CH 618

A day later, the united army held a huge celebration in the new Tark Stronghold to welcome the returning armies who fought in the Battle of Scorched Earth.

The united army had its fair share of victories since the outbreak of war with the deviants, but this was the first time in humankind’s history that such a huge celebration was held before the conclusion of the war.

Humankind had defeated the deviants several times thus far, but each time, the upper echelons of the united army knew that they had only pushed them back for the time being. No one knew for sure how many deviants were lurking in the eastern prairie, so victory was transient.

No one knew when another batch of deviants would come knocking.

Fighting the deviants was like dealing with weeds. Unless they uprooted the deviants, this battle was doomed to be never-ending.

However, the situation had changed.

The awakening of Deviant Sovereign Banjol threatened humankind’s survival, and Roel Ascart’s triumph against it was a momentous milestone. Race Sovereigns determined a race’s prosperity and decline, and the death of their Race Sovereign would shake the race’s standing.

The decline of many older civilizations could be linked to the death of their Race Sovereigns, and some of them never recovered from the blow and eventually went extinct.

The deviants were beastmen who had lost their sanity and mutated when the Savior fell into depravity. As powerful as they were, they were mindless beings who needed a strong leader to unite them to unleash their full potential. This could be seen from how the awakening of the Deviant Sovereign had united the deviants’ Race Sovereigns, posing an unprecedented threat to humankind.

Roel’s feat of killing the Deviant Sovereign had changed the tides of war, changing the fates of humankind and the deviants for good. All soldiers fighting on the frontlines understood this.

Other than that, the return of the hundred thousand elites from the disappeared Tark Stronghold was also something worth celebrating. This was the united army’s first major victory over the Six Calamities after living under their shadow for the past few years.

In the joyous atmosphere of these two events, the united army made an exception to hold a celebration at the new Tark Stronghold despite still being at war.

The fortress magic tools were modified to release fireworks in the sky, making the night sky as bright as the day. Army magicians banded together to release all kinds of fireworks, putting their capabilities to use somewhere aside from the battlefield for once.

The returning soldiers were welcomed by a bright red carpet with two long rows of soldiers standing at attention. Cheers erupted from the crowd. Holy Eminence John, who had arrived ahead of the procession, stood above Tark Stronghold’s entrance to witness the ceremony.

At the forefront of the returning soldiers was Roel Ascart, followed by Nora Xeclyde, Charlotte Sorofya, Lilian Ackermann, and Wilhelmina Cambonyte, the four famous front commanders. Trailing behind them were Kurt, Brittany, Selina, Juliana, and the other flag bearers.

The group marched forth under the excited gazes of the crowd. Before them, Tark Stronghold’s humongous gates creaked open.

In accordance with the Saint Mesit Theocracy’s tradition, only a victorious army was allowed to return via the main entrance. The complete opening of Tark Stronghold’s entrance symbolized the highest level of unreserved respect for the returning soldiers.

Roel led the soldiers into Tark Stronghold amidst resounding cheers, thus commencing the celebration.

…

The celebration held in the new Tark Stronghold was not just a reward for Roel but for all soldiers who had participated in the Battle of Scorched Earth. They were allowed to eat as much as they pleased, be it desserts or meats, though there was a restriction on their alcohol consumption. Nevertheless, this was still special treatment on the frontlines.

Loud singing echoed throughout the fortress, and soldiers from different armies mingled and shared their experiences on the battlefield.

Just outside the banquet hall, Roel quietly watched the fireworks from the open balcony.

Today was a huge celebration for the united army, but he couldn’t lift his mood. Despite the joyous occasion, he had a premonition that something was brewing in the shadows, and danger was just lurking in the vicinity.

High transcendents occasionally had inexplicable intuitions about danger approaching them. This ability was unrelated to how strong the transcendent was; it resembled a prophecy more. Even amongst high transcendents, Roel’s intuition was uncannily sharp. His intuition had served him well in overcoming the crises he had faced thus far.

He had been feeling stifled ever since he received Geralt’s letter and learned about the internal circumstances surrounding Rose of Dawn.

