倩影游侠 Phantom in Boots

绮良良的装扮款式。童话中行侠仗义的猫猫剑客，传递愿望的狡黠少女，向您致意。 Kirara's outfit. The swashbuckling feline of fairytale fame, the crafty courier of dearly-held dreams... is pleased to make your acquaintance!

按照希穆兰卡的规矩，一切生灵的本质须符合命运女神所创作出的形象。

Simulanka's rules dictate that the essence of all life in it must conform to the image created by the Goddess of Fate.

也就是说，绮良良的游侠姿态对应着女神笔下童话里的某个人物。

In other words, Kirara's intrepid manner corresponds to a certain character in the fairy tale that the goddess penned.

可无论是走遍了希穆兰卡的你或她，都从未听闻有游侠现身情节的故事。

However, despite her — and your — travels all across Simulanka, you never heard the tale of any such itinerant hero.

困惑的你们顺道询问了探长先生，你知道他曾经聆听过女神的声音，了解许多秘辛。

Confused, you asked the detective, for you knew that he had heard the goddess's voice, and was the keeper of a great many secrets.

于是从他口中，你们得到了这样一个故事——

And so, from his lips you drew this tale—

众多动物中，猫是最受女神偏爱的，她甚至尝试过在希穆兰卡中为它们创作一片天地。

Amongst the multitude of creatures, the cat was favored of the goddess, such that she even tried to create a realm just for them within Simulanka.

在女神的规划里，这个新的国度将住满大大小小、各种花色的猫咪居民。

As in her great plan, this new realm would be filled with feline residents of all sizes and fur colors.

在这里，幸福的分配遵循着均衡原则，每位居民的笑都会蕴含不多不少正正好的快乐。

Here, happiness would be distributed according to principles of balance, and every resident's happy smile would be perfectly calibrated.

猫咪们从不悲伤，他们最阴郁的情绪也只有「好像有毛团堵在喉咙里痒痒」这种程度。

The cats would never feel sad, and the worst their mood could be was similar to "as if a furball was tickling their throat."

不过就算使劲咳嗽也无法吐出这毛团，因为那是他们心里没能成形的负面情绪。

However, they would never be able to cough it out no matter how hard they tried, for that would be a negative emotion that they could never make manifest.

欢愉永恒不变，悲哀无法诞生，心之天平的两端并不等重，这个设定是不均衡的。

With eternal, unchanging joy, and sorrow unable to be birthed, the scales of the heart were not balanced — nor was this setting.

但女神的注意力却被其他稿件分走，亟待展开的故事被一时搁置了起来。

Yet the goddess's attention was divided amongst her other manuscripts, and so this story was put on hold even as it waited to unfold.

「故事的基本特性是渴望合理。」据说事后女神曾如此自语。

"Stories, at their heart, yearn to make sense," or so the goddess is rumored to have said to herself after the fact.

当内在矛盾得不到解决，情节的纹理便倒错生长，自行解决其中的不合理。

When internal contradictions are not resolved, the pattern of the plot's progression can become perverted, seeking to resolve these absurdities itself.

一位猫猫游侠出现在稿纸的角落中，女神一个不留心，她就从字里行间逃了出去。

Thus did an itinerant feline heroine appear in the corner of the draft manuscript and, while the goddess was distracted, escape between the margins.

她从稿纸的其他页窃来怒火、泪水还有哀叹，在猫咪国度的街头巷尾四处分发。

She stole wrath, tears, and sorrowful sighs from other pages in the manuscript, and she distributed them in every street throughout the country of cats.

居民们铁面具一样的笑容出现了变化，原本被写定的命运轨迹开始分叉。

The residents' smiling iron masks began to melt, and they began to diverge from the predetermined paths fate had written for them.

「自由自在、任性而为才是猫该有的姿态。」狡黠的游侠是这么宣告的。

"A cat's true nature is to be willful and free," the crafty heroine declared.

女神并未因自己的创造受到干扰而不满，毋宁说这位游侠的抗议让她做出了决定：

The goddess was not displeased at this interdiction by one of her creations. If anything, the heroine's defiance caused her to make a decision.

就让眼前这个不完美的构想留在稿纸上吧，猫咪的国度的确应当更加自由。

She would leave this imperfect idea, now put to paper, be. The realm of cats should indeed be a freer place.

难怪你们找不到游侠的任何痕迹，那个叛逆的形象从未脱离稿纸，只存在于世界的蓝图记忆中。

No wonder, then, that you could find no trace of this gallant cat, for that rebellious figure never slipped out from the paper folds, but could only exist in the world's blueprint memory.

沉思中的你瞥见了绮良良亮起来的眼睛，她似乎很喜欢游侠的故事。

As you were deep in thought, you caught a glimpse of Kirara's bright eyes. She seemed truly taken with this tale.

「为什么我会被装扮成游侠，我终于明白了！」

"Heh, guess I know why I'm dressed like that itinerant heroine now!"

「不是因为绮良良正好是猫吗？」虽然这么想，但你没有说出这句话。

"Isn't that just because you happen to be a cat?" So you thought, but you did not voice it.

「游侠送还了大家心底缺少的欲望，送货员的责任也有类似的地方。」

"The heroine brought everyone's missing desires back to them — don't you think that's a lot like what a courier does?"

「把客人最需要的东西完完整整地送到他们手中，满足他们的愿望。」

"Delivering everything your customers need to them, and making sure they're satisfied..."

「这就是送货员这份工作的本质，和游侠一样嘛。」

"At their core, both jobs are pretty much the same!"

说完，绮良良的尾巴自豪而愉快地翘了起来。

Kirara's tail stood up proudly as she said these words.

她对送货工作的热情打动了你，尽管不确定希穆兰卡的规则是否认可这种说法，你还是接受了绮良良推导出的这个等式。

Her passion for delivering goods moved even you, and so you accepted the proposed equivalence, even though it remained unclear if Simulanka's rules would uphold such a statement.

「没错，送货员可是很了不起的职业！」

"That's right. Delivery is an amazing vocation!"