[Vol. 9] Chapter 12: The Truth of the Human United Kingdom
When the priestess turned her gaze toward the quiet girl who clearly wasn’t good at talking with strangers, the new [Left Guardian], the [Right Guardian] immediately understood and explained on his own.
“A year and a half ago, the nationwide ‘Corpse Theft Case’ broke out in the north. The [Sin Wardens] were ordered to act and hunt down several fugitives guilty of terrible crimes. I and the [Left Guardian] personally led the team, working together with the forces from the Ten Thousand Demons Mountain. It took us months before we finally cornered the criminals in a remote abandoned village.”
“However, the battle was extremely brutal. Even though those fugitives weren’t as strong as us, in the final moments they sacrificed their souls and used evil means to gain special powers. Our troops suffered heavy losses and were nearly wiped out. At that critical moment… it was the [Left Guardian] who—”
He lowered his head gloomily, then gave a meaningful glance toward the young girl beside him. Her expression didn’t change much, but in her eyes there was a hidden coldness. He continued in a softer voice.
“The positions of Left and Right Guardian are passed down through generations. We know the risks of this role. That’s why we always train a successor or appoint a candidate ahead of time. This child was his disciple.”
“Though she is still young, she has always performed very well. Two years ago she even defeated many strong opponents and won second place in the kingdom’s tournament for the younger generation. After he died in duty, she naturally took his place. Now it has been nearly a year.”
They say older people get sentimental. Perhaps because of the hardships he had gone through, this [Right Guardian], though only in his thirties, already had the habit of talking on and on like an old man. He kept speaking for a while, but since the girl he introduced and the two visitors only stared at him silently, he gave an awkward laugh and tapped his head.
“Haha, sorry, sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve talked with outsiders. Please don’t laugh at me. Come in, the Master is already waiting for you inside.”
“Alright.”
Violet nodded and stepped forward with her little dragon girl. The gateway to the third level of the prison had already been opened. The [Left and Right Guardians] were clearly standing here to prevent anyone from barging in without permission.
Someone had obviously given prior notice. As the two girls walked step by step toward the silver vortex, the two guards only stood quietly on either side, bowing their heads. But just as Violet passed by the young girl who had inherited the position of [Left Guardian], her steps paused for a brief moment. Her eyes seemed to flick across the girl’s half-covered face beneath the mask, and the corners of her lips curved into a faint, playful smile.
“Little one, if you keep clinging to the past, you won’t be able to defeat that Shadow child~”
The next second, both girls vanished into the vortex without a trace.
“......”
After the unexpected visitors had been gone for a while, the usually silent [Left Guardian], who had kept her head slightly lowered the entire time and hadn’t spoken a single word, finally lifted her gaze. Her eyes, calm yet slightly sharp, rested on the silver vortex before turning to the [Right Guardian].
“You were too careless. Without confirming properly, how could you be sure that those were the ones the Master was waiting for? Even if they were your old acquaintances, if you had been wrong, neither of us could bear the responsibility.”
The older [Right Guardian] looked at the girl’s cold eyes, but he seemed to easily see through her true feelings.
“What is it? Are you blaming me for revealing details about that case back then?”
“...That was a top secret of the Wardens. Shouldn’t such things be kept from outsiders?”
The [Right Guardian] only smiled and shook his head, not answering her accusation directly.
“Little Una, I know that for more than a year you’ve been secretly investigating those matters, trying to find the real culprit behind your teacher’s death in the ‘Corpse Theft Case’ and bring the criminals to justice. But if you really plan to face them one day, you must learn to respect and understand the true mysteries of this world.”
“You’re right—I can’t be sure the Master was waiting for them, and in truth, I don’t know much about them at all. The reason I let them in wasn’t because they were old acquaintances. It’s because, if they wanted to force their way through, you and I wouldn’t have been able to stop them.”
“What? You…!”
The girl’s eyes sharpened at once, but the [Right Guardian] ignored it. He only shook his head again, his tone carrying a hint of helplessness.
“So in the end, your understanding of the mysteries of this world is still too shallow. I used to be exactly like you, confident, proud, thinking that no matter what appeared before me, I had the right to challenge it and question it, believing that humans could conquer anything. But then, your teacher, countless comrades of the [Sin Wardens], and the soldiers of the Human United Kingdom used their lives to teach me the truth and force me to face reality.”
“Humans are weak. Even if you and I stand at the peak of our kind, compared to those truly terrifying beings, we can’t even reach the starting point of their power.”
“Do you remember what I said earlier? The last time those two visited this place was five years ago, during the chaos in the capital before our current Queen wore the crown. Even then, they could easily cut through the heavily guarded second layer of the prison. I saw with my own eyes as that golden-haired girl crushed countless powerful experts like ants with a single wave of her hand. And now, after all this time, their faces haven’t even changed in the slightest. What do you think that means?”
“You saw their arrival just now. With methods far beyond reason, they could have ignored us and entered the third layer directly, yet they chose to stop and wait at the door. Just because others show us respect doesn’t mean we should act arrogant and put on airs. A person must know their own limits.”
The [Left Guardian] raised her brows.
“So, in the end, you’re just afraid? What’s so scary about death? As Wardens, we should always be ready to defend law and justice with our lives. Cowards don’t deserve this position. the Human United Kingdom has stood for 800 years, and it wasn’t by wagging its tail to beg from outsiders!”
“I will report today’s matter to the Master truthfully.”
“Afraid, huh…”
Facing the [Left Guardian]’s sharp criticism and disdain, the older [Right Guardian] only sighed softly.
