Once the Sanctuary patriarch of the Roland clan took his leave, Annan's taut nerves finally relaxed, and she sank limply against her cushioned chair.
On the desk before her sat a cubic crystal. Inside slept a winged pony of ivory and platinum—the secret sorcery spirit of the Roland clan: the Pegasus sorcery spirit. Once activated, the sorcery spirit would transform directly into a Two-Winged Pegasus, capable of serving as a mount, supporting in battle, or fighting independently.
This was an exceptionally rare beast-taming sorcery spirit. When sorcerers summoned sorcery spirits, knowledge served as the foundation and inspiration as the timber to build them from nothing. As such, factions encountered frequently in daily life—fist and claw, earth sorcery, water sorcery, gun sorcery, and the like—were mainstream. In fact, the vast majority of mainstream sorceries originated from common skills that ordinary people could master.
As for high-difficulty factions that ordinary people could neither learn, grasp, nor understand—such as prophecy, destiny, and truth—ordinary sorcerers had no chance of getting initiated into them either.
And the beast-taming faction fit this exact profile of high difficulty—how could an ordinary human understand another living creature? Even if you knew how to ride a horse, you were only proficient in horsemanship. If you knew how to train a dog, you were only proficient in domination. If you adopted countless stray cats, you were merely proficient in kidnapping... Humans could only ever master human crafts; not a single craft could make a human turn into another creature!
Perhaps someone might wonder if role-playing as beasts would work—acting like a dog, a cat, a horse... But a dog's gut could digest feces; could a human's? A cat could groom its fur; what fur could a human groom? A horse could sleep standing up; could a human?
And even if your impersonation succeeded, you would most likely only summon a corresponding beast-transformation sorcery spirit, which was still leagues away from beast-taming. The difference between the two was as vast as the gap between learning cross-dressing and actually finding a girlfriend.
At present, the primary channels for acquiring beast-taming sorcery spirits—aside from looting them as drops from sorcerer projections—consisted of taming Void Realm creatures, compelling them to turn into beast-taming sorcery spirits on their own. Yet Void Realm creatures did not even fear death; how could they submit to a sorcerer's despotic might? At most, a sorcerer could only forcibly enslave a Void Realm creature; it was virtually impossible to win its genuine loyalty.
The sole exception was Goblin sorcerers. Void Realm creatures generally harbored no hostility toward goblins. Though the odds remained slim, Goblin sorcerers could often tame two or three Void Realm creatures in their lifetimes, making them the primary producers of beast-taming sorcery spirits.
Yet the Roland family was not a goblin family. Their supply of Pegasus sorcery spirits was stable and certainly not obtained through taming Void Realm creatures. The prevailing theory was that the Roland family possessed a Void Realm creature that had accidentally escaped into reality. Attended around the clock by dozens of mares in rotation, it had a chance of siring illegitimate offspring acknowledged by the Void Realm, thereby creating the family brand of the "Roland Pegasus."
Because beast-taming sorcery spirits were difficult to summon, they were naturally difficult to advance as well, relying almost entirely on being fed Void Realm materials. A standard One-Winged Pegasus was already enough to meet a sorcerer's travel needs in the Void Realm, while a Two-Winged Pegasus possessed the ability of brief flight. The Roland family's gift carried immense sincerity; the number of Two-Winged Pegasus sorcery spirits in their family did not exceed double digits.
Yet Annan had little interest in it. She had mobility miracles of her own, so she had no great need for a pegasus. Furthermore, she adored motorcycles; a mount without a body of steel and black blood coursing through its veins never struck her as dashing enough.
*I'll just save it as a toy for little Banjie,* Annan thought, putting away the spirit-sealing crystal.
By contrast, the respectful demeanor the Roland Sanctuary had shown her set her blood stirring far more.
The Roland Sanctuary who had just departed was ranked first on the Sanctuary Combat Power Board—an unquestionable apex expert! In an era where Legendaries never stepped outside Nabistin, he was the foremost active combatant in Gospel!
To put it bluntly, the Mercury Sanctuary, the Kasri Sanctuary, Qinna, and Annan's close friend Cleios combined would not have been enough to stand against the Roland Sanctuary alone! Merely sitting across from him made Annan feel her sorcery spirits trembling—Qinna and the others had never exerted such a crushing level of pressure on her!
To use an analogy, if Annan's sorcery spirits were well-trained veterans and Qinna's were battle-hardened officers, then Roland's sorcery spirits were ferocious generals that had clawed their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood! Annan even suspected the Roland Sanctuary's sorcery spirits were covered in scars!
Annan would never have been qualified to meet such a Sanctuary powerhouse and clan leader in the past. Yet now he paid a visit on his own initiative, presenting his family's secret sorcery spirit as a gift, his manner respectful and polite... almost to the point of ingratiation!
