CH 616

Artasia stood amidst the blossoming flowers as her question echoed in the empty palace.

Roel fell silent.

He had met Artasia in his Witness State with Lilian. To defeat an insurmountable enemy, he had little choice but to seek the help of the Witch Queen, but the latter raised a condition, which was to be hosted in Lilian’s body.

He eventually managed to prevent Artasia’s invasion of Lilian’s body by temporarily imbuing Lilian with the trait of a dreamwalker via Astrid’s blood, but this matter left a strong impression on him. In particular, the Witch Queen had shared her wish with him.

Unlike Grandar and Peytra, Artasia desired to be revived in the real world, and the easiest way for her to achieve her goal was to possess another person’s body.

However, it was not as if any body would work for the Witch Queen. By her standards, most prodigies in the world were probably nothing but empty talk. There weren’t many people in the world who could meet her requirements, but Roel and Lilian’s child definitely fit the criteria.

Even Roel was shocked to see such a young child using temporal spells.

Artasia would have noticed the temporal distortion arising from the temporal spell as well, and that was more than enough motive for her to lay her hand on their child.

Roel stared at the Witch Queen with narrowed eyes, whereas the latter continued to examine the flower in her hand with an impassive expression. After a long bout of silence, Roel shook his head and replied, “No, I have no such thought.”

“…Lying is a bad habit, my hero.” Artasia turned around and looked at him in dissatisfaction.

“No, it isn’t a lie,” Roel replied.

He slowly walked up to her in the flower field and stared into her madder-red eyes. Before he knew it, his hand had already reached out to stroke her head.

“Hm?” Artasia widened her eyes in shock.

Roel immediately snapped out of his daze and hurriedly retracted his hand, only for Artasia to grab it on its path of retreat.

“My hero, can you explain what you were doing?”

“Well…”

Roel was at a loss for words. He also didn’t know why he had done that. He stared at Artasia, who was waiting for an answer from him, and for some reason, his heart felt inexplicably stifled. For some reason, her earlier self-torturing question had left him exceptionally uncomfortable.

The doubt he harbored regarding her was indeed hurtful. Artasia had overcome many hurdles together with him since their meeting. Such doubt shouldn’t exist between them.

“I don’t know either. You looked like you were going to cry, so…”

“…What kind of reason is that? My hero, you shouldn’t crack such jokes.”

“I’m not joking.”

Artasia was taken aback. She flung off Roel’s hand in a huff and turned around.

“Me crying? How incredulous. Such a thing would have been a joke in the ancient era.”

“I don’t know about the ancient era, but it isn’t a joke to me,” Roel replied with a sigh, as he bent down and plucked a black rose to examine it too.

“…Why don’t you doubt me? I told you my goal when we first met,” Artasia asked.

“You did, but it’s already a thing of the past,” Roel replied as he gently smoothed out the thorns on the black rose with his mana. “I don’t know why you are so concerned about her, but I don’t think that you’d hurt her.”

“Is that all? My hero, you’re too naive. Do you earnestly think I’d resist the temptation of revival for your sake?”

“I… simply thought you wouldn’t leave my side,” Roel replied hesitantly.

“!” Artasia widened her eyes in astonishment.

Having her thoughts accurately guessed caused her heartbeat to hasten, and her face turned a little red. Before she could refute him, he suddenly delivered a black rose to her.

“I know it sounds narcissistic, but I believe we are close enough to not have to second guess each other’s intentions. You have helped me through a lot, and I shouldn’t have doubted you. I’m sorry.”

“You are really… That’s the reason you always get into so much trouble!”

“Pardon me?”

“It’s nothing!” Artasia harrumphed.

She reached behind her to take the black rose Roel was offering her. She brought it forward and dazedly stared at its smoothed thorns before letting out a deep exhalation. She could feel her boiling anger slowly dying down.

“My hero, are you a telepath?”

“Of course not. Don’t you know better than anyone else what spells I’m capable of?”

“That’s true…” Artasia replied with a chuckle. “The world isn’t at peace now. Even if I return to the world right now, it’s unlikely I’d regain my powers anytime soon. I’d just lose my life in vain. So you don’t have to worry about me going anywhere for now.”

“Got it,” Roel replied with a smile.

Artasia lifted the black rose to her lips, either to take a whiff of its fragrance or to keep herself from blurting her deepest wish. After a moment of silence, she murmured in conviction as if making a vow, “…I’ll accompany you to the very end, no matter what happens.”

“Did you say something, Artasia?”

“It’s nothing. My hero, it’s about time for you to return…”

The Witch Queen waved her hand, and Roel suddenly felt his consciousness blurring. A wave of drowsiness assaulted him.

Is she evicting me from her domain?

Roel struggled to keep his eyes open as he looked at the white-haired woman, who had turned around to look at him at this final moment. Her face was flushed, yet there was indescribable sorrow in her eyes.

“!”

Artasia hadn’t expected him to still be awake. Astonishment flickered across her madder-red eyes as she hurriedly waved her hand once more, plunging his consciousness into darkness.

…

“Mina, how credible is your information?”

“They are handwritten internal reports by the Second Epoch’s Twilight Sages Assembly. I’d say that it is the most credible information we have thus far.”

