"Like a dream?" I looked at Lilina in surprise, but all I saw in the fake loli's eyes was seriousness. "What does that mean?"
"Blurry and indistinct, that's all." Lilina lightly kicked a vine beside her. "Maybe it's a limitation of its life-form. This plant's thought processes differ from ours. Its thoughts are like sleep-talking, the product of reality outside merging with some kind of internal 'environment.' Even what it's thinking right now is absurd, twisted beyond recognition. I did see records related to a return voyage, but there are many possible interpretations: returning to one's homeland, returning to where one set out from, reverting to one's original state, the return from life to death, reunions with the departed, and so on. Every one of those explanations makes sense. All we can get from the Mother Tree's memories is this vague sort of concept."
After a pause, Lilina nodded firmly. "That's how it is. There's no way to confirm it."
"So we can't find the specific details of that return voyage from the Mother Tree's memories, nor can we determine when it happened or who gave the order," I said, suddenly a little discouraged. "The planet's Sailing Log has no record of it, and the navigator doesn't remember any return voyage either. Sheesh... How did such a headless cold case appear out of nowhere?"
"When it comes to matters related to the Old Empire, are unsolved mysteries really that rare?" Lilina rubbed her eyes. It seemed that synchronizing her thoughts with a life-form constantly sleepwalking for so long had made her drowsy as well. "But at least we can be sure the memory of 'returning' truly exists. The Mother Tree is a powerful individual, especially in terms of soul strength, because the Tree Spirits are a very special race. Their