Inside the banquet hall, Nora and Prince Kane were chatting with Holy Eminence John. Charlotte was standing alongside her father, Bruce Sorofya. Wilhelmina was chatting with Sword Saint King Friedrich about their swordsmanship insights.

It was a celebration involving both the older and newer generation, but one person was conspicuously absent—Lilian Ackermann. She had taken her leave, saying that she had matters to attend to, but Roel could figure out a thing or two.

According to the latest information Geralt received from Paul, there had been unusual movements in the Austine Empire in recent days, but contrary to what most people thought, their cause wasn’t the war for the throne.

The Austine Empire had been politically unstable for some time now due to the three candidates vying for the throne. It didn’t help that Emperor Lukas had put off selecting his successor, thus prolonging the unrest.

However, all of these should have nothing to do with Paul Ackermann, the illegitimate child of the Ackermann Imperial Family. Illegitimate children weren’t recognized in the Austine Empire, not to mention that there were more attractive candidates in the running for nobles to support.

Here came the question: why would Emperor Lukas hide Paul, making it completely impossible to contact the latter?

Roel didn’t know the answer to the question, but he sensed that there was more than met the eye here.

He hadn’t forgotten who was the true protagonist of Eyes of the Chronicler.

While Paul Ackermann didn’t become the Austine Empire’s emperor in this world due to Roel’s interference, Roel had a feeling that Paul was carrying some kind of secret. For instance, there was something amiss about Paul’s birth. Juliana had also made peculiar remarks about Paul’s blood.

It was not just once or twice that Juliana had said that Paul’s blood tasted horrible; she claimed that it had a bitter, ancient taste. Roel, as a human, couldn’t understand Juliana’s perception of taste, but he could tell that this evaluation was anything but normal.

Other than that, Paul’s growth had been phenomenal, too.

According to the records, Paul had been an orphan in a remote village before Emperor Lukas found him. He only started studying a year prior to his enrollment in Saint Freya Academy, but the latest intelligence showed that he was already an Origin Level 3 transcendent, and he could make a breakthrough to Origin Level 2 soon.

He had become one of the faces of the golden generation, paling only slightly in comparison to Kurt and the others, despite having missed the critical years of his transcendent development. This was an unimaginable feat that transcended common sense.

There was definitely more to Paul than what was on the surface.

Emperor Lukas might have caught on to something, but there was nothing Roel and the others could do at this point. Paul was a prince of the Austine Empire; however Emperor Lukas dealt with him was their internal affair.

Aside from that, Roel was also extremely worried about Alicia. He wanted to look for her, but how was he supposed to find her without any clues to her whereabouts?

His modus operandi during times like this was to turn to Charlotte for help—her divination often proved to be invaluable on such occasions. To his surprise, she was unable to provide him with an answer this time around.

Roel had already requested Charlotte to divine Alicia’s location a few days ago, but the result was unusually erratic. Charlotte had two conjectures regarding this matter.

One: Alicia’s location might have been obscured by a spatial spell.

Two: Alicia might have undergone some changes that hindered the divination.

As the Mother Goddess awoke from Her slumber, Alicia had started to regain her true powers. To some extent, she was no longer a human but an existence similar to the Witches or the Blood Clan’s Progenitor, or in essence, a higher being. Her heightened level of existence made it much harder to peer into her fate.

Unable to do anything about that, Roel only became more uneasy as time passed.

While the Mother Goddess wouldn’t hurt Alicia due to her association with the Black Moon, he was also aware that the Alicia he knew would stray further from him as more time passed.

He still vividly remembered how the silver-haired woman was completely unfazed by his cries; that had come as a huge shock to him, to the point that he forgot to protect himself and nearly lost his life. Since then, he had been wondering what had happened to her.

He could think of two reasons behind this matter.

The Mother Goddess might have tampered with Alicia’s memories to make her forget her past. Alternatively, Alicia might have also temporarily lost her previous sense of self as a result of her awakening.

After careful contemplation, he thought that the latter was more plausible.

There were spells to tamper with a person’s memories and soul, but it was nigh impossible to pull it off on Alicia, who had inherited a portion of the Mother Goddess’ powers, even when she hadn’t fully awakened her powers yet.

