Volume 8, Chapter 62 – The Queen’s Remorse

Even after seeing Lucitine wake up, Ruth and Afla, keeping vigil by the bedside, made no sound. Watching Lucitine cover her face with her right hand, wearing a pained expression, Afla opened her mouth as if to speak, but Ruth stopped her with a look.

Lucitine’s heavy, panting breath echoed in the room for a while. Finally, Lucitine herself broke the silence. Her voice was exceptionally hoarse, like a traveler long parched in the desert.

“…You both know, then.”

Although the words would have been confusing at any other time, Ruth and Afla understood perfectly. Afla kept her head down and remained silent. Ruth answered in a voice devoid of emotional fluctuation.

“You should have told me about something like this earlier, Mother. Why keep me in the dark too?”

Seeing her mother still covering her face with one hand, Ruth forcibly suppressed the dissatisfaction she felt towards Lucitine. Just as Lucitine was pained by feeling that Fia had betrayed her trust, Ruth was also angry that her own mother hadn’t even told her about becoming a living person. It seemed she was no longer someone her mother trusted.

But saying such things now was useless. Ruth’s cold expression softened slightly. She explained as calmly as possible.

“I was the first to wake up. Fia entrusted me with the task of bringing you to a room to rest properly. She told me you were a living person, and that living people need timely hemostasis and wound treatment after being injured. I’m not a living person; I don’t know how to do those things. So I called Afla, who has experience being alive and whose identity isn’t as sensitive, to come and take care of you. Now that you’re awake, Mother, it means the magic potion Fia gave you worked fine—not that I ever doubted it from the start.”

Lucitine thought it might be her imagination, but she sensed dissatisfaction in Ruth’s tone regarding her driving Fia away.

Wasn’t it Ruth herself who had handed me the recording crystal? And when I asked Fia to leave, Ruth had also stood by my side…

No, that wasn’t the main point.

Lucitine denied it inwardly. She lowered the hand covering her face and tried to sit up, but Afla quickly moved to the head of the bed to stop her.

“You can’t move around recklessly right now. Living people who have lost too much blood need to rest in bed.”

“What about Fia? Where did she go? And the one who attacked me, who was she?”

“Fia has already returned to Blossom. As for that person who looked exactly like you…” Ruth’s expression shifted. “She killed herself.”

Lucitine frowned.

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“Killed herself?”

“Yes. After Fia left, she killed herself. I don’t know what method she used. I didn’t even sense any magical reaction before she turned into particles of light and disappeared. It was just like those souls sent into reincarnation. What happened back there? Why was the palace in ruins by the time I came to?”

Bitterness seemed ready to overflow from her chest. Facing Ruth’s stare, Lucitine slowly lowered her gaze.

“I don’t know.”

At this moment, she had none of the dignity befitting a Queen of Death. She was like a prisoner just pulled from a cell, a timid figure bearing psychological trauma, unwilling to show herself.

Of all the Venexes she had seen, her mother right now was the least queenly.

Ruth felt dissatisfied inwardly.

It was true that she had presented the recording crystal to Lucitine, but that was her duty. She was Lucitine’s daughter, but like any ordinary undead, she held submission towards the existence of the Queen of Death. She wouldn’t commit the deceit of hiding the crystal.

Conversely, although she could understand Lucitine’s reaction, she found her approach hard to agree with. Having communicated with Fia early on, Ruth knew her character. Fia was so powerful that several Lucitines combined wouldn’t be her match. If she wanted, there was nothing on the World Tree Continent she couldn’t obtain. There was no need for her to collude with Chaos for the purpose of toying with Lucitine’s feelings. She was only doing what she had confessed that day: hoping the undead could reconcile with Chaos and stop their internal conflict.

Ruth didn’t share the Queen of Death’s deep-seated, heartfelt loathing for Chaos. Thus, she couldn’t understand why Lucitine, a consciousness that had come into this world less than three years ago, would fall out with such a powerful partner over racial hatred, even expelling her. Whether from the standpoint of the Queen of Death or regarding future survival, doing so was too emotional and not rational enough.

If it were her, even if she was angry about being deceived, she wouldn’t disregard the overall situation like that.

Of course, Ruth could think this way because she hadn’t inherited the first Venex’s hatred for Chaos from the Venex soul. If she also possessed that hatred, her approach would likely be identical to Lucitine’s.

