Volume 8, Chapter 47 – Surfacing

In the most concise language possible, Yisi relayed the conclusion she and Camilla had reached to Cynthia. As expected, Cynthia’s first reaction was to raise an eyebrow in doubt.

“Is what you’re saying true?”

“This is just a conclusion that Camilla and I have deduced from the facts. It’s up to you whether you believe it or not.”

Perhaps out of fear, Alice, who was listening on the side, moved closer to Cynthia. Influenced by her younger sister’s emotions, Cynthia’s brow furrowed even deeper, her face full of thought.

“Everything is the Divine Religion’s plan? Although what you said matches the facts, I still find it hard to accept such a deduction. If the Divine Religion really wanted to cause a rift between me and the kingdom through Alice, it’s a bit too precise. This is not a plan that can be conceived with just intelligence, unless they had planted a spy in the Wozwahl household and had been observing me since birth. Otherwise, it’s impossible for them to know me to this extent. This is a huge gamble.”

As she spoke, Cynthia put on the white dress that Yisi had returned to her and sat back down beside Alice.

“That’s because they have the Gospel.”

“The Gospel? You mean that thing called the gospel book?”

Yisi’s nod made Cynthia snort.

“You actually believe in that kind of metaphysical nonsense? My destiny should be in my own hands. I do what I want. A so-called book of fate cannot control my will.”

“But it can control you through others. The Gospel knows that you have the talent to become a king, so it has chosen you to be the leader of an uprising. And in order to separate you from your noble family, it has specially designed this tragedy that hits you where it hurts. This is the Gospel’s method of manipulating you.”

“Tsk.”

Cynthia clicked her tongue impatiently. Of course, she understood this logic, but when a person knows that they have been designed and used, they will naturally have a feeling of resistance, of not being used, of not being treated as a chess piece. In short, she was being stubborn.

However, Cynthia was not an arrogant person. She quickly calmed down.

“…Can the Gospel really do this? I always thought it was just something the Divine Religion made up to promote themselves.”

“I haven’t seen the Gospel with my own eyes either, so I can’t give you a definite answer. But what is certain for now is that the development of events is pushing you to a dead end. As long as the sealing barrier is not repaired, the nobles’ anxiety will only grow. Even if you keep Alice by your side every day, there will always be a moment of carelessness. Once the nobles take advantage of that time to kidnap Alice—”

“Who would dare?! What good would that do those nobles? Who would want to bear the wrath of the House of Wozwahl?!”

Cynthia’s voice, mixed with anger, made the wooden planks of the carriage tremble.

As expected, as soon as anyone mentions wanting to harm Alice, Cynthia flies into a rage.

Doesn’t this just prove that by making a move against Alice, the kingdom can be led into chaos?

Yisi conveyed this message to Cynthia with her eyes.

The carriage gradually came to a stop. The coachman’s fearful voice was heard from outside.

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“F… Fourth Miss, what’s wrong?”

Her brows knitted together, Cynthia averted her gaze from Yisi.

“Don’t talk too much. Just do your job.”

“Y-yes.”

“Hah,” the coachman’s interruption eased the atmosphere a little. Cynthia held her forehead and let out a light breath. “I’m sorry. I get like this whenever Alice is mentioned. You’re right, Yisi. Alice is indeed my weak spot.”

“Sister…”

“Don’t be afraid. Even if I have to take you and leave the kingdom, I will not let the plans of the Divine Religion succeed.” Holding Alice in her arms, Cynthia continued, “So, the loosening of the World Dragon’s seal was because the Divine Religion was behind it. But just loosening the barrier, couldn’t the King’s Tower—damn it, His Majesty’s coma, was that their doing too? If they wanted to throw the kingdom into chaos, why not just kill His Majesty? Why are they staring at Alice?”

“I don’t know. But I know something else.”

A sly glint flashed in Yisi’s blue eyes.

Cynthia naturally asked.

“Know what?”

“The moment I told you about the Divine Religion’s plan, their plan had already failed.”

“Isn’t that a matter of course?”

It seems Cynthia hasn’t understood my meaning yet.

Yisi let out a light breath. What she meant was that as long as Cynthia knew that the Divine Religion was behind all this, then no matter what happened to Alice, their ultimate goal of throwing the kingdom into chaos would surely fail. If they were still relentless and wanted to kill Alice, then Cynthia’s wrath would be directed straight at the Divine Religion.

