Chapter 60: Divergent Paths (Part 2)
!
I was startled, my eyes widening in disbelief.
This can’t be true.
Dancers aren’t supposed to d*e.
That Carlos guy is trying to mess with me, wanting to see my instinctive reaction.
In my line of vision, the oil in the lamp on the table was running low, its flickering light casting a shadow on the man’s face, which alternated between illumination and darkness. He was slightly drunk, his gaze locked onto my face.
He was definitely observing me…
A wave of emotions surged in my mind before I quickly calmed down, crossing my arms and leaning back against the chair, my eyes sparkling with doubt.
No, wait…
What he said could actually be true.
That woman…
Faced with such a powerful deity body, struck directly by world-destroying beams, she was reduced to such a state yet didn’t d*e, quickly recovering her injuries and escaping from Dragon’s Territory, even conveniently rescuing me to the Eastern Continent…
She was incredibly powerful. I didn’t have the confidence to claim I could defeat her in my prime, let alone k*ll her. There’s no way she would easily d*e in a place like this…
That’s what I thought, but after the initial shock, I noticed Carlos’s serious expression—it didn’t look like a lie. I calmed myself, took a deep breath, and my thoughts settled.
Then it hit me all of a sudden—
What he said could very well be the truth.
After all…
That Sword Saint is there.
Him, Carlos, and Fat Grandma—those three aren’t just poets from the Choir of Saints, nor are they the kind of Black Robes who’d refuse to show their faces, or even some random doctor I’ve never heard of.
They are real, powerful Pope Knights with top-notch human combat abilities. The old man among them is even hailed as the strongest Pope Knight today, unmatched for decades…
Okay, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure how tough Fat Grandma is, but if Sword Saint Old Man brought her along, she likely isn’t a mere amateur.
I’ve heard bits and pieces about Fat Grandma’s past from Grandma Bersa. I can’t imagine what she was like in her youth, but even now, though she’s gained weight and aged and isn’t as nimble as before, her talent with the Power of Order means she’s undeniably potent.
If the three of them teamed up—if they all aimed at just one person…
What would happen then?
Even that dancer…
Defeat isn’t completely out of the question, right?
Not impossible…
No wonder…
She never made it back to the town…
“We ultimately couldn’t capture her alive.”
Carlos kept staring at me, those frost-blue eyes seemingly peering right into my thoughts: “And that woman couldn’t escape from us… perhaps she had her own plans, but in the end, she was shattered by my teacher’s sword energy, scattered into pieces on the sandy ruins, completely buried by the earth…”
She’s dead…
Torn to shreds…
…No.
Maybe she’s still alive.
I still hadn’t spoken or taken a bite of food, staring straight into the man’s eyes, my expression calm.
“The aftermath of the battle destroyed many relics. Later, we searched the site for the woman’s… remains. Unexpectedly, we found some interesting things in the ruins. Those things perfectly validated some of the woman’s last words…”
Carlos said, downing a gulp of wine.
He didn’t seem to be savoring the taste; his drinking style was nothing like Victoria’s elegant appreciation for fine wines.
Just as the man had said, he didn’t like the taste of alcohol at all, no matter how good it was. At that moment, he chugged strong liquor with such fierce determination, it looked as though he wanted to drown some burgeoning emotional turmoil.
Or maybe…
He was trying to let loose.
“It was a strange spherical object, about the size of a human head, hollow, made entirely of metal, exquisitely crafted. It didn’t seem like a craft from the Eastern Continent, and, honestly, it didn’t even seem like something humans would make.”
“That thing was originally placed in a cellar altar underground in the ruins, but our battle affected it… the ground collapsed, the cellar was destroyed, and the altar was smashed to bits, barely recognizable. When we found the sphere, it was already open; inside… there should have been something, but at that moment, it was empty—nothing at all.”
The man’s eyelids drooped as he gulped down several swigs of strong liquor, that lazy, depressed vibe overwhelming him again: “Little Shay…”
“Guess what was supposed to be inside?”
…It’s the Essence!
I instantly connected the dots.
The Sand Valley, the ruins… I remembered Ailna mentioning in the cellar notes that the Essence was apparently hidden near the entrance of the Sand Valley. That woman clearly led them there on purpose, intending for them to discover those items and the fact that the Essence had vanished…
Where did the Essence go!?
I was still reeling internally but maintained a calm facade, unsure what Carlos was thinking at that moment, so I wouldn’t say anything.
Carlos watched me for a while, then chuckled.
“Hehe…”
That laughter was grating, tinged with a hint of mockery: “So… you’ve got nothing to say to me? You must have questions.”
“……”
I fell silent for a moment, thoughts racing through my mind before I finally spoke slowly: “Why didn’t you go back to the town afterward?”
This sentence told him a lot already.
Carlos was clever; he hesitated briefly before comprehending my implication.
“Later, huh…”
The effects of the alcohol turned his scruffy face red under the firelight, and his eyes appeared suddenly unfocused: “I realized… I was the only one who knew nothing, the biggest fool… don’t you think, Little Shay?”
The man’s thoughts seemed jumbled, his pupils quivering, with his speech losing coherence: “That woman told us some incomprehensible things before she died. To this day, I still question how real her words were… because what she said was something I had never known, never anticipated, and didn’t even think to imagine… do you believe that…”
“She revealed another side of that war in the Western Continent… about the church persecuting deities, trying to pry into divine powers, leading to the deities’ madness and their wrath descending… She even told me that you were actually killed by the Pope… by that man named Angel. She was present at the time and witnessed everything that happened…”
He smiled brightly.
But buried within that smile was a deep, helpless, and desolate emotion.
That emotion truly pierced my heart at that moment.
“She revealed the truth about the deities, the real history covered up by the church… those things… I had never heard of… and even before this, I somewhat didn’t believe that deities existed in this world…”
“I didn’t want to believe it, but for some reason, I had no doubts about what that woman said… because… it all seemed to align… If what she said was accurate, then everything… suddenly made sense. I hadn’t noticed anything before… always…”
He paused for a moment, abruptly shifting gears: “But… my teacher, he knew all this.”
Gulp, gulp…
The man tilted his head back, knocking back several more swigs of liquor, the strong alcohol making him cough: “Cough, cough… My teacher, Mr. Sword Saint Ryan. The person I admire most, he actually… had known all along. He understood what we were doing, and he was fully aware of what the church was up to. When he wrote that gathering letter to me, he already knew what was going to happen in the Western Continent…”
“He knew everything, even possibly understood… what your existence truly meant. This is what the woman’s d*ath led my teacher to personally admit to me… but before that, he told me nothing… Little Shay, in truth, what I’m saying… including that woman’s identity, you… knew very early on… right?”
“……”
I still hadn’t spoken.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to; at that moment, I genuinely didn’t know what to say.
I didn’t know what to say…
That would make him feel better…
“Hehe, hehe…”
Carlos kept laughing: “After that, I left. Me, the teacher… and Apheir, we parted ways. I did return to that town, but I didn’t do anything, lost all motivation to do something, and, with Leah… ended up here.”
