Chapter 1189: Beltira's Suspicion

The latest website: Ms. Bertila, the former dark female headmaster, has become more and more weird in her personality after becoming a plant. Bard has been used to it for the past two years, thinking that everyone living on this land in the past With the earth-shaking upheavals we have faced in the past two years, these small changes seem insignificant—everything in this world has been changing rapidly since the legendary hero who came out of the epic story was unmasked. There are no exceptions.

Bertila just happened to be the one that changed the most.

"Should there be a sense of ritual in life..." He smiled lightly, and his mood had completely relaxed at some point, "It is indeed like what she would say recently... Well, I get it, I will go to her as soon as possible of."

General Margarita nodded, but before she turned to leave, she kindly reminded: "Mr. Bud—wipe your eyes first."

"Eyes..." Bud was stunned for a moment, and finally reacted belatedly. He smiled a little embarrassedly, and wiped the cold water marks on his face with the back of his hand, "Thank you, General."

...

Through the luxuriant branches on the edge of the canopy area, through the "curtain" and "green wall" formed by layers of broad leaves, you can directly pass through the pipes extending in all directions in the canopy without going through the connecting passage outside the giant tree The system reached various facilities inside this behemoth - Bud sat in a translucent "container" that looked like some kind of pod, and walked along the semi-open wooden track to Bertila's biochemical laboratory. The probe looked out of the track, and at this moment the container happened to pass through an open section inside the canopy, so some scenes that only those with special access rights could see rushed towards him and appeared in front of his eyes.

He saw continuous ellipsoidal spaces supported by an astonishingly large-scale wooden "skeleton". Although those skeletons were made of wood, they were tougher than steel; they were also covered with strengthened twigs and leaves with metallic luster. Between the wooden beams, domes and ramparts were formed; glowing vines and huge, chandelier-like fruits dangled from the domes, making these "caves in the canopy" brightly lit, not at all like being covered by trees several meters thick. A closed space wrapped by 100 meters of wood and leaves.

And inside these spaces one after another, there are a large number of neatly arranged pods fixed on the barriers of the wooden structure, and the fiber ducts and nerve structures extend from the pods, on the flat and firm ground of the leaves with metallic luster. These pools are connected to "ponds" on the ground, which are covered with a tough transparent shell, and the biomass solution inside is slowly rippling.

Those "water pools" are cross-type biomass splitting pools designed by Bertila himself, responsible for providing nutrients for the biochemical factories here, and thousands of various embryos or biological substrates are sleeping in those pods , most of them are experimental projects of the Imperial Druid Association,

Others are orders from other domestic institutions, including the unit matrix of artificial nerve cords, general-purpose servo brains, and plasma samples.

With the establishment of the alliance today, the connection between countries has become closer and closer, and some orders from abroad have been assigned to the biochemical factory inside the Sorin Giant Tree, but the number of these orders is still very small, and most of them are in the "protocell" Adjustment" stage, will not be sent to these "evolution warehouses".

The tubular track passed over the upper floor of this space, and the personnel transport container was flying briskly on the tube. Bud saw several other tubular tracks extending from the direction of other cabins, and there were also containers running at different speeds inside. The colleagues in the department noticed this side in the container, and raised their hands to greet him - as soon as Bud responded, the containers were quickly transported to other places.

"Still working overtime at night..." Bud shook his head and said sympathetically, and in the corner of his eye, a section of pipeline that had just been formed and was still in the adjustment stage was slowly moving on the dome of the cabin, trying to communicate with the cabin. A traffic interface on the opposite side was connected, and a huge warning message was projected above a Magic Net terminal hanging nearby: The traffic tube is growing here, please do not use it.

In the Solin area, many people know that this giant tree that covers the plain has an extremely large and complex internal structure, with countless factories, laboratories, living quarters and other various cabins hidden in her trunk and branches , even hidden in the depths of her roots, and these structures are changing every day, dividing, growing, and perfecting into more incredible appearances, but almost no one can accurately and completely figure out the internal structure of the Sorin giant tree, nor Know what her blueprint for the next stage of growth looks like.