Of course, Yisi also believed that by now, the Gospel should have already made other plans and stopped its members from assassinating Alice. Otherwise, it would not be worthy of being called the omniscient book of fate.

No, in the end, if it was truly omniscient, it wouldn’t have overlooked an obvious variable like her.

Realizing this, Yisi slightly lowered her head. If there wasn’t some defect in the Gospel, such as being unable to predict people of a higher level, or being ineffective against souls from another world, then the only remaining possibility was that the Gospel had actually predicted what Yisi Enya would do, but in the plan it had arranged, even with Yisi Enya’s appearance, the result would not change.

“There’s an obvious contradiction.”

She muttered under her breath.

If the Gospel had arranged everything, and even her appearance could not change the result, then it shouldn’t have given her a chance at all, and shouldn’t have let her tell Cynthia about the Divine Religion’s conspiracy. Otherwise, no matter how the Gospel arranged it, Cynthia’s target of hatred would only be the Divine Religion. Unless the Gospel believed that even if Cynthia’s target of subjugation became the Divine Religion, the kingdom would still fall into chaos. But that was really hard to believe.

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Of course, this was from the perspective of the greater life and death. For Cynthia and herself, Alice’s life and death were more important. If Alice were to be killed, then both she and Cynthia would have lost to the Gospel.

In a provocative tone, Cynthia’s voice carried a cruel smile.

“Hmph, the Divine Religion has really played a good hand. Using the majority of the nobles to put pressure on the House of Wozwahl. With my cowardly father’s personality, if the Divine Religion were to do something when he was about to break under the pressure, he would probably hand Alice over. And if I want to protect Alice, the only option is to assassinate all those nobles. Unfortunately, now I know the plan in advance. I will protect Alice well.”

“What are you going to do?”

“The kingdom is not a place to stay for long. I’m taking Alice and leaving. To the Ymir Territory. No, if people find out we’ve settled in the Ymir Territory, the kingdom will use that to put pressure on them. The result will still be the same.” Cynthia paused, her turquoise eyes, looking straight at Yisi, filled with an unshakable resolve. “I’m going to the Blood Clan. Only the Blood Clan can ignore the pressure of the kingdom. No, it should be said that the kingdom would never dare to denounce the Blood Clan, no matter what. That is where Alice and I will find our paradise.”

“But that will cause all sorts of problems…”

Only the Astrid territory in the Blood Clan had sunlight. But putting aside the fact that it was located in the far east of the continent, and the two of them would face countless attacks from the Blood Clan as they crossed their territory, even if they arrived safely, it would be difficult for them to live peacefully in an environment of different races. The class suppression in the Blood Clan was extremely distinct. With Cynthia and Alice’s appearance and human identity, as long as they were discovered by the local nobles, they would surely find a way to get their hands on the two of them. Even with Cynthia’s strength of level 37, she would be outnumbered.

Of course, she could ask Andrea for a favor, but that would bring new problems. One had to know that back in the Blood Clan capital of Alvier, when she had been made a duchess by Andrea, even though her pureblood status was very obvious, she had been mocked by the young nobles for ‘picking up her status.’ In the eyes of those low-ranking nobles, Cynthia and Alice, who had obtained their status by clinging to Andrea, were lowly. So out of jealousy, they would trip them up in all sorts of unseen places. Their life there would probably be very difficult.

“That’s still better than waiting to die in the kingdom.”

“That’s true… Does Cynthia not know anyone who is particularly good at barrier magic? If we could find such a person, maybe we could repair the sealing barrier.”

“No, and such a person does not exist. The barrier set by the angels, the court magic chanter division has spent hundreds of years without being able to break it, let alone someone who can repair it in such a short time. If such a person existed, I would have tied them up and brought them here, no matter what.”

“I see…”

Yisi sighed with regret. She had asked Laxy before dinner, and her answer was no. Although Laxy, as a third-rank Angel of Guidance, had dabbled in all sorts of knowledge, barrier magic was a separate and profound field among the angels. Only an Angel of Guidance who specialized in it could possibly find the problem in a short time.

Previously, Yisi had also asked the World Dragon, just to try, but its answer was also that it was powerless. The World Dragon only knew about the core area of the barrier that sealed it. It had never come into contact with the areas outside the core, so it had nothing to say.

