Wilona was overjoyed to run into the imposter here!
‘I’ve been working so hard to raise my strength to Third Rank just to take revenge for the humiliation I suffered in the Mist back then!’
And she had already tested it: from hiding to the successful ambush, the imposter hadn’t noticed her at all.
That meant the imposter’s strength was roughly between Level 20 and Level 35.
Under normal circumstances, if Wilona actually fought, it would be a close match, so it wasn’t wise to attack rashly.
But Wilona still chose to strike directly!
Because compared to the adventurers in this poor place called the Dea Plateau, Wilona had an ability they all lacked—the power of money!
After advancing to Third Rank, Wilona’s main battle equipment went straight from the best of Second Rank to the best of Third Rank.
Even if the imposter’s strength might be a few levels higher, Wilona’s superb gear could completely make up for the level gap.
And don’t forget, she was now an employee of Mist; the entire Mist was barely her territory.
If she really couldn’t win, she could just shout, “Hermit, save me!” to defuse the crisis, then let the Hermit help her get justice!
Immediately after, Wilona’s sharp claws pressed against Little Mist’s neck, making the latter’s whole body tremble.
Panicked tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes.
‘How could I be threatened by an unknown adventurer while in my own home?!!’
“Wait, wait! What’s going on? Do we know each other?!” Little Mist asked loudly, trying to defuse the situation.
Then Wilona got even angrier.
“Fine! You use me and then pretend not to know me? You deserve to die!”
Wilona ground her teeth and her fur stood on end.
Little Mist, completely baffled, quickly realized something: Truth must have done something bad to this cat-eared girl before, and now the girl had mistaken her and come for revenge.
‘Damn, just how many things has Truth gotten into…’
Little Mist complained inwardly.
‘Should I explain now… but how? Explain that I’m not Truth? Or use Truth’s sister “Zhendi” identity like when facing Tia? Maybe try saying we just look alike?’
Several solutions flashed through Little Mist’s mind, but they all had one fatal flaw: they couldn’t explain what the cat-eared girl meant by “imposter”…
‘No, no. If I don’t handle this properly, Truth will definitely find an excuse to bully me again! Right, Truth said if I ever run into a problem I really can’t solve, I can just ask her for help!’
So Little Mist immediately used her Authority to send a message to Truth.
“Tru… ah no, Elder Sister, I ran into a cat-eared girl at the Giant Pit. She pounced on me and called me an imposter, then said something like ‘you deserve to die.’ What should I do?!”
Soon, Truth replied.
“You ran into Cat? Then you two should get along. Don’t worry, Cat won’t scratch people randomly. Don’t bother me unless it’s something important. I’m busy right now!”
“Huh?!”
……
Meanwhile, on the second floor of the cathedral, after responding to Little Mist, Truth heard a low knock at the door outside.
She had been peacefully enjoying the live broadcast of Ariel being harassed by adventurers, but now she sat up a little annoyed and called out to the door.
“What is it?”
‘No need to worry about Little Mist. That snake and cat aren’t very smart; they’ll make up on their own. And Cat is probably just bored and wants to play with Little Mist. Her intentions are definitely good.’
‘As for Little Mist, I swear it’s not because I’m petty that I’m ignoring her. As a little sister, she can’t always rely on her big sister’s wings forever, right? Being scratched by Cat now is just a small test I’ve given her. I believe she can handle it on her own!’
“Holy Maiden, we’ve spotted signs of a few Wangsheng City scouts outside the city. They’re most likely from a party that came to visit you.”
Outside the door, a steady male voice came in. Then Truth opened the door and met the eyes of a heavily armored knight who was armed to the armpits.
The reason this matter was more important was that the knight before her was one of the three Shadow Guards the Goddess of Life had left in Deya City to protect Truth.
His name? She didn’t know, but his equipment was an Epic heavy armor set! A rich knight!
That’s right, Truth had never bothered to learn this Shadow Guard’s name, but according to Kashan and Omili, he seemed to have a big background.
Whenever a Shadow Guard took the initiative to bring news, it was usually very important. She had to pay attention.
When the Shadow Guard saw Truth, he immediately knelt on one knee and tried to perform a hand-kissing ritual.
But after holding the gesture for a while, he found Truth made no move to extend her hand.
So he looked up in confusion.
Truth just stared at him expressionlessly…
‘Uh… Well, just as the rumors say, the Holy Maiden from Earth really has no manners at all…’
The knight thought to himself. ‘No wonder the Chief Priest wants to take her back to Wangdu for lessons.’
“Wait, don’t misunderstand!” Truth suddenly said.
“From your expression… you think I’m the kind of person who doesn’t even know what a hand-kissing ritual is, right? And I bet you’re thinking, ‘As expected, the Ninth Saintess has absolutely no manners’ or something?”
“Oh?” The knight was puzzled, then found this Ninth Saintess a bit interesting.
“So, Holy Maiden, why won’t you accept my salute?”
“What else? I think you’re dirty.” Truth gave the knight a white look, with a hint of mockery, then ignored him and slowly walked down the stairs.
‘Tch? What rank are you to think you can kiss me?’
The knight: “…”
‘Well, it seems the Ninth Saintess is harder to deal with than I imagined…’
Truth was quite interested in the visit from Wangsheng City.
According to her understanding, Wangsheng City had a lot of intelligence about the Gods and various secrets, plus their highly developed trade and economy.
As long as she could establish good relations, it would benefit the entire Dea Plateau!
As for how deep the cooperation would be, that depended on their sincerity.
If they didn’t cooperate, it didn’t matter either. What Truth cared about most was intelligence about the Gods anyway.
She could always infiltrate Wangsheng City herself and gather information manually… but that would be too troublesome.
‘It’s really better to leave such trivial matters to subordinates.’
Truth muttered to herself. Since she was over Level 100, she didn’t need to run errands herself.
She’d leave the side quests to her subordinates and focus on the main quest.
As she walked downstairs, Truth gave orders to the rich knight following behind.
“Go invite the scouts from the Conservative Faction of Wangsheng City to the cathedral as guests. I want to meet them in person.”
“Huh? Holy Maiden, you… you want to host guests?”
At the cathedral entrance, seeing Truth come downstairs, Kashan, who had been handling affairs with the Demon Hunters, was shocked.
She hurried over to support Truth.
“Holy Maiden, weren’t you seriously injured and need to rest in bed? Why did you suddenly come down? And you want to host guests…”
Oh right, Truth then realized she was in the persona of a weak Holy Maiden gravely wounded by a Demon.
“Right! I… I’m injured… Ugh!”
Truth quickly put on a pained expression and clutched her chest, looking completely sickly.
“The injury is still quite serious… but the guests visiting this time are very important to Deya City. I have to meet them, ugh…”