Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 211 - 66: Crying Vivian_1

Chapter 211: Chapter 66: Crying Vivian_1

(263...084...458... Book friends, if you want to join, just join the group. ps Friends passing by please favorite and recommend, your support is my biggest motivation. Besides, could you guys give some suggestions, thanks. ps2: The book title has been changed, please refer to the work information)

Pannis didn’t sleep at all.

Back in his tent, Pannis immediately ignited the Crystal Energy lamp, spread the map on the ground, covered it with a translucent sheet, and kept writing and drawing on it with a pen.

"Ratio, ratio." Pannis’s ruler and pen moved quickly in his grip, constantly measuring on the paper: "The ratio is ten to three point eight seven five, plus seven hundred years of sand accumulation, the ratio can be compressed to ten to three point nine six. But then... what’s that noise?"

Pannis’s pen suddenly stopped, he raised his brows and lifted his head. A faint moaning sound faintly reached his ears. If it weren’t for his senses far surpassing the average person, he wouldn’t have noticed it at all. It was a moaning full of painful endurance, the voice suppressed and low. Pannis hesitated a little. He attempted to stand up several times but sat down again. Yet, he couldn’t resist the urge and eventually exited the tent.

Outside the tent, by the campfire, Vivian was sitting in a crouch by the fire, hands holding her head, thumping her forehead repeatedly on her knees. Her whole body shook, and she intermittently emitted a suppressed painful moan. Hearing the noise of the tent opening, Vivian froze for a moment, swiftly straightened up and put her hands down, trying to appear as normal as possible. Although her movements were fast, Pannis still keenly noticed the large stick that she surreptitiously took out of her mouth, the stick was filled with deep bite marks, reflecting the intensity of each bite. Some of the bite marks were even stained with traces of blood.

"Why are you still awake, Pannis? Didn’t I tell you that I’d keep watch for the night?" Vivian turned and saw Pannis and asked with a smile. Though her face was wearing her usual smile, the pallor of her face and the lingering beads of cold sweat on her forehead proved that her disguise was nothing but self-deception.

Pannis did not expose her facade; he simply squinted a little, sat down next to Vivian, picked up the notebook that was beside her foot and said, "Checking your notes?"

"Yes," Vivian replied with a perfectly normal voice, pressing her forehead a bit, "Just collating some new knowledge from this adventure."

"Oh?" Pannis asked curiously, "Where are you up to?"

"Mountain Apes." Vivian replied, "That is the first key record."

"Haha," Pannis smiled, "Still interested in those non-Enlightened creatures?"

"Of course," Vivian rested her chin on her knees, seeming to lose herself in thought, "Just imagine, maybe tens of thousands of years from now, in the Fifth Era, all the intelligent creatures will have gone extinct, and Deities no longer walk among us. However, some creatures, like Mountain Apes, start to gain intelligence slowly. They learned about living, building houses, and farming. They would have cities and countries, and some would even become professionals. Perhaps one day, a few adventurers among the Mountain Apes would end up where we’re currently situated, and stumble upon some clues or tools left behind by us tens of thousands of years ago. By then, they must be quite perplexed, like, ’Wow, we’ve only existed for several thousand years, why are we finding tools made by intelligent creatures in ruins that are tens of thousands of years old?’ Ah, this is a good idea. Tomorrow, I’m going to bury some intricate metallic artifacts deep into the ground, just to play a joke on them in the future."

"I think your idea is really boring." As Pannis was flipping through the notes in his hand, he suddenly pointed at a blank space and asked, "Why is this part blank? It seems like it should be about the Mountain Ape Leader."

"I find it inconvenient to always refer to him as ’Mountain Ape Leader’." Vivian randomly glanced at the position Pannis pointed out and replied, "So I’m planning on giving him a name."

"What name?" Pannis asked.

"I haven’t really thought about it yet." Suddenly, Vivian’s eyes lit up,"now that you mentioned it, an idea just popped into my head. How about ’Darwin’?"

"What kind of name is that?" Pannis scoffed, "How did you come up with that?"

"I don’t know," Vivian shrugged randomly, "It just popped up."

"I don’t like it," Pannis said, " ’Louise’, ’Richard’, ’Wilberforce’, any of them sound better than ’Darwin’."

"I don’t care." Vivian clapped her hands, her face wearing a proud smile as she said confidently, "His name should be ’Darwin’, hehe, it’s my journal, I call the shots."

Pannis didn’t say anything more. And Vivian didn’t say anything either. An awkward silence fell over the campfire. The silence lasted a few minutes until Pannis suddenly sighed, and with his left hand on Vivian’s shoulder, he softly asked, "Your head hurts a lot, doesn’t it?"

Vivian stiffened again; in what seemed like a surrender, she nodded, "Very much. It hurts so bad I feel like chopping it off."

Pannis gently applied some pressure with his hand, causing Vivian to lean back, resting her head on his thigh. She allowed Pannis’s hands to move over her head. All the while, Pannis asked, "Why didn’t you say something? Have you forgotten that I can relieve the pain?"

