Volume 8, Chapter 44 – A Contest?

Yisi casually picked up the parchment that Camilla had pushed over.

“This is…”

“It records what I saw at the refugee camp this morning. Just as you thought, Onee-sama, there is indeed a problem with the refugee camp.”

Just as I thought?

A question mark appeared above Yisi’s head.

Before Camilla went to the refugee camp, had she told her to pay attention to anything?

In a flash, Yisi rolled her eyes, her mind racing, trying to find some clue. But unfortunately, she had not the slightest impression of it. She had forgotten so completely that she began to think that maybe such a thing had never even happened. But Camilla would not speak without reason. Rather than trusting her own memory, Yisi trusted Camilla’s more.

But what exactly did I think, and how was it the same?

Without waiting for Yisi to answer, Camilla continued with a thoughtful expression.

“From my observations in the refugee camp, the refugees have become dissatisfied with the current situation due to their difficult lives. If it were just that, then as you envisioned, Onee-sama, as long as we satisfy their material needs, the incident will subside. But I suspect that the appearance of the refugee camp is not a coincidence, but the result of a deliberate plan. If we do not take further action, the other party’s plan may unfold without our knowledge.”

“Mm…”

So that was it.

Although it was subtle, Yisi could still understand what Camilla meant—the so-called ‘just as Onee-sama envisioned’ probably referred to her having the temple provide relief to the refugees to improve their living conditions and prevent a riot. Although her initial intention in having the temple provide relief was simply that she didn’t want people to live in misery, and that the temple should perform its proper function, since Camilla thought so, she couldn’t very well deliberately refute it.

This is definitely not for vanity, but for the dignity of an older sister.

Yisi comforted herself in her heart.

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“The reason the refugee camp appeared is because of this endless heavy rain. And the endless heavy rain is because the water element barrier that seals the World Dragon has loosened. When you were talking with that stupid goose earlier, Onee-sama, it said that its power could not shake the barrier, and that it was not the one who destroyed it. That is to say, someone else destroyed the barrier from the outside. Assuming that the person who destroyed the barrier did so to create chaos in the Hels Kingdom, then the refugees are undoubtedly a necessary tool to be used.

—Perhaps they initially wanted to release the World Dragon from its seal and let it wreak havoc in the Hels Kingdom, but they found that the seal constructed by the angels was not something they could break. Therefore, they could only settle for the next best thing and merely loosen the barrier.”

“Mm.”

Yisi nodded, signaling for Camilla to continue. Although Camilla’s deduction was based on facts, to tie the two things together had a forced feel to it.

First, what good would it do the ‘imaginary enemy’ to throw the Hels Kingdom into chaos? Second, just creating a few thousand refugees would hardly hurt the kingdom. If they wanted to throw the kingdom into chaos, why not turn the ambitious high nobles, just as the Norta Empire had done to Andrea, pulling all the southern nobles of the Blood Clan to the rebel side? That would be the way to throw the entire country into chaos.

Receiving Yisi’s approval, Camilla continued.

“I didn’t notice the unusual movements of these refugees at first, but after going deeper into the refugee camp with Laxy today, I discovered that I had been overlooking the people who had helped these refugees before us.”

“Are you talking about Alice?”

At this, Yisi looked around the empty dining room. Now, only she and Camilla were here. Mary and Tiffany were washing the dishes, Edith had taken Refina back to her room to draft a letter to Count Pescia—the content being to put the slime blood on the agenda. The remaining Laxy should be writing in her diary in the study. No one could hear the ensuing conversation.

It was worth mentioning that Yisi had not yet sent the World Dragon to Evelyn. Since it was still a soul-body, in order to conserve magic power, it spent most of its time sleeping in a corner of her room.

“Yes, it’s Alice Wozwahl.”

Yisi frowned slightly.

“Although Alice is willful, she doesn’t seem like the type to hatch a conspiracy. She has no reason, and no ability, to destroy a magic barrier.”

“My view is the same as yours, Onee-sama. Alice is only at the center of the incident, not a participant in the plan. She is a tool being used.”

“A tool?”

“Because she has been helping the refugees for a long time, and with her harmless appearance, Alice’s reputation among the refugees is much higher than we imagined. With just a little push from someone behind the scenes, Alice can be turned into an irreplaceable existence in their hearts—she can be seen as the goddess of the refugees. What Alice has done for them is like pulling people in suffering out of a deep well. Even if the items given to the refugees are ordinary in normal times, as long as they appear when the refugees need them most, they are equivalent to a life-saving straw.”

