“Are you doing this for freedom? For revenge? Or… are you enjoying the pleasure of being enemies with the world?”
At this moment, Sylphine felt as if she saw a sinister light flashing in Ashe’s pitch-black eyes. She had only seen such eyes on her teacher before – eyes that longed to see the world burn.
But Ashe quickly put on his familiar cheeky grin, making Sylphine wonder if she had imagined it.
“I just want to be able to pick my ears anytime, anywhere,” he shrugged and smiled. “Instead of having to go to the bathroom every time I want to pick my ears or nose.”
“Also, being exploited without making money really crosses the bottom line for a worker like me. Whenever I think about this, I get so depressed that my hormones are out of whack and my endocrine system fails.”
Sylphine asked, “Is it worth dying for something like this?”
“Not worth it, but I may not necessarily die,” Ashe smiled. “As long as I leave the Bloodmoon Kingdom, I can naturally start a new life.”
“Leave?” Sylphine was puzzled. “Where do you want to go? How will you leave?”
“I don’t know, do you have any good recommendations?”
“I do! I’ve read about many other kingdoms in books. I most want to go to the monstrous kingdom built in the Abyss, then the ephemeral kingdom where all souls have eternal life, and also the stellar kingdom that controls the skies…”
Ashe waved his hand, “No, I actually hope you can recommend a way to leave Bloodmoon.”
“How would I know how to leave Bloodmoon… Each kingdom is a completely closed off world, there is no conventional way to travel between kingdoms. If there was, they would have fought and become one kingdom long ago.” Sylphine was a little exasperated. “You don’t even know how to leave yet you want to leave Bloodmoon? Give it up Ashe, the Blood Mad Hunters hurt a lot when they hit people.”
“But I’m sure I can leave Bloodmoon.”
“I’m very doubtful of your earlier claim to be ‘the only normal person on the team’ now. There’s no hope at all, what miracle are you still hoping for?”
Ashe thought for a moment and said, “Although it sounds far-fetched as evidence, I learned from the Destiny Oracle that I will leave Bloodmoon in the future.”
Sylphine was stunned. “Destiny Oracle? Really?”
“Really.”
“…Damn it, how did you get such good luck?!”
Ashe blinked. “I’m escaping from prison now, not going on vacation.”
“But I’m still so envious!” Sylphine said sourly. “For us… medics, our future lives are decided early on. We’re only allowed to live under the glory of Bloodmoon, everything we do has rules and regulations, life is full of untouchable warning lines everywhere.”
She said dejectedly, “Other than virtual world exploration and surgery, there is no passion in my future. It’s like a pond of stagnant water slowly turning foul.”
“Then do you want to come with me?” Ashe smiled. “We still lack a medic on our team.”
Sylphine couldn’t remember how many times she had been stunned speechless by Ashe’s words.
“Are you serious?”
“Of course, I’m not inviting you to go to the bathroom with me. This is a prison break, how can I joke about it?”
“You’re kidding, I’m a medic with a bright future ahead, why would I go on the run with you and live such a precarious life?”
“Why are you asking me?” Ashe spread his hands. “I’m just giving you a choice as a friend. You should ask yourself – do you want to abandon your current life and come with me?”
Sylphine hurriedly retorted, “What friend… That’s right! Last time you came up with all kinds of excuses to borrow my medic uniform, it was to use for your prison break, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Then how can you call us friends? You were clearly just using me!”
“Being friends with you and using you are not mutually exclusive. I hope you’ll join my team, but I also hope you get to live the life you want. Working where you like is living, working where you don’t like is punishment.”
“Some selfishness is understandable, but I won’t be so selfish as to think others are selfless. So I won’t say nonsense that even con artists are too lazy to say, like ‘trust me’.”
Ashe held out his hand to Sylphine, “I’ll just ask, ‘do you want to come with me’?”
Thump.
Her stagnant heart seemed to beat, her cold blood seemed to warm. Born in a top nurturing facility, strictly educated since young, became one of the sacred bloodline before even graduating, never violated any rules or laws – Sylphine encountered such outrageous invitation for the first time.
