I'm Really Not The Demon God's Lackey

Chapter 117: Walpurgis

Lin Jie pondered for a while, sighed, then got up to close for the day. Suddenly, he caught sight of the silver emblem on the countertop.

He had been so caught up in the conversation and totally forgotten that the holy emblem was still on the tabletop. Later on, the priest didn’t mention it as well.

Now that the flower pot was gone, this holy emblem was more conspicuous as it showed a warm radiance.

"Ah, Father Vincent left in such a hurry that he forgot to take his holy emblem."

Lin Jie picked up the emblem and scrutinized the object. This holy emblem from the Church of the Dome was rather well-crafted and cold to the touch. Moreover, the clean design and wavy dark patterns had a sort of calming effect.

The Church of the Domehad a knack for doing things, for the religion to have flourished in Norzin for so many years.

"I would have been able to go next door and look for the Father if I had found this earlier, but then I ended up chatting with young Miss Ji.

"He didn't return after such a long time, so he might have really forgotten about it and left already.

"I guess, I'll just have to return it back to him on his next visit. Such an expensive item mustn't be casually misplaced, haa..."

Lin Jie studied the holy emblem in his hand, then turned towards Mu'en, his gaze landing on the box she was hugging.

Isn't this a coincidence?

I just received a usable 'safe' just moments ago.

This child looks like she's going to treat it like a treasure and probably won't misplace it.

Lin Jie placed the emblem on the top of the box, then instructed Mu'en to carefully look after them till the priest returned for it.

"Like I mentioned just now, we'll take this as your punishment. Make sure to safe-keep them well.

"Mm." Mu'en nodded, placing the emblem inside the box and closing it once again before staring blankly at the sigils on the brass box.

When she looked up, Lin Jie had already locked the front door.

He patted Mu'en's head as he passed by and said, "Time for you to head to bed. Your new identity will be settled when personnel from the Ash Chamber of Commerce come. Oh right, I'll have to ask them to help with some slight remodeling of the second floor so that you'll have a bedroom."

As he walked up, Lin Jie casually joked with Mu'en. "If you have time, think about what other furniture we could have... It's best to make the most of what we can get. [T/N- Lin Jie uses a chinese saying where the literal translation is that the poor should take tufts of wool when shearing sheep for lining their own clothes etc, for the rich sheep owner wouldn't notice it]

Lin Jie said the last sentence softly, but Mu'en heard it clearly.

The artificial human pondered for a bit, then nodded earnestly.

Furniture... Wool... Boss wants a wool carpet.

—Evidently, her grasp of commonly used sayings still wasn't good enough.

Lin Jie did want to renovate the second floor indeed. He had always been using the original layout of the bookstore and hadn't made any major changes. Originally, it was rather comfortable for him alone, but things were different with another person added.

There wasn't much space on the second floor, with the bedroom which doubled up as a study and the kitchen occupying most of the space. Basically all that remained was just a small space which Lin Jie used daily to work out.

The bedroom was now Mu'en’s and he could only sleep at the workout area on his shoddily put-together wooden bed. On top of that, the huge sword was also kept there.

But continuing on like this wasn't an option. Since it just so happened that he had contacted Cherry recently, Lin Jie felt that he should make full use of it...

After Mu'en came up as well, Lin Jie wished her a good night and reminded her to change her dressings.

Only after watching her close the bedroom door did he head to his makeshift bed.

Mu'en closed the door and stood on the spot till there was no longer any activity outside. Then, she headed to the bedside and placed the brass box at the head of the bed.

The first aid kit was placed on the bedside table. Mu'en stripped off her clothes, revealing a startling sight of a pale slender body covered with bandages.

Bandages fell onto the floor in loops, stacked on top of each other.

Mu'en used a wet towel to wipe off any remaining ointment on her body, cleaned her wounds, and reapplied ointment before bandaging herself up once again.

The main injuries were the abrasions on her back and the self-inflicted nape wound where the barcode used to be. Some of the minor wounds on her arms and face had already healed, so Mu'en used less bandages this time.

After putting her clothes back on, Mu'en carefully climbed into bed and lay on her side, curling up and hugging the brass box tightly in her arms.

Boss instructed me to safeguard it properly.

Mu'en glanced at the formless sealing sigils on the box.

There had been some luck involved for her to have opened the box. She had already learned about the majority of sigils that were present on the box, so understanding them wasn't difficult. However, they had been linked in a way in which Mu'en hadn't yet learned.

Therefore, she had been telling the truth when she said 'just wanted to try.'

However, the artificial human's recently overloaded brain had the habit of allowing her to understand things beyond the surface when it was in a state of overclocking.

Via a deep layer of aetheric flow, she was able to locate the core of the sealing sigil and opened the box in a single stroke.

Now, Mu'en decided to put into practice everything she had learned to try and discover the method of the sealing sigils.

In reality, this was equivalent to trying to derive a mass-energy equation after getting a grasp of all the basic formulas.

It took a few tries for Mu'en to understand it. Although the current situation was many times simpler now, it would still be impossible to master in such a short span of time.

Mu'en huddled in the bed corner, her brain starting to crash. Her thoughts were all jumbled up because she had tried to comprehend something advanced.

In her muddled state, Mu'en looked up to see the hanging feathers of the dreamcatcher in the corner of her field of vision... How sleepy....

She closed her eyes. Within the brass box in her arms, the holy emblem glowed faintly, like moonlight.

Can artificial humans have dreams?

Mu'en now knew the answer —Yes.

She was standing on a stretch of calm water as far as her eyes could see. The night sky was reflected on it and ripples beneath her feet spread, scattering the stars reflected on the water.

The vast expanse of starry darkness met the stretch of water, almost indistinguishable from the other, giving Mu'en the illusion that she was walking along the night sky.

Mu'en calmly raised her head and walked forward.

There were only resplendent stars in the night sky, but no trace of the moon.

This was because the moon was in front of her.

Mu'en stopped and met the gaze of the woman standing on the surface of the water.

The woman had long black hair that flowed down like a waterfall. A black veil covered her face to her shoulders and she wore a black gown with a layered skirt. Black, laced gloves covered her fingers all the way up to her forearms.

She was like a mourner, and the only things that weren't gorgeous black were her ivory white and supple skin and her plump rosy lips.

Her eyes were deep, dark, and sad.

"Greetings, Anointed from thousands of years later. My name is Walpurgis, welcome to my dream realm."

The woman gracefully lifted the hem of her skirt and introduced herself.