"Relief is futile." Vivian gave a bitter smile, "I know the cause of my headache too well. It’s simply due to a lack of vitality. Unless that is addressed, the headaches will keep happening."

"Vitality deficiency?" Pannis appeared confused but chose not to question further. He noticed Vivian was suddenly breaking into a cold sweat. He knew that sweating profusely was a normal reaction when the tension in the body relieved after a high-stress period. Hence, he did not panic. He stoked the fire and continued the silent massage.

Vivian waited for a while but upon realizing that Pannis was not going to ask another question, she couldn’t help herself, "Aren’t you going to ask more?"

"I’ve already said that I am waiting for you to inform me voluntarily." Pannis lowered his head and gave a comforting smile, "That’s why I’m waiting."

Looking at Pannis’ smile, Vivian’s eyes welled up with tears and she bit her lip hard as tear drops rolled down her cheeks onto Pannis’ pants.

"Why, why, why! I can’t accept this." Vivian let the tears flow. Her fists pounded the ground. Her suppressed voice was hoarse, "I was a magic genius since childhood, blessed with talent and magic affinity that everyone envied. A demigod mage even prophesied that I would be the next human mage to advance to demigod. Then why, why did I, with limitless potential, end up like this? I can’t accept this. I was supposed to be remembered by everyone. I don’t want to lie unknown and alone in a corner, rotting away, being thoroughly forgotten by everyone. It’s terrifying. I can’t...I can’t...I can’t."

"You won’t," Pannis reassured her while massaging her pain away. His other hand gently wiped away her tears, "You won’t be forgotten, Vivian. You’ll get better, definitely."

"How could you possibly understand my pain when you know nothing about what I’m going through?" Vivian retorted with reddened eyes and a tinge of insanity in her face, managing to hold onto sanity only by whispering so as not to wake the girls sleeping in nearby tents. Whether the girls didn’t wake up or were pretending to be asleep to give Vivian a chance to vent, was a mystery.

"I agree, I don’t know." Pannis’ facial expression didn’t falter. His tone was soothing and calming enough to stabilize one’s mental state, "That’s why I’m waiting for you to tell me. Come on, share your pain with me."

"Phew." Reassured by Pannis’ voice, Vivian’s inner turmoil started to recede. She breathed a sigh of relief and her tone became calmer, "I am sorry. I shouldn’t have lost my temper."

Seeing Vivian recover her rationality, Pannis’ eyebrows furrowed deep in thought instead of expressing joy. He remained silent, lost in his own thoughts. Vivian chuckled, "Why aren’t you happy to see me back to normal?"

"You..." Pannis went silent for a moment and was about to say something but was interrupted by Vivian.

"There’s no need for explanation, Pannis." Vivian lay her head on Pannis’ leg with a pale smile, "I know you consider this a golden opportunity. In the midst of my emotional breakdown, penetrating my defenses and letting me vent my suppressed feelings and pain, this might seem like the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, it won’t work out."

"It won’t work, huh?" Pannis shook his head with a bitter laugh and a silent sigh.

"Exactly, it won’t work." Vivian closed her eyes and said softly, "Because I already know all that. Sure, I might appear no more than 11 or 12 years old, but I bear knowledge, for I am a genius. I have to stand out. Sadly, such knowledge makes these methodologies ineffective for me."

Pannis smiled awkwardly, silently carrying on with the massage. His years of experience had taught him that in such times, all he needed to do was to listen and not give any opinions. Vivian would continue her story in due course.

As expected, after another period of silence, Vivian opened her eyes. Her gaze was no longer naive or innocent; instead, it bore a depth of understanding, "You’ve won, Pannis. Your silence is a form of provocation. It’s just sad that I had no intention to fight, thus I’ve lost easily. It’s only fair for you to know the truth now."

"At home, I don’t do chores. Neither do my sisters have any grievances about it. Similarly, during camps, I refrain from any non-essential tasks. Again, none from the troop have complaints about that. Do you know why?"

"You taught me how to absorb crystal energy. But every time I do that, I end up bedridden for hours due to mana channel vibrations. Only after acclimatizing to the energy did this situation improve. Do you know why?"

"As evident from my feet, there’s barely any muscle, just skin over bones. It’s the same throughout my body. As you can see, you aren’t surprised. You probably figured it out. Do you know why that is?"

"When I sense other objects, I use my face to touch them. Again, you’re not surprised, you probably know. Do you know why?"

"My headaches are a result of vitality drainage. But do you know why there is a vitality drainage?"

"I can give you accurate readings of emotions around me - sadness, happiness, anger, anxiety. I can perceive them all clearly. Do you know why?"

"All these problems have a common underlying factor." Vivian stared blankly into the sky, with a detached tone, "From a very young age, I’ve been completely dependent on others, unable to move on my own. Forever and ever."