Secret: The years I served as a foreign aid for the Aurora Club

950
Ding.

A gold coin was thrown high into the air, and after spinning several times in the air, it fell into someone's palm.

Mr. Wandering Magician lowered his head and looked at the front of the coin in his hand. His brows slightly wrinkled and then slowly spread out: "Hermes' actions are indeed under His instructions, or according to His expectations... What exactly is in "Groselle's Travels"? "

"It must be something very important, otherwise it wouldn't be worth it for Him to ask His subordinates to fetch it for Him."

"I should go check inside."

Mr. Wandering Magician put away the gold coins and whispered, "I wish I was where Hermes is."

Snap! He snapped his fingers as a signal to fulfill his wish, but nothing happened.

The wandering magician didn't find it strange. After all, it was not surprising that he was under the other party's special defense. It was normal that he couldn't catch Hermes directly after making a wish. After thinking for a few seconds, he said again: "I hope I can appear next to "The Travels of Groselle."

Snap! He snapped his fingers again, and this time the scene in front of him became blurry for a moment, as if he was going to be teleported to a certain place by the power of the "door". He saw a somewhat desolate land covered with weeds, and several huge stone pillars hundreds of meters high, some leaning and some standing upright on the ground. But just as he was about to go, he was suddenly resisted by another force, causing the teleportation to fail. After the blur and bright colors faded away in the blink of an eye, Mr. Wandering Magician found that he was still in the same place, and did not appear anywhere else.

After pondering for a moment, He snapped His fingers again. This time, the gray mist constructed an illusion of the Kingdom of God around Him, and His voice became high and ethereal, full of majesty:
"Let me appear where Groselle's Travels is."

Suddenly, the colors around Him became extremely bright.

Even though the resistance still existed, the spirit world took the initiative to open a path for him. The next moment, the wandering magician found that he was not in the spirit world. He only went through a transition in the spirit world, passed through the spirit world, and went to a slightly illusory world.

This world is no different from reality, except that the picture seems to have been blurred dozens of times, like what a highly myopic person sees after taking off his glasses. The edges of any object are distorted in the eyes, but seem to become clearer when you get closer.

This is a dream.

"Hermes hid "Groselle's Travels" in his dream?"

Could it be that the power of dreams still exists in this book? The wandering magician had some clues for a moment, but he couldn't figure out the details. He was about to meet Hermes, so he should report his identity and a name at the same time. He had already thought of the name of his new identity, and he had given it a name when he created the funny seal "Automatic Wishing Machine".

His name is Merlin Hermes.

Coincidentally, "Hermes" and "Hermes" are different variations of the same name. The saying that names have mystical connections at a high level is indeed correct. Isn't He about to meet Hermes now?

After a period of no one paying attention to the "automatic wishing machine", the "sales" are now quite good. Mr. Merlin is responding to these wishes according to his mood. At present, most of the wishes are made by ordinary people, including but not limited to "I hope to restore my home to its original state", "get a lot of money", "escape to xxx", and a small number of "I hope my appearance will return to normal", "I hope my family and I will be healthy again", and "I hope my family can be resurrected"...

The last one is fulfilled the fastest, but at the same time, the wisher must leave their familiar hometown with their family.

He will not hesitate to fulfill your wishes regarding appearance and body, but He will also consider the actual situation.

As for those who try to exchange a penny for ten thousand pounds, those who sincerely ask for help are fine, but those who are simply greedy will only make Mr. Merlin laugh, and then he will arrange a little prank for the other party to meet someone on the street who is willing to buy his organ or life for ten thousand pounds.

In addition, there are some wishes that show the malice of human nature. The wandering magician also heard a small number of people praying devoutly to this strange safe-like thing, begging themselves to die like this because they no longer have any thoughts in this world.

This was the only wish Mr. Merlin was unwilling to realize immediately.

He traveled through the world of dreams, which connected many buildings in reality together. A straight road would gradually turn into a narrow alley. At the end of the alley, a door appeared. When he opened the door, it was not a room, but a wide city center. The square in the city center was folded, and the street opposite rose vertically 90 degrees from the ground. The houses and buildings were all spread vertically in the sky.

Mr. Merlin looked at this bizarre scene and missed a movie about dreams he had watched in the old days.

His intuition told him that every door and window around him might represent someone's spiritual world. And every brick, tile, blade of grass, and tree in the dream might be someone's dream.

“He probably hasn’t obtained the authority over dreams and the mind yet.”

Merlin pulled up the brim of his hat and snapped his fingers bluntly: "I want to appear in the dreamland where Groselle's Travels is located."

The next moment, the world of dreams twisted rapidly. The whole world spun and turned before His eyes, and then restored itself to a different appearance in an instant.

