Time passed.
Gradually, Cecilia stopped crying.
However, that sadness was not something that would vanish easily. Every now and then, she would think of the old man. Or she would wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night from a nightmare about death.
That fear still lingered in the depths of her heart.
Fortunately, during that time, she still had Lu Mo.
On many occasions, she wanted to climb over the wall to find Lu Mo, only to find the girl already sitting atop the wall when she reached the corner of the manor, as if she had been waiting for a long time.
They played games of make-believe about Heroes and Demon Kings. Lu Mo no longer played the Hero; instead, she became Cecilia’s Knight.
Since no one was playing the Hero, how was the Demon King supposed to be defeated?
“At this moment, the Knight wipes the blood from the corner of her mouth and stands before the Saintess. Then, she slowly pulls out her belt… THE HOLY BLADE UNSHEATHED! TRANSFORM! HAOUKEN XROSS SABER!”
“Wait a minute! There is no part like that in the story!” Cecilia couldn’t keep a straight face, wondering to herself, ‘What kind of rank does this knight even have?’
“Since no one is playing the Hero, we have to innovate, or we can’t keep the story going.” Lu Mo curled her lip. “How about the second option? At this moment, the Knight takes an Eye Slugger out of her spatial ring, looks coldly at the Demon King, and speaks: ‘I… AM LU MO! I AM ULTRAMAN!'”
“Argh—”
Cecilia clutched her head, as if she were the defeated Demon King.
‘What even is an Ultraman?’
‘Is it really okay for something like that to appear in a place like this?’
‘Defeating the Demon King without a Hero is completely against the rules!’
Although the story of the Hero and the Demon King went further and further off the rails, Cecilia and Lu Mo ultimately had a lot of fun.
Whenever this happened, Cecilia felt as though she wasn’t as sad as before.
If the death of the old man had taught her sadness, then Lu Mo brought her joy.
A steady stream of happiness was slowly diluting her grief, making it so that she was no longer as miserable as she once was.
***
During that period, it seemed that the frontlines managed by The Holy Sanctuary were experiencing issues.
The elites of the Kalis Family and the Helovit Family were deployed one after another, and even the heads of the families departed.
The discipline over the children in the families suddenly loosened.
Cecilia was more free than she had ever been before.
“Do you want to go see a further world with me?”
One day, as Cecilia was gradually recovering, Lu Mo sat on the wall and suddenly spoke to her. “Think of it as going out to clear your head.”
A further place?
Cecilia tilted her head, looking at Lu Mo curiously. “Further?”
“Yeah,” Lu Mo said. “So, we have to climb over another wall.”
Once, that low wall in the corner of the manor had been the end of Cecilia’s world. She could only stand inside the wall, not daring to cross it.
But at some point, she had crossed the wall in front of her.
The low wall was no longer the boundary of her world; her world had expanded to include the Kalis Family.
So, what if she crossed another wall?
What lay in that further world?
Perhaps it was because her father had gone to the frontlines and couldn’t control her for the time being. Or perhaps it was because Lu Mo was there.
This time, Cecilia once again ignored the prohibitions the family had set for her.
“All right,” she answered with a smile, looking at Lu Mo.
“Then it’s a promise. We’ll meet here early tomorrow morning.”
“Mhm.”
***
Thus, early the next morning, the two of them met by the wall.
Lu Mo put coarse cloth robes on both herself and Cecilia. The two crossed the wall, entered the Kalis Manor, and kept walking forward.
Finally, they stood before a much larger wall.
This was the outer wall of the Kalis Manor, several meters high. Ornate patterns were woven into the brickwork, looking grand and aesthetic.
Compared to the wall before them, the low wall in the corner of the manor seemed like nothing at all.
Cecilia was stunned.
She had once thought that crossing the wall in the corner of the manor was a great achievement. But looking at it now… that matter was hardly worth mentioning.
The wall before her was too high—so high that she had to strain her neck just to see the top. It was so high that she felt she might never be able to cross it in her lifetime.
But Lu Mo showed no fear at all.
“Hold on tight to me, Cecilia,” she said.
Wind-elemental power had already gathered around her.
“Why… ahhh—”
Before Cecilia could even ask, Lu Mo leaped upward.
A gale carried her to a height of 15 meters above the ground. Her silhouette was already higher than that grand wall.
Cecilia cried out in the wind. There was fear, surprise, and… a hint of delight.
In the midst of the violent wind, she saw many more things.
The blue sky, white clouds, and mountain ranges seemed closer to her now. She saw the road outside the wall, stretching into the distance.
There were villages and towns. There was smoke rising from chimneys, and there were people and things she had never seen before.
The two escaped from the Kalis Family and began to run at full speed. They did not look back, leaving the family manor far behind them.
By the time they stopped, a small town had appeared before Cecilia.
“This is…” Cecilia started.
She suddenly felt a bit nervous. In all her life, she had never been to such a distant place or had contact with the people of a town.
“Smile Town. It’s just an ordinary little town,” Lu Mo answered. Seeing Cecilia’s nervous little face, she immediately smiled. “Don’t be nervous, silly Cecilia. This is just a town. In the future, we will go to even further places—cities, metropolises, the Imperial City, and even places vast enough to make the Imperial City look small. We are destined to go to a further world—”
“So, no need to be nervous. Just relax and enjoy yourself in this town.”
Lu Mo patted Cecilia’s head and walked forward. Soon, she turned sideways and reached out her hand toward Cecilia.
Even though Cecilia was still a bit nervous, she eventually jogged forward and took Lu Mo’s hand.
The two walked into the town hand-in-hand, merging into the crowd.
They had arrived at a good time.
Today, a fair was being held in the town. Stalls lined both sides of the street, stretching far into the distance.
The air was filled with the heat of food, the scent of perfume, and various other smells. The world was crowded and vast, filled with passing people and noisy sounds.
It was vivid and real.
It was the first time Cecilia had ever seen such a scene.
Perhaps because there were too many people, or perhaps because the noise was too loud, she suddenly became very nervous, not even daring to look up.
But Lu Mo kept holding her hand, gripping it tightly and never letting go.
Feeling the warmth of Lu Mo’s palm and the faint fragrance emanating from her, Cecilia suddenly felt much better. Because of Lu Mo, she was able to adapt to this kind of world to some extent.
“A small town, a fair, and girls who have snuck out…”
Lu Mo muttered to herself, suddenly remembering a song. Then, she involuntarily began to hum the melody.
The name of the song was “Scarborough Fair.”
The soothing melody was softly hummed by the girl. Gradually, it drifted into Cecilia’s ears.