[Vol. 8] Chapter 318: Hidden Thread
“I see… As always, you answer every question. It’s clear you really admire this so-called [Lord of the Beginning].”
The priestess smiled, but then her words suddenly became sharp.
“So… what exactly killed Them?”
“......”
[White] stayed silent for a moment, then quickly shook her head.
“You’re wrong. The [Lord of the Beginning] cannot die. Even if the world collapses, even if time and space reach their end, Their will shall continue forever. They are all-powerful, and Their form of existence is completely different from any living being, even from the gods themselves.”
“Our existence as the Chosen Ones is the best proof of this.”
“Tch~”
Violet turned her lips in mild disdain, not agreeing or disagreeing. She only said casually.
“Don’t be so sure. If They was truly all-powerful, then the ones ruling the world today should be the World Sustainers. The so-called [Lord of the Beginning] wouldn’t need to send out you so-called Chosen Ones to do work for Them.”
“Being all-knowing and all-powerful is a contradiction in itself. You’ve worked like a servant for that being for so long, and you’re supposed to be strong… but you still don’t see such a simple truth?”
Seeing [White] only shake her head with a calm smile, without saying a word, the priestess narrowed her bright eyes slightly. It was as if some guess of hers had just been confirmed, and then she suddenly dropped a shocking statement.
“As I thought. On the surface, you act like you answer everything openly, like you have no secrets. But in truth, nobody can tell if your words are real or fake. Even I almost got tricked by you, you sly woman.”
“White Dragon Queen Cielru… this is also just a fake identity, isn’t it?”
“Oh?”
Realizing that her reaction had shown a tiny flaw for just a moment, [White] looked a little unsettled. She didn’t deny it directly. Instead, she quickly asked back.
“The holy white dragon’s identity and power are right here for all to see. If I’m not truly the White Dragon Queen, then who does Your Divineness think I am? Or… do you want me to reveal my true dragon form to prove myself?”
The priestess only smiled lightly, without giving a direct answer. Instead, she suddenly changed the subject.
“Ricardo. That name… you still remember it, don’t you?”
“Of course. What about it?”
“Not much. But actually, this ordinary-looking man was your biggest mistake in your whole plan. By now, I’ve already figured out most of what happened. Do you want to hear it~?”
For a moment, [White]’s expression froze slightly, as if something had just hit her. But before she could say anything, Violet went on by herself.
“Behind Ricardo, there was a hidden force powerful enough to interfere with fate itself. Because of that, even though you had planned everything for so long, you didn’t expect that an outside power would enter the ruins the very moment they opened, with the clear goal of making contact with the dragons there.”
“That move was too direct, targeting a weak point in your plan. Once you noticed it, you who had been hiding in the shadows immediately realized something was wrong and paid close attention.”
“This plan of yours took three hundred years to prepare. The dragons were a vital part of it. For the plan to succeed, you had to reduce all unknown risks. You knew you absolutely couldn’t let those outsiders come into direct contact with the dragons. But, for some reason, you couldn’t simply kill Ricardo, the messenger, to erase the problem. So you came up with another trick.”
“You first used the power of the Lord of Decay, which had already infiltrated this world, to create chaos inside the ruins and kill most of that expedition team. Then you appeared before the few survivors, using the false identity of the White Dragon Queen Cielru, and made contact with Ricardo before he could find the dragons on his own.”
“At that time, because of the curse of flesh and blood eating away at him, he was already badly infected. You pretended to be kind and helped him by using ancient white dragon magic, implanting a dragon’s eye into him to temporarily suppress the corruption inside his body.”
“This had two purposes: first, to gain Ricardo’s trust so that what you told him afterward would sound more convincing. Second, Ricardo didn’t know that those dragon eyes were also meant to secretly watch his actions, making sure everything that happened later stayed under your control.”
“Because the power you showed really looked like pure holy energy, Ricardo quickly believed in your identity. You deliberately told him information about the Lord of Decay, warning that it would soon open a dimensional portal to bring its army of flesh into this world to invade. You even kindly told him the rough location, in the eastern border of the Holy Empire, and described the situation as extremely dangerous, scaring that boy badly.”
“As expected, this worked perfectly. Ricardo fully believed it. After leaving the ruins, he immediately gave up his original mission and rushed toward the eastern border, wanting to tell the army commander about the coming invasion and warn him to prepare in advance.”
After saying this, the priestess paused for a moment, lifted her head, and looked at [White]’s slightly unsettled expression, her smile unchanged.
“Well? Did I guess right?”
“You met that boy? Impossible. You never had any direct contact with him from beginning to end. So how could you know so much?”
Violet shook her head.
“Of course I didn’t meet him. After all, Ricardo was basically like your eyes. If I had gone to see him, you definitely would have noticed, and that would have caused unnecessary trouble. So I purposely acted as if I didn’t notice him. All of this is just my own deduction.”
“But if you remove every other possibility, the only one left, even without evidence, can still be the truth. After all, we don’t need any so-called ‘proof’ to do things, right~?”
Visibly frowning, [White] spoke first.
“Even if the way Ricardo was handled was a bit rushed, there’s still no reason to pin it directly on me, is there?”
“Of course not, not with only that one thing…”
The priestess waved her hand calmly, as if to say “don’t be impatient,” and continued.
“I think the reason you told Ricardo about the Lord of Decay’s coming invasion was to make him give up investigating the ruins further, so no unexpected trouble would happen.”
“But that invasion itself was also an important part of your strategy. It was meant to help your ally, the Austre Empire, crush the Holy Empire and expand influence quickly. So the message could not really be allowed to reach the Holy Empire’s rulers too early.”
