Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 1141 - 254: Lina’s Concerns

Silence was the most fitting description of the nighttime camp, in an environment almost devoid of any form of life, silence was the only melody. There was no campfire lit in the camp, in the scorching north, especially in the scorching Forest of Death, there was no need for fire to warm the body, and in the terrifying Forbidden Land of Living Souls, there was no need for fire to fend off wild beasts and mosquitoes, so there were no sounds of flames crackling as they burned. In this world so quiet it could drive one mad, the sounds one could hear were those of the rocks splitting inside, the sound of gravel rolling with the wind, even the sound of dust rising into the air and then silently hitting the ground; of course, one could faintly hear the even breathing of the girls, their murmurs in sleep, and the deep snoring of a lion in deep slumber.

The camp was dimly lit, with only a Crystal Energy lamp illuminated at the exact center, lighting a small area of the central region. This certainly wasn’t because some knight was trying to save on Crystals, or was it? Not entirely? The main reason was simply that it wasn’t necessary. Yes, there wasn’t much need to light up the camp too brightly, because for this team, much of the time, locating the enemy was no longer reliant on the eyes.

At the top of the camp’s walls, twelve strangely styled Crystal Energy gun barrels were installed, each pointing outwards from the camp and swinging rhythmically. Apart from the mechanic, probably no one knew how these Crystal Energy guns located their targets, but should any large object move outside the camp, the Crystal Energy gun covering that angle would fire Crystal Energy bombs immediately, no matter what the moving object was. Everyone wasn’t concerned about causing accidental injuries, partly because it was almost impossible for friendly forces to approach here, and partly because even if there were friendly forces, those who could successfully make it this far wouldn’t be harmed by the Crystal Energy bombs—their presence was more for warning than anything else. The second line of defense consisted of one hundred and thirty-six magic runes which formed a peculiar Array covering the entire camp. Any stepping into the range of the Array would trigger a large-scale Flame Eruption at the corresponding location, making it extremely difficult for even the strongest thieves to invade the camp without triggering the Array, unless they could fly through the air.

Combined, the two layers of defensive measures could almost ensure safety even without a watch force in the camp, yet for the sake of caution, a third line of defense was in place. In reality, no preparation was needed for the third watch measure, the vast stretch of pebbles outside the camp was the best alarm system. The pebbles, piled up on the surface in large quantities, made it impossible to move over them without creating noise, and in such a silent world, sounds became especially noticeable. Even the sound of pebbles colliding hundreds of meters away could easily be heard by the Night Watchers in the camp. Below these three lines of defense, according to Pannis, not even the greatest Sand People assassin, Aske, could possibly infiltrate the camp stealthily, let alone other enemies.

Inside the camp, Pannis was half-reclined next to the original position of the campfire, while reading a book in the light of the Crystal Energy lamp to pass the time. A few meters from him, a bald, priestess girl in a white robe covered with leather armor, was wielding a mace, periodically patrolling the center of the camp. To outsiders, these two watches might seem irresponsible, but to those who knew them, such a watch was not improper in the least. As the priestess girl patrolled, although she did not carry any powerful lights to illuminate every corner of the camp, the fluctuations of energy at the corner of her eye clearly indicated that the Divine Spell of True Vision was in full effect; even without the light, everything she saw could be accurately reflected in her mind in black and white. Any Illusion Magic or invisibility had nowhere to hide. As for Pannis, though he was lazily curled up reading at the center of the camp, with his keen perception, he could even hear footsteps from a kilometer or two away on such a quiet night, far more effective than any other defense or warning measures.

Lina, on her patrol, felt something and suddenly pulled up the hood at the back of her priestess robe, covering her barely two-centimeter-long hair. She looked around with a wary gaze and said in the lowest voice possible, filled with suspicion, "I always feel a malicious and mocking gaze on my hair, it must be your doing, Pannis."

"Pffhaha, no, no, I didn’t laugh; how could I do such a thing?" Pannis’s gaze drifted to avoid Lina’s angry stare as he held up the book and said, "See, I’m focusing on reading here, not distracted at all, haha, haha."

"Hmph, don’t think you can fool me." The priestess girl made a cute grimace and waved her pale fist threateningly, "I’ll spare you for now so as not to wake Sister Katerina and the others, but when daylight comes, I’ll settle the score with you."

"I’m truly innocent," Pannis muttered with a wronged expression, but the smile at the corner of his mouth just wouldn’t stop: "Actually, sometimes I think you’re quite wise."

"What?" Lina asked in confusion, "Why bring this up all of a sudden? How am I wise?"

