Sure enough, the cycle repeats itself... Lumian wasn't surprised at all to hear Aurore's answer.
So far, this is the third cycle he can remember. Combining his own experience with the mysterious lady's advice, he has a preliminary summary:
“The time limit of the cycle is until Twelfth Night;
“The spatial limit of the loop is the village of Koldu and the surrounding area;
"The character restriction in the cycle is that you cannot kill the parish priest.
“These are the three key points of the cycle…”
Thinking of this, Lumian looked at Aurore and asked thoughtfully:
"Sis, if you were to write a novel about a time loop, where would you put the key to undoing the loop?"
“You suddenly asked such a question, and you called me sister so sweetly…” Aurore looked Lumian up and down in confusion. “Have you come up with a new story to tell?”
“I guess so.” Lumian answered sincerely.
Aurore frowned slightly, thought for a while and said:
“From the perspective of a novelist, or from the perspective of normal logic, the most critical part of the cycle must be the last scene, because it is both the end of this cycle and the wedge of the next cycle. It is the button that connects the end and the beginning. Without it, it is impossible to turn the straight-flowing time into a closed circle.
"Think about it, if you trace back the cycle, there will always be a first time. Something must have happened at the last moment that caused time to restart."
Twelfth Night? Lumian agreed with his sister's speculation, nodded, and asked:
"Then why can't the most critical part be the first day of the cycle? You have to ask why the cycle starts from this point in time, right?"
Aurore smiled and said:
“You are good at making up a short story to fool a few people temporarily, but you are not good at this kind of content that requires strict logic and rich knowledge.
"The reason why the first day of the cycle is the first day may be that the force, or energy, that causes the cycle can only cover this day if we trace back from the last day. It's like the probability that the cycle is not the whole world, but a certain place. It's not that we don't want to, but that we can't do it."
Lumian had actually thought of this, he just felt that his knowledgeable and experienced sister should be able to come up with a different answer.
Aurore thought for a moment and added:
"If the loop is not a completely closed circle, and there is interaction between the outside and inside of the loop, for example, information inside can be transmitted, and people outside can come in but cannot leave, then the first day of the loop may be counted from the day when the outsider happens to enter, so that they don't have a 'place' when the loop repeats. Of course, you can also force the outsider to do things that they will do later from the first day when they originally did not take any action. There are too many ways to make up a similar story."
Lumian's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he wanted to praise his sister loudly.
He suspected that the entry of Leah, Ryan, and Valentine caused the cycle to begin in the afternoon of March 29th.
If that were the case, the Twelfth Night might have become the Tenth Night or the Ninth Night. Of course, it might have originally been the Thirteenth Night, but because of the "intrusion" of outsiders, it became the Twelfth Night.
These are all possible things, and Lumian needs to verify them himself.
He completely agreed with his sister's reasoning and believed that something must have happened on "Twelfth Night" to cause the loop. Only by figuring out what happened at that time could he find the key to breaking the loop.
Therefore, Lumian decided to try not to trigger any abnormalities in this cycle, and found an excuse not to join the blessing parade on Lent, and stayed "peacefully" until the Twelfth Night.
But he couldn't do nothing, time didn't allow it.
Unless Lumian breaks the cycle after experiencing Twelfth Night this time, he will have to race against time when the next cycle comes.
A complete cycle lasts for twelve days. After this cycle is over, the probability that the outside world will discover that there is something abnormal in Cordu Village will increase sharply. The maximum time left for Lumian to solve the problem is one complete cycle, or even less.
In order to stop the anomaly in one cycle, he must have enough intelligence and a full understanding of the information of the entire village.
We have to investigate the problem without triggering an anomaly... Lumian couldn't help but laugh at himself in his heart:
What's the difference between this and a clown walking a tightrope on the edge of a cliff
It's not a good thing to have both.
Aurore saw that he hadn't spoken for several seconds and seemed to be making up a story, so she waved her hand and said:
“I almost forgot to make dinner!”
"Wait a moment." Lumian looked at Auror with a serious and solemn expression.
Aurore immediately uttered a "tsk".
"I smell mischief."
Lumian said bluntly:
"Aurore, uh, sister, we have actually fallen into a cycle."
"Oh, you just learned it and you're using it on me, your sister?" Aurore was both angry and amused.
Sometimes, people still need a little credibility... Lumian sighed silently and said with a smile:
"Can you at least listen to this story I made up first
"How about giving me a score?"
Aurore looked out the window at the still bright sky:
"also."
Lumian started by talking about how he met Leah and other outsiders, and outlined how he stayed awake in his dreams, entered a unique ruin, and gained extraordinary characteristics by hunting monsters, becoming a "hunter."
He did not hide the circle of thorns that locked his chest, because it might be the key to the time loop—he saw the same symbol in the curate, and killing the curate caused time to restart early.
Aurore was smiling at first, thinking that her brother's story was very creative, but as she listened, her expression became serious, because a lot of the knowledge was not something Lumian should be able to understand.
