Chapter 1107: 94. The Condition Worsens

The black bread was dark as pitch, mixed with bran, sawdust, and even fine sand. Even in Belrand’s cramped Lower District, this was the lowest sort of food. Every child there might have had only one prayer before a meal: that the next meal set before them would no longer be this cheap, dry, hard, awful bread.

But to Marcie...

“Black... black bread? Is this the legendary bread?”

Her eyes lit up, like moonlight reflected on a lake at night, rippling with shimmering light.

“Didn’t you just ask me to take out something that exists outside but not here? I thought that for a place like this, where even firewood is almost gone, baked bread should be very rare.”

Muen lightly nudged the dry grass on the ground with his foot and sighed inwardly.

The food he had seen most along the way was that special kind of potato, already spread out as a true staple food. After all, it did not care much about soil, had a short growth cycle, and could fill people’s stomachs. That was already enough to make it the true savior of the people here.

As for other things that could be called food... they were even more pitiful than those potatoes.

“Y-Yes. Ever since the last batch of natural forest withered completely three hundred and thirty years ago and was burned as firewood, and with the large-scale reduction in wheat production on top of that, bread really has become very hard to make.”

Marcie swallowed hard. That fragrance she had never smelled before seemed to make even her soul tremble with joy, almost as if it would leave her body and throw itself toward the bread.

“Can... can I really eat it?” she asked carefully. “Something this precious.”

Originally, she had only asked casually out of curiosity. She had never thought he would actually...

“Don’t worry. This isn’t anything important to me.”

Muen said, “In fact, I could give you better food, but I think that for the current you, black bread is already the limit. Anything else would only make you suffer more.”

It was easy to endure darkness because one had never seen true light.

For people here, who had already become used to those terrible foods, something too wonderful would instead be poison.

Now was not the time for that yet.

“I... I understand.”

Marcie nodded obediently.

She carefully picked up the black bread, then carefully examined it for a long time.

It was clearly such simple, plain food, yet she treated it like a priceless treasure and was reluctant to move for a very long while.

Until her starving body could no longer endure the temptation, and only then did she almost instinctively open her mouth...

And bite lightly...

She could not bite through it.

Marcie froze slightly.

So hard.

Harder than a raw potato. Harder than a mud cake.

But it was so good.

Just the tiny crumbs scraped down from the crust by her teeth landed on the tip of her tongue, and that rich, unfamiliar aroma, along with the sweetness bursting across her tongue, made her entire body go still.

A deliciousness she had never tasted before.

Marcie could no longer control herself. Her careful savoring turned into great tearing bites, and she became like a small beast gone mad with hunger, greedily gnawing at the bread in her hands.

“Eat slower. You’re not like Ariel, who trained her bite strength a long time ago. If you eat black bread like that, your teeth won’t be able to take it.”

“...Mm... I know... but... it’s too good...”

Muen’s warning was directly thrown to the back of her mind. Feeling the fragrance and texture of real food, Marcie could not help tears welling in her eyes...

It was too good.

Truly, too good.

...

...

For a time, there was no speech in the room.

Only the sounds of chewing and swallowing.

Marcie chewed the black bread in huge mouthfuls, while Muen also took small bites from that mud cake. The thick earthy smell, and the taste that could scarcely be described even by the word bitter, made his brows furrow tightly.

So awful.

After eating a little less than half, he truly could not keep going.

Marcie had been right. Compared with this thing, even those unripe potatoes could be called delicacies.

“Poor things...”

Muen did not throw away the mud cake, but put it away instead.

Wasting food here, even a mud cake like this, somehow felt like a sin.

“I’ll go out for another walk.”

Letting Marcie slowly savor the bread, Muen came outside the room. His figure flashed, and he silently arrived on the street.

The sky was growing dark, but the street remained as lively as ever. The abnormal shortening of day and lengthening of night over a long period had already made the schedules of the people here completely break free from the constraints of the sky. They had long since grown used to night. It was only this brief daytime that they cherished even more.

Muen casually found a high place and looked out over the surroundings.

The terrain around all of Rabuya was fairly flat. With one sweep of his eyes, everything was unobstructed. He could clearly see how that spectacular Fog Wall swallowed the land, bringing this place a despair that could be called a curse.

That long, endless Fog Wall was even more terrifying than a true high wall. Its lack of physical substance made it even harder to find its end.

The only place that could be considered a breakthrough point was...

Muen’s gaze followed the Fog Wall gradually upward, until it reached the line where the Fog Wall met the sky. The sunlight gradually dimmed, and that boundary also grew increasingly blurred, as if when night arrived completely, the clear blue and pure white would fully merge together.