Besides, he couldn’t imagine the Mother Goddess manipulating other people’s memories. If She could bring Herself to resort to such unscrupulous means, Her battle with the Savior would have concluded much earlier back in the ancient era.

“Is this the side effect of her awakening? But how can I dispel something like that…” Roel looked at the night sky beyond the fortress as he murmured under his breath. He quickly shook his head and muttered, “No, this won’t do. I have to first find her, or else…”

“Or else she’ll become humankind’s enemy. Not even the Ascart House will be able to shelter her then.”

“Principal Antonio?”

Astonished, Roel turned around and saw a white-robed Principal Antonio walking toward him. His face slowly turned severe as the latter’s words sank in.

“Principal Antonio, are those words your opinion, or do they represent the united army’s will?”

“It’s my personal opinion. It’s too early for the united army to make a stance, since we haven’t seen Alicia in person, but… there are already rumors floating around.”

“As I have expected.”

Worry seeped into Roel’s eyes. Principal Antonio sighed as he looked at the silver moon in the night sky.

Alicia’s unexpected appearance had huge rippling effects on the final outcome in the Battle of Scorched Earth, but in truth, she had only been there for a short period of time. It was less than half a minute between her arrival and her departure, and most of the soldiers were busy dealing with the mutated deviants spawned from the Egg of the Beast God in the meantime.

The only ones who noticed her were Roel, Kurt, Brittany, and other high-ranking commanders, who were essentially his subordinates. That made it much easier to contain the news.

It helped that Roel, a fellow member of the Ascart House, had defeated Deviant Sovereign Banjol and saved the personnel of the disappeared Tark Stronghold. It was also a good thing that Alicia didn’t attempt to attack the human soldiers through the Six Calamities.

These considerations convinced the united army’s upper echelons to withhold their judgment on this matter for the time being.

However, it was only a matter of time before Alicia appeared again, and there was no saying what she would do. That was also what Antonio and Roel were worried about.

“Should Miss Alicia or the Six Calamities under her attack us, she’ll be deemed to be a traitor to humankind. It’ll be hard to placate the others even with our influence. The Ascart House will be affected as well.”

“I understand. I’ll bring her back before then.”

“How do you intend to do it?”

“…I’m still thinking about it. The biggest problem now is finding her,” Roel replied.

Antonio nodded as if he had expected such an answer before saying, “I do have a suggestion, just that it poses some risks.”

“You have an idea?”

Roel immediately raised his head to look at Antonio. The latter reached into his pocket and took out a cage.

“This is…”

“Have you forgotten? You used it before.”

“I used it before? Wait a moment; is this…”

“Yes, it’s the spirit guide you used in the entrance examination. This one belongs to Alicia,” Antonio replied with a smile.

The cage emanated a faint glow as if answering Antonio’s words. Roel widened his eyes as he immediately understood what Antonio was getting at.

Saint Freya Academy’s freshmen enrollment tournament, Night of the Demons, was held in a dungeon, which was an application of spatial spells. It was with the help of the spirit guides, whose senses transcended space, that the freshmen were able to navigate the folded spaces.

Conversely, this meant that those capable of spatial spells could use this trait of the spirit guides to find their owner. The problem was that the missing person had to be previously bonded with the spirit guide, and the tracker had to be capable of using spatial spells. It was hard to meet these two conditions simultaneously.

“We kept Miss Alicia’s spirit guide for a period of time as per convention for Ringbearers. Magaret made a record of her mana due to how unique it was, which allowed us to find it amongst countless other spirit guides.”

“I see.” Roel’s eyes slowly hardened with determination.

He could use Silver Devourer’s ability to sieve through different dimensions to find Alicia, and the spirit guide would tell him whether he was in the right dimension. The only problem was that he didn’t know how long it would take, and overusing Silver Devourer would be dangerous.

Nevertheless, he was willing to give it a try as long as he could find Alicia.

“Thank you, Principal Antonio,” Roel said with clenched fists.

“Not at all. Alicia is our academy’s White Ringbearer too. It’s only right for me to help her. I have another piece of news for you.”

“Another piece of news?” Roel looked at Antonio in confusion.

“Lord Astrid is about to wake up,” Antonio said with a serious but excited expression.