Chapter 110: Holy Light
“On the river surface… they are all there. Don’t you see them?” Peiya said hesitantly.
She looked again at the riverbed, where monster bodies were floating. Even from far away, she could see them clearly.
“Are there? Are there? Maya, am I nearsighted? All I see is an empty river.”
Victoria widened her eyes and leaned forward, almost pressing herself against the river. She nearly slipped and fell in.
Maya quickly grabbed Victoria and stopped her. Her eyes became sharp. She looked closely at Peiya with curiosity, then turned to the river again. After that, she frowned and pressed her fingers to her temples.
“Don’t waste your effort. Most likely, we can’t see it. In other words, only she can see what she just described.”
“Only she can see it?”
Victoria looked at Peiya with a strange expression, like she was looking at a monster.
“That’s right, Peiya. Do you have any thoughts about this?”
“Thoughts? What thoughts would I have? Victoria, didn’t you mention a smell of blood? I just looked more carefully, and then I saw what I said earlier, the monster bodies floating on the riverbed. If I had to say something strange, at first I only felt the riverbed looked too bright. I didn’t really want to look at it. Only after you reminded me did I actually look.”
Peiya blinked. In her vision, there were only monster corpses everywhere.
And compared to before, there seemed to be even more now…
Maya gently touched her chin.
“And you, Victoria? I remember you said you could sense the smell of blood.”
“Yes…” Victoria lowered her face. After what just happened, she felt uneasy and restless. She pressed her fingers to her chin and tried to recall what her teacher had taught her.
“I remember my teacher said holy light can sense evil things. When I was using the pendant just now, I felt something wrong on the riverbed. Could it be that Miss Peiya has a stronger holy light ability? Wait… holy light…”
Victoria looked at Maya in shock. At that moment, Maya also seemed to suddenly realize something.
When it comes to holy light ability, who could be stronger than Peiya?
Because…
The holy light is inside Peiya!
According to what the instructor once said, a “chosen one” can receive the gaze of the goddess. Looking at the situation now, that might really be true.
Peiya really can see something different.
Victoria tried her best to hold back her excitement. Right now, only she and Maya knew about this. Whether the goddess had contacted Peiya privately was still unknown.
But judging from Peiya’s reaction, it was most likely nothing happened. Otherwise she wouldn’t look surprised, but thoughtful instead.
“You two… seem to know something?”
Peiya frowned slightly. From Victoria’s reaction, she could tell she was hiding something.
“Ah… well, Maya, you explain,” Victoria said quickly. She knew she was not good at explaining and pushed the task to Maya.
“Mm. Based on what both of you said, I think there must be something on the riverbed. But it is being covered by some kind of power, so I cannot see it. Based on your reactions earlier, I choose to trust you.”
“Miss Peiya, the fact that you can see this strange scene may be related to your ability. This is a good thing. However, when a bird’s wings are not fully grown, what it needs most is not to fly quickly, but a safe and comfortable place to grow. I think you should understand what I mean. You can talk about this with Lady Elise. She has more methods. Victoria, after you go back, also keep quiet about Peiya’s ability. How about that?”
Victoria paused for a moment, then quickly understood that Maya was giving her a way out.
She originally thought Maya would tell Peiya about the holy light, but instead Maya chose to hide it.
She guessed Maya probably wanted to pass the issue to Elise. That… was also a good option.
Elise had more power than both of them and could better protect Miss Peiya.
“Of course I can,” Victoria said, gently touching her chest. “Everyone has their own abilities, and that’s a good thing. But what Maya said also makes sense. Miss Peiya, sometimes too strong an ability can also bring harm. I also think it’s better to discuss this with Miss Elise.”
“Everyone… what’s going on?”
Seeing everyone suddenly become serious, Peiya was a bit caught off guard. She rubbed her eyes.
“I only told you because I trust you, right? In any case, I will carefully think about your advice… thank you… all of you.”
“Mm-mm, this is a good ending,” Victoria clapped her hands and then looked at Peiya seriously. “Do you have any idea now? I remember you’ve read a lot of books. In a situation like this, even asking the Church might not be as useful as your own thinking.”
“We don’t have enough clues. Without a clear reason, reporting it blindly could make things worse. The person who can cast this level of hiding magic is not someone to underestimate. More importantly, if you report it, it might even put you in danger. If they can cause trouble so openly, it means they must have made backup plans.”
Peiya organized her thoughts. In her view, since the other side could set up a barrier that normal people could not see, they clearly did not want to be discovered.
If Maya and Victoria really reported it, someone might come to threaten their safety.
Victoria held her head.
“You really think ahead. Someone who can do something on this scale is indeed not someone we can easily deal with.”
“Peiya, in your view, could there be a more complicated reason? Maybe we are overthinking this?” Maya bit her lip and asked.
“Yes. So before we have solid proof about what this is, the best choice is still to observe in secret. If we report it now, the most likely result is that investigators collect some evidence, while those people explain away the dead monsters as something related to adventurers. Or even further, it might just be an accident…”
“...Let’s go find the Red Tiger first. We can use it to check the level of mineral disease infection, and from that figure out the cause of these monster deaths. Maybe in the end, we are just worrying too much. But one thing is certain. If we report this now, we will not gain much.”
Maya sighed. “Now that it’s come to this, we can only do that. I agree. Victoria, are you coming with us?”
“As if you would let me refuse. Fine, I’ll come too, you busy people.”
The group packed up and headed toward the forest.
On the way, Peiya asked something she had been thinking about.
“Do you think those monsters could have been hidden, like the way you used magic to hide the carriage earlier?”
“Very unlikely,” Maya said firmly. “To achieve something like that, how strong would the caster need to be? And if someone really had that level of power, why would they bother hiding after killing a few monsters? It’s not even murder. I actually think it’s more like a group of self-righteous fools, comforting themselves by pretending everything was done perfectly, like covering their ears while stealing a bell.”