Water

"The Allen family's... son-in-law?" Earl Rekar shoved the queen off his lap, rose to his feet, and stared straight down at Karen. When he looked at you, it felt as though you were standing on the seashore—marveling at the boundless expanse of the ocean while the ocean silently mocked your insignificance. "The sea tells me you didn't lie." Karen tried his best to appear calm and nodded. He truly hadn't lied. Yet facts proved that selectively revealing the truth could produce entirely different results. This was an entity domineering to the marrow of his bones. His personality was built upon a great trunk of sheer arrogance, decorated with only a few other traits for embellishment. Karen had deliberately avoided the progenitor and his gravestone earlier, yet Rekar had taken the initiative to pull him in. Even in death, this man's corpse in the tomb possessed an instinctual haughtiness! "What year is it..." Rekar's words suddenly cut off. His brow furrowed slightly, as if lost in thought. *Hiss...* At the same time, a sharp pain blossomed in Karen's forehead, as if someone were violently yanking on his brain. "Not long ago, I wiped out the pirate coalition in the Pros Sea and sank three Tier Eight believers of the Merovingian family into the ocean as sacrifices. Right now, I should have just returned to port; "The Queen received my letter three days ago. She washed her body early at the harbor, changed into her most precious gown, donned the crown symbolizing Wien's royal authority, and waited for my favor! "I even gave her the Merovingian family's Purple Soul Crystal as a gift to embed in her crown once she returned. "That is our pirate tradition. We never shortchange a whore. "Because they are our greatest conviction to maintain courage and return alive when facing storms and enemies. "Yet... "Something seems wrong. "Why do I feel like this didn't just happen, but already occurred in the past? "Right, "I remember now. "After that, "I seem to have fought the naval battle of Marsier Island, and the skirmish at the Diknon Strait... "No, "I can see even further..." *Hiss...* As Earl Rekar continued to reminisce, Karen felt his head ache more and more violently, as though a tube had been jammed into his skull, greedily siphoning out his brain matter. "...In the third naval battle of the Changqin Sea, I defeated the Sedran coalition and killed their supreme commander with my own hands. Yet my brother Bowen and my five most trusted subordinates all fell in battle. "I was gravely wounded myself. "It seems I grew somewhat tired of pirate life. I went ashore and returned to Allen Manor. "I lay in bed, "watching the autumn outside the window. "Suddenly, I realized "that I wasn't tired of the sea. I had simply left the finest years and best memories of my life to the ocean." Rekar's gaze sharpened as he said, "I am already dead!!!" "Ah..." Karen was already down on his knees, clutching his head with both hands. The sensation had shifted from a tube draining his brains to an axe splitting his forehead open. In the next moment, the carousing sailors vanished, and Queen Gloria III, who had been pushed aside earlier, disappeared as well. On the entire vessel, only Rekar standing above and Karen kneeling on the deck remained. To Karen's profound relief, though his head still throbbed, the escalating, compounding agony had ceased. Bracing his right hand against the deck, Karen tried to stand up, only to find he couldn't even maintain his balance. After several attempts, he still couldn't rise. Soon, however, Karen felt a pair of hands grip his shoulders and lift him up. Earl Rekar stood right in front of him. "I am already dead." "Yes..." Karen nodded at him. "Given that I am dead, you can still see me. So, are you from the Church of Order? "You belong to the Church of Order. Yes, only the Church of Order possesses the ability to 'Awaken' the dead—not manipulating corpses, but 'Awakening' them. "No, "that's not right... "In life, I was at Tier Eight of our family faith, and I even broke through to Tier Nine for a brief time. "I know the Church of Order possesses the power to 'Awaken' corpses, but doing so for a corpse with lingering spirituality comes at an immense price. "And for a corpse that possessed a faith system in life, the difficulty and cost are multiplied. "I once joked with the Chief Bishop of York City, asking him whether he could 'Awaken' me if I died one day. "He told me that even if he paid with his life, he couldn't 'Awaken' me, because my faith system was too high. "To 