It was like a fish living in a pond being asked by a passing bird if it wanted to leave together.
“…I don’t want to.”
“What a pity.”
Ashe didn’t expect to lure away the medic with just a few words. He went over, picked up the ogre mayor, “See you next time then, [222].”
Sylphine suddenly had the urge to tell him her real name, but held back: “Will there be a next time? Even if there is, you definitely won’t recognize me.”
“Then you’ll have to remind me,” Ashe smiled. “I’ll tell you stories about what’s outside the Bloodmoon Kingdom, look forward to it.”
“Wait.”
Ashe stopped and looked at Sylphine strangely. Sylphine was at a loss for words, she didn’t know what she wanted to say either – tell him to surrender? Tell him to stay here and wait for death?
After a moment of silence, she turned her head away and said softly, “If, if I have a way for you to clear your charges, and even leave Craglake to start a new life, able to live openly in the Bloodmoon Kingdom, would you be willing?”
There was indeed a way for a heinous cult leader to have his crimes pardoned and leave prison.
That was to turn the criminal into a Bloodmoon Shade.
Crimes committed by the two Bloodmoon races were not subject to normal judicial procedures, only handled by the Church and Research Institute. If the criminal became one of the sacred bloodline, they had to be handed over to the Research Institute. The most common punishment the Institute gave its kin was house arrest and forced labor, usually in centuries-long sentences, but they would not execute their kin.
However, converting between the sacred and the shades required complex procedures, absolutely not something death row inmates in prison could accomplish, unless…
Unless the most primitive kin propagation method was used, such as the Embrace Ceremony.
But besides the sacred bloodline’s strong will, the Embrace Ceremony also had requirements for the recipient – the recipient needed to fall in love with…
Sylphine suddenly realized an issue.
Why did she want to keep Ashe around, even willing to Embrace him? Because she didn’t want Ashe to leave, she wanted Ashe to stay.
The pond fish wouldn’t leave with the bird, but would drag the bird into the pond, hoping the bird would also become a fish.
Did the Embrace Ceremony really require the recipient to fall for the sacred bloodline?
In many bio-augmentation surgeries, there were cases of the patient’s personality changing due to the augmentations. Mechanical augmentations reduced desires, leading to the pursuit of spiritual fulfillment instead; Abyssal augmentations increased destructive urges, making them more irritable and angry; Aviary augmentations made the patients enjoy eating insect cuisine…
The sacred bloodline were not all telepaths, how could they know the recipient’s true feelings for them?
They only assumed ‘the recipient fell in love with them’.
Perhaps this was not a prerequisite for the ritual, but a result of the ritual.
The name ‘Embrace’ means the first embrace. And the truth behind the Embrace Ceremony was perhaps more romantic, yet also more cruel, than recorded.
“I’m not willing.”
Sylphine looked at Ashe. Ashe shrugged, “Although I don’t know what method you mentioned, I probably wouldn’t be willing either way.”
“Why not?”
“While it may be too small a sample size to generalize, from what I’ve gathered in prison, I feel the outside Bloodmoon Kingdom is perhaps just a bigger Craglake.” Ashe sighed, “I don’t think I’m some freedom terrorist, but I feel I probably still wouldn’t be able to breathe out there.”
“It’s not that Bloodmoon cannot accommodate me, but that I cannot accommodate Bloodmoon.”
“How arrogant,” Sylphine smiled faintly. “You really are a cult leader through and through.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment for now, sorry to disappoint your goodwill.”
“It’s fine, I regretted it as soon as I said it anyway, fortunately you didn’t agree.” Sylphine waved her hand. “See you, Ashe Heath.”
Ashe suddenly remembered something. “Speaking of which, I still don’t know your name.”
“If I tell you my name, I’d be breaking the rules. And you say you’re not a cult leader, trying to seduce me into crime right before leaving?”
“You’re right, but it doesn’t feel good to part like this. We should at least shake hands.”
Ashe directly tossed the ogre mayor aside and walked over to extend his right hand to Sylphine.
