Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

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The Lost Tale: The Lost Child: Chapter 409 The Residue of Humanity

"what......"

Xiao Su suddenly opened her eyes and found that her head was resting on Li Xi's shoulder.

When did she fall asleep?

"You're awake?" Li Xi gently lifted her bottom to make her lean more securely against his back.

"Where am I...?"

“The way to the top of the tower,” Lixi said. “We’re already inside the statue of Goddess.”

"Lixi, the road ahead is blocked!"

At that moment, Aine's voice came from above.

"There are signs of a battle here; we need to find another way to get there."

"I understand. Let's take the other way and see."

"...Put me down," Xiao Su Shi said softly.

Lixi obediently put her on the ground.

“Let’s try another route,” she said.

This goddess statue located in the city center is actually a landmark building with many uses. As you walk up from the bottom, you can see entertainment facilities such as restaurants and amusement parks. After taking the elevator to a certain floor, the route becomes complicated.

Taking another route, you have to walk through the entire floor, in the middle of which is an exhibition hall. The exhibition hall is bathed in warm yellow light, and the wooden floor makes a dull creaking sound when you step on it.

Ai Yin slightly opened her mouth, revealing her small canine teeth.

Wow~ What a hidden gem!

“This place is also decorated in the Imperial style…” Xiaosu walked towards the glass cabinet closest to her. “Why did I never know about this place?”

Xiao Su Shi had no idea about this exhibition hall, or even the existence of Sky City.

Everywhere you look, there are traces of human habitation: housing, schools, hospitals, entertainment facilities—everything you could need. This wasn't something that could be done in a day or two, or even a year or two, even if it was all renovation rather than building from scratch.

How long has the empire been developing here?

Keeping it a secret from her, the "symbol of the empire," the Red Queen, even if it's just a symbol in name only?

Xiao Su Shi looked up at the exhibits displayed in the glass case.

This is an armor exhibition hall, filled with all kinds of armor.

There was a row of neat display glass cases, each containing a suit of armor. The armor was over two meters tall and came in all sorts of styles, but they all shared the common feature of being entirely black with a red cloak and hood draped over their backs.

Xiao Su Shi frowned.

"What is this?" Deng walked over to Xiao Su Shi and asked.

“These are all the Regent’s armor, the styles he used to wear,” Xiao Su Shi said in a low voice. “There are no new styles, they must all be outdated.”

Is he actually very tall?

"It is very tall, but not to the exaggerated extent of these armors. I used to be very curious about how he controlled such a huge suit of armor..." Xiao Su Shi focused her gaze on the explanatory text next to the exhibit.

The above briefly introduces the origin of the Regent's battle armor, mentioning the Empire's research on dwarven technology.

"...It's also written here that his armor is powered by dwarven technology. The wearer not only doesn't bear the weight of the armor, but is also granted greater speed and strength by it. The accurate name is power armor, no wonder..."

"Hehehe, that's awesome." Ai Yin poked her head over from the side, looking at the armor in the glass display case. "I thought it was Iron Man."

"The Empire might have already taken Sky City before I was even born, that old man," Little Su Shi murmured. "These things don't look like they could be accomplished in a day or two. Did he do it behind the back of the previous Red Queen, or...?"

hum-

Just then, a red light appeared in the eyepiece of the power armor in the display case.

Clang——!

Behind Aine, amidst the shattered glass, the Wolf Knight Armor, which had been placed within the display case, broke free of its restraints and leaped out. Its right hand, with its ferocious and enormous steel claw, was about to grasp Aine's entire head.

It seemed that in the next instant, Aine's head would be crushed like a watermelon, splattering everywhere. Its speed from the moment it started moving to the moment it reached Aine was so fast that almost no one could react—except for Ronai.

The cat's reaction is seven times that of a cat (not)

Before anyone else could react, Lena had already taken action, using that elusive magic to dart out from the armor's blind spot and jump onto its shoulder.

Lena's petite body really looked like a cat on the wolf knight, and the effect she had on the armor was also like a cat's; her claws could leave a few scratches on the armor, but they couldn't really hurt it.

But it's enough.

Her disruption slowed down the armor's movements slightly, giving Aine enough time to react.

"Wow!"

Ai Yin dodged the wolf rider's claws with a scramble. Unlike Le Nai's cat claws, which were short and small, each claw was as long and thick as Ai Yin's forearm. If it had scratched her, it wouldn't have just left one or two scratches; her whole body would probably have been cut into pieces.

The attack missed its mark, and the black armor raised its hand to grab Lena, who was jumping around on its head. However, Lena had already achieved her goal. By the time the armor raised its hand, her figure had already disappeared on the back of the mecha.

at the same time.

bang——

Clang clang clang —

One after another, the sound of shattering glass rang out.

The display cases containing various power armors used by the Regent broke through their own. In addition, some display cases containing prototype armor, standard armor, and the like also started moving at the same time.

"These are alive too?!"

============

brush--

The tip of the spiral spear pierced the monster's body, and the spear, imbued with magical power, erupted with a burst of intense lightning. The mercury-like creature let out its final wail, collapsed to the ground, and turned into a pool of smoldering mercury.

This is the last one.

Xiangzi pulled out his screw gun and looked at the mercury on the ground, which was steaming with toxic vapor.

"Xiao Xiang, are these monsters... slimes?"