If the problem of the barrier was not solved, even if the people of the Divine Religion were driven from the kingdom’s lands, as long as Alice remained in the kingdom, she would be forced to her death by the nobles. The two sisters would eventually have to leave the Hels Kingdom.

Is this the only way for now?

“Hah… If you’re going to the Blood Clan, I can make some arrangements. As for the barrier—”

Thwip.

The sound of something sinking into flesh.

A dagger.

Even without looking, Yisi could identify the nature of this sound. She also often used short blades as throwing weapons.

Then, the painful neigh of a horse and the desperate shouts of the coachman came from outside the carriage.

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“Hey! Stop, stop!”

Ignoring the coachman’s roars, the carriage went out of control. Led by the horse, it charged forward at a very high speed. The three people in the carriage were also shaken from side to side. Yisi could only be glad that she hadn’t been standing, otherwise she would have been thrown out by the jolt.

It was obvious what had happened.

The horse had been stabbed by a dagger and had gone mad.

“Cynthia, take Alice and jump!”

“You too!”

Also sensing that something was wrong, Cynthia, holding Alice tightly, barely maintained her balance. She stood up and, with a powerful sword strike, cut open a fixed wooden bar at the back of the carriage, then kicked the back panel away. The summer gale immediately whipped rain against their faces.

As expected of a noble’s carriage, to have pre-arranged for even this kind of situation.

While marveling inwardly, Yisi stopped Cynthia, who was about to jump out.

“I’ll go first.”

“Are you sure?”

“Trust me.”

Without another word, Yisi leaped out of the carriage. Because she had enveloped herself in an airflow spell beforehand, she did not feel any pain when she fell to the ground, just rolled for a short time like a ball.

Then.

A sharp, hair-raising tearing sound came from beside her ear.

“As I thought. You’re more impatient than I imagined. [Nullification Barrier].”

Her whole body was enveloped in a transparent barrier that showed the outline of an eggshell in the torrential rain. Then, with a series of clanging sounds, all the arrows that had been shot from the dark stopped in front of her and fell powerlessly to the ground.

A premeditated assassination.

The Divine Religion, or the nobles?

None of that mattered. What was important was not to let Alice get hurt. The reason she had stopped Cynthia and jumped down first was because she had guessed that the other party, like the group that had attacked Duke Herbis in the morning, would have placed magic chanters and archers on the nearby rooftops, which would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Braving the rain of arrows, Yisi stood up and patted her clothes. Although she had the double protection of the airflow spell and the ‘Nullification Barrier,’ some muddy water had still splashed on her. The ‘Nullification Barrier’ was very effective against projectiles, but against things that were not lethal, like raindrops, its blocking effect was only average.

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“My clothes are dirty.”

Looking up, Yisi looked at the figures on the roofs on both sides—in order to aim at their prey, they had lit torches. Although the rain was so heavy it was like someone was pouring water on her head, and she couldn’t see the faces of the figures illuminated by the torches clearly, from their increasingly rapid firing frequency, these people should be anxious about why their arrows couldn’t pierce her.

She scanned the vicinity with the [Omniscient Map].

This was a deserted, abandoned street.

No one?

Then I can rest assured.

Yisi took a deep breath and coldly spat out four words.

“『 Great Earth Tremor 』.”

With Yisi as the center, about ten meters above the ground, a huge fist formed from golden light suddenly appeared. Before anyone could react, the fist, as if it were a physical entity, slammed heavily down on the ground where Yisi was.

Under the violent impact, the solid ground rippled like the surface of water, spreading outwards in circles. The shattered paving stones flew in all directions, and the street even sank several meters. At the same time, the surrounding houses, unable to withstand the impact, collapsed one after another, and the countless archers on them also lost their footing.

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It was a magnificent sight.

If one were to look down from a higher perspective, they would see that this entire block seemed to have suddenly collapsed, and all the buildings were razed to the ground in an instant.

“Gah!”

“D-damn it, what kind of magic is this!”

“We weren’t told the target had a magic chanter! Shouldn’t it just be one warrior?!”

“Quick, regroup!”

The terrified voices of men were heard in the darkness.

Although another blow would make them not dare to stand up again, her current mission was to protect Alice. Taking her to the temple or the Wozwahl ducal estate was the best choice—no, she should use a teleportation spell to send them to Andrea’s place overnight.

Yisi turned to Cynthia, but the person who came into view made her pupils contract.

So you’ve appeared, hero.