Chapter 552.1: Prison (1)
Chapter 552.1: Prison (1)
“Lord Roel, do you… have any requests tonight?”
“Hm?”
Roel looked at the uncomfortable Adola with raised eyebrows, failing to understand what she was getting at. The only requests he could think of right now were regaining his freedom and having the seal on him removed.
For the former, he had already lost all will to escape after his encounter with the evil god on the war chariot. There were simply too many threats lurking in this world!
I might just encounter an evil god who is out for my life while roaming the streets. I’m only an Origin Level 3 substitute, not the powerful Kingmaker. I don’t want to die yet!
He could also request that the seal on him be removed, but he would be better off directly talking to the Mother Goddess about it than having the servants relay his words. He had a feeling that they would meet very soon anyway.
As a result, Roel had no idea what to say.
His hesitation induced Adola’s misunderstanding, and she meekly looked at him before further elaborating.
“They aren’t the only ones. You may choose the other maids on the list too…”
Huh? The maids?
Roel’s eyes slowly widened. He glanced at the doorway, where the maids stood with their heads lowered in embarrassment. It finally struck him what Adola was driving at.
“There’s no need for that. You may rest now. I’d like some time to myself.” Roel dismissed the maids with a wave of his hand.
His words induced varied responses from the maids. Some heaved a sigh of relief. Some shook their heads in disappointment. In any case, they had no choice but to leave the room after he had ordered them to.
Roel exhaled deeply. Such temptation was fatal to a man; the high elves were known for their beauty, after all. However, it was hard for him to feel attracted to them when he already had such ravishing partners, not to mention that his conscience didn’t allow him to cheat on them.
The willingness of the high elves to have a relationship with him even though he was a prisoner here showed just how respected the Kingmaker was. Still, he felt mildly insulted that they were only asking him if he had any requests tonight when it was already nearing daybreak.
Are you implying that I’ll be done before sunrise? Who are you looking down on?!
Roel was affronted by the unintended insult, but he wasn’t so childish as to feel the need to prove himself. Besides, he needed some time alone to think about his next step.
He had deduced that he should be making a different choice from the original Kingmaker, and the System’s evaluation showed that he was on the right track. However, things were only going to get complicated from this point onward.
The original Kingmaker might not have been entitled to the same preferential treatment as Roel, but the Mother Goddess must have tried to persuade him to join Her ranks, thus beckoning the question: What did the original Kingmaker choose?
Roel thought hard about this question, but his predecessors really hadn’t left him much to work with. He could only deduce from circumstantial information.
Judging from the movements of the original Kingmaker, there was a good chance that he was more inclined to side with the Savior, though the reason behind that was still unknown.
That means that I probably should side with the Mother Goddess?
Roel lay on his soft and comfortable bed while pondering upon this question. Before he knew it, drowsiness had already started to get the better of him.
Too many things had happened over the span of a single night, and Roel was much more prone to exhaustion now that his mana had been sealed. His eyelids continued to grow heavier, and he eventually fell into a deep sleep.
Right before his consciousness fully drifted off, his Crown Origin Attribute quietly trembled, and he was brought into a different world.
…
Roel opened his eyes and found himself in the middle of a pitch-black space, standing atop a blurry path that extended into the unknown.
His body walked down the path of its own accord as if he was in a trance. His surroundings morphed into all kinds of sceneries as he marched on.
He was walking next to a clock tower a second ago, but he was now trudging through a sinister cavern. Before he knew it, the sinister cavern had already transformed into a sunset plain.
Mountains, tunnels, cities, and bridges—his surroundings continued changing into all sorts of things, but the blurry path he walked on remained the same. It was the only constant in this psychedelic world.
Roel displayed zero interest in his surroundings. His placid gaze remained firmly focused on the path ahead of him.
The perceptions of time and space were confounded in this disorienting environment of ever-changing sceneries. Roel had no idea how long and far he had walked before something that could be hailed as a landmark finally appeared in his line of sight.
It was a gigantic old door blocking the path he was walking on. He couldn’t tell what the door was made of, but it looked worn out as if it hadn’t been opened for a long time.
It was only upon seeing the door that Roel’s consciousness began to rouse.
This is… Where am I?
Such a thought surfaced in Roel’s head, but his mind remained fuzzy as if something was clogging it.
His roused consciousness hadn’t snapped his body out of its autopilot either, as his body continued walking toward the door of its own accord. Each step closer he got to the door cleared up a bit of the mental fog clouding his mind.
He tried recalling the sceneries he had seen along the way, but they provided him with no clue where he might be.
Be it Grandar, Peytra, or Artasia, their domains were the most familiar place to them during their lifetime. Yet, this domain was pitch-black, with random sceneries flashing by as if someone was on LSD. Could such a place really exist in the real world?
What kind of ancient god dwells in a place like this?Furthermore, this gate…
Roel couldn’t shake off the feeling that the door was a seal, intended to keep whatever was imprisoned inside from coming out.
It can’t be… an evil god, right?
Moments later, he shook his head.
He had entered this Witness State through the blue-gold ring his ancestors had left behind, and he could sense that the ring wasn’t an ancient god’s relic. On the contrary, it carried an aura that was quite similar to his own. That led him to deduce that the ring was a relic of the Kingmaker Clan, which was probably how he was able to substitute the Kingmaker in this Witness State.
In other words, the ancient god he was meeting now was not catalyzed by the ring but randomly chosen based on their compatibility with him.
As the youth representative of the Saint Mesit Theocracy, a paragon of moral values, how could I possibly be compatible with an evil god? That’s a ridiculous notion in itself!
Roel firmly denied the possibility that he could be compatible with an evil god. He took in a deep breath before making his way toward the gigantic old door.
As soon as his fingertip touched the door, his body suddenly jolted. A blurry petite figure appeared in his mind. The petite figure sensed his presence and looked in his direction. Then, this mental image dissipated like the countless other fleeting sceneries he had seen along the way.
For a moment, he thought that he had hallucinated, but then a childlike voice echoed.
“You’re already here? Come in.”
“!”
Roel’s eyes widened to their utmost. The childlike voice he had just heard wasn’t processed through his ears; it had appeared straight in his mind.
Did someone breach my consciousness? No, I would have noticed it otherwise. Is it just simple telepathic communication? Roel pondered.
He quickly snapped out of his thoughts and warily pushed the gigantic old door open.