Chapter 331.
Chapter 331 The Legacy
Maurice gave full play to his words and side-stepped many questions to confirm to Galoni in an unmoving conversation.
During the conversation, he and Duncan gradually confirmed the state of the female apprentice.
The memories of Brown Scott’s shipwreck six years ago and the death of his mentor since then had disappeared from Galoni’s mind.
No, it wasn’t only the memories that had disappeared, but also the entire cognitive system that went along with it – the
A person’s death triggered a chain reaction, which included ripples within the social circle, the handling of the aftermath of the death, a long period of remembrance and emotional ups and downs, as well as all the details of the changes left in this house during the six years, which could not be solved by simply deleting and replacing a memory.
However, in Galoni’s perception, “Brown Scott died in a shipwreck six years ago” never happened, and the series of subsequent reactions triggered by this incident did not leave the slightest trace, she only felt that she had rightfully lived in this house for six years, during which time she had been calmly waiting for her teacher to return! –And now, her teacher had returned and was resting in the upstairs room.
The sharp whistle of the kettle suddenly sounded, interrupting the conversation in the living room, and Galoni immediately got up and headed for the kitchen, “Excuse me, I’m going to turn off the fire.”
Taking advantage of the few moments the Sanguine lady had left, Duncan looked up at Maurice on the couch across the room, “Her perceptions are being interfered with.”
“We should check the whole building,” Maurice whispered, “If Brown was really here, he would have left something behind while he was still conscious – he wrote me a second letter not long ago, that time he had evidently perceived certain truths.”
“…… Let Galoni rest a while.” Duncan said softly.
Maurice nodded, and it was during this conversation that Galoni had returned from the kitchen – she was carrying a large tray of warming ginger tea and some cookies, and the lady with the stone gray skin set the items down on the coffee table and looked up at her two guests, “It’s been a long time, have some ginger tea to warm you up. Warm up your body.”
“Thank you,” Morris said while pointing to the sofa next to him, “Galoni, take a seat here first, sit down, let me tell you something.”
“Ah …… okay, Mr. Morris, “although Galoni felt a little strange, but facing her mentor’s closest friend, she still immediately obeyed and sat down, “what do you want to say?”
Morris gazed into Galoni’s eyes, “The Lomonsoff inequality set.”
Galoni’s eyes snapped open, a sea of knowledge, memories, and logic puzzles instantly covered her mind, and before she could understand the general outline of these “information storms”, a strong, self-protective weariness had already surfaced in her heart.
She passed out without a sound, snoring quietly and peacefully.
Duncan watched the scene with an expressionless face, and was silent for two seconds before asking, “How long will she sleep?”
“Depends on the IQ, Heidi slept for twelve hours in the first place, Galoni should be a little longer,” Maurice shrugged, “Folklorists aren’t usually too good at counting.”
Duncan was at a loss for words for a moment, a long time before he ventured, “Why would you use that trick on your own daughter?”
Maurice’s expression was a little subtle, “Heidi insisted that her hypnotic skills had surpassed mine – and being a father occasionally gives you the odd desire to win.”
Duncan thought for a moment and decided that the subject need not be pursued, so he stood up and looked toward the flight of steps that led to the second floor.
“Now we can have a good check – if Galoni isn’t lying, her teacher should be in the second floor bedroom right now.”
The old staircase creaked, and bright electric lights illuminated the corridor on the second floor, as Maurice and Duncan made their way up the stairs in search of the folklorist who had “returned to the world”.
The second floor of the house is not complicated, a straight corridor connects every room, and most of the rooms are unlocked – Duncan and Maurice quickly identified most of the rooms, and stopped at the door of the last room on the left side of the corridor.
It was the only locked place on the entire second floor.
Maurice stepped forward and tugged on the doorknob, his brow furrowing slightly, “It’s locked – backwards.”
“Locked from the inside?” Duncan had a vague sense of dissonance, followed by a flash of recollection, “Just now Galoni said that she brings meals to the teacher’s room every day ……”
“Impossible, this door hasn’t been opened for many days – a week or more,” Morris said immediately, his eyes were slowly sweeping over the door of the room in front of him, while the bottom of his eyes seemed to have a faint floating light surging, “The lock of the door also shows no sign of having been tampered with.”
