CH 621

Alarmed, Lilian shot to her feet and pricked up her ears to focus on all sounds in the vicinity.

With her keen senses as an Origin Level 2 transcendent, she picked up many sounds: the crackling campfire on the city walls, the metallic clanging of the armored patrols, and even the hastened heartbeat of the astonished Audrey.

However, the child’s fleeting voice was nowhere to be heard.

“Your Highness?” Audrey asked worriedly.

“…” Lilian didn’t answer right away. There was a long moment of silence before she replied, “…It’s nothing.”

She slowly settled back into her chair, but her previously composed expression was replaced with a contemplative frown. She hadn’t expected that the events transpiring in the Austine Empire would actually affect Roel. She had even told him that she would handle the issues happening in the Austine Empire by herself.

Roel’s standing was different from before, and the Ascart House had considerable influence too, but it would still be unwise for them to interfere in another country’s politics, especially the xenophobic Austine Empire.

Bringing a foreigner into their internal affairs, especially one from the Saint Mesit Theocracy, would indubitably damage Lilian’s reputation and incite vehement opposition from the nobles. That was also the reason Roel kept his distance from Lilian on the surface.

However, it looked like the Ascart House, or at least Roel himself, was going to be dragged into the Austine Empire’s affairs because of Paul.

What’s going on? Lilian gave the matter some thought before raising her head to look at Audrey. “Is there anyone who might harm Paul?”

“Harm His Highness Paul? This…” Audrey was perplexed by the question.

Paul Ackermann, as an illegitimate child, was a shunned prince in the Austine Empire. No one wanted anything to do with him, and he didn’t pose any threat in the fight for the crown either. There was nothing to be gained from harming him, not to mention that harming a member of the imperial family was no joking matter.

Who would be so foolish as to dare make a move against Paul?

“Your Highness, based on the intelligence we have collected, the major factions in the Austine Empire have nothing to gain from harming His Highness Paul. It wouldn’t even be considered a major incident. There’s a possibility that someone might have a personal vendetta against him, but we have found no such people in His Highness Paul’s social circle,” Audrey replied.

“…I see.”

Lilian had to concede that Paul had maintained an extremely low profile despite being a prince of the Austine Empire.

Paul’s days in Saint Freya Academy had been his happiest since he became an imperial prince. No one dared to cross him, as Roel had taken him under his wing, and he had made many close friends in the Bluerose Faction. While he had gotten into conflicts with the transfer students from the Knight Kingdom, those had been resolved in due time. In fact, they were now close allies.

Following that, the war with the deviants suddenly escalated, and Roel went missing not much later. That had been a dark year for Rose of Dawn.

Paul was assigned to one of Lukas’ armies during that period of time, where he accrued military accomplishments. However, he didn’t make any enemies there; if anything, he ended up saving quite a few people.

It was unlikely that someone would harbor a personal vendetta toward him.

The other possibility was that Emperor Lukas was the one after Paul’s life, but there was no need for him to go through so much trouble for that. If he intended to take Paul’s life, the latter would have been dead by now, and Lilian wouldn’t have received a warning from her daughter.

“…That means I have no choice but to bring him over to our side?” Lilian murmured.

“Your Highness?” Audrey’s face warped in shock.

Ideally, they should find and eliminate the person after Paul’s life, but with no leads to work with, the next best alternative was for her to use her influence and Rose of Dawn’s connections to protect Paul.

So far, Lilian still wasn’t sure about the details of the situation surrounding Paul, so she couldn’t gauge how this matter would affect Roel, but she figured that it had to be something important to warrant her future child anxiously relaying a message to her.

That had been the case for the Battle of Scorched Earth, so it should be the same here.

Besides, Paul had helped relay messages between her and Roel during their academy days, making him their benefactor. On top of that, he was a member of Rose of Dawn too. She couldn’t turn a blind eye to his plight if he was truly in danger.

“Your Highness, why do you wish to bring His Highness Paul over to our side?”

“There’s an important reason behind this. Get it done no matter what it takes!” Lilian spoke with an unprecedentedly stern voice.

Audrey quickly reined in her astonishment and solemnly accepted the orders. With this, the gears of fate began turning toward an unknown direction.

…

In a quiet palace, Alicia bathed under the moonlight while gazing at the shadowy plains beneath. Her crimson eyes flickered with uncertainty as she thought about recent happenings.

It had been some time since she returned from the battlefield between the humans and the deviants, but she had only met the Mother Goddess once since then. The latter had been in hibernation for the remaining period of time.

Clearly, it wasn’t time for the Mother Goddess to fully awaken yet.

