novelraw Chapter 135: Karl’s Hometown
Chapter 135: Karl’s Hometown
Lin Jie and his two companions dragged their exhausted bodies out of the restaurant. Outside the window, the bone-chilling cold and darkness of the deep night rain had been pierced and dispelled by the golden dawn sunlight breaking through the clouds.
A new day had arrived.
Heidelberg in the early morning was peaceful and serene. Young students with backpacks walked across the ancient stone bridge on their way to class.
A veil of morning mist rose from the Neckar River.
Lin Jie stood alone at the entrance of the inn, taking deep breaths of the fresh air.
He felt his soul, which had been consumed by emptiness, was slowly being healed by the scent of this tangible vitality.
"Judging by your appearance," Julian's voice came from behind him, "it seems you've just concluded a 'war' that was even more mentally taxing than the battle in Paris?"
Lin Jie turned around and saw his companions. They too had reorganized themselves and regained their composure.
Lin Jie told them everything he had experienced in the past forty-eight hours without reservation, from the "corridor of no return" to the "counterfeit in the mirror," and finally the perilous "Last Supper."
"It is a monster that feeds on 'cognitive paradoxes,'" Lin Jie concluded. "It has no physical form and cannot be harmed by conventional weapons. The only way to kill it is with a 'truth' more solid and undeniable than the 'falsehood' it fabricates."At that moment, from a street corner in the distance, Professor Schmidt's familiar old-fashioned carriage was slowly approaching the inn where they stood.
"Good morning, gentlemen," Professor Schmidt said as he walked up to them. He gave Lin Jie a deep, meaningful look.
"Julian," he turned to his old friend, "I believe I owe you, and these gentlemen, a full confession."
The four of them did not return to the inn but instead boarded Professor Schmidt's carriage.
The carriage eventually stopped at the foot of the Philosopher's Walk.
They began climbing up the mountain path shrouded in thin mist.
"The reason I asked for your help, Julian," Professor Schmidt's voice was heavy, "was not just because of the mysterious deaths of those three students. It was also because, before those three, there was a first victim."
"His name was Max Stein. He was the most talented and my favorite among my students. He had an obsessive, almost genius-level understanding of Kant's concept of the 'thing-in-itself.' His entire life was an attempt to touch the essence of that 'unknowable' world with pure reason."
"And about half a year ago," the professor's voice became grief-stricken, "just like Schultz later, after going through a painful period of confusion regarding 'self-identity,' he finally locked himself in his dormitory and ended his young, once-promising life with a bottle of cyanide."
"Because his suicide hit me too hard, and because I felt there might be an ominous secret hidden behind it, I used my authority at the time to suppress the matter. To the outside world, I only claimed he had unfortunately passed away due to a sudden heart condition."
"I deceived you, Julian, and I deceived everyone." Professor Schmidt stopped walking and turned to face Lin Jie and the others. His wrinkled face was etched with guilt. "I am sorry."
"So this Max Stein..." Understanding flashed in Julian's eyes.
"Yes," Professor Schmidt nodded heavily.
He revealed the final secret he had been hiding.
"He wasn't just my student."
"He was also the only and last..."
"...distant grandnephew of the man you internally revere as the 'Cartographer,' Karl von Stein."
The weight of Professor Schmidt's final confession of grief and guilt pressed down upon the Philosopher's Walk in Heidelberg. Even the sunlight seemed to turn cold upon the unveiling of this past.
The name Karl von Stein, the "Cartographer" who had illuminated Lin Jie's dark early journey, had once again intersected unexpectedly with their current reality in a tragically fated way.
This was no coincidence. Lin Jie's brain, sensitive to logical chains, instantly sniffed out a deeper clue hidden behind this "Doppelgänger" incident.
Karl's grandnephew, Max Stein, was the first victim, and the subject of his research happened to be self-identity. Was there a direct connection between the birth or activation of this bizarre UMA that fed on cognitive paradoxes and the philosophical contemplation and self-doubt of Max's mental world?
Did Karl's own legendary and dangerous hunter career leave an unknown inner world mark on his only relative, thus making him the "egg" that attracted the "flies"?
A tangle of unknowns and suspense swirled in Lin Jie's heart.
"I am very sorry, Professor."
Julian broke the silence. He placed a hand on the shoulder of his old friend, who was trembling slightly with guilt, his eyes filled with understanding and sympathy.
"You did nothing wrong. When facing an enemy beyond our comprehension, choosing concealment and isolation is the helpless yet correct choice any responsible person in authority would make."
"But after our handling, the shadow has now dispersed," Julian's voice became gentle yet powerful. "And we may have the ability to help you, and to help the late Mr. Max Stein, uncover the most original truth of this tragedy."
Professor Schmidt looked up. A faint glimmer of hope rekindled in his bloodshot eyes.
He looked at these friends with unfathomable, almost supernatural abilities. "If you are willing, I can provide a location."
He took out a slightly yellowed, old map from his pocket and unfolded it.
"This is in southern Bavaria, right next to the Austrian Alps. In a valley isolated by mountains and dense Black Forest, there lies a small town."
He pointed a trembling finger at a name on the map.
"Oberammergau."
"This is not only the birthplace of Cartographer Mr. Karl, but also the hometown where his poor grandnephew Max grew up."
"Karl's ancestral home is still preserved there. Although it has long been empty, according to Max's will, that house and all the belongings inside are entrusted to me, his most trusted 'Mentor,' for safekeeping."
"I have never had the courage to touch the belongings that might stir painful memories," Professor Schmidt's voice carried sadness. "But now I think perhaps only professionals like you can find, from the traces left by Mr. Karl, the true root cause that led his equally genius and sensitive descendant down the path of self-destruction."
