Music Box and the Little Girl

Looking for... looking for Mom?

A strange expression appeared on Fan En's face. He beckoned people over, and the little girl behind the window continued:

"My father went out hunting and hasn't come back. My mother was worried, so she went out to look for him, but now she's gone too."

"I feel very lonely and scared."

The little girl was on the verge of tears, her voice so pitiful that it made one want to feel sorry for her.

But in this city teeming with monsters, a pitiful little girl, all alone at home, suddenly asks you to help her find her mother.

Fan En and the others exchanged glances, seemingly communicating with each other, as if they were about to suspect something.

No, by the end of the conversation, the old woman Bell, whose eyes were so tender they were almost brimming with tears, took the initiative to comfort the other woman and readily agreed to help the little girl find her mother.

A little girl's joyful voice came from behind the window.

They just agreed so easily!?

If you're a seasoned adventurer who frequents the Zane Dungeon, like a certain Bat, you'd probably instinctively start to have doubts now. A certain Lion might recall some Black history he doesn't want to remember and then fall into PTSD. Many other adventurers might try to see what happens when they reject a little girl.

It's not that the adventurers were wary, nor that the little girl's voice couldn't evoke their sympathy; it's just that everyone had become numb from the long tug-of-war with the Zane Dungeon.

The fact that Patch in Farron Keep is likely to be the first choice for newcomers is enough to cause a crisis of trust in the afterimages of the Zane Dungeon. Not to mention that all sorts of afterimages will appear in the Abyss Reincarnation (Roguelike) event. Who knows what a friendly afterimage will do the next second after you choose the wrong option?

One event related to afterimages that is still considered a classic by adventurers is:

You fall off a cliff and encounter a woman with chestnut curls and heterochromatic eyes. She calls herself Melina, a witch who appears stern but is actually kind, as she has just healed your wounds.

Melina has proposed a deal to you: to travel together to the legendary Leyndell Royal Capital. What is your response?

First, I agree.

Second, refusal.

Third, shout, "May chaos fill the world!"

Based on experience, adventurers would definitely choose the longer option if there were two short options and one long option, and option three also seemed mysterious and impressive.

Melina glared at you with disgust, said nothing, and turned to leave.

Then, the adventurer will be relentlessly pursued by a woman who looks very much like Melina but has a slightly different hair color in every Combat Level that follows!

Although there are also completely positive afterimages like Solaire, adventurers have become accustomed to questioning, questioning, and questioning even more when interacting with the afterimages of Sion.

However, this is the kind of behavior that only adventurers who are used to dealing with the Zane Dungeon would do.

Before the Bonds Dungeon and the Zane Dungeon were taken over, there wasn't a single dungeon in Reid. Most Reid residents rarely left their own little territory, and even fewer adventurers from the outside world came here. Even fewer people knew anything about dungeons.

Even knowing that the afterimages were images left behind by people from the past, upon first contact, could anyone, Fan En, completely regard the lifelike figures before them as afterimages? Especially since the quality and expressiveness of Sain's afterimages were far superior to those of ordinary dungeon afterimages.

Young people like Fan En can still restrain themselves, but old men like Bell have long since stopped caring about afterimages; when emotions run high, they treat everyone the same.

"She must be thinking of her granddaughter," someone whispered. Everyone knew that Bell's granddaughter had also died in the disaster.

In fact, which of the survivors present hadn't lost a loved one? Of course, some people didn't believe their loved ones could have died, insisting that they were just hiding somewhere, just like they were hiding in a shelter, so they persisted in their search.

The little girl's request to find her mother touched many people's hearts, and it wasn't too difficult to accept the request.

"Are you really willing? Thank you so much!"

The little girl's voice suddenly became much more lively, and she couldn't wait to tell everyone she knew, though she spoke somewhat haltingly:

"My mom wears a Ruby Brooch. It's so big and beautiful, you'll definitely see it, it's very eye-catching!"

"Alright, alright, the Ruby Brooch, right? We've got it." Bell nodded kindly. If the little girl's real form appeared before them, she would probably pat her head.

"Shouldn't we remind Ms. Bell that the other party is just an afterimage?" someone said, looking at Fan En.

Fan En gently shook his head and said in a gentle tone, "Don't bother her. Let her think back to the old days."

Before the little girl could finish speaking, a rummaging sound came from behind the window.

"If you find my mother, please give her this Music Box."

A strangely shaped little box was handed out. Bell took it and looked at it over and over, repeating the unfamiliar word over and over.

