Chapter 90: The Elder's Teachings
Chapter 90: The Elder’s Teachings
Roel was feeling rather conflicted inside—or would embarrassed be a more appropriate word? This must be how a child stumbling upon his father playing as a female vtuber would feel.
Alright, the metaphor might be a little too realistic, and the sense of humiliation Roel was feeling at the moment was about the same!
「9th March, sunny.
Today’s Victoria wore the attire of a nun while treating the children’s wounds. She was so cute even though her measurements haven’t changed at all over the past three years.」
Roel stared at the criminally disposed man writing in his diary with eyes filled with scorn, almost as if he was looking at the vilest scum of society. He wondered if he should spit on the latter to fully express the contempt he held.
“Ah, about this, hahaha… It’s the price of my magic, so you need not pay it any heed.”
Noticing the disdain dripping from Roel’s gaze, the embarrassed Ponte quickly began explaining himself.
Ponte’s Evolution Pathway was Chronicler from Brolne’s Wisdom Origin Attribute. It was an advancement belonging to the Hextongue Faction. On the battlefield, Ponte was capable of calmly toying with his enemies, seemingly in full control of the situation. However, all that dashing performances came at a bitter price—writing this embarrassing, perverted diary.
To make matters worse, he had to complete his journal entries before the eyes of another, and he was disallowed from destroying the diaries he had written.
In the past, he had always written it before his pupil, Victoria, which led to her having a tight grasp over his weaknesses. Fortunately, Victoria was the type of person who looked imposing on the surface but was a softie inside. Not to mention, she was fond of Ponte too, so she could be trusted with this matter.
Listening to Ponte’s woes, Roel couldn’t help but remember the entire shelf of diaries he found in the modern-day Labyrinth Villa, and he suddenly felt a great deal of sympathy for this ancestor of his. Ponte probably would never have imagined that this embarrassing history of his would remain safely guarded in this study even a hundred years later.
After ending their conversation, Roel and Ponte finished up their tea before heading back to check-in with Victoria and Nora. To their surprise, they stumbled upon a particularly disturbing discussion.
“Actually, I’m not having much progress on my side either.”
“Heh, hoping for them to make a move is almost the same as wishing for pigs to fly. Listen to me, you need to be force… Ah, you are back.”
Seeing the two Ascart boys walking into the room, Victoria hurriedly halted her teachings and directed a winsome smile at the pair. However, Ponte and Roel only felt a chill running down their spines.
“What did the two of you talk about?”
“Nothing much… just the future of our bloodline.”
Victoria’s response invoked a deep red blush on Nora’s face. On the other hand, Roel and Ponte second-guessed their initial doubts.
Yeah, I must have been hearing things. There’s no way that the respected members of royalty would be interested in discussing such mundane matters!
Roel thought to himself with a smile, and Ponte also set his heart at ease.
It was soon to be lunchtime and Victoria and Ponte wanted to have a good meal with their newly-found kin. Considering that they were in the midst of war, there was no way their meals could be luxurious, but it was at least still filling and nourishing. It was especially good for Roel, who had lost quite a bit of blood recently.
They continued chatting amiably over the meal, and Roel found an opportunity to ask Victoria for her reasons in opposing Wade. Unexpectedly, her motive was not some great compassion for mankind or other righteous cause. On the contrary, she had a very practical reason behind it.
The simple explanation was that Wade hoped to build a massive empire reminiscent of the Ancient Austine Empire, so as to unite the forces of mankind to fight against external threats, but Victoria thought that the chances of pulling it off were extremely slim.
“The Theocracy is strong, but Pendor and Austine aren’t easy opponents. While the Country of Scholars, Brolne, is close to the Theocracy at the moment, if the Theocracy invades other countries, there’s a good chance that Brolne will change its stance.
“Wade hopes to assimilate heretics into the Theocracy and create a more equal world. I have no objections regarding that, but his extreme methods are very risky. It has been a long time since the last Holy War, and the chances of deviants invading West Sia are increasing with each passing year. Initiating a war right now would only lower the overall strength of mankind.