“While it may be nothing to you,” Ashe said seriously, “I’ve always been grateful that you kept pulling me back each time from death’s grasp. Several times I felt like I heard a crowd critiquing how I didn’t die spectacularly enough…”
“That may be an early sign of schizophrenia, I suggest getting a new brain.”
“Every statement from you expands my understanding of biotech…”
Sylphine looked at Ashe’s hand, and suddenly felt an urge. She walked over and hugged Ashe briefly.
In Ashe’s startled moment, she let go and stepped back a few steps, murmuring softly: “As expected, it’s not that simple… Alright, the farewell ceremony is over, you should get going.”
“Huh? You’re actually a girl?”
“Do you have any objections? The more you guess, the closer I am to committing a crime.”
“No objections at all. And to preserve the feeling from earlier, I’ve decided to never bathe again from now on-”
“Get out of here!”
Watching Ashe leave the medical room carrying Fernand, Sylphine felt somewhat downcast for some reason, feeling empty inside.
She shook her head, shaking off the pointless thoughts, and turned to head back to the rest lounge.
This was just a trivial interlude in her millennia of life. She couldn’t accept Ashe’s invitation – her bloodline didn’t allow it, her soul didn’t allow it, her mission didn’t allow it.
Because she was Sylphine Gauven, the most gifted of the bloodline in a millennium.
Just as she grasped the side door handle, she suddenly heard the thump of a heartbeat.
But it wasn’t her heartbeat.
It came from below the prison, from the depths of Broken Lake, where the finger shark guarded the Black Coffin tomb!
“Junior… your… Blood Lock… needs help…?”
Sylphine didn’t push open the door. She looked at the pitch-black, reflective door panel that could almost serve as a mirror.
She saw that her blood-red eyes were smeared black.
They looked like ordinary human eyes, like Ashe Heath’s eyes.
“No need. Go back to sleep.”
The heartbeat gradually faded away, disappearing into Broken Lake’s waves.
Sylphine pushed open the door and returned to the medical officer’s lounge.
“Are you doing this for freedom? For revenge? Or… are you enjoying the pleasure of being enemies with the world?”
At this moment, Sylphine felt as if she saw a sinister light flashing in Ashe’s pitch-black eyes. She had only seen such eyes on her teacher before – eyes that longed to see the world burn.
But Ashe quickly put on his familiar cheeky grin, making Sylphine wonder if she had imagined it.
“I just want to be able to pick my ears anytime, anywhere,” he shrugged and smiled. “Instead of having to go to the bathroom every time I want to pick my ears or nose.”
“Also, being exploited without making money really crosses the bottom line for a worker like me. Whenever I think about this, I get so depressed that my hormones are out of whack and my endocrine system fails.”
Sylphine asked, “Is it worth dying for something like this?”
“Not worth it, but I may not necessarily die,” Ashe smiled. “As long as I leave the Bloodmoon Kingdom, I can naturally start a new life.”
“Leave?” Sylphine was puzzled. “Where do you want to go? How will you leave?”
“I don’t know, do you have any good recommendations?”
“I do! I’ve read about many other kingdoms in books. I most want to go to the monstrous kingdom built in the Abyss, then the ephemeral kingdom where all souls have eternal life, and also the stellar kingdom that controls the skies…”
Ashe waved his hand, “No, I actually hope you can recommend a way to leave Bloodmoon.”
“How would I know how to leave Bloodmoon… Each kingdom is a completely closed off world, there is no conventional way to travel between kingdoms. If there was, they would have fought and become one kingdom long ago.” Sylphine was a little exasperated. “You don’t even know how to leave yet you want to leave Bloodmoon? Give it up Ashe, the Blood Mad Hunters hurt a lot when they hit people.”
“But I’m sure I can leave Bloodmoon.”
“I’m very doubtful of your earlier claim to be ‘the only normal person on the team’ now. There’s no hope at all, what miracle are you still hoping for?”
Ashe thought for a moment and said, “Although it sounds far-fetched as evidence, I learned from the Destiny Oracle that I will leave Bloodmoon in the future.”
