Chapter 95: The Fairy Tale Book and the Queen
Tower of Secrets, beside the Era Tombstone.
As the words appeared on the light screen, the spacious hall fell into a brief silence.
Mr. Silver, who was seemingly enjoying popcorn while watching a movie, froze mid-action with a dried fish in his tail, ready to take a bite.
Even Ophelia’s eyes flashed with a hint of surprise.
In the next moment.
That line of azure text shattered, turning into mottled fragments.
Yet within the light screen, the girl with ice blue hair remained lazily reclined on the throne.
Her right arm supported the armrest of the throne, her hand cradling her cheek, while the other hand idly played with a small clay doll, seemingly oblivious to the Night World’s prompt.
From Mr. Silver’s perspective, this felt extremely incongruous.
Clearly, for a normal Night Traveler, the first reaction upon entering the Night World should be vigilance, and then to investigate the surrounding environment while staying alert…
After all, for Night Travelers, entering the Night World means being in peril, a common occurrence.
If she lacked even this basic sense of vigilance, Akshia could never have become the chief of the Stellar Obelisk.
But the girl before them, who looked exactly like Akshia, displayed no trace of the caution a Night Traveler should have upon entering the Night World.
On the contrary…
It was as if she was not a mere visitor from the echoes of history, but a true inhabitant of this world.
She had already lived in the Night World for many long years.
“What’s going on?”
Mr. Silver narrowed his eyes and glanced at Ophelia beside him: “This Young Xiya can’t be a fake, can she?”
This was the instinct of a magical beast.
“Or is it some kind of reincarnation?”
“Since the background of the Night World is the Sixth Epoch, and the Sixth Epoch is the closest to the ‘Pale Era’ among the old epochs.”
“Then perhaps this so-called queen of the Netherworld is actually Young Xiya’s previous life?”
Mr. Silver recalled the plots of the few female-targeted novels he had read recently in the school infirmary out of sheer boredom.
Those novels particularly enjoyed depicting reincarnation arcs.
Crossing three lifetimes, from the demon and angel of the heavenly realm to the prince and princess of the mortal realm, even if the world crumbles, they still want to fall in love.
One could only say that despite being a magical beast, Mr. Silver had long been integrated into human society, becoming a standard homebody ferret, with all the essentials of otaku culture like novels, anime, and games at his disposal.
“No, it’s not reincarnation.”
Ophelia shook her head: “The so-called reincarnation in those novels requires the new body to match, so the soul must be retraced… The past and future lives are essentially unrelated; they are merely some similar flowers.”
“But Akshia is different.”
“I have modified the Transmission Crystal, mimicking the effect after the Emblem Armor recognizes its master… It directly bound to her soul.”
Ophelia’s gaze was fixed on the scene in the light screen: “Her soul is the true form of Akshia.”
“Were it not so, we wouldn’t have seen the Night World prompt just now… Normally, that’s information that only Night Travelers can perceive from their minds.”
Ophelia paused, and the dark necrometal beside her surged as if her mechanical assistant was analyzing and retrieving information from the stored database.
After a moment, the flowing necrometal gradually calmed down next to her.
Ophelia then slightly raised her head and reached a concrete conclusion: “Rather than a reincarnation.”
“It would be more accurate to say… Akshia and this queen of the underworld are actually the same person who has lost part of her power and forgotten some of her memories.”
In Ophelia’s eyes, the metallic gleam flashed and faded, returning to its original scarlet.
“This is the most reasonable explanation for the earlier Night World prompt regarding the ‘necessity of fate’s uniqueness.’”
“Otherwise—”
“If an ancient strong one had survived from the Sixth Epoch to today and once again entered the echoes of Sixth Epoch history through the Night World, would there be two identical people?”
“The so-called uniqueness of fate should be a rule imposed by the Night World, preventing multiple forms of the same person from appearing in historical echoes.”
“If such a situation arose, the Night Traveler would directly descend in their original identity within the Night World.”
