[Vol. 8] Chapter 31: How Many Cats Are Sneaking Fish?
A certain woman, once ranked second in the secret group called the Eternal Throne, and also a powerful being stronger than normal high-level fighters finally took her eyes off the black dragon who had just flown away. She calmly shook her head and said:
“Menna asked me to help. She said that starting some time ago, the future shown in her Revelation suddenly changed a lot. It became blurry and full of danger. Even she could only see a few unclear points, but she managed to guess that you would soon face a deadly attack. That’s why she asked me to stay near the palace and be ready.”
“The Revelation changed so much...? No wonder that little girl has been hiding in her chambers lately, messing with weird things all day. But why didn’t she tell me about something so important...”
“That, I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t want to trouble you since you’ve been so busy. She’s always been very thoughtful.”
“Sigh...”
Looking around the royal study, which was now completely destroyed and unusable, the queen listened to the sound of many footsteps quickly approaching in the distance. She waved her hand, and several shadows that had appeared behind her quietly disappeared, leaving only the three of them behind.
Facing someone as powerful as Rebecca, who had the soul of a blue dragon and had gone beyond the limits of normal strength, Lilya didn’t act high and mighty like a queen. She simply asked seriously:
“Miss Rebecca, you’ve always been close with my sister. Did she tell you when the Revelation started changing?”
The Blue Dragon shook her head.
“You’ll have to ask Menna for the full details. But she came to find me around... half a month ago, I think.”
“Half a month ago...? Could it be because of the Sainz incident…”
“Now that Your Majesty is safe, the enemy probably won’t strike again soon. I’ll be leaving now. This form of mine isn’t meant to be seen by too many people. I hope you understand.”
Seeing that Miss Rebecca, the tavern girl who was more than she appeared, was about to leave so casually, Lilya quickly came back to her senses and called out to her.
“Wait! There’s one more thing I want to ask. That black dragon we just fought, she should be a pure-blood like you, right? Miss Rebecca, can you tell where she came from?”
The girl with the blue dragon’s soul turned her head. A cold light flashed in her deep, powerful eyes. At that moment, it felt like something inside her had quietly changed.
“I’m a dragon who has already died once. I don’t remember much from before, but that one… Her body stinks with the mark of corruption. Even with this body, I can easily tell, she is a traitor to the dragon race. She turned against her kind because she wanted the power of the Serpent, and was finally sealed and exiled as a dragon of great sin.”
“Human queen, you must be extremely careful. The return of a sinful dragon like her is no accident. Her appearance is likely just the beginning. Far greater storms may soon strike this kingdom… and this world.”
………………………………………
“…Hmm?”
Inside a fortress covered in the darkness of night, a black-haired girl who had been hiding behind a wall pretending to be sneaky, suddenly blinked, as if she felt something. She turned her gaze toward the far west, as if her eyes had passed through heavy mountains and the Iron Ridge, landing on someone else who was also under the same night sky.
“What’s wrong, Master?”
Violet came back to herself and smiled softly, shaking her head at the golden-haired dragon girl beside her, who was looking at her with worry and curiosity.
"It’s nothing important. Do you remember when we first met Lilya, I gave her a [Casket of Ascension]? Last time I went to visit her, I had just gotten a new power and wanted to test it, so I made some changes to that item… Hmm, I guess you could call it an upgrade."
"In short, I improved the item’s protection ability. I changed the one-time shield into a reusable one that uses energy each time it’s activated. I also slightly increased the strength of the shield. That way, it can protect her better. After all, I heard that little girl is always getting into trouble, seems like there are always people trying to attack or assassinate her..."
"When I made the changes, I also left a small bit of my spirit power in the item. If the shield activates, I can sense it. If she’s in real danger and the shield is about to break, I can even send a projection of myself there to help her. This is the first time it’s been triggered since I upgraded it. Seems like things are getting a bit messy in the Human United Kingdom lately."
"Oh~ So that was Sneaky Cat Number One."
That odd nickname popped out of her mouth so naturally that the priestess beside her almost tripped. Since becoming a dragon god, Xiao Guang had stopped hiding her thoughts and had surprisingly become more easygoing. She smiled playfully, even showing a bit of concern for her so-called "love rival."
"So, does that mean she was in danger? As a weak human, she should be pretty easy to kill, right? Shouldn’t you go save her, oh heroic master?"
"Hey, hey! Don’t just copy my expressions and change them however you like. What are you, Lenka or something…"
Violet couldn’t help laughing and gave a helpless explanation, seeing that the dragon god wasn’t joking.
"There’s no need. Unless someone uses some really rare and extreme methods, Lilya should be completely safe until the daily shield from the [Casket of Ascension – Upgraded Version] is fully used up. If she loses it or the shield is totally destroyed, I’ll feel it. But this time, the shield only triggered once, used less than five percent of its energy, and didn’t activate again. That means the fight over there is already finished."
"Hmph… As expected of the very first Sneaky Cat you met, you care a lot about her, Master."
"Seriously, where did you even come up with that weird nickname? Don’t tell me there’s a Number Two, Three, or Four?"
"Of course there is. Want to know who they are?"
"Nope, not at all."
They quickly dropped the topic. The two girls looked at each other and smiled, silently agreeing not to dig deeper. Then they turned their eyes back to what they had originally been watching.
Inside this fortress, the army of the Austre Empire had already been completely defeated. The allied forces of the Sixteen Tribes had taken full control of its operations and defenses. But even in a military base, not everyone is a soldier. There were many workers handling logistics, maintenance, and other support tasks. Their numbers were actually close to those of the soldiers.
These people didn’t fight, and normally they should’ve evacuated with the army once things went bad. But this battle happened so suddenly, and the army collapsed so fast, that most of them were still stuck inside the fortress.
And these defenseless, slow-moving support workers naturally became the first group to turn into zombies, just like Raymond had said.
The group of a few hundred zombies in front of them clearly came from those support roles, janitors, servants, supply staff, and so on. Occasionally, you’d see a few former soldiers mixed in.
As they explored the area, it seemed like there were barely any living people left in the fortress besides the tribal alliance troops. There were zombies, but they were scattered and few in number, which didn’t make sense.