Embers of Embers

Chapter 275 Libraries
Lorenzo's memories ended. He stopped talking, as if he was recalling those good times. He looked out the window in silence. After a long time, the silence was broken by Hercule.
"047 sounds like a passionate seeker of knowledge."
Hercule didn't know the details of [Baptism of Divine Favor], but judging from the unique knowledge, 047 must have collected a lot.
"He is different from me. He is a restless lamb, full of enthusiasm for everything... In fact, the career of a witcher is very difficult, not only after officially becoming a witcher, but also when we were young. To undergo arduous training, from theology to swordsmanship, everyone is eliminated at different stages.
Becoming a priest, then a Templar... In fact, we are glorious existences. In Feilengcui, both priests and Templars are extremely noble professions, but we, the homeless wild dogs, are Receive this honor.
At that time, many people envied us. They felt that these young children were the descendants of those big men, and only in this way could they achieve such achievements at such an age. But in fact, these were just compensation for the price. Those who knew our destiny always Looking at us with such disdain. "
Lorenzo's voice was very calm. This might be the day he recalled the most in so many years, and those blurry pictures gradually became clearer.
"Like those lambs waiting to be slaughtered, they are all going to die anyway, so it doesn't matter what kind of ridiculous glory they are given, right? Most people died because of the secret blood implantation. Fortunately, I survived, 047 and 016 They all survived, they're my best friends, everyone survived."
Hercule was silent. He analyzed his past from Lorenzo's words. It can be heard from his words at this moment that Lorenzo still thinks that he is 042, and the existence of this 042 runs through all his memories. , from childhood until now.
"What happened next?" Hercule asked.
"later……"
Lorenzo paused for a moment, but it seemed that he could no longer feel the pain of the wound, so he simply answered.
"Except for me, 047 and 016 all died on the Night of Holy Advent. They are all dead, they are all dead..."
Lorenzo suddenly stood up and closed the open window to block out the wind and rain.
"You look tired."
"It's not bad, I'm just mentally exhausted. It's hard to recover from this kind of fatigue." Lorenzo replied.
"Want to take a break?"
"Is this enough?" Lorenzo asked, feeling like he was just beginning to remember the past.
"A person's existence cannot be described by a simple note...Human beings are contradictory and complex," Hercule said and looked at Lorenzo, "Just like you, Lorenzo Hall Mercy, you are a vicious and violent detective on the surface, but secretly you are helping those poor orphans.
Are you a villain?It may not look like it, but who can say you are a good person?After all, your hands are covered with blood. "
Hercule took a deep breath.
"So this is human beings, whether it is 042 or 047. If they can be described by just one simple word, then that person must be a ridiculous fictional thing, right?"
"You want to restore a person from my narrative?" Lorenzo asked.
"To be precise, let yourself try to recover and find clues from the past. Of course, it is best to let you remember those gaps in logic." Hercule said.
"You have to know one thing, Lorenzo, humans don't deliberately remember something, like hunger. When I'm talking to you, you won't think of this, right, only when you feel hungry, You will think of this... I know it may be abstract to say this, but I hope you try to understand it.
Every moment of our lives is becoming the past and part of our memory, and all of this is so huge that we will not remember it all the time. We will only remember it when the outside world gives us a stimulus.
Another example is what happened the day before. If I didn't ask you, you wouldn't remember it. But when I ask, you can retrieve the memory corresponding to this word from the huge memory.Memory is like a huge library, a library hidden in a palace, and we are the librarians. When there is stimulation from the outside world, we find the corresponding books, that is, memory, according to the needs of the stimulation. "
This is also the prototype of the memory palace, an existence that language can describe, Hercule continued to explain.
"But now there is a problem in your library. The books are scattered all over the floor. The names on the covers do not match the content. Some bookshelves are blank... That memory has disappeared."
Hercule said, looking at Lorenzo and muttering.