'Awaken' me, perhaps only an Archbishop of the Wien Region would have the ability, and even then, only at enormous cost." Above the rank of Inquisitor was the Adjudicator; above the Adjudicator was the Jurist; and above the Jurist was the regional Archbishop. In a smaller country like Ruilan, the entire nation comprised only one region, the Ruilan Region, whose leading authority was the Chief Bishop. The Wien Empire operated on an entirely different scale; after all, Ruilan was merely its vassal state. Therefore, the status of Wien's capital, York City, was directly on par with the Ruilan Region. Within the Church of Order's hierarchy, York City's Chief Bishop held the same rank as the Ruilan Region's Chief Bishop, perhaps even half a rank higher. Meanwhile, an Archbishop of the Wien Region stood completely above the Ruilan Region. Above an Archbishop of that caliber was a Patriarch, who entered the Church of Order's true inner decision-making circle. They sat around a grand round table, offering counsel and steering the Church's future. High Priest Rasma presided over that very round-table council. Furthermore, "High Priest" was merely an office; in actual rank, it was on par with a Patriarch. In other words, the Wien Region Archbishop whom the Chief Bishop of York City had once estimated might qualify to 'Awaken' Rekar was only a single step away from pursuing a seat in the Temple of Order, just like Rasma. "Hahahahahaha..." Earl Rekar suddenly burst into thunderous laughter. He released his grip on Karen's shoulders. His demeanor even took on a trace of reverence. "So after my death, has my Allen family truly prospered to such heights that we can intermarry with a Lord Archbishop?" "..." Karen was speechless. Earl Rekar looked thrilled, even breaking into an animated dance, entirely devoid of the cold disdain he had displayed while embracing the Queen on the ship. At this moment, he was as delighted as a child. Watching this scene, Karen suddenly understood something: the spiritual bond that "family" represented to the people of this era and culture. Even after death, merely "learning" that his family continued to flourish and grow brought him sincere, boundless joy. Because "family" was their glory, their continuity, and their totem. It was an inseparable part of their lives, the very vessel of their existence. This was something Karen had never truly understood before; his past impressions had remained purely superficial. In his previous life, the cultural soil that nurtured such "clans" had long since eroded away. He had never lived in such a family culture, and even where vestiges remained, the core had long faded into hollow formality. When he first woke up in this life, the Inmerlais family had closely resembled his small household from before, not a grand clan. Karen's appreciation of the Inmerlais family's warmth was something he could seamlessly grasp from his past-life perspective. That was why Purr, despite having lived as a cat for so many years, remained so fiercely devoted to her family. That day, when Karen stood atop Aselos's head holding Purr, her vulnerability had not simply been "homesickness." It was a deep "family attachment"—she had returned to the place that held the other half of her life. Unless one truly experienced and entered into it, one could never truly comprehend such a profound sentiment. For people like Purr and Rekar, concepts of "nation" or "country" were rather faint. By contrast, the concept of "family" had absorbed much of the emotional weight typically reserved for a nation. Karen now understood why that black cat had become so invested and agitated upon returning home—to the point where it felt excessive, like she had a little motor strapped to her back, bustling about and barking orders day and night. They belonged to different cultural frameworks. To Karen, Purr was striving for her family's interests, but to that black cat riding atop the golden retriever, she was fighting for "national salvation." Karen felt his mind grow hollow, and the boundary between reality and illusion sharpened. At the same time, he could sense that Earl Rekar possessed the power to imprison him here. Just as Rekar had pulled him in earlier, Karen was currently inside the spiritual world preserved within the Earl's corpse. Mandila's warning had been entirely accurate. The greatest difference between the Church of Order's "Awakening" and the corpse manipulation of a beguiling aberrant demon was that "Awakening" truly revived the deceased with their