Slimes are monsters that are materialized from human greed. Some slimes are softened money, and some are food. These slimes are the most common in the world of desire.

But with a mercury-like material... what were these people pursuing before they turned into monsters?

knowledge?

Did their fanaticism for knowledge turn them into slimes?

“They’re not monsters.” Xiangzi frowned. “These guys, like the residents we saw in the Holy City who were turned into ‘monsters’ by the sound of the bell, are incomplete remnants, they are…”

Xiangzi paused for a moment.

"...the dregs of humanity."

The Lost Story: The Lost Child - Chapter 410 The Root of the Nightmare

Those things were human remnants, soulless corpses, so they wouldn't turn into monsters when they were killed. This thought naturally came to Xiangzi's mind.

The theory is sound, and Lin Hai has already proven the existence of this technology from the Kingdom.

The problem that made Xiangzi uncomfortable was...

She subconsciously treated them as "human beings".

They are familiars, after all.

Xiangzi gently bit his lower lip.

Forget it, continuing to dwell on such a meaningless question is a waste of time.

She lifted her foot, stepped over the mercury on the floor, and walked toward the nearest research room.

The higher you go in this monastery, the more problems you encounter.

The upper space is almost entirely connected, with flying arcades linking the spires, forming a fairly large area.

As Xiangzi pondered this, he pushed open the door to a research room.

Upon entering, at first glance, the furnishings were no different from those I had seen before: messy tables, shelves against the wall, and a pile of notes, draft papers, and other things scattered on the floor, all of which were already moldy.

but.

The room smells different.

Beneath the smell of evaporating mercury, there was also a strong odor of formaldehyde. This smell of formaldehyde immediately made Xiangzi's heart leap into his throat.

What things require the use of formalin?

Xiangzi turned his gaze to the storage shelf.

The items on the shelf had changed. The shelf that used to hold offerings now held labeled drying boxes, but here they were replaced with transparent glass jars filled with a murky yellow liquid.

Xiangzi approached the shelf and met the gaze of the glass jar at eye level.

Her expression suddenly turned extremely bad.

"Xiao Xiang...this is...I'm not seeing things, am I...?" Chu Hua looked incredulous.

“Ah…that’s right,” Xiangzi said in a low voice, “These glass jars are filled with human organs.”

The thing that made eye contact with her was actually an eyeball floating in the jar.

The entire jar was filled with people's eyeballs.

In addition, there was a brain in the jar on the left, and skin that had been soaked in formalin and wrinkled in the jar on the right. Looking up, there was a jar containing an entire spine, and looking down, there were the tibia and fibula of the lower leg, a pile of hearts... and even a whole, intact dead infant.

A two-meter-high shelf was laid out in front of Xiangzi, and all the bottles and jars on it contained "people".

"Xiang, take a look at this."

At this moment, Mu handed over a research notebook, which was the same style as the one Xiangzi had found on the lower level.

Hua Hua Hua——

Xiangzi turned the tattered, moldy pages of the book.

"Salamanda (skin), Gorgon (eye), Gleipnir (arm), Hilde (leg)..." Xiangzi blinked, snapped his notebook shut, and muttered a spell.

The reappearing offerings turned into flames, burning the notebook in his hand to ashes.

"What's in here?" Chu Hua asked.

"Research on forbidden techniques." Xiangzi turned around expressionlessly and walked out of the research room.

This so-called monastery is indeed very abnormal.

After that, she went to check the two rooms next door. The research on the lower floor was relatively normal, but once she went up to the floor where the mercury slime was present, the veil of pretense was completely lifted.

A notebook documenting forbidden techniques released using different parts of the human body; research on how to maximize the benefits of "wishing upon the Holy Grail"...

The experimental records even include instances where, in order to study the mechanism by which the Holy Grail grants wishes, two people were placed in the same environment, their desires were stimulated to be the same, and the monsters they eventually transformed into were analyzed.

Xiangzi even found research records on turning people into dregs. Through a specific spell, gas was released and inhaled into the lungs through the mouth and nose. The gas crystallized in the human body and combined with the human blood. At this point, the human could be used as an offering.

This goes beyond being described as inhumane.

Xiangzi's face grew increasingly dark.

Xiangzi couldn't understand the purpose of establishing such a research institute within the monastery's upper echelons. Xiao Su Shi had said that the monastery existed to select the next successor to the Red Queen, but what did these laboratories, these strange experiments, these researchers who died tragically, reduced to mercury-like remnants... have to do with the Red Queen?

"Xiang, the clothes left by the slime are different."

Mu's voice interrupted Xiangzi's train of thought.

She squatted at the other end of the corridor, using a magic thread to pull at two pieces of clothing left behind by the Mercury Slime.

"What's wrong now? Aren't we all wearing white coats?" Xiangzi turned his head and took a step towards Mu.

Just as she took a step in, Chu Hua shouted "Watch out—!" behind her, then grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.

With a splat, another blob of mercury slime fell in front of Xiangzi.

“…That’s enough.” Xiangzi raised his hand and shoved the spiral gun into the slime’s mouth.

Why is someone squatting on the ceiling? Why didn't they come down earlier? Is this some kind of classroom prank? There should be limits to pranks!

Xiangzi, full of complaints, patted Chuhua's hand on her shoulder with a headache, said she was fine, and then walked to Mu's side.