Confirmation

After a few seconds, Lumian looked into Aurora's eyes and slowed his speech. "There are still several days until the Lent Festival?"

He suspected his sister had turned the tables and was playing a prank on him, but in all these years, he had never seen her treat anything important frivolously. And this was a critical moment involving the survival or destruction of the entire village, including the two of them.

Aurora looked her brother up and down a few times.

"Did that afternoon nap scramble your brains?

"Today is March 29, 1358. There are still several days until the Lent Festival."

March 29... Lumian turned the date over in his mind, suddenly wondering whether he was dreaming.

He had clearly experienced the Lent Festival celebration, which had begun in joy and ended in bloodshed. He had clearly seen the shepherd Pierre Berri chop off Ava's head with an axe, sending blood spraying into the air...

Am I dreaming now, or was I dreaming before... Whichever was the dream, wasn't it far too real? Lumian could find no sign of a lie on his sister's face.

Of course, Aurora being a brilliant actress could also explain this, but Lumian believed she was absolutely not that sort of person.

They had spent five years together, with countless little details along the way. There was no way she could have fooled him about what kind of person she was!

There were only two possible reasons Aurora would lie to him about the date.

First, the Parish Priest or someone lurking in the shadows had taken control of her.

Second, the matter had been perfectly resolved, leaving her in the mood for jokes and pranks.

If neither possibility held true, then she was almost certainly telling the truth.

Time really had returned to March 29, several days before the Lent Festival.

According to Lumian's understanding of the world, this was clearly impossible, something that should never happen in reality. Yet his sister's attitude left him bewildered.

I need to find a way to confirm it... Lumian did his utmost to recall everything he had experienced during this period and found he could still remember most of the details. For instance, on the March 29 preceding the "successful" Lent Festival celebration, Aurora had indeed worn this light blue dress. And that evening, he had met the three outsiders-Lya, Ryan, and Valentine-and taken them to the church to catch the Parish Priest in the act of adultery.

"What's wrong?" Aurora reached out her right hand and waved it in front of her inexplicably dazed brother's eyes.

Lumian snapped out of his trance and said hurriedly, "Aurora, I just remembered something. I need to go out.

"I'll be back soon!"

The best way to confirm whether time really had returned to March 29 was to find Ava!

If she was still alive, Lumian would have to seriously consider accepting this unbelievable change.

Without waiting for Aurora's permission, Lumian slipped past her and rushed toward the door.

"Call me your big sister! Don't miss dinner!" Aurora raised her voice to remind him.

Once out of his house, Lumian sprinted toward Ava Lizier's home, afraid that even a second's delay would allow that indescribable nightmare to catch up and devour him completely.

Along the way, he drew sidelong looks from quite a few villagers, but no one stopped him to ask why. They feared this was a prank he had staged himself, just waiting for them to fall for it.

At last, Lumian reached his destination.

Ava's father, Guillaume Lizier, was a well-known shoemaker in Cordou Village and the surrounding mountains. His family was neither wealthy nor poor. Their home was likewise a gray-blue, two-story building set partly below ground, with an open area behind it piled with grass and firewood and containing a goose shed.

It was almost dinnertime, and several people were busy in the Liziers' kitchen.

Lumian walked straight through the open front door and spotted Ava at once.

The brown-haired girl with watery blue eyes wore a grayish-white dress and was helping her mother prepare dinner. Her movements were nimble and her eyes lively. She was clearly alive.

She really isn't dead... Lumian instinctively looked at Ava's neck, trying to find signs of stitches.

One of Aurora's horror novels had featured body parts stitched together to pass for a living person.

But Ava's neck was slender and smooth, without so much as a scar.

"Lumian, is something the matter?" The shoemaker Guillaume Lizier, seated on a kitchen chair, noticed the uninvited guest.

His brown hair was tousled, and a slightly greasy brown-and-white apron hung over his chest. He rose at an unhurried pace and approached Lumian.

Hearing her father's greeting, Ava stopped what she was doing and turned toward the doorway in surprise.

She immediately saw Lumian standing there, dazed and bewildered.

"Is something the matter?" she echoed.

Lumian abruptly came to his senses, intending to make up some excuse to brush it off.

But the approaching shoemaker, Guillaume Lizier, instantly gave him an idea.

After considering his words, he asked, "Uncle Guillaume, did Pierre from the Berri family order a pair of leather shoes from you?"

Lumian remembered very clearly that he and Raymond "would" encounter the shepherd Pierre Berri tomorrow morning. They would be surprised that he had left his flock behind and braved the danger and hardship of a long journey to return for the Lent Festival celebration.

At that time, Pierre Berri had already been wearing a brand-new pair of soft leather shoes.

Unless he had gone to a ready-made shoe shop in Dalege, making a pair of leather shoes would take time. This meant Pierre Berri had been back in the village for at least two or three days!

"How did you know?" Guillaume Lizier was rather surprised. "Pierre Berri returned a few days ago, but hardly anyone in the village knows. He even asked me not to tell anyone."

Just as I thought... Lumian made up an explanation.

"I saw someone who looked a lot like him and thought I was hallucinating.

