The Cycle of Fate

Chapter 140: Consultation

The lady suspected to be the holder of the Justice card said nothing more, allowing Suzie to continue: "Your psychological state has improved significantly compared to before. If you wish, I can now guide you back into the dream to try and awaken the memories you've forgotten."

"No problem."

Lumière leaned back into the sofa, closed his eyes, and before he realized it, he had fallen asleep.

Once again, he saw the village of Cordu nestled between the mountains, bathed in sunlight, surrounded by verdant highland meadows.

Gray and white sheep dotted the landscape like clouds, sometimes gathering, sometimes scattering, creating a picturesque scene like a painting.

Various past events flashed before his eyes in the form of an exhibition.

Sometimes Lumière would immerse himself in these scenes, experiencing them firsthand, while at other times, he detached himself, observing from the perspective of an onlooker.

As events progressed, the weather in his memories grew darker, the sun becoming increasingly obscured. Only occasionally would the fog lift, revealing a bright blue sky.

These memories aligned closely with the speculations Lumière had made. From around May or June of last year, subtle oddities began to surface in the village.

At first, he paid no attention, but by the end of the year, he realized the problems were significant. Meanwhile, Aurora's suspicions toward him never seemed to be taken seriously. Though she would sometimes mention wanting to verify things, no follow-up ever came.

Later, after he had gathered evidence against Louis Lond, he extracted information from him. By the start of the new year, more and more people in the village began showing unusual behavior.

Those few villagers who hadn't been affected started noticing something wrong. As a result, people like Ava, Raymond, and Naroka were silenced.

During this time, Lumière caught Ponts and Béné burying bodies and tried to retaliate, severely injuring the latter's lower body. However, being outnumbered, he couldn't stand up to the group of thugs and was ultimately defeated.

He was nearly crippled by Ponts and Béné, but Aurora appeared just in time to save him.

It was only then that Lumière realized his sister was also acting strangely, seeming to be one of the priest Guillaume's group, and possibly held a high status within it. Most of the time, she was cold and indifferent, completely unlike the sister Lumière remembered. Only in rare moments did she revert to her original self, showing concern for her condition and her brother's future, seeking help.

However, she never once mentioned the summoning of Hela's messenger, the vice president of the Curly-Haired Baboon Research Society.

The related information in the dream likely came from fragments of her soul.

The rest of the events matched what Mrs. Pualis had told him.

Aurora had intercepted Mrs. Pualis and the priest Guillaume. Béné led a large group of Blessed to attack the administrator's castle, disrupting her arrangements and forcing her to abandon her long-held territory. With the remaining followers, they left Cordu village.

The only discrepancy was that Mrs. Pualis claimed to have borne only one child, fathered by the priest. He had died in the attack. However, while under the fate-spinner state, Aurora had mentioned that Mrs. Pualis had two children, and one went missing after the destruction of the administrator's castle.

At the end of the memories, the one who knocked Lumière unconscious and took him to the altar wasn't Aurora, but the deputy priest Michel Garrigue, who had also crawled out of the lizard-like creature in the dream.