Lord of Secrecy

Chapter 3 - Melissa

Having determined the plan, Zhou Mingrui instantly had a backbone, and the trepidation, wandering back and uneasiness were all curled up in a corner.

Until this time, he did not have the mood to scrutinize the remaining fragments of Kraven's memory.

Zhou Mingrui habitually stood up, closed the pipeline valve, watched the wall lamp slowly darkened until extinguished, he sat down again, while unconsciously rubbing the brass wheel of the pistol, while holding the side of the head, in the darkness stained with scarlet color quietly “reminiscing”, like the most attentive spectators in the cinema.

Perhaps affected by the passage of the bullet, Kraven's memory is like shattered glass, not only has it lost its coherence, but in many places it is also obviously missing content, such as where the exquisitely crafted revolver came from, whether it was a suicide or a homicide, and what the phrase “everyone will die, including me” on the notebook means, and whether he had been involved in any of the two days before the incident. Strange things.

Not only did these specific memories become fragmented and somewhat mutilated, even the knowledge that had been grasped, in its current state, Zhou Mingrui believed that Klain would not be able to graduate if he returned to the university, even if he had only actually left the campus for a couple of days and had not relaxed himself the slightest bit.

“In two days, there will be an interview for the history department of Tingen University ......”

“Universities in the Kingdom of Ruen have a tradition of graduates not staying on straight away ...... The tutor gave a copy of the University of Tingen, and a copy of the University of Birkeland's letter of recommendation ......”

......

Zhou Mingrui silent “watch” in the middle, the red moon outside the window west, gradually sinking, until the east has a slight light, the horizon dyed gold.

At this time, there was movement coming from the room inside, and soon the sound of footsteps leaned toward the isolation door.

“Melissa has woken up ...... She's really on time as usual.” Zhou Mingrui smiled slightly, influenced by Kraven's memories, and had a feeling of looking at Melissa as if she were his own sister.

However, I don't have a kissing sister ...... he then spat.

Melissa is different from Benson and Klain, the enlightenment was not completed in the Sunday school of the Church of the Goddess of the Night, when she reached reading age, the Kingdom of Ruen enacted the Elementary Education Act, established the Lower and Middle Education Commission, and specifically provided grants to increase the investment.

In three years, however, numerous public primary schools were established under the premise of incorporating a number of parochial schools, strictly maintaining the principle of religious neutrality, and not involving themselves in the strife between the Storm Lord, the Goddess of the Night, and the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery.

The three pennies a week tuition at the public primaries seemed rather expensive compared to the Sunday schools, which cost only one copper penny a week, but while the former only studied one day a week on Sundays, the latter attended classes a full six days a week, which, all things considered, made it so low-priced as to be nearly free.

Melissa, unlike most girls, grew up loving things like gears, clockwork, and bearings, aspiring to be a steam mechanic.

Benson, the eldest brother, who had suffered a cultural loss himself and understood the importance of education, had supported his sister's dream as much as he had supported Krynn's college education; after all, the Tingen Technical School was only considered a secondary education, and there was no need to go to a grammar school or a public school to build up to it.

Last July, at the age of fifteen, Melissa passed her entrance exams and became a member of the steam and machinery department at Tingen Technical School, as she had hoped, and her weekly tuition fee was raised to nine pence.

At the same time, the import and export company that Benson worked for was affected by the situation in the southern continent, no matter the profit, or the volume of business, have shrunk considerably, and had to lay off more than one-third of the staff, Benson, in order to keep his job, to maintain his livelihood, can only accept more onerous tasks, and must often work overtime, or go to places with harsh environments on business trips, just like these days.

It's not that Klein didn't think of helping his brother's burden, but the commoner-born him, the one who was admitted to the common grammar school, once he entered the university, he strongly felt his own inadequacies, such as the ancient Forsak language which is the source language of all the countries of the northern continent, for the children of nobles, for the children of the rich class, that was something that had to be learned from a young age, and he didn't have his first contact with it until he was in the university.

There were many, many more similar aspects, and it took almost all of Krynn's strength, often staying up late and waking up early, to barely catch up with the others and graduate with moderate grades.

Memories of his brother and sister jumped through Zhou Mingrui's mind, and it wasn't until the handle turned and the door to the room inside creaked open that he awoke with a start, remembering that he was holding a revolver in his palm.

It was a semi-controlled item!

It'll frighten the children!

Also, there's the wound on my head!

Seeing that Melissa was about to come out, Zhou Mingrui pressed his temples while panickedly pulling open the desk drawer and dropping the revolver in, smashing it with a thud.

“What happened?” Melissa heard the commotion and looked over suspiciously.

She was at her most youthful stage, and even though she couldn't eat anything good and her face was thin and slightly pale, her skin was still glowing and gave off a girlish aura.

Seeing his sister's brown eyes looking inquisitively, Zhou Mingrui forced himself to be calm, picking up the things close to his hand, and then calmly closing the drawer to hide the revolver, while the touch of his other hand at the position of his temple made him certain that the wound had healed!

What he took out of the drawer was a silver-white pocket watch with a pattern of vine branches and leaves, the top of which popped open with a gentle press.

