Chapter 12: If You Want the Truth, You Have to Take the Adventure!!
Lumin opened the first page of the diary, ignored the lines at the bottom, and looked directly at the date written at the top. He did not want to read Rahil's entire journal. He was searching for the day she returned in her new form—the day that turned his life upside down and opened the world before him in all its vastness.
Lumin knew that if he traced the day his sister returned, then reviewed the days before it, he would be able to uncover everything Rahil had experienced. Only then would he know what he had to do, and the best way to find Hethavin and that mysterious gathering. At the top of the page, the date was recorded as: November 2, 2290.
Lumin was stunned by the date written at the top of the first page. In this kind of diary, invented by the dean of Batis University, Hruaik, there were 366 pages, and each side of a page recorded one day's date. In other words, the diary could not contain more than two years' worth of entries. Unfortunately for him, three years had already passed since that date... which meant he would not find what he was after, and that Rahil had not recorded anything that had happened to her in this diary.
A strange heaviness sank into Lumin's chest. At first, he had thought he had found the thing that would lead him to Hethavin and his companions. He had thought Rahil had written down the complete details of what happened to her before that night. But now he discovered that the diary was one year older than the day he wanted.
A possibility crossed his mind: perhaps Rahil had more than one diary in which she wrote her daily entries. But then he remembered that when he searched for the Castle Man's card, he had found nothing in the room except this one diary. His frustration deepened, and his heart seemed to freeze in place for a moment.
He sighed deeply before raising his hand to close the diary. He was not interested in what she had written three years ago. Yet just before the page fully shut, his eye caught a single word: Russell.
Immediately, he opened the diary again. He was not sure whether there was any connection between Rahil and Christie, and he was not even certain that Christie was the one mentioned in this diary. In that brief glance, he had only caught her family name, not her first name. Still, he could not stop himself from searching for anything that might connect them. If it was indeed Christie, then Christie might have a far deeper connection to that gathering than he had ever imagined.
"Two weeks have passed since Lumin left. He was supposed to be back here three days ago. I've started to feel afraid. I don't know exactly where he is, and I don't know when he'll return... Fiona came to me just now to ask about them. That little girl still feels a little awkward around me... She left right away after I told her that Lumin still hadn't returned."
Rahil had left a blank line before continuing, which made Lumin think the second line had been written an hour or so after the first.
"This is the first time the club has been late returning. They used to come back two or three days before the deadline, but this time they were delayed... I have to stop Lumin from going. I'm not in the mood to go to the shooting club today. I'll wait near the gate instead."
Lumin felt a prick of guilt in his conscience, but it quickly faded. The trip had happened three years ago, and that was how she felt three years ago. There was nothing he could do in the present, and nothing he could intervene in from the past. Besides, he remembered that trip very well. It had been the only time he had returned late, aside from the second one, after which he left the club. Lumin remembered that in an unexpected accident, the Red Mist had enveloped Lamit's expedition, and a huge number of them had been lost. If not for Lamit's intelligence and swift response, no one would have survived... That was the first time Lumin had entered the Red Mist, and the last.
Before that incident, he had doubted the credibility of the legends spread about Zarmitchell. He had dismissed them as common tales, like the stories of ice creatures and the mothers of reeds and fronds used to scare children. He would say to himself, "If these stories are meant to scare children, then why can't there be stories to excite them?"
Before the incident, he had never left the city far enough to see the Red Mist, and he did not know the truth of it clearly. But after that event, he came to respect Zarmitchell and believe in its glorious history, despite the fact that Zarmitchell had not completely saved the world from the Red Mist... It had connected humanity and its civilizations, and suppressed a large part of the Red Mist's power—the dark red fog that devours everything it touches, and within which demonic creatures live, such as vampires, ghouls, and Fishwell.
Lumin stopped reminiscing and returned his gaze to the diary to continue reading.
He noticed that Rahil had in fact left two blank lines, which made him think this paragraph had been written much later, perhaps before she went to sleep.
"I waited near the gate until evening. Fortunately, I found Russell on my way there and she kept me company; otherwise, waiting for Asheiy would have felt much harder. I was shocked when she told me she was not from Fajin, even though she had once shown me her family medallion! All I knew was that her family had roots in Rainsta. It's amazing that she made it here despite all the hardships... It's a shame that a group of people came to the gate... In truth, I don't blame them, but I had hoped to hear more from her about the Road of Skulls."
