Chapter 1104: 91. The Fog-Locked Land

"Curse?"

That vague, not-quite-right word left Muen even more confused.

"That’s right. Do you know what the disaster brought down by the Goddess looked like?"

"...You haven’t told me, so how would I know?"

"It was night."

Marcie said softly, "Endless night."

"Night..."

Muen’s gaze flickered.

At this very moment, night was covering him, covering Marcie, covering all things in the world.

It seemed like nothing more than an entirely normal natural phenomenon. The sun rose in the east and set in the west, day and night alternated, and all living beings grew strong within the turning cycle of light and darkness.

But for this place, this stretch of night did not seem normal.

He thought of the sparse forest farm, thought of those unbearably awful potatoes, thought of... no, that was not right. Even now, he could directly feel the excessive barrenness that belonged to this place.

"The Goddess who governs the night—of course the disaster She brought down was night. Back then, that night covered all things, so that light no longer fell upon the earth. Because of that, plants withered and died in great numbers, and crops no longer grew... Morning became a moment that would never arrive."

Marcie turned the page again. This time, it was a page completely painted black, with nothing else visible at all.

"That sort of disaster did not seem especially violent, because the only thing that disappeared was light, not warmth. But this 'gentle' disaster, strengthened by time, gradually extinguished and destroyed everything. Of course, it was not as if people never thought of ways to solve the problem. People lit firewood, lit candles, and used man-made oil lamps to illuminate every street, hoping that doing so would completely drive away the darkness and awaken the hope in people’s hearts again."

"But..."

"They failed?"

"It would be more accurate to say they were stopped. Every place that had light was struck terribly by the Goddess of Night. Unlike the slow death of darkness covering everything, the Goddess dealt with that kind of light through the most thorough, most direct, and fastest destruction. Those Attendants of the Night also began walking through the darkness during that time, killing anyone who dared to kindle light within the night."

"In the world controlled by a Goddess who had already gone completely mad, here, no light was allowed to exist—that was the long, long night."

"The long... long night."

Muen repeated those simple words under his breath, as if he had already seen the despair that swallowed everything inside that peaceful night.

If the sun did not rise tomorrow, if the night never ended, what would he do?

Would he greet his own death in confusion and fear?

Or...

"I would probably fight to the death," he said. "No matter what the enemy was."

"That’s right. Fight to the death. Even if we could no longer light any other flames, we did not give up. We understood the source of everything, and in the end, we chose to raise the banner of rebellion and attack the Goddess who had once sheltered us, guided us, and led us toward prosperity. In the end, we succeeded. Lord Alan led us in gravely wounding the Goddess of Night, causing new light to appear once more, and the hope of life also returned again—that was what later became the Daylight Period."

The pages rustled as they turned. One picture after another flashed before Muen’s eyes, from the people here deciding to resist the Goddess of Night, to the fierce man named Alan using the "sacred artifact" to repel the Goddess and reclaim the light. During that process, who knew how much blood and tears had flowed, or how many people had died there, so insignificant that not even a name had been left behind?

Fortunately, they succeeded.

"So that’s the betrayal the Third Attendant mentioned earlier?"

Muen rubbed his chin and began recalling what the Third Attendant had said.

He had said the Goddess of Night’s fury came from humanity’s betrayal.

But in Marcie’s telling, the people here had been forced to resist.

After all, the Goddess of Night had gone mad first. They had only been trying to seize a slim chance of survival.

Who was correct?

"No, that question isn’t important right now. What matters is... the Goddess of Night does indeed seem to have gone mad, and..."

Why had She gone mad?

What decent god suddenly went mad? Judging from Marcie’s earlier description, before the Goddess of Night went mad, She did not look like an Evil God at all.

Since the Goddess of Night was not an Evil God, then the pollution on the evil believers was...

Wait. Pollution?

A flash of inspiration crossed Muen’s mind.

"Could it be... that the so-called madness of the Goddess of Night was not simply madness, but because She was suddenly polluted? She isn’t the source of pollution, but one of its victims?"

Who could pollute a deity?

Or rather, pollute an existence that, to the people here, was as powerful as a deity?

