Chapter 554: Act 302 – Vortex VI
“Looks like we have an unexpected guest! Let me think, this resembles the little doe that unwittingly ventures into a hunter’s trap in the mountainfolk fables. Miss Margadale, you are most welcome,” Marquis Julian chuckled.
The Nun Princess glared at him with resentment, but more eyes were still fixed on High Priest Merros’s hand, her face a mixture of shock and anxiety revealing her inner unease. The Lord turned to Merros, “What do you intend to do with this beautiful lady?”
“You’d better not have any thoughts of harming her. This woman’s identity is quite complex and a trouble you cannot afford to provoke,” Merros replied with a stern expression.
“Ha, you must be joking, High Priest,” Marquis Julian laughed heartily. “Women— I have many, and compared to those delicate and gentle ladies, as soft as water, I have always been uninterested in pricking roses.”
High Priest Merros glanced at him.
He looked up at Margadale coldly and said, “I will send you to Wood. He will understand the past and present of this matter. Until this is resolved, he will supervise you on my behalf. Your Highness, I ask that you conduct yourself with dignity.”
He emphasized, “This is also for your safety. There will be no second chances, Princess Margadale.”
“I do not need your pity, scoundrels,” Margadale’s face turned pale, and she gritted her teeth in refusal. “Interfering in foreign political disputes under the guise of the Temple, the revered King of Fire, Gilt, shall also fall from the clouds, be marred by your actions. You all will be sinners post-Ampere Seale.”
Her eyes looked as if they could burst into flames.
Merros remained expressionless; the Nun Princess’s words pierced deep, akin to the highest judgment against a devout believer, yet to him, they were merely inconsequential. “A holy war looms, and Erluin is decaying internally. If it does not self-purify with a thunderous force, countless citizens will fall into the flames sooner or later.”
“In extraordinary times, extraordinary measures must be taken; Your Highness, your opinion is nothing more than a woman’s folly.” He refuted Margadale’s statements one by one, shifting his tone as he raised the ring in his hand. “Besides, isn’t this what you care about the most? You and I stand bare before judgment in front of Martha. I do not feel much more shame than you—”
In Merros’s hand was an ordinary noble ring, entirely forged from refined silver, its surface covered in a faint glow under the candlelight. The ring was etched with olive branches, encircling a flame-like ruby at its center.
The insignia on the ring featured olive branches, flames, and stylized winds, as well as a crescent moon, which was indeed the emblem of the Siphai family.
The Nun Princess shivered slightly, her face paling even more.
Merros exchanged glances with Marquis Julian, “Send her to Wood; if he inquires, you may answer truthfully.”
“That’s secondary, but I truly do not wish to meet High Priest Wood. It’s clear he doesn’t like me,” Marquis Julian replied self-deprecatingly.
Merros remained silent but secretly mocked him. Margadale lowered her head, feeling even colder inside—hearing their words, High Priest Wood had already known everything, merely choosing not to express it.
“Whether it’s Merros or the High Priest, they represent the Temple of Fire and Cruz, but they definitely do not represent Erluin, nor their close friends, or…”
She stared blankly down, unaware that Marquis Julian had approached her side. He smiled slightly, preparing to help her up. Margadale felt a surge of genuine disgust; she shrugged him off angrily, “I can manage on my own.”
But unexpectedly as she pulled away, a clinking sound rang out as a dark object fell from Marquis Julian’s hand to the ground.
It was a circular, snake-shaped ring, representing the Ouroboros of Everything Returns Society.
The room fell momentarily silent.
All three inside had their expressions change simultaneously; Margadale raised her head, looking incredulously at Merros and Marquis Julian. Her mind felt like a boiling pot of chaos, with countless thoughts rushing through, ultimately settling on one word:
Run!
The Nun Princess’s thoughts raced like lightning, but her mind cleared, and she immediately stood up to flee.
“Catch her!” The High Priest’s cold, emotionless voice pierced through her back, like a chilling sword stabbing deep, causing her to shudder and extinguishing any final glimmer of hope.
They were truly in it together! How could this happen!
Margadale felt her heart constrict; she knew that if she hesitated even for a moment, she would likely meet her demise. Moreover, this secret had far-reaching implications; she had to inform others.
High Priest Wood?
Margadale suddenly felt a pang of fear; for a moment, she couldn’t ascertain whether that influential figure who was both her mentor and friend was also involved. Immediately, another figure emerged in her mind—a lord far too young.
But was there still time?
The Nun Princess’s heart pounded, unable to resist turning back to look. But as she did, time seemed to freeze before her eyes. First, she saw Marquis Julian, just a step away, gazing at her with slightly regretful eyes, then she spotted the gleaming sword in his hand.
“Don’t…”
Margadale found herself unable to stop the tears from flowing; for the first time, she realized that she was not so single-minded in seeking death. She still wanted to live, even if it meant returning to her homeland and leading a peaceful life.
The sword pierced through her back.
The Princess of Ampere Seale felt as if struck by lightning, then the piercing pain began to spread, “I’m sorry, Grifian…”
Darkness gradually enveloped her vision.
……
In the interior courtyard of the Andorfler Grand Sanctuary, on the dark rainy night, the rain poured down like silver chains from the courtyard, washing over the trees; however, amidst the bushes, two voices whispered.