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Camilla’s words made Yisi nod slightly.

Any kind of animal, even a cat or a dog, would be grateful to someone who helped them in their time of suffering. And if the recipient of the help was human, and a large group of people living together, the feeling of gratitude could easily become much stronger through their interactions. These people would be tightly united because they had experienced the same hardship, and their cohesion would be far beyond ordinary imagination.

“So, if Alice were to say something outrageous at this time, the refugees would carry it out without a second thought? But what does that have to do with the person planning behind the scenes, or rather, what’s in it for them? Alice has to go back to the Wozwahl household every day. She’s not a character that can be easily controlled. Once Cynthia or Duke Wozwahl finds out, the plan will fail.”

“No, the person using Alice doesn’t need her to be obedient. If Alice were to, for no reason, have these refugees kill someone, even if their gratitude for her has reached a level close to faith, not many of them would actually do it. These refugees are farmers who have never seen human blood. It would be difficult for them to cross that line in their hearts. An unorganized faith is just a psychological support and cannot be converted into real action. But if anger and jealousy are used as catalysts, they will do incredible things.”

At this point, Yisi held up her palm to Camilla, signaling for her to give her a moment to think.

Indeed, as Camilla said, people would naturally feel resistant to taking up a butcher’s knife under someone else’s command. But what if it were put another way? If they were incited to take up the butcher’s knife, with anger or jealousy as the motivation, people could easily do things in the heat of the moment that they would not dare to do even if they were given ten thousand times the courage.

“What do you mean, Camilla?”

“If the person planning behind the scenes doesn’t control Alice, but directly harms her, makes her disappear from this world, and at the same time spreads the information that the person who harmed her was a noble, the refugees, who are already dissatisfied with the rulers, will naturally take action. At this time, there is no need for anyone to issue an order. As long as someone with ulterior motives mixes in the crowd and incites the masses, the refugees will rush into the city like ants. With the lax attitude of the city guards, they will be overwhelmed by the refugees before they can even react.”

The reason Camilla could make such a judgment was because she had seen with her own eyes the person who was inciting the refugees—that overly enthusiastic merchant who seemed to care so much about Alice.

When Alice was almost hit by the cooking utensils, the merchant was the first to stand up and twist the accident into a deliberate attempt on Alice’s life by a noble. He not only reinforced the setting that Alice was in danger, inciting the refugees to proactively protect her, but also quietly planted the seed that ‘a noble wants to harm Alice’ in their hearts. When they had a common enemy—the nobles—the refugees would become incredibly united and impulsive.

Although a little investigation would reveal that it was just a misunderstanding, the refugees, who were already dissatisfied with the nobles, would not bother to look into it. Not to mention that the merchant would make things sound even worse. No matter how the accused tried to defend themselves, it would be a drop in the ocean, completely useless.

“To harm Alice…”

Looking at Camilla’s exceptionally serious red eyes, Yisi fell into thought.

Combining the information she had gotten from Cynthia during the day—that the nobles wanted to use Alice as a tool to repair the sealing barrier—it was as if two people were drawing from opposite ends of a piece of paper with their respective pens, and in the end, the lines connected.

Something in her mind clicked.

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This was a premeditated plan.

Someone was working from both the noble and the refugee sides at the same time, planting the explosives on one side and lighting the fuse on the other.

If this plan were to succeed, firstly, Alice’s death would set off the refugees, and the nobles would be framed for her murder. Secondly, even if the riot of several thousand refugees could be suppressed, Alice’s death would also cause the Wozwahl family to break with the kingdom. At the same time, it would also cause Cynthia to leave Duke Wozwahl.

And if Cynthia’s obsession with Alice were to be combined with the cruel scene of a thousand refugees being suppressed and killed, with Cynthia’s personality, she would easily realize that the source of all these tragedies was not a single person, but the vast existence of the kingdom, the problem of this corrupt and stubborn country. The end would be just as Cynthia had said when she was drunk today: she would lead an uprising, overthrow the entire kingdom, and establish a paradise free of tragedy.

But the process would be heavy.

The kingdom would fall into an unprecedented civil war, and it was not impossible for it to be divided into several different small countries. In that case, it would fit what Camilla had said at the beginning, that the plotter wanted to throw the kingdom into chaos.