“Even the librarian was beaten into a tizzy.”
"But human memory will not disappear without a chance. Our life is very long, and there are too many repetitive and cumbersome memories. They are like useless books, they just occupy important places in vain, so they are usually thrown into the memory. In the corner, or in the basement of that palace, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist anymore, they’re just forgotten.”
"All I have to do now is retrieve and fill those?" Lorenzo asked.
"Yes, although I don't know the specific situation, I can also feel the heaviness of the so-called Holy Night... Lorenzo, you must find out everything about that night, which is the center of all mysteries."
Hercule stood up with Poirot in his arms, turned on the light, and dispelled the darkness in the room. It seemed that it was almost night, but due to the thunderstorm, it was already dark outside, and he didn't know how long this weather would last.
"I'll tell you about the Memory Palace in a moment, but I'd like you to go to bed early afterwards. You're in a very bad mental state right now."
Hercule said, pointing the way to Lorenzo.
"That room is reserved for you, and I'll sleep next door."
……
With a tired body and a tired spirit, he lay heavily in the dark room. He was cold all over. He only had time to take off those soaked clothes, and then huddled up in a ball with the quilt in his arms.
The curtains were closed tightly, and no light could penetrate. After a long time, Joey slowly raised his head and looked at the nothingness in front of him.
There was the subtle ticking sound of the large Geiger indexer running outside the door, as well as the sounds of people walking and whispering. There were still people on duty in this bad weather. They were only separated from Joey by a door, but they wanted to Across the world.
Joey slowly hugged his head tightly, and then the phantom under the bloody curtain flashed before his eyes again.
He hadn't remembered these things for a long time, not since Joey was discharged from Black Mountain Hospital, but now those things came back to him, those young and blood-stained faces.
Joey took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. He was no longer the same as before. At that time, he needed hallucinogens to escape from these things, but now that he had come out of that nightmare, he could not go back there again.
But suddenly there was thunder, and a brief light flashed through the gaps in the curtains, illuminating the room for a moment. In the dimness, Joey saw the smelly red from the corner of his eye.
Joey was stiff at first, and then slowly turned his head. A child-like black silhouette was standing beside his bed, just like Joey had done when he killed him many years ago.
"You are already dead."
Joey tried to stay calm.
But the black shadow didn't respond to him, and just made a weird childish sound. It seemed that countless children were laughing at Joey in the darkness, and then they all rushed towards him.
It was a nightmare similar to the one he had in Whitechapel, but this nightmare was so real that Joey felt as if he was dying. Black shadows covered him heavily, and they gnawed at this flesh and blood body, trying hard to Spread the pain to the maximum.
But at this time, Joey regained some strength. He was very sure that the child was dead, and the dead would not resurrect. He rolled off the bed with force, and pulled out the folding knife beside the bed from the gap between the rolls.In its contracted state, this thing is just an inconspicuous iron rod.
A flash of sword light flashed in the dim room, and it cut away the squirming black shadow, but the black shadow quickly gathered together again, and in the next moment, countless scarlet gaps opened in the dark shadow.
Blood gushed out along the gap, and after the gap opened, there were pale teeth, hundreds of biting mouths, followed by that shuddering laughter, the laughter of a child.
All the darkness has become Joey's enemy, and in this darkness there is only the only light, the light between the cracks in the door.
Joey quickly climbed up from the ground. He was not far from the door, only a few steps away. But now these few steps were so long, and the darkness around him was crawling. They caught Joey, and he stepped down. The biting mouth closed for a moment, and the sharp teeth added more wounds to the flesh and blood.
Fear, depression, anger, and countless emotions surged from Joey's heart. He roared, and the metal beat the darkness in vain, but it was all in vain.
The dark hands dragged him up and hit him hard on the ground. Joey felt like he had broken several bones, but then more blood poured out of his wounds.
