Chapter 427 - 426: The Door to the Hometown

Chapter 427: Chapter 426: The Door to the Hometown

Seraphina Sinclair’s pupils contracted slightly.

raised its head and looked at her. "Every generation of Traveling Merchant 001 looks very similar to the species participating in the game. Just like us." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

"I can feel it," it said. "The aura on you is the same as the one lingering on this drawing."

It held the paper out toward her.

"You can feel for yourself if you don’t believe me."

The moment Seraphina Sinclair took the paper, a familiar sensation began to emanate from it, an unending stream.

Seraphina Sinclair could feel it clearly. This wasn’t the arcane, mystical sensation from the Moonlight Jellyfish’s Blessing, but something unmistakably clear...

The feeling of home!

This home wasn’t the mobile cabin, nor any house in this world. It was the small house where she had lived with her grandma, the dorm room she slept in during her school days, and the rental apartment she lived in for a long time after starting work.

It was that place where someone was always waiting for her to return.

Seraphina Sinclair’s fingers tightened slightly.

Her grip creased the paper’s edge, but she didn’t even notice.

She just stood there, sensing the aura emanating from the paper.

Warm, familiar, like someone was gently calling her name in her ear. It was her grandma’s voice.

"April, time to eat."

"April, it’s cold. Make sure you bundle up."

"Oh, April, don’t work yourself too hard. Come back and rest a while."

April was her nickname, a name only her grandma ever called her.

Those voices she hadn’t thought of for so long now suddenly flooded her mind, so clear they seemed to echo in her ears.

Seraphina Sinclair’s breath hitched for a moment.

But it was only for a moment. She came to her senses, loosened her grip, and handed the paper back to 001.

"I understand what you’re saying now." Seraphina Sinclair’s voice was still calm.

took the paper, tucked it carefully against its chest, and then raised its head to look at her.

Its eyes held a mixture of anticipation and apprehension. Fearing refusal, they also held a trace of terror.

She was like a child, lost for a long time, who had finally found a possible way home, only to fear that the person she found wouldn’t take her along.

Seraphina Sinclair was silent for a long time.

just stood there, waiting motionlessly.

The cabin was so quiet that only the snores of the Gloom Hatchling could be heard.

Luna Jacobs stopped what she was doing and watched the scene. She suddenly felt that this Traveling Merchant 001 didn’t seem so high and mighty after all.

’She looks... just like a normal little girl. A little girl who’s afraid of being abandoned.’

After a long time, Seraphina Sinclair finally spoke.

"What’s your name?"

was taken aback for a moment.

"Wh-what?"

"Your name," Seraphina Sinclair repeated. "Your name isn’t really just 001, is it?"

lowered her head, silent for a moment.

Then she softly spoke a name. "I’m Mia Chaney."

Seraphina Sinclair’s brow twitched.

"Mia Chaney?"

nodded.

"My mother gave it to me." Her voice was very quiet. "She said that on the day I was born, there was a particularly bright star in the sky, but it was very, very far away, faint and indistinct. So she named me Mia."

Seraphina Sinclair fell silent for a few seconds as she took in the name.

Mia Chaney.

’A family name and a given name.’

’Not a number, not a designation, but a real person. Or rather, it was the kind of name only someone who was once human would possess.’

"Your mother," Seraphina Sinclair asked, "was she also a Traveling Merchant?"

shook her head.

"No." She lowered her head, her voice growing even quieter. "But what she did, what she looked like, what her name was... I don’t remember any of it."

Seraphina Sinclair finally realized that the 001 before her was, in fact, just a girl who couldn’t remember her mother’s face or her mother’s voice, only the name she had been given.

Seraphina Sinclair suddenly thought of her own grandma, remembering details she hadn’t thought about in a very long time.

Her grandma’s hands, those hands covered in calluses.

Her grandma’s smile—though she had plenty of wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, they would still curve into crescents when she smiled. And her grandma’s voice, always drawing out her name when she called her April, as if calling to a child who would never grow up.

Seraphina Sinclair remembered. She remembered every single thing.

’But 001 doesn’t.’

She didn’t know when she’d arrived in this world. She had passed 156 rounds all alone, and only now had she finally found a human.

"You’ve been a Traveling Merchant this whole time?"

nodded.

"My role is that of a Traveling Merchant. As long as I don’t cross the red lines, I cannot die. I understood this the moment I opened my eyes. And this paper... it’s been with me ever since I became conscious.

"I only knew that opening this door would let me go home, but I didn’t know how to open it. Until a kind predecessor...

"It was the Traveling Merchant 001 of that time. The beings inside the various mobile cabins looked very much like it. It told me I had to find one of my own kind holding a Door Key to open this door. Only then did I finally have a goal."

Seraphina Sinclair listened to these words and was silent for a long time.

rounds.

’She didn’t know how long a round was, but she knew it had to be a very, very long time.’

Long enough for a person to forget her mother’s face, to forget her mother’s voice. Long enough for a person to go from having a name to being a number, from Mia Chaney to 001.

All she could do was wait, alone, for one of her own kind to appear, with no idea when that would be.

"That predecessor you mentioned," Seraphina Sinclair asked, "where are they now?"

lowered her head. "Dead. It didn’t find one of its kind holding a Door Key."

Seraphina Sinclair didn’t ask any more questions, simply saying, "So you need me."

nodded.

"You have the Door Key," she said. "And the aura on you is the same as on the drawing. Only you can open that door."

Seraphina Sinclair didn’t speak.

looked at her, her eyes a swirling mix of anticipation, apprehension, and fear.

"Will you take me back home?" she asked.

Her voice was very soft, as if afraid of rejection.

But Seraphina Sinclair knew she absolutely could not agree so easily, not before she understood the whole situation.

Even though she was truly pitiful.

Seraphina Sinclair looked into 001’s eyes. Beyond the chaotic emotions, there was a nearly invisible glimmer of hope.

It was a hope that had finally been kindled after 156 rounds.

Seraphina Sinclair knew how precious that hope was, and how cruel it would be to extinguish it.

But she knew better still that in this world, any promise made lightly could become a blade turned against her.

"I have a few questions for you," Seraphina Sinclair said.

nodded immediately.

"Ask away."

"First," Seraphina Sinclair held up one finger, "you said that you’ve been a Traveling Merchant since you became conscious, and you’ve always had this paper. Have you ever considered, why you? Why was it you, of all people, who had this paper?"

faltered for a moment.

She opened her mouth to speak, then seemed to swallow her words.

After several seconds, she finally said softly, "I haven’t thought about it. Because every first-generation Traveling Merchant has a paper like this. We call it... the Door to our Homeland."