Chapter 670 Dance Offering
“The Palace of the Goddess and the Northern Ufeiga artifacts…” Sitting in his chair, Sander listened with interest to Adele’s words, then responded thoughtfully.
“Understanding the matter of the Palace of the Goddess is relatively easy, but as for the Northern Ufeiga artifacts… Haha, I only had suspicions before, but I didn’t expect you to actually have connections with that legendary Judge of Heaven Church. No wonder you were able to calmly share so many secrets just now,” Sander said, now roughly understanding Adele’s display of poison resistance.
“It makes sense that you dared to come here alone; you must have such powerful backing. After all, you are the heir of the Path of Desire, and it’s normal for the Judge of Heaven’s faith to attempt to contact and collaborate with you if it truly revives,” Sander continued. However, Adele did not focus on the Judge of Heaven Church but emphasized her question further.
“Then, do you accept my request, Your Excellency?”
Sander’s expression paused slightly as he listened to Adele, and after thinking for a moment, he replied.
“Last year, the Judge of Heaven Church assisted the rebel government of Adus. Faraluo had good interests in Adus, but now it has been destroyed by the rebels. Overall, we view the Judge of Heaven Church as an unstable factor in Northern Ufeiga. Do you really think I would help them?” Sander looked at Adele seriously as he spoke. Adele shrugged lightly and responded.
“Your Excellency, please don’t misunderstand. Is the biggest issue Faraluo currently facing the colonial problem? No, the colonial issue is merely marginal for Faraluo. Your core issue now lies in the intensifying internal political struggles, the church’s continued brutal interference, and the rampant spread of the Amniotic Sac Cult domestically… Compared to these problems, the Northern Ufeiga issue is hardly worth mentioning. Please do not forget the primary and secondary nature of contradictions. While we may have friction in smaller areas, there is still room for cooperation on larger matters.”
With a calm demeanor, Adele spoke to Sander. After reflecting on her words, Sander nodded silently.
“Well… larger cooperation sounds interesting… Speak, what exactly do you want?”
“What we require is the right to use the Palace of the Goddess tomorrow morning, as well as the data on various artifacts that you have plundered from Faraluo over the years, preferably with some rough research findings attached,” Adele directly stated her request after hearing Sander’s words. After seriously considering Adele’s request and remaining silent for a moment, Sander nodded in response.
“Understood… I will arrange it.”
“Thank you for your wisdom, Your Excellency…” Upon hearing Sander’s reply, Adele smiled slightly and then gave a slight courtly gesture in Faraluo style.
…
In the distant sky above the Palace of the Goddess, the sun that had hung in the sky finally dipped below the horizon. Beneath the gradually darkening sky, Doro’s carriage was traveling along a small road. At that moment, she was sitting inside the carriage, using a communication link to talk with Adele, who was still at the Palace of the Goddess.
“It seems the talks went quite smoothly. This Sander is much easier to deal with than I expected; he accepted all our proposals,” Adele said through the information link to Doro, who responded while gently swaying in her seat.
“After all, we did truly save him. These conditions are easy for him to agree to. His willingness is expected, but the extent of his eagerness indeed surprised me. He only raised a slight objection concerning the Judge of Heaven Church; he didn’t mention much else.”
“Oh… So based on your understanding, little detective, what else might Sander object to?” After listening to Doro’s words, Adele curiously inquired. Doro quickly answered.
“Sander has always appeared in the public eye of Faraluo as a staunch opponent of the Bourbon faction, giving the impression that Bourbon is the greatest enemy of Faraluo. However, the enemy Bourbon seems so calm towards you, who embodies great legitimacy and has inherited the Path of Desire, and could definitely serve as a leader for the Royalists in Faraluo. This is quite unexpected.”
Doro conveyed her thoughts to Adele. After hearing this, Adele was briefly taken aback before responding.
“Didn’t he say before that his opinion of Bourbon mainly stemmed from the negative extraordinary events caused by Bourbon artifacts throughout Faraluo? Perhaps he doesn’t harbor much malice toward Bourbon itself.”
