The Secret Code of Monsters.

Chapter 379: Words of Thirst
"Do you remember how you got here?"

Abandoned churches are full of spider webs and snakes and ants.

A rotten long table, peeling wall paint, and an upside-down cross.

Only the shadow of the woman cast by the rose window was left, and the patio was overgrown with weeds.

Roland and the thief who had also strayed into the dream circled around the outside and returned to the starting point again - they couldn't get out.

They could no longer open that door.

"...I...I don't remember..." Rose rubbed her brows: "I seem, I seem...somewhere..."

She wasn't sure.

Some memories seem to be shrouded in the fog outside.

She could only recall a vague shadow.

"I was tracking those two unlucky guys, and then...?"

Can't remember, not sure.

She asked Roland if he had forgotten too.

"No. Later, you fell into a cesspool and came to me crying, asking me to get you some clothes to wear..."

Rose chased him and kicked him.

"Dreams have no beginning or end, idiot. You almost couldn't wake up."

"But I woke up."

"Because you met me."

Rose retorted: "That means I'm lucky enough. Luck is also a kind of strength. Besides, how do you know I can't wake up? Maybe if you don't come, I will find it after a while. My heart anchor is very obvious, and it will not be useless."

"Your way of making excuses is exactly the same as Beatrice's."

"The one who can't tell the difference between a knife and fork?"

"She often spills soup all over herself and then lies to Theresa that it was Randolph who did it - you look very much like her now."

Rose took a shortcut and grabbed Roland's hair, swinging it back and forth like a whip.

Dreams have no beginning or end.

They fell into an unknown dream.

When you fall asleep, first of all, ensure your own safety.

"But where is the danger?"

Rose considered herself a good student and knew what Roland had told her a long time ago - but she had never been so deep into a dream.

"Is it all true?"

The green-eyed girl was terrified for only a few minutes.

I was driven by curiosity to wander around.

Either pinch to death the spider that is daydreaming on the web, or kick the shaky bookcase with the toe of your shoe and dig out a book with a missing corner from the collapsed pile of wood.

"Look what this is?"

She shook the dusty hardcover book in her hand to take credit.

"Isn't it written there?" Roland glanced at the book cover and suddenly fixed his eyes with a serious expression: "'How to Teach Green Eyes to Escape This Dream' - the title is written there."

Rose: ...

"When I learn to read, you won't be able to mock me anymore."

"Then I can at least still ridicule you for fifty years."

“…I might not live that long.” The girl patted his calf, blew away the dust on the hard cover, and flipped through a few pages in a serious manner - although she could not read, every character on it was different from what she usually saw.

crooked.

As soft as a snake.

"Isn't the name 'The Annoying Englishman'?" She was so proud of herself that she wanted to get back on track, but she ended up getting herself into trouble as well.

To die together is in line with her character.

Roland took it, closed it, and patted the cover.

The title of the book was written on it in a language he could understand but had never learned.

"The Notes of Ryan Masters"

This is the name.

Ryan Masters.

Roland seemed to have heard of this author from somewhere...

'I saw the lake of blood.'

Written on the title page.

This book records what a traveler, a dream traveler, sees and hears.

Like weird riddles.

'It moistens the throat and relieves dry mouth and tongue.'

'When the cross is upside down, only the Stitchers who live in the tides of the blood lake can speak.'

For example, the plain and bloody records.

'I know how to sew it. It no longer troubles me. No need to invoke the Supreme Mother, no need to soak my ankles in blood, no need to split my tongue and castrate myself, all I need is a special language, a special knowledge acquired through a special language...'

"To those who come after me, I leave this immortal memory for you to see the truth."

At this point, writers no longer use common ink.

Crimson color.

The rest of the text is composed entirely of red.

blood.

'If you can learn the knowledge from this 'language of thirst', if you can learn to use it by simply looking at these ancient words, then I will tell you a secret.'

"Since we came to the same dream, I think you should believe in what I believe in."

'Let me tell you.'

'The Holy Cross is a lie.'

'The whole world is shrouded in this lie...'

There are also some practical anatomical techniques at the end, as well as how to evaluate which part of the human body is more palatable and what kind of seasonings to use to make what kind of food or dessert has what taste.

