The speed with which Xue Wei's expression switched from malice to one of amiability was simply too fast for his companions to follow.
Even the King had an expression of great confusion when she saw it, all five of her eyes widened and then she laughed, her laughter resounding in the surroundings.
The door into the small house opened slowly, creaking slightly as it did.A small, five-year-old-looking girl stood in the doorway, looking towards the four experts standing outside, with two wide eyes.
Her body seemed frail and thin, with the clothes that were draped over her tiny frame looking like rags that seemed as if they had never been changed or washed in a very long period of time.
“Who are you?” the little girl asked with an immature and cute voice that contained a childishness which made everyone's parental instincts flair up and want to protect her, but at the same time, there was exhaustion in her voice which did not seem to fit the age of the little child.
“We are just pa.s.sing guests,” Xue Wei said while flas.h.i.+ng a smile, slightly perplexed. Was this really an innocent little girl, or was she an old monster? He had no way of telling either way yet, so it left him in a confused state as to how exactly he should converse with her.
“This place never has guests,” the girl said suspiciously while leering at them with doubtful eyes, causing all of them to scratch their heads in embarra.s.sment.
“How long have you been here?” Xue Wei asked, inquisitively. The little girl paused while pouting her lips slightly as if in deep thought. “It has been many years,” she said with her immature and cute voice, “at least a couple of thousand.”
Hearing this, Xue Wei was instantly aware that this young child was, in fact, an old monster, and was likely to be very important to him and his future resolution of the mystery. But at the same time, he also realized that although this kid seemed to be an old monster, her mind seemed to be the same age as a child's.
Xue Wei squatted down so that his head was level to hers, and then he flashed his most genuine and friendly smile.
“What are you doing here all alone in this area?” he asked slowly, hoping to coax some information out of the mysterious girl. At first, he did not have much of a hope to get any information out of her, but the moment he looked at the child's face, he found that her face was flushed red with excitement and her eyes shone.
“Those old fogeys left me here,” she said with a bit of a whine, filled with a sense of having been wronged.
“Which old fogeys?” Xue Wei asked with a patient voice, as he was coaxing the child into telling him the things he wanted.
“Those old Elders from when the Academy was being built.” The girl adorably pouted her lips, “they used me, and abused my powers and then they left me here. It has been so boring over the years.”
“Has no one been here to visit you throughout all this time?” Xue Wei asked incredulously, he could not imagine that this little girl had been within the forbidden area for so long, neither could he imagine that the forbidden area had never been broken into before, considering how easy it was to gain access.
“No one enters the forbidden area,” the girl said with a sigh of disappointment. Her eyes were br.i.m.m.i.n.g with the onset of tears; it was clear that she had suffered over the years where she had been all alone.
“So does no one ever visit you?” Xue Wei asked again, to make absolutely sure that this child had been alone all along. The girl nodded her head.
“No one visits me anymore. At the beginning, the old Fogeys would come regularly, but then they died. Their descendants came a few times a year, but as time went by, they came less often, and eventually, they just left me to rot all alone.” Her voice, although immature, was somewhat fierce, and the words were much too severe for someone of her appearance.
Xue Wei could see that this girl had suffered a great deal, and he sighed deeply. “Do you want to leave the forbidden area with us?” he suddenly asked, not caring about the shocked expressions of his companions, nor their widened eyes and clear display of disapproval.
They knew nothing about this young girl apart from the fact that her mind and body was that of a child, and that her real age was however much older than all of them added together multiple times.
“Leave… leave here?” The kid's eyes suddenly turned wide open like bronze bells, her voice quivering with discomfort but also slight excitement and disbelief.
“Is that even possible?” she muttered, more to herself than to anyone else.
“I tried before,” she continued. “But the walls are so tall. I cannot climb them, I do not know how to get over them, and as a result, I am captured.”
“We can take you with us,” Xue Wei offered generously when he saw the excitement in the kid's face, his eyes warming up and his behavior becoming much more gentle. No one deserved to be held captive like this, not to mention she was likely a huge lead to solve his annoying mystery.
The girl hesitated,and her eyes darted back and forth from one of them to the other, apparently unsure of what to do and what to say.
Xue Wei did not rush her as he knew that this was a ma.s.sive decision. Even if she was basically trapped and locked in the forbidden area, it had now been so many years that it had most likely turned into her safe haven and a home. Leaving would open up a whole new world, but it would also bring with it frightening experiences and things she was unfamiliar with.
