How did she end up taking this job?
It was not that Zeta doing such things was strange, but rather the coincidence itself that was bizarre.
Enya fell into deep thought.
The business with Tulius had not ended all that long ago, yet Zeta had appeared as if she had caught the scent. It was quite suspicious.
In the past, with the support of the “Lies” item, Enya’s disguise would never have been seen through, but things were different now.
After separating her avatar, Phil, she no longer had that Blessing of distorted perception.
It was possible she had been located through some unknown means!
However, this only applied because Enya had separated Phil and was not using the mask given to her by Antiros; otherwise, no high-tier magic could have peeked at her trail.
‘I have to be more careful from now on,’ Enya noted silently.
In this world, it was difficult for an ordinary person to find someone, but for a cultivator, it could be done for a certain price. To find a trace of Enya, however, the price was far from ordinary.
Even so, Enya had to remain on guard. She did not want to lead people to Red Pine City. It was not that she feared she could not defeat someone, but rather she did not want to destroy this territory.
Zeta narrowed her eyes and stared at Enya. “As for the Golden Town you mentioned…”
Enya was currently wearing the Black Mask, combined with the face-blurring enchantment, so others could not see what kind of expression she had at the moment.
Seeing Zeta take the initiative to shift to another topic, she followed the opening and picked up the conversation.
“What do you know about Golden Town?”
“It is an information organization, but it holds some other secrets. As far as I know, this organization is closely related to the Golden Empire from 1,000 years ago. They are suspected to be remnants of the Golden Empire? As for the hidden existence in the form of a spider, I do not know anything about that.”
Zeta curled up in the large chair.
The pair of ears on top of her head flickered, and the tail behind her hung over the armrest.
Beneath her mask, Enya’s eyes narrowed.
It was easy to link Golden Town to the Golden Empire.
After all, Sharon had given her a fan, claiming it was a lost item belonging to a High Consul of the Golden Empire.
This almost explicitly stated that she was related to the old Golden Empire!
What Enya truly wanted to know through this question was the identity of Sylvia’s controller—the hidden existence hiding behind the scenes.
It was not Zeta’s fault that she did not know.
She was actually only 7th Tier, making her individually the weakest person present, but she was merely a clone.
There were eight more Fox Spirits just like her!
Of course, Enya was not involved with all nine Fox Spirits.
She had only spent time with a few of them, and the one who had roamed the Snow Region with Enya in the past was not the Zeta sitting here now.
“I do not blame you for not being able to answer. If a casual question could provide the answer, then that fellow certainly would not be a hidden existence,” Enya remarked, subtly stinging Zeta as a way to settle the debt for previously inciting everyone to surround and attack her.
Seeing that Enya not only failed to thank her but instead used those words to prick her, the Golden Fox Princess did not appear particularly unhappy.
She stuck out her small pink tongue at Enya and gave a light hmph.
‘Hah, who are you? You are not her, so you are not worth wasting my emotions on!’
Enya did not mind this. She turned her head to look at the others. First was the Demon Lord Princess sitting at Zeta’s side.
The chair that seemed oversized for Zeta was just the right size for her, showing how tall and slender this woman of the Demon Race with long purple hair was.
Liz noticed Enya’s gaze but only spoke plainly.
“By the time I was born, the Golden Empire had already been in ruins for 500 years.”
“Back then, the Northern and Southern Continents were not connected,” Eliv added.
The Northern and Southern Continents were divided by the Moonfall Mountains, which the Human World called the Northern Mountains.
During the era of the Golden Empire 1,000 years ago, Humans had defeated the foreign races of the Southern Continent and driven the Demon Race to the barren lands further south.
Since then, the Human-Demon War had raged intermittently for a millennium—one side fought to protect their land of survival, while the other fought to reclaim their ancestral territory.
That was the state of the world at the time.
If even Liz, as the Demon Lord, did not know that part of history, then Eliv, as the Elven Saintess, was even more poorly informed.
Enya glanced at Vivienne, but her gaze quickly moved past her to the chair on her other side.
There sat the petite, black-haired girl, our Great Witch, Antiros. Although she was the smallest one present, she was the oldest.
Antiros had certainly lived through the era of the Golden Empire.
Therefore, Enya skipped Vivienne and questioned Antiros with her eyes. She had intended to ask Antiros from the very beginning.
Before the Witch Lady could answer, Vivienne cleared her throat.
“Are you looking down on me?”
“…”
A chill ran down Enya’s spine as she turned back toward Vivienne.
Vivienne snorted and said, “The reason the Golden Empire collapsed back then was due to internal strife among the high-ranking officials. The Emperor and several High Consuls had conflicting opinions, which eventually tore apart the First Empire that had been born from blood and fire.”
‘Did the High Consuls betray the Emperor?’
The drama felt familiar.
Enya was suddenly intrigued.
There were almost no ruins left of the Golden Empire, and historical records in later generations were very fragmented.
Some people even used this as an argument to claim that the Golden Empire never existed in human history, calling it nothing but a lie told by those in power to the common people.
It was all for the sake of grabbing attention and playing to the gallery!
That period of history had been intentionally erased, as if someone were trying to hide something.
“As for why they disagreed, there are almost no historical records of it. During that time, many books were burned in a fire,” Vivienne continued.
During the era of the Golden Empire, Humans had unified the entire continent and destroyed the races that once enslaved them.
They carried out a massive purge of those races’ cultures, leading to a grand Book Burning Event to pave the way for a final, unified script.
From winning the world to ruling it, some people were bound to fall behind the times.
The reason for the discord was perhaps a divergence in their philosophies on governing the country.
After hearing Vivienne’s brief but sufficient supplement of information regarding the Golden Empire, Enya looked toward the quietly sitting Antiros.
Antiros let out a yawn and said, “I was sleeping back then.”
“You…”
Enya took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She really wanted to scold Antiros, but she forced herself to endure it.
The others felt this was normal, for the ancient witch was a legend.
Legend had it that there was an ancient witch in the world with black hair and black eyes who only came out to roam once every few hundred years.
If one were lucky enough to meet her…
As long as she was in a good mood, she would grant the person of destiny an ancient inheritance.
Every person who received her inheritance would leave their name in history.
The last one to receive it was…
Arzan, the King of Wars of the Golden Empire.
When the Witch Lady took a nap, it lasted for centuries. Even a short snooze lasted at least ten years!