Unaware of these things, Ruth took in the sight of her mother’s unseemly state and let out a long sigh.

“What’s wrong with you? Even if you lost a fight, you shouldn’t be this distraught. The Queen of Death becoming a living person was Fia’s doing, right? Although it surprised me, it’s not unacceptable.”

Ruth glanced at Afla beside her, dressed in a maid outfit, and crossed her arms over her chest.

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“If I had the chance, I’d also want to become a living person. Besides, as long as Afla and I don’t reveal this secret, no one in the kingdom of the dead will know. You don’t need to worry.”

Even with Ruth saying this much, Lucitine showed no sign of lifting her head. Having tolerated Lucitine’s dejected state again and again, Ruth was finally nearing her breaking point. She frowned deeply and was about to step forward to scold her, to teach her mother to have some dignity as a Queen of Death—what kind of behavior was this? But Afla saw what Ruth was thinking and quickly grabbed the corner of Ruth’s skirt, looking up at her with a pleading expression. The words “let the queen rest more” were written all over her face.

The living were always fragile. This was the conclusion Ruth had drawn from observing beastmen in the Weeping Mountains. Thinking that Lucitine’s sentimentality was due to her living body, her intense emotions cooled somewhat. She curled her lip, swallowed the scolding on the tip of her tongue, turned, and walked towards the door.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but if it’s about Fia, you’ve truly surprised me. If she wanted to harm you, she wouldn’t go to all this trouble. I also don’t think she would deceive you out of some malicious whim. Even I can understand this reasoning. Mother, who knows Fia better than me, should be even clearer. Rationally and emotionally, you should think carefully about what to do. I’m not speaking from the standpoint of the Princess of Death, but advising you as a daughter: don’t regret your choices.”

Lingering no further, Ruth, after pausing for a long moment at the door, finally left the room. Afla followed, casting one more worried glance at Lucitine before silently walking out.

The air, tinged with a faint foul odor, quieted down. Lucitine, leaning against the headboard, remained with her head bowed. After a few breaths, she threaded her fingers through her hair, her lips tightly pressed together. Her face, usually possessing queenly elegance, was now contorted with pain and regret. Fia’s cold expression when she called her “Venex” had become her nightmare, lingering in her mind, impossible to dispel.

If before this she had been caught in a vortex of contradiction, unsure what to do, now the scales were gradually tipping towards Fia’s side. Although she still loathed Chaos, compared to the regret of having done something wrong, her anger at Fia for cooperating with Chaos had diminished considerably. Added to that was the sneak attack by that pure white fairy, which even made Lucitine feel ashamed.

Although the pure white fairy had said little, Lucitine could tell that the being identical to her wanted to kill her in order to take her place. If Fia had helped her, she would have given Fia far more in return than Lucitine ever could.

Yet despite that, Fia still came to save her.

In comparison, her own words drawing a line with Fia were childish and ugly.

The emotion called regret grew larger and larger in her heart. The more Lucitine thought, the more she imagined her own behavior as repaying kindness with enmity. Thus, she grew anxious and restless, her breathing becoming exceptionally difficult. Dizziness once again surfaced in her mind. She couldn’t tell if it was an aftereffect of blood loss or simply psychological, only knowing that she was enveloped in massive panic and guilt. She had to do something to alleviate it.

She recalled Fia’s words from back then—the reason she had deceived her was to ease the internal conflict between Chaos and the undead. Chaos also had good and evil. The Chaos beneath the world of the dead were under her command, controllable, and could play a crucial role in the future fight against the Chaos in the abyss.

At the time, she had only focused on venting her emotions, controlled by the hatred for Chaos in her heart, completely losing reason…

Thinking carefully, the power she commanded was definitely no match for the Antler Chaos. Fia didn’t have to side with her. Yet Fia still thought about easing the conflict between them. If it were someone else, they would probably have joined forces with the Antler Chaos to eliminate the undead and resolve the conflict for the sake of the Antler Chaos’s development.

She had none of the qualities a Queen of Death should possess.

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Lucitine recalled Fia’s cold expression once more. An indescribable pain spread from her chest. She clenched her teeth, wishing she could slap herself immediately. How could she be so foolish as to push her friend away!

It was all my fault…

The anxiety in her heart made Lucitine unable to calm down. She threw off the covers in one motion, got up from the bed, and sat on the edge, lost in thought for a long time. Until at some moment, her gaze gradually became resolute.