If this were a plan devised by a human, she would definitely applaud the other party for their understanding of human nature and the kingdom’s intelligence. To pay such a small price, without losing a single soldier, without even taking out the gold to tempt the enemy’s high nobles, yet to plunge the kingdom into a vortex of destruction. If this was not worthy of applause for its ingenuity, then probably no one in this world could receive such an honor.

If she hadn’t happened to meet Cynthia in the restaurant, and Camilla hadn’t happened to go deep into the refugee camp, she would probably still be in the dark until after the incident had already happened. The entire kingdom would not know that they were being used by others. Whether it was the nobles demanding Alice to patch up the barrier, or the struggle of the Wozwahl family, including the demands of the refugees, everything seemed to be a matter of course. For them to collide with each other was just a coincidence. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a seamless plan.

But it was obvious that this was not a plan that a human could make. To be able to do this, only an omniscient God could. Only by having a thorough grasp of the relationships between the nobles in the kingdom, and a meticulous control over each noble’s desires, conflicts, and principles, could such a bold and exquisite plan be devised. Even in the quasi-utopian society she had lived in in her past life, no organization or country could be precise to such a chilling degree.

Two words flashed in her mind.

The Gospel.

Only that book, like a book of fate, could have come up with such a plan. In the face of that omniscient Gospel, even a supposedly brilliant plan would seem mediocre.

But at the same time, Yisi couldn’t help but have a doubt.

If the Gospel was truly omniscient, then it should have been able to predict that she would not stand by and watch a tragedy happen. As long as she protected Alice, the key to the matter, Cynthia would not leave the Wozwahl family, and the Wozwahl family would not break with the kingdom. At the same time, the refugees would not rush into the city in a frenzy. As long as Alice was alive, any incitement would be quickly quelled by her, their psychological support.

So, why did the Gospel make such an arrangement?

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The clearer the information became, the stranger Yisi felt. It was as if the Gospel had miscalculated her. But the plan above had already fully explained that the Gospel was indeed omniscient. Therefore, rather than believing that she was the only exception, it was better to choose a more prudent assumption—that the Gospel was deliberately creating a situation for her to intervene.

Then a new question arose: what was the reason for the Gospel to make her intervene? The Gospel was an existence that served the Divine Religion. For it to have her, a Cardinal of the Ymir Church, save Alice, would bring no benefit to the Divine Religion. It was really hard to believe that the Gospel would self-direct a plan that cost people a lot of effort, but in the end, changed nothing.

Just thinking that the Gospel had already arranged everything, and that she still didn’t know what it was up to, made Yisi feel uneasy all over. Knowing that the other party had more information than her, and that their intelligence far surpassed her own, Yisi naturally felt passive, as if every move she made was a trap preset by the Gospel.

The rising irritation made Yisi rest her head on one hand and tap the table with the other.

“Onee-sama, have you thought of something?”

Tender and slender fingers rested on Yisi’s arm. Camilla closed the distance between them, her ruby-like eyes shimmering slightly.

The beautiful eyes made Yisi daze for a moment, then she quickly averted her gaze from her own reflection in Camilla’s eyes.

“Mm. The one who planned all this is probably not a person, but the Gospel.”

Yisi told Camilla the information she had gotten from Cynthia in the morning and her own deductions.

Camilla’s fine brows arched at a subtle angle, a look of wanting to speak but holding back on her face.

“…Onee-sama, I think you might be overthinking it. No matter how you look at it, it seems like the Gospel did not realize your existence.”

“How could that be? That is a supreme treasure passed down from the Land of the Gods, created by the strongest God-Forged Angel, Trino Type 1, and with the guidance of the Goddess Ymir during its creation. If I were to rashly assume that the Gospel had miscalculated me, and what if it has other plans, wouldn’t I suffer a great loss?”

“But if you were to make a move, couldn’t that also be a step in the Gospel’s plan? If you think like that, you won’t be able to take a single step. No matter where you step, you’ll feel like you’ve fallen into the Gospel’s trap.”

“No, wait, Camilla. Let’s think about it another way. If the Gospel didn’t actually miscalculate me, and the reason it’s leaving me alone is because it has arranged a situation where even if I were to intervene, it would be too late. If that’s the case, everything makes sense,” a sudden sense of urgency arose in her heart. Yisi shot up from her chair. The movement was so large that the chair fell to the floor with a clatter. “The key to the incident is Alice. I must prioritize ensuring her safety. No, she’s very likely already in danger.”

This was a race against time. No, it was a contest against the Gospel. Like a worthy opponent, a sense of tension and competitiveness instantly filled Yisi’s entire being.