Chapter 600: Act 345 – Beneath the Abyss III
The elven girl crouched down, holding her head and crying out in pain, while Brendel quickly reacted. He turned back to ‘Otales’ and asked, “She is Otales, so who are you?”
“She loves to play pranks; I am actually Otales,” the elven senior sister replied arrogantly.
Tears streamed down the elven girl’s face as she felt wronged and wanted to weep openly. When did she ever like pranks, and why had her name been taken away? But she dared not say a word, silently shedding tears instead.
“Then who is she, really?”
“She is… um… Soja.”
Brendel actually already had the answer in his heart.
He had long suspected that the elven senior sister often referred to the Flame King, the Archmage Fanzan, and even Erlandta with equal terms. This was quite unusual for a knight of the Queen Wind. Furthermore, could the blade knight Otales be one who mastered the legacy of the Queen Wind’s Nine Days? That seemed unlikely.
However, Brendel found it hard to believe that the legendary character would be the elven senior sister, who was by his side day and night, dedicated to teaching and assisting him, and who occasionally threw little tantrums. ‘Otales’ felt more like a neighborly sister to him, rather than the cold and legendary hero spoken of in the tales.
This answer had certainly left him dumbfounded.
He maintained a calm demeanor and pretended to be doubtful, “Soja? Isn’t that the ‘Wind Whisperer’? If I recall correctly, Lady Soja has rare black hair, and she’s not likely to be this young.”
‘Otales’ glared fiercely at him with her purplish-blue eyes.
Brendel pretended not to see and continued, “Also, Otales, weren’t you sacrificed in the Gray Marsh? I just remembered, how do you know about the final battle against the Dark Dragon?”
“That’s because I told her!” she answered angrily.
“You told her?”
“You…” The elven senior sister finally realized she had let something slip, but this habit had yet to be corrected even after a thousand years.
“I don’t want to see you today, Brendel! You can go as far away as possible!”
With that, the elven senior sister vanished before him. It seemed she was genuinely angry. Brendel sighed; the answer was just as he thought—’Otales’ was indeed ‘Saint Ausoor’.
She was the sage of the Wind Elves and one of the four saints in the Holy War, known as the Queen Wind.
Nemeses watched it all unfold until the elven senior sister cursed Brendel before disappearing. She paused for a moment before calmly asking, “Did I do something wrong?”
Since most of Brendel’s communication with Queen Saint Ausoor was done through consciousness, she was oblivious to what had taken place. Brendel shrugged, “It has nothing to do with you, Lady Nemeses.”
It was just someone acting out of embarrassment.
…
The real Otales sat there, tearfully looking at Brendel. He helplessly comforted her, realizing that the noble spirit of the Holy War had been brought to tears by the Queen Wind. This elder sister’s personality was truly terrible.
Then he turned to explain the matter of the Soul Imprint Ring to Nemeses, of course—without mentioning the part about the Queen Wind. After all, Nemeses had already seen the previous scene. He didn’t want to attract suspicion by being overly secretive and decided to tell seven parts truth and three parts lies for now—the key was that the identity of the Queen Wind’s spirit was too sensitive; he did not want to be hunted by the Wind Elves.
“So, this is the legacy of the Wind Elves?” Nemeses appeared calm after listening and did not pursue the identity issue further. “But why did it end up in the human world?”
“Strictly speaking, it is the legacy of the Mist Elves,” Brendel replied. “After the extinguishing of the Silver Flame, today’s Wind Elves are no longer the same group from the Holy War of Saints. The Holy Seal leaving their lineage wasn’t without reason.”
Nemeses blinked her eyelashes lightly.
“You mean a person can’t wear two Queen Wind Rings?” she asked again.
“The key is that wearing them would be meaningless. After all, a single legacy encompasses an immeasurable amount of knowledge, and for most people, it would take a lifetime to fully comprehend it. The Soul Imprint Ring isn’t about having more; greedy pursuits will always leave one with only a superficial understanding,” Brendel replied, using the Queen Wind’s own words.
“So you don’t want it,” Nemeses inquired, “Can I have this ring?”
Brendel froze for a moment; he actually wanted to keep it for Freya. But on second thought, although Otales held the title of Blade Knight, her teacher Soja was a renowned archer from the Mist Elves, and it seemed she also used a bow, which might not be suitable for the future Valkyrie.
However, it seemed Nemeses wasn’t an archer either.
“You want it?”
“No,” Nemeses shook her head, not hiding her intentions, “Not for me, but for Her Highness the Princess.”
“Her Highness the Princess?” Would Princess Grifian use a bow? It seemed unnecessary, but Brendel quickly connected the dots—Nemeses was indeed considering the princess’s needs—because the Princess Grifian would definitely give this ring to her younger brother, hoping to change the timid nature of the younger prince with the Wind Elves’ legacy.
But could a legacy really change a person’s character? That seemed unlikely. Brendel thought this was a bit unrealistic. He replied, “It can be arranged, but the Soul Imprint Ring is very special, and the legacy also requires the approval of the spirit.”