In the twilight prior to the return of the silver moon, Alicia’s responsibility was to do everything she could to maintain the advantage of the Mother Goddess’ faction.

That being said, the Mother Goddess hadn’t assigned her any mission. Her decisions were based on the memories she had inherited from the Mother Goddess. She naturally viewed the Savior as her nemesis, a target she had to eliminate at all costs.

Things hadn’t been going well in that regard.

It might have appeared as if Light Devourer had dealt a fatal blow to the Egg of the Beast God, but the truth was that it hadn’t hurt the latter’s core at all.

Alicia could feel the Savior’s power coursing through the ground beneath the prairie. There was far more than one Egg of the Beast God. Those monsters had only remained hidden thus far due to the concealment from Deviant Sovereign Banjol’s Divine Domain, but now that the latter was dead, they would gradually come to life.

The Eggs of the Beast God had the power to partially neutralize the Six Calamities’ powers, so Alicia sought to destroy them in a sweep, which was why she had been biding her time. Just as she had expected, those monsters had begun spreading their reach across Tark Prairie.

Alicia was bathing under the moon in preparation for the upcoming battle, but for some reason, she was feeling a little unnerved today.

As a high transcendent who had inherited a portion of the Black Moon’s powers, her intuition was extraordinarily sharp. Something that could make her feel uneasy was anything but minor, which was why she was confused.

She should be feeling relaxed following the Deviant Sovereign’s death, since that would have dealt a huge blow to the Savior’s faction. Yet, the situation was the opposite of that.

Did something happen, or…

A silhouette flashed across Alicia’s mind. Her crimson eyes uncontrollably widened, and her vexation intensified.

“It’s happening again,” she said with gritted teeth, her bitter face carrying a hint of worry.

Since hearing her name on the battlefield, she had been having flashbacks about all sorts of weird things and a person’s silhouette. It was a black-haired man, whose face was blurred due to her incomplete memory, but for some reason, it made her heartbeat hasten.

She knew that man wasn’t an enemy, since she felt no hostility when thinking about him. It was likely to be someone whom she was close to as a human. Nevertheless, it was unusual for her to have such recollections when her memory hadn’t fully returned yet.

It should have been theoretically impossible.

“Is it my physical memory, or…” Alicia murmured while clutching her forehead in distress, not knowing how she should deal with this situation.

She knew she ought to let go of her past memories and not let them affect her, but she was held back by a wave of fear each time she thought of doing so.

What am I afraid of?

Truth be told, she was vaguely aware of the answer. She was afraid that she would ever stand on opposing sides with the silhouette she had been seeing in her memories. That was likely the reason she had been subconsciously ignoring her memories as a human.

She thought that those feelings would fade away as long as she turned her eyes away.

The memories she had inherited from the Mother Goddess were much greater than what she had as a human. Just like how humans would slowly forget memories useless to them, Alicia thought that the memories she had cast aside would eventually be devoured by the shadows as long as she didn’t rouse them.

But the situation was different today.

Her unease didn’t come from an urge to see someone; it was a premonition. She narrowed her eyes to ponder the meaning behind the premonition, but before she could figure anything out, a silver fog suddenly drifted toward her and billowed.

She snapped out of her daze and extended her finger to touch the fog.

“You found it?”

Alicia widened her eyes in realization, attributing her unease to the imminent battle. As if answering her question, the silver fog slowly expanded to form a door.

Alicia first checked her own condition before opening the door and stepping into the silver fog. Behind the door was a long corridor obscured by the fog. She advanced amidst the silence, and another door soon appeared in front of her. She opened the second door and walked out.

On the other side of the door was a barren night plain.

A black sphere was rising from the ground, reminiscent of a hibernating worm emerging from the earth, except that it was tens of meters in diameter. The mana it emanated was also awfully ominous.

Alicia’s expression darkened when she saw the new form of the Egg of the Beast God.

How many of these things are there?

Under the silver moon, her crimson eyes glowed eerily as her aura began to surge.

“Regardless, I just have to destroy all of them,” Alicia calmly murmured.

With a wave of her hand, Light Devourer, who had been awaiting her orders in the distance, stripped away its concealment and gathered itself. Just as Light Devourer was about to release its light, she suddenly shuddered in alarm.

She quickly turned her head around, but there was no one behind her. The feeling of someone watching her had vanished in an instant. This peculiar situation left her frowning for a long time before she finally turned her attention back to the enemy before her.

Is it my imagination? Alicia wondered.

As she turned her head back, a speck of light rushed out of a distant abyss and surged forth.