The Secret Code of Monsters.

Chapter 1145 (Ch.1144) Temptation
Rose rarely saw Roland 'unhappy'—she was quite certain of her judgment when he came out of the church's reception room, which had been specially decorated for the saints.

Roland was somewhat 'unhappy'.

I saw a joke yesterday.

The curly-haired girl twirled in her tutu and leaned closer, 'casually' starting a conversation:

“...It’s the tabloids that always publish pictures. Roland, guess what they drew the Queen as?” Rose stretched out two index fingers, tracing lines like antennae: “A beautiful, delicate, and fragrant little pig.”

Her eyes were like the faithful crescent moon every night, and her rough and arrhythmic narration could only reveal a clear, resonant tone called love, as if it were cutting into her heart.

The courtier in the painting asks: "Since when have you lost control of your tongue?"

"Guess what the Queen said?"

Before Roland could speak, the girl, like a balloon gradually inflating, puffed out her cheeks and turned red.

"She...haha...she said...she...hahaha said...saying that since I was born...hahahaha..."

"She did her best."

"I'm in a good mood, Rose."

Roland hooked his arm around his female companion's, gesturing for her to join him. They no longer needed to travel by car; the sanatorium was located not far to the west of the church.

“You can’t fool me—ah, let me guess, pretty face. Perhaps it’s because of your friend Alice, isn’t it? Perhaps because of some strange ‘change’ she’s undergone, isn’t it? Perhaps—”

Pretty face.

Rose only calls Roland that when she's in a certain mood.

“I don’t dislike ‘change,’ Rose,” Roland said, unable to articulate his feelings, when he suddenly recalled what Sandel had said: “A well-fed sheep, or a starving tiger. Rose, which is better?”

Rose just blinked her green eyes and asked him to repeat himself.

"A well-fed sheep, a starving tiger."

“I was just pretending not to hear you… idiot. Okay, I think there’s something seriously wrong with those two sentences.”

"What's wrong?"

“How could a tiger go hungry?” Rose turned her head, a sly glint in her two cat's-eye stones. “In a good world, tigers won’t go hungry. They’re much stronger than sheep… In a bad world, aha, a bad world, tigers certainly won’t go hungry.”

Rose didn't believe that Roland had said those words—the Roland Collins she knew was a lazy tiger who had eaten his fill and had nothing better to do than nibble on this and lick that.

This problem shouldn't be bothering him.

Just like a reporter would never ask a robber: Do you think citizens should obey the law?

and so…

The clever thief quickly came up with another possibility.

It has nothing to do with Alice Cordoni.

It has nothing to do with the saintly cause of poor girls.

It was through her that Roland was drawn into the shadow of another person who made him 'unhappy'.

I guess…

Don't guess.

"I rarely tell jokes!"

I don’t know when.

A white silk lotus leaf umbrella covered their heads.

Rose looked at the man talking to himself in the air and subconsciously pursed her lips.

'If you're a tiger, why are you starving, Cherry?'

'What good is a fierce tiger? When you're out in the game, you need power! You need connections!'

Before the woman holding the parasol could speak, another light and nimble figure slipped in.

The eccentric girl was forever frozen at the end of Roland's memory.

She pushed past Cherry, snatched the umbrella handle from her hand, and playfully stood on tiptoe, putting her arm around Roland's shoulder.

'Are you crazy again? Little blind man? Hey! The most important thing in life is—'

"...Happy?" Roland blinked.

'Great! Memory test passed! Still a long way from dementia...' She grabbed the umbrella handle, ruffled the boy's hair in her eyes, then pulled the woman who was laughing beside her a few steps away and started waltzing in the sun.

'I don't know how to waltz at all, you little blind girl. It's just that your memories force me to do this... You should have kept your promise to me, right?'

'Happy every day?' The girl frowned. 'I know it's not easy. But things that come too easily, without any challenge, don't fit the male character—don't you guys love challenges?'

"Obviously I'm not a man," Roland smiled. "I have a penchant for getting something for nothing."

"Oh... just like me." Nina Collins hugged Cherry and spun her around. "Quick, tell your sweetheart, little Cherry, or he'll start crying right away..."

Cherry laughed and patted Nina's arm, freeing herself from the mischievous grip.

He turned around and looked at Roland.

'I'm so glad we can be together forever...Roland.'

'I thought you were going to bring up the tiger.'

“That doesn’t matter, young gentleman. Both tigers and sheep are proud of their choices… so am I.” The woman stepped forward slowly, gently brushing a strand of hair from Roland’s forehead, gazing at him with the same intensity as if examining a bottomless lake: “From the first moment I saw you, I knew… you would either die in a soot-filled street corner, or… no one would ever be able to capture your heart again…”

At this point, the woman smiled gently.

'Of course, except for those you love and those who love you, right?'

She moved her hand down and grasped Roland's.

'We've trapped you forever, and you've trapped us forever.'

Nina Collins's voice drifted from behind: 'The white moonlight is truly terrifying…'

Cherry turned around and smiled, her eyes full of mockery.

Is it me, or you, Miss Nina?

'Although I inexplicably understand the meaning of this word, Nina, I don't believe our relationship is limited to a simple love... I think Roland should think so too?'

'I don't know, Cherry. To be honest, sometimes I'm not as calm as I am when I'm with you. When I have an inextinguishable candle, the world becomes increasingly blurry in my eyes…'

Cherry gently stroked Roland's face with her palm.

In your opinion, am I "real"?

'Without a doubt.'

'Where's Nina Collins?'

"The same is true," Roland replied softly.

'Then what else do you have to worry about?' Cherry laughed.

Her face, as Roland gazed upon it, gradually contorted and split, twisting into a shrinking vortex of flesh: 'You fear loss, but in reality, you should be the least afraid of loss…'

The vortex of minced meat slowly expanded, and the sound carried an alluring, captivating quality.

'Those who leave the world when we are awake will always meet again in our world…like Pushy Collins, Yam Jones, Enid Jutia, Rose, Harida, Sinder…'

Roland raised an eyebrow: 'You want me to kill them, to turn these people into "eternity" in my memory?'

'No, of course not,' Cherry chuckled. 'But isn't that true? All your worries shouldn't be your worries... You'll never 'lose' anything, my dear little gentleman... You have an 'eternal' world...'

When a body of flesh and blood, and the soul within that flesh and blood, perish in the waking world.

Roland Collins's concerns will be rekindled in another world unseen by others...

May we be reunited forever.

The emotion he should least have is "fear of loss".

Isn't Cherry Chloe right?

All that perishes will accompany him forever in another form…

Roland raised his head.

Some rabbits wearing top hats were climbing over the eaves, lining up and winding their way into the distant open field.

'You're right, Cherry.'

he murmured.

'What do I have to worry about?'

Rose carefully pinched the corner of Roland's sleeve.

She didn't know what Roland had seen or heard. As a fairly competent ritualist, she wasn't afraid of the twisted malice born from "aptitude" like that of Shandel Kratofer.

Different fantasies.

Every time those 'non-existent' ghostly things appeared and spoke to Roland, she felt him drift further away from her.

(End of this chapter)