Chapter 87: Departure

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On the day of departure, white snow covered the entire city.

The snow must have started falling in the latter half of the night. In just one evening, the accumulated snow on the roads had reached ankle-deep, and the goose-feather-like flakes in their silver dress mixed with the whistling cold wind, striking against faces.

In front of the gates of Shanter Castle, Madam held a very thick pink-white fur shawl in her hands, forcibly trying to drape it over me.

“On such a cold day, that cloak of yours is too thin, it can’t block the wind and snow… Hurry up, don’t dawdle!”

“This is too ugly.” I kept shaking my head in continuous resistance, using my hands to block Madam’s arms. “I’m really not cold…”

The Pontifical Knight’s cloak could almost wrap around my entire body, and underneath I was still wearing a fur-lined leather armor underskirt… Originally, with my constitution, even if I wore nothing… Bah. In any case, low temperatures not only didn’t make me feel uncomfortable, but were actually quite pleasant for me. Yet now I was about to be wrapped up like a dumpling.

But Madam didn’t care about any of that, and whenever she wanted to force me to do something, that delicate arm of hers would move with surprisingly great strength. Combined with the fact that I didn’t dare use force, afraid I might accidentally hurt her, back and forth like this, the shawl had already wound around my neck and was wrapped around my body.

Madam patted my shoulder with satisfaction, completely ignoring the gloomy expression on my face. Her actions perfectly embodied what it meant to be “your mom thinks you’re cold.”

“Where’s Parsifal! I told him to help carry some luggage, how come there’s still no sign of him?”

“…Mom, I, I’m here…”

A sturdy but hunched figure slowly walked over from the small path on the right side of the garden.

Parsifal was currently carrying an incredibly huge suitcase, his steps already heavy, panting white breath from his mouth. Despite the cold weather, sweat was actually dripping from his forehead, and even his voice had unconsciously started to tremble.

“Mom, what did you pack for Peipei… Why is it so heavy, huff, so heavy… And she’s so strong, why do I have to carry it! Am I your biological child…”

“You’re her older brother, act like an older brother should! What’s the result of staying in the workshop for several months? Walk faster!”

Madam shouted in dissatisfaction, and when it reached Parsifal’s ears, even I could see the grievance on his face. He walked over trembling, struggling to hoist the case onto his shoulder, trying to load it into the horned carriage compartment behind us, but unfortunately failed twice.

Then arms reached out from inside the compartment, grabbing the case and pulling it in. After that, half of Carlos’s large face popped out.

“Little Syl, what the hell did you pack in here?”

“Clothes.”

“Clothes are this heavy?”

Facing Carlos’s questioning, I shifted my gaze from his face to the snowflakes dancing in the sky.

“…And donuts.”

Carlos was immediately speechless.

“Alright, you’re amazing.” He rubbed his temple. “But those things will go bad before long. You brought so many, what’s the point?”

I answered him with a completely serious expression: “I will eat them all before they go bad.”

I was quite confident about this, and considering Valen Empire’s weather, the shelf life could be extended a bit more.

“Squawk—”

Goat Cheese called out loudly from the air, landing on the carriage compartment. When Madam saw this, a smile appeared on her face.

“Peipei, remember to write letters home when you get there.”

I nodded.

“Mm, I will.”

Then I looked toward the castle behind me.

The black ramparts stood firm as gold and iron, the towering spire that reached into the mountainside stood majestically in the wind and snow. The Duke and Lafayette were currently in some conference room on the third floor, negotiating iron ore and leather procurement matters with many merchants from other places. Before leaving the inner castle, I had already said goodbye to them.

I didn’t know if they were watching from my direction, but I still waved toward the castle.

“I’m leaving.”

“Stay safe.”

“Peipei, come back during holidays!”

“Mm-hmm!”

I bent down to pick up the black leather case at my feet, slinging it diagonally across my back, glanced at Madam once more, then stepped into the carriage.

“Madam, we’re leaving now.”

“Go on… Sir Carlos, I’m troubling you for this journey.”

“It’s nothing.” Carlos made a “puff” sound and spat out the half stalk of straw from his mouth. “Tell His Grace that I’ll come find him again before long.”

“Alright.”

Heavy snow fell on her cascading black hair like ink, the wind swept up her hair strands across her cheeks.

Even so, it couldn’t hide those bright eyes clear as the bright moon.

“Sir Carlos, may the moonlight be with you.”

Carlos gently struck his chest with his fist.

Creak… creak…

The carriage started moving. After traveling a few meters, I heard Madam calling out once again.

“Peipei! Take good care of yourself over there—!”

I immediately lifted the carriage curtain, stuck my head out, and shouted toward the figure standing behind.

“I will!”

“When you encounter problems, discuss with others first! Don’t always try to show off on your own!”

“I know—!”

“…Come back safely…”

“Oh!”

The voice grew more and more distant.

The atmosphere in the carriage fell silent.

Carlos leaned against the backrest, looking at me with great interest. That gaze made me feel like I was a monkey in a zoo being observed.

So I glared at him viciously with my slightly reddened eyes.

