MTL - I Like This Dream!-v2 Chapter 138

The ascetic Lydia lived in the common dormitory of the doctors. Everyone called her "Doctor Lydia" or "Mr. Lydia". Few people remembered that she was an ascetic.

This is also unavoidable. In the hospital, it is very inconvenient to dress up as an ascetic monk, and it is impossible to operate on patients. The khaki clothes of ascetic monks are characterized by their resistance to dirt and wear, and in the wards where they can’t wait to clean them 800 times a day to avoid wound infection, more close-fitting pure white clothes are the standard configuration. Not to mention the self-punishment shackles that the ascetics put on themselves. Granny Nancy in the agricultural group has not worn shackles for many years. Lydia, who has the ability to heal and is a surgeon, has naturally moved away from the ascetic attire.

Since she chose to follow Alva to learn medical skills, although she occasionally brushes strange beasts with Anxu, strictly speaking, Lydia is no longer Anxu's bound milk.

She no longer follows An Xu all day long, her life no longer revolves around An Xu, she has many more things to do, and An Xu is not the only patient to take care of. Lydia gradually faded out of Anxu's life, but she also entered the lives of more people.

Lydia appeared in Alva's school and became the first high-achieving student who dissected a corpse without any obstacles. Her talent in surgery won the praise of even a picky teacher like Alva. Lydia appeared on the battlefield and became a field doctor with countless living people. The soldiers called her an angel in white. Lydia appeared in the newly built Santa Ana Alchemist College. As one of the teachers of the medical department, she was welcomed by the students with her answering, serious and patient character.

Perhaps in the past few years, or earlier, Lydia also began to feel that she was a doctor, and she was no longer ashamed to be considered an alchemist's apprentice. I don't know when it started, Lydia's first thought when she woke up was no longer the scriptures for morning prayer, but the things to do that day. She will review the medical knowledge she has learned, recall the operation she performed yesterday, think about how the patient is doing now, and think about what she will do today—there will never be enough doctors.

Even Lydia sometimes forgot that she was an ascetic.

The ascetic Lydia woke up suddenly in the night of this day, her green eyes were wide open, like an owl in the night. She sat up straight, climbed out of bed like sleepwalking, and opened the window.

Lydia lived in the doctor's dormitory, and she was the only one living in her room. No one would find Dr. Lydia walking barefoot in the corridor on such a quiet night. She stared blankly at the northeast—the direction of Alingu—and the dusty memories in her mind suddenly came alive.

Lydia remembered that when she was young, she lived with the ascetic monks in the Datong shop, and her daily work was training, penance and prayer. She remembered that after she became a beta and obtained the healing ability, the penance training was relatively reduced, and the training was increased several times, because the training process was quite painful, and it was not much different from the penance training. She remembered that she was in training... Lydia's fingers trembled strangely a few times, as if she was about to hold something, but there was nothing in the air for her to hold, so Lydia became restless. With her hair draped over and barefoot, she sprinted along the corridor that wasn't too warm, all the way to the warehouse of the doctor's dormitory.

The doctor's dormitory has a small warehouse for storing spare medical equipment. The key is in the hands of the dormitory manager, and they can be borrowed as long as they register. There are three dormitory supervisors, and they change shifts. There are people on duty 24 hours a day. There are also doctors who are on night shift on weekdays. But at this time Lydia didn't think of this, her thoughts became erratic and distant, as if they were blocked by ice, as if separated by something, but they were extraordinarily calm.

Lydia climbed onto the window sill of the warehouse, stuck to the small window, and knocked it down silently with her ingenuity. She nimbly climbed into the window, squinted in the darkness, and quickly found the only sharp weapon here.

scalpel.

Compared with the pocket knives and daggers of this era, the scalpel is actually quite thin and compact. Its handle is flat and slender, quite strong, but the blade is extremely sharp, and its workmanship is more exquisite than the weapons here, so it can be called hair-cutting. All spare scalpels have been rigorously exorcised by the exorcist (or, as it is more fashionable among alchemists, sterilized), and the blade is so shiny that it looks scratched. As soon as she grasped its cold handle, Lydia was stunned by the familiar touch, not knowing where she was and what she was doing for a while.

What she was holding was not a dagger, but a scalpel. The ascetic holds the dagger, the doctor the scalpel. Ascetic Lydia kills, Doctor Lydia saves...