“Not harboring much malice doesn’t mean he bears none at all. Did you feel any malice from him during your conversation?” Doro countered. Listening to her words, Adele hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“It seems… completely not. However, as the Red Tier Governor of Faraluo, even after regaining my abilities, I may not be able to fully perceive his desires. There could be methods he employs to resist my abilities.”
“Currently, it’s indeed difficult to clarify matters on the extraordinary level, but based on my observations, he did not express any disgust or dissatisfaction in his tone or demeanor while speaking with you. When he mentioned the Royalists in Faraluo, his tone felt more sarcastic. And while he voiced dissatisfaction when talking about King Charles, there was actually a hint of a sigh in his tone…” Doro explained to Adele. After listening to Doro, Adele pondered for a moment before responding.
“Now that you mention it… it does seem that way. When he brought up King Charles, he specifically looked around at the various trophies in the Hall of Glory. Hey, little detective, could it be that he… No, if that’s the case, why would he oppose Bourbon so vehemently on the surface?”
As Adele spoke, she arrived at a surprising conclusion but quickly began to question it again. At that moment, Doro spoke again.
“Thinking carefully, Sander’s time of vehement opposition to Bourbon coincides with the rampant spread of the Amniotic Sac Cult and the surge of negative illegal events. The Amniotic Sac Cult’s activities within Faraluo aim to collect Bourbon artifacts to unravel the Path of Desire. If he wants to thwart their schemes, he must collect various Bourbon artifacts scattered among the populace.
“Consider this: what if Sander’s true intention was not to suppress Bourbon but to protect it? The best way to obstruct the Amniotic Sac’s conspiracy is to have the official front, collect Bourbon artifacts on a large scale, and prioritize protecting some important bloodlines of Bourbon. To enforce such a decree, there must be a reason. Claiming to protect Faraluo’s cultural heritage is clearly insufficient; if the reasoning is flimsy, governance will lack execution power. Moreover, such a justification would easily arouse the suspicions of the church, which has always been cautious of Bourbon’s resurgence. Therefore, it might be better to have an inverted rationale.
“By promoting the harmfulness of Bourbon’s legacy and emphasizing Faraluo’s revolutionary and contemporary nature, Sander could stand in opposition to Bourbon to implement a Bourbon ban, forcibly seizing Bourbon artifacts from the Amniotic Sac, and protecting those critical Bourbon bloodlines under the guise of anti-Bourbon, opposing the Amniotic Sac and safeguarding Bourbon.”
Doro expressed her speculation to Adele. After hearing Doro’s conjecture, Adele seemed taken aback and was silent for a moment before responding.
“Is that… possible? If Sander’s true goal is not purely to oppose Bourbon, then the church’s hostility towards him makes sense!”
“Exactly. I suspect that while Sander’s actions might deceive most people, for those high-ranking individuals who can truly see the bigger picture in Faraluo, his actions could be perceptible, including that Archbishop of Faraluo and his political enemies.
“Sander may have invited this assassination due to his anti-Bourbon stance, as it offends three parties at once: the church, the Amniotic Sac, and the domestic remnants of the Royalists. His political adversaries used this to weave a conspiracy specifically targeting him,” Doro continued to analyze. After listening to her, Adele fell silent for a while before replying.
“So… it is like this? For the church… do they even condone cooperation with the Amniotic Sac just to completely eliminate Bourbon?”
“For the church, both Bourbon and the Amniotic Sac are intolerable. They would readily tolerate one to eliminate the other. Once Sander is gone, they could transform his seemingly anti-Bourbon efforts into genuine anti-Bourbon actions. Moreover, in this incident, the Judgers might want to use it as a catalyst to combat the other two factions. If things go well, the Judgers might even accept temporary indirect collaboration with the Amniotic Sac.”
Doro continued to explain to Adele. Hearing her words, Adele responded with a complex tone.
“So, behind this conspiracy… there are so many intertwined interests. Before coming to Faraluo, I thought the situation here might be somewhat deep, but I didn’t expect it to be this deep. Thanks to you, little detective… Without your insight, I would have been utterly unable to handle such a complex and severe situation.
“Throughout this whole matter, you seem to have navigated it all with ease. Is that the composure of a Red Tier? I hadn’t expected that within just a year, the little detective has evolved into an existence even I must look up to…”
Adele spoke to Doro, her tone filled with genuine gratitude, while Doro replied softly.
