With her thoughts no longer disturbed by emotions, Cicia began to seriously regard everything around her.
Since Angel created "Lulu," let’s first see what Angel intends to do.
The appearance of Lulu must have a purpose.
Cicia started to carefully listen to Lulu’s bounteous and verbose complaints, trying to find the core element Lulu was attempting to express within those words.
After a while, Cicia looked at Lulu, full of confusion: "You’re asking me where this is? I wanted to ask you."
She originally wanted to get the "clues" that Angel integrated when creating Lulu, but in the end, Lulu asked her the same question, even before she could.
What is Angel up to?
Going through all the trouble to create Lulu, purely to awaken her past emotions? And how does Angel know all of Lulu’s behavioral patterns?
Cicia felt increasingly strange about this "dream."
"You also just woke up and arrived here upon waking? How long did you sleep? You don’t know?!"
Cicia sighed helplessly, turning to look around: "You woke up alone? Is Coco not here?"
Coco, like Lulu, is also a gargoyle.
Millennia ago, Cicia often went to the Hanging Jail Stairway to visit her close friend Margaret, so she was familiar with several guards there.
The ones she was most familiar with were the two gargoyles at the second passageway, Coco and Lulu. These two gargoyles were brought to Naraku City when they were still stone embryos, and they grew up there. They looked fierce but were actually very playful. Along with the fact that ordinary gargoyles are not very intelligent, they were at most like children around eleven or twelve, with an innate sense of innocence and purity.
Due to their pure nature, they seemed like children to Cicia, so she was more lenient with these two gargoyles. The result of this leniency was that every time she went to the Hanging Jail Stairway, she had little followers.
Either Lulu followed her, or Coco did... As for why both couldn’t follow at the same time, it was naturally because there still needed to be a guard at the second passageway. One leaving was fine, but if both left, that wouldn’t work.
"Jibber-jabber, bally-balla."
Cicia nodded as she listened: "Coco is behind the curtain, where there is a terrifying old man, and Coco is still in statue form, you’re too scared to go in?"
"You’re really cowardly," Cicia said, somewhat speechless. No wonder Lulu was previously sneaking and peering around the curtain.
But, did Lulu say it was an old man?
Then it’s not Angel, is it Popota?
Was Lulu created to awaken her "human nature" and then tell her Popota’s location?
Cicia was a bit confused, unable to discern what was going on, and her mind was in chaos. So she decided not to think anything and directly walked towards the curtain.
After all, eventually, she had to meet someone.
Whether meeting Angel or the "false Baiyuanians" created by Angel, she had to meet them first before talking about anything else.
When Cicia arrived in front of the curtain, she heard a rustling from inside and a man mumbling softly.
"Interesting, I didn’t imagine this is how a gargoyle would be structured."
"I’ll take a bit of your fingernail if you don’t mind? Don’t worry, I’ll use nail clippers; it won’t hurt."
"I’ll also take a little bit of hair. Don’t be afraid; this is just an external redundant tissue removal operation. There’s a scissors, no harm to you."
"Oh, and I need some blood. Trust me, it won’t hurt, and it’s just a tiny bit of blood."
Just listening to this made Cicia furrow her brow. Similar sounds could often be heard in Naraku City in the past. Because Naraku City once conducted a lot of live experiments, those experimenters would put on this hypocritical appearance when facing the test subjects.
Although Cicia was sent to Naraku City and was somewhat associated with those experiments, she herself did not actually like them.
Why use live bodies? Why use fellow species? Why use intelligent life forms?
In those days, Cicia couldn’t get answers to these questions, but she tacitly allowed the existence of those experiments.
But now, hearing these sounds again made her very upset.
Angel tricking her with dreams was one thing, but to recreate the scene back then instantly ignited Cicia’s anger.
She sharply pulled open the curtain and rushed in.
She was ready to take action, but when she saw the scene in front of her, she was stunned.
"Coco...what are you doing?" Cicia stared in a daze at the familiar gargoyle.
One hand held by a gaunt old man, the other hand holding a cream ice ball and licking it eagerly, Coco raised his head, eyes brightening instantly: "Ah, glug-glug, jibber-jabber!"
"Just giving him a bit of useless body tissue and you get food? You’re that gluttonous?!"
After Cicia finished speaking, she frowned tightly and looked at the old man with gray hair: "Are you Popota? Why are you studying Coco, what are you doing studying Coco?"
"Coco, is it called Coco? That’s quite a nice name." The old man didn’t mind Cicia’s accusation at all. Instead, he smiled kindly at Cicia: "I’m not Popota, you can call me Jon. As for the Popota you’re looking for, he’s in the dining room."
"But I must say, it’s my first time seeing you. Are you new here? Are you an old acquaintance of Popota? That means you must be a wizard too?"
Faced with Jon’s barrage of questions, Cicia suddenly didn’t know what to answer.
Coco didn’t seem afraid at all, completely different from what she imagined. And this old man even looked kindly and friendly, not even a hint of hostility, which made her feel guilty instead.
Most importantly, he wasn’t Popota either. Jon? Who is this? Just how many false creatures did Angel create in this dream?
Cicia scratched her hair irritably, turning to look at Lulu behind her: "Didn’t you say Coco was in statue form? And is this the scary old man you mentioned?"
Lulu: "Di-di-di-la..."
Cicia: "You only felt scared just by hearing his voice, when did you become so cowardly? Did you sleep too long that you slept your brains out?"
Lulu pursed his lips reluctantly.
"And you, Coco! How many times have I told you before, don’t trust humans too much. Not all humans are like me or Margaret, one day you’ll suffer for it!"
Even if everything was false, Cicia rarely found the feeling of scolding them like in the past, and she was scolding her two little followers, so she might as well scold to her heart’s content. Telling them to be clear about identifying people, then saying not to be lured by small benefits...
Soon, she was done scolding them for quite some time.
Meanwhile, Jon curiously watched the scene unfold before him. He didn’t expect that during his rare visit back to Pat Manor for rest, he’d encounter not only two living gargoyles but also an interesting little girl.
She seemed very familiar with these two gargoyles. Could it be that she is their owner?
As Jon observed, Cicia scolded, and the two gargoyles kept their heads down in silence. The equilibrium was broken by a voice coming from not far away.
"Hey, Cicia, do you know these two gargoyles?"