novelraw Chapter 264: Her Name is Enni
Chapter 264: Her Name is Enni
The Fallen Leaves Plains. Night had fallen over Khimfast, blanketing the city in silence.
But it was not lifeless.
Like scattered stars, the lights of the city twinkled across the plains, their glow reflecting against the low-hanging clouds.
In a way, the Night Calamity had made the nights more vibrant than before.
On the outskirts of the city, a carriage pulled to a stop before a large estate. The faint, warm light of an oil lamp seeped through a gap in the curtains.
Rain slicked the horse’s mane and back, and plumes of steam puffed from its nostrils with every breath.
The air was frigid, likely no more than ten degrees Celsius.
Holding an umbrella against the downpour, Lu Li stepped out of the carriage. The ghostly figure of Anna drifted out behind him, and they approached the gate together.
Lu Li touched the cold, wet ironwork. The gate groaned with a metallic scrape but didn't budge.
It was locked.Before Lu Li could do anything else, a noise came from the Night's Watch guardhouse. The door creaked open, casting a long sliver of light across the wet ground.
Anna’s form dissolved behind Lu Li, and the rain passed through the space where she had been standing, unimpeded.
An old watchman, a heavy coat thrown over his shoulders and an oil lamp in his hand, walked toward the gate.
He raised the lamp, illuminating Lu Li’s face.
“It’s the investigator from this afternoon...” The guard recognized the memorable face, the dark hair and eyes. “What brings you to the Academy?”
“I need to check on something,” Lu Li replied.
The watchman knew he was an acquaintance of the estate’s owner, but he still asked, a note of unease in his voice, “You want to go into the Academy?”
“Just the manor grounds.”
The guard relaxed. “Alright, then. Wait just a moment.”
He returned to the guardhouse and came back with a large ring of copper keys. He unlocked the gate and swung one of the heavy doors open.
Lu Li and the invisible Anna passed through, heading toward the elm tree where, according to Anna, a family treasure was hidden.
“Don’t follow too closely,” Lu Li said to the watchman, who seemed ready to trail after them.
The old man hesitated, then stopped at the gate, watching as the dark figure, barely visible with his single lamp, walked down the path.
Once they were a safe distance away, Anna became visible again.
She moved quickly, and Lu Li picked up his pace to keep up. Soon, they reached the withered elm.
The refilled hole was just as they had left it that afternoon.
“Her name is Enni. Mother said I was the one who named her,” Anna murmured, stepping up to the elm and pressing her forehead against the thick, neck-like trunk, just as she had done before.
She closed her eyes, trying to feel the tree’s consciousness. It was a foolish hope, perhaps, but what felt even more foolish was that Anna couldn't sense the slightest hint of awareness.
“Maybe I just imagined it...” Anna muttered, pulling away from the cold trunk.
“You didn’t,” Lu Li’s voice came from behind her.
“You told me I never dream,” Anna frowned, her lips pursed, “but I really don’t feel any breath, any consciousness.”
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” Lu Li removed his hand from his Spirit Gun and closed the flap of his holster.
“Perhaps it’s just too weak to communicate with you directly.”
“You just...” Anna glanced at Lu Li’s hand.
“Yes.”
“Did you feel her... Enni...?”
“I believe so.” Lu Li had indeed felt a faint, almost imperceptible presence within the elm. If the first rose hadn’t bloomed on his pistol, he would have missed it completely.
This newborn presence held no malice, but it radiated the same unsettling aura as everything else around them.
That meant nothing. Whenever Lu Li held his Spirit Gun, he felt the same disquieting presence from Anna—sinister and powerful... just as he had from Michelle.
“She called me sister...” Anna whispered, looking up at Lu Li. In the lamplight, her eyes seemed to shimmer like stars. “Can we take her back to the agency?”
“A tree is difficult to transport,” Lu Li’s voice was as cold as the air around them.
Anna’s eyes dimmed.
But then he added, “Tomorrow, I’ll find out how to move a tree.”
Anna’s head shot up with delight. She suddenly threw her arms around Lu Li’s neck, her laughter ringing out, bright and clear, just like it used to.
Far away in the guardhouse, the watchman looked with confusion at the figures several dozen meters away and muttered, “Did I just hear a girl laugh...?”
Anna let go of Lu Li. The dim light hid the blush on her cheeks. She quickly changed the subject. “Why does the tree... why does Enni have a consciousness?”
“What do the unexplored territories of the world look like?” Lu Li asked instead of answering.
Anna thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.”
Anna was taken aback for a second before she understood that Lu Li had, in his own way, answered her question. She covered her face with her hands, embarrassed.
That was just like him.
When she thought about it, if characters from books could step into reality and send letters, a tree suddenly gaining consciousness didn’t seem so impossible.
After all, as a child, Anna had often sat under this very elm, talking to it as if it were her sister.
“So when are we taking her?” Anna asked hopefully.
“The sooner, the better, but we can’t do it ourselves.”
Moving a tree a hundred and fifty miles would require professionals.
But Lu Li didn’t want to leave the elm here. He couldn’t tell if the consciousness had appeared before or after Anna had gotten close to it.
The presence was so faint it felt as though the slightest gust of wind could extinguish it, letting it dissolve into the rainy night.
“By the way, if we take Enni, where will we put her?” The detective agency had no room for a tree that was five or six meters tall.
“That won’t be a problem,” Lu Li answered.
“Don’t forget, there’s an elm grove right next to our shelter.”
Anna looked like she wanted to say something more to the elm, but she was past the age of talking to inanimate objects—especially with Lu Li standing right there.
The flustered Anna and a patient Lu Li lingered by the tree for a few more minutes. Lu Li left one lamp at the base of the trunk, took another that Anna had brought from the carriage, said goodbye to the watchman, and climbed back inside.
“I hope nothing happens.”
...
“The winner is—Iron Fist Henry!”
From an underground fighting club, the muffled sounds of cheering, roars of excitement, and curses drifted up to the street.
For a moment, the sounds grew clearer, then faded again.
A young man emerged, climbing the stairs. On this cold, rainy night, he wore nothing but a thin tank top. Under the glow of a streetlamp, steam rose from his body.
He turned down a side street, walked a few meters, and suddenly heard a cry for help from a dark alley. A bloodied face flashed in the lamplight before being violently dragged back into the shadows.
“Hold on, miss! I’ll take care of those scoundrels!” The young man hesitated for only a second before charging resolutely into the darkness.
But as soon as he disappeared into the alley, all sounds were cut off abruptly.
This time, not a single sound emerged from the alley.
Only a wet, chomping sound.