Before the end of this year, it turned into a bubble.

There seemed to be some kind of voice in the dark, ordering her what to do. It didn't feel like an order, more like a thought of her own, like sleepiness and hunger, which she couldn't resist. No, to the ascetic, sleepiness and hunger were not irresistible things. How could these human desires, which can be overcome by will, compare with the calling of the heart? This is more like an ascetic monk who heard the decree of the gods.

A flood of memories engulfed Lydia. She heard prayers humming in the crowd, and she was in the middle of it, kneeling and chanting. She saw the blood spread, the blood did not hurt her eyes, because the heresy will be eradicated, believers will enter the kingdom of God, so life and death are meaningless, only the grace of God is the only glory, only Pleasing the gods is their only desire.

In addition to the memory, there are also old emotions that are stirring up. At this moment, the memory after leaving the Great Penitentiary seems like a lifetime away. The feeling of being touched by the God-blessed Anna, the feeling of making her own choice, the feeling of being praised for her ability rather than her piety, the feeling of being thanked for saving someone for the first time... suddenly all of them are no longer important, the old Li Dia is neither happy nor sad.

Ascetic Lydia opened the door, and what happened next is enough to be called a tragedy.

A ghost holding a scalpel wanders the doctor's dormitory. The doctor who came home late ran into the killer in the night. The people who were about to scream in front of the corpse failed to scream, the blade silenced them. The wandering ghost even entered Alva's residence, and Lydia almost killed the unsuspecting teacher if Jay, the spy chief who was staying there, realized something was wrong.

Jay and Lydia started fighting, and Alva immediately sent out a signal, and the guards who heard the news finally restrained Lydia. Before she was restrained, there were eleven corpses left in the doctor's dormitory.

This tragedy caused an uproar among all the insiders. An Xu was dumbfounded when he heard the news, and his shock was even deeper than when he knew that Richard II was suddenly purged. She knew the king was a fool long ago, but she never thought that Lydia would be a traitor.

"The sinner, Lydia, has been brought under control." Mayor Charlotte said, "The chief medical officer asked her to be taken away for treatment, but the victim's family objected."

"What did Alva say?" An Xu asked.

"Lord Alva thinks it's a disease, and the victim's family thinks it's a cover-up."

With the development of medicine and the confessional of the Holy One, "possession with the devil"—mental illnesses of all kinds—began to be incorporated into the criminal system. If in the end the perpetrator is proven to be ill, it will be sent to a medical school rather than a court.

Charlotte hesitated and said, "The sinner Lydia is an ascetic after all."

"Ms. Nancy is also an ascetic, do you think she is also a potential murderer?" An Xu said.

"It's not the same, my lord, this is different." Charlotte sighed, "The character of the sinner Lydia is completely different from that of the Minister of Agriculture. The former is usually taciturn and has no close friends. Few people know what she is thinking."

"Why, being introverted is anti-social?" An Xu twitched the corners of his mouth, "This reminds me of the witch-hunting manual "The Whip of the Witch", which says that a taciturn person must have evil thoughts in his heart, and he must be with you The devil has been fornicating. But the above also said that the suspect must have a ghost in his heart and wanted to drag others into the water."

From the day we met, Lydia was a very boring person. She hardly spoke on her own initiative, she couldn't see much joy, anger, sorrow, joy, and she asked and answered with a rigid look like a robot. Lydia's personality is so cold, and Anxu is very free-wheeling. After the ascetic lady started to move out to learn alchemy with Alva, their relationship faded as the interaction became less.

An Xu is not depressed by this, their separation is good for both parties, An Xu can live in a world of two, and Lydia can also make more people and see a wider world. What is it called to keep a little girl close to him as a display? At a young age, he looks like a walking corpse who is always ready to die in peace. In the eyes of ordinary people like An Xu who have no faith, it is really reckless. She was in favor of Lydia returning to vulgarity...well, to become a doctor.

Is reticence a sign of betrayal?

An Xu has seen Lydia's changes over the years. The more old friends you haven't seen for a while, the more obvious the changes can be seen. Lydia may have been ruthless, but she was by no means heartless, and her patients and students would have jumped with rage had Charlotte told her any hints that she was a hidden schemer or a murderous psychopath.