“I do not wish to see my mother’s tragedy happening to anyone else, but I believe that changes should be made step-by-step. We should start off with assimilating the non-religious transcendent factions before moving on to the heretics. Initiating change from within won’t be easy, but we’ll be able to minimize the risk and damage this way.”
After hearing Victoria’s standpoint, Roel found it hard to evaluate her stand. Victoria and Wade appeared to have similar goals in mind, but the way they wished to go about it was different. Victoria was a more conservative individual, whereas Wade was a revolutionary; it was no wonder why they couldn’t see eye-to-eye.
However, Victoria’s worries about the deviants invading the Sia Continent did eventually come to be, just that it only happened a century later. She was right yet not really so.
Looking at Victoria and Ponte, Roel couldn’t help but ponder about a question: Just what was this world he was currently in? Did he and Nora really return back to the past?
Roel personally didn’t believe in time travel, due to the many paradoxes that could occur as a result of changing history. Rather, he believed more in diverging realities in parallel universes. If someone returned back to the past and changed history, rather than to say that he had changed the past, he would have just created another parallel universe.
Could he be in some sort of illusion, similar to a lucid dream?
That was the most direct explanation Roel could think of, but on further thought, he felt like he might be oversimplifying matters. There were far too many pieces of evidence to overturn that deduction. No matter how he looked at it, Victoria and Ponte were simply too real to shrug off as dream fragments.
What he felt was more probable was that he had been transported over to an independent world that depicted a snippet of history, reminiscent of the world inside mirrors.
Expanding on that theory, the bloodline of the Ascart House would be like an entrance ticket to enter this world, allowing him to become a Witness. As for what he would be witnessing, it could have been the important turning points of the world, the unyielding spirit of an individual, or some truth hidden in the annals of history. He didn’t know for certain what it was, but it was simply his job to bear witness to it all.
He had a feeling that this unique experience would become an invaluable impetus to both his and Nora’s growth in the future, both in terms of maturity and as transcendents. However, the most important thing right now was for them to overcome the dangers lurking here first.
Roel felt that he could somewhat understand why those two predecessors were unable to describe the abilities of the Ascart Bloodline. Despite experiencing it personally, even he would be unable to properly convey it in words. It felt a bit like the games he played in his previous world, where certain events would transport the player back in history to get a deeper understanding of the world background, but that didn’t feel exactly right either.
Roel continued eating while pondering the matter. It was then that Victoria suddenly dropped a bomb on him.
“Since you’re already here, we’ll do our best to ensure your safety. A battle will likely break out over the next two days, but you need not worry. We’ll dispatch some men to escort you out safely.”
“Battle? Why?”
Roel and Nora were astonished by Victoria’s remark. Based on what they knew from history, Victoria’s forces would continue holing themselves up inside the labyrinth until Holy Eminence Ryan finally returned to save the day. Therefore, they didn’t think that any more battles would occur before then.
There was a long moment of silence before Ponte finally explained the situation.
It was all because they had moved out to save Nora and Roel. The huge battle Victoria’s forces had with Wade’s allied armies gave the latter a lot of opportunities to plant tracking spells on their soldiers. As a result of that, over the past day, Wade’s allied armies had managed to make great progress, advancing very close to where the Labyrinth Villa was. At this rate, a battle would likely break out tomorrow.
The news was shocking. Roel and Nora didn’t expect things to turn out this way, but it did make perfect sense.
“You need not blame yourself for this matter. Ponte and I made this decision knowing the risks at hand. If we lose this battle, you must make sure to lie low. The Holy Capital is large. As long as you use magic tools to conceal your whereabouts, you should be able to escape Wade’s detection in the short-run.”
Victoria spoke with a prudent and gentle voice, and Ponte silently agreed with her view. It was obvious from their attitudes that they didn’t have much confidence in the upcoming battle. They were worried that Roel and Nora would insist on staying behind in a moment of hot-bloodedness, which was a situation they wanted to avoid at all costs.
