Chapter 305: Irreplaceable
Chapter 305: Irreplaceable
Roel took a glance at the clock on the wall and sighed helplessly. He quickly got up and started tidying up his appearance.
Based on what he had agreed on with Lilian, they were supposed to have already changed shifts by now. However, she didn’t come in to wake him up.
I guess it’s a good thing that my encounter with Artasia allowed me to wake up in time, or else I might have slept till the following day.
After tidying himself up, he walked out of the bedroom and saw Lilian sitting gracefully on the lounge outside, diligently guarding the area. She was a little surprised to see Roel up and moving around. She had just checked on him a while ago and he was still fast asleep then.
“You’re awake? Did something happen?”
“It’s time for us to change shifts. You should have woken me up.”
“I’m stronger than you. Besides, it’s only right for me, as the older sister, to take care of my younger brother.”
“…”
Lilian’s insistent attitude made Roel sigh yet again.
“Go to sleep right now,” he said.
“But…”
“Preserving the condition of the elites is one of the basic principles of warfare. My fighting prowess is greatly restricted here, so it’s likely that I’d need your help on many things later on.”
“… I understand.”
Hearing that she was needed put Lilian in a good mood, and she obediently marched off to sleep. Meanwhile, Roel stretched his body a little before finally settling down on the sofa. He was ready to deal with any fights that would be breaking out tonight.
There was another reason why he chose to sleep first—the movement patterns of the monsters in the Salvation Legion. Those black-armored soldiers and black-robed figures tended to move in the middle of the night, so he specifically chose to stand sentry at this time so that he could respond to any emergency calls for help without having to trouble Lilian.
His prediction proved to be wildly off the mark.
There was no emergency tonight at all. In fact, the frontlines were calmer than ever.
What’s going on? Is the Salvation Brotherhood holding themselves back out of fear of Lilian’s strength?
Unable to find reasons to rationalize this bizarre peacefulness, Roel felt deeply uneasy, as if he had overlooked something very important.
His thoughts were soon disrupted with a shout coming from the bedroom.
“Roel!”
“!”
Roel dashed into the bedroom the moment he heard Lilian’s shout, but there were no enemies in the room. There was only a trembling Lilian sitting on the bed, breathing raggedly.
Did she have a nightmare?
Noticing how Lilian’s amethyst eyes were quivering uneasily, Roel reproached himself for his carelessness. Too many things had happened recently that he had forgotten that Lilian wasn’t in the right state of mind at the moment.
Right before entering the Witness State, she witnessed the gruesome corpse of one of her acquaintances. The revelation that they were bloodline kin distracted her from the trauma for a moment, but she swiftly received her second shock when the two of them were forcefully separated from one another in the Witness State, putting her in a worse condition.
She could still suppress her traumas and fears with her logical mind when she was awake, but when she finally let down her guard in her sleep, it was inevitable that everything would come biting her in the form of a nightmare.
Roel felt his heart ache for her.
“Senior, calm down. I’m here!”
“… Roel.”
Watching as Roel walked over to the side of the bed while whispering words of consolation to her, Lilian stared at him blankly for a moment before abruptly lurching forward to hug him tightly.
She greedily soaked herself in his warmth for a long while before her tense nerves finally loosened a little. Seeing this, Roel pulled a chair over to the bedside and settled her back down onto the bed. He continued holding onto her hand while gently coaxing her to sleep.
“Senior, I won’t be going anywhere. I’ll be sitting right here, so don’t worry and go to sleep.”
“…”
His words made Lilian feel a surge of embarrassment from her earlier display of weakness, and she quickly hid half of her face under the blanket. But at the same time, she didn’t want to let go of his hand either.
In the end, she gave a silent nod of agreement.
She was supposed to head off to sleep, but her eyes kept sneaking their way toward him once every few seconds. This brought out another sigh from Roel. Knowing that she wouldn’t get any rest at this rate, he decided to distract her with another topic first.
“What did you dream of earlier?”
“… A fight.”
“A fight?”
“Yes, it was chaotic. We ended up getting separated once more.”
“… I see.”
Roel nodded comprehendingly as he recalled how Lilian shouted his name earlier. It brought a surge of warmth into his heart.
Back in Eyes of the Chronicler, Lilian’s nightmare had been mostly about the dead acquaintance she had seen in the wine cellar, but over here, she started dreaming about the two of them being separated instead. This showed that he held a very important position in her heart, and it would be a lie if he were to say that he wasn’t happy about it.
The topic naturally came to an end here, so Roel began searching for other stuff to talk about. He suddenly recalled something, and after a moment of hesitation, he decided to voice his thoughts aloud.
“Senior, about the army you commanded earlier in the day, they are summons too, right? You mentioned that you have never been to the Witness State before, so how did you obtain those summons? Ah, you don’t have to talk about it if it’s inconvenient for you. I’m just asking out of curiosity.”
