Hestia quickly took control of the dream, setting up the Solidification Array she had just learned.
In fact, except for learning a powerful Dream Defense Array with Talaide today, she spent the rest of her time sleeping in the treehouse, afraid her teacher would enter the dream while she was gone.
She carefully constructed the dream to resemble the forest treehouse, quietly waiting for the protagonist to arrive, weighing her rehearsed words.
The flower-scented hypnosis was clearly no longer effective.
Even if hypnosis succeeded, he would force himself awake, so she planned for a quick battle today.
Speed was essential—just like her teacher taught her.
In all martial arts, speed is invincible.
She firmly believed: her teacher’s shyness was merely the remnant of unawakened memories.
As long as she brought her teacher to relive the taste of happiness, he would definitely choose her.
Hestia sat at the bedside, starting to worry irrationally.
Would Belinda and Reina suddenly burst in?
She hurriedly checked the defense array.
Second Uncle had said that as long as she stayed in the dream, it wouldn’t be breached.
She could clearly feel Belinda’s crimson flame trying to break through the Dream Defense.
But Reina was nowhere to be seen.
Hestia pondered for a while, then stopped.
The greatest secret of elven happiness was not thinking about questions with no answers.
She began to worry again whether the teacher would resist sleep.
She should have learned more arrays to forcibly drag people into sleep (if such things existed).
Even without them, she could ask Second Uncle to invent one.
Who woke the teacher up outside while he was sleeping?
Was it Barbaros?
Hestia couldn’t help but let her thoughts wander.
If it was Barbaros, that was fine—she and Barbaros were on good terms, and he liked to eat.
But Reina seemed to be quite hostile toward him.
What if it was another girl?
The moment she touched upon this question, Hestia’s happy mood vanished.
If she asked the teacher, he probably wouldn’t answer, making it impossible to know the truth.
Even if he answered, it might be a lie.
The teacher had said lying was a necessary survival skill.
It was already known that the current teacher no longer had magic power, so he could be caught by powerful villains, or even…
Happiness left her, followed by endless suspicion and pain.
Li Qiuchen had just fallen into the dream and hadn’t even stood firm when five thick vines swept in from all directions, binding his wrists, ankles, and neck, stretching him into a ‘little’ shape and then hanging him upside down.
“Ah? Hestia, what are you doing?!”
Li Qiuchen roared in anger, nearly breaking down inside.
What was this situation?
What the heck—there’s even bondage now?
Is this still the good apprentice I carefully taught?
Didn’t we agree on freedom for me?
What kind of freedom is this?
Freedom to play?
“Teacher, you’re being mean to me!”
Hestia was the first to accuse.
Sensing the master’s anger, the five vines binding him began to tighten, making Li Qiuchen so suffocated he couldn’t speak.
Seeing his teacher’s face turning red, Hestia slowly relaxed some of the bindings.
She continued to interrogate:
“Teacher, did you get close to another girl? Did a girl wake you up? Did you sleep together?! Teacher!”
Li Qiuchen paid no attention to the green-haired little elf who was already exploding with anger.
He caught his breath and finally recited the incantation for the Fool’s Food.
“I want a piece of cake.”
“Teacher, what flavor do you want?”
As Hestia turned and pulled out a table full of cakes, she saw the teacher, already free from the bindings, standing on the ground holding an ugly green cake, inspecting it closely as if searching for something.
“Teacher, when did you break free from control?”
“This cake looks ugly. Could it be poisonous? Try the pastries I specially learned to make instead.”
Hestia immediately forgot her original plan upon hearing the teacher wanted cake, treating it as a sign of goodwill, and began chattering about her pastries.
The cake scene inserted by Fool’s Food could not be interrupted by any external force.
Li Qiuchen just didn’t expect that the cake’s surface actually bore a second-level Purification Array—Fool’s Cage—which could construct a dream for dying or lingering souls and fully purify them.
Though called a Purification Array, it could be considered a killing effect.
He remembered an issue of the Weekly that even mentioned Fool’s Food.
The article’s commentator said, “The gift prepared by Gold Tooth Grubb in the dream was worth more than three Gold Tack.”
So it was true!
Li Qiuchen lifted the ugly cake and swallowed it in one bite.
The Lizard Venom’s toxicity acted fast, turning his whole face green as he collapsed backward, dying painlessly.
Still introducing the cake, Hestia turned and saw this scene, her elven soul almost fleeing her body in terror.
“Ahhhh——!”
Her long elven ears vibrated at high frequency, like two propellers.
“Teacher! I told you it might be poisonous. Why did you eat it?!”