Nor was the Roland Sanctuary the only one. Mercury, Kasri, Vastino... every single financial conglomerate family governing the major cities of Gospel had extended intense goodwill toward Annan, a mere Two-Winged Sorcerer. The gifts Annan received already overflowed her drawers, and she had even acquired numerous prime real-estate properties across tier-one cities under her name.
To say Annan felt no secret thrill would be a lie. She had always possessed a mischievous streak that relished trampling authority. Back when running her agency, friction with these conglomerate families was inevitable. Now, watching them grovel one humbler than the next, Annan felt as though she had inhaled the white mist of Fanmula, invigorated from head to toe.
Yet she was not blinded by vanity. She knew full well that what these people truly revered was not Annan herself, but the Empress standing behind her.
The sole ruler of Gospel for the next fifty years, Empress Diyin, who possessed the power to interfere with the Gospel system!
Those close to power often mistook it for their own, but Annan would never make such an amateurish mistake. She patted her cheeks and resumed writing the *Investigation Report on Institutional Systems of Gospel Cities*, striving to finish it within three days to submit to Her Majesty Diyin.
*
After Yaxiu and the others were teleported away, Annan thought Lisi would take at least several days of sorrow to recover. Yet that very afternoon, she began carrying out her responsibilities as Diyin—swiftly taking command of the Imperial Palace's Secret Guards, summoning representatives of the various families, and announcing the seamless succession of the throne, as if nothing had ever happened.
The only difference was the establishment of a new department: the Witch Governance Bureau, appointing Annan as the First Witch.
Diyin's stance was crystal clear: Gospel would see no immediate disruption in the short term, but before long, she would attempt to intervene in the Gospel system and reshape this nation according to her own will.
She herself might not harbor an intense thirst for rule, but whether it was to prepare a gift for Yaxiu or to completely master the god, she could not obediently sit on the throne as a mere vessel for Gospel.
Yet, could Diyin truly command a god that even Legendary Sorcerers could scarcely control, possessing only a mortal body?
She actually could.
For the glory of the Gospel god reached into every corner of the Gospel Country, operating society according to its own will. Simply put, it substituted its own designs for the thoughts of the populace, which was why the Gospel Country was so harmonious and peaceful, why no barriers divided its people, why no internal friction plagued production and labor, and why the cogs of the state apparatus seemed never to rust—all operated under the regulation of a unified will.
Yet this also created an opening to seize control back from Gospel—by deeply intervening in the operation of society and using the people's collective consciousness to influence Gospel's will, Diyin could slip through the breach and substitute her own heart for Gospel!
Of course, this remained merely an initial concept. After all, Diyin could not yet interfere with the Gospel system, nor had they even decided what kind of future they wished to create. Hence, the emergence of the Witch Governance Bureau.
Diyin hoped Annan would draft a development plan written by the people of Gospel themselves, based on the "future woven by Gospel," "her own field investigations," and "discussions among expert advisors." Even if comprehensive judgment determined that the "future woven by Gospel" was indeed the best future, it still had to receive the endorsement of the Gospel people themselves before being implemented.
"To command Gospel, I must help you take back the future."
Recalling the solemnity in Diyin's voice as she spoke those words clad in her pure-white empress gown, Annan felt that the figure seated on the throne was no little girl slightly shorter than Evalyn, but a mature empress in her twenties.
It was precisely because of Diyin's resolve that so many people visited Annan in endless succession. Without question, decisions made within the Witch Governance Bureau would shape the fates of countless individuals. Whether they sought to join as decision-makers or hungered for favorable policies to shatter their ceilings, they needed to win Annan's favor.
Beyond that, they were undoubtedly forming alliances, making pacts, and fracturing behind closed doors. Countless conspiracies were brewing; countless contracts were being signed. Ambitions suppressed by divine will for over a millennium, wild fantasies bound by Gospel for a thousand years, would welcome their first—and perhaps only—massive eruption in the coming fifty years.
As the future was reclaimed from the hands of gods, mortal politics was reborn.
As for why this power had been entrusted to Annan: for one, Annan had the desire for it; for another, Diyin had very few people she could choose from.
And Annan clearly relished it. Had she not sought to defile Gospel and seize the divine wish precisely to change the Gospel Country? Now that Diyin had handed her the paintbrush, allowing her to paint freely across the canvas of Gospel, she was practically sprinting down the path toward her ideals.
By the time Annan finished penning her insights on Fanmula's municipal system, it was already past ten in the evening. Remembering something suddenly, she hurried out of the office and headed for her sleeping quarters.
Too much had happened today, so Annan naturally stayed overnight in the imperial palace; the palace had rooms to spare, anyway. Entering her chambers, she saw little Banjie lying fast asleep in his cradle. The attendant watching over him nodded to her and stepped outside to attend to other duties—should Annan need anything, they would appear immediately guided by Gospel.
Tiptoeing over, Annan crouched beside the cradle. Watching little Banjie's furrowed brow in sleep, she could not help an amused chuckle—even as a baby, Banjie still wore that ever-worried expression.