Roel had avoided mentioning Lilian’s army as probing into another transcendent’s ability was not only rude—it was commonly perceived as an act of aggression. Even after choosing to ask about it, he made sure to cushion the question so that she wouldn’t feel offended by it.
But to his surprise, Lilian stared at him for a moment before chuckling softly.
“There are no secrets I can’t share with you. I obtained my armies through relics.”
“Relics?”
“Yes. From a young age, whenever I touched things like military flags, shields, and insignias, I would find myself entering a strange dream. In the dream, I would encounter knights who promised to pledge their loyalty to me if I were to fulfill their wishes. These wishes mostly consisted of recording their achievements, rebuilding armies, and cleansing their reputation.”
Roel widened his eyes in surprise upon hearing those words. He didn’t think that Lilian’s armies were obtained so… easily.
Well, saying that she had obtained them easily wasn’t exactly accurate either. Lilian was able to easily fulfill their wishes thanks to the massive influence she wielded as the imperial princess of the Austine Empire, allowing her to easily accomplish deeds that could have otherwise taken another person his entire lifetime to achieve.
As for why she had never entered the Witness State, it was probably because humans weren’t strong enough to sustain a domain of their own, unlike Grandar or Peytra.
Having solved the mystery bugging his mind, Roel heaved a sigh of relief and steered the conversation back to her nightmare. He held onto her hand tightly and smiled gently at her.
“I know that the nightmare you had was terrifying, but that will never happen. No matter what kind of ordeal stands before us, we’ll never be separated anymore.”
“!”
Roel’s solemn promise caused Lilian to widen her eyes. A moment later, she pulled his hand over to her cheek and returned the promise with a doting look in her eyes.
“You’re right. We’ll never be separated anymore. I’ll make sure to protect you well.”
After a short sentimental conversation, Lilian finally fell asleep with a peace of mind. Roel heaved a sigh of relief before turning his attention back to his surroundings.
The city of Leinster was oddly quiet tonight. There was no emergency report from the frontlines nor personnel walking down the corridors. It was an unnerving environment for Roel.
It was under such silence that a black silhouette suddenly flashed across the window in his peripheral vision.
“Hm?”
Roel quickly turned his attention toward the window, only to see a little bird with seven-colored feathers fluttering outside.
Roel had seen plenty of birds with colorful feathers in his previous life too, but the one before him was unique in the sense that every single one of its feathers was emanating an iridescent glow.
Its beauty was indubitably eye-catching, but what Roel was more interested in was the pendant hanging around its neck.
It was the adamantine amber!
Roel widened his eyes at the sight of the familiar token. He immediately understood what was going on. After a moment of contemplation, he released a faint mana pulsation from his finger, compelling the iridescent bird to glance at its chest, seemingly verifying something.
A moment later, it flew over to Roel’s side.
It circled above his head and shook its body, causing the adamantine amber to fall into Roel’s grasp together with one of its iridescent feathers.
“This is…”
Roel eyed the drifting feather in intrigue, not understanding the meaning behind this gesture. However, before the feather could land, it suddenly morphed into an envelope with a flash of light.
“!”
This sudden transformation caught Roel by surprise. He reached out to grab the glowing mana envelope. He first assessed it carefully before attempting to infuse his mana into it.
Mana envelopes were usually enchanted with a seal created with the remnant mana retrieved from the receiver’s possessions, which was presumably the adamantine amber in this case.
In order to open the envelope, the receiver would have to infuse his mana into it in order to verify his identity. If this envelope wasn’t unsealed within a certain period of time or was forcefully opened, it would trigger the enchanted seal and result in the envelope burning up.
Knowing the trick behind it, Roel placed his finger on the wax seal and released the enchanted seal. Then, he retrieved the letter from the envelope and began reading it carefully. Slowly, his eyes started to widen.
Just as he had expected, it was a handwritten letter from ‘Guardian’ Antonio from the Twilight Sages Assembly. He mentioned that the Saint Freya Academy was currently under the protection of a massive barrier, making it difficult for them to mobilize their forces beyond the scope of the academy. ‘Academic’ was also not in a good position to leave the academy for various reasons.
However, in order to receive the two of them who were working undercover at the moment, he would be opening a small gap in the barrier along the northern face of the academy to bring them in. As long as they had this letter in their possession, they would be able to enter the academy without any problems.
Working undercover?
Roel figured that Antonio must have misunderstood something here, but this wasn’t a big issue. In any case, it came as a huge relief that they were able to seek refuge within the Saint Freya Academy. This meant that he would be able to move on to the next stage of his plan.
He noticed that the letter was signed off by ‘Academic’ and ‘Guardian’, though this wasn’t anything too surprising. He was just about to stash away the letter when realization struck him.
He quickly took out the letter once more and stared hard at one of the names. Goosebumps raised all over his body.
Astrid Arde.
“!”