If she chose to stay in the forbidden area, Xue Wei would not pressure her to leave either; instead, he would come to visit her often to see what kind of information he could get from her, but it would make everything much easier should she decide to leave with them.
The girl was hesitant, but after looking at the genuinely friendly looking Xue Wei, her worries faded slightly. Although she was a monster who had lived for thousands of years, the truth was that she currently had the mentality of a child. Being treated with such friendliness after thousands of years of imprisonment, it was clear that she felt an instant connection to him.
The King, Lin Xiao, and Hei Gou were all looking at Xue Wei as if they saw the greatest con man alive. Before knocking on the door, his appearance had been utterly ferocious and bloodthirsty, yet now he seemed so gentle and kind. It was clear that he could change his mood at the drop of a hat, and that he was capable of playing tricks on a small child.
“Come inside first,” the girl said after contemplating for a bit. Xue Wei quickly accepted the invitation, and entered into the ruined house that belonged to the small girl.
The house was just one room. There was no kitchen, neither were there any signs of food or drinks, all there was was a table and chair alongside a bed.
She had no books, no papers, nothing at all was present within the tiny house, making Xue Wei frown.
“Little Girl, how have you spent your time all these years?” Xue Wei asked in confusion, “you do not seem to eat or drink, neither do you seem to read or write, there are no signs of you trying to master formations, alchemy or other professions either. Have you not been bored?”
The girl looked at Xue Wei with slightly depressed eyes as she sat down on the chair. “I sit here,” she said. “Then I look at the ceiling or look out at the skies. When it gets dark, I go to sleep and rest.
“Every day is the same. It is just a different weather, a different sleep. Nothing much happens.”
Xue Wei frowned when he heard this. To be able to live this long without food, obviously, this girl was much more powerful than he had expected, but she seemed so small, and at the same time he could feel no power coming from her body.
“Since your life is so bland, is it not better to go with big brother and see the world outside. We will take you to eat delicious food, you can play with us and our friends and experience a bustling environment?”
The girl was hesitant again. “I really want to,” she said, her voice displaying the longing she felt for the outside world. “But I am afraid,” she admitted.
“The outside world is not as simple as this prison. I am not used to having people around me, and I am not used to anything that has to do with other people. Will I embarra.s.s myself, will I hurt myself? I do not know. Here, I am safe; here, I have a home. Leaving here will be dangerous.”
Xue Wei pondered on her words for a moment, then he nodded his head. “I understand,” he said amiably, “but you have to keep in mind, if I were to take you away from here, then I would be your older brother.” Xue Wei continued, “as your older brother, I would protect you. If you go somewhere, I would go with you and protect you. My friends will also help me protect you so that no harm will ever befall you.
“Although you are strong, you might not be able to manage amongst other people yet, but as your older brother, I would never leave you alone with other people.”
The girl looked at Xue Wei with big watery eyes, she seemed like a small porcelain doll that could easily be broken, but at the same time, Xue Wei felt that she was much stronger than any of them. He felt that if she wished, then none of them would ever leave this place alive.
Still, he understood her insecurity. She was not willing to use her power to force people to submit to her, she wanted to be treated like a living being, but she just feared that she could not live a normal life after all those years of isolation.
Xue Wei could sense that she was being swayed by his persuasive words, and he reached out his hand, taking the kid's hand into his and started walking towards the wall.
“Look at this wall,” he said as he looked up at the wall in front of him, “it is holding you back, it is capturing you and not letting you go. Are you sure you wish for this to be the rest of your life? Locked in here all alone and never seeing another living being again?”
Hearing this, the girl's pupils constricted, her teeth began gnawing on her lower lip and her hands fidgeting as she tried to make a decision. She did not want to be alone again. After seeing these people that offered her something after so much nothing, was she really willing to go back to her life of staring at the sky? But could she really do it, could she really step out from the cage that had trapped her for thousands of years but had kept her safe?
“It all depends on you,” Xue Wei affirmed gently. “In the end, it is your life.” He was coaxing her with a friendly voice and words that the child could understand. “We will help you if you want to leave, we will protect you and look after you. We will be your family and your friends if you wish, but if you do not wish to leave this house, this prison of loneliness, then we will never force you to do so.”
Hearing this, the girl no longer had any hesitation in her mind. Knowing that they would be her family, all her doubts evaporated into the wind, and her eyes once more turned watery and misty. She had always wished for a family.
