The content of the letter to Kavier was very simple: Truth wanted him to send more people to garrison Deya City to prevent the Blasphemers from causing trouble, as Truth currently couldn’t monitor the entire city around the clock.
But monitoring the entire Mist around the clock was no problem at all.
“Little Mist, I have another task for you. During this period, I need you to help me monitor all adventurers in the Mist who haven’t entered dungeons, haven’t diligently collected materials, and haven’t actively hunted monsters. This is very important!”
Truth said seriously to Little Mist, but the latter was completely unconcerned about this.
What do you take me for, some cheap labor? Always making me do this and that. I’m not your servant, you know. I have a temper and dignity too, hmph!
Little Mist turned her face away slightly, expressing a bit of her dissatisfaction.
“Ah, listen to me first. The reason I’m asking you to do this is to protect the adventurers within the Mist. During this time, many bad people will infiltrate the Mist to cause destruction and attempt to harm those innocent adventurers. So, Little Mist, you don’t want to hear the painful cries of innocent adventurers, do you? To prevent tragedy from happening, I need you to find those bad people now, and then let Ariel deal with them!”
Prevent tragedy from happening… Little Mist was instantly swayed by Truth’s words:
“Re…ally?”
…
Noon, northeast of the Dea Plateau, the Third Frontline.
A scout galloped at full speed into the Joint Command Post and handed an envelope without any seal to the fifth-rank Demon Hunter, Kavier:
“Tha…that, Sir Demon Hunter, this is a letter from the Ninth Saintess.”
“The Ninth Saintess?” The other commanders present all looked curiously at the seemingly very perfunctory letter in Kavier’s hand and asked:
“Are you sure it’s not some prank? How could a Saintess be so ignorant of protocol?”
For the military and the Church, sending letters was something that absolutely could not be done carelessly. First, a dedicated messenger must be sent. The letter must bear the Church’s and the Saintess’s exclusive anti-counterfeiting marks. The paper used must also be a special type processed from century-old wet wood from the Southern Marshes…
But the letter in Kavier’s hand was made from the kind of ordinary paper you could buy at any bookstore.
The envelope surface had no anti-counterfeiting measures.
Even the person responsible for delivery was just a third-rank ranger casually pulled from the Adventurers’ Association. It was utterly perfunctory!
And this guy’s legs had been trembling non-stop since he entered the military camp and felt the solemn, killing atmosphere.
Actually, the third-rank ranger had refused at first when he heard the letter was to be delivered to the Demon Hunter frontline.
But Truth offered too much money; otherwise, he would never have come to the frontline…
“On the contrary, this is exactly the Ninth Saintess’s style,” Kavier replied while reading the letter:
“Hiss… It seems many Blasphemers are causing panic in Deya City, requiring more personnel to garrison Deya City…”
“Huh? The Ninth Saintess wants to ask us for personnel? But that sixth-order demon still hasn’t been captured. We have absolutely no spare manpower!”
“Maybe we can send some new recruits to fob them off for now,” one commander suggested.
“No, the letter mentions sixth-order Blasphemers are active. Sending new recruits would be useless. How about this…”
Kavier asked a commander who had been urgently transferred from the capital a few days ago:
“Theodor, when are the reinforcements from the capital setting off for here?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Good. Go tell them now to dispatch another special task force. Say the Saintess needs their help to deal with sixth-order Blasphemers. They’ll know what to do after that. Then, while you’re at it, notify the Church. Have the Priests Association send people to conduct a Priest Evaluation and Saintess Ritual Evaluation for the Ninth Saintess. The previous evaluation by the Sixth Saintess had too many padding, which is why the Ninth Saintess knows nothing.”
“Understood!”
…
Six hours later, dusk, Snowveil City.
Concealed by the howling blizzard, a streak of light shot through Snowveil City’s transparent shield and landed precisely on the square of the Royal Magic Academy.
After half a day of continuous long-distance flight, Vieno finally returned to the academy. She jumped down from Xiao Cai’s enlarged back.
Immediately, Xiao Cai shrank down, utterly exhausted, and burrowed into Vieno’s arms.
Because Vieno couldn’t fly after being swatted by Truth, she couldn’t alternate flying with Xiao Cai on the return journey, nearly exhausting Xiao Cai to death on the way.
Vieno had told Xiao Cai there was no rush, to fly slowly.
But Xiao Cai’s desire to know the method to advance to King Rank was even more urgent than Vieno’s.
