Chapter 73

The moment Lumin saw the "midwife," her heart seemed to stop beating.

She's still alive?

I clearly saw her killed by Rien, and her soul destroyed!

Lumin remembered very clearly that the "midwife" had ended up as scattered pieces of flesh and blood, some parts even missing.

This must be a ghost! No, wait, I can hear her breathing! Lumin recalled certain scenes from her sister's novels, and her heart, which had momentarily stopped, began to race.

If the "midwife" hadn't ignored her and continued pruning the flower bushes, Lumin would have likely reacted out of instinct.

Snap, snap, the small, tangled branches fell to the ground, snapping Lumin out of her daze.

She subconsciously took a step forward, heading toward the blooming tulips.

The "midwife" didn't stop her, nor did she turn around.

Lumin couldn't help but steal another glance at her. She saw the "midwife" focused and serious, her side profile dark and gloomy in the shadows cast by the flowers and trees.

Not daring to stay any longer, Lumin picked a few tulips and left the administrator's castle.

Even after returning to the village, her heart was still pounding.

After calming down, and seeing that it was still early, not yet time for Aurore to trigger the loop, Lumin headed toward Raymond Cleg's house.

This was also a two-story building, but compared to Lumin and Aurore's home, it was clearly older, more dilapidated, and smaller, with the outer walls showing the gray of the stones and covered with green plants.

At that moment, the door to the Cleg house was open, allowing a clear view of the stove on the left, the table on the right, and the wooden barrels in the back.

From Lumin's memory, those barrels were used for storage. The space they created housed two simple wooden beds, one for Raymond and one for his sister.

Lumin didn't knock and, as usual, walked straight into the Cleg house.

Raymond's sister and younger sister were helping their mother prepare dinner, while Raymond's father, Pierre Cleg, sat at the wooden table, sipping cheap wine gloomily.

"Have you heard that Raymond is missing?" Lumin asked Pierre Cleg first, with a concerned look.

Pierre Cleg seemed to have aged several years, the wrinkles on his face more pronounced.

He looked up at Lumin, asking with a mix of confusion and surprise:

"You didn't know?"

At that moment, Raymond's mother, sister, and younger sister stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Lumin.

Lumin spoke the truth, as true as it could be:

"I've been busy with my own things and haven't seen Raymond for a few days."

Pierre Cleg had already investigated and knew Lumin was telling the truth; otherwise, he would have confronted her in the afternoon, suspecting that this troublemaker had incited Raymond to run away.

"A few days ago, they said it was the 29th, Raymond went out and never came back," Pierre Cleg said with a heavy heart. "We've been looking for him. His two brothers are still out searching. Where do you think he might have gone?"

Lumin thought for a moment and said:

"He always said he didn't want to be a shepherd, but he doesn't have any money, so he couldn't have left on his own. I'll check if he left anything behind..."

As she spoke, she naturally walked to the back of the first floor, where the wooden barrels were, passing through the gaps between them to reach Raymond's bed.

The bed was very simple, seemingly made from a few pieces of wood, but the gray-blue sheets, the straw-stuffed pillow, and the patched quilt were all clean, indicating frequent washing.

This was because Aurore was very clean and wouldn't allow lice or other pests in the house, a habit that Lumin had also adopted. When interacting with her playmates, she would consciously encourage them to maintain personal hygiene, not allowing them to be dirty and infested with lice and fleas.

If Raymond and others were lazy and got lice again, they would definitely suffer pranks, or even be forced into the river to wash.

After years of this, Raymond would habitually help clean the environment when he returned home.

"We didn't find any note," Pierre Cleg followed her to this area, his face full of worry.

Lumin sat on the edge of Raymond's bed and reached under the pillow.

There were two items there: a cracked dark red fountain pen and a notebook filled with words.

Raymond was very eager for knowledge but had few opportunities for education.

During the time of Emperor Roselle, villages like Cordu had established compulsory rural schools, located in the building where the administrator now worked, which also housed the conscription office and the new recruit health committee, though the staff was limited.

In recent decades, many villages no longer had schools. In larger villages, the church might hold Sunday schools, but in Cordu, the only option was for educated elders to teach the children when they had free time, leading to some young people becoming illiterate again.

When Lumin was in a good mood, she would claim she needed money for drinks and sell her used fountain pens and notebooks to Raymond, Ava, and others at a low price, teaching them some words in the process.

Each time they studied, Raymond was very serious, just as he was when practicing combat or helping shepherds make cheese on the mountain to earn money.

He was so determined to change his fate.

Lumin took out the fountain pen and the notebook, staring at them for a while without moving.

"I've shown it to the parish priest, and he said it's just simple words, not forming sentences," Pierre Cleg sighed.

Lumin flipped through the notebook, seeing the handwriting improve from messy and ugly to acceptable as the pages progressed.

"Indeed, there's no note," she agreed with Pierre Cleg, then added, "But I'm not sure if it's a code that can be translated into a sentence. You've heard similar stories, right? Aurore has told many children in the village, and they mentioned it at home?"