A faint shock rippled through Lumin's chest. He had assumed Russell's family was a noble house that had recently come to the city to help the earl develop it. He had never expected the family to have been in the city for three years—or even longer. No one had seen them, and he had never heard of them before, which was why he had thought that. On top of that, the fact that Rahil had befriended someone from the Russell family made him feel a strange sensation he had never known before.
He remained frozen in place, remembering what Christie had told him... that she was the heir to her father's status and legacy as his only daughter. She had no other heir besides herself—meaning she was Rahil's friend.
Lumin turned the page to see what Rahil had recorded, but found it blank. He simply turned the page again, only to find it blank once more!!
His breathing quickened slightly, and he began flipping through the pages one after another, but the diary seemed to have swallowed all the remaining words. He found no other writing, and frustration started seeping into him.
Still, he did not give in to that frustration. He wanted to flip through the pages again, but slowly this time—perhaps he had skipped over a page of entries that had actually been written on. He returned to the first page once more, then froze in place, his pupils widening... At the top of the page was written: December 2, 2293.
At the top of the page it said December 2, 2293, and it just so happened that today was December 3, 2293. Yesterday, Lumin had entered this mysterious world for the first time!!
Lumin wanted to read what was written below, and he did not even try to think about why the date had changed. But he remembered what had happened to him when he read the words behind the Castle Man's card, and then he understood that the Castle Man had done something to the diary. Lumin remembered that once he finished reading or turned the page, the contents of the text—just like what had happened with the Castle Man's card—would be lost. That made him pull out a few fresh sheets of paper from his sister's desk to write on.
"If you are reading this page, then it means you have decided to search through her diary and uncover what happened to your sister... In truth, I wanted this too, to help you. But I could not do it, or rather, I found only one way to uncover the truth directly. Yet I must bind myself to her memories. I will find the truth, but it will exhaust her and may even kill her. That is why I am proposing a few solutions. If you want the truth, then you must take the adventure!! Turn the page to search for the truth, and if you are not interested, return the diary to the table and everything will end."
Lumin hesitated, feeling a weight in his chest. He did not know what he should do. If he continued, there might be a great risk that could lead to his sister's death. What was the point of searching if she would die? And what use was revenge against those who had changed her if he had to kill her? But at the same time, if he did not find what was in the diary, he might never be able to avenge her.
He looked at the text again and noticed that it had not disappeared or changed, unlike the words behind Richard Alexander's Castle Man card. That told him the Castle Man also knew the danger of choices and the price that came with them. Lumin also realized that the pages would not change until he took the next step...
Lumin read the text several times before finally making his move and turning the page.
"You need to understand the method before I tell you the options, so as to avoid harm... I can bind myself to her memories. I will know everything about her—her feelings, what she suffered, what she endured, what she loved, and everything she ever thought. With that, I will know what happened to her, how she transformed, and how you should move and act to take revenge. But as a side effect of my ability, your sister will feel constant pain. Imagine someone breaking every bone in your body all at once... You would feel unbearable pain and surely die. Your sister will feel even greater pain than that, but she will not die, because she does not even have broken bones to die from. She would have to kill herself to save herself from the pain... but she will not be able to do that. How could she move when she is suffering such agony?"
"To avoid this, there are two methods. In the first method, I can bind myself to her for a brief instant. I will make the bond between us be the diary itself. I will know everything she has recorded in her diary, and nothing else, but she will forget everything because of the bond... Isn't that strange? I will bind myself to her through the diary, yet she will lose her memories of everything she recorded. Such as your delay on that day. If you want this option, place the pen on the page and close the diary. Tomorrow, you can have the complete diary."
"In the second method, I can also bind myself to her through the diary. She will not lose her memories, but I will not be able to take everything she recorded—only four or five pages every few days... You must understand that I will not be able to choose the exact day from which I learn the diary entries. I may find a page from years ago, or a page about what happened to her before that night she transformed. This randomness is for her safety. Your sister will not be harmed, and the diary will depend on your luck. Instead of taking the whole diary, I will take a few pages every three days so that she will not be overworked and lose her memories... If you want this option, close the diary and place it on the table. You can come back tomorrow and receive the pages."