“Stop staring.”

“Young ladies shouldn’t use crude language.”

“I hate you the most, looking at me.”

“Haha, then what should I do? Now it’s just the two of us left, I happen to be very bored, and you’re very interesting. If I don’t look at you, what do you want me to do?”

“Go pick your toes.”

“…You’re at least a noble young lady, no, a royal princess, how can you be so vulgar?”

“Mind your…”

“Business.” Carlos immediately continued before I could finish. “Can we not include the swear in every three sentences? This will affect me… Oh my god!”

Halfway through his words, he quickly lifted both feet, very nimbly dodging my leg sweep attack. I was annoyed but didn’t have the mood to argue with him, so I could only huff twice and say.

“I’m warning you, don’t provoke me.”

Perhaps seeing that my emotions were genuinely off, Carlos quickly raised both hands.

“Okay, okay, I won’t provoke you… What’s wrong, can’t bear to leave this place?”

I stopped paying attention to him.

Can’t bear to leave this place… there was a little of that, but not entirely.

Actually, I couldn’t really describe my mood at this moment either.

I had gained a sense of belonging here.

At the last moment when I looked toward the castle, a feeling suddenly arose in my heart, “I had lived here for many years, and would continue living here in the future.”

I didn’t know if this was my emotion or someone else’s emotion, because according to my memory, I had only lived in Shanter Castle for 3 months, and my hometown was in a distant other world.

But the emotion was incredibly real, and it stung me.

What exactly… am I…

“Carlos Hurricane.”

“…Are you calling me?”

“Besides you, who else?”

Carlos shrugged.

“Oh. I didn’t expect that this time even proper names don’t count, I didn’t react for a moment, sorry sorry. What’s the matter?”

“Do you think the Abyss could possibly tamper with memories?”

Upon hearing this, he frowned and brought his right hand to his chin, falling into thought.

“…Tampering with memories… How could you tamper with something as ethereal as memory? Forget the Abyss, even the gods probably couldn’t do it… What are you trying to say?”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

It seemed this was something he couldn’t understand.

This was something that no one, including me, could understand.

I couldn’t even be sure if it was actually related to the Abyss. This was really too difficult to understand. To put it in more concrete terms, my brain seemed to be split in half by something. One half said I was Peylo, the other half told me I was called Chen Yuxuan. The half that said I was Peylo gave me personality, while the half that said I was Chen Yuxuan gave me memories.

But now, the half that gave me memories was trying to give me personality anew, while the half that gave me personality was providing me with new memories.

It was just that complicated.

If this were in my previous world, it would be multiple personality disorder, commonly known as mental illness.

And obviously the doctors in this world couldn’t treat such a condition… just look at that bird-beak knight. Such a casual person, Carlos said he was actually a world-famous doctor with superb medical skills.

I definitely didn’t dare entrust myself to him, and besides, this kind of thing… I couldn’t tell others about it for now.

This was too difficult for me.

“Little Syl, what are you thinking about?”

Suddenly feeling somewhat stuffy, I lifted the carriage curtain slightly, and suddenly noticed that the streets outside looked somewhat familiar…

“…Stop the carriage!”

“What’s wrong?!”

Carlos, who had been getting a bit drowsy, was startled by my sudden shout. He glanced outside the carriage and immediately understood what I wanted to do.

“I’m going to buy something.”

Before he could stop me, I quickly jumped down, ran rapidly across to the other side of the street with my little legs, and came to the front of that shop that sold Osmiru cakes.

I stepped inside.

“Welcome~”

A somewhat familiar sweet voice, still that familiar shop assistant girl. When she saw me, she was stunned for a moment.

I walked slowly to the front counter and asked her, “Not many customers today?”

“…Ah, yes, because of Divine Birth Day.” The girl who had come back to her senses showed me a smile. “Everyone is with their families. It was so busy a while ago that I could barely handle it… Um, what would you like to order?”

“Are you here alone?”

“No, there’s also my grandfather. But he went to the town in the west to buy ingredients…”

“Was it the same last time too?”

I remembered the first time I came here, the girl was also alone then, so busy she was almost crying. The impression was particularly deep.

“Yes.” The shop assistant girl showed a bitter smile, seeming to understand what I was thinking. “I… I might be a bit stupid. When grandfather isn’t here, I always get so busy I’m in a panic, not knowing what to do…”

“Why not hire shop assistants?”

“My grandfather won’t let me… He always feels that young people nowadays are unreliable and will steal things from the shop… But before, someone did come to help…”

Speaking of this, the shop assistant girl suddenly looked at me with somewhat anxious eyes, then seemed to gather her courage.

“It was a girl named Peylo… She’s a child of His Grace, clearly of noble status, yet she would always come to help in the shop when grandfather wasn’t around. At first I didn’t dare let her do these things, but she insisted… When it was crowded in the shop, people squeezed around with all kinds of smells, she could endure that hardship too. Every time her beautiful black hair would get all messy… She didn’t want any payment either, just took some cakes with her when she left.”

“You could tell she really loved sweets… and was willing to interact with us common people… She was a very kind girl.”

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