“…… So, it’s just that Galoni ‘thinks’ she brings food to her teacher’s room every day, but her teacher hasn’t actually opened the door since many days ago, “Duncan said, glancing back slightly at the staircase that led to the first floor, “The cognitive interference has been ongoing.”
Maurice didn’t say anything, he just raised his hand and knocked lightly on the light yellow door to the room. There was no response from the room.
“Brown, it’s me,” Morris spoke, “if you’re in there, open the door – whatever state you’re in, there’s no need to worry, we can take care of the trouble you’ve run into. ”
There was still no response from the room.
Duncan gazed at the door in silence, feeling only that the situation …… was no surprise.
Eventually, he sighed softly, “Let me, Maurice, we may be a step too late after all.”
Maurice’s expression stiffened for a moment, and he seemed to want to say something, but after his lips twitched twice, he still didn’t say anything and just silently stepped aside.
Duncan, on the other hand, didn’t use any fancy tactics, just stepped forward and rammed it, and the plain wooden door, which wasn’t very strong in the first place, was knocked out of its lock with a loud clang and opened wide.
A room almost completely shrouded in darkness was presented to the two.
There was no light in the room, and the windows facing the street seemed to have been blocked by something, so that the light from the street lamps outside could not shine into the room, only the light from the corridor lit up a small area in front of the door, and in the place where the light could not shine, one could vaguely see what seemed to be something shadowy covering the roof and floor.
Duncan was the first to step into the room, raising his right hand, which held up an ethereal green blaze of spirit in his palm, while his other hand groped for the light switch next to the door.
Once the electric light was lit, everything in the room was finally clear.
“This is ……” Morris, who had followed him into the room, saw the scene inside the room and exclaimed in a low voice in dismay.
Some kind of gray and black, as if mud-like material is distributed in pieces in all parts of the room, covering the floor, contaminated walls, and even firmly adhered to the roof, and there is as if half-melted “mud” from the roof of the dirty hanging down in the air, looks like a curved and swollen veins, or some kind of strange shape of the Stalactites hanging.
In an instant, Duncan was reminded of what he had seen in the bilge of the Obsidian.
The strange and frightening “mud”…… looked exactly like the bilge of the Obsidian!
The muscles in Maurice’s face tightened.
Frankly speaking, from the very beginning, he did not believe that his “old friend” really returned to earth, he knew that behind this incident must be some kind of uncontrolled transcendent vision, and may even be related to the curse of the deep sea, but …… even though he had vaguely predicted it before he opened the door, he still did not realize it after seeing this scene. But even though he had vaguely expected it before he opened the door, he still felt a huge shock when he really saw this scene.
“A replica of the Deep Sea …… It seems they all end up like this,” just then, Duncan’s voice interrupted Morris’s daze, “We’re one step too late after all, I’m sorry.”
Maurice blinked, then shook his head vigorously, as if to shake the jumbled thoughts out of his head, and walked deeper into the room, carefully skirting around the clumps of “mud” spread across the floor, before stopping long enough to come to a stop at a table.
The table was also covered in mud, and one of the largest clumps of mud was piled up between the table and the bed.
“…… He had written two letters, and at least at that point, he had some sense,” Morris said softly, “He must have sensed something unusual about himself… …”
“His sanity lasted at least until the moment he unlocked this room, after that he had no control over events,” Duncan said thoughtfully as he too came to the desk, observing the congealed mud around him, “These replicas from the deep seem to be …… are not quite the same, some don’t have the slightest bit of sanity at all, some even retain their original memories and can survive for some time as ordinary people, and others …… are like that captain of the Obsidian, completely warped into an alien form, yet from beginning to end they retains a soul.”
“Like some kind of unstable experimental product?”
Morris said casually, and just then something suddenly came into his line of sight.
There was a piece of paper, pressed against the edge of a solidified mass of mud that had the vague outline of an arm.
“It’s ……” The old scholar’s eyes widened, and he carefully drew the piece of paper out while exclaiming in a low voice, “Mr. Duncan, look at this!”
Duncan immediately came over to it, and on the soiled paper some words that were no longer quite legible met his eyes-
“To the investigators, the following are the changes that occurred in the final stages of my body:”
(End of chapter)