"Since he was wearing new leather shoes, I came to ask you."

"It was him," Guillaume Lizier confirmed. "He was driving three or four sheep along with him. He said his employer had given them to him."

Don't they only bring the sheep back to the village in early May for shearing and milking? Where could he graze a few sheep now? Grazing is still prohibited on the highland pastures... The more Lumian thought about it, the more abnormal the shepherd Pierre Berri's behavior seemed.

And his actions at the end of the celebration had proved Lumian's judgment correct.

But Lumian still had no way of knowing what he and the Parish Priest's group intended to do, or what they had already done.

At that thought, Lumian smiled at Guillaume Lizier and Ava. "I'm relieved it really was him. I thought all my drinking had messed up both my head and my eyes."

He then waved to the Lizier family. "Goodbye."

Once he left their home, the smile quickly faded from Lumian's face.

He was now fairly certain that today really was March 29.

Did time turn back, or did I have a prophetic dream? A dream couldn't be that real, with every last detail... Lumian walked on, thinking as hard as he could.

Whether time reversal or prophetic dreams, he had only learned of them through Aurora's novels. He had never imagined either could happen in reality.

On his way home, Lumian made a detour to the square and approached the side of the Eternal Blazing Sun's church.

The stained-glass window, which should have been shattered completely with even its frame blown out, sat intact in the wall. The image of Saint Sies preaching shimmered in the light of the setting sun.

Lumian gazed at it with complicated emotions, feeling as though the thoughts rubbing against one another in his head were about to send up white smoke.

On his way back to the square, he saw a familiar figure emerge from the church's main entrance.

It was the Parish Priest, Guillaume Béné, with his slightly hooked nose and imposing bearing, wearing a white robe trimmed with gold thread.

Lumian's heart tightened. He spread his feet slightly and bent his body forward a little.

It was a stance that prepared him both to attack and to break into a sprint.

Guillaume Béné glanced at him and nodded expressionlessly.

"Come back tomorrow to pray."

Oh... Right. On the evening of March 29, I hadn't brought people to catch him committing adultery yet. We hadn't openly fallen out, and he had no reason to worry that his secret plot was about to be exposed... At that thought, Lumian reacted instinctively.

He straightened and spread his arms. "Praise the Sun!"

"Praise the Sun!" Guillaume Béné returned the gesture.

After leaving the Village Square, Lumian habitually reviewed what had just happened.

Suddenly, he noticed something he had overlooked in his shock over "time turning back."

He still had his supernatural abilities!

He was still a Hunter!

Whether it was the fact that he had barely been out of breath after sprinting to the Liziers' home or his immediate adoption of the best stance upon facing the Parish Priest, both showed that his physical fitness and condition far surpassed what they had been before he drank the potion!

From this, Lumian reached a conclusion.

His earlier experiences had not been a prophetic dream!

He was already a Sequence 9 Beyonder!

Tonight, I'll try entering that special dream and see whether I still can, and whether anything has changed... Lumian quickly formed his next plan.

Back home, he acted as though nothing had happened and shared dinner with his sister, Aurora.

Since her brother often got into trouble and did not want her cleaning up after him every time, he occasionally behaved like this. Aurora noticed, but did not ask any further questions.

After washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen, Lumian let his sister know he was going out and headed straight for the old tavern.

He wanted to confirm whether those outsiders who did not belong to Cordou Village would appear.

Entering the old tavern, Lumian sat at the bar and greeted the owner and bartender, Maurice Béné, the thin middle-aged Pierre Guillaume, and the others in turn.

"A glass of sour wine," he said with practiced ease.

Sour wine referred to low-grade cider. In taverns, it was only more expensive than certain beers, and people often hawked it on city streets.

"You stingy brat. Don't you love the painful kick of absinthe?" Maurice Béné grumbled.

"Are you buying?" Lumian replied with the familiar words.

They gave him a sense of unreality.

Maurice Béné immediately fell silent, poured a glass of sour wine, and pushed it toward Lumian.

Lumian sipped his drink and waited.

Before long, he heard a jingling sound.

He turned and saw Ryan, wearing a plain dark bowler hat, a brown tweed jacket, and pale yellow trousers.

But it was Lya who drew the eyes of almost every man in the old tavern. She still wore a fitted white cashmere dress without pleats, an off-white cropped jacket, and Massy boots. Two small silver bells were attached to her boots, and another two to the veil she wore as a headscarf.

Likewise, Valentine wore a white waistcoat, a blue fine-wool coat, and black trousers, with a little powder dusted over his yellow hair.

Under everyone's gaze, the three walked to the bar and sat down one after another beside Lumian.

One glass of Dalege red wine, one glass of rye beer, and one Heartburn... Lumian silently recited without looking up.

Ryan took off his hat, set it aside, and said to Maurice Béné, "One glass of Dalege red wine, one glass of rye beer, and one Heartburn."

Hearing this, Lumian let out a long, drawn-out sigh.

"What's wrong?" Ryan turned to look at him.

He took a sip of sour wine and said in a low voice, "I'm a failure. I hardly ever notice whether the sun is shining or not, because I don't have the time..."