The vast and pure Healing Power poured continuously into Li Qiuchen’s body but had no effect, like a stone sinking into the sea.
After another round of inspection, Hestia confirmed a terrifying truth—
Teacher, dead!!
Good news: this is a dream.
So is the teacher in the real world still alive? He should be, right? Maybe, right?
No!
“Teacher, wait for me, I’m going to find Second Uncle to save you.”
Hestia turned and left the dream.
There was no other way—the problem was too big, she had to find someone to fix it.
With Hestia’s departure, the dream was slowly split by a scorching Sword Intent of flame.
Belinda was surprised she could even enter.
Reina couldn’t come today due to the Great Ceremony, but what about Hestia?
The proud face of the Princess of Taya Empire showed a rare wry smile at the green-faced person on the ground.
“So this is Fool’s Food?”
She remembered this array.
At the time, the little warlock was furious, cursing the shamelessness of the merchant, and to vent his anger, she suggested burning down that Arcane Workshop.
The little warlock, in his rage, actually agreed—but unfortunately, they were stopped by that meddling woman.
Just recalling the argument between that woman and the little warlock made her unconsciously angry.
She didn’t like boys feeling any emotion for things unrelated to herself.
In the three years apart, she had reflected and clearly understood that excessive expectations of a lover were poison.
The girl’s court high-heeled boots of the Taya Empire lightly kicked the man’s waist as if testing whether he was playing dead.
Even through the faint touch of the boot, just the lover’s presence brushing against her made her feel an uncontrollable impulse.
She wanted to embrace, to **, to devour his flesh and bones bit by bit to ease the three years of longing.
Even if it was just a corpse.
Even if it was just a dream.
Day after day, night after night, the dull pain in her heart made it clear that having something of hers taken away didn’t mean she would return to the time before it existed.
Her heart was left empty in a place, hurting every moment.
Just as she prepared to bend down and “take a closer look” at her long-lost lover, a figure suddenly appeared beside her.
“What are you doing?!”
Hestia stared at Belinda with full vigilance.
She had just asked Second Uncle; allowing someone to die in a dream required a special array and wouldn’t affect the real world.
Relieved, she rushed back—only to find that a certain lion had already broken in.
Belinda paused in her motion to bend down for a kiss, her hand’s flames falling onto the boy’s body.
In an instant, the remaining corpse in the dream turned to ashes.
“What are you doing?!”
Hestia stomped her foot in anger.
“To prevent a certain shameless little brat from committing some taboo of desecrating the teacher out of curiosity.”
Belinda spared not a shred of mercy, clapping her hands.
Hestia’s emerald eyes glared at her.
After a long while, she shot back:
“The teacher never agreed to your engagement at all. It was always you pushing him, forcing him. You’ve been a princess since childhood, having everything, grabbing whatever you liked, so you didn’t want to give up the teacher.”
She added:
“But the teacher doesn’t like you at all!”
No wonder she was famed as the most notorious elven assassin of recent years.
Her cold words drew blood in a single stroke.
Hestia sensed a nearly tangible pressure from her opponent.
She instinctively crouched, hands reaching for her waist.
But Belinda only smiled, countering,
“Hestia, do you know why your teacher never chose you in the end?”
“……”
Hestia panted, but couldn’t hold back her curiosity.
“Why?”
“Because you’re just a child.
Your teacher could never rely on a child like you to give him freedom.”
Belinda smiled, giving her answer.
“Just like no matter what trouble you caused, he could always forgive you. Because you were just a child. We all thought so.”
Mist gradually rose in Hestia’s eyes, her fingers gripping the dagger handle turning pale.
“Belinda, you’re asking for death.”
Belinda approached slowly, entirely unguarded as she continued.
“It’s just the truth. All these years, in battle, I never relied on you to protect my flank. You were just an unreliable child.”
The green light of the dagger drew an arc through the air.
Belinda’s body slowly faded in the dream.
“Anger, because I spoke the truth…”
***
Side Palace of the Taya Empire Royal Palace.
Belinda, dressed in pajamas, came to the stable.
A white, short-legged pony slept soundly inside.
Most of the tamed horses on the Taya Continent slept standing, as it allowed them to run quickly if attacked by predators.
But this pony lay on its side, snoring thunderously.
No reason—it was just living too comfortably.
Every day carefree, with a little mare for company, it wanted nothing but to eat and play.
Predators?
What are those?
Belinda didn’t wake it.
She simply squatted by its side, gently stroking its forehead.
She remembered buying the horse with the boy, feeling somewhat dissatisfied.