Lydia used the perseverance of an ascetic monk to rescue the wounded day and night. She has average resilience, so she carefully prepares lessons every time she attends classes. Although she follows the scriptures, she is very patient with the students. In fact she is very patient with everyone who asks her for help. Lydia had some answers, but almost everything she asked. She works day after day, year after year, and studies. This iron-clad murder should never have fallen on her head.

"My lord duke, please don't be too emotional." Charlotte looked deeply into An Xu's eyes, "The sinner Lydia is not an ordinary ascetic, she is an ascetic of the Great Penitentiary."

The extremely pious and steadfast Great Ascetic Monastery, the most mysterious institution of the Holy See, is located in Alingu, a land that Anxu cannot perceive.

"I don't intend to cover anyone up, but I won't wrong anyone either." An Xu pursed his lips and said, "Let the family members of the victim wait for a while...give us a week, we will find out the truth and give them a Confession."

An Xu met Lydia in the prison. She was still unconscious due to the drug, and she was still wearing the God's Retribution Chain. Anxu's spiritual tentacles reach out to the ascetic monk, who is completely healthy. Her mind is chaotic and unknown, but so are the minds of comatose people. An Xu didn't feel anything strange.

Alva went to prison with her. As a result of the compromise between the two parties, Alva could not take Lydia away, but he could examine and treat her here. An Xu watched the doctor take out a complete set of equipment, and his assistant helped him start the inspection process together. For a long time, they were silent.

"Is Lydia really sick?" An Xu couldn't help asking. She wanted to hear Alva say "yes" firmly, but Alva shook his head.

"I can only say that Lydia is quite abnormal," he said. "As for whether it is a disease or what it is, I don't know yet."

After half a week, Alva sent a message to Anxu. Anxu entered the prison and found that Karina, the saint of the Evangelical Church, was also there. Her face was as friendly as ever, and Lydia was awake, listening to what she said through the iron cage. Seeing An Xu come in, everyone stopped.

"Two things," said Alva straight to the point, not interested in playing the "good news or bad news which do you want to hear first" trick, "first, Lydia does have a problem. Second, I don't Make sure it's not a disease."

"My lord, do you know how the shepherds herd their sheep?" Karina said. "They ring the bells and then feed them, so that the sheep can be tamed so that they gather somewhere when they hear the bell."

An Xu nodded, having a bad premonition.

"Miss Lydia's abnormality... was artificially trained." Karina said.

Habits, or conditioned reflexes, are terrible things.

Turn on the light and ring the bell every time before delivering food to the dog. After a period of uninterrupted training like this, whenever the light is on or the bell rings, the dog will start to salivate continuously, just like eating. The chain that binds the baby elephant is strong enough that it cannot escape no matter how hard it struggles, so when it grows up, the elephant will not try to break free even though it is strong enough to break the chain easily. The theory of conditioned reflex may only come out after a certain level of civilization, but using conditioned reflex to domesticate animals, even the shepherds of this era will probably do it once or twice.

If an animal’s response to a certain stimulus allows it to obtain rewards or escape punishment, it will easily have a fixed response to this stimulus in the future, and a connection between the situation and the response action is established, forming a conditioned reflex like the body’s instinct . For smarter "animals", humans, it may become easier to brainwash and learn this conditioned reflex.

"I didn't suddenly have the ability to kill." Lydia remained expressionless, but suddenly said, "I have been trained to do this since I was a child."

"Aren't you a healer trained by the Holy See?" An Xuqiang smiled, "I remember asking you before."

"The ascetic monks in the Great Ascetic Monastery are all like this." Lydia said, "alpha and omega were taken away, beta stayed and received training, and people with supernatural powers were trained more heavily. Some people kept leaving, and some people came in. , I don't know, I don't care, because we... because they say, we just need to penance, we don't need to think. I thought so at the time."

An Xu looked at her, speechless for a moment.

"I can sneak, open locks, assassinate, I know more than five ways to kill the former you and pretend to be an accident." Lydia said, "I didn't tell you, the seniors in the ascetic said you can't say it. I am responsible Heal you, monitor you, kill heretics, and kill you when necessary."

"Do you think so too?" An Xu asked, "Do you still think so now?"

Her questioning brought a long silence, and Lydia looked at her hands, looking dazed.

"I don't want to." After a long silence, Lydia murmured, "I don't want to, but that night, I suddenly thought so... I don't know, it's not me."