Her voice was calm: “According to the information stored in my assistant’s database, Miss Akshia was an orphan discovered and brought back by the former principal of Starry University while exploring a relic.”
“However, despite not having undergone the learning of extraordinary knowledge, Miss Akshia directly stepped into the Reaper Sequence. I even suspect that her Night Blade, named ‘d*ath’s Messenger,’ was not awakened through the Night World but was something she inherently mastered.”
“These matters seem quite unreasonable, at least not in line with the perceptions of contemporary extraordinary beings regarding sequence ranks and Night Blades—”
“But if Miss Akshia was not born in the Sixth Epoch but rather an ancient person born in a pre-civilization of the old era, who lost her past memories and power due to some hidden reason…”
“Then everything hidden in Miss Akshia at this very moment would have a reasonable explanation.”
Ophelia’s gaze returned to the light screen manifesting the Transmission Crystal: “As for her current display of abnormalities.”
“It should be because the memory of the chief of the Round Table, Night Traveler Akshia, has been temporarily suppressed, with the consciousness of the queen of the underworld in the Night World taking the lead…”
“This may be due to the role-playing rules of the Night World or perhaps because her memories of the present world are too faint compared to her past life, leading to a bias.”
“Little Ferret—”
Her voice rang in Mr. Silver’s ears: “I believe what I’ve said is not mistaken.”
Beside her, Mr. Silver couldn’t help but shrink his body further into his fluffy tail.
The information Ophelia possessed matched perfectly with Mr. Silver’s understanding of Akshia.
Thus, all the original doubts surrounding Akshia could also be explained.
“However, what you say seems quite inconsistent with your age.” Mr. Silver glanced at the Second Princess beside him.
Not just inconsistent with the image of a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl.
One must know that even the major nobles in the imperial capital would treat Ophelia’s name with great caution.
What could cause those deeply scheming and merciless nobles, who would stop at nothing for profit and power, to feel intimidated… undoubtedly had to be someone even more profound than them.
While other noble heirs should be nurturing under the protection of the ivory tower, basking in love poetry, Ophelia had already been drawn into the political whirlpool of the imperial capital, and seemed to maneuver through it effortlessly.
“After all, I have such an elder sister.”
Ophelia smiled: “Father Emperor needs a docile, obedient, and sensible princess to display in public.”
“And the Emperor’s allies among the nobility, as well as the people of the entire empire, are also expecting an heir with competent political acumen to continue his glory and make the empire great again.”
“If I do not shoulder all of this, responding to these expectations and presenting the image they hope for…”
“Then this pressure, as well as the overt malice from our adversaries, would naturally fall upon my elder sister, right?”
“And then, it would cause her radiance to be tainted with dust.”
She curled the ends of her brown hair, and a mischievous curve suddenly appeared at the corners of her mouth.
Ophelia’s slight monologue dissipated in the wind, so softly that even Mr. Silver couldn’t hear it clearly:
“However, in the end… I’m afraid those people will be greatly disappointed.”
Mr. Silver looked at Ophelia, just about to ask another question.
But soon, the changes appearing on the light screen drew his gaze back.
Within the light screen, after playing with the clay doll in her hands for a long time, the girl on the throne seemed to finally lose interest due to her inability to ascertain the mysterious reason for its appearance.
She carefully placed the clay doll on the armrest beside her, lightly tapping with her fair finger.
In the dim light of the evening, a book illustrated with images and reliefs quietly appeared on her lap.
It seemed to be a fairy tale book, and through the cover, one could see the male and female protagonists of the tale—
A knight boy holding a silver sword, and a female lead shrouded in shadow and dark mist, resembling a witch.
And the girl with ice blue hair sat there, gazing at the fairy tale book in her hands…
She occasionally reached out to turn the pages, her deep violet eyes glimmering slightly.
Outside the palace, the faint twilight flowed slowly.
Time seemed to freeze here, as if lasting an eternity.
……………………
PS: There will be another update later.
(End of Chapter)