Muen narrowed his eyes and watched for quite a while, then suddenly sighed.

“If only I could fly.”

The Fog Wall isolated all of Annabawei, but that sky did not appear to have any obstruction. Perhaps there was one, but it was still worth investigating.

Unfortunately, the excellent bloodline of old House Campbell could only let him glare straight at the clear blue sky at a time like this.

Although he had brought magic scrolls with Levitation, that kind of scroll could only let him fly to a height of a few hundred meters. It clearly could not touch the true sky, and would not even rise higher than the surrounding Fog Wall.

On top of that, sustained magic scrolls were not easy for someone without much magical attainment to control. If he was accidentally blown away by the air currents at high altitude and became lost in this unfamiliar place, that would obviously be even more troublesome.

“Annoying.”

Muen could only helplessly give up on that idea.

And when it came to flying, Muen had no choice but to think about a question that had not given him the slightest clue from the moment he entered this place until now.

—Where exactly had Miss Dragon gone?

If this weak and pitiful Annabawei truly had her target, then she obviously could not be slowly groping around and cautiously advancing like him.

That was not her temperament.

Most likely, she would be like when she snatched the bride before, rolling over everything in an open and grand manner. As for other people, points to note, subsequent effects, none of those were important before that thousand-year-old dragon at all.

Yet this time, it was strangely quiet.

“Could it be that I really have to meet that ‘Goddess of Night’ before many questions can truly be answered?”

Subconsciously, that thought appeared in Muen’s mind.

Everything in this world pointed toward the “Goddess of Night.” Then if he wanted to obtain the truth, with Miss Dragon’s whereabouts still unknown, he would clearly have to find the “Goddess of Night” as well.

That was not something easy.

In the end, he was an outsider. Most of the intelligence so far had come from one little girl. Finding a hidden “deity” here could not quite be called finding a needle in the sea, but it definitely was not something that could be completed in a short time.

Unless... that Goddess of Night took the initiative to cause some trouble.

“Ha. I’m losing my head too. Something like that sounds unlikely just hearing it. This place has maintained its current state for so long. Unless the Goddess of Night has eaten too much, why would She suddenly start making trouble?”

Muen gave a self-mocking laugh. He felt this thought was less reliable than thinking more about how to do something through Marcie and the City-State United Pioneering Association he would contact later. At the very least, that way, even when facing an unfamiliar enemy, he would not be taking too much of a risk.

It was always better to rely on oneself than to beg others.

For a yellow-haired villain like him, if he prayed for fate’s favor, fate would only give him a shoulder throw.

So...

He should go back.

Muen shrugged. Since there was temporarily no breakthrough point, and he could not find any useful information, staying here was useless. He might as well go back and sleep early...

“Hm?”

But just as he moved, Muen’s figure suddenly stopped, and his brows abruptly furrowed.

“What’s going on?”

It was not a premonition of danger.

Nor was any enemy approaching.

It was only that his sharp senses allowed him to instantly detect a change in the surrounding environment.

Muen raised his head. The sky was still clear, cloudless for ten thousand miles, with no change.

The only difference was that the sky was darkening rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye. After only one full breath, the entire world was completely covered by night.

It was dark.

“So fast...”

Muen froze for a moment, then hurriedly took out his pocket watch to confirm the time.

“Five and a half hours...”

When he had spoken with Marcie earlier, Muen had also roughly learned some of the methods this world used to calculate daytime length. But no matter how he calculated it, the sky should not have darkened at a time like this.

“It’s off from the calculated time of nightfall by about twenty minutes.”

A disturbance appeared among the pedestrians on the street. Some people who were extremely sensitive to daylight seemed to have discovered the abnormality as well.

But this unrest only existed within a very small range. Most people had already grown used to the descent of darkness. Night had arrived, but life still had to continue.

“As expected...”

After confirming the current situation, Muen murmured quietly,

“This night came early.”

...

...

Creak—

The old wooden door was pushed open with one hand. A burly figure strode quickly into the room, the dust of travel still lingering around him. The air current he stirred up also blew the papers along with it, making the person sitting in the shadows behind the desk sigh helplessly.

“Slow down, my dear Lord Bear King. You should know that door is a genuine antique. If it breaks, there’s nowhere to repair it. Also, paper is very precious now. Each sheet we use means one less.”

“Haha, sorry, President Ocido.”

The burly man scratched his head.

“I was in a hurry to get here, wasn’t I?”