It was the most valuable item left behind by the father of the three siblings, that Royal Army Staff Sergeant, but second-hand goods were second-hand goods after all, and in the last few years, it had to be faulty from time to time, even if it had been repaired by a watch craftsman, which made Benson, who liked to bring it with him to elevate his status, repeatedly embarrass himself, and simply threw it away at home.

It must be said that Melissa may really have a mechanical talent, after mastering the theoretical knowledge, she began to use the tools of the technical school to tinker with this pocket watch, and recently even claimed to have repaired it!

Zhou Mingrui watched the cover pop open, and seeing the second hand stood still, he subconsciously turned the top, intending to wind the pocket watch.

However, after he twisted it a few times, there was still no sound of the clockwork straining out, and the second hand remained motionless.

“It seems to be broken again.” He looked to his sister without words.

Melissa glanced at him without expression and came over quickly, taking the pocket watch with one hand.

Standing still, she pulled up the button on the top of the pocket watch first, and after just a few turns, the sound of a clattering second hand moving came out.

Normally, shouldn t pulling up be adjusting the time ...... Zhou Mingrui s expression suddenly became stagnant.

Just at this time, the sound of the bell of the distant cathedral dangdang came out, six consecutive times, distant and ethereal.

Melissa listened to it with her side ear, and then pulled the button at the top of the pocket watch up a notch, and then twisted it continuously to match the time.

“There.” She said briefly without a trace of emotion, then pressed back the top and returned the pocket watch to Zhou Mingrui.

Chou Ming-Rui smiled back awkwardly and nonchalantly.

Melissa gave her brother another deep look, turned towards the cupboard location, grabbed a toothbrush and towel and other items, and pulled the door out to the communal washroom.

“There's something about the look on her face just now that smacks of disgust and helplessness.”

“The look of caring for a retarded brother?”

Zhou Mingrui shook his head and laughed lowly, snapping the watch cover closed and pressing it open with a snap.

Repeating this action, a question occurred to him as his mind wandered.

Without a silencer, Kraven committed suicide, well, count it as suicide for now, the commotion of his suicide was definitely not small, and Melissa, who was separated by a wall, was surprisingly unaware of it.

Was she asleep? Or is the matter of Kraven's suicide itself full of weirdness?

Snap, open, snap, close ...... Melissa returned from washing up, and what she saw was the unconscious movement of her brother who kept opening and closing the lid of the pocket watch.

Her gaze was once again laced with helplessness, and her voice said sweetly:

“Crane, you take out all the rest of the bread, and remember to buy new to-day, and the meat and peas; you have an interview coming up, and I'll make you a lamb stew with peas.”

As she spoke, she moved the stove out of the corner, built a fire with the remaining coals, and boiled a pot of hot water.

Before the water was about to boil, she opened the bottom drawer of the cupboard and babied out a tin of inferior tea leaves, sprinkling a dozen or so slices into the kettle and pretending it was real tea.

Pouring two large cups each, Melissa and Zhou Mingrui shared two loaves of rye bread over the tea.

There were no wood chips mixed in, and there wasn't too much gluten, yet it still wasn't good ...... Zhou Mingrui, now weak and hungry, relied on the tea and forced the bread to finish swallowing while bellyaching.

After a few minutes, Melissa finished eating, gathered the black hair that hung down to her undershirt, and looked at Zhou Mingrui:

“Remember to buy new bread, just eight pounds, it's hot, too much will easily go bad, and lamb and peas, remember!”

Surely it is a caring nerd brother? and have to emphasize it again ...... Zhou Mingrui smiled and nodded:

“Okay.”

Regarding the pound in the Kingdom of Ruen, Zhou Mingrui, based on Kraven's meat measurement memory and his own comparisons, thought it was close to its own customary pound, or 0.5 kg.

Without further ado, Melissa got up and cleaned up, packed that last loaf of bread for lunch, put on the tattered yarn hat her mother had left her, grabbed the carry bag she had sewn for her books and stationery, and got ready to head out the door.

It wasn't Sunday, and she had to attend classes all day.

It was about a fifty-minute walk from the apartment to the Tingen Technical School, and there were public carriages that ran at a penny a kilometer, with a maximum of four pence in the city and six pence on the outskirts of the city, and Melissa always left the house early and walked there herself to save money.

She had just opened the gate when she paused again and half turned her body to say:

“Crane, don't buy too much lamb and peas, Benson may not be back until Sunday, and, um, remember the bread is only eight pounds.”

“Good, good.” Zhou Mingrui replied helplessly.

At the same time, he recited the word “Sunday” several times in his mind.

In the North Continent, the year was also divided into twelve months, ranging from three hundred and sixty-five to three hundred and sixty-six days per year, and there were also seven days in a week.

The former was the result of astronomy, which made Zhou Mingrui suspect that this was a parallel world, while the latter came from religion, as there were seven orthodox gods in the Northern Continent: the Eternal Sun, the Lord of Storms, the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, the Goddess of Darkness, the Mother Goddess of the Earth, the God of Battle, and the God of Steam and Mechanics.

Seeing his sister close the door and leave, Zhou Mingrui suddenly sighed and quickly moved his mind to the Transit Ceremony.