living memories intact. Naturally, the deceased retained far greater autonomy, even if the price of that freedom was that their spirituality would evaporate after a time, leaving behind ordinary dead flesh. Furthermore, while Karen's abilities were peculiar and allowed him to cross multiple tiers to perform an "Awakening," his actual strength was not yet formidable enough to withstand the accompanying risks. Earl Rekar could easily crush his soul here if he so desired. Thus, the grand plan he and Alfred had once envisioned—digging up the corpses of ancient powerhouses to summon them—sounded splendid, but in reality was nothing short of suicidal. Fortunately... he was the Allen family's son-in-law. "I am not fully awakened..." Earl Rekar seemed to recover from his excitement, looking at Karen with a calm expression. "Can I fully awaken now? I believe I can give it a try." "No... there's no need," Karen immediately interjected. Earl Rekar's mere conscious stirring and reminiscing had already caused Karen excruciating agony. Karen could hardly imagine whether attempting a full Awakening would instantly drain him into a desiccated husk. Granted, another possibility existed: once Rekar's spiritual consciousness awakened, he might be able to complete the corpse's physical Awakening on his own. Yet Karen dared not take the gamble. It was not yet time to take such a risk. He had slipped into the Allen family cemetery to conduct this experiment solely to quickly secure external combat strength for the declining family. At the very least, he wanted them to possess self-defense capabilities so they wouldn't wake up one day facing the grim fate of being herded into a pigpen. He had kept Old Anderson's household in the dark for two reasons: first, it was only a test, and if it failed, keeping it quiet spared everyone unnecessary concern; second, if it succeeded, it would serve as his trump card, which he had no wish to expose prematurely while he was still weak. Of course, Karen also knew that if he told Old Anderson about this ability, the old man would likely be the first to grab a shovel and help him dig up their ancestors. Karen could pick whichever ancestor he fancied from the entire graveyard. If the Allen family were completely ruined, not only would the living members suffer terribly, but the ancestral remains buried on the estate grounds would certainly not be spared either; spiritual corpses were valuable materials in their own right. To ensure the Allen family's survival, Old Anderson had even handed the patriarch's seat to an outsider like him, to say nothing of ancestral corpses. "No need... Then shall I return to slumber? I can feel my spirituality slowly bleeding away as I speak with you," Rekar said. "Why did you awaken me?" Thanks to the sea-certified status of "Allen family son-in-law," Earl Rekar harbored no malice toward Karen. Coupled with his own assumptions, he even spoke to Karen with deferential respect. "A major event may soon occur in the Allen family. Due to my ties to the Church of Order, I cannot openly intervene, but I can awaken you to bear witness." Karen did not know if the "sea" still possessed lie-detecting abilities in this state, so he carefully chose to speak the truth. "Then it must be a glorious occasion for the Allen family! My heartfelt thanks to you, sir, for granting a dead man like me the opportunity to rise once more and behold our flourishing family!" Karen forced a smile. A flourishing family... Did he mean the family with only three Tier Threes, one of whom was a cripple? Karen even worried that if Earl Rekar truly woke up one day and discovered the Allen family in its present state, his pride might drive him to slaughter these disgraceful descendants himself to keep from tarnishing the family name. Naturally, Karen, the outsider sitting in the patriarch's seat, would likely be deemed an emblem of shame and become the very first person throttled to death. "I shall take my leave..." Karen said. Rekar replied respectfully, "Thank you for your visit, my lord." The final restraint—or retention—loosened. Karen's form floated upward. The pirate ship beneath his feet shrank smaller and smaller. A sudden thought crossed Karen's mind: if dying merely meant living inside one's own dreams, wasn't death actually a rather fine destination? Yet how many people possessed Rekar's formidable strength, retaining their corpse's spirituality long after death without having it disperse completely? Finally, Karen opened his eyes. "Young Master?" "Young Master!" Alfred and Boge's voices sounded beside his ears. Karen found himself kneeling before the pirate-ship gravestone, blood streaming from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, leaving his entire face sticky. A pool of blood had formed on the ground beneath him, still receiving steady drips. A line he had read in the *Light of Order* echoed in his mind: *The God of Order once awakened twelve powerhouses to become the Twelve Order Knights guarding his side.