This included Raymond's younger brother and sister.

"Yes," Pierre Cleg nodded.

In Cordu, if villagers couldn't afford to go to the tavern, they would often gather in the kitchen at night to chat, laugh, and tell stories. The first-time guest would bring a bottle of wine, which could be cheap, as a courtesy common in Intis.

Pierre Cleg had heard similar stories from his youngest son at such gatherings.

Lumin held up the notebook confidently:

"I'll take it back and show it to Aurore. Maybe she can find something."

"Okay," Pierre Cleg didn't think it was anything valuable.

Leaving the area surrounded by barrels, Lumin walked toward the door, and Pierre Cleg sat back down.

After a few steps, Lumin heard Pierre Cleg sighing to himself:

"He could have told me he didn't want to be a shepherd. Why did he run away...

"In a while, our family will be rich, and we won't need to be shepherds..."

Rich? Lumin's heart skipped a beat, and she turned around, feigning curiosity:

"Is there an opportunity to get rich?"

Pierre Cleg didn't look at her, his head down, and said gloomily:

"Our family's constellation is about to change, and our luck will improve..."

This... Lumin felt a chill.

"Who told you this?" she asked.

Pierre Cleg didn't answer, still lamenting to himself.

...

Back home, Lumin immediately told her sister that the "midwife" was still alive.

Aurore furrowed her golden eyebrows:

"It might not be a living person."

"Huh?" Lumin was taken aback.

Aurore, thinking aloud, said:

"Didn't we discuss this before? Mrs. Poullis's path likely has the power to control the undead. It could be a zombie."

"But I saw her without using my spirit vision, and there were no signs of stitching. She was cut into many pieces by Rien," Lumin recalled. "And I heard her breathing!"

At this, Lumin paused:

"But she did seem a bit dazed, with a gloomy expression and lifeless eyes, very much like Naroka! The Naroka I saw in the last loop, the one who walked into the afterlife!"

The pale-faced, lifeless-eyed Naroka.

Of course, the "midwife" was clearly more human-like.

Aurore nodded lightly:

"Perhaps a special state, closer to the undead?"

She couldn't deduce the answer and gestured for Lumin to talk about other things.

Lumin detailed the state of the castle, which seemed unchanged, and what Raymond's father had said.

Aurore listened quietly and nodded:

"Mrs. Poullis doesn't seem to want to investigate the castle, and I'm not sure what she's wary of...

"Also, your discovery does prove that part of the village's anomalies are related to her, but she doesn't seem to be involved in the loop..."

She meant that Mrs. Poullis's anomalies were mainly related to birth, death, souls, and the afterlife, not time loops.

"I think so too," Lumin had felt this during her exploration. "It seems the person behind the parish priest is likely not Mrs. Poullis."

Connecting this with what Raymond's father said, she guessed:

"The person spreading the idea that doing something can change the constellation and bring good luck?"

Aurore nodded:

"Tomorrow, we'll do some investigation, and tonight, we'll try to communicate with Raymond's spirit."

...

After dinner, as night fell, Aurore, seeing the time was right, began setting up the altar.

This time, she was praying to herself, so she only placed one candle, but it was a different one made from deep sleep flowers and other materials.

Following the procedure, she lit the candle, sanctified the silver dagger, and created a spiritual barrier. She then dripped hydrosol made from night-scented stock and moonflowers onto the orange flame, creating a misty fog.

With the preparations complete, Aurore looked at the notebook on the altar, took a step back, and said in ancient Hermes:

"I!"

As she spoke the word, her eyes became deep, and an invisible wind seemed to swirl around her.

"I summon in my name:"

This was her second sentence, in Hermes.

—Because she didn't know where Raymond's spirit was, she couldn't directly communicate with it and had to try summoning. As a wild Beyonder, she didn't dare pray to the "Goddess of the Night," who governed this domain, and could only rely on herself, with a low chance of success unless Raymond's spirit was close by in Cordu.

Aurore continued:

"The spirit wandering in Cordu;

"The man named Raymond Cleg;

"The owner of this notebook..."

The orange candle flame suddenly flickered, absorbing the mist and growing slightly.

Its light rippled, turning a deep blue.

Aurore's forehead was sweating as she began to draw power from the materials.

In the whistling wind, a figure appeared above the deep blue flame.

To Lumin, who had already activated her spirit vision, the figure was semi-transparent, with brown hair, brown eyes, and an ordinary appearance—Raymond Cleg.

He was indeed still in the village.

At that moment, Raymond's body was swollen, his face pale, and his eyes filled with blood tears.

This... Aurore was clearly stunned.

After the loop restarted, Raymond was only missing, not drowned, so why was his spirit in this state?

That's right, if he wasn't drowned, how could he become a spirit?

It's contradictory...

Confused, Aurore asked:

"Raymond Cleg, why did you go missing?"

Raymond's expression suddenly turned fierce, and he shouted sharply:

"They drowned me!"

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