'Cross upside down, latecomer. ''There is no treasure worth seeking here. I have recorded the knowledge I have gained in this book, learn it. '

'One day, we will root out the hypocrisy from the earth.'

The text ends here.

"A certain kind of knowledge can only be expressed through a certain kind of silence."

The white flame flickered slowly.

Some knowledge gained from reading appeared in Roland's mind.

……

「Name」: Fucino (the language of thirst)
Type: Language
「Description」: The language mastered by the Stitchers.

They live by the now-vanished Blood Lake, learning this special language through every wave of blood.

By moistening the throat with blood, creatures can utter rare and complex syllables.

It is the basis for reading certain documents and the key to the secret places of a sect.

The Blood Lake and the Stitcher have long since disappeared into the long river of history.

But the thirst is everlasting.

……

"Pretty face?"

Rose gently woke up the young man who was staring at the serpentine characters.

"…Secret text, Rose." He threw the book aside. "This is a secret text, recording a dying language."

Rose muttered and picked up the book.

But found that the pages inside were 'melting'.

The name on the cover was blurred, and in a few breaths, the hardcover book turned into a handful of ashes, fell from her fingers, and mixed with the plaster on the floor.

Seeing Roland's expression that said, "I threw it right, didn't I?", she curled her lips and said, "So, you learned a language?"

"Special." Roland replied: "I can teach you."

He paused, and suddenly remembered something.

"You don't like words very much, do you?"

Is that what I don't like?

Rose glared at him. "You'd better come up with a solution, 'teacher'. Use your brain, not your mouth."

In fact, after falling into an unknown dream, if you are safe, you should stay where you are until you wake up - Fernandez has said this many times.

The most cautious approach, although it will not yield any results, is at least safe.

But Roland felt something was wrong this time.

——In Roland's memory, he and Rose were not together: the possibility of two ritualists who were not close to each other falling into the same dream at the same time was too small.

There must be something that sent them here with two "coordinates" pointing to the same location.

He doesn't remember.

"We can't just sit there and wait forever. If there's something that brought us together, it wouldn't just sit there and watch us gossip for two years..."

Roland stared at the narrow door at the end of the room.

It opened at an angle, and the road behind the door curved to the right, leading deeper into the church.

"…Maybe you're always right."

Rose suddenly tugged at his cloak, motioning him to turn around.

Their origins.

At this moment, the corridors were like a mess of blades, and each one seemed to be compressed into a red and sharp thin blade by some invisible force.

The space...or this dream was violently torn apart, and each sharp line pointed to a bottomless black abyss: they flowed inward like a waterfall, and kept splitting, more and more.

Slowly approaching the room.

Broken space, chaotic sleep world.

"Can you do it?"

The coiled snake on the wrist poked its head out, and two little red beans looked into the passage.

Then, nod.

'But, more, terrible.'

Meaning, she can devour dreams, but she can't take people out of dreams. Once she starts eating... they're in even bigger trouble.

Roland rubbed Candle's forehead with his fingertips, pulled down his sleeves, and blocked the snake head that was licking his wrist again: "...We should go, Rose."

"How about calling me Miss Emerald?"

"…What?"

"We are the Winged Ones, so we should have a resounding nickname, right? Should we tell strangers our real names?" The girl, who was not afraid of the danger behind her, became more and more excited and pulled Roland's arm, muttering:

"Look, the emerald stone matches the color of my eyes so well..."

Roland opened the narrow door and let Rose go first: "We are having a tea party, so we should start with a name related to afternoon tea...?"

"for example?"

"For example, pandan cakes... I think the maidenhair fern is also green?" The Collins family's herbal medicine shop taught Roland a lot of knowledge about plants.

If he were to talk about these things, he could talk about them for two whole nights without repeating himself.

With his arm entangled by the girl, the topic remained on the maidenhair fern.

"Rose?"

"Ok?"

"Which one do you like?"

Rose looked confused: "What do you like?"

"…names, we're not talking about—"

"No, Roland," Rose denied with a straight face, "We didn't discuss anything. In the dream, you and I should have been alert and vigilant to face unknown dangers."

Roland: ...

Shandel must have said something bad about me.

(End of this chapter)