“Hey, Jill. I wonder if what we’re doing is a bit too risky. This is the Sanctuary after all; think about it, those big shots can squash us like bugs with just a flick of their fingers.”
In a hidden place among the bushes, a section of ground suddenly shook and then sank. It looked as if a hole had opened in a lump of mud, and the water and soil began to surge in.
“Get down!”
“Keep your voice down, ah—”
“Ugh… phew, I warned you not to go out in the rain, especially tonight. My new clothes are completely soaked, look at this, they’re all muddy. It’s ruined.”
“Bud, that outfit was stolen by you,” a voice kindly reminded.
“That’s not the point! Besides, what’s the difference between buying and stealing? In the end, people still have to pay for the stolen goods. Okay, let’s change the topic—I mean, this tunnel you found is completely unreliable; at least the person who designed it didn’t consider the water issues. I think either their brain got flooded like my clothes or it’s just a stupid thief’s masterpiece.”
The voice paused, “Just like us.”
“We’re not thieves; we’re great robbers.”
“Oh, come on, Jill, we’re just petty thieves,” the first voice said lazily.
“Once we pull this off, we’ll be great robbers. Wait, someone’s coming; shut up!” A little head poked out from the hole beneath the bushes. It must be said that the rain outside was pouring heavily, quickly soaking the hair on this head.
But the young man named Jill seemed oblivious; if you looked closely, you would notice he had extraordinarily large, bright green eyes. Indeed, he was a great fairy. The largest among the fairy creatures, and if you didn’t pay special attention to their eyes, you’d think they were halflings, but without the overly furry hands and feet.
In any story of Vaunte, fairies are beautiful creatures, and their distant relatives, the elves, are even more beautiful embodiments. It must be said that great fairies are the same; they are a quite refined and beautiful race, though unfortunately, they do not have a good reputation.
If halflings wandering on the continent, living without fixed abode, are known to be lazy, the great fairy race is simply the refuge of thieves, with 90% of the legends about them being related to master thieves.
Of course, while master thieves may be admirable, the petty thieves in real life have a much worse reputation.
Jill and Bud were proud members of the Ampere Seale’s underground, darkly thriving Thieves’ Brotherhood, though whether being proud was debatable, their audacity was unquestionably a given. Jill had chanced upon a map, in fact, a design drawing, a secret blueprint regarding the Sanctuary’s underground passage.
This was no ordinary item.
If it were someone else, they would surely hide it well, either burn it or quickly sell it for a good price, lest trouble befalls them. But Jill immediately hatched an idea that could only be described as ‘the archetype of a thief’:
He decided to sneak into the Sanctuary for a big haul!
This was simply madness.
Of course, this was perfectly reasonable in the eyes of a great fairy. Within the ethics of great fairies, all belongings in the world are considered unowned; those who possess ‘virtue’ shall claim them. What this ‘virtue’ precisely is, is hard to say.
Jill carefully poked his head out, using the meager light of the rainy night—great fairies have vision one hundred times better than humans, in fact, even in the dark, they can see clearly, though the heavy rain severely impeded his observation. Only when the footsteps from across came near did he twitch his ears and discern that someone was walking towards him.
“Shh!” He quickly turned back to signal his companion to be quiet; Bud’s big mouth was notorious in the Thieves’ Brotherhood; there had been incidents… no, several cases where they had missed out because of his loose tongue.
In Jill’s mind, if it weren’t for this chattering companion, they could have spent half the time in Ampere Seale’s dungeon.
Thankfully, Bud seemed quite obedient this time, perhaps because he was busy cleaning the mud off his ‘new clothes’.
Jill quickly widened his eyes, as he saw three figures emerge from the darkness in tandem. One of them seemed to be carrying something on their back. The trio stopped at the other side of the courtyard, then opened a cover on the ground. It was an exit on the other side of the tunnel, and Jill had an excellent memory— or rather, this was foundational knowledge for a ‘Nightingale’.
In the downpour, soon the person carrying the bag lowered it to the ground. One of the others said, “This matter is too important; let’s leave it here for now, and once Wood leaves, I will find a way to get it out.”
“Will High Priest Wood suspect it?” asked a deep voice, barely audible; if Jill didn’t possess those sharp long ears, he might not have heard that question clearly.
“Rest assured, Margadale has been sneaking out of the Sanctuary often these days. By tomorrow, amidst the chaos, others will naturally think she has gone missing in the turmoil.”
The three exchanged a few brief words in the rain, but Jill was already ablaze with excitement, “By Martha, the ‘treasure’ they buried is actually related to the High Priest!”— as a qualified Ampere Seale citizen, especially for a petty thief well-versed in the upper-class nobility, he certainly understood what the name ‘Wood’ represented.
He barely comprehended the following sentences, and once the trio left, he eagerly climbed down to tug at his companion, exclaiming excitedly, “Did you hear that, Bud? We’re about to strike it rich!”
“Yes,” Bud replied sourly, “Let’s hope the trouble doesn’t end up being just as big.”
“Risk and reward go hand in hand, my partner.”
……
(To be continued. If you enjoyed this work, feel free to vote for it on Qidian (qidian.com); your support is my greatest motivation.)