She just wanted to hurry back and send Wilona to the Mist…
“A letter for me from the Ninth Saintess, meow?”
In the highest-grade private dormitory of the Royal Academy, Wilona, who had just finished bathing and was wrapped in a towel with damp hair, tilted her head in confusion at the letter in her little aunt’s hand.
I don’t think I’ve ever met the Ninth Saintess. Why would she suddenly write to me?
“That’s right!” To appear less guilty, Vieno’s reply was very loud:
“I briefly introduced you to the Ninth Saintess. After just chatting for a bit, she became very interested in you. She said she wanted to invite you to go on an adventure together. Here, this is the invitation letter she specially wrote for you!”
Wilona took the envelope and read it carefully… Hmm, the content was very normal, but why were some characters bolded? So she tried connecting the bolded characters:
“This is… a trap… help me, meow?”
“What help?” Vieno asked, confused. She trusted the Hidden One, so she hadn’t checked the envelope in advance.
“This, right here! It’s so obvious, meow!”
Wilona directly pointed out the bolded characters to Vieno, who, after a quick glance, was greatly alarmed and immediately understood what was going on.
Oh no! This hint must have been secretly added by Truth to protect Wilona, hiding it from the Hidden One!
Damn it, I thought the Ninth Saintess, as the Hidden One’s vessel, would be very obedient. It seems that’s not entirely the case either…
“This, uh… this… maybe you can go there and ask the Ninth Saintess in person?” Vieno replied, sounding somewhat guilty.
“Auntie, you’re being very suspicious, meow?”
Wilona twitched her ears, her eyes staring directly at Vieno’s constantly evasive gaze. Then, Wilona turned and started walking away with the letter:
“I’m going to tell Mom about this and have her sniff out what’s really going on, meow!”
“Eh?! You can’t!”
Vieno hurriedly tried to snatch back Truth’s letter, but the next second, she saw Wilona pick up the bone flute hanging around her neck:
“The Beast God gave this to me after I returned. He said to summon Him if I get bullied again, meow!”
“What is this…” Vieno slowly withdrew her hand. She knew this bone flute was no joke. Since force wouldn’t work, she could only continue with persuasion:
“I’m your little aunt, how could I harm you?”
“Of course I believe you wouldn’t harm me, meow. I just think this letter is suspicious, meow. Plus, Suna told me the Ninth Saintess is her good friend, so by extension, she’s kind of my good friend too. For the safety of a good friend, I’m going to find Mom right now, meow!”
…
Ten minutes later, no matter how Vieno tried to dissuade her, Wilona still used the academy’s teleportation array to arrive at a sunlit artificial garden within the Northern Frontier Mountains, where she met the Queen of the Northern Empire, who was sunbathing — Vira.
This was one of the few places in the Northern Empire that received sunlight year-round, so it had been directly transformed by the Northern Royal Family into an extremely luxurious Royal Private Garden.
Just the annual cost of maintaining the teleportation arrays connecting to various places could equal over a dozen Deya Cities.
Vira lay on the lush green grass surrounded by flower beds, wearing a light gauze dress.
The Silver Light Crown, symbolizing imperial power, was casually tossed aside. Sensing Vieno and Wilona’s arrival, Vira still kept her eyes closed, only her purple cat ears, identical to Vieno’s, twitched:
“Coming to complain to me again? Were you bullied by your little aunt this time?”
Although her appearance was similar to her sister Vieno’s, her innate air of authority and her abundant hip-length hair made it easy to distinguish her from Vieno.
“No, it’s this strange letter the Ninth Saintess wrote to me, meow!”
Wilona directly flopped down onto the soft grass, rolling into Vira’s arms and handing over the envelope.
The latter naturally propped up her head on her side and began reading the letter, noticing the bolded characters.
“Interesting…” The next moment, Vira directly extended her soft tongue and gave the letter a gentle lick:
“Mmm… anticipation, confusion, reluctance, excitement, fear, coercion…”
With just one lick, Vira sensed the various emotions mixed within this letter.
Simultaneously, the process of this letter’s creation gradually formed in her mind.
It seemed a powerful figure had coerced a lesser figure into writing this letter.
The lesser figure, for some reason, had secretly left a very clumsy hint on the letter…
Reasoning this far, Vira then turned her gaze toward the still-guilty-looking Vieno beside her, transmitting her voice:
“Someone is aiding and abetting in bullying my lovely little daughter, hmm? You clearly know how important Wilona is, yet you still tried to trick her into going to Deya City. Why is that?”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.