Grinning, Pannis pointed to the top of his head, and said with a twinkle in his eye: "It’s so hot here, only someone like you would feel a bit cooler, you know. You should suggest that the others learn from you, and get their hair... Hey, hey, you’re on night patrol." freёnovelkiss.com

"You bastard Pannis, just you wait." The responsibilities of the Night Watcher prevented the priestess girl from being able to physically retaliate against Pannis, so she could only huff in frustration and turn her head away from his grinning face.

"See, you’re not sleepy anymore, are you?" Pannis’s face still wore that irritatingly punchable smile as he lay back down, propped up his legs, and spoke while waving the book in his hand: "That Sister Katerina of yours, she’s had quite the colorful past. Now I finally understand why you’re so wildly silly."

"Really? Hehe." This time, the priestess girl wasn’t angry, she just gave Pannis a pitying look as if he were a dead man and said, "Katerina said she’ll encourage Blood Girl to give you some exercise tomorrow morning, and I’ve agreed."

"Hey, is that really appropriate?" The thought of that bloodthirsty woman gave Pannis a headache; he covered his face with the book and moaned, "Ah, I’m injured, so starting from tomorrow, I’ll have to stay in bed to recover."

"Hmph, we’ll see about that real bed-rest then." Lina wrinkled her nose and chuckled mischievously, clearly in a good mood. She hummed an unknown nursery rhyme softly and took a few more rounds around the camp, and then she said in a low voice as if she had just remembered something, "Pannis, about that time before, when we were still with those demigods, did you have something on your mind?"

"I’ve always had things on my mind, every single day," Pannis said without looking up. "As soon as I get up in the morning, I have to ponder, what should I eat today? Where should I go for a drink? Today, I’ll go peep, no, no, no, I mean, I’ll go appreciate the beauties somewhere. These matters really do take up a lot of energy."

"I’m trying to talk to you about something serious, quit joking around." Lina rolled her eyes, but, even though she was talking, her gaze still fixed on the camp’s perimeter, she said with her back to him, "I have a feeling, back then you wanted to tell us something, but in the end, you said nothing."

"It’s just like they say, your intuition is always unreasonably sharp. Is this what they call animal instinct?" Pannis sighed, closed the book in his hands, sat up, and said seriously, "Yes, I had some things I wanted to tell you all, to apologize, mainly to Catherine."

"Apologize?" Lina was startled, then after thinking for a bit, understood and said while touching her own cheek, "You’re talking about the time Big Sister got hurt."

"Right, she nearly died then," Pannis nodded. "To be precise, any one of you could have been chosen and died then."

"What’s there to apologize for? Since we decided to come here with you, who wouldn’t be prepared to possibly die at any moment?" Lina said nonchalantly, "We’ve all been ready for it."

"But, if I had warned you all to stay vigilant in advance, there wouldn’t have been such danger," Pannis said. "But I didn’t give that warning in time."

"You’ve warned us many times, it’s just that we ignored them," Lina shook her head while on patrol. "Besides, isn’t that your intention? To have reality reinforce our memories."

"Uh, ha ha ha." Caught on the spot about his intentions, Pannis laughed awkwardly but didn’t deny it.

"We’re not fools, even though we didn’t realize it at the time, after thinking about it afterward, we naturally understood your intentions," Lina said softly. "So, there is really no need for you to apologize, because we’ve never blamed you. We trust you would never harm us, so whatever you do, we’ll trust you unconditionally."

"Yeah, I’ve thought about bringing it up a few times midway, but Catherine always changed the subject. And then I understood she didn’t want me to apologize either," Pannis said. "But why bring all this up now?"

"Oh, it just suddenly came to mind," Lina hesitated for a moment, feeling Pannis’s eyes fixed on her back, and finally sighed, "Alright, Big Sister just said that we’re getting closer to the Temple of Danacus and it’s possible we’ll find our target at any moment. So I thought, I should tell you about these things, because I’m worried..."

"That you might not get a chance to say it later?" Seeing Lina, who was patrolling with her back to him, nod slightly, Pannis’s expression grew softer, and he whispered as he shook his head, "Don’t worry, I’ll do my utmost to ensure that no one misses the opportunity... Don’t move, why do I feel like the light where you’re looking at seems to have changed?"

"I haven’t noticed anything," Lina was taken aback, quickly dispelled the real vision in front of her eyes, and only then did her view regain its colors: "Indeed, no changes. I’ll go check it out."

However, before she even took a step, Pannis grabbed the Crystal Energy gun beside him, activated the Array towards the sky, and the deafening sound of gunfire echoed in the silent night.