This question was very complicated, because seeking the truth about a "god" was probably one of the most difficult things in this world.

And yet it also seemed very simple...

Because Muen had come precisely because of this.

Muen closed his eyes, and the scene Miss Dragon had once shown him appeared in his mind again.

—Those bizarre fellows who used ancient relics to hide in the cracks of time, and who could bounce around alive for hundreds of years under the pursuit of the mighty calamity, the Dragon of Death and Doom. If it was them... perhaps they were enough.

Of course, there was another possibility.

The so-called Goddess of Night was herself one of those bizarre fellows.

"Hero Alan gravely wounded the Goddess of Night, but he didn’t completely solve your problem, did he?" After thinking briefly, Muen continued asking.

Judging from the current scene, the living circumstances of the people in this region of Annabawei still could not be called good.

"Yes. Relying on Lord Alan’s great achievement, we successfully took back the light... but not all the light. In fact, one could even say it was only a very small portion of the light."

Marcie hugged her knees.

It was clearly an extremely sorrowful matter, yet she spoke of it in an ordinary tone.

Because for her, this was daily life she had long since grown used to.

"Out of an entire year, the days with sunlight only last for a short three months. And within those three months, there is only one brief month when day and night are almost equal. For the rest of the time, the daytime rapidly shortens at a speed one can physically sense, until twenty-four hours of the day are once again completely covered by night. Then, we have to live in total darkness, unable to release even the slightest bit of light, until... the Daylight Period arrives the next year."

"..."

Muen’s breath caught.

From the girl’s description, he felt suffocated.

Three months of sunlight, and it was constantly shortening.

In other words, the time left for the people here to store food was only a short three months. After all, without sunlight, no crop could continue to grow.

They had to use those three months to prepare what they needed to face nine full months of long night.

Just thinking about it made one feel... that it was unimaginably difficult.

"So... that’s why you were so desperate to harvest the crops over the past few days. So... that’s why those potatoes that were dug out before they were fully ripe tasted so bad?"

Muen suddenly realized something. "Sorry. For you people, those potatoes..."

"No need to apologize. I know what you want to say. They really are hard to eat."

Marcie pouted. "Potatoes are obviously hard to eat. Our sense of taste is still normal. We’ve just gotten used to them a long time ago. Besides, compared to things like mud cakes, which have no nutrition at all, can only be used to fill your stomach, and easily make people burst to death because they’re so hard to digest, potatoes are already very good food."

"...That really is difficult."

Muen sighed with feeling, but he could no longer find any other words to describe it.

"Who says it isn’t? Every person living here is struggling to survive with almost all their strength. My family is already considered one of the better ones. At least, because of the work guarding the forest farm... after my parents died, I never went hungry again."

Marcie touched her backpack. Inside the backpack were the potatoes Grandma had stuffed in before she left. In this world, those potatoes were already an extraordinary wealth.

"..."

Muen said nothing.

Nine months of long night in a year. How exactly were they supposed to endure that?

Muen did not know. Nor had he experienced it yet.

And limited imagination was clearly completely unable to outline the miserable state hidden deep within that night.

"In that case... why don’t you leave this place?" Muen thought of something and suddenly asked, "Is there some reason why you can’t leave?"

"..."

Marcie fell silent. Then she stared fixedly at Muen with an unprecedentedly shocked look.

That shock was even deeper than when Muen had defeated the Third Attendant with one slash earlier, to the point that Muen felt his scalp prickle under her stare.

"You..."

Marcie swallowed with difficulty. After hesitating for a long time, she asked, "Did you really come from outside?"

"Didn’t I already tell you? Yes, I came from outside." Muen answered frankly. "From outside this region called Annabawei."

"Y-You really aren’t lying?"

"I have no need to lie to you..."

"Then... how did you get in? Is there really some kind of passage? But you actually asked me this question... When you came in, did you really not see that?"

Marcie asked many questions in a row, and her expression was clearly extremely excited. If not for the caution born from her bones in this harsh environment, she might already have thrown herself at him.

