Chapter 20: Customs

Lu Mian couldn't help but hold his breath and shrink his body back a little.

Naroka didn't come in this direction, slowly, slowly entering the small forest, disappearing into the deep night.

"Her state isn't quite right... Did something happen?" Lu Mian felt slightly worried.

Recently, there were more and more abnormal situations in the village.

He looked out for a while longer; the night had returned to silence, with only the shaking leaves proving the existence of the wind.

"What are you looking at?" Aurora's voice suddenly sounded behind his back.

Lu Mian was pleasantly surprised instead of shocked, turned around, and said to his sister in a two-piece nightgown:

"Did you sense something wrong too?"

"No." Aurora's golden hair was slightly messy and fluffy, looking like she had just woken up.

Immediately after, she said with annoyance:

"I didn't see anything wrong. I only know that someone isn't sleeping in the middle of the night and is wandering at the window."

"It's at most an hour until dawn; how can it be considered the middle of the night..." Lu Mian muttered habitually in a low voice, then asked, "You didn't come over because that owl flew to the window again? Didn't you see Naroka outside?"

"Naroka?" Aurora rarely showed a blank expression.

Lu Mian didn't hide anything, telling her everything from discovering the black shadow outside the window when he woke up to Naroka, who was in a strange state, walking into the small forest.

As for the specialness brought by the dream meditation, he planned to consult that mysterious woman first before considering in what way to tell Aurora, or hide it for a while longer, to avoid his sister stopping him from obtaining supernatural power.

Aurora's beautiful golden eyebrows frowned:

"Naroka might already be in trouble...

"Go to their house after dawn."

"What kind of trouble?" Lu Mian asked subconsciously.

"How would I know? I didn't see it and can't make an accurate judgment." Aurora answered with annoyance.

"You really didn't see it?" Lu Mian had thought his sister was monitoring this side the whole time.

Aurora said "heh":

"You think you can see whatever you want? If you see something you shouldn't, you'll have to consider which graveyard to pick for me.

"I won't look outside for no reason. I only monitor your state, and I'll only wake up if there's something wrong."

Sister is taking such a big risk to look after me... Lu Mian was stunned for a moment, unable to help but blink.

Aurora added earnestly:

"So, I told you, don't look at what you shouldn't, don't listen to what you shouldn't. Pursuing supernatural power is a very dangerous thing."

"Hmm." Lu Mian nodded solemnly.

At the same time, he said silently in his heart:

"It's precisely because it's dangerous that I can't let you walk alone."

…………

After breakfast, Lu Mian, shouldering his sister's instructions, headed straight for Naroka's house.

Before he even got close, he saw many villagers standing outside the door, including several of his partners, as well as Ava's father, Guillaume Lizié, Raymond's father, Pierre Craig, and the parish priest's brother, Pons Béné.

"What happened?" Lu Mian carefully bypassed Pons Béné and the few thugs surrounding him, coming to Raymond's side.

Raymond answered with quite a bit of sadness:

"Naroka has passed away."

"Ah?" Although Lu Mian was prepared for Naroka to have an accident, he didn't expect her to have already died.

Raymond babbled again:

"Early this morning, before dawn, the parish priest came to give her last rites.

"When we asked her about the wizard legend two days ago, she was still fine and very spirited. How could she pass away suddenly..."

Early this morning, before dawn? Lu Mian was shocked inwardly.

It was at this time that he saw Naroka's figure, and the parish priest's last rites would either be a bit earlier or a bit later, not differing much.

So, what I saw was actually Naroka's ghost? This happened after that owl flew over to stare at me... Can it really take away a human's soul? Hmm, Naroka was one of the witnesses who was still alive during the wizard incident... If I hadn't listened to my sister and hadn't gone out after dark, maybe the object of the parish priest's last rites would have been me. Heh, his last rites for me would be spitting a mouthful of phlegm at me... Various thoughts flashed through Lu Mian's mind.

Raymond didn't chat with him either, standing outside that two-story house, mourning Naroka quietly.

After Lu Mian collected his thoughts, he saw the three outsiders—Lyra, Ryan, and Valentine—walking over.

"Did something happen here?" Before Lu Mian could greet them, Lyra asked first.

They saw many people gathered on the road.

Lu Mian sighed and said:

"My cabbages, a respected old lady has passed away."

"Then why are you all standing outside the door?" Lyra didn't express condolences first because Lu Mian's words weren't that believable.

She was still wearing the same set of clothes.

Lu Mian immediately made an obvious up-and-down looking action, making Lyra feel a bit panicked.

"What's wrong?" Ryan asked.

