Chapter 65

When they reached the edge of a small forest not far from home, Lumian stopped and turned to look at Lya and the others who were following behind.

This place was quite secluded, with no villagers passing by, and the trees in the forest were sparse, allowing one to see at a glance if anyone was hiding nearby.

As the sound of jingling approached, Lya asked with a smile,

"How did you know we were looking for someone?"

Lumian didn't speak, but took out a key item he had brought with him:

The little blue book from his home!

He raised the item and showed the pages with cut-out words to Lain and the others.

Without needing to say more, Lain nodded lightly and said,

"So you were the one who wrote that plea for help."

They had never mentioned the letter in Kordu Village, let alone described how it was made from words cut out of the little blue book.

Unless the other party had a key informant in Bigor, they must have been the one who wrote the letter.

Lya instinctively looked around.

The two small silver bells hanging from her veil strangely made no sound.

Valentine, seeing this, was about to ask, "What's strange about the people around here?" when Lain already asked with a puzzled look,

"How can you be sure we came because of that letter?"

You told us yourselves... Lumian smiled,

"Foreigners rarely come to Kordu, and even fewer wander around the village, chatting with people without buying wool, cheese, or lambs.

"Besides, I didn't say anything, I just showed you this little blue book."

Lya suddenly understood and laughed,

"So it was just a test."

"A very good method. Those who don't know about the plea for help wouldn't understand your intention and wouldn't be too suspicious, at most thinking it was a prank, and you are the prankster of Kordu Village." Lain nodded lightly.

He subtly pointed out that the three of them had not been idle during their days of chatting in Kordu Village, at least figuring out who the more famous people in the village were and matching them.

Lumian immediately showed a teasing smile,

"You believed it? You believed it?"

Seeing Lain and the others' expressions freeze, he added,

"I was just joking, I'll tell you the real reason later."

Lya gritted her teeth,

"True to your reputation as the prankster of Kordu Village. Aren't you afraid we won't believe what you say next?"

"You can choose not to believe." Lumian had a "who cares" look, "Or you can verify it yourself."

Valentine, clearly a bit dissatisfied, asked urgently,

"What did you mean by the people around here becoming increasingly strange? What exactly is strange about them?"

Lumian said "ah" and counted on his fingers,

"There are many, for example, the parish priest worships an evil god, the shepherd Pierre Berry turns people into sheep and drives them back to Kordu, Mrs. Poullis rides a 'devil'-pulled carriage across the wilderness, the assistant parish priest has a lizard-like transparent creature crawl out of his mouth while sleeping, Naroka, who is not dead, goes to the afterlife, the male butler of the administrator, Louis Rond, gives birth to a baby himself, and the owl from the wizard's legend flies back to the village from time to time..."

Lain, Lya, and Valentine were increasingly shocked as they listened, unwilling to believe but also thinking the boy couldn't make up so many absurd stories.

They were all experienced official investigators who had handled many extraordinary events, some involving evil gods and secret arts, but none were as absurd and exaggerated as what they were hearing now, except for the parish priest worshipping an evil god, which was relatively normal.

More importantly, the events they had handled before were mostly independent, at most two or three happening simultaneously and closely related, but Kordu Village had so many terrifying anomalies!

"What kind of place is this?" Almost instantly, Lya, Lain, and Valentine had similar thoughts.

They suspected they had accidentally entered a legendary abyss or hell!

When Lumian stopped, Lya couldn't help but ask,

"Are you joking?"

Is there anyone normal in this village?

Lumian smiled,

"I haven't finished. There's one more anomaly.

"This is the third or fourth time I've talked about similar things with you, Lain, Lya, Valentine, my cabbages."

Lain, Lya, and Valentine were not surprised that Lumian knew their names—they had introduced themselves while chatting with people in the village over the past two days.

They were more puzzled by the first part of his statement.

"What do you mean?" Valentine asked with a frown.

"I mean that the same things have been repeating, meaning we are in a time loop." Lumian didn't let the three foreigners guess, giving them the standard answer directly.

Before Lain and the others could question, he briefly mentioned the things they had experienced together and concluded,

"Think carefully, was the day you entered the village really March 29th?"

Lya and the others fell into deep thought.

After a few seconds, Valentine showed a pained expression,

"My sense of time is blurred, I can't remember the exact dates of the past two months...

"But I remember, I remember I celebrated my youngest son's birthday before I left, his birthday is..."

