Geno, having arrived beside the figure, wore a look of utter surprise on his face. When viewed from a distance, it was clearly an Ethereal, so why did it look like a human now that he was up close?
Geno closed his eyes and checked again using his Ethereal vision, only to find that in this vision, the other party was indeed an Ethereal.
"Strange. Could it be a breed similar to myself?"
Unable to grasp the situation, Geno immediately stood in front of the stranger, intending to block their path.
However, the other party walked past him without a care in the world.
"Hey! Wait!"
Geno didn't want to let the stranger leave just like that, so he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
The cloak that had been hiding her face instantly fell away, and a pair of small, pointed horns were exposed to the moonlight. This made Geno even more certain of his guess.
'She even has horns; looks like she really is an Ethereal!'
This large movement finally caused the other party to stop. Only then did Geno realize that she wasn't ignoring him—she was walking with her eyes closed, fast asleep.
"Hey! Wake up! Wake up!"
"Ah?! Who?! Where is this?!"
Lucia, having been jolted awake, snapped her eyes open only to see a strange man standing before her, frantically shaking her shoulders.
Subconsciously, she swung the staff in her hand, knocking Geno down, and then flusteredly pulled her hood back on.
"That hurts! You're awake, so you're awake—why did you hit me?"
Only after calming down did Lucia realize that this place didn't seem to be her tent. She looked up and saw that the sky had turned dark.
"Oh no, I sleepwalked into a Hollow. If I had known, I wouldn't have tried to 'stay up early'. Not only did I fail to stay up, but I actually fell asleep at night."
Geno climbed to his feet at this point. Listening to her murmuring, he found it somewhat odd.
What strange vocabulary. 'Stay up early'? Is she boiling big dates?
However, Geno didn't take it too seriously, simply treating her as a weird Ethereal—though the fact that an Ethereal needed to sleep was already weird enough in itself.
"Hey, nameless Ethereal, where did you come from?"
Geno once again leaned close to Lucia, inquiring about her background.
"Ethereal? No, no, no, Mister, you've mistaken me for someone else. I am not an Ethereal." Lucia shook her head, flatly denying her identity.
But Geno mistakenly thought she had taken him for a human, so he dispelled his human form and reverted to that peculiar Ethereal appearance.
"Don't be afraid, comrade. We are of the same kind."
At this transformation, Lucia was dumbfounded. If she hadn't noticed the lack of Corruption traces on his body and the fact that he hadn't lost his reason, she would have thought Geno was a newly born Ethereal.
But the surprise lasted only for an instant, quickly replaced by an emotion called ecstasy. She had dedicated her life to finding an Ethereal that could communicate with humans, and now she had finally encountered one!
"Mister Ethereal! H-H-Hello! My name is Lu-Lu-Lucia. Can we be f-frie—ow! (ΩДΩ)~ I bit my tongue!"
Seeing how extremely nervous the other party was, Geno finally realized something was wrong. He tilted his head and thought for a moment.
"Wait? You're not an Ethereal?"
-----------------
After a brief communication, Geno finally realized he had mistaken her identity.
She belonged to a race known as Thirren, a group of humans possessing animal characteristics. Lucia fell under the classification of Sheep Thirren.
Now, here came the problem. In such an awkward situation, how should Geno resolve the issue of having self-destructed his own cover?
One: Kill Lucia.
Two: Be killed by Lucia.
Three...
"Please, never speak of this to anyone!"
Geno, having chosen option three without hesitation, lost his dignity as a human in this moment—but Geno expressed that since he wasn't human, it didn't matter.
Fortunately, Lucia herself had no intention of exposing Geno's affairs. Moreover, from her perspective, Geno was simply her dream Ethereal!
She couldn't be happier; why would she harm him?
"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this. In exchange... can you be my friend!"
Lucia's eyes sparkled with a 'bling-bling' light, and the little sheep tail behind her wagged incredibly fast.
"Of course, no problem."
Seeing this, Geno didn't refuse. Not to mention that having an extra friend meant an extra path, he was genuinely afraid that if he refused Lucia, she would report him.
"Let me formally introduce myself. My name is Geno, and I am an Ethereal."
"Hello Geno, I am Lucia, an [Envoy of the Night Demon]."
"Envoy of the Night Demon?"
A strange term entered Geno's brain, and Lucia quickly provided an explanation.
"Night Demon?"
"Mm, it's quite complicated to explain. Anyway, just treat it as a very special kind of Ethereal."
A strange girl who likes Ethereals. However, not annoying.
"By the way, Geno, can I draw a picture of you?"
Lucia had a habit of observing Ethereals. She would usually draw a portrait of the Ethereals she had researched, though the quality of the drawing was not guaranteed.
"I could, but I have things to do right now. How about next time?"
Distracted by Lucia like this, Geno had almost forgotten there was a sick patient at home waiting for him to save her. However, he still hadn't resolved the situation of not being able to find the way.
"That's simple! Leave it to the Envoy of the Night Demon! I often sleepwalk into the Hollow, so I'm quite familiar with the roads around here. I'll lead the way!"
"Really? That's wonderful! Thank you, Lucia."
A surprise falling from the sky. He hadn't expected that the new friend he just met would help him solve his difficult problem. His luck was truly on a roll, unstoppable...
Looking at the iconic structure appearing before him once again—a telegraph pole broken in two—Geno turned his head to look at Lucia, who was a head shorter than him beside him.
"Didn't you say you knew the way?"
"Uh... well."
Lucia scratched her face in embarrassment. She had sworn solemnly that she knew the way, but she hadn't expected the slap in the face to come so suddenly.
But she clearly remembered the path around here went this way. Could it be that the space within the Hollow had become disordered again?
The space within a Hollow is not immutable. With the fluctuations of Ether, the space inside a Hollow sometimes shifts. This is the main reason why people inside a Hollow cannot find their way out.
"Uh, trust me one more time. This time there will definitely be no problem! This way! Behind this Fissure must be the road!"
Lucia pointed at a faintly glowing Hollow Fissure and guaranteed solemnly, but her appearance made it very hard for Geno to believe her again.
"I'll trust you one last time..."
Geno ultimately chose to believe. He took Lucia and tentatively stepped into the Fissure. After the familiar sensation of spatial dislocation passed, Geno opened his eyes and looked at the building before him, finally breathing a sigh of relief.
"Finally arrived. Silver Base."
Little sheep person! Accept Jin-woo's molding!
____
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