Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 168: New Trouble
Tass had already been badly shaken, and now he jolted so hard that even his scales stood on end.
Father Kalen hurriedly reached out to catch him and instinctively extended the left hand holding the candlestick. Fortunately, the priest reacted quickly enough. Before a tragic case of roasted Dragon Fae could occur, he swiftly switched hands and caught the wobbling Tass.
Thinking of the divine power on this man, Tass twitched in alarm. The well-meaning priest pressed one finger down and securely pinned the Dragon Fae in his palm.
Tass: “…”
Kalen: “…”
Tass struggled to push the finger away and tried even harder to squeeze out a smile. “Father, what brings you here this late?”
As he spoke, his scales were still slightly raised, and out of the corner of his eye he had already begun searching for gemstones he could hide behind.
Kalen lowered his eyes.
Father Kalen was tall and broad, but his brows and eyes were gentle and mild. When he lowered his head like this, his lashes cast a small shadow, making him look somewhat pitiful.
“I’m sorry.” He carefully placed the Dragon Fae on the windowsill and spoke softly. “I know this is a little rude… Actually, I still hadn’t decided whether I should knock…”
He paused awkwardly for a moment, as though embarrassed by his own words. After a brief silence, the priest continued anyway.
“You know, I didn’t see what happened in the fog. Mr. Salaar roughly explained your condition, and I know you’ve become much stronger. But I can also tell that you’ve been avoiding me.”
“If I did something wrong, or if I’m having some bad effect on you, uh, please tell me. I’ll find a way to fix it.”
His tone was incredibly sincere, with a touch of self-reproach over whether he was being overly sensitive.
The Dragon Fae choked for a moment, then shook his head like a rattle. “No, no, don’t misunderstand. I’m just not completely sure… Ah, forget it. Come in. Let’s have some tea.”
Tass pointed toward the half-open bedroom door.
Telling Salaar and the others about that nightmare could wait until morning. It was deep into the night. If those two happened to be “busy,” barging in would be far too offensive.
After entering the room, the Dragon Fae voluntarily lifted the magically insulated teapot. Father Kalen took a small pouch of dried lavender from his waist bag and efficiently prepared a pot of lavender tea.
The distinctive lavender fragrance slowly spread through the room. Amid the rising steam, the two remained silent for a while.
After a moment, Tass spoke first.
He enjoyed watching drama and knew very well how destructive misunderstandings could be. So he told Father Kalen everything about the “dandelion,” his own transformation, and of course the part where he suspected he had been contaminated by the Lord of Shadows.
“…Mr. Salaar said that ‘god’ was a glorified pet placed in the human world by some other existence. So that’s what he meant.”
The priest visibly relaxed.
“Coming into contact with divine power stronger than its own causes it to rot and turn black… I see…”
“I don’t have any problem with you at all, I swear. I just wanted to observe.”
Holding a caramel biscuit, Tass solemnly raised one hand.
“I can tell you with certainty that this is absolutely not the influence of the Lord of Shadows.”
Kalen placed his right hand over his heart.
Mm-hm. Of course a believer would say that. Tass wasn’t particularly surprised.
In fact, part of the reason he hadn’t told Father Kalen directly was precisely because he had expected this. Next would probably come some religious explanation about how “our god is tolerant” or something similar.
“Because the Lord of Shadows isn’t an aggressive god,” the priest said with complete seriousness.
“Aggressive?”
Tass stopped halfway through biting his biscuit.
“Hermit once told me that ‘gods’ also come in different kinds, just like some animals eat plants while others eat meat.”
A faintly nostalgic expression appeared on Father Kalen’s face.
“Some gods need to gather power from mortals, or even animals, accumulating small amounts over time. Other gods prey directly on other gods. Unless they become desperately hungry, they generally won’t attack mortals.”
“To expand their range of influence, the first kind tends to possess gentler power. As for the second kind, even coming into contact with their divine power may be dangerous. Their power is like the scent or claws of a wild beast. Its very existence is proof of strength.”