“That’s why, not long after Ricardo set out, you sent assassins to secretly kill him. As long as that boy died outside the ruins, the impact on your plan would be minimal. That was what you expected to happen.”
“But man’s plans can’t beat fate. Even you didn’t expect that, at the last moment, Ricardo would be saved by a passing merchant caravan. You had too many things to handle, and couldn’t keep constant contact with those outside assassins. And the powerful guards of the Xavier Merchant Guild made the killers nearby hesitate, not daring to act recklessly.”
“With Sasha’s protection, Ricardo’s life was temporarily saved. After hearing the news, you originally planned to send more people to hunt him down. But just then, another sudden event made you change your mind.”
“Around the same time, we visited the ruins that had been unearthed near Saint Laos City. There, an ancient barrier left by the dragon race was triggered. Sword Saint Bevis, using his knowledge of dragon magic, found a special dragon scale that was the core. And Xiao Guang, in trying to break the formation, used her divine sense to probe into it. But none of us knew that the formation was not ownerless. Its control was actually in your hands, Miss [White], as a dragon.”
“So, the [Tenfold Illusion Array] was not triggered automatically at all. It was you, hiding in the shadows, who noticed our actions and had no choice but to use the array to try to stop us.”
“But you also knew that just one ancient array could not hold us back for long. So you quickly came up with another trick. Seeing Xiao Guang trying to connect with the array through the dragon scale, you disguised yourself as the array’s spirit, making her believe it was ownerless and could be controlled by a real dragon.”
“At the same time, you also gave Xiao Guang some false information, cleverly using her mouth to mislead us, secretly interfering with our actions.”
“I must admit, you are very clever. This move really worked. The truth about the ruins was completely different from what we thought back then. Although only part of them were open, the portion was far larger than what you said. With our abilities, if we entered, there was a high chance we could truly make contact with the dragons. And the changes that could bring would be far greater than anything Ricardo alone could cause.”
“At that time, we were fooled. We didn’t doubt the information Xiao Guang told us, and never thought it could be false. So, just as you wished, we changed our plan and left right away.”
“But Miss [White], your actions were a bit rushed. You left behind many flaws. It was exactly this strange part that later helped me connect all my doubts together, recall Ricardo’s experience in the ruins, and finally realize that you were the hidden mastermind.”
Hearing this, [White]’s face grew heavy. But she still tried to stay calm and asked slowly.
“Yes, that plan was careless. But just from this, you still shouldn’t have been able to know so much. I want to know, where was the key mistake?”
Keeping her unchanged smile, Violet quietly made a hand signal to Nitila, who had been listening in total confusion. Noticing it, Nitila’s face changed slightly, and she quietly moved closer to Violet without drawing attention.
At the same time, the black-haired girl kept speaking non-stop, as if she had kept it in her heart for a long time and finally had a chance to reveal everything.
“Don’t worry. I haven’t finished putting the whole story together yet. It’s normal if you don’t fully understand now.”
“After giving up on entering the ruins, we returned to the ancient outer hall. There, for some unknown reason, the long-sealed [Forbidden Words] suddenly appeared. By accident, I read them aloud, which caused a great stir. This was also something you didn’t expect, but for the World Sustainers, it wasn’t bad news. So you quickly adjusted your plan again.”
“To stop us from trying to go back in and mess things up, you chose to close the ruins right away, move their coordinates, and lock them down. At the same time, the influence of the [Forbidden Words] shook the world and, by chance, sped up your plan. The World Barrier began to break, and you decided to push forward, sending messages to start uprisings early.”
“After that, in Saint Laos City, Saint Tyr City, and the Theo Province, one city after another was hit by the [Flesh Curse]. These were the bombs you buried long ago inside the Holy Empire, meant to create chaos and prepare for the invasion. That was step one of your plan.”
“I guess you also planned to take the chance during that chaos to kill Ricardo in Saint Tyr City. But you never expected that little girl Sasha would be connected to me. With my help, she even managed, by herself, to miraculously kill someone named [Towerf], one of the other Chosen like you.”
“In that situation, you didn’t dare make any move that could expose yourself. You could no longer do anything to Ricardo either, because you couldn’t figure out my true nature, and you weren’t sure if I was watching Sasha. If I had noticed something was wrong with Ricardo, it might have ruined everything and brought truly unpredictable changes to your plan.”
“After this chain of events, you, the one pulling the strings from the shadows, finally noticed me. Because you couldn’t see through my background or my goal, you started racking your brain, trying to find a way to deal with me.”
“And that chance… soon arrived.”
“Because the ruins were sealed and moved away, I couldn’t enter anymore. With nothing else to do, I went with some friends to the border Purple Mist City. You noticed this and realized it was the perfect chance, so you set your plan into motion.”
“Tell me, doesn’t it feel a little too much like coincidence? Why was it that on the very day I went to Purple Mist City, the Lord of Decay opened the portal and started the invasion? But in truth, it wasn’t coincidence. You asked it to do that.”
“To make the next steps look more real, and to make me trust you more, you used the same trick again. You secretly awakened the leader of the [Hand of Judgment] Holy Knight Order through dragon bloodline, giving her a vision that disaster was coming. Through her mouth, the name Cielru White first reached our ears. That was the start of the identity you built.”
“After that, things developed step by step, just as you expected. I soon discovered the avatar you hid above the battlefield. Naturally, with that, you used the identity of the White Dragon Queen to approach me and begin your plan.”
“But you also knew that just being a dragon and giving a few small favors wasn’t enough to make me fully trust you. So, to add more weight and make me believe in this fake identity of White Dragon Queen Cielru, you worked together with the Lord of Decay to perform a play right in front of me.”
“The so-called ‘self-injuring trick’.”