Her expression didn't change, but there was a kind of heartbreaking confusion in those eyes. Anxu felt angry and disgusted. For a while, she thought of the Great Penitentiary that Lydia had told her about, and for a while, she thought of Alingu and Noah who were shielded now. She thought with her toes that it was all caused by him. Anxu didn't respond.

"You seem to have a clue about it," said Alva.

"What do you mean?" An Xu asked.

"After you swallowed the crystal nucleus of the giant bird, you have a more subtle sense of energy, don't you?"

"Yes, but I don't feel anything strange about this matter." An Xu shook his head.

"Do you think the magic circle on the ground looks familiar?" Alva asked again.

As soon as he walked into the cell, An Xu saw a large magic circle on the ground, which was painted with dark red paint. Anxu never asked, waiting for Alva to explain.

"The one under the rat monster's cage?" An Xu pondered for a moment, "No, it's not exactly the same as it."

"The effect is similar, both can block the overflow of energy." Alva said, "It's not very clear to say this, let me demonstrate it to you."

Alva bent down and erased part of the circle.

The image of the magic circle underground is engraved there, and it cannot be easily altered. There is a gap that can be erased on the part protruding from the prison. Alva rubbed his fingers on it, and a gap appeared in the magic circle. In that brief moment, An Xu felt a stream of energy, just like the airflow gushing out when a balloon leaks.

Lydia's eyes slowly changed.

An Xu stood in front of the ascetic monk and saw the process clearly. She saw the pain and confusion in those green eyes recede a little bit, back when they first met, there was no emotion at all. Obviously that face didn't change, but An Xu felt his hair stand on end.

The uncanny valley theory says that when something is similar to humans to a certain extent, humans will suddenly become extremely disgusted with them, because when the similarity reaches a certain extent, even a little difference will appear very conspicuous and dazzling, and even become scary. At this time, An Xu's mood was like this, the person in front of him was obviously Lydia, but the strange feeling of being human and not human came to his face.

Lydia stood up, she looked around, and then stared at the three living people outside the iron prison. She rushed over suddenly, stretched her hands out of the iron railings, and clawed at them crazily with both hands, even though her body was stuck in the iron bars of the cell, struggling was useless. It's supposed to be funny, but because of the frenzy that seems to tear them apart, "terrible" is a better word than ridiculous.

And at the moment when her behavior became strange, the energy floating in the air like cotton wool also became clear.

An Xu's mental power spread out suddenly, her energy is not what it used to be, and she can follow the vague energy all the way back. Everything in the world turns into a star map, on which countless energy points of different light and shade flicker, and there are countless strands of thick or thin threads connecting many small points together.

The dot named Lydia in front of her is connected to a certain existence in the distance.

She is like a virus that has entered the data stream, trying to catch this thread and go upstream. The firewall in the distance operated vigilantly, and almost immediately cut off the line she caught. At that moment, An Xu only caught a little information, which made her shudder: the other end of the line was connected to a very, very large existence. On that huge terminal, there are countless small dots similar to Lydia.

Lydia was still struggling, and without a wire to hold her, she danced like a small iron filing to a moving magnet in the distance. Anxu's mental power wrapped up, layer by layer, until Lydia's movements became sluggish. At this moment Karina suddenly rang the bell, and the ascetic friar woke up suddenly with a jolt.

Lydia stared blankly at the person in front of her, then suddenly knelt down and began to retch.

Karina hurried up, handed her hot water, and whispered something softly. An Xu didn't have time to listen, Alva had already grabbed her and dragged her a few steps away.

"How did you do it?" Alva asked eagerly, "How did you weaken the control? Describe it!"

"I blocked her..." An Xu tried to describe, "I wrapped her up with spiritual power, just like myself..."

A spiritual light suddenly flashed.

After winning the battle with the giant bird and recovering from it, Anxu has remained "isolated" most of the time. She also taught Chris how to self-isolate in case Noah made a surprise visit—Chris remained in isolation the entire time, Ansy discussed this with him, and finally decided to keep the fact that Chris shared his power a secret.

The only power that can be concealed with this trick is the so-called god, or the power of meteorites.

It's not that there is no abnormality in Lydia's body, but the energy level is too thin, and it is almost impossible to distinguish it.

"Lydia," An Xu turned around, squatted down, and asked her, "Have you ever eaten anything strange before?"

"No." Lydia said palely.

"Where's the holy water?" Alva interrupted suddenly.

"A lot," Lydia replied, "every month."