“Actually, it wasn’t that remarkable. This time working at the edge of Froz, I presume that the high-ranking Duke’s powers might have somewhat limited my abilities. Resolving the entire incident with low-intensity extraordinary interference is naturally the best. Besides, this time, you may also gain clues for advancing to Red Tier; who knows, you might join me in that tier soon.”
“Is that so… then I’m grateful for your well wishes, little detective.”
“Of course. Now, it’s getting late. Rest early; we have things to do tomorrow morning.”
With that, Doro ended the communication and continued controlling her zombie puppet to drive the carriage through the countryside, heading towards the dark distance.
…
Time rushed by; the moon set and the sun rose. Soon, night passed, and as the darkness dissipated, the southern outskirts of Froz welcomed the dawn’s light.
At the break of dawn, beneath a yellowing sky, the once-bustling Palace of the Goddess lay silent and desolate. After yesterday’s incident, Faraluo’s magic prevention guards had swiftly sealed off the scene, taking away all participants of the audience banquet. The entire Palace of the Goddess was then secured by the magic prevention guards, preventing even the servants who worked inside from remaining.
The magic prevention guards of Faraluo are primarily controlled by Sander, one of the governors. Under Sander’s orders, the entire perimeter of the Palace of the Goddess was guarded and sealed, leaving no one inside, rendering the palace incredibly empty today.
In the morning, the ceremonial square was cold and still. A beautifully dressed lady walked alone across the vast expanse of the area. Adorned in the attire of King Charles’s play, Adele slowly walked past the statue of Charles and arrived before the largest building in the square, the Morning Dawn Fountain at the second stage.
At this moment, the Morning Dawn Fountain maintained the posture of the Lotus Water Technique, with jets of water forming a blooming water lotus. Adele silently approached the stage where she had danced yesterday, observing closely the scene before her, only to realize it was different from yesterday.
In the center of the fountain, the circular stage created by the moving bronze statue now lay covered with thick stone slabs. Every slab bore exquisite carvings, intertwinning to form a gigantic lotus, just like the water lotus of the fountain.
This was originally the flooring on the stage of the performance hall, designed to be easily disassembled and reassembled, usually placed in a disordered manner on the stage during performances. It could simply be reassembled when the audience banquet occurred to become the first stage.
And this feature of being disassembled meant that the stage did not have to remain in the same place; it could be completely moved elsewhere. The circular platform above the Morning Dawn Fountain matched perfectly in size with the stage of the performance hall, meaning those lotus pieces could all be assembled on the fountain platform. At that moment, Doro had just instructed her zombie puppet to dismantle the performance hall stage tiles and transfer them to the fountain for assembly, resulting in the lotus being perfectly embedded into the fountain platform, as if those tiles were always meant to be there.
Looking at the fragmented lotus within the water lotus, Adele took a deep breath, then lifted her skirt and stepped through the water curtain, once again stepping onto the stage of the fountain. Facing the east, she began to dance again.
With noble and elegant movements, Adele once more performed her dance. Even with fewer audience members than yesterday, she still danced beautifully, seemingly offering a performance for the Palace of the Goddess itself and for the long-extinct Bourbon.
As Adele danced, the sun began to rise in the east. The morning light gradually spilled over the horizon, illuminating the golden dome of the Palace of the Goddess with dazzling radiance. As this vibrant morning light passed through the rainbow ceiling of the colorful dome hall, new shadows were projected down. Unlike the dusk’s dimness from the west, the morning light came from the opposite direction.
The eastern morning light cast faint, colorful glows from the colorful dome hall onto the ceremonial square to the west. As time passed and the sun climbed higher, these glows gradually moved toward the Morning Dawn Fountain. In the shift of light and shadow, the luminous aura began to deform, and at the moment the entire glow transformed into that of the lotus, it perfectly coincided with the Morning Dawn Fountain.
At this moment, within the Palace of the Goddess, the first shattered stage, the second water lotus stage, and the third glowing aura stage converged perfectly in this moment of dawn, merging into one. Adele became the dancer performing simultaneously on these three overlapping stages…