"A music box?"

It was a prop I had never seen before. Its construction looked very exquisite, and it felt like a masterpiece by a craftsman that only nobles would possess.

"If you wind up the box, it will play a song that Dad really likes."

"If Dad forgets us, we'll play this song for him, and he'll remember us."

"Mom is always careless; she forgot to bring this when she went out."

The little girl's voice sounded like she was looking forward to reuniting with her family, but what she said sounded a little strange to others.

What do you mean your dad would forget you? He needs to listen to a song to remember you?

The more I thought about it, the more uneasy I felt, as if I were listening to a horror story.

Fan En, however, keenly sensed something and asked, "Is your father a hunter, like us?"

The little girl's voice of agreement came through.

Sure enough, no wonder she said from the beginning that she was familiar with our scent; it was the scent of hunters.

"Do we smell?" someone couldn't help but raise their arm and sniff. "Don't you think so?"

"Let me smell yours, ugh, it stinks! Is this the smell of a hunter?"

"Bullshit, he has body odor! I don't!"

Finally, Bell reluctantly said goodbye to the little girl and left with the others to go to the cemetery.

Although they agreed to the little girl's request, Yharnam is such a vast place that finding one person is incredibly difficult. They haven't even fully explored Yharnam yet. Besides the cemetery, there's a small waterway that they haven't explored much. It's fraught with danger, filled with Yharnam citizens who have been completely transformed into beasts, making them a level above in terms of combat power.

"What a poor child. I must find his parents. How could they leave such a young child alone at home?" Bell kept muttering to herself as she walked.

The others were more interested in the Music Box; they had never seen or heard of anything like it before, and their eyes were filled with curiosity.

Small Music Box

Small Music Box obtained from a little girl in Yharnam; winding it up will play songs that evoke memories of shared memories with parents.

The piece of paper hidden on the back of the lid looks like an old letter; you can barely make out two names: Viola and Gascoigne.

Is this thing called a clockwork mechanism?

Fan En tentatively wound up the spring, and a muffled sound of mechanical mechanism turning came from inside the box.

The next moment, under everyone's watchful eyes, a clear sound came from the Small Music Box!

"Ugh!"

The onlookers gasped in amazement, and the shock nearly caused Fan En to drop the Small Music Box.

A piece of instrumental music, which I couldn't quite describe as melancholic or lonely, played in the background. It sounded a bit like a lullaby, and when played in conjunction with the night in Yanan, it created a unique feeling, making one want to calm down involuntarily.

"Why are you all making such a fuss? Haven't you ever seen Sound Recording Stone before? It's something similar."

Bell breathed a sigh of relief after seeing Fan En secure the Small Music Box, then complained to those around him.

"But there are no Sound Recording Stone inside, and it doesn't require any magic power. Just turning this thing called a spring makes music," people exclaimed in amazement. "It achieves these effects purely through an ingenious mechanism? What an amazing thing!"

Yi Sha would probably love this Small Music Box. No, she would probably really want to take it apart and see how it works, Fan En thought to himself, planning to bring one back for his little sister someday.

The group stared in astonishment at the Small Music Box for a long time, until the mournful howls of wild beasts echoing through the cemetery finally reminded them of their purpose.

They quickly snapped out of their excitement at seeing the new and interesting gadgets and prepared for battle.

"Squeak—"

The closed cemetery gate was slowly pushed open, and a biting cold wind swept up the stench of wild animals and corpses, directly stimulating people's senses.

What is that?

Following the direction of one person's finger, people heard the sound of flesh being cut.

"Pfft!"

In the ruined cemetery, a somewhat hunched figure wields a giant axe, hacking at the carcass of a wild beast again and again, blood splattering all over him. He seems addicted and refuses to stop.

It's immediately obvious that he's also a hunter, only his attire is slightly different from the survivors.

The sound of the door being pushed open caught his attention, and a deep, magnetic voice reached everyone's ears.

"Wild animals roam the streets."

He slowly turned around, his pale, tousled hair fluttering in the wind.

"You'll all end up like them sooner or later."

Beneath the brim of his hat, a breath of stale air escaped from a mouth that had become somewhat distorted from its obsession with hunting.

Everyone immediately sensed a deadly danger!

The hunter in front of them looked exactly like everyone else when they were addicted to hunting, or even more so!

In this state, the hunter will attack anything!

There was no shouting or mockery, only silence and Furious Rajang.

Father Gascoigne charged toward the crowd!