The skeleton stroked his smooth skull once more and sighed. "I could not have predicted this scene. In truth, she ought to have known that even if she killed Layinao, she would not die."
"Because for her, the fate of being locked away forever is more terrifying than death."
"I knew that, but I didn't expect her to be so extreme. That is the flaw of the Sages—the more you strive to calculate every detail toward absolute perfection, the more potential oversights tend to creep into your plan."
"Are you making excuses for yourself?"
"Think whatever you wish. It makes no difference to me. I have experienced similar things before; as long as one doesn't misjudge the crucial turning points, that is enough. Well then, it was a pleasure meeting you. Once I depart, I shall take up my brush at once and depict the scene of our battle today."
"The scene of our... battle?"
Karen did not feel he had genuinely fought him—if that even qualified as a fight.
"I will add quite a bit of artistic license. Heh heh, I think thirty years from now, I will be utterly enchanted by this painting. Or perhaps it won't take thirty years—perhaps even sooner. If there were a voice-over, I would want the words ringing out right now to be: *This is an encounter destined to be recorded in the annals of history.*"
*Buzz!*
A black vortex appeared beneath the skeleton's feet, and his form began to sink. Before submerging completely, he left behind one final remark:
"Perhaps the death of this little girl's father was rather peculiar."
Following his departure, Karen sensed dense shattering sounds all around him. It was the sound of the laid defensive array beginning to peel away; evidently, the other party was wrapping up loose ends.
Karen pursed his lips. He had encountered danger many times in the past. In terms of sheer peril, this occasion was actually among the lowest—the man had made it clear from the very beginning that he had no intention of targeting him.
Yet it was also this very occasion that exerted immense psychological pressure on Karen.
The man had truly been watching him the entire time, and he was only a single step away from Karen's real secret.
Had he chosen to step inside that performance hall in Allen Manor, he very likely would have seen the "truth."
Or perhaps...
Why had he been so polite to him, going so far as to compare him directly to the next Norton?
Could it be possible that...
that performance hall...
he had already entered it?
...
"Pfft... *cough*... *retch*..."
Lying on the bed, Daina continually spat up black water. The clothes on her upper body had been completely stripped open. At her abdomen was a wound, while above it, between her breasts, a vine pierced straight into her chest. The vine's root system grew from the ceiling above, while a second trailing vine was submerged in a large, transparent vat filled with various medicinal solutions.
Three master healers of the Sage lineage were treating her.
However, Karen felt that the reason Daina was still alive was not because the medical skills of these three were extraordinarily miraculous, but primarily thanks to the cross seal between her brows.
Whenever Daina's life force was on the verge of burning out, the cross seal would gleam with radiance, seemingly injecting fresh vitality into her body.
It felt remarkably like a pacemaker.
Yet this was merely prolonging her life by a thread. If a better course of treatment was not applied in time, the young girl likely would not last very long.
After all, even if it had only been a replica of a divine artifact, it was by no means an ordinary sacred relic. Having been brutally pierced clean through, her bodily functions were damaged far too severely. Even now, that destructive force had not been purged, still wreaking havoc within her body.
Lord Augie stood beside Karen, her gaze fixed on Daina the entire time, showing neither anxiety nor pity.
Karen stepped out of the treatment room into the corridor outside. A snake demon nurse brought him a drink.
Taking the cup and looking up to see that she too was a snake demon, Karen froze visibly for an instant.
The nurse immediately said apologetically, "My apologies. Did I startle you, my lord?"
Karen shook his head, took a sip of water, and closed his eyes.
Here, snakewomen were very common.
"My lord, is there anything else you require?"
Karen waved his hand dismissively.
Before long, Lord Augie also walked out. Coming up to Karen, she said, "What were you doing back then?"
Karen opened his eyes, looked at her, and asked, "Are you interrogating me?"
"I asked you: what were you doing back then?!"
"Are you scared?"
Lord Augie: "..."
Karen had never doubted this dragon's intelligence, but when it came to experience in being human, she was far less versed than him. Moreover, "interrogation" and "deflecting blame" happened to be his specialties.
"If you beg me right now, I can tell you a way to reduce your culpability."
Lord Augie ignored his words and pointed directly at the ward. "You should know Miss Daina's identity, so you should understand the gravity of this matter."
"No, I don't know. Who is she?"
"Heh, you think you can muddle your way through like that?"
"What does it have to do with me?" Karen looked at Augie with slight curiosity. "I'm not her bodyguard, nor am I responsible for her safety. Before coming here on official business, I hadn't even met her."
Karen stood up, preparing to leave.
Yet after only a few steps, Lord Augie's voice called out from behind him: "Teach me. What should I do?"
Karen paused and turned around to look at her. He sighed. Having no intention of pushing her too hard, he said plainly, "Tell the truth—selectively."
"Be specific."
"Do you want to shield your mother?"
"I... I don't know."
"Your mother doesn't need your shielding. She is her, and you are you. If she is to be punished, it won't be because of your testimony. Therefore, whatever you encountered, whatever happened to you, you can tell the interrogators directly."
