his sloppy appearance at this time.
The man held the red "peach heart" he had just discovered, patted it carefully, and then slammed the "peach heart" to the ground.
"That's not it!"
"Father?" Dami finally confirmed that the man in front of him was his father Fermo, "It's really you!"
The man lying on the ground, Fermo, raised his head and looked at Dami for a few seconds, as if his mind hadn't turned around yet.
Then he grabbed Dami's ankle and said excitedly: "Dami, you came just in time, hurry up, help me find my wish. As long as you find it, your mother will be resurrected!!!"
Dami was startled by his father's sudden move. He shrank his neck, but still nodded: "Okay, father."
Ren stood up at this time. He felt that something was not right about Fermo.
"Wait a minute, Mr. Fermo? I would like to ask, are you sure your wish is here?"
Fermo, who was lying on the ground, turned his head to Renn. In the night, he could only see that he was a tall and strong man, who seemed to be wearing strange armor.
Perhaps because of his lack of mental health, or perhaps because he was immersed in praying and making wishes day and night, Fermo didn't even realize that the person in front of him was the armored monster.
He asked: "Who are you?"
"I'm just a passerby who happened to be traveling here. I met your son when I was walking at night. I heard that he was looking for his missing father, so I brought him to you. Mr. Fermo, I still want to ask you,
How do you know your wish is here?"
Fermo stood up from the ground, took Dami over, and walked to the top of the "Hearts" pile.
"It can't be wrong. When I made a wish under the sacred tree yesterday, I looked at the light of hope devoutly, expecting it to hear my sincere wish. Then, at that moment, I felt it!"
Fermo's tone was very exciting, as if he was talking to his son.
"I felt that the sacred tree noticed me. It was pleased with my long-term worship and it favored me. I saw it. Just when I made my wish, I saw a bright red 'heart' appear.
It’s on the sacred tree. It’s so dazzling, it must be my wish, it can’t be wrong!”
Fermo was affirmative, but Ren felt that he might just be overthinking.
The light of hope may be able to listen to people's wishes and produce "hearts". It is not surprising that some magical plants can do this, or even this thing may just respond to the surrounding sounds or human activities.
But there are so many people making wishes during the day, who knows which "heart" will come out.
Fermo probably knelt under the tree every day for several years and was unable to make a wish. He was so stunned that he, with a strong suggestion in his heart, believed that the "peach heart" that grew out at that time was himself.
Ren was noncommittal about this. His mission was to help Dami find his father. If Fermo could avoid the light of hope and spend time with his family, it might be a good thing.
but……
"What happened next?" Ren followed Fermo and asked, "Why did you come here today?"
This question touched Fermo's anger, and he gritted his teeth and said: "After seeing my 'heart', I kept watching it, waiting for it to fulfill my wish, until the wishing stand was closed, and I Got kicked out."
"I lingered outside the wishing platform for a long time. I didn't want to leave. I even had the intention of finding a hidden place and climbing over the wall to keep my wish. Although I gave up the idea in the end, it was just like that. I spotted the bullock cart going up the back hill. I didn’t think too much about it at the time and just returned home.”
"Then I spent a torturous night. Thinking that I would be able to reunite with my lover soon, I couldn't sleep all night. I ran to the wishing stand early this morning, but I was hoping My heart was not visible in the light, not even on the ground. I immediately thought of the ox cart that went up the mountain last night!"
Fermo took Dami to search for his so-called "heart". He didn't need to explain what happened next...