V2: Chapter 30: The Fear of the Unknown is the Essence of Cthulhu

"This guy looks crazy. Is there something wrong here?" Liang Lin pointed to her head, looking suspiciously at the priest in front of them. "What kind of god is this..."

The priest didn't seem to care. He walked along, introducing himself with exaggerated gestures, "Greetings, everyone from the Magic Tower! My name is Bradrick Onynes, and I am a loyal follower of God!"

"It's obvious those lunatics in the church are all a bit mentally unstable, acting crazy." Liang Lin sneered. She had always disliked the people in the church, always thinking they were seriously insane. "I think this priest is the leader of that group of lunatics, isn't he?"

The priest wasn't angry. He chuckled, "You could say that. I'm a lunatic, but strictly speaking, I'm not a priest."

He turned around and gave everyone a meaningful look.

"I don't believe in their God, that non-existent thing."

Hmm?  

“You don’t believe in God?”

Bradrick shook his head. “Since God doesn’t exist, why should I believe in Him?”

“Then you…”

“I worship the Gods of the sea! Their name… is the Old Gods.”

The Old Gods?

Liang Lin and Hilary were hearing this name for the first time, but Octaville frowned slightly. 

“The Old Gods? Aren’t those just myths? There’s no evidence that they exist. Those monsters are all evil; there’s no such thing as good.”

“No, I’ve seen them.” Bradrick clasped his hands together, extremely devout. “Without them, there wouldn’t be this seemingly peaceful world!”

“Madman.”

Liang Lin cursed again.

Octaville didn’t speak; she fell into deep thought.

The surrounding scenery grew increasingly desolate. Ahead lay a bleak wasteland, overgrown with withered grass, and a dilapidated church stood there, looking on the verge of collapse.

As they approached the door, a strange smell filled their nostrils—a mixture of dust and pungent medicine, so strong that Liang Lin covered her nose in disgust.

"This awful place..." Liang Lin hugged Carol tightly, covering her daughter's face with a small handkerchief. "If there are any germs, Carol will get sick when we get back."

Yes, we all knew it. She was a good mother.

"Don't worry, not here, Miss Liang Lin."

"You know me?" Liang Lin asked, surprised.

Bradrick smiled. "The infamous villainess, who hasn't heard of you? It's just that most people haven't seen your portrait."

Tsk, good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels fast. My great achievements don't spread, only baseless rumors circulate.

Bradrick led them into the church. As Liang Lin had expected, there was indeed a basement. Bradrick went in first, and Liang Lin wanted to follow him, but Hilary stopped her.

"No, I'm going in first."

The one in the lead is almost always the first to encounter danger.

Liang Lin wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Hilary, "You're holding Carol in your arms, do you want to put the child and you in danger?"

Liang Lin looked at her daughter in her arms, a look of sudden realization crossing her face.

Hilary breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the other had figured it out.

But then...

The next second.

"Here, you can hold the child." Liang Lin directly shoved Carol into Liang Di's arms beside her.

Hilary: "...."

Liang Di: "??"

Happiness came too inexplicably.

"Liang Lin, you..." Hilary grabbed at empty air; Liang Lin had already disappeared into the passage.

Hilary was annoyed, but didn't follow. She told Octaville and Liang Di to follow, while she guard up the rear.

“You two, one a patient, the other holding a child and unable to free her hands, what if you encounter danger? Stop talking nonsense, follow her.”

Hilary didn't mince words, but Octaville seemed hesitant to speak. Finally, she was pushed into the passageway by her wife.

Yes, my wife, as always, is incredibly strong.

Octaville shed bitter tears, feeling like she wasted her height.

The passageway was long and pitch black. Bradrick lit an oil lamp to illuminate the path ahead. Liang Lin was on tenterhooks the whole way, wary of anything terrifying that might suddenly appear, or a bad guy might attack. Fortunately, nothing dangerous happened until they reached a door.

A brand-new padlock gleamed in the lamplight. Bradrick gripped the padlock and muttered, “These guys even bought it.”

“There's anyone else?” Liang Di grasped the key point.

"Well, of course, I can't be fighting this alone."

Bradrick rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a brown leather-bound notebook. He scratched his head in annoyance and casually shoved the notebook into Liang Lin's chest.

"Hold this for me, I have too many things in my pockets, and my keys are hard to find."

Liang Lin took the notebook, curious about its contents, but her morals told her she couldn't look; it belonged to someone else.

"Look if you want, but I doubt you'll understand. This isn't the language of the Soteland Empire; it's from the Walton Empire."

The Walton Empire?

"That far?"

