The room was a little quiet for a while.
Zhou Ming didn't say anything because he felt it would be better not to say anything at this time - it would easily be embarrassing.
The Frost Queen didn't say anything either—she was still lying on the ground.
So the two silent "people" remained in a stalemate for a while. The Frost Queen continued to gnaw on the floor of the room, while Zhou Ming looked at the back of the Frost Queen's head. After the stalemate lasted for about half a minute, Zhou Ming finally felt that he had to say something - after all, it was not polite to stare at a lady gnawing on the floor.
So he bent down and broke the silence very carefully: "...Do I need you to get up?"
What reaches the ears is human language.
Lenora felt that the buzzing vibrations and overlapping noises that kept lingering in her mind suddenly "collapsed", and all the sounds turned into human words that could be understood without deliberately "listening". She reacted instantly and stood up from the floor.
Then his head hit Zhou Ming's chin - this time he didn't even have time to say "ouch" before he fell back to the same place.
Zhou Ming was so shocked by the sudden impact that he saw stars.
However, he reacted quickly, not caring about the Venus circling in front of him, and quickly reached out to support the "Queen" who had fallen down again. While helping the unfortunate lady up, he said awkwardly: "Sorry, I was standing in the wrong place... Are you okay?"
Lenora felt her head buzzing, but she was more awake than ever - she realized that her sanity had completely returned to her body, and an indescribable "cognition" had just been reorganized in her perception. She understood the layers of chaotic noises and saw another appearance of this "nest".
She saw the floor, tables, chairs, and other strange and unfamiliar furnishings - many of which looked like things used by mortals in their daily lives floating in an endless chaos filled with dim light. Deep in the chaos, there seemed to be an illusory structure like a wall, and all of these kept expanding and shrinking and wriggling in her field of vision, like mimicked phantoms.
All this made her feel as if there was an indescribable, non-human existence living here and imitating everything "human" in its nest.
She also saw the "entity" that was talking to her. It was still a maddening starlight, but the starlight had collapsed into the outline of a person. She could not see the facial features in the starlight, but she could see the other person supporting her arm with a "hand" and could hear a human voice coming from the starlight - a voice that revealed a friendly and amicable attitude.
"I... I'm fine," Lenoir hesitated. Even with the wisdom and calmness of the Frost Queen, she seemed a little dazed after a series of unexpected situations. While sorting out her thoughts, she tried to communicate with the "entity" in front of her that seemed to be imitating humans. "I'm sorry to disturb your peace. I'm just a little... curious, and then I was bound by this curiosity to your nest... 'palace'."
Zhou Ming frowned, always feeling that there was something strange when the Frost Queen spoke to him.
But he didn't think much about it, because he was just as confused as the other person. The stars in front of him were still floating. He could only wave his hand and said, "I'm glad you're okay. I didn't expect... You're the first 'human' to visit here."
Lei Nora paid close attention to the actions of the humanoid entity in front of her. Endless curiosity surged in her mind. At this moment, she finally couldn't help but raised her finger and pointed at the spherical object that had been floating near the other party's head (if the ball of starlight was really a head): "... What is this?"
Zhou Ming looked up and was silent for a while with a subtle expression. Finally, he tried to stretch out his hand, wanting to grab the small celestial body with a bright yellowish atmosphere that had just separated from his body. The moment his fingertips touched it, the small planet returned to his body silently.
"This is Venus," he said, trying to control his expression and tone, "a... star."
Lei Nora looked at this scene in amazement and couldn't help but sigh: "... Incredible."
"I find it incredible, too," Zhou Ming said sincerely, "Before you bumped into me, I never thought that... this would happen."
He lowered his head and looked at his hands. He saw that his arms were the same as usual, but when he tried to clench his fists tightly and concentrate on picturing a starry sky in his mind, faint starlight floated in his vision.
Change is accelerating again...
Lenora didn't understand what this "star entity" was doing. She was just surprised that the other party really had human-like intelligence, and surprised that she could actually communicate with such an incredible existence at the end of the world. After confirming the friendliness of this "entity", she gradually became bolder: "Have you... always lived here?"
Zhou Ming frowned, and he suddenly realized what he had been vaguely aware of, the subtle inconsistency in Lenora's words and attitude.
"You didn't recognize me?" He said to the "Frost Queen" with some surprise.
"Recognize you?" Lenoir was stunned when she heard this, and looked at the inhuman being in front of her in confusion, "Have we... ever met before?"