When Lumian said that he had become a Beyonder, she finally took action, raised her right hand, and pinched both temples.
Her light blue eyes suddenly became deep, but no figure was reflected.
She looked at Lumian for a while, nodded slightly and said:
"Your etheric body has undergone tremendous changes, and your life energy and physical state are much better than those of ordinary people.
"The astral body has undergone some changes but not much...
"As expected, this 'Hunter' is better at melee combat than spellcasting...
"I can't see the symbol and the related changes, and I don't dare to look deeper..."
At this point, Aurore puffed her lips and asked back with some confusion:
"You didn't deliberately make up such an outrageous story just to make me accept you as a Beyonder, did you?"
This is typical Lumian style.
Lumian didn't explain and went straight to talking about the occult knowledge that the lady had instilled in him.
Of course, he simply mentioned the name without giving any specific explanation.
This is not because he is very moral and principled, as he did not even tell his sister without the lady's permission, but because the other party is obviously very powerful. If he really leaked the precious knowledge and angered her, the time loop might be resolved, but the person would definitely be gone.
"The law of immortality... the law of aggregation... the law of acting..." Aurore was completely stunned.
My illiterate brother in the field of mysticism actually possessed this invaluable knowledge!
It has been more than five years since she became a Beyonder. At first, she relied on the diary of Emperor Roselle, and later joined that organization. In addition, her own path had the common symbols of the field of mysticism, and she was chased by knowledge from time to time. Only then did she master the "Acting Method", "Law of the Immortality of Beyonder Characteristics", and "Law of Conservation of Beyonder Characteristics", the three cornerstones of building the Beyonder world. Therefore, she regarded herself as an Beyonder with little experience but sufficient knowledge, which was far ahead of most of her peers.
And now, my brother who had never been exposed to the mysticism could actually talk about these things, and there was also the "Law of Aggregation of Extraordinary Characteristics" that I didn't know about!
This ruled out the possibility that Lumian had peeked at her witchcraft notes.
As a Beyonder of the Mysterious Peeper path, Aurore suppressed her desire to know the specific content of the Law of Aggregation while looking at her brother, and asked with confusion, surprise, and worry:
"What on earth did you give to have that lady teach you this?"
Potions recipes are given away for free!
She looked at Lumian again, from top to bottom, from bottom to top, trying to find out what was missing from him.
“Nothing.” Lumian laughed at himself. “That’s what makes it scary. I don’t know what price I’ll pay for this in the future. Well, I suspect it has something to do with the symbol on my chest and the ruins of the dream. The lady probably wants me to unlock the corresponding secret.”
Aurore said, “Hmm.”
"You continue."
She waited for the "story" to come with a very serious attitude.
Lumian talked about the owl, the incident on Lent, the experiences of the siblings in the second cycle, and how the cycle restarted as soon as the two tried Cordu Village.
Aurore listened carefully and said to herself in disbelief:
"Either I was hypnotized by you and told you everything, or time really is looping..."
She began to believe Lumian because she had chosen the name of the "Integrity Brooch" herself and it was not recorded anywhere. Unless she told her brother in person, Lumian would not have known it, and she had no impression of it at all.
Lumian strikes while the iron is hot:
"I can also predict that the three strangers will appear in the old tavern tonight, that the parish priest is having an affair with Mrs. Puaris tonight, and that the shepherd Pierre Berry has returned to the village, and that there are problems with the three sheep he brought..."
Aurore became more and more solemn as she listened, and after a while she said:
“Those three outsiders entered the village in the afternoon, but you and I were practicing fighting skills and resting afterwards, and we didn’t go out at all.
"Well, in the afternoon fighting class, you were still an ordinary person..."
She accepted Lumian's claim that time was cyclical.
If it were anyone else, Lumian would have smiled and said, "I believe it! I believe it! You actually believed such an outrageous story?", but when it came to Aurore, he was still very restrained.
He then proposed:
"I'm going to go around the village now to see if I can gather more information."
Aurore nodded.
"I would also use my 'eyes' to look around, but this is very limited and very dangerous, and I'm not sure what will be gained."
Lumian waved his hand to show that he understood, and walked out the door.
After walking a few steps, he looked back at Auror standing in the kitchen. He immediately thought of the scene of her pushing him to a safe place among countless undead souls, and inexplicably felt the pain of separation.
He asked subconsciously:
"Sister, why did you adopt me?"
Aurore replied unhappily:
“I don’t want to either!
"I just wanted to give you some food, but you kept following me. I couldn't get rid of you, and you helped me do this and that. I was soft-hearted for a moment and... Who knew you would grow up to be like this!
"Do you know how hard it was for me, a young girl, to raise a child like you?"
After hearing Aurore's answer, Lumian wanted to say thank you and praise his sister, but the words got stuck at his lips, as if they were rushing to his eyes and nose.
He turned and walked towards the village.