The monster suppressed Joey, and while biting him, it kept exerting force on the poor body. More and more blood poured out of the wound. He was like a squeezed orange, and his bones were also It shattered under the pressure, and with the last remaining strength, he stretched out his hand. Joey no longer felt that he could escape, but he still stubbornly stretched out his hand and tried to push open the door.
The next moment the door opened.
As the light came in, the weird feeling disappeared, and his consciousness was on the verge of coma. The man rushed in, lifted Joey up, and kept calling his name.
"Joy! Joey!"
Everything was so long. When Joey woke up from the trance, he was already lying on the ground, with the blazing white light on it. Someone was standing next to him, as if he was injecting something into himself. In the body, the vision became clear.
"Can you hear me? Joey!"
Kestrel patted Joey's face hard. Looking at the still dull eyes, he shook his head and said to the people around him.
"Another Florund potion."
The man looked at this with some worry. At this moment, there were still several spent syringes scattered on the ground. No one knew what would happen if he injected Joey again.
"Red...Kestrel?"
Joey woke up at the critical moment. Although his eyes were still a little dull, he could already communicate with others at the basic level.
"Alive?"
Seeing this situation, Kestrel slapped his face harder. After struggling for a long time, Joey finally seemed to have recovered. He sat on the chair, looking like he had lost all his strength.
"what happened?"
After waiting for a long time, Joey said such a sentence, his eyes still a little cloudy.
"This is what I want to ask you too." Kestrel on the other side said.
"I came on duty, but not long after I arrived, it sounded an alarm."
Kestrel said, pointing to the middle of the living room, the large machine that ran through the entire building. It was a large Geiger counter, a mechanical device used by the purification agency to detect erosion. However, its detection method was very vague and could only rely on index and Judging by the color of the light and the frequency of the warning.
"This is not a regular alarm. The Geiger index has increased slightly, and the frequency of alarms has increased...a weak level of pollution is nearby, very close."
Kestrel looked at Joey with an appraising look.
"We were going to search the neighborhood, but suddenly there was a strange noise in your room. You were roaring, as if you were fighting some monster. But when I opened the door, there was nothing. You fell to the ground holding a folding knife. , the whole body was twitching slightly, and the eyes were dull. This... this was very similar to the reaction of falling into a hallucination.
After I injected you with Florund's medicine, the Geiger index returned to stability..."
Perhaps because other people were present, Kestrel did not mention the use of hallucinogens.
"Is that so..."
Joey didn't explain anything more, just lowered his head slightly, not knowing what he was thinking about.
"I didn't use hallucinogens," Joey said, exposing his arms. Except for some scars, there were no injection needle holes. "Of course you have to check other places to tell."
Kestrel did not speak, but Joey looked at the people around him. In terms of position, both Joey and Kestrel were their superiors.
"You guys leave first."
There was no doubt. After all, the purification agency was an iron-blooded agency that fought against demons. They all knew what they were dealing with. Everyone left quickly, and after a while, only two people were left here.
"What's going on, Joey?" Kestrel asked as the others left.
"I don't know, but I'm sure I didn't use hallucinogens, and I haven't touched them since I left Black Mountain Hospital."
"But the Geiger indexer... I was eroded by something and contaminated." Joey thought about all this.
"What's going on?" Kestrel suddenly realized the complexity of the problem.
"I have not been on any combat missions against demons recently, but I am on duty and on duty. I have not directly come into contact with any demons. Even if I come into contact with demons, unless they are deeply eroded, those mild contaminations will gradually fade over time. …”
It seemed that Florent's potion had taken effect, and Joey's thoughts gradually became clearer.
"That is to say... At some point in the past, I was eroded without a sound."
Joey made a conclusion, and then he looked at the large Geiger Indexer on the side. In order to ensure the safety of the city, these large machines are extremely sensitive to erosion. Perhaps thanks to this, Joey lives just a few meters away from this thing. , otherwise this weak difference really cannot be noticed.
(End of this chapter)