Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 1265 - 51 We will always remember you

"You, my dear, always like this. You call yourself a fool, yet you seem to guess everything right. But when you should act clever, you feign ignorance, and when you shouldn’t, that’s when you play the fool," Freya said, arm in arm with Pannis, strolling between the shadows of the mottled trees, the sculptures, and the pines. She sighed softly in response to Pannis’s question and continued, "With how you’ve acted all this time, weren’t you supposed to appear oblivious right now? Why would you speak up instead?"

"We’re all smart here. Playing dumb in front of smart people is pointless, except for making them laugh at you," Pannis shrugged and said, "So, it’s only the truly foolish who would play dumb in front of the wise, because that’s not something one can fake."

"Ha, I’ll remember that." Freya’s gaze, as deep and blue as the sea, swept over Pannis’s face as if it could speak. A smile that could make fresh flowers pale in comparison formed on her lips, with a hint of mischief as she said, "I’m planning to go home and tell Catherine that your words were alluding to the fact that the three of them aren’t clever enough, hehe. I think they’ll be very pleased with your comments."

"Well, of course they’re smart too, but in a different way... You guys are... different," Pannis said with a light laugh, seemingly unconcerned about Freya’s threat to tattle. He shook his head and added, "Like the question you just asked me, they would never ask it outright."

Hehe, I think so too," said the princess, her cunning smile exuding a captivating charm. With just a grin, she made the few young passersby nearby almost hold their breath. Even Pannis couldn’t help but be inwardly stirred upon seeing Freya’s smile and hearing her soft, low voice. He secretly admired her, thinking that even with her current appearance, her smile had such power. It’s no wonder that when she was at her most beautiful, she could be considered the City of Knowledge’s most dazzling and precious jewel.

In all fairness, Freya, having successfully reduced her weight to under a hundred kilograms, essentially looked human again. She still seemed round, but her earlier beauty and charm were beginning to reemerge from her gradually restored facial features. Now, walking in the crowded streets, she no longer attracted odd looks or laughter but rather admiring and surprising glances at her silhouette, marveling that she could retain such beauty despite her weight. Logically, if she kept up the momentum, she would return to her perfect figure within a few more months. However, the princess seemed deliberately to avoid this path, maintaining her weight at the current level, refusing to lose any more.

Regarding the princess’s choice, there hadn’t been any private discussions, but everyone tacitly refrained from bringing up the topic of weight loss. Even Catherine recently had been less strict about controlling Freya’s diet. It was clear to the girls what Freya intended to do, and they willingly cooperated with her, hoping to help her escape the troubles of excessive beauty.

"I really like it here. I always have since I was a child," Freya leaned on Pannis’s arm, breathing in the aromatic scent of the Rhea pines, her mood evidently very good as she said cheerfully, "Do you remember how I used to come here to play before I turned ten? Hmm, I’d come almost every few days."

"To see Christo as well?" Pannis asked with a teasing smile, "Then you’re quite remarkable, having such foresight."

"Hey, you always have this knack for irritating people," even the princess herself couldn’t help but pinch Pannis’s arm hard several times, grinding her teeth with a smile, "Do you feel uncomfortable if you don’t annoy someone every day?"

"Gentle, gentle, you’re going to wrinkle the dress," Pannis said with a grin, "I just happened to see him, so I casually asked, hey, stop pinching, it really hurts."

Indeed, Pannis wasn’t making a complete excuse. Through the gaps between the rough trunks of Rhea pines, one could already see the goblin statue situated amidst the bushes and flowers. The statue, made of white jade stone, was brand new and looked exquisite. It realistically portrayed Little Goblin Christo as he was in his youth. The sculpted Christo had his legs spread, his weight on the back leg, both hands clutching his favorite Crystal Energy gun, aiming forward with the gun barrel, his long ears pointing straight up to the sky, his long nose firmly jutting out, and in the hollows of its eyes, the eyes crafted from yellow crystals seemed to shine with a bright light under the reflection of the sun. It was hard to imagine how the artisans who made the statue were able to infer his youthful charm from the elderly image of Christo, but even Pannis had to admit that the statue was incredibly lifelike.

"I fired countless bullets to defend the only faith, I wielded ever-changing Illusion Magic to protect the unchanging justice, I operated cold machinery all for the burning friendship in my heart. Standing beside my partners, I shall never fear, I shall be invincible."

The beautiful golden letters were clearly engraved on the black base of the sculpture. As was customary, after the completion of the tomb owner’s statue, a phrase that most represented them, once said by them, would be chosen as an epitaph for posterity to admire. And the sentence beneath the statue was unanimously agreed upon by all his friends as the choice for the epitaph. Below the golden epitaph, in smaller letters, was engraved a brief account of his life, which, although concise, covered almost all of the most important events of his life. Even centuries later, people who saw this statue could clearly understand the history of the tomb’s occupant.

What was really unique was the line of fine handwriting between the epitaph and the account of his life. This unevenly styled line was clearly added later, its script crooked, like a mischievous child’s, and its content was very simple, just one sentence: "We will always remember you."

At each end of this line, there was a feather engraved, one end’s feather was the original black color of the base, and the other end’s feather was painted white. The shape of the feathers, like the handwriting in the middle, was unattractive, creating a sense of discordance that contrasted sharply with the beauty of the sculpture.

"Hmm, it seems that during the time after the funeral, those two little birds must have visited too," Pannis said with a mix of laughter and tears, looking at the added line of text, "However, I wonder if Christo would be so angry that he’d climb out from below to argue with them if he knew they scribbled all over his gravestone."