The Cycle of Fate

Chapter 11: Countermeasures

Staring at the recreated "letter of appeal," Lumian fell into a long silence.

Although this might not necessarily represent the actual content of the letter—after all, the words could be rearranged to form other sentences, such as "The people around need help urgently, we are becoming more and more strange"—it still left him with an indescribable heaviness, as if something was pressing down on his heart.

In the past, he might have thought that the sender of the letter was playing a prank. But now, in the village of Cordu, strange things were indeed becoming more and more frequent, and these were just the things he had discovered.

"I can't just ignore this, and I can't pretend nothing is happening...

"My sister once said that a sane person should know how to avoid danger; you can't stand under a wall when you know it's about to collapse..."

Lumian snapped out of his thoughts and quickly made a decision:

He must leave Cordu Village as soon as possible, together with his sister!

As for the anomalies in the village, they would naturally be dealt with by the authorities, and the villagers would surely be protected by them. Lumian himself neither had the obligation to take on this responsibility nor the ability to do so.

"Besides, I need to speed up my exploration of the dream ruins and strive to gain extraordinary power in a short period of time to deal with any unexpected events that might occur during our escape..." Lumian's mind became increasingly clear, filled with a sense of urgency.

His greatest fear was that the anomalies would erupt before he and his sister had a chance to leave Cordu Village. In that case, he needed to ensure he wouldn't drag his sister down, and the prerequisite for that was to become much stronger than he was now.

With this in mind, Lumian returned the small blue book to its original place, took the paper with the words and sentences he had just deciphered, and quickly walked down the stairs.

He deliberately circled around to the stove and threw the paper into the fire.

After leaving the house, Lumian headed straight for the old tavern.

The tavern's doors were tightly shut, as the owner and bartender, Maurice Benet, was likely attending Naroka's funeral.

However, as a part-time inn, it was impossible for all the doors to be locked during the day, leaving no chance for the guests to enter or exit.

Lumian circled around to the back alley and pushed open the tavern's back door.

Arriving at the staircase, he glanced into the main hall but saw no one.

Climbing up to the second floor, Lumian stopped outside the mysterious woman's room.

Seeing that there was no "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging on the doorknob, Lumian took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and then gently knocked on the wooden door with his knuckles.

Knock, knock, knock...

He knocked three times in a row, but there was no response from inside.

Knock, knock, knock... Lumian increased the force of his knocking, but still, no one answered.

He knocked a few more times, but the room remained silent.

"Not here?" Lumian frowned. "Perhaps she's observing Naroka's funeral?"

Not wanting to waste any more time, he went back down to the first floor, left the tavern, and headed straight for the cemetery next to the church.

On his way there, he passed by Naroka's house.