Aunt Heidi carefully recalled that ever since she had known her ancestor, it was the first time she had seen such a surprisingly remarkable expression on his face. Seeing the usually serious and steady ancestor so flustered seemed quite amusing, but Aunt Heidi was not like Rebecca, who behaved recklessly, so she quickly suppressed the mischievous feeling in her heart, coughed twice, and brought the atmosphere back, "You..."
"Hold on, let me sort out... sort this out," Gawain instinctively waved his hand, then pressed his forehead, which was throbbing, "Betty has been watering that egg these past couple of days... That child usually does things that others can’t understand, but she shouldn’t... Never mind, go call Betty over, I’ll ask what’s going on. By the way, has there been any change with that egg?"
"Nothing has changed," Aunt Heidi thought for a moment, suddenly feeling a bit ashamed. In the days when her ancestor was away, she devoted almost all her energy to the work at the Administrative Office, neglecting the "household affairs" happening under her nose. Such unconscious negligence might not be a big deal in the ancestor’s eyes, but upon reflection, it was indeed an oversight, "The Hatching Room has been implementing a strict inspection system, with someone checking the dragon egg’s status three times a day, and Betty’s peculiar behavior hasn’t caused any impact..."
Aunt Heidi hesitated for a long while but ultimately didn’t say "it’s just been marinating recently".
Gawain’s mouth twitched, "...Let’s call Betty over first, and then I’ll personally go check the Hatching Room."
Just a moment later, Betty, who was busy on the second floor, was summoned in front of Gawain. The maid looked quite cheerful, as today was the day Gawain finally returned home, but she also seemed a bit bewildered — unable to understand why she was suddenly called. After all, according to the ceremonial protocol she memorized with great effort, she had already led the attendants and servants in the weling ceremony at the door, and the next summoning wasn’t supposed to be until an hour later.
Looking at Betty, who stood in front of him with a face of confusion, Gawain suddenly felt a bit amused. He had watched this girl grow, seeing her read books and newspapers, learn spelling and arithmetic, transforming from a clueless little kitchen maid into a royal maidservant supervisor. This girl from the countryside, once skinny and slow-witted due to malnutrition, had indeed grown, but pared to others supposedly at the same level, she was still lacking, even clumsy, often doing unexpected things when she had a mental hiccup — but even so, everyone here still liked her very much.
She was a simple and straightforward child who probably did not have long-term plans when doing anything. She just strived to do some things well, though she messed up some things, she indeed improved over the years.
"Betty," Gawain’s expression softened, and with a faint smile, he said, "I heard something... You’ve been visiting the Hatching Room to see that dragon egg often lately?"
Betty nodded vigorously, admitting it with great joy.
"And you’ve been watering that egg too?" Gawain maintained his smile, but his expression turned a bit peculiar upon reaching this point, "And someone even saw you talking to the egg?"
Betty’s expression finally changed; she didn’t respond immediately to Gawain but showed a hesitant and troubled look, which greatly surprised Gawain and Aunt Heidi. However, before Gawain could ask the reason, the maid seemed to make a decision, nodding hard as she said, "I was serving tea to Lady Enya — and she wants me to chat with her..."
While saying this, the little maid made a mental effort: though Lady Enya had said not to talk about these matters, the agreement seemed to mention that it was only temporary until the master returned. Now that the master was back... it should be okay to say, right? Of course, it might also be a misremembering, but nothing could be done, the master had already asked...
This simple-minded girl did not want to lie to Gawain.
Gawain fell into a short stupor after parsing the information in Betty’s words and immediately realized that things were not as imagined — how did Betty know Enya’s name?! She was chatting with Enya?!
He sprang up from the sofa, "Let’s head to the Hatching Room, now!"
...
Urgent footsteps came from the corridor, acpanied by several identifiable breaths, breaking the peaceful and serene atmosphere in the Hatching Room. A faint sigh emanated from within the pale golden giant egg at the center of the room, followed by a self-muttering voice with a hint of laughter, "Back already... thought I could enjoy a few more days of peace."
The Hatching Room door was pushed open from outside, and the figures of Gawain, Aunt Heidi, and Betty appeared at the entrance. They widened their eyes at the room, emitting a faint magic symbol glow and the enormous dragon egg standing at the center. The dragon egg’s surface shimmered with light, ancient and mysterious magic symbols appearing and vanishing, everything seemed very normal, except for a newspaper floating in front of the egg that was flipping to the next page right before their eyes...
Aunt Heidi’s eyes widened, Gawain’s expression was stiff, and Betty happily moved forward to greet, "Lady Enya! You’re reading the newspaper again?"
The door to the Hatching Room was closed, and Gawain approached the golden giant egg with an unprecedentedly bizarre expression. A somewhat familiar, gentle female voice emanated from within the egg, "Long time no see, my friend."
"So, after our last conversation, we’ve now bee friends, have we?" Gawain said subconsciously.
As he spoke, he couldn’t help but glance up and down at the "dragon egg," which looked almost the same as when he last saw it, but he could always smell a faint scent wafting from the lower part of the eggshell. The fragrance wasn’t supernatural but more like... the tea he was used to drinking.
"A heartfelt conversation would be enough to establish the initial friendship, and among my long memories, your conversation was the most heartfelt," said the voice from within the golden giant egg, as Gawain’s thoughts were racing, "Why? Are you unwilling to bee friends with me?"
"This... not really," Gawain shook his head with a strange expression, unsure if he should smile, countless guesses rising and falling in his mind, finally forming some vague answers. Meanwhile, his mind slowly settled, attempting to regain the initiative in the conversation, "I just didn’t expect to meet you again under such circumstances... So, are you really Enya? The Goddess Enya of the Dragonkin?"