“If something could contaminate you, I suspect it belongs to the second kind.”
That made some sense, Tass thought.
Generally speaking, animals were more wary of predators too. If an elephant approached, you could simply move away. If a tiger silently followed behind you, you might lose your life.
Crunch.
The Dragon Fae bit into his biscuit. “So the Lord of Shadows is the ‘plant-eating’ kind?”
“Yes. Predatory gods don’t have dependents, much less share their divine power, because there’s no need.” As he spoke, Kalen displayed the rings on both hands.
Father Kalen’s tone was almost impartial. It truly sounded as though he were describing some natural phenomenon, without any intention of praising the Lord of Shadows.
…Still, all of this came from bedtime stories Hermit had told his little brother. It couldn’t be trusted completely.
“That’s an interesting perspective,” Tass said.
Father Kalen seemed to realize as well that treating bedtime stories as established fact was rather inappropriate. He scratched his head somewhat awkwardly.
“Or let me put it another way. I’m a fragile human, yet I was able to receive the Lord of Shadows’ divine power… He wouldn’t grant me strength a mortal body couldn’t withstand.”
“Dragon Fae are far sturdier than humans. Power at this level shouldn’t have made you that sick.”
“Isn’t that even scarier?” Tass sucked in a breath. “If it wasn’t your influence, then there’s another god hiding somewhere around us… Could it be Mr. Salaar? Does he count?”
“I don’t know.” The priest admitted it honestly. “But Hermit said predatory ‘hunters’ are born that way. So I don’t think it’s Mr. Salaar.”
“Then it definitely can’t be Myss. He’s Salaar’s lover.”
The Dragon Fae pressed his temples.
“If we’re talking about naturally born monsters, the only one I can think of is the Chaos Archdemon… The famous Saint Salaar crawling into bed with an Archdemon? This isn’t the world of ‘Sweet Trap’.”
Great. After all that, they had returned to a dead end. But at this point, his physical condition had stabilized. As long as the other Dragon Fae weren’t turning black, the problem wasn’t especially urgent.
His real target had always been V.O.R. If he became too obsessed with this issue, he would only delay what actually mattered.
“Forget it. I’m not that easy to break anymore, so it doesn’t matter who it was. I just wasn’t paying attention before. Don’t take it personally.”
Tass brushed biscuit crumbs from his hands.
“If we’re lucky, once we finish investigating the Order of Shadows, we’ll know what happened.”
Father Kalen nodded solemnly and drank the last bit of lavender tea from the bottom of his cup. He looked considerably more at ease.
Tass knew perfectly well that he wasn’t important enough to occupy this much space in the priest’s thoughts. Kalen was probably worried about more than one thing.
And that made sense. He was suddenly being asked to investigate the brother he trusted most, the faith he had held since childhood, and his own hometown. Anyone would feel uneasy.
Having just been beaten over the head with the truth about his own species, Tass could relate quite well.
“…Hey, Kalen.” Tass sighed and poured the priest another steaming cup of lavender tea. “You’re still young. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Everyone understands what’s going on.”
“The Order of Shadows has always been fighting V.O.R. Investigating it is an important part of investigating V.O.R. If anything, I’m the one who delayed the investigation.”
The priest’s expression finally brightened somewhat. He quietly thanked Tass, held the cup in both hands, and drank the tea completely.
The candle Kalen had brought with him was almost burned out, reduced to a soft pile of white wax.
Hopefully this kid isn’t as unlucky as I am. The Order of Shadows had better have a respectable origin. Tass couldn’t help thinking this as he watched Father Kalen leave.
Kalen’s steps were much steadier when he left than when he had arrived. The Dragon Fae watched that tall figure disappear at the end of the hallway before finally closing the door.
……
“Walking?” Myss raised his eyebrows high.