"Including... what happened between you and me?"
"You mean that exchange of words?"
"Yes."
"You may."
"You still haven't told me the concrete method. Just speak the truth?"
"Think of it from another angle." Karen tapped his forehead with a finger. "Is Miss Daina entirely innocent?"
"What?"
"In your narrative, you can emphasize Miss Daina's personal agency. Let the interrogator know you were acting passively—make them feel that your actions were taken under Miss Daina's suppression."
"Shift the blame... onto her?"
"No, you wouldn't be shirking responsibility. The one who ultimately decided to have a private talk with Layinao and ordered you to stay behind and not follow was her, wasn't it?"
"That's true."
"You only need to lean in that direction when giving your statement."
"Will that make sense to them?"
"It doesn't need to make complete sense. Once the investigators sense that Miss Daina had a special agenda of her own here, they will halt the questioning. They won't dare press further."
"I understand."
"Mm, then that's that. By the way, don't hide anything about what happened between you and your mother, including this contact. My concern is that while you cover for your mother here, your mother might sell you out completely on her end."
"Why are you helping me?" Lord Augie asked in confusion.
"Because you begged me."
"I begged you, and you just helped me?"
"Because I keep pets too, and I dislike seeing pets mistreated."
Hearing this, Lord Augie's expression visibly turned cold. It was an unmistakable insult, but considering Karen had just pointed her in the right direction, she had no choice but to swallow her anger.
"Heh." Karen gave a soft chuckle. "I'm heading back to the hotel first."
He needed to return, find Purr and Kevin, and sort through this entire affair thoroughly.
However, just as Karen reached the stairwell, he noticed that the sky seemed to have darkened considerably all at once.
Karen leaned out of a hallway window and saw a colossal dark cloud gathering in the distance.
Normally, occasional changes in the weather were perfectly ordinary; as a resident of Wien, he should have long been accustomed to such shifts. But... this underground world had no open sky. Its ceiling was a rock cavern embedded with crystal stones. Where, then, did a dark cloud come from?
Karen hesitated for a moment, then chose not to head down. Instead, he climbed the stairs and stepped out onto the rooftop terrace of the hospital building.
To Karen's surprise, two people were already standing on the terrace.
One was a middle-aged man wearing the robes of Order, and the other was a white-bearded elder dressed in the clerical robes of the Church of the Crypt's Sage lineage.
A barrier had been erected around the two of them, which was why Karen had not sensed them beforehand when coming upstairs.
When Karen appeared, both men inside the barrier turned to look at him.
With a wave of his hand, the middle-aged man dispelled the barrier and said, "Section Chief Karen?"
"Yes, that's me."
"Then allow me to introduce myself. I am Lennox, diplomatic priest stationed at the Church of the Crypt for our church. And this is Elder Kejin of the Sage lineage, who is also the Foreign Minister of the Church of the Crypt."
"Hello, Section Chief Karen."
"Greetings." Karen nodded in greeting to the elder, then looked toward Lennox. "Is Ambassador Lennox here to check on Miss Daina's condition?"
"No, no, not at all." Lennox shook his head. "I came to confirm Layinao's death. Layinao was also brought here for emergency treatment, but the report I received was that he had already died before entering this hospital."
"Yes, that is correct."
"Additionally, I learned that a certain young girl seems to have a slight connection to our church, so I paid a little attention to her as well. Her condition is also very grave, but I have only seen the diagnostic report. Could Section Chief Karen tell me the specifics?"
"As you know, it is very bad. If a better course of treatment is not found, she likely won't last long."
"Oh, that truly is a pity."
Seeing this, the elderly Kejin beside him chuckled and scolded, "You were scared out of your wits the moment you heard that girl had been assassinated, dragging me here while we were having tea together! Yet once you arrived, you refused to go down and see her yourself, fussing about and flipping through a diagnostic report instead. Tell me, are all of you from the Church of Order so aloof and proud?"
Lennox immediately retorted, "This is not being aloof; this is protocol. She holds no official position, so I cannot visit her in my capacity as ambassador. She does not qualify."
"She doesn't qualify? You should know her true identity."
"Of course I know, but that does not contradict the fact that she does not qualify."
"You people of the Church of Order are truly pedantic."
"Such pedantry has its reasons," Lennox insisted.
As the two began bickering, Karen couldn't help raising his arm to point at the dark cloud in the distant sky. "My lords, what is the situation over there?"
Lennox answered, "Oh, over there? After learning of Layinao's death, members of the Dragon lineage have come to demand an explanation."
Kejin smiled and said, "The Dragon lineage has always held a highly aloof status within our Church of the Crypt, but this main city is actually the traditional domain of our Sage lineage; their primary settlements are not here. However, Layinao died here, so naturally they have come to demand an explanation."
Just then, Karen saw immense bodies beginning to reveal themselves within the distant dark cloud; evidently, there were quite a few dragons inside.
"Shrouding themselves and pulling up such a huge black fog—they're just concealing their shame. If they were truly all fully developed adult dragons, why hide? They'd love nothing more than to hang in the sky for everyone below to see clearly and drop to their knees in worship." Kejin's tone dripped with disdain. "This is what I dislike most about dragons. That isn't pride; it's stupidity. In my eyes, aside from the difference in size, there is no second obvious distinction between them and pigs."