He appeared in an open space with a wooden door.

There were no walls or buildings around, just a wooden door standing upright on the ground, bare and strange.

Merlin pushed open the door, and behind it was a wasteland with messy stone pillars, as if it was the remains of some giant building, just like what he had seen in his momentary hallucination before. There were no living creatures in the dream, only the familiar "Groselle's Travels" lying quietly on the wasteland, falling a little crooked, but the cover was clean.

He walked over and flipped through the book.

The story inside has ended, and the conclusion on the last page reads, "The heroes who came from afar defeated the King of the North, and people lived a happy life." Although there was no trace of Hermes, Merlin knew that the other party must have entered the world of the book. Therefore, after a little thought, He realized that he might have missed something. Even though the other party was Hermes, He should still bring a helper who was good at "dreams" or "minds."

"Leonard, is that okay?"

Leonard alone probably won't work, but maybe it would be enough if I bring Pales with me. But since it's Hermes who's here, it's about the mind. It's a pity that Audrey left, otherwise I could ask for help directly if she was here... Merlin sighed silently in his heart.

But it doesn’t matter, if you don’t have it, just steal some.

With the Source Castle, he could use the power of the "Thief", so how could Hermes's "mind" authority not be considered his own?

With this in mind, Mr. Merlin picked up "The Travels of Groselle" and prepared to smear some of his blood on it. He stared at his finger for a long time, and finally made a wish to get a drop of blood without hurting himself.

It's more convenient to make a wish. As soon as this thought flashed through Merlin's mind, a vast expanse of white snow suddenly appeared in front of him.

Amidst the goose-feather-sized snowflakes and biting cold wind, a city with an outer wall over fifteen meters high stood not far away. The gatekeepers wearing leather armor huddled in a place sheltered from the wind and snow. As long as there were no caravans, they were unwilling to come up and intercept ordinary pedestrians.

The magician adjusted his hat, looked around, and spread out his palms to catch several snowflakes. He felt that they were icy cold and quickly melted into water in his hands.

"It's not a dream... This is almost the real world. It's a world that is indistinguishable from 'reality'."

A piece of knowledge and vocabulary instantly appeared in His mind, and a Sequence 0 name almost blurted out: "Visionary! This is an imaginary world. Considering the time when it appeared, this book must have belonged to the Dragon King, the Imaginary Dragon Angerwede... A Dragon King would set the final villain of the story to be a dragon. This is incredible... No wonder no one associated it with Him..."

Whatever I do in the future, I can deliberately go in the direction of self-deprecation, so as to mislead others.

"So that's how it is. In this imaginary 'real world', everyone also has an imaginary consciousness and soul. The secret of this book should be hidden in the dreams of the people in this world, or in their subconscious ocean..."

In this way, Hermes should have gone straight to the point as soon as he arrived and entered the ocean of subconsciousness.

This touched upon Mr. Merlin's blind spot in knowledge - there was no high-sequence seal of the "Dreamer" path on Sefirah Castle, and He could not "borrow" spiritual abilities by making a wish. But there are always more solutions than problems, and if you can't solve the problem, then solve the person who caused it. Merlin snapped his fingers and said:

"I wish I were in front of Hermes right away."

……

In a more remote area of ​​the city of Peso, there is a church built of stones with a rough appearance that needs to be polished.

The most conspicuous and exquisite thing inside is an altar, on which stands a wooden cross and a tall statue carrying the cross.

The ascetic Snowman was sitting in the front row, facing the statue, with his head buried, eyes closed, and praying intently.

He was a middle-aged man who was not old but had some wrinkles. He wore a simple white robe that had been washed countless times. He had short brown hair and his exposed arms, shoulders, calves and feet were covered with various old scars.

Earlier, an elderly man and a humanoid creature wrapped in a cloth robe whose race and gender could not be identified entered the church. The elderly humanoid man wore a white robe similar to the surroundings and some gold ornaments favored by the "Sun" path. He looked quite prestigious. His facial features were soft and his expression was old and gentle, like a clergyman or scholar.

They were so eye-catching, no matter from which angle you looked at them, but the passers-by and the few believers in the church did not even look at them and completely ignored them.

The humanoid creature wrapped in a cloth robe stopped outside the church door, waiting without saying a word. The old human entered the church, and the praying monk noticed the other's presence and opened his eyes wide in surprise.

"...Are you His Highness Hermes?"

Seeing the other person's face, Hermes, who had originally come here just to pray after seeing the symbol of the Creator, was slightly stunned. Then his expression softened, and his light golden eyes were filled with nostalgia and sadness.