“Yes, I really am afraid. Afraid that because of our weakness, the butcher’s blade will fall on innocent people. Afraid that the kingdom’s brave warriors will die for nothing against disasters they cannot fight. And even more afraid… that you will throw your life away, dragged by hatred and ignorance. Since that day, this fear has haunted me like a nightmare, every single moment.”
“Silly girl, death itself isn’t scary. But if throwing your life away could solve the problems of this world, my life would have ended in that disastrous battle a year and a half ago. Yet humans are too small, so small we are like dust, unable to stir even the tiniest wave. That’s why we must learn to wisely borrow the power of others. Survival has never cared about pride.”
“…What do you mean by that?”
Under the girl’s slightly shaken gaze, the [Right Guardian] only smiled.
“You don’t want to know. The truths of the past, the secrets hidden deep in this prison, the true foundation that lets this kingdom stand… this is the sorrow of the weak.”
……………………………………
The third level of the underground prison beneath the Courage City was a very unusual place.
It existed somewhere between reality and nothingness, an endlessly folded space that seemed limitless in scope. Violet had been here several times long ago, but after such a long time away, especially after meeting Xiao Kong, a true God of Space, and experiencing the laws of her power, her feelings about this place were now completely different.
In fact, this place wasn’t built only on space-based techniques. Space doesn’t just appear from nothing without foundation. So this area likely mixed in the power of another god, an authority that could twist illusion and reality, and forcibly give meaning to emptiness.
It was similar to the mirror-space often used by some vampire clans. The inner core of the third level of the prison worked in much the same way. But in this case, the ratio of that power was much smaller, and the outer layers were heavily disguised with space magic. That was why even back then, the priestess hadn’t discovered it—
Here, hidden away, was a fragment of the God of Subversion and Paradox’s divine realm.
Having experienced this kind of thing before, Violet and the dragon girl didn’t wander around blindly like headless flies in the folded space. Soon, the scene before their eyes became clear again. The empty, white void faded away, replaced by a lush courtyard full of life, blooming flowers everywhere, green grass spreading across the ground.
The massive tree, nearly a hundred meters tall, stood in the middle of the garden like a giant umbrella. From afar, Violet could already see a familiar figure, the blue-haired girl in golden robes, sitting gracefully at a wooden table beneath the tree, holding a teacup and sipping with elegance.
Across from her sat Timos—no, Young Melchior—still in his black magician’s attire. With one hand holding his cup, he chatted casually with the girl, a smile on his face. As if sensing the presence of new visitors, the two turned their heads almost at the same time. The magician looked unsurprised, simply lifting his wooden cup slightly as a greeting, while the golden-robed girl’s face lit up with a smile and she stood up to welcome them.
“Honored guests, should I say ‘welcome’?”
“That would sound a bit too formal, don’t you think, Miss Edith.”
This person who had been waiting here all along, living in the deepest part of the third layer of the Courage City prison, was none other than Miss Edith Melchior, one of the founding ancestors of the Human United Kingdom’s royal family, who had lived for more than 800 years since the kingdom’s founding.
Violet smiled and greeted her, while Xiao Guang gave the old acquaintance a rare polite nod. Edith snapped her fingers lightly, and at once, two new wooden chairs seemed to sprout out of the ground, growing into place so that the four of them could sit together at the table.
“Please, have a seat.”
The priestess did not hold back. After exchanging a glance with her dragon girl, they both sat down. Then, Violet glanced at Young, who looked completely at ease, as if he were sitting in his own home, and shook her head helplessly.
“I should have realized. Since the Human United Kingdom is under the protection of the God of Paradox, of course its hidden guardian would be connected to that guy. Miss Edith, you really do keep your secrets well~”
She looked up at the tree above them, its branches overflowing with life, and spoke thoughtfully.
“This sacred tree of life… I’d bet the seed came from Young through the God of Subversion, didn’t it? Otherwise, I really can’t imagine how, in an age where the Goddess of Earth has been gone for over a thousand years, a human with almost no ties to Seth could possibly obtain such a divine thing, let alone know how to grow and nurture it to this stage…”
Thinking about it this way, Violet remembered, the very first time she learned about the Twilight Council was through this royal ancestor. Whether it was the Eternal Throne or the Twilight Council, Edith knew far too much about them. Violet once thought it was simply because Edith had lived for over eight centuries, her experience unmatched. But now, she felt she had found a much more convincing reason.
Once she noticed one clue, it was like pulling a thread. Many details she had ignored before began to come together in her mind.
When the second prince, Ben Melchior, joined hands with the Eternal Throne to seize the crown and even started a civil war, his forces once invaded the underground prison. Yet Edith, who sat right here guarding this place, never really pursued the matter, always staying calm, even when she was injured by the blue dragon Alexia.
At the time, Edith acted as if she were above it all, claiming that the [Sin Wardens] did not interfere in outside affairs unless the kingdom faced total destruction. She said this with such conviction that even Violet almost believed her. But…
Humans will always be human.
Her earlier conversation with the [Right Guardian] had revealed that the Wardens weren’t really so detached from worldly matters. Their members even took part in the competitions hosted by the kingdom. With that knowledge, plus other information she had gathered, the truth finally became clear to Violet.
It was obvious now, Edith Melchior and Young Melchior had always been closely connected. If Ben and the Eternal Throne had joined forces, there was no way such a scheme could have been hidden from the so-called Immortal Magician. That meant Edith knew from the very beginning what her descendant was planning.
Royal succession struggles were nothing new in the kingdom’s 800-year history. Princes who commanded armies and raised rebellions were not uncommon. And yet, the Human United Kingdom had never once been split apart. Was that really only because of the blessings of the ancestral spirits?
No. The dead could do nothing. The ones who had truly guarded the kingdom and kept it whole all this time… were the “ancestors” who were still alive.