Ruth was right. She shouldn’t make decisions she would regret.

Since she had done something wrong, she had to go and apologize. Fia hadn’t left her without a way out—”If you still want to cooperate, come find me in Blossom.” Lucitine hadn’t forgotten those words. Although, as the one who had asked Fia to leave, shamelessly going to find her now would mean utterly losing face, and she might even be mocked by Fia, this was all her fault, the punishment she deserved.

As long as I could win Fia back…

Win back?

Lucitine, who had already taken off her nightgown and was about to change clothes, froze for a moment.

In that instant, she realized something very important. In the past, when she had confessed her feelings to Fia, Fia had always made excuses, claiming it wasn’t real liking. Now, she suddenly understood that Fia hadn’t been wrong at all. Only this urgent feeling, this desire to make amends with Fia, could be qualified as real liking. Her feelings back then were too frivolous.

It had to be an intense feeling, the sense that without Fia, her heart would be left with an empty space. Only the thought that it had to be her, that she was irreplaceable—without these indispensable elements, the relationship wouldn’t withstand the test.

That’s right. She had truly fallen in love with that elf who, even though she could have handled things simply, insisted on going to great lengths out of consideration for others’ feelings. That gentle yet powerful soul, who wouldn’t forcibly twist others’ principles, attracted her like a magnet at every moment.

Her heart began to pound violently. Lucitine started changing clothes quickly. She had already figured out what she needed to do. Now, she just had to overcome her fear and embarrassment, and bravely face reality.

Right now, immediately, head to Blossom.

Changing clothes in a few swift motions, Lucitine quickly stood up. As if uninjured, she felt her whole body filled with strength, her feet no longer unsteady.

Straightening her appearance before the mirror, Lucitine focused her will and directly teleported to the vast world outside the Wall of Sighs.

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Now, to Blossom as fast as possible!

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The Second Nursery.

Within the vast underground cavity, almost all the Chaos from the second Nursery had gathered. Milan, whose eyes were completely blue, along with other Antler Chaos, was manipulating ordinary Chaos, enough to fill a large reservoir, to flow in a fixed direction.

Transporting a month’s supply of Chaos sufficient to sustain a hundred thousand Eyes from the second Nursery to the distant Hall of Reverent Light was a project of massive workload.

It should be mentioned that after discovering the almost inexhaustible new nursery in the Second Abyss, what happened to the Chaos in the second Nursery didn’t really matter. No matter how large the reservoir, it couldn’t compare to a world-flooding ocean. Therefore, Fia had suggested she could help by burning away these Chaos in one go, saving the trouble of transporting them. But Milan and the other Eyes, having lived through times of scarce nourishment, were reluctant to waste it. So they asked Fia to allow them to transport the Chaos back to the Hall of Reverent Light. A little trouble was worth it compared to throwing it away.

At this moment, hundreds of Antler Chaos were densely suspended over the lake. Manipulating ordinary Chaos was as simple as eating or drinking for them. They could chat via their thought connection while manipulating the vast amount of Chaos to flow in a fixed direction. However, without warning, an invisible ripple swept through the space. All the Antler Chaos unanimously looked up. Instantly, the underground cavity echoed with extremely noisy, yet upon closer listening, utterly silent, noise.

This was the sound of numerous Antler Chaos communicating heatedly through their thought connection.

One Antler Chaos discovered that within the area he controlled, Chaos with dark red spots had appeared. And even though he was going all out, this portion of dark red Chaos remained beyond his control, as if they were being manipulated by another group.

Undoubtedly, this was the same situation as last time when Chaos turned into beasts. And the nutrients turning dark red meant one thing—the traitor was nearby.

Last time, they had mobilized everyone and still couldn’t find a trace. But this time, the traitor had delivered itself.

Milan immediately directed his companions through the thought connection to put down their current work and quietly surround the area of abnormality. Additionally, a massive amount of personnel plunged into the anthill to search for traces of the manipulator.

As for himself, he hurried immediately to the Hall of Reverent Light. The Father God would descend upon the Hall at eight in the evening. Now it was six in the evening. If he made it in time, he could lead the Father God to witness the traitor’s true appearance. Then, he could fulfill the Eye tribe’s true duty—eliminate the apostate who had betrayed the God on behalf of the Father God.