The Walton Empire, if traveled by carriage, would take a year to reach from the Soteland Empire.

Liang Lin, having received permission, curiously opened the notebook. The writing was unlike anything she had ever seen before, crooked and strange-looking; she couldn't understand a single word, and Liang Lin lost interest.

She showed it to the three people behind her, asking, "Can anyone understand it?"

Octaville frowned, stroking her chin. "I can understand a few words, like 'you' and 'I,' but the rest I can't understand."

Ahead, Bradrick was still rummaging for his keys.

He pulled out a quill pen, a flattened flower specimen, a storybook, several poetry collections, and even half a half-eaten, paper-wrapped loaf of dry bread. He piled everything into Liang Lin's arms.

"...Father, you have everything in your pocket except your keys, right?" Liang Lin, carrying a pile of things, gave a polite smile.

Bradrick gave an awkward laugh. "Wait, almost there! Hey? I think I've found it!"

Under the expectant gazes of everyone, he pulled a lock from his pocket.

"....."

"Sister, should we go back? I think this guy is really crazy."

"Wait!" Bradrick was sweating profusely, finally pulling the brass key from his pocket. He gave himself a thumbs-up, beaming with pride.

Sigh.

This guy is definitely a bit off.

Click~

The lock opened.

Squeak~

The sound of the door opening was heavy.

A beam of warm, yellow light streamed in from inside. The door was fully open, revealing a cozy room. On the sofa, several puppies were huddled together, their white and black fur clustered together like scattered chess pieces folded up on a chessboard.

"Hey!"

Bradrick suddenly yelled in annoyance, startling the other five, who wondered what he was up to.

"These guys! They forgot to blow out the oil lamp again! Luckily, they didn't set the room on fire!"

Bradrick picked up a chubby little dog from the sofa and rubbed his face against it like a pervert.

"Thank goodness you guys behaved and didn't kick the lamp over."

After saying that, he looked at Liang Lin and the others again, put down the chubby dog, and made a "please" gesture. "Sit wherever you like, sit wherever you like, I'll go make you some tea."

Liang Lin didn't hesitate, plopping down on the sofa and curling one of the chubby dog's heads around her neck. "Alright, no need to make tea. Tell me what you know, how could you heal the wound on Octa... my sister-in-law, no... my, my red-haired sister's arm?"

Bradrick still went to make tea.

The group looked at the chrysanthemums floating on the water in the cups, and once again fell into deep thought.

Bradrick cleared his throat. "Ahem, this young lady is from the Magic Tower, isn't she?"

He was referring to Octaville.

Octaville and Hilary exchanged a glance. It seemed this guy didn't know her true identity, so there was no need to explain.

"Yes, I am."

"Interested in leaving the Magic Tower and joining us?" Bradrick's question was startling.

"Pfft!"

Liang Lin nearly spat out her chrysanthemum tea. She couldn't help but laugh, but her sister pinched her arm hard, making her face contort as she cried out softly, "Ouch!"

Octaville also wanted to laugh. Someone was trying to poach her, the leader of the Magic Tower!

She smirked. "Oh? What abilities do you have that would make me willingly leave the Magic Tower and join you, working for you?"

"If you want to poach someone, at least show some sincerity," Octaville raised an eyebrow.

Bradrick immediately grabbed a notebook, flipped it open, stopped at a page, and then, with a swift movement, showed it to everyone.

"This is what attacked you, isn't it?"

Several people crowded around, examining it closely.

On the notebook was a drawing. It depicted a twisted, gigantic, indescribable creature—or, if one had to describe it, a colossal, decaying tentacle.

“Hmm…” Octaville nodded. “Probably. It was too enormous. I only saw a few tentacles; the rest… seemed to be hidden in the darkness.”

Bradrick, upon hearing this, excitedly slammed his hand on the table. “My God! You actually saw it!”

“?”

“An Old One! That’s an Old One!”

That name again…

“Aren’t those names you’re talking about obsolete decades ago, even a hundred years ago?” Octaville also felt that the person in front of her was insane.

She stood up. “If you can’t provide me with a solution, then forget it. We won’t bother you anymore. Let’s go.”

“Wait!”

Bradrick called out to them.

“With blood! Use monster blood!”

"?"

"Are you crazy? Using that thing's blood?" Octaville gasped, her eyes wide with shock.

Bradrick broke out in a sweat.

"I'm telling the truth! God told me! Really! If I'm lying, may I jump into the sea and sink into the illusion of the Old Ones!"

It was practically a solemn oath.

But Octavill still didn't believe it. Using monster blood to save someone was too absurd.

But...