“I see.”

The following day after his return from the Witch Queen’s palace, Roel stared at the information before him contemplatively.

Wilhelmina stood beside him, fidgeting a fair bit and looking uncomfortable. Instead of being equipped in her usual heavy armor and sword, she was wearing a simple dress. She knew that this was necessary as her fight now was not on the battlefield but in the bedroom.

A few days ago, Antonio raised a proposal from the Country of Scholars regarding the expansion of the Kingmaker Clan. To increase their weight in the negotiation, Lilian and the others had dragged Wilhelmina, Knight Kingdom Pendor’s princess, to their side.

From then on, Wilhelmina had been tasked with a mission that embarrassed her so much that she wanted to dive into any crevice and hide—bearing Roel’s child.

It had only been days since she made sense of her feelings for Roel, and she didn’t even know if they could be considered lovers yet. The sudden expectation to bear his child was too much for her to bear.

She had raised this matter with Nora and the others during their meeting, but after hearing about how she spent her time with Roel in private, the others chose to disregard her opposition. To be exact, they already knew how things would go down.

“I did hope it wouldn’t be the case, but I think the situation is clear. Unless you directly tell him that you detest him, there’s no way he would disregard you,” Nora said in resignation.

“Detest him? That’s impossible!” Wilhelmina exclaimed.

“And that’s why I said that the outcome is already decided. It’s only a matter of time before your relationship is confirmed. Our priority right now is to stop that proposal, or else things would only become trickier in the future.”

Nora and the others’ disregard for Wilhelmina’s feelings and relationship development left the latter flustered. Not knowing how to respond, she awkwardly changed the conversation to the intelligence Roel had recently tasked her to look to.

During the Battle of Scorched Earth, a person suspected to be Alicia had appeared alongside the Six Calamities. Roel even lost his composure for a brief moment and nearly lost his life to Light Devourer’s attack. When everything was over, he requested Wilhelmina to investigate a matter—the Mother Goddess’ and the Savior’s whereabouts.

Wilhelmina immediately understood Roel’s intention and decided to aid him. Unfortunately, the outcome wasn’t too optimistic.

Most races did have records stating that the Savior’s soul was sealed in the Abyss after His descent into depravity, but there were no further details about the exact location. As for the Mother Goddess, there was no information about Her land of hibernation at all.

The Twilight Sages Assembly had specially conducted research on this matter, and their conclusion was that the Savior and the Mother Goddess were hibernating in an independent dimension separate from the Sia Continent, and this dimension couldn’t be accessed through normal means.

And when it came to the topic of dimensions, a certain calamity naturally came to mind.

The Second Epoch’s Ardes deduced that the Mother Goddess’ land of hibernation was related to Shrouding Fog. What lent credence to this conjecture was Roel and Wilhelmina’s having found possible traces of Alicia in Tark Stronghold when they were in Shrouding Fog’s space.

This made their next course of action clear.

Roel turned to Wilhelmina and said, “Thanks for your hard work, Mina. My apologies for troubling you when you already have so much on your plate.”

“No, I’m doing this of my own volition. I am Alicia’s friend too,” Wilhelmina replied with an embarrassed wave of her hand. She stared at Roel and asked, “What do you intend to do next?”

“I’ll clear my work as quickly as possible, then set out to rescue Alicia as soon as my body is healed,” Roel replied with a determined look.

Wilhelmina nodded. “I understand. We’ll go together.”

“Mina?”

“We are bound by a vow. It’s my duty to protect you, especially when you’re going somewhere that dangerous.”

“…” Roel fell silent.

His lack of response made Wilhelmina anxious, and she further pressed her case. “You have to bring me along. My strength might pale in comparison to yours, but I can at least shoulder some of your burden…”

“You’re already strong enough, Mina,” Roel refuted with a stern expression.

Wilhelmina was a powerful Origin Level 1 transcendent. Her Swordheart was a cheat skill that granted her tremendous burst power with no downsides, and her Courage Origin Attribute was triggered as soon as she entered battle, bestowing more power the more valiantly she fought.

She was practically a berserker on the battlefield. She was more than capable of shouldering some of Roel’s burden.

Wilhelmina’s eyes lit up upon hearing Roel’s evaluation. “If that’s the case…”

“I’m sorry, Mina. You’re powerful, but I need to do this alone.”

“…Why?” Wilhelmina posed her question with widened eyes.

Roel got up from his seat and walked to her, saying, “It’d be easier to explain it with my actions.”

“Hm?”

Roel reached out and embraced Wilhelmina, gently stroking her long hair. With a tender voice, he said, “Alicia is important to me, but you are as well, Mina. This operation could be dangerous. It’d go against my goals if I endanger you while trying to save her.”

“But Roel…”

“It’s one thing if we are at war, but this is my selfish motive. You shouldn’t risk your life here.”

“But what if you encounter danger alone? You should know how important you are right now!” Wilhelmina exclaimed worriedly with clenched fists, hoping to change his mind.

To her surprise, Roel shook his head.

“To be honest… I have a feeling.” Roel turned his gaze away from Wilhelmina to the moonlit sky, and after a moment of silence, he said, “It might be safer for me to go alone.”