Even in the entire empire, there are very few people who can know these secrets. This should include General Margarita, the supreme officer here, Pittman, the president of the Imperial Druid Association, several grand consuls, and the highest officials of the empire. The head of state—but the person who knows the most first-hand situation is undoubtedly the "person" of this giant tree, that Ms. Bertila.

Bud was relaxed, and some thoughts were divergently turning various thoughts. The outside light dimmed, and the pod container was running into a closed "tunnel". The light inside the container automatically turned on after a slight delay. The light emitted by the luminescent cells illuminated his slightly smiling face, and after a while, the outside of the pod became bright again. The "window" formed, saw that he had arrived at a brightly lit interior space—Ms. Bertila's laboratory had arrived.

The pod opened silently, and Bud got out of it, and walked towards the depths of the laboratory with ease. After passing through a "leaf door", he saw the owner of the laboratory—Ms. Beside a round table not far away, the roots and vines under her feet spread out in a relaxed posture, and a set of exquisite tea sets was placed on the round table in front of her. The hot air was lingering, and the fragrance of tea floated into Bud's nostrils.

Bertila looked at the liquid in the teacup very seriously, and probably had been looking at it for a long time before Bud arrived, then she nodded slightly, as if affirming the fragrance of the tea, then reached out to pick up the teacup, Seriously pouring water on his head - this is exactly what Bud saw when he entered the house.

The former General Wolf was taken aback, and subconsciously blurted out: "Ms. Bertila?"

Bertila had already sensed Bard's breath, she turned her head unhurriedly, and nodded slightly to the visitor: "You came a little earlier than I expected - I heard that you have a letter from home, I thought you At least half an hour late because of this."

"Uh... I've received the letter from home... It's not important," Bud was stunned, and then pointed to the top of Bertila's head, "The key is what are you doing?"

"Can't you see?" Bertila gently shook the empty teacup in his hand, "I'm drinking tea."

Bud was dumbfounded: "On the head?"

"Mr. Bard, have you never watered flowers since you were a child?"

Bud: "...uh... I thought you could at least use your mouth... You see, at least from the outside, it would look more normal... Well, your logic is correct, at least from watering the plants Angle—but didn’t you say that life should have a sense of ritual?”

"The sense of ritual is just the decoration of life - if I live by the sense of ritual, I will lose my leaves due to malnutrition from tomorrow," Bertila said casually, then picked up the teapot and put it on the round table Filled the two teacups half full, and invited Bud, "Sit down and have a cup of tea first, this is what I just grew out of."

Bud was about to walk towards the round table, when he staggered suddenly and stared at the former dark headmistress dumbfounded: "Wait a minute, you grew this tea yourself?! You make tea with the leaves you grow?! "

Bertila seemed a little helpless at Bud's fuss, she shook her head, reached out to pick up her own cup of tea, this time she didn't pour it on her head, but directly soaked her fingers in the water, and the cup The liquid in the water was absorbed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and then she glanced at Bud, and said in a very natural tone: "The leaves fall back to the roots, and the fallen leaves in autumn return to the soil and become the nourishment for the trees in the coming year. I just give A pot of boiling water was added to this process—Mr. Bard, why are you making such a fuss?"

Bud sat down at the round table with a very strange expression. He had to admit that what the "Ms. Tree" said was really reasonable, at least logically he could not refute it, but this did not prevent him from looking at the The cup of tea (and the few young leaves floating in the tea) felt strange, but soon, he thought of the Solin tree fruit that was very popular in the Solin area and the local specialty candied fruit developed on this basis, The strangeness in my heart was quickly diluted calmly. He picked up the teacup and took a sip. The strange fragrance finally calmed his confused thoughts: "Thank you, the taste is very good, Ms. Bertila."