This clue was like a pillow delivered just as they were feeling sleepy.
Julian's heart, which beat for academic adventure, was already itching with excitement at the words "Karl's belongings."
William believed it was necessary for Lin Jie, who had just undergone immense mental strain, to leave Heidelberg, this place of sorrow, and recuperate in a scenic Bavarian town.
Lin Jie himself could not refuse. This was not only an opportunity to pursue Karl's clues, but also a task to understand the origin of the "Doppelgänger" UMA and fill a crucial gap in the Association's *Black Book* database.
Thus, the team's next destination was decided. They abandoned their plan to hunt the UMA codenamed "King of the Forest" deep in the heart of the "Black Forest." Instead, they decided to first accept Professor Schmidt's invitation and take a train deeper into the Bavarian mountains of the German Empire.
The journey from Heidelberg to Oberammergau was itself a visual feast traversing German history and natural scenery.
They first took a mainline steam train heading south. The scenery outside the window gradually transitioned from the classical hilly terrain of the university town to vast plains. Then, in Munich, they transferred to a local cogwheel railway that delved into the Alpine region.
The train's speed slowed, but the scenery outside the window became increasingly magnificent.
Towering Alpine peaks, their summits capped with pristine white snow, stood at the horizon.
The mountainsides were covered with vast stretches of dense, primeval coniferous forests.
Between the forests and snow-capped mountains were dotted crystal-clear alpine lakes. The lake surfaces reflected the blue sky and snowy peaks, beautiful as a fairyland.
As the train, with a long, echoing valley whistle, pulled into the terminal station hidden within the embrace of the mountains, Lin Jie felt as if he had traversed time and space, arriving in a fairy-tale world isolated from the noisy industrial civilization outside.
This was Oberammergau, an ancient Bavarian town famous throughout Europe for its exquisite woodcarving craftsmanship and its *Passion Play* performed once every ten years.
The entire town's architectural style was richly Southern German. Small houses with red-tiled roofs were scattered in an orderly yet picturesque manner along both banks of a clear stream flowing from the melted snow of the mountains.
The most striking feature here was not the ancient buildings themselves, but the enormous, vivid murals painted on the exterior walls of every house.
The subjects of the murals were wide-ranging. Some were religious stories from the *Bible*, like the "Last Supper" or the "Nativity of Christ."
Others were classic scenes from *Grimm's Fairy Tales*, like "Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf" or "The Witch in the Gingerbread House."
Some directly depicted the idyllic daily life scenes of the town's residents: a girl milking a cow, a craftsman carving wood, young men and women dancing to the sound of Alpine horns.
The entire town was like a giant open-air fairy-tale picture book, naive yet full of fantasy.
Everything here seemed peaceful, beautiful, pious, and artistic, as if evil could not take root here.
Yet, as Lin Jie immersed himself in this unique fairy-tale atmosphere, he also detected a hint of dissonance beneath this perfection.
He noticed that although the town's residents all wore simple, warm smiles on their faces, when their gazes fell upon Lin Jie and his companions—these "outsiders"—a subtle wariness and exclusion would flash deep within their smiles.
Lin Jie also noticed a bizarre detail. As dusk fell, the rhythm of the entire town changed abruptly.
The bustling streets of the daytime quickly became empty.
All shops closed their doors and windows early, and every household tightly shut their doors.
The cheerful, laughter-filled fairy-tale town fell into an unsettling dead silence in a short time.
When the four of them, led by Professor Schmidt, finally arrived at Karl's ancestral home on the edge of town, this feeling intensified.
It was a typical Bavarian-style two-story wooden house, looking older and more imposing than the other houses in the town center.
The exterior walls of the house were not painted with brightly colored fairy-tale murals. Instead, they were adorned with vivid scenes of forests and hunting, carved with exquisite woodcarving craftsmanship.
There were hunting dogs chasing wild boars, owls perched on pine branches, and some peculiar creatures that straddled the line between reality and fantasy.
This was the place where that "Cartographer" was born and raised.
"Everything inside is kept exactly as Mr. Karl left it."
Professor Schmidt used a key to open the door, which was decorated with fine wood carvings.
"Ever since he left the town back then and joined your organization, he never returned."
Inside the room was the faint scent of wood and a lingering sense of loneliness.
All the furniture was covered with white cloths to protect against dust.
The walls were hung with sketches and oil paintings from Karl's early years as practice. From these artworks, one could see his genius-level artistic talent and his obsessive love for nature and animals.
They decided to spend the night here and begin a thorough search of all the belongings starting tomorrow.
That night, lying in the second-floor bedroom that once belonged to Karl, Lin Jie couldn't sleep for a long time. He kept feeling that beneath the town's tranquility lay a great unease.
Around midnight, he was startled awake by a faint sound coming from downstairs.
He immediately rose silently, drew his revolver, and crept downstairs.
In the living room, under the cold moonlight streaming through the window, he saw a figure in pajamas standing motionless with its back to him, facing the wall covered with Karl's paintings.
It was Julian.
"What's wrong?"
Lin Jie asked in a low voice.
"Nothing."
Julian didn't turn around. He merely pointed at an inconspicuous sketch of a Black Forest landscape on the wall and said in a puzzled tone, "I just find it very strange."
"Look, Lin, Mr. Karl was such a great 'realist' painter. Every tree, every bird he painted has astonishing detail and realism."
"But only this painting..."
Lin Jie stepped closer. In the corner of that sketch depicting the dense Black Forest, Karl had drawn a bizarre and dissonant monster in a hasty, childlike scribble style. It was a patchwork creature with rabbit ears, a squirrel's tail, pheasant wings, and a pair of fierce-looking wild boar tusks.
Right next to this absurd monster, Karl had written a line in the same childish scrawl.
"It stole my toy."