"The goddess of the Dragonkin has perished, taking the madness of the divine nature with them, buried at the frontier beyond the sky. Here remains only Enya—as the human side of Enya," spoke the voice from the golden giant egg softly. "I never really expected to meet you again under such circumstances, in fact... I didn’t even expect this bold plan to actually e to fruition."
Divine nature... human nature... bold plan...
Gawain suddenly had a realization, his gaze deep, as if looking into a bottomless pool, as he looked at the golden giant egg: "So, the god-slaying war in Talronde was part of your plan? You used this method to kill off the divine nature that was on the verge of plete loss of control, allowing your human side to survive in this form..."
"I embarked on the greatest adventure since I became conscious, but this was not my original plan—in the original plan, I did not intend for myself to survive," Enya said casually. "I have known about the thoughts of the children for a long, long time... although they did their best to suppress their thoughts and words, those ideas rippled at the deepest part of the tide of thought, just like the light in children’s eyes when they were restless, how could an experienced mother be deceived? I knew this day would eventually e... in fact, I too had been anticipating its arrival...
"But I could not defy my own rules, could not voluntarily loosen the chains, so the only thing I could do was leave them some gaps in an extremely narrow margin or turn a blind eye to certain matters. So, if this is a ’plan’, it is primarily the plan of the Dragonkin, the most I did in this plan... was most of the time do nothing."
Gawain frowned slightly, mulling over it as he listened, unable to help but say, "But you still haven’t explained how you survived... earlier you said that in the original plan, you didn’t intend to survive."
"You have yourself to thank," Enya chuckled softly, with genuine gratitude in her tone, "The things you told me gave me great inspiration."
"The things I told you?" Gawain was startled for a moment, then realized, "You mean the Supreme Narrator... and things like the God of Nature?"
"This world has seen civilization arise countless times, countless realms of the mortals have appeared, as well as countless mortal heroes, who had rebellious characters, or thoughts that even gods found astonishing, or talents and courage beyond theoretical bounds, and when faced with gods, they had a variety of reactions—some revered, some were disdainful, some hateful... But whatever the response, none of them were like you," Enya said slowly, her words seemingly drifting away, yet upon hearing her, thoughts were provoked, "Yes, you are different, when you face the divine, you neither revere nor recoil, you don’t even have likes or dislikes—you simply do not regard gods as gods, your perspective is situated somewhere higher.
"You see gods as a pure ’phenomenon’ or even as ’objects’, calmly seeking the logic behind this phenomenon, you assume so naturally, as if trying to solve a formula with a clear answer.
"From that perspective, you introduced a variable that never existed before into the tide of mortal thought, a variable that will guide mortals to objectively view divine and human natures, to quantify and analyze them.
"During our last conversation, I... slightly borrowed this variable, borrowed your perspective on things and the effects this perspective could generate, thus gaining the ability to precisely separate my divine and human natures.
"I’m sorry, I did not seek your consent beforehand, nor did I explain this to you later, because I was concerned that this could bring about unpredictable changes, I hope you don’t consider this deceit or offense."
After listening to Enya’s confession, Gawain suddenly had a deeper appreciation for the "beyond ordinary" aspect of the divine. These entities, born of imagination and transcending it, could indeed acplish such things—acquiring a brand new "perspective" through verbal exchange and transforming this "perspective" into a controllable ability for oneself... is this what they call the ultimate power of fantasy?
His thoughts fluctuated, but he displayed none of this on his face, simply offering a seemingly nonchalant smile and said, "No apology is needed, it seems to have led to a good result, so I don’t mind—I’m just a bit curious, what exactly is the principle behind your ability to ’separate’ divine and human natures?"
The golden giant egg was silent, breaking it after a few seconds with a note of helplessness: "Such an insatiable curiosity... is indeed a question you would ask. But unfortunately, I cannot explain it to you, and even if I could, this ability serves no purpose, after all, not all gods have lived for over a million years, nor have all of them experienced the grand fusion.
"My ’separation’ is based on my unique condition because ’gods’ themselves are a ’stitched together’ concept, and for those gods not stitched together... apart from experiencing ’death’ like the Supreme Narrator and having their divine and human natures already split, it’s best not to rashly attempt ’separation’, better to choose a more gradual and prudent approach."
"What happens if you rashly separate them?" Gawain asked unintentionally.
"...One would just cut themselves to death."
Gawain opened his mouth, feeling somewhat awkward: "That sounds quite severe."
After some consideration, he couldn’t help but ask, "So, now that you’ve returned to this world in a ’human nature’ form... how about Talronde? Will you discuss with them? Now that you’re pure human nature, theoretically, you shouldn’t negatively affect them anymore."
The golden giant egg fell into silence once more, reflecting for a period of time longer than any previous silence, before finally speaking: "The mythological era of the Dragonkin has ended; there’s no need for a ghost of the past to entangle those dragons who have barely obtained freedom. Moreover, considering the plexity of mortal minds, even if I returned to the public view of Talronde in a ’human nature’ form, it’s hard to ensure it won’t cause unexpected ripple effects in their thinking... For now, at least temporarily, until the Dragonkin have thoroughly shed the shadow of the past and are prepared for a new era, it’s better they don’t learn of this.
"Of course, you can tell a few of the dragons responsible for managing Talronde affairs about this, they should be able to better plan societal development after knowing the truth, avoiding some potential dangers—and a sense of responsibility will keep them maintaining secrecy. The Dragonkin have always been reliable in keeping secrets."
"Understood, I’ll find an opportunity to tell Talronde’s higher echelons about your situation," Gawain nodded, but still couldn’t help glancing at Enya’s current rotund form, unable to restrain his curiosity, "I still want to ask... why is it an egg?"
"...Yes, why an egg? I actually haven’t figured that out..."
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