And for the first time, Muen also saw such nervousness and anticipation in the eyes of this girl whose train of thought was somewhat strange.

She finally believed him a little.

However... perhaps this belief was, to her, actually crueler.

"Calm down."

Muen sighed. "I did indeed come in from outside, but unfortunately, I don’t know exactly how I came in either. As for the passage and 'that' you mentioned, I’m even more completely lost."

"Huh? What do you mean? What do you mean, you don’t know?" Marcie froze.

"You’d have to ask a certain Miss Dragon, who has now run off to who knows where. I’m still looking for her. If I find her, I should be able to give you an answer. As for now..."

Muen spread both hands. "Look, I’m groping around in the dark, and I have to get the answers to every question from you. Do I look like I can answer your questions in return? Right now, all I can tell you is that I’m also looking for a way out."

"...Th-That’s true. Mr. Muen doesn’t look very reliable."

That light dimmed once again.

"..."

Sorry for being useless.

"In any case... I’m still sorry."

Faced with a little girl already trapped in pain, Muen could not say anything harsh. Even his tone had become much gentler.

"So, what exactly is that 'thing' you mentioned?"

"...The time. It should be about right, calculating it."

Marcie did not answer directly. After remaining silent for a while, she took an old pocket watch from her arms and checked the time.

Inside the cover of the pocket watch, in its inner lining, were the figures of an adult man and woman drawn in simple strokes. Perhaps because too much time had passed and her memories had blurred, their faces had not been drawn.

Marcie gently touched those two figures, then suddenly stood up.

"Let’s go, Mr. Muen."

"Where?"

"Rabuya City, of course. Isn’t that our destination?"

"But my question..."

"As for the rest of your questions, I think seeing it for yourself is better than listening to me explain. And as it happens, Rabuya City, as the famous City of Adventure, is the closest place to 'that.' If we travel now, we should be able to arrive right around daytime."

After saying that, Marcie shouldered her bag and walked outside. Even after the emotional rise and fall just now, her steps remained firm.

"Fine."

Muen thought for a moment, then also stood up.

"You’re right. Talking for half a day... still isn’t as good as seeing it for myself."

...

...

The journey could be considered fairly distant.

Even with Marcie’s foot speed, which allowed her to move swiftly between mountain ridges, they walked for a full twenty hours or so before stepping into the faint morning light and seeing the outline of a city-state not far away.

For Muen, this naturally did not count as anything difficult. With his stamina, this was only a warm-up. But he had not expected this °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° little girl to be able to walk for so long in one breath, and without stopping much at all along the way.

"We’re here."

Marcie braced her hands on her knees and took two deep breaths.

Drops of sweat slid from her forehead all the way down to the tip of her nose, then were quickly wiped away by her.

For people like them, who had lived in the night for a long time, simply traveling on foot did not even count as a basic problem, as long as they could eat two potatoes along the way to replenish their strength.

After resting for a short while, she straightened her waist and pointed toward that hazy outline.

"That’s Rabuya City."

"I see it."

Muen looked into the distance. "But where is the thing you wanted me to see?"

"You don’t see it? It’s right behind Rabuya City. Logically speaking, you should have seen that thing even before you saw Rabuya City. The sky is already almost bright."

"The sky is bright, of course, but..."

Muen frowned.

With his eyesight, forget a slightly bright sky—even if it were not bright at all, he could see things clearly.

But he still could not find the thing Marcie called "that." After all, in the place slightly farther beyond Rabuya City, above the horizon, aside from a vast stretch of white clouds, there was...

Wait.

Clouds?

Was that clouds?

Muen realized something and took several steps back. Then, following that vast white expanse, his gaze continued upward, upward...

Only when it reached an extremely high area, probably several hundred meters up, did he see the boundary where the vast white and the clear blue split apart.

That was not clouds.

That was fog.

Dense fog.

"No way..."

Muen’s heart sank with a thud. He turned his head to the left. In his vision, there was a vast stretch of white.

He turned his head to the right. It was still a vast stretch of white.

Left and right connected, stretching without end.

It was like a high wall, completely sealing this place away.

A wall... built from boundless fog.