Over the past two days, it was more than apparent to them that both Roel and Nora wielded great talents, and they had the potential to surpass the two of them in the future. They must never lose their lives in this ridiculous internal strife, or else it would be a huge loss to both their houses and the Theocracy.
However, Roel and Nora didn’t respond right away to Victoria and Ponte’s advice.
The lunch soon concluded, and Victoria and Ponte headed off to organize their soldiers and prepare them for the upcoming battle. On the other hand, Roel and Nora returned back to their room to rest, making full use of this quiet moment to think over what they had just heard.
【Countdown to the end of Witness State: 32 hours 45 minutes】
Roel looked at the System’s notifications and saw that there was still a little less than a day and a half left until the Witness State would end. If they were to take a defensive stance, they should be able to buy enough time to survive until the very end. However, that was not what he was planning on doing.
The Witness, Kingmaker, Grandar, the progress of his bloodline awakening… There were too many things at stake here, and they made Roel feel that he shouldn’t choose to escape. The two life-or-death situations he had been through changed his evaluation significantly, which made him realize that he had to give up something in order to earn something.
【Evaluation: High (87)】
Roel looked at the significant rise in his evaluation, and needless to say, he was happy about it. However, there was one issue that he thought he needed to clarify.
“System, is it possible for the evaluation to go down?”
【The Evaluation System is constantly updating itself based on the user’s actions. It is possible for your evaluation to go down.】
The System’s response made Roel wince a little. The fact that it was possible for him to lose marks meant that escaping was no longer an option anymore. It wasn’t easy for him to raise his score this far, and he would only regret it for life if he were to allow his evaluation to fall due to a moment of cowardice.
But, while Roel had made up his mind to stay, he felt that he had to advise Nora to leave. Nora wasn’t going through an evaluation like he was, so there was no need for her to put herself through this risk.
Such thoughts in mind, he went to Nora’s room to talk to her about this matter. To his surprise, Nora’s decision was not what he had expected.
“You wish to stay here? Why? We’ll be able to return back to our world in just one and a half days’ time. You’re putting yourself at risk for no reason!”
Roel couldn’t accept Nora’s obstinacy, but the latter had her own set of logic to back her choice.
“It’s against my principles and my Origin Attribute to turn my back against those who have saved my life, not to mention that they are my predecessors. The disconnect between my actions and my Origin Attribute will result in a contradiction in my newly awakened bloodline. Besides, aren’t you staying too?”
“It’s different for me! I have a complicated reason behind that…”
Roel told Nora about the condition regarding his bloodline, hoping that she would change her mind regarding this matter. However, she remained unwavering in her stance. From the sharp light in her sapphire eyes, it was clear that there was nothing he could say to change her mind.
“My grandfather told me to come here to bear witness. Since that’s the case, it’s my duty to watch over my predecessors to the very end… Besides, I don’t wish to part with you either.”
Nora reached out to hold Roel’s hands as she spoke. The determination and tenderness in her eyes made Roel sigh helplessly, The frustrated look on his face seemed to have entertained Nora as she chuckled softly. She raised her hand and poked his cheek mischievously.
Under her teasing, Roel suddenly turned his head over and opened his mouth wide, as if he was going to bite down on her finger. But instead of retracting her finger, Nora pushed it closer to him instead.
“Aren’t you afraid of me biting you?”
“Will you hurt me? I think not.”
“Hmph. You sure have a high opinion of yourself.”
Roel turned his head away as he didn’t want to deal with this damned sadist.
Nora’s decision to heed Holy Eminence John’s instruction to witness this turning point of history could be considered as an internal matter within the Xeclyde House, which meant that Roel was in no position to tell her what to do. In any case, he still made up his mind to bring Nora safely out of this no matter what happened.
While the two children in the Labyrinth Villa were affirming their determination, Victoria and Ponte had also finished organizing their forces. Amidst the fog, a vengeful prince and his knight were sharpening their blades. Everyone was making the final preparations for the upcoming battle.
In this calm before the storm, a new day arrived.