Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 54

...I think I’ve got a problem...no, I’m certain I have one, a bog one at that.

That is...

I’m lost.

I got so focused on the problem at hand and on how I should warn the little devil about the situation that I completely forgot one minor issue, and that is... that he has always been masking his scent with magic, and today has not been different from before, and as much as I could somewhat recognize the lingering smell left by his steps this strange magic prevented me to pint point his whereabouts with precision.

Wondering about the magic itself since there is no way that the smell of a person can simply disappear, I find myself completely at lost once I reach the main street of the festival with all its strong odors and people, and the remaining faint trace of his presence is completely lost in such a crowded place.

And such peaceful full of life place now truly has my attention, and I could not help but feel strangely observed all the time, as if of now I realized just how odd the place really is, on how all masked people would avoid staring directly at me as if on purpose, deliberate, and now all seem to be... too perfect, too joyful, too... fabricated.

I could not tell before, especially been the first time as such a place, but now that my attention has been brought to the subject at hand I almost felt silly for not realizing that something was off before.

Especially their faces now, since the moment I started focusing on the other people’s faces half hidden behind their masks, the more intensely I stared at them, the more their features seemed to shift, almost as if a layer of mist covers their faces, a drifting image.

I almost wanted to test the cultivator’s theory out and try to hit one of them, but I got the feeling that my punch would miss somehow, and I’m not sure if I want to call the attention of whatever is responsible for such effect.

And yet how can this all be fake? I did not feel my stomach empty, nor my hand would traverse the wood that holds the ceilings in place, but I cannot deny the oddity of the habitation, some sort of... sensation that raises the hair of my arms and makes me listen for something, even though the streets are full of distractions that could easily cover an attacker.

That makes me raise my guard up even more, to the point of making me sweat, so I decide to walk away from the bustling streets and only stop once the sensation of having faceless creatures stare at me fades, only when I find myself surrounded by silence and eerie empty cobblestone paths, with only the company of the moon and the whispering wind at my side.

Only then I’m finally able to breathe at ease, not even noticing just how on edge I’ve been thus far, on how surrounded I felt among those... those creatures.

It can’t be real, and yet I knew it to be, but how can I accept that all that I saw just yesterday had been the work of ghosts? It is still very odd to me, and I regret not asking that cultivator more about it, but still I cannot have that little devil dying on me like this, not before at least repaying my debt to him.

He had to hold on until then at least ...

Although, even if I did not admit it, I was truly worried about him and did not want to lose anyone anymore, even if someone I just met.

Is a selfish desire that I’m sure is bound to get me into trouble but I cannot help it, if I can at least avoid feeling so impotent and weak as I have before, in a situation I could do nothing about, so that’s just fine by me.

At the company of the soft murmuring wind, however, with nothing much to bring my eyes upon, something out of place catches my attention immediately, and even though it takes me a few seconds to recognize it I still do, approaching it to confirm my suspicions.

For, on the side of the road, resting closed against the wall, is the umbrella the little devil brought me the day before, no mistaking its unique blue color, especially when I focus further and find a tiger plushy sitting on his side, the same one the little devil had won yesterday and present me with.

What are they doing here? Does it mean the little devil passed over here? But where is him now? I think while I reach out for the umbrella and take it in my hands, only to see something red falling off from it.

Hm...? What is that? I reach out to take it, and a fragile flower fills my vision with its beauty, its red strange petal having a thicker smaller center as long and thin petals grow behind and stretch out around the center like spider legs, giving it a strange unique fragile beauty.

Only that, once I stand from picking it up from the ground, and my eyes go up as I stop staring at it, I find myself standing in a misty field filled with these flowers, their red color outshining any other as the world almost seems grey in face of such vivid crimson.

I feel dizzy with the view, frowning at the hills of red outstretching in front of me.

How could this be possible? Where am I now? Is this part of the ghost city? Where are its walls?

I have a bad feeling about this...

And yet, left with no place to go, no outlines in the distance, and a mere path open in between the flowers, I find myself unable to do anything beyond following the road, and as my feet hit the ground I’m left to wonder just how much of all of this is real, is the town, its people, this flower field, all fabricated by this Ying miasma the cultivator talked about? Or perhaps...

I stop, the sweet smell of the flowers obscuring any odors as my somewhat blurry vision sees something in the distance, and towards this never ending flower dunes that is enough to prompt me forward with renewed vigor, making so that that outlined shadow grows bigger and bigger the closer I get to it.

Until I’m finally close enough to truly see it.