Sylphine was stunned. “Destiny Oracle? Really?”
“Really.”
“…Damn it, how did you get such good luck?!”
Ashe blinked. “I’m escaping from prison now, not going on vacation.”
“But I’m still so envious!” Sylphine said sourly. “For us… medics, our future lives are decided early on. We’re only allowed to live under the glory of Bloodmoon, everything we do has rules and regulations, life is full of untouchable warning lines everywhere.”
She said dejectedly, “Other than virtual world exploration and surgery, there is no passion in my future. It’s like a pond of stagnant water slowly turning foul.”
“Then do you want to come with me?” Ashe smiled. “We still lack a medic on our team.”
Sylphine couldn’t remember how many times she had been stunned speechless by Ashe’s words.
“Are you serious?”
“Of course, I’m not inviting you to go to the bathroom with me. This is a prison break, how can I joke about it?”
“You’re kidding, I’m a medic with a bright future ahead, why would I go on the run with you and live such a precarious life?”
“Why are you asking me?” Ashe spread his hands. “I’m just giving you a choice as a friend. You should ask yourself – do you want to abandon your current life and come with me?”
Sylphine hurriedly retorted, “What friend… That’s right! Last time you came up with all kinds of excuses to borrow my medic uniform, it was to use for your prison break, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Then how can you call us friends? You were clearly just using me!”
“Being friends with you and using you are not mutually exclusive. I hope you’ll join my team, but I also hope you get to live the life you want. Working where you like is living, working where you don’t like is punishment.”
“Some selfishness is understandable, but I won’t be so selfish as to think others are selfless. So I won’t say nonsense that even con artists are too lazy to say, like ‘trust me’.”
Ashe held out his hand to Sylphine, “I’ll just ask, ‘do you want to come with me’?”
Thump.
Her stagnant heart seemed to beat, her cold blood seemed to warm. Born in a top nurturing facility, strictly educated since young, became one of the sacred bloodline before even graduating, never violated any rules or laws – Sylphine encountered such outrageous invitation for the first time.
It was like a fish living in a pond being asked by a passing bird if it wanted to leave together.
“…I don’t want to.”
“What a pity.”
Ashe didn’t expect to lure away the medic with just a few words. He went over, picked up the ogre mayor, “See you next time then, [222].”
Sylphine suddenly had the urge to tell him her real name, but held back: “Will there be a next time? Even if there is, you definitely won’t recognize me.”
“Then you’ll have to remind me,” Ashe smiled. “I’ll tell you stories about what’s outside the Bloodmoon Kingdom, look forward to it.”
“Wait.”
Ashe stopped and looked at Sylphine strangely. Sylphine was at a loss for words, she didn’t know what she wanted to say either – tell him to surrender? Tell him to stay here and wait for death?
After a moment of silence, she turned her head away and said softly, “If, if I have a way for you to clear your charges, and even leave Craglake to start a new life, able to live openly in the Bloodmoon Kingdom, would you be willing?”
There was indeed a way for a heinous cult leader to have his crimes pardoned and leave prison.
That was to turn the criminal into a Bloodmoon Shade.
Crimes committed by the two Bloodmoon races were not subject to normal judicial procedures, only handled by the Church and Research Institute. If the criminal became one of the sacred bloodline, they had to be handed over to the Research Institute. The most common punishment the Institute gave its kin was house arrest and forced labor, usually in centuries-long sentences, but they would not execute their kin.
However, converting between the sacred and the shades required complex procedures, absolutely not something death row inmates in prison could accomplish, unless…
Unless the most primitive kin propagation method was used, such as the Embrace Ceremony.
But besides the sacred bloodline’s strong will, the Embrace Ceremony also had requirements for the recipient – the recipient needed to fall in love with…
Sylphine suddenly realized an issue.
Why did she want to keep Ashe around, even willing to Embrace him? Because she didn’t want Ashe to leave, she wanted Ashe to stay.
The pond fish wouldn’t leave with the bird, but would drag the bird into the pond, hoping the bird would also become a fish.