Without saying a word, Liang Di silently pulled out a knife and cut open one of her tentacles. Thick blood flowed out, and Liang Di reached out and caught it.

"Liang Di, what are you doing?!" Octaville's eyes showed a hint of heartache.

"Just trying it out, there's no harm in it," Liang Di glanced coldly at Bradrick. "If it doesn't work, I'll just erase this part of his memory. It's simple."

That made sense.

Bradrick was stunned. When he finally came to his senses, he was overjoyed, his legs went weak, and he almost knelt on the ground. He stared at Liang Di with an adoring gaze, his hands clasped together in utmost devotion.

"My God... this is a combination of human and God... though I don't know which god..."

Liang Di chuckled. "What if it's the evil Great Old One you're talking about?"

Bradrick was instantly speechless.

Liang Di smeared the viscous blood from her palm onto Octaville's wound.

A miraculous thing happened.

In Liang Di and Octaville's eyes, the eerie black mist disappeared rapidly, until finally, it formed a black ring imprinted on Octaville's arm.

"Eh? How come there's suddenly a small black dot?" Liang Lin squinted.

Liang Lin and Hilary couldn't see the mist, while Bradrick could barely make out a trace of it.

“It’s true…”

Octaville gasped, her gaze towards Bradrick no longer filled with doubt.

Bradrick became smug.

“I told you so, I wasn’t lying, everything I said is true.”

“How did you know…”

“I already told you, God told me.”

“.....”

Everyone remained skeptical of his statement.

Before they could think further, or ask any further questions, Bradrick began to ramble on and on, talking to himself.

“Do you know why those ‘monsters’ are so terrifying? Ultimately, it's all because of people’s fear of the ‘unknown,’ the ‘giant,’ and the ‘indescribable.’ It’s precisely because we don’t know what we’re facing, what kind of thing it is, that a sense of fear arises from within.”

“We all know what they look like.”

“No, no, no,” Bradrick shook his head violently, “I’m not talking about their ugly appearance, I’m talking about the ‘unknown.’ Do you even know what this ‘unknown’ means?”

“The unknown…?”

Bradrick spoke vividly, “Don’t you think that those giants that look different from us, those that can pull us into illusions, and all we can do is maintain our sanity, we can’t even see their faces… They are giants from the deep sea. We don’t drown, we are immersed in illusions, sometimes even a blissful death.”

“But sometimes, I feel that there’s nothing wrong with this way of dying,” Bradrick smiled strangely.

“Some people are unhappy their whole lives, so it’s better to die happily. Would you choose to die happily or live unhappily?”

Liang Lin and the others were speechless.

They simply couldn’t answer these questions.

Humans are born to live. When asked about the reason for living, the answer is always, “Isn’t that how everyone lives?” No one knows their own reason for living, except for the wealthy nobles, whose reason for living is to enjoy life. But commoners live simply to live.

At this moment, even the usually hot-tempered Liang Lin didn’t know what to say.

To say that living unhappily is right would be a lie; to say that dying happily goes against the principles of human existence. Either way, it seemed illogical.

“Alright, stop with that serious look.” Bradrick regained his initial gentle demeanor, closed his book, looked at Octaville, and asked, “Now? Do you believe me? Want to leave the Magic Tower and join us?”

Octaville’s eyes darted around. “You? What do you do exactly?”

Bradrick adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his tone deliberately profound.

“To put it bluntly, we are followers of a Great Old Ones. But I believe you people from the Magic Tower won’t like that, so let me formally introduce myself!”

Suddenly acting like a chuunibyou (a person with delusions of grandeur), he spun around in a circle, stopped dramatically, and struck what he thought was a very cool pose. “You can call me the Commander of the Cthulhu Investigation Team!”

"?"

Okay, he really is sick.

Having done all that, Bradrick lowered his posed arm and extended his hand to Octaville.

"So? Miss Magician, how about joining us?"

Octaville looked at the man before her with interest.

"Joining you wouldn't be any good, would it? The resources you give might not be as much as the Magic Tower's. Besides, the Magic Tower is full of magicians. What about you? What do you have to offer to fight monsters?"

Hearing this, Bradrick visibly felt guilty, even his back wasn't as straight as before. "Hiss~ Well, we've only been around for a few years, and our resources can't compare to the Magic Tower's..."

His voice grew softer and softer, lacking confidence.

Perhaps realizing this, he suddenly raised his voice again, "But! But ha! We know far more than those people in the Magic Tower. Those people are so arrogant, denying Cthulhu mythos decades ago. What a bunch of self-righteous fools."  

"Ohh~?" Octaville became interested.

"What else do you know? Tell me everything. I'm not too sure I'd dare join you if I only know this much."