Nemeses immediately turned her attention to the tearful Otales.
The elven girl was still sniffling. Noticing the gazes of the two, she wiped her nose and stopped. With red eyes, she seriously shook her head at Nemeses, “No, I’ve already chosen my candidate.”
“You’ve chosen a candidate?”
Brendel was taken aback. Since being summoned, she had only encountered him and Nemeses, right? Could it be that she had chosen Williams? That didn’t seem likely; he had never seen Williams use a bow.
“I choose you, Sister Nemeses,” to Brendel’s surprise, the elven girl pointed at Nemeses and declared.
Brendel felt a strange sensation in his heart, not because Otales chose Nemeses as her legacy, but because she actually called Nemeses “Sister.” If counted seriously, she also seemed to be a spirit over a thousand years old—however, on the flip side, when Otales sacrificed herself, her mental age was indeed only sixteen, so from that perspective, it didn’t seem strange for her to call Nemeses that.
“Me?” Nemeses was slightly taken aback. “But I don’t use a bow.”
“I don’t use a bow either,” Otales exclaimed, her eyes wide as if she had just realized the longbow on her back, “Oh, sister, you mean this; I just thought it looked good when my teacher carried it, but I’m actually a mage.”
“You…!” Brendel instantly facepalmed. Holding the title of Blade Knight, with her teacher being a holy archer, wearing a longbow and leather armor, then claiming to be a mage—wasn’t this just a joke? The Wind Elves—no, the Mist Elves were just messing with him.
“But… I’m not a wizard either,” Nemeses also seemed a bit helpless at this.
“A wizard? Is that what you call a mage in your era? But it’s okay!” Otales suddenly appeared serious. “Sister Nemeses, I sense you have exceptional magical talent. Besides, you’re still young; I believe one day you will become a great mage.”
Nemeses fell silent.
Brendel looked at her curiously, wondering why Otales claiming that the Lady Knight had exceptional magical talent made him feel a slight stir in his heart. Perhaps it was just too coincidental; ‘she’ was indeed an outstanding mage.
But she shook her head, “I don’t want to be a mage.”
“Hm?” Otales was momentarily stunned. “Why? Mages are powerful, and magic is beautiful.”
Brendel frowned slightly, unsure why he seemed to see a flicker of struggle flash across the Lady Knight’s expression.
“Let me think about it,” Nemeses replied.
“Alright then,” the elven girl seemed quite confident, clearly having a great deal of faith in her magical ability; the previously pitiful look had seemingly vanished. She pressed her hand against her chest and said, “By the way, the magic I’m proficient in is String Magic, ancient String Magic.”
“Dragon Magic.”
Brendel was shocked.
Nemeses couldn’t help but raise her head slightly; after the great library of Babelta was burnt, String Magic had been divided into ancient and modern phases. After that, this dragon-exclusive magic branched out into a lower-level lineage known as modern String Magic. By today’s standards, String Magic generally referred to modern String Magic unless a specific article was added.
But ancient String Magic forever had only one meaning: Dragon Magic.
Brendel had not expected there would be a practitioner of Dragon Magic among the twenty-four knights of the Mist Elves. Indeed, ancient heroes were legendary creatures; even Bud’s wizard had never learned Dragon Magic.
No wonder she was so confident; she truly had ample grounds for confidence.
Brendel thought that if it were him, he might have indeed agreed. After all, it was Dragon Magic. Dragon Magic and modern magic were not in the same system at all. In fact, many spells requiring the authority of the War Dragon Tiamat in modern rule magic were mostly derived from Dragon Magic—like the dragon strike technique that Charles used to blow up half of the Andefoele Great Temple earlier.
Moreover, Dragon Magic went even further; it was a spell that had received direct permission from Tiamat, claiming to be the most destructive spell.
In comparison, Elementalist magic was as gentle as a little cat.
However, he hadn’t expected Nemeses to remain unmoved. She thought for a moment and calmly said, “Let’s continue examining the loot.”
At that moment, Brendel only wanted to say: “No, big sister, you should go learn magic. This glorious and arduous task of opening corpses will be left to me.”
But of course, Nemeses would not hear what was in his heart. The Lady Knight removed a bracelet from Williams’ corpse—actually, it looked more like a bracer, crafted entirely from flowing silver into the shape of part of a claw extending forward.
“Eh… What is this bracelet?” Nemeses paused slightly, probably because she had never seen flowing metal stabilize into a specific shape before.
“Damn!”
In that moment, Brendel was filled with shock; if he was not mistaken, this bracelet was one of the top-level equipments dropped when the Wind Elf player of the Wind Queen’s Temple killed Williams in the future:
Flowing Fireflies.
Alternatively known as the Torch of Knowledge, one of the holy relics of the Sky Dragon Crystal.
“This…” Brendel did not know whether to call this ‘senpai’ lucky or unfortunate.
…
(PS: Taking a little break today, 3000 words~. I’ll probably maintain a steady pace for a while to prepare for the next outburst.)(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please support it on Qidian (qidian.com) with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)