"It's me. I remember you." His voice was calm. "You were one of the ascetics who left with the cross on their backs. I have forgotten your name, but I still remember your face and the day you left."

"Yes, it's me. It's an honor to meet you. I've seen your portrait in the Holy Scriptures."

Snowman's face was full of surprise. It was such an honor to be remembered by an angel that he even forgot to introduce himself for a while. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Hermes laugh and ask:
"What kind of city is this, and how long have you been here?"

Snowman quickly suppressed the joy on his face and became serious and solemn:
"This is a city that once had heroes. In the distant past, the evil dragon King of the North occupied this place, making it extremely cold all year round and barren. It was not until a long time later that heroes from afar defeated the King of the North, bringing warmth and spring back to this land. However, the names of those ancient heroes have not been passed down to later generations, and even their images have long been erased by time."

At this point, his expression became somewhat regretful, and he was completely unaware that he was narrating his own story.

"This city is just like its residents, with virtues such as generosity and gentleness. It is said that the heroes of the past came from different races, so all races can coexist peacefully here. This is why I chose to stay here and preach."

Hermes listened quietly to the words of the ascetic Snowman. He suddenly smiled and asked:

"do you miss home?"

"Where is your hometown?"

"Do you want to go back? How long have you been here? Do you want to return to the eternally warm and happy country where you were born?"

"Homesick?" The ascetic Snowman repeated the question. The confusion in his eyes disappeared in an instant. He answered firmly, "Your Highness Hermes, my hometown is at the foot of the highest mountain in the East Continent. It is a quiet little village that makes a living by farming. I watch the sun rise from the top of the mountain every day. Since then, I have been determined to spread the glory of the sun and the gospel of the Lord."

“I came to this town in the twenty-third year of my penance and stayed here to spread the Gospel of the Lord.”

"I voluntarily choose the path of asceticism, give up love, stay away from enjoyment, not hold power, polish my body, temper my spirit, and serve my Lord. From today on, I will never change, never change!"

As he said this, Snowman repeated his final oath twice, his eyes and words becoming more determined.

But in contrast, there is an indelible loneliness and uneasiness in his heart. As an ascetic, he should not stop at one place, he should keep moving forward, keep telling stories, and keep influencing others with his own behavior until the day he closes his eyes and dies in the sun.

His mood gradually became depressed, lost and melancholy.

Obviously, he was affected by the corresponding memories in his subconscious mind.

He was accidentally injured during his ascetic practice, and his blood was spilled on the travel notes, and he was forced to end his vows. It has been two or three thousand years since then.

Hermes smiled, patted the other's shoulder, and made the sign of a cross on his chest: "You did a good job. You are an excellent ascetic. I offended you. I'm sorry. It turns out that it's not you who wants to go back, but me."

The unknown creature outside the church door, which had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke in the deep and rich dragon language of the giant dragon Erihog:
"Will the being you believe in now allow you to worship your past beliefs?"

Hermes did not let Snowman hear this, and He replied: "In this world, there is always one sun."

Snowman didn't understand why this sentence appeared so suddenly without any cause or reason, but he thought it might be the angel beside the god expressing his feelings, lamenting that besides the sun, there are so many evil gods and hateful secret beliefs in the world. So he closed his eyes and prayed devoutly to his Lord in his heart, praying that people in this world can understand the greatness and glory of the Creator, the Sun God.

Erehog did not comment on Hermes's "want to go back" and spoke again:
"time to go."

"Really? Even the time for an old man like me to reminisce is so limited." Hermes said with a smile. He pressed his knees to get up from the prayer chair in the first row. Before he could stand up straight, a hand suddenly appeared on his shoulder and pushed him back.

Hermes turned his head and saw a young man wearing a top hat and a black robe appeared on the empty seat next to him.

"Hello."

The young man pressed the brim of his hat as a salute and gave a polite smile. "I am a wandering magician. You can call me Merlin Hermes. If you don't mind, I would like to perform a magic trick for you."

Hermes was silent for a moment, and Erehog outside the church began to slowly retreat, ready to escape at any time. The man and the dragon saw at a glance that the other party was definitely not someone they could easily challenge, so they had to avoid direct conflict for the time being:
"What magic?"

The young man smiled, stretched out his hand, clenched it into a fist, and put it in front of Hermes. He opened his hand, and there was nothing in it.

"Please look."

He clenched his fist suddenly, and then disappeared on the seat next to Hermes. Hermes suddenly felt that a part of his body disappeared, and a void appeared in His authority. His power to enter dreams and mind was gone!

"Your extraordinary abilities are mine."

TBC
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Amid the laughter of the magician's successful performance, Mr. Merlin first entered the subconscious ocean in "Groselle's Travels"!