She reached out to gently stroke little Banjie's forehead, whispering softly, "I might not be able to spend much time with you from now on..."
Little Banjie clutched his tiny fists, lips pursing around a strand of his own blue hair, completely unaware that the daughter he had raised for over twenty years already had new ambitions.
Yet Annan could not help it. If Diyin had not changed back to Lisi, or if Lisi lacked the will for reform, Annan would have taken little Banjie back to Azura without second thought, whole-heartedly raising him to adulthood and pouring all her devotion into him.
Yet Diyin had appointed her First Witch of the Witch Governance Bureau. The temptation was simply too intoxicating—power, career, and ideals were all within arm's reach, impossible for Annan to refuse. But as a result, Annan certainly would not have time to keep Banjie company; at best she could drop by to visit him frequently, unable to care for him with the same boundless attentiveness he had shown in raising her.
In the end, she still could not repay the Doran family's debt to Banjie.
*If only Yaxiu were here... I could even have a little brother or sister for little Banjie...*
Only now did Annan suddenly recall the people she had once picked up, who had now wandered away.
It was as though they had never existed: no one remembered them, no one paid attention to them, no one mentioned them. Aside from their lingering ranks on the Weaving Board, they seemed to have left behind no trace in this nation... yet Gospel Country seemed to have been turned upside down precisely because they had passed through.
Perhaps intoxicated by the joy of approaching her ideals, or perhaps simply not caring that deeply, Annan only now truly felt the reality of Yaxiu's absence.
In truth, this was only natural. They had known each other for less than a hundred days. Annan had lived just fine for over twenty years before meeting him; love held a place in Annan's heart far subordinate to her ideals—otherwise, she would never have taken Yaxiu along to assassinate the princess.
Though Annan hated and loathed everything about Qinna, Qinna's attitude of "the clan is supreme" had still deeply influenced her—determine what you truly want, and sacrifice everything else. That was the law of the Six Emblems.
When it came down to it, how much weight did Annan's affection for Yaxiu truly hold?
Before the Happiness Board was issued, Annan had merely harbored fond feelings toward Yaxiu. Beyond the Sennheiser Dreamscape, it was primarily because Yaxiu was very similar to Banjie—undoubtedly, having been raised and cared for by Banjie, Annan's criteria for a partner were deeply shaped by him. She would subconsciously compare every man she met against her butler, and naturally found none of them appealing.
At a glance, Yaxiu and Banjie actually shared little in common. Banjie was, after all, a beauty whose features were recognized and preserved unchanged by Gospel, whereas Yaxiu, after losing his rank as the First Gospel, was still a zero-star deadbeat who couldn't place on any board.
Yet being with Yaxiu gave Annan a sense of peace. Perhaps because Yaxiu was unusual, or perhaps because she saw him willing to care for Lisi despite having no blood relation, Annan—who could no longer act like a child in front of Banjie—loved teasing and acting coquettish around Yaxiu.
There was another trait in Yaxiu that attracted Annan: his indolence.
Annan herself was the sort who could never stay idle, constantly seeking the meaning of life. If she truly lived in seclusion and raised children, she would definitely demand that they study and advance daily—ideally Silver at ten, Gold at fifteen, and Sanctuary at twenty. They must never squander their lives, just as a moth must plunge into the flame to achieve fulfillment.
Yet she envied those capable of enjoying a peaceful existence—not the consumerist brainwashing of Mengfeila, nor the complete detachment from real life found in Fanmula, but the ability to discover beauty within life and feel peaceful bliss in everyday routine. Yes, Annan envied Yaxiu.
Still, this longing and sense of peace were, at best, unformed affection—seeds waiting to sprout.
The true emotional turning point was the release of the Happiness Board, when Funeral resolved to assassinate the princess.
Death, once thought to be distant, was suddenly right before her eyes. Crushed by dread and anxiety, Annan desperately needed an outlet to shoulder her burden, and Yaxiu became her lifeline. It was then that this affection, wrapped in reliance, sublimated into undying love.
Did she truly love Yaxiu the person, or did she love the peace, reliance, and life she projected onto him?
Did she truly wish to live with Yaxiu, or did she hope Yaxiu could experience life's other beauties on her behalf so she could pursue her ideals unburdened?
Looking at little Banjie in the cradle, Annan murmured softly, "In fairy tales, the protagonists ending up together is the happy ending. No fairy tale ever tells of the trivial chores of living together... Perhaps this is fine, too."
Returning to her room, she found the open floor filled with luggage trunks—the palace attendants had visited the underground city to retrieve everything Funeral had left behind at the hotel.
Her clothes and boots, Banjie's daily essentials and notebooks, Harvey's scalpel and melodica, Igola's... Wait, whose melodica?
Soon, however, Annan's attention was drawn to something else.
"Presents?"
Chapter 512