* Then, Karen blacked out completely. ... Mistress Lisa, Mike's wife, tucked Karen's hand back beneath the quilt and turned to the family members gathered around. "Young Master Karen appears to have suffered severe mental exhaustion, collapsing from excessive strain. A period of rest should restore him, but..." "But what, Lisa?" Old Anderson pressed. His daughter-in-law's family also possessed a faith system, though it was a very small lineage aligned with the healer profession. "It is just that Young Master Karen is still young, so his body and mind can endure it for now, but he cannot overtax himself frequently. Otherwise, it will leave irreversible damage." "Ah, I understand." Old Anderson let out a long breath, then turned to Boge. "What did Young Master Karen do to cause such mental exhaustion?" Boge shook his head. "Without the Young Master's permission, I will not disclose his affairs to anyone." Old Anderson gritted his teeth, but showed no anger. Instead, he reached out and patted Boge on the head. "Good. You did very well; this is precisely how it should be. "Everyone, let us leave and let the Young Master rest properly. After a good sleep, he will wake up." ... "What on earth did Karen do? Why is he like this!" Purr demanded, glaring at Alfred. "What have you two been hiding from me!" Alfred looked at Purr and answered, "The Young Master practiced a formation from Mr. Hoffen's notebook." "Is he mad?! He hasn't even undergone purification yet! How could he possibly withstand the drain of a formation? It could have sucked him dry!" "Isn't it because a certain cat has been constantly nagging, chattering away, and heaping pressure on him these past few days?" "..." Purr was struck dumb. Alfred turned and walked away. Purr quietly slipped into the bedroom, hopped onto the windowsill, and slowly lay down, watching Karen in bed. She held this posture for a long time, right until night fell completely. Kevin the golden retriever entered the bedroom. He paused, startled, because on the windowsill, he saw two Purrs. One Purr wore a top hat and a pearl necklace around her neck, perched upright on the sill with exquisite, haughty elegance. The other Purr appeared utterly indolent, lounging on the sill as though basking in the moonlight while sleeping, the cool lunar glow lending her fur a silkier sheen. The golden retriever lowered his head, rubbed his eyes with a paw, and looked up again, only to find a single Purr slowly rising to her feet. By this time, Karen had also awakened. "Woof!" The golden retriever let out an excited bark, trotting over to lick the back of Karen's hand. Purr leaped from the windowsill to the bed, stepping lightly across the quilt until she stood upon Karen's chest, peering into his face. "How long was I asleep..." Karen asked. Purr did not answer, but silently crouched down against his chest. "How long did I sleep?" Purr still remained silent. Karen reached out and stroked her head. Purr extended a paw and gently pushed his hand away. "What's wrong?" Karen asked. "Karen..." "Yes?" "Leave the manor. It would be best to take Eunice with you; she should be willing to go. "The radio goblin can stay by your side to look after you. "Oh, and take this stupid dog along too." "What about you?" "I... I don't know." Purr rolled onto her side, tail raised and clasped in her paws. "Every time I walk into that study and look at those portraits, I can't help myself." "I understand. After all, this is your home." "But 13 Mink Street is also my home. I've lived in that house even longer than here." Purr lay on her back against Karen's chest, her paws splayed out. "Leave. Living a carefree life is what matters most, isn't it? "That was Diss's wish, too. He hoped you could always live happily and freely." Karen reached out and gently rubbed Purr's belly. "That tickles, meow..." Purr wrapped both paws around Karen's hand, curling her entire body up so she hung from his arm like a ball of fluff. "But Diss told me something else as well." "What did he say?" "He told me to take good care of you."