Chapter 235: Finding the way back
Chen Lun closed the booklet and remained silent for a long time.
He gazed absently at the campfire beside him, its orange flames reflected in his eyes.
"Philip..."
Chen Lun murmured the name.
He had never met Philip, yet had received his help many times. He could say that, if not for that diary back then, he might have died in the Red Apple Church's prison long ago.
"If possible, perhaps we really could become friends, Philip."
Chen Lun spoke to himself.
From scattered fragments of information, he could roughly piece together a "character sketch" of Philip. He was someone who disliked following the rules, whose life was filled with dry humor and irreverence.
At the same time, he was an unfortunate "lucky man."
Guided by a mysterious, powerful mentor, he had embarked on the supernatural path, fallen in love with Maggie the Cat God, and explored the world's ultimate mysteries... however one looked at it, his life seemed to follow a protagonist's template.
Yet in the end, he seemed to have failed to escape fate's control.
Someone like that might not seem particularly reliable, but as a friend, his cheerful disposition would surely be infectious.
Nobody liked someone who was gloomy all day long.
"Just as you said, there are some regrets..."
Chen Lun sighed.
He looked at the booklet in his hands. This should have been Philip's final message.
Otherwise, he would not have left it with Arno to pass on to him. After all, this was Wonderland's endpoint, the place he would ultimately have reached if he had continued exploring at his original pace.
Only Howard's sudden intervention had caused unknowable changes, leading to an accident that brought him here ahead of time.
But Chen Lun had yet to find all