Did the Embrace Ceremony really require the recipient to fall for the sacred bloodline?
In many bio-augmentation surgeries, there were cases of the patient’s personality changing due to the augmentations. Mechanical augmentations reduced desires, leading to the pursuit of spiritual fulfillment instead; Abyssal augmentations increased destructive urges, making them more irritable and angry; Aviary augmentations made the patients enjoy eating insect cuisine…
The sacred bloodline were not all telepaths, how could they know the recipient’s true feelings for them?
They only assumed ‘the recipient fell in love with them’.
Perhaps this was not a prerequisite for the ritual, but a result of the ritual.
The name ‘Embrace’ means the first embrace. And the truth behind the Embrace Ceremony was perhaps more romantic, yet also more cruel, than recorded.
“I’m not willing.”
Sylphine looked at Ashe. Ashe shrugged, “Although I don’t know what method you mentioned, I probably wouldn’t be willing either way.”
“Why not?”
“While it may be too small a sample size to generalize, from what I’ve gathered in prison, I feel the outside Bloodmoon Kingdom is perhaps just a bigger Craglake.” Ashe sighed, “I don’t think I’m some freedom terrorist, but I feel I probably still wouldn’t be able to breathe out there.”
“It’s not that Bloodmoon cannot accommodate me, but that I cannot accommodate Bloodmoon.”
“How arrogant,” Sylphine smiled faintly. “You really are a cult leader through and through.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment for now, sorry to disappoint your goodwill.”
“It’s fine, I regretted it as soon as I said it anyway, fortunately you didn’t agree.” Sylphine waved her hand. “See you, Ashe Heath.”
Ashe suddenly remembered something. “Speaking of which, I still don’t know your name.”
“If I tell you my name, I’d be breaking the rules. And you say you’re not a cult leader, trying to seduce me into crime right before leaving?”
“You’re right, but it doesn’t feel good to part like this. We should at least shake hands.”
Ashe directly tossed the ogre mayor aside and walked over to extend his right hand to Sylphine.
“While it may be nothing to you,” Ashe said seriously, “I’ve always been grateful that you kept pulling me back each time from death’s grasp. Several times I felt like I heard a crowd critiquing how I didn’t die spectacularly enough…”
“That may be an early sign of schizophrenia, I suggest getting a new brain.”
“Every statement from you expands my understanding of biotech…”
Sylphine looked at Ashe’s hand, and suddenly felt an urge. She walked over and hugged Ashe briefly.
In Ashe’s startled moment, she let go and stepped back a few steps, murmuring softly: “As expected, it’s not that simple… Alright, the farewell ceremony is over, you should get going.”
“Huh? You’re actually a girl?”
“Do you have any objections? The more you guess, the closer I am to committing a crime.”
“No objections at all. And to preserve the feeling from earlier, I’ve decided to never bathe again from now on-”
“Get out of here!”
Watching Ashe leave the medical room carrying Fernand, Sylphine felt somewhat downcast for some reason, feeling empty inside.
She shook her head, shaking off the pointless thoughts, and turned to head back to the rest lounge.
This was just a trivial interlude in her millennia of life. She couldn’t accept Ashe’s invitation – her bloodline didn’t allow it, her soul didn’t allow it, her mission didn’t allow it.
Because she was Sylphine Gauven, the most gifted of the bloodline in a millennium.
Just as she grasped the side door handle, she suddenly heard the thump of a heartbeat.
But it wasn’t her heartbeat.
It came from below the prison, from the depths of Broken Lake, where the finger shark guarded the Black Coffin tomb!
“Junior… your… Blood Lock… needs help…?”
Sylphine didn’t push open the door. She looked at the pitch-black, reflective door panel that could almost serve as a mirror.
She saw that her blood-red eyes were smeared black.
They looked like ordinary human eyes, like Ashe Heath’s eyes.
“No need. Go back to sleep.”
The heartbeat gradually faded away, disappearing into Broken Lake’s waves.
Sylphine pushed open the door and returned to the medical officer’s lounge.