“There was actually no need to hurry that much.”

The person in the shadows rose, revealing a handsome, pale face. It was clearly the face of someone who had not seen sunlight in a very long time, the blood color having completely faded from his skin.

There were many people like this in Annabawei. After nine months of long night, on the day when daylight arrived, some people could even be burned by the sun.

But the pallor on the face of the man named Ocido was clearly somewhat different. It was as if he had not simply gone long without receiving sunlight, but had already completely abandoned the light and hidden himself entirely within the night.

“Would you like some tea? Not the leaves of tea-fragrance grass, but real tea leaves. I still have a little.”

Ocido rummaged a small can from a drawer and shook it at Theresa as if showing off.

“I won’t drink it. Something this good should be saved for when it’s useful. Today isn’t a day worth celebrating.”

Theresa waved his hand.

“You’re as rigid as ever. Who says tea can only be drunk on days worth celebrating?”

Ocido took out warmstone and heated clear water. His movements were skilled, and very soon, he had brewed a cup of tea. Since Theresa did not want it, he did not force it on him.

This tea was indeed very precious.

“Whether I’m rigid or not is one thing. But President Theodore, you...”

Theresa restrained his smile and stared at Theodore’s face. “How long have you shut yourself up in this room? When you have the chance, you should go out and see the sunlight. Otherwise, sooner or later, one day, you’ll completely forget the feeling of light falling on your skin.”

“Perhaps.”

Theodore took a sip of tea and raised his cup toward Theresa. “But I hope that when I truly accept sunlight bathing me, it will be when everyone here no longer suffers the torment of darkness. At that time, I will definitely cherish the light more than anyone else. Definitely.”

“You put too much pressure on yourself, President,” Theresa said.

“There’s no helping it. Who made me president?”

Theodore set down the teacup, put his hands behind his back, and looked out the window. “In an age like this, someone has to lead all of you forward, don’t they? Just like the first Pioneer of old, the brave Lord Alan.”

“...”

Theresa shook his head and did not try to persuade him any further. He knew the temperament of the person before him.

Terrifyingly stubborn.

But precisely because of that, he could lead everyone forward in this sort of desperate situation.

“So, what happened just now wasn’t my imagination, right?”

Theresa finally pulled the topic back. “This night really did descend early?”

“That’s right.”

Theodore answered calmly. “And in fact, this is not the first time. This phenomenon already appeared before.”

“What? Why didn’t I know?”

“Because the previous few times were not that obvious. The time at which night descended only differed from our calculations by a few minutes, or even a few dozen seconds. Small enough that it could be explained as an error.

“But only this time...”

“It has already reached more than twenty minutes, enough to be noticed by ordinary people... is that it?”

Theresa’s expression was grave. It was precisely because he had detected that this matter was abnormal that he had hurried over like this. Originally, he had already rushed out of the city, preparing for the next pioneering expedition.

That was simply the kind of man he was, coming and going like the wind.

But unexpectedly... the change in the situation seemed even more serious than he had imagined, to the point that even a man like him, who came and went like the wind, had almost accidentally thrown out his back.

“What about that side? Is there any news from that side?”

“That side...”

Theodore looked back, somewhat hesitant in his words.

“They did send back news. Bad news, too. It’s just...”

“Stop beating around the bush. What bad news?”

Theresa said impatiently,

“What, do you think one piece of bad news can scare me after I’ve been a Pioneer for so long? President, aren’t you looking down on me too much?”

“...”

Theodore was silent for a brief moment, then chose his words carefully. “Actually, it isn’t much. It is only that the Goddess of Night’s condition... that is, the degree of Her madness, has suddenly worsened. The recent chaos in the Daylight Period should also be related to that.”

“...”

Theresa fell silent as well.

He looked extremely calm. After all, he was the man called Giant Bear.

He had once walked alone through the vast fog for a full nine months. Terrifying loneliness and darkness had never brought him down. What did news like this count for?

He only suddenly felt a little thirsty, that was all. So he picked up the half cup of tea Theodore had not finished, brought it to his mouth, and tried to quench his thirst.

“Say that again? I didn’t quite hear you.”

“The Goddess of Night’s condition has worsened, and it is still continuing to deteriorate. We do not know to what extent She will go mad this time, but clearly, the Daylight Period has already been affected by Her and is shortening further.”

Theodore repeated himself, then his gaze landed on Theresa’s continuously trembling arm.

“And... stop shaking. You haven’t drunk a single drop of water. That tea is truly very precious.”

“...”