A figure flew up from below. Just as she was about to sweep past the height of the terrace, she spotted the three people standing there, confusion flickering in her eyes.
Upon seeing Lord Augie, Kejin immediately sighed with admiration: "Look at that. That is what a dragon should be in my eyes. Only the Church of Order can truly afford to raise a dragon."
This was in fact the most awkward predicament facing dragons nowadays. Not only the Dragon lineage of the Church of the Crypt, but even those dragons outside who had established their own independent settlements and lairs faced severe resource shortages.
This was mainly due to two reasons. First, in this era, the gods remained dormant. The orthodox churches, large churches, and medium-sized churches had carved up virtually all of the world's faith resources. While the churches certainly fought among themselves, they shared a common consensus: entities like dragons, bloodthirsty aberrant demons, and family-based faith systems would all be marginalized.
The gods were gone, but this world was ruled by the churches that carried out divine will. Heretics... simply did not deserve any room to survive.
Their narrow enclaves could never sustain the consumption demanded by an expanding dragon population. Yet while they were arrogant and powerful, they did not dare openly provoke the church system. Consequently, the number of dragon subspecies grew ever larger, reflecting an overall decline in dragon bloodlines toward mediocrity.
The second reason lay within dragons themselves. Because they were born powerful, individualism was magnified boundlessly within dragon culture. They might shout slogans like "Dragons are one," but in reality they did not understand the meaning of unity, dedication, or sacrifice in the slightest. Furthermore, the stronger a dragon was, the more selfish it tended to be—for instance, the Rebellious Dragon God, one of the seven founding deities of the Church of the Crypt, had rebelled and broken away from its original race.
Because of this, even Augie had to admit that had she not been "sold" to the Church of Order, she never would have had the chance to reach full adulthood.
Lord Augie landed on the terrace. Looking at Kejin, her eyes grew slightly cold. She then turned to Ambassador Lennox and bowed to him, and Lennox returned the courtesy.
"Ambassador, I want to go and persuade them to turn back."
Lennox blinked. "Lord Augie, can you manage that?"
"I want to try."
Kejin raised a hand and said bluntly, "Don't bother making pointless attempts. You won't succeed. In their eyes, you aren't one of them at all. I even suspect that they are primarily composed of the Imperial Guard commanded by your father, and are using your father's death as their pretext to cause trouble. If you, his daughter, choose to stand in their way, their fury will make them swarm forward and tear you to shreds."
"Still, shouldn't something be done? Are we just to let them march upon the main city? Under these circumstances, shouldn't representatives sent from the primary lineages of the Church of the Crypt go out to placate them and negotiate?" Lord Augie asked.
"They want that kind of treatment, and we know they want it, but... we simply won't give it to them." Kejin stretched lazily. "I've been sick of the Dragon lineage in our church for a long time. They've always taken the lion's share of our resources, yet refuse to shoulder any responsibility. What kind of dragons are they? They're nothing more than a bunch of leeches!"
Furious anger flashed in Lord Augie's eyes, but Kejin didn't seem in the least worried that she might lash out at him.
"If that's the case, why not let this bunch of 'leeches' leave the Church of the Crypt?" Lord Augie countered.
"Why should we?!" Kejin threw up his hands and shouted. "Even if they're leeches, they're leeches raised by our Church of the Crypt! Why should you get to drink our blood and just walk away? Besides, as just one dog in a kennel, do you really think you have the right to split the family without asking the master?"
Just then, the dark cloud in the distance began advancing toward the main city, accompanied by the drawing-near roars of dragons.
Lord Augie said, "They only want an explanation, a graceful way out! You are forcing them into actually attacking the main city!"
"Spoiled rotten. They've been conceited for so long that they truly believe they're still the mighty race from before the previous era. As for a way out—don't worry. Sometimes, even without a step to walk down, when backed into a corner, they'll jump down on their own, even if it breaks their legs."
Lennox spoke up then: "Oh, that lord has arrived."
With that, Lennox faced the direction of the dark cloud, placed his hands before his chest, and assumed a posture of salutation.
Kejin followed suit, adopting a posture of salutation as well, though he remarked with regret, "It would've been better if he'd come a little later. It wouldn't have hurt to let those overgrown worms wreck a bit of the main city first."
*Hum!*
Ahead, at the edge of the main city, a pillar of black radiance shot into the sky. A middle-aged man clad in black armor, mounted atop a thunderhorn rhinoceros, appeared in midair.
Facing the direction of the dense, churning clouds all alone,
he shouted a rebuke like rolling thunder:
"I, Daan Ray Rop, in my capacity as Commander of the Seventh Knights of the Church of Order, hereby command you: disband unconditionally at once and return to your stations! If you dare defy this order, the Seventh Knights of Order shall bathe the Dragon lineage of the Church of the Crypt in blood!"
The next moment,
the clouds dispersed into nothingness.
Chapter 621