“Mph—!”
Following the shattering of the spatial channel, Sherylvale let out a short, muffled groan.
Her arms encircling Ian instantly lost their strength, her delicate body going soft as she relapsed entirely into a swoon, sliding limply off Ian’s back.
Ian instinctively turned around, catching the collapsed young girl.
My word, she had actually gotten quite a bit heavier.
“Hehe, your charm is quite something. The two little princesses of the Philimons family and the Connalt family both happen to like you quite a bit, huh~”
Margarita’s tone carried a heavy sense of teasing and gloating.
The corner of Ian’s mouth twitched, leaving him speechless to respond.
What could he possibly do about it? He was merely a programmer repairing bugs.
Ghost knew why these two heroines didn’t go look for that Hero protagonist and instead kept their eyes fixed on him all the time.
At this time, Duke Frederick Connalt arrived on the scene in a timely manner.
When this “White Light” Duke looked at his daughter inside Ian’s embrace, his face was entirely filled with heartache and complexity.
He took his daughter from Ian’s hands, and then nodded his head slightly toward Ian in apology:
“I am very sorry, Mr. Ian, I failed to keep a good watch on Vale…”
Margarita walked up close, a sliver of pure starlight magic power probing in, which she withdrew after a brief moment:
“Your daughter is fine. It is just that she utilized a talent ability that does not belong to this stage, fortunately it was interrupted, it is merely a magic power backlash coupled with her body being too weak, which is why she passed out.”
Having completed the examination, Frederick Connalt let out a breath of relief.
“Let’s talk about it, Frederick, what is the matter with your daughter, to actually want to kidnap my most cute student.”
Ian: “Hehe…”
“Alas… Margarita, Mr. Ian…”
The Duke’s voice deepened.
“Sheryl, she inherited the spatial magic talent of her mother, Eleanor…”
Margarita froze for a moment, then inquired:
“This is not right, your wife possessed a spatial magic talent? Then why have I never heard you mention it before?”
Furthermore, possessing an extremely rare top-tier talent like space magic, how could she not have even a sliver of reputation?
To the point where even Margarita, Frederick’s old friend, had never heard of it.
“Actually, Eleanor’s spatial magic talent appeared suddenly…”
The moment this answer came out, it caused both Margarita and Ian to freeze for a moment.
What did he mean by a magic talent appearing suddenly?
Could it be that she also had a system?
Before the two of them could react, Duke Frederick continued to speak:
“At least, before her accident, I never perceived her possessing any talent or omen regarding spatial magic. She was merely a… gentle, ordinary noble woman who loved painting and gardening.”
Duke Frederick’s gaze fell upon the pale yet serene sleeping face of his daughter inside his embrace, his eyes full of reminiscence.
“That was 20 years ago, when Sheryl was 4 years old.”
“At that time, I was responsible for the guarding mission of the empire’s ‘Abyss Corridor’ dungeon.”
“Since Sheryl turned 1, Eleanor and I hadn’t seen each other for three years, so… Eleanor brought little Sheryl to the outpost base of the dungeon.”
The Abyss Corridor…
Margarita’s brow knit tightly.
“Is it that dungeon related to the ‘Holy Sword’?”
“Yes.”
The Duke nodded, a sliver of lingering fear and regret flashing within his eyes.
“Originally everything was very peaceful, and they only stayed briefly inside the safe zone of the outpost base. But just on the day before I prepared to escort them back to the surface… an accident occurred.”
He took a deep breath, as if the sight of that day was still before his eyes:
“A ‘Spatial Quake’ of unprecedented massive scale that affected the entire dungeon erupted without any omen.”
“The entire range of the dungeon was instantly swept by distorted spatial rifts and wild law turbulences.”
“Buildings collapsed, protective formations shattered like pieces of paper, and the teleportation formation bore the brunt of it, being completely destroyed.”
“Even for me, I could only barely preserve myself…”
The “White Light” Duke’s voice was dry.
“When I struggled out from the chaos and charged frantically toward the resting area where Eleanor and Sheryl were… nothing was left there anymore.”
“There was only a messed-up expanse of ruins and a spatial rift. The remaining traces on the edge of the rift and the disordered spatial coordinates displayed… that they had been sucked inside, the landing point… below the ninetieth floor.”
“Below the ninetieth floor?!”
Margarita lost her voice and let out a low cry, her eyes filled with shock.
Because mankind’s current highest dungeon exploration progress was the seventieth floor.
Even if a quasi-Tier 7 expert went forth, they could only stop their steps at the seventieth floor.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t win in a fight; the monsters on the seventieth floor were merely Tier 5 monsters after all.
The true reason was because after the seventieth floor, it was completely impossible to use even a single bit of magic power.
All tools regarding magic power directly became invalid. Although the monsters could not use magic power either, their inherent strength and defense were incomparably powerful.
The Duke’s gaze fell back onto Sherylvale’s face once again, carrying a gentleness:
“However, just at the dawn of the fourth day, the air before me suddenly rippled like water waves.”
“A silver-colored spatial rift opened up with great difficulty. That rift was very small and very unstable. And then… little Sheryl was sent out from within the rift, landing gently inside my embrace. She was asleep, and her body still carried the scent of a kind of soothing sachet commonly used by Eleanor, completely unscathed.”
“At the final instant… I saw Eleanor.”
The Duke closed his eyes, as if unable to bear recalling that scene.
“She stood inside an expanse of absolute darkness, and her body seemed to be emitting light, a very faint silver light, her whole person looking… very illusory, like she would dissipate at any moment. She smiled at me, and used the shape of her mouth to say two words: ‘Leave quickly.'”
“Then, the rift closed up completely. Since then, I have never perceived that rift again, and there has been no news regarding Eleanor either.”
“Only afterward did I learn that the silver-colored brilliance represented spatial magic…”
After Duke Frederick finished speaking, there was an expanse of silence upon the path. The night wind blew past, bringing the coolness of late autumn.
Margarita’s face was solemn; it seemed that a lot of things were still hidden inside that ‘Great Shake’ incident.
Ian, however, had a face full of speechlessness.
Well then… do you legendary grand mages not avoid people at all when you speak?
To just stand right on this path and speak out such a massive secret so stiffly?
Fortunately, the slipping-away route he chose was secretive enough… No, wait!
That wasn’t the focal point!
Was this a secret that an outsider like him could listen to?!
Having heard things concerning the heroine’s background settings, wouldn’t he be securely sucked inside the plot?!
As if to confirm what Ian thought inside his heart, Duke Frederick opened his mouth to speak.
“Mr. Ian, I want to ask you to do me a favor…”
Look at that.
The headache-ridden Ian, with a face full of constipation, just wanted to open his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Margarita.
“Hey, I say, Frederick, that’s about enough from you. My precious student does not have so much time to help you.”
“Ah, this…”
Being spoken to like this by Margarita, Duke Frederick was somewhat in a difficult position for a moment.
But he cast a glance at the pale complexion of his daughter inside his embrace, and still decided to speak the request out.
“I am very sorry, Mr. Ian, I know this is very abrupt. But I still want to request you…”
“I want to request you to get engaged to Sheryl…”