Zhou Ming was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized—yes, Lenora had indeed never seen him.
It was Duncan she had met.
So he opened his palms and summoned a flame in front of Lenora.
A faint green flame burst out from among the stars, and a connection between the flames was established instantly - the flame that Lenora had touched once resonated with the flame in front of her.
"Have you figured it out now?" The ball of starlight trembled and spoke in human language.
Lei Nora was stunned in place. It took her several seconds to wake up from the great shock. Then she stared at Zhou Ming in amazement: "You are... the captain?!"
"… That's a part of me," Zhou Ming thought for a moment and explained to the "Queen" according to his own understanding, "or one of its forms, a carrier."
He paused for a moment, then couldn't help but speak with emotion: "You are the first 'human' to see me here, and now you know the truth that is beyond anyone else."
Astonishing knowledge exploded in her mind, and Lenora once again felt the dizziness she had felt when she first saw the magnificent "light cocoon". It was the shock brought about by the reshaping of cognition and the revelation of truth!
But perhaps because she had already crossed the "crack", entered this "cocoon", and gone through the initial baptism, the dizziness this time lasted only a moment, and then she regained her normal thinking ability and quickly understood everything -
A chaotic existence at the end of the world, a constantly changing entity, a "spirit" that has inserted its "tentacles" into the real dimension. It has a myriad of interpretations, but it has only one source - this source is sleeping at the end of time, and now, she, a reckless traveler, has found this source.
"We haven't seen each other for a long time," Zhou Ming smiled. He knew that Lei Nora would be a little confused after learning the truth, but it seemed that she was confused for longer than he expected at the beginning, so he had to take the initiative to speak, "Don't stand, sit down and talk to me about what happened after you ran away, and how you found my "hut" and scribbled outside."
As he spoke, he walked towards the sofa.
"Don't mind the simplicity of this place. After the end of the world, the conditions here are limited. It is definitely not as good as your palace back then or your gorgeous bedroom now. Besides, there is nothing here to entertain you. But then again, you are a ghost now, so you don't need to eat, right?"
"Uh... No need."
Lei Nora said casually, and followed Zhou Ming to the sofa in a semi-dazed state. Her walking posture was shaky, as if she was walking on a constantly deforming floor, which aroused Zhou Ming's curiosity: "Are you dizzy?"
Leigh Nora couldn't help muttering in her heart: Everything here is floating in an ever-expanding chaos. It doesn't look like a place where people can stand. Of course, I'd feel dizzy if I walked on it.
But in front of this "Thousand-Faced Star", she couldn't say it directly, so she could only bite the bullet and nod: "A little, but it's not a big problem."
“…Oh, then you really need to sit down quickly.”
Zhou Ming said this with an awkward tone. He touched the tip of his nose, thinking that it was no wonder - after all, this "Her Majesty the Queen" had just hit her head on the floor twice in a row, and the one on the back of her head was also hit very hard... It seemed that the blows were not light.
But he didn't feel too guilty - he was even seeing stars from the impact.
After sitting on the sofa, Lenora did feel a little more at ease.
Although this "sofa" was also shrouded in a layer of dark and suspicious black fog, and its surface was glowing with "colors" that kept shifting like some living thing, but at least when she sat on it, she finally got rid of the dizziness and feeling of falling as if she was stepping on the surface of chaos.
Zhou Ming also sat down on the sofa next to him, looking at the Frost Queen whom he hadn't seen for a long time with curiosity: "Okay, now tell me about your story."
"... After I escaped from the place that bound me in the beginning, I have been wandering in the cracks of time and space," Lenoir nodded, sorted out her thoughts briefly, and began to talk about her experience after "running away from Alice's mansion in her bedroom." "It was a bizarre 'journey'. As I said just now, I even passed through the ripples of the subspace - my 'hut' was like a protective shell, carrying me to drift in the turbulent and broken rivers outside the real dimension...
"I have seen many incredible things on my journey, which I can share with you later, but I think what you care about most now is how I found this 'place'...
"To put it simply, I was swept here by a sudden 'turbulence'. After being trapped for a long time, what initially guided me to your 'palace' was actually... a lamp."
"... Light?!" Zhou Ming's eyes widened instantly.
"Yes, a lantern, floating in the mist," Lenore nodded seriously, "a ship's lantern."
(End of this chapter)