Deep Sea Embers - Chapter 324

[Chapter 322]

A small figure was standing at the gate of the cemetery—it was a girl who looked about eleven or twelve years old, wearing a dark brown woolen coat, a black skirt, and warm little cotton With boots and thick gloves, she seems to have been waiting at the gate of the cemetery for a long time. Snow began to fall in the frosty city-state in the evening, and a lot of snowflakes had fallen on the gray wool cap on the girl’s head, and there was still a slight heat in the evening snow. rising.

The little girl stomped her feet lightly on the spot, looking at the ramp opposite the cemetery from time to time. When the guard appeared, she suddenly laughed and waved her hands vigorously.

“…Here we go again.”

The old guard couldn’t help muttering when he saw the girl, his tone seemed a little impatient, but he still quickened his pace a little and came to the girl.

“Annie,” the old man frowned, looking at the girl in front of him, “you have come here alone—how many times have I told you that the cemetery is not a place for a child like you to come alone, especially in the It was approaching dusk.”

“I have already told my mother,” the girl called Annie responded with a smile, “She said that I can just go home before the curfew.” The

old guard looked at the eyes quietly and smiled little girl.

Most people here don’t like the cemetery guards, and don’t like to be near such a treacherous and dangerous place, but there are always accidents in the world-for example, a little girl who is not afraid of her.

“Grandpa watchman, is my father here yet?” Annie raised her head, and in the snowflakes falling at dusk, she looked expectantly at the old man in black with a hunched waist and a pair of cloudy eyes that most people feared. It doesn’t make her nervous.

“…No,” the old guard replied as usual, his voice was as cold as the wind swirling in the cemetery, “he won’t be here today.”

Annie was not depressed, she just smiled as usual: “Then I will come back tomorrow Ask.”

“He won’t come tomorrow either.”

Annie still raised her head: “But he will always come, right?”

This time, the old man who always had a cold attitude finally fell silent for a moment, until the snowflakes fell on his brows, his cloudy and dark eyes turned slightly: “The dead will eventually gather in the cemetery, and the dead will gather in the cemetery. Eternal peace on the opposite side—but it doesn’t have to be a cemetery in the world, and it doesn’t have to be this one.”

“Oh,” Annie agreed, but she didn’t seem to take it to heart at all, she just turned her head and glanced at it. With the locked fence gate, he asked curiously, “Can I go in and take a look? I want to warm up in your hut…” “Not

today,” the old man shook his head, “Cemetery No. 3 is in a special situation , the guards of the church are stationed in it, and it is not open to the public today—you should go home, girl.” “…

Okay,” Annie nodded a little dejectedly, and then she was in her small bag After digging around, he took out a small package wrapped in rough paper and handed it to the old man, “Then here are the biscuits baked by my mother, she said I can’t always cause trouble.” The old man looked at the things in the girl’s

hand , looked at the snowflakes on the opponent’s body.

He stretched out his hand, took the biscuit, and then patted the other party’s beanie casually, flicking the snowflakes off: “I accept it, you should go home early.” “Okay, watch over

grandpa.”

Annie smiled He nodded, tidied up his scarf and gloves, and then walked towards the path leading to the urban residential area.

But just when she took a few steps, the old guard suddenly turned around: “Annie.”

“Huh?”

“Annie, you are already twelve years old,” the old man stood in the twilight, watching the girl calmly “Do you still believe what I told you when I was six years old?”

The girl stopped and stared blankly at the cemetery keeper.

The dead come to this cemetery—however scattered they may have been in life, Bartok’s foyer will be the place where they will finally be reunited.

This sentence is written in the classics of the church, but facing the same proverb, adults and six-year-old children will always have different understandings.

Twelve-year-old Anne stood blankly for a long time. The cemetery guard in black stood like a cold iron statue at the towering and locked gate. Fine snowflakes fluttered among them, and the winter chill permeated the air. at dusk.

But suddenly, Anne laughed, and waved to the old man with a smile: “Then you can treat it as if I came to see you specially——Mom said that the elderly need someone to talk to often.” The little girl turned and ran

away She slipped at the end of the slope, but immediately got up, patted the snowflakes and dust on the skirt and thermal pants, and left quickly.

“…an elderly man…” The old guard looked at the girl’s leaving back, and waited for the girl to run away before muttering, “This child has evil intentions too.” “It’s worse to expose a child’s expectations than

that,” A young and slightly hoarse female voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting the old guard’s muttering, “You didn’t have to say that sentence just now—a twelve-year-old child, what she should understand, she has gradually understood, sometimes There is no need for hard-hearted adults like us to expose the truth.”