Valentine suddenly lifted his head, shockingly exclaiming,

"April 10th!"

So the real time now is mid to late April? It seems I haven't experienced many loops, maybe not even one... Yes, that was the initial loop, the loop hadn't started yet, so I could send the letter directly without the river's help. When the loop appeared, the memory was overwritten, but the letter, which was outside the loop, couldn't return? Lumian had a new guess about the letter.

He nodded slightly and said to Lain and Lya,

"You can still send telegrams to the outside world, using a way that doesn't raise suspicion to find out the current date.

"Then you will believe me."

"Yes, yes! Send a telegram!" Valentine suddenly became clear, "Seek help from above!"

Lumian looked at him with a look of disbelief,

"Seek help?

"How does your official organization usually handle such bizarre time loops?"

Lain was silent for a moment and said,

"Destroy it directly to prevent the contamination from spreading."

"So, seeking help now is like suicide." Lumian laughed and shrugged.

Valentine responded with a fanatical look,

"According to regulations, we must report immediately, I am willing to sacrifice for this!"

"..." Lumian was shocked.

There are people like this?

No, I have to deal with this guy immediately to prevent us all from being doomed!

Fortunately, Lya and Lain clearly felt they still had a chance, and they exchanged glances, nodding.

Lain patted Valentine's shoulder,

"Don't rush, we still don't know what exactly happened, maybe there's a better solution.

"If we really can't save ourselves, we'll report the situation to the higher-ups."

"Yes." Lumian quickly added, recounting all his discoveries and speculations except for the chest symbol, the dream ruins, the mysterious lady, and the Curly Baboon Research Society, and concluded, "The key is likely on the twelfth night. We must survive until then in this loop, only then can we truly solve the problem in the next loop."

Seeing him recount so many details that corroborated each other, Lain and the others were thoroughly inclined to believe him. Valentine also calmed down, remembering his wife and children.

"No wonder you recognized us and knew we were looking for someone." Lya sighed.

It must have been during the previous loop.

She subconsciously touched the silver bells on her head, wanting to do a divination, but thinking of the anomalies Lumian described, she forced herself to hold back.

She didn't want to blow up because of a divination before the real investigation began.

Lain thought for a moment and said to Lumian,

"You told us all this, hoping we would cooperate with you and your sister to do something?"

"Very smart, my cabbage." Lumian laughed and said seriously, "First, send a telegram to the outside, saying your investigation has made some initial progress, the parish priest seems to have some issues, and ask what the lizard-like thing that crawls out of the mouth is. This is the least likely to directly cause a catastrophic strike among all the anomalies. Oh, and confirm the real date, be careful with the method, don't make the people outside suspicious.

"Second, this afternoon, my sister will invite Mrs. Poullis to our house for afternoon tea. I hope you can join me in infiltrating the administrator's residence and conduct a search.

"As for what happens next, it depends on the information we gather today."

Lain, Lya, and Valentine looked at each other, finding Lumian's request not unreasonable.

This was what they were supposed to do anyway.

The four then went to the village square, where Lain went to send the telegram, and Lya, Valentine, and Lumian waited under the elm tree outside.

Lya, having composed herself, looked at Lumian and asked curiously,

"Are you an Extraordinary, and is your sister too?"

"Yes." Lumian didn't hide it.

Lya laughed,

"So direct, not afraid of being captured by us?"

"We're all in the same boat now, facing an urgent situation where the boat is about to sink, we can only help each other." Lumian shrugged, "As for what happens next, we'll see. Whether we can escape this loop is still unknown."

"That's true." Lya jingled her head and looked at Valentine.

She brought up this topic to make her companion understand this, to avoid doing something stupid.

Valentine's expression remained cold, but he nodded slightly.

Lya then asked about something she was more concerned about,

"Why can you retain your previous memories?"

"Not telling you." Lumian laughed.

Before Lya could respond, he shrugged and said,

"Just joking, actually, I'm not sure either. I retained the memories mysteriously, and only for the last two loops."

"Think about what happened at the time, it might be crucial." Lya pondered for a moment.

Lumian said sincerely,

"I've been thinking about it, but I haven't found anything. Maybe I'll suddenly realize it when I encounter something specific."

Lya was about to help analyze when Lain, who had received a reply, walked out of the building where the administrator lived.

PS: Please vote for the monthly ticket!