Lu Mian smiled:

"You are definitely not locals from Dalie."

"We are from Bigor." Ryan answered frankly.

Bigor is the provincial capital of the Reston province in the Intis Republic, while Dalie is a city on the southern border of the Reston province, governing a large area including Cordu Village.

"No wonder you don't know the customs of the Dalie region." Lu Mian nodded.

He had previously thought these three outsiders were official personnel from Dalie, but it turned out they were from the provincial capital, Bigor.

Their status seems higher than I expected... Lu Mian silently updated his judgment of Lyra and the others.

"What kind of custom?" Lyra asked with great interest, "Can you tell us?"

Lu Mian originally wanted to get along well with them, so he said with a smile:

"You are my cabbages; how could I not tell you?

"You know, everyone has their corresponding constellation, and in the Dalie region, we also believe that every family has its own constellation, producing corresponding luck. The death and funeral of family members, especially the head of the household, will take away this good luck.

"In order not to affect the constellation and keep the luck, we will place the deceased in the center of the family, which is the kitchen, before burial, and then cut off some of her hair and nails, hiding them in the house forever, but they cannot be discovered by guests.

"At this time, if people attending the funeral enter the house, it will affect the corresponding constellation and take away part of the luck. Therefore, we attend funerals by mourning outside the door, at most looking from the door, and then wait at the cemetery next to the church."

"I see." Ryan nodded lightly, "This is the same as every cathedral having holy relics stored—'where there are parts of the holy body, there will always be saints'."

He turned around, faced Naroka's house, took off the hat on his head, placed it on his chest, and began to mourn.

Lyra and Valentine also followed to express condolences.

After they finished, Lu Mian said to them:

"I'm going to look at the body from the door. See you later, my cabbages."

"Okay." Ryan nodded gently.

Lu Mian lowered his voice and added:

"I will help you find that small blue book."

Without waiting for Lyra and the others to respond, he stepped back and said with a smile:

"Why do you wear the same clothes every day?"

"In a situation where we have to stay in a foreign land for a period of time, we can't be too particular about decency." Ryan said simply, while Lyra subconsciously touched the silver bell hanging on her veil.

Bidding farewell to Valentine and the others, Lu Mian walked to the door of Naroka's house.

After queuing for a while, it was finally his turn.

He stood by the door and looked toward the kitchen in front.

Naroka's corpse hadn't been put into the coffin yet, lying quietly on a simple bed made of several long benches.

Her nails had been cut off, and her sparse white hair was much neater than usual.

Her face was blue-white, and with the existence of wrinkles, even a bold young man like Lu Mian didn't dare to stare for too long.

"Compared to her before dawn, her face is even bluer..." Lu Mian muttered, bowed slightly, and left the door.

On the way to the cemetery with Raymond, he suddenly slapped his head:

"Oops, I forgot to notify Aurora."

"Then you go quickly." Raymond expressed understanding.

Aurora often didn't like to go out, and without her brother, she really couldn't know what happened in the village.

Lu Mian took the opportunity to say:

"Since it's not far from your house, lend me the small blue book for two days. The one at home was gnawed by rats for a few pages, and I need to copy it."

"Okay." Raymond agreed.

Anyway, there was still a long time before the burial.

…………

"Naroka has passed away." Lu Mian hid the small blue book and returned home to tell Aurora.

Aurora couldn't help but sigh:

"Something really happened.

"I don't know if it was caused by that owl..."

"I suspect it too." Lu Mian echoed his sister.

Aurora said "hmm":

"After dark, you must not leave the house.

"You also have to find a way to warn the people who are investigating the wizard legend with you."

"Okay." Lu Mian had already used "Naroka was asked about the wizard legend and died two days later" to scare Raymond, telling him not to go out after dark during this time.

"Naroka was a good person. I'm going to change clothes to attend her funeral." Aurora walked toward the stairs and asked, "Are you going with me, or are you going to read a book and do a paper before going?"

Why do a paper at a time like this? Sometimes, Lu Mian couldn't understand his sister's train of thought.

Considering he had to compare the small blue books, he said to Aurora:

"I'll do a paper before going."

"Very good." Aurora was quite gratified.

After watching his sister go out, Lu Mian's expression became heavy.

He went to the second floor, entered the study, took out the small blue book borrowed from Raymond's house, and compared it with the one at home with some words cut out.

Time passed slowly, and the corresponding words were found one by one and written on white paper.

Lu Mian carefully pieced them together for a while and made adjustments according to the size of the two sentences.

Soon, the possible content of the help letter appeared before his eyes:

"We need to get help as soon as possible.

"The people around us are getting weirder."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 21 =====