In the dim stairwell, Charles, staggering a little, rushed down with his crew, with anxiety on his face.
"Click!" The muzzle of a gun appeared from under the stairs, causing Charles to stop.
There was deep hostility in those men's eyes, as if they were going to pull the trigger if he took one more step forward.
Charles with vertical scars looked at himself at the top of the stairs and said sternly: "I don't care whether you are a derivative of 1344 or another Charles in a parallel time. This is my world. Please go back."
Charles, panting slightly, opened his hands to show that he had no intention of taking action. "I only want to ask you one question, and then I'll go back."
Charles held Lily in his hands and showed her to him. "Have you ever seen a mouse that can talk?!"
Charles with vertical scars slowly shook his head and said, "No."
"Very good. Odrit, give me the drawing paper you have." Charles took the pen and paper from the vampire.
Charles placed his pen on the drawing paper and paused for a moment, but then he looked at Lily on his shoulder and quickly started drawing on the wall next to him.
Dipper looked at the vertical scar below warily and Charles asked in a low voice: "Captain, if we want to paint, let's go back and paint. This place is very dangerous."
"Quiet!"
Charles, with a serious look on his face, quickly finished drawing, crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it down the stairs.
Charles with vertical scar opened the paper ball and showed a little surprise on his face. There was a simple sketch of a cute little girl inside.
"Have you seen this person when you were on the Coral Island?" Charles asked nervously.
After Charles looked at it carefully, he passed the paper to the other crew members beside him. Finally, James spoke. Due to his reduced intelligence, his words were very childish, but he could barely express his meaning.
"I have seen her. A man posted her picture in Monica's store. He said he was looking for his daughter, but later he stopped looking. Some people said his daughter fell into the sea."
Charles' pupils shrank slightly when he heard this. This was a key fragment. With this, everything fit together.
He held Lily in his hands, looked into her big eyes and said, "Do you want to go home?"
Lily looked up at him, "Of course I did. There was already a Lily in the house at that time."
Charles shook his head. "Actually, you are wrong. That is not your home. You are Lily in their world. Your home is over there."
Lily turned around woodenly and looked at Charles with a vertical scar at the bottom of the stairs, her voice trembling. "I... I am their Lily?"
Charles nodded firmly. This also explained why the Narwhal on the other side did not have Lily, because their Lily ran away to another world and became their own gunner.
The Lily who stayed on the coral island was the real one, and the mouse Lily came from another parallel world.
There was hesitation in Charles' eyes. He didn't know what the other party was doing or what those messed up words he was saying meant.
Lily clenched her paws tightly, and her face was full of hesitation. "Mr. Charles, then... what should I do?"
Charles exhaled slowly and looked at her calmly. "This is your business. I respect your choice. If you want to go home, just go with them. Your parents are waiting for you over there. You just need to go over there and you can go home."
As soon as the words came out, Charles felt a little envious.
Lily lowered her head with a look of struggle on her face. This matter was beyond her imagination and she didn't know what to do at this moment.
"Then...if I go back, can I still see Mr. Charles?" Lily asked.
Charles shook his head. "If you really come back, don't come over here. DE1344 is very dangerous. Try not to get close to it if you can."
"Mr. Charles, but I can't bear to leave you..." Lily hugged Charles' hand and began to cry.
"That's different..."
"Hey, what on earth are you doing?" Charles with scars on his face began to get impatient.
Charles placed Lily in the middle of the stairs in front of him and stepped back.
In the dim stairwell, two groups of people who look exactly the same are standing one above and one below, with a fluorescent green mouse standing in the middle. At this moment, this scene looks like an oil painting called "Choice".
Dozens of eyes were cast on Lily. This attention made her feel like her toes weighed a thousand pounds. When she chose either side, it meant she would lose the other side.
After a few seconds of depression, Lily finally moved her hind legs and ran to Charles with vertical scars with difficulty.
Seeing this scene, Charles felt a sense of loss inexplicably.
But this was Lily's own choice, and he didn't want to interfere with her choice because she was his companion and he should be happy that she could go home.
"Let's go." Charles turned around and walked towards the top of the stairs with the others.
"Captain, are you sure you didn't ask any questions before handing Lily over to them?" Dipper said worriedly.
"No problem, because that's me. I know myself. Maybe I won't trust another me, but I won't do anything to a little mouse. Since I will take Lily out of the third laboratory, the other me will also send her back to the coral island."
Scattered footsteps echoed in the corridor, and Charles and others returned to the eleventh floor again. They walked through the empty floor and returned to their own world.
Charles stood at the stairs and looked at the other side, and all kinds of memories of Lily's past flashed through his mind.
"My name is Lily, what's your name?"
"Mr. Charles, you are back. Come and try the new food I made?"
"Mr. Charles, where have you been for the past three years? I missed you so much."
"Mr. Charles, can I sleep with you today??"
Looking at the dark staircase in the distance, Charles sighed, "Let's go."
Their former companions left just like that, and everyone showed a trace of reluctance on their faces. In this depressing atmosphere, they silently walked out of the mountain, passed through the buildings on the island, and came to the Narwhal.
A large group of mice surrounded Charles, squeaking with obvious anxiety in their voices.
Just as Charles was thinking about how to explain it to them, his keen hearing suddenly picked up a sound. It was the sound of a mouse's paws running on the ground.
Charles turned around and saw a small fluorescent green creature quickly running up from the ground.
That's Lily, Lily with tears streaming down her face
The little mouse quickly ran to Charles' side, jumped into Charles' arms, and kept rubbing against him. "Wow, Mr. Charles, I can't bear to leave you! I really can't bear to leave you."
"Don't you miss mom and dad? Why did you come back?"
"Because I'm a mouse now, even if I go back, Mom and Dad will only be more sad. I... I plan to go back after I become a human." Lily gave a reason.
Charles held Lily in his palm, with a slightly raised corner of his mouth, and gently touched her head with his hand.
"Okay, then during this time, you will continue to be my gunner. The Narwhal needs you, and I need you too."
(End of this chapter)