Compared to the warhorses seen in the royal palace, this pony was so ordinary as to seem pitiful.
But the boy fed it happily, chewing on grass.
“Is it really necessary to be this happy just because we bought a horse?”
She was confused.
“But it’s our horse, our little pony. It’s wonderful!”
The boy was so happy he nearly danced, and that joy even infected her, making the pony seem to radiate a strange magic.
It really did have strange magic—because it was ‘their’ horse.
It was their anchor, so she tried hard to preserve it.
She was a person full of doubts.
The Taya Empire had experienced two splits and now was only half its former land, eyed by various principalities and merchant guilds.
Without a strong ruler to guide reform, a third split was near.
She grew up under her parents’ expectations, always doubting everything around her: the true intentions behind merchant guild flattery, the loyalty of ministers, the truth in generals’ war reports.
But she no longer wanted to doubt him.
Whatever he was, as long as he stayed by her side, real or fake, it was fine.
Just so long as he never left again, then…that would be enough.
Please.
The dazed girl crouched in the stable, looking up at the moon.
The bright moon hung high, beautiful and cold, so much like that night years ago when the boy took the Silver Key and promised her a marriage.
***
The moon not only illuminated the royal palace but also hung over Blackwater Town.
As all became quiet, a bat, hanging upside down, watched two assassins being taken away for the sheriff to handle.
Its blood-red eyes suddenly widened.
It drifted away like black smoke, then reformed as a bat in the moonlight, spreading its wings to fly.
It flew straight to a carriage speeding along the old road, then became black smoke again, drifting into the carriage.
“They actually failed?”
A man’s voice muttered from within.
He opened the window and tossed the bat out casually.
The old man driving the carriage looked puzzled.
“Father Aescher, what did you say?”
“I said, the grace of God is not far away.”
The man replied with a gentle laugh.
“Father, you’re right! See that castle under the moonlight? That’s Baron Horn’s territory. We’re about an hour from Blackwater Town.”
The old man smiled.
***
In the distant Horn Castle, Kai Lun had just returned when his father ordered him to pack.
Kemel followed to help.
Kai Lun’s face was pale as the man beside him silently packed clothes and a wallet into the wooden box.
“Sir has arranged for your school. Once you return, continue your studies.”
“Uncle, my father…”
Kai Lun realized something, looking nervously at the man.
Kemel’s movements paused.
“Sir is in the Cemetery Crypt. You shouldn’t go there. Rest here and set out in the morning.”
***
Huo En sat in the cellar, gently stroking the Ceramic Sarcophagus beside him, his expression weary.
On the seventh day after Linna died from a magical beast attack, a Necromancer appeared in his castle uninvited, claiming to know the secret of reviving the dead.
After much hesitation, he followed the Necromancer’s advice and preserved Linna’s body perfectly in the sarcophagus.
“All souls of the dead are drawn into Demon King City within seven days. To preserve a soul, you must use other souls to feed the dead—strengthening her soul to prevent it from being drawn to Demon King City. As long as the ritual is correct, the dead can be awakened.”
The Necromancer’s persuasive words echoed in his ears.
That damn Necromancer didn’t care about resurrection at all—he only wanted to absorb the power of magical beasts in the mines.
But he believed that bastard’s lies.
Killing wasn’t hard; he had slain countless monsters and enemies on the battlefield.
Now, the ones he had to kill were only strangers—the weak drunks, the unattached passersby.
It wasn’t complicated: bribe the right people, erase the traces.
He struggled to maintain the baron’s dignity, even though it was already rotten inside.
He thought he could live with a clear conscience, but at night, he was still burned by the girl’s gaze.
In dreams, his beloved stood quietly before the manor of his youth, as if she’d call him to fetch a bucket of water at any moment.
But she didn’t.
He walked over, and the girl just watched him, eyes full of tears.
He often woke from such dreams, velvet bedsheets soaked with sweat, the girl’s eyes filled with helplessness and heartbreak.
She watched him walk a twisted, forbidden path for her sake.
Why did she cry?
Was it the pain of separation between life and death, or…
The man stood, for the first time feeling the passage of time so real.
After a battle that wasn’t even intense, he felt only exhaustion and helplessness.
He kept time, waiting for the first rays of sunlight to pierce the darkness.
The black crystal finally stopped shining.
The ritual had failed.
He drew out the Knight’s Longsword and slowly pried open the sarcophagus.
The girl’s form was already decayed, the once luxurious silk soaked in corpse water, her withered bones void of all beauty.
He gently embraced her.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
He apologized softly.
He kissed the skull’s forehead again and again, a mixture of love and atonement.
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