Bertila showed a slight smile: "Very well, it seems that the tea is very effective, and you have calmed down, so that we can talk about business."

Bud couldn't laugh or cry in his heart, and said that he didn't need any "calmness" at all without these damn teas. His thoughts were already very clear, but in front of Bertila, he didn't say these words after all, and only A slightly embarrassed smile: "What do you want from me today?"

"Some... old stories about the time of the Dark Order," Bertila took his fingers out of the teacup, watching the last remaining traces of water being quickly absorbed, with a low tone in his tone, "In Among the headmasters at that time, there was a pair of elf sisters... Do you still have any impression of them?"

"Rayna and Fierna?" Bud recalled quickly, "Of course, I remember them—they were responsible for many things in the eastern and central parts of Old Ansu. I have dealt with them a lot during regional activities. What's the matter? Why did you mention these two people suddenly?"

Bertila didn't answer directly, but asked casually: "Do you know where they went after the sect fell?"

"Well... I heard that they tried to win over Typhon, but failed and fled into the wasteland," Bard said uncertainly. "You should know more about this information than I do."

"Yes, they fled into the wasteland," Bertera nodded, "and there are clues that they may have colluded with the group of believers who are entrenched in the wasteland and are plotting to bury them in the old capital of Gondor." The power of the power——so, His Majesty has been investigating this matter, and learned a lot of information about the pair of elf twins from me..."

"I've heard about this too." Bud nodded.

"So, I would like to hear your 'impression' now," Bertila said, "With regards to Sisters Fierna, have you ever felt something... particularly unsuitable from them?"

"Particularly inconsistent?" Bud frowned, "This is really a broad question... In my opinion, there are many places where they violated, and even one of the upper echelons of the entire sect at that time was not a big deal." Normal, even I am not very normal—Ms. Bertila, you know that it was difficult to find rational and normal people in the end of all things at that time, and everyone has all kinds of eccentricities and habits, As for the elf twins... their way of speaking, their way of getting along with each other, their intertwined personalities and memories, these are all wrong, especially after reading some of the information disclosed by the Theocratic Council and knowing that they actually share the same soul... ...it just feels weirder."

"Well, it seems that my question is not specific enough," Bertila shook her head, "I mean, have you ever felt inhuman qualities from them? Whether it's the knowledge you have, or your words and deeds Is there a sense of inhumanity in the way of thinking revealed in the film, or in the perspective of the world, or in the power revealed occasionally?"

"Inhuman?" Bud froze for a moment, frowning slightly, "Although I want to say that they are 'inhuman' as elves, I guess that's not what you mean...Sorry, I still don't understand for a while. I really can’t remember. Back then, my highest status was the Wither Priest, one level lower than the Headmaster. When dealing with Sisters Fierna, I basically accepted their orders to do things, and I didn’t have many opportunities to observe them carefully... Then again, why did you ask me to find out about these things? I don't think I'm a very good..."

"Because in this land, you are the only surviving believer of the death of all things besides me," Bertila interrupted without waiting for the other party to finish speaking, "Of course, Pittman is also the same as the original believer." The regiment has some connections... but he is less suitable as a source of information than you."

Bud blinked, understood Bertila's helplessness, and at the same time thought deeply: "It sounds like you have investigated something recently? Or did you suddenly have some guesses?"

"I've been doing some... things recently, and I found some clues by coincidence. I began to suspect that the elf sisters had deceived everyone from the very beginning, from... the age of Gondor a thousand years ago."

Bud's eyes widened. He had already guessed from Bertera's attitude that the pair of elf twins might have problems in the era of the end of all things, but he never expected that this matter could be traced back, even all the way. Going back to the Gondor Empire a thousand years ago - obviously, this matter is more complicated than he imagined.

He looked at Bertila, without hiding the doubts in his expression, and the latter hesitated a little, then stood up from the round table: "Come with me, I will show you something, and you will understand the clues I found What is it?"