“Yes. Walking.” Salaar patiently combed his braid and casually wove a few thin smaller braids into it. “Ember Village is extremely remote. Carriages can’t reach it. We can only teleport to the nearest city and then continue on foot.”
As he spoke, he tied a perfect rose knot using a lapis-blue ribbon.
“Ordinary people would need three to five days. We can move faster… I thought you’d hate this.”
Lord Archdemon wasn’t particularly demanding when it came to living conditions, but he wasn’t stupid either. He knew perfectly well what was more comfortable.
Throughout this journey, they had either ridden in high-end carriages or used teleportation arrays. This would be the first time they had to walk to their destination.
“Oh. I’m staying with you anyway. It’s not like we didn’t walk around the Crimson Marsh.”
Myss tugged the ribbon on his braid, examined it, then tossed it back behind him in satisfaction.
“I just didn’t expect that Kitchen Scrap Town to be even more remote than Ring Town.”
“Ember Village,” Salaar corrected.
“Whatever.” Myss gave an uninterested grunt. “What about Professor Elephant and the magic-artifact merchant? Did they leave?”
“We’re leaving first. They aren’t in as much of a hurry.”
Good, Myss thought. No more useless people getting in the way. Those people only slowed them down.
It was just a small village. They could rush in, rush out, and quickly figure out the connection between the Order of Shadows and V.O.R.
During breakfast, the Dragon Fae quietly reported the nightmare.
For once, Myss and Salaar were in complete agreement. Neither believed it had been an ordinary dream.
Salaar believed the commotion they had caused earlier had attracted V.O.R’s attention. Myss thought Salaar’s treatment of that “Void Moss” had caused its recovery to draw V.O.R’s notice.
The reason itself didn’t matter. What mattered was that they had to uncover V.O.R and “Its” conspiracy as quickly as possible.
In the worst-case scenario, this entity was roughly as powerful as the Chaos Archdemon’s true body and equally cautious. And now, reality was moving steadily toward their worst-case assumption.
“Are those Archmages really completely useless?”
“Professor Elephant counts as one. Lady Interesting is dead. The other five haven’t even shown their faces.”
Myss couldn’t help complaining.
“You’re willing to trust the human world, but the human world needs to actually contribute something.”
Salaar smoothed a few messy strands of Myss’s hair.
“The legendary Langhesia has lived in seclusion for many years. No one knows where he is. As for the other four, Tass has told me quite a bit.”
Washburn belonged to Mondicia. He was an ascetic who valued harsh self-discipline and lived year-round in ancient ruins. Rumor had it he had some private connection with the Secret Garden.
Mondicia was comparatively closed off and possessed only this one Kingdom Archmage.
Atla had two Kingdom Archmages.
Patricia, the Pope of Atla’s state religion, the “Night Listeners”. She was said to be over eighty years old.
Ursula Garfield, Atla’s foremost noble. She was over fifty and possessed an enormous family with extremely close ties to Atla’s imperial household.
And besides Colossal Elephant Gentry and the now-deceased Marcela Memi, the Kingdom of Aufon had one more Kingdom Archmage.
Firth Randall.
He was relatively young, held a high position within the Church of Cadence, and also possessed an honorary noble title from the Aufon royal family.
Unlike his two Atlan colleagues who specialized intensely in their respective fields, Mr. Firth preferred nominal positions that carried some authority and had little ambition beyond that.
But his strength was absolutely no weaker than any of those listed above.
Rumor said Firth had an eccentric and detached personality. Ever since losing his wife, who had also been his closest friend, he rarely participated in social gatherings.
…Salaar considered them one by one.
Then, rather unhappily, he realized that these four were either extremely powerful and influential or had unpleasant personalities. None of them sounded like the type who would politely cooperate.
One of them might even be working with V.O.R. At this stage, they weren’t prepared to recklessly alert any of them.
“You said you’ve heard plenty about the other four?” Myss tilted his head back to look at him again. “Then grab one and use them as free labor.”