The old guard turned around and saw Agatha, the “gatekeeper” dressed in black with a bandage underneath, standing in the cemetery at some point The gate of the cemetery, which was locked before, has also been opened.

He shook his head: “Let her continue to expect that her father will be sent to this cemetery, and then she will run to this ghost place alone in this cold and snowy day?” “Is it not good? At least with

that When the child spoke, you looked warm.”

“…That doesn’t sound like what the gatekeeper should say.”

Agatha shook her head, said nothing, and turned to walk towards the inner path of the cemetery.

The old guard followed. He first turned around and locked the gate, then went to his guard’s hut to put away the things he bought, and completed the handover with the guard on duty during the day, before arriving at the mortuary in the cemetery. area, and found the “gatekeeper” who had already walked here first.

Compared with before, the current morgue is obviously much empty. Most of the stone platforms are empty at the moment, only a few plain coffins are placed on the platforms at the edge.

And around the few coffins, there are at least two church guards standing next to each platform, and dark canes can be seen everywhere in the open space between the platforms—the black cane is the iconic equipment of the guards of the Death God Church. The cane is inserted on the nearby ground, and a sacred lantern is hung on the top of the cane to maintain a small-scale “sanctuary”, which can effectively fight against the polluting power from the higher existence.

At this moment, dusk was deep, and the snowy day made the sky much darker than usual. In the increasingly dark cemetery, the lanterns hanging on the top of the walking sticks burned quietly like phosphorous fire, releasing a kind of quiet but Spooky atmosphere.

“We have done a lot of preparations here, but it seems that the ‘visitor’ has no intention of returning to this place in the short term,” Agatha said casually after seeing the old guard appear, “Are you sure that the ‘visitor’ Have you ever disclosed information that you will come again?”

“You should trust the hypnosis skills of professional psychiatrists,” the old guard shrugged, and then added after a pause, “I remember most of what happened that day. I don’t know, those buzzing noises are gradually dissipating from my mind, but after several times of hypnosis, I can recall some things… The clearest thing is that the ‘visitor’ before leaving Revealed revisit intention.”

Agatha was silent for two or three seconds, and then said softly after thinking: “But there is another possibility, such a high-ranking existence, his concept of time is very likely to be different from ordinary people—— The revisit He said may be tomorrow, it may be a few years later, and it is more likely to contact you in a way that transcends life and death after you die.” “…Can you hope that I will be better?

“

” This is the result of the discussion by the Holy See Advisory Group.”

The old guard snorted noncommittally, and glanced at the guards in black in the cemetery, as well as the lanterns that were quietly burning on the top of their canes.

“…I just hope that these arrangements don’t irritate the ‘visitor’, and don’t be considered some kind of offense or ‘trap’ by him—after all, we know so little about him.” “All these arrangements are just ours

. Self-protection,” Agatha said, “after all, even though you said that you fell into a state of out-of-control spiritual vision because you inhaled too much incense, none of us know who the ‘visitor’ is. There is no tendency to take the initiative to release spiritual pollution—if we want to go directly to the superhuman, we must at least ensure our own sanity.” The

old guard was noncommittal, but after a moment of pondering, he suddenly changed the subject: “The samples you took away before, what did the investigation find? Have you concluded?”

“Are you talking about those cultists, or the pile of ‘corpses’ that melted into mud?” “

Both.” “There

is nothing to say about those cultists. The symbiotic Transcendents—the strength is not bad, and it would be very dangerous for ordinary church guards to face them, but unfortunately those heretics obviously lack good luck, and as for the ‘mud’…” Agatha paused when she said this, with a slightly confused expression on her face

. eccentric.

“Their ‘evolution’, in fact, has not stopped until now. As of the time I left the cathedral, those things are still showing new forms and properties. In the past period of time, they even briefly showed metal-like And the state of the rock, it gives people the feeling…it seems to be something that the Annihilation Cultists often mention in their heresies.” The old

guard slowly frowned: “You mean…’element’? “

“The essence of reality, the purest and most holy substance, the ‘drop of truth’ bestowed on the world by the mysterious Lord—this is how the group of heretics described it,” Agatha’s tone made no secret of disgust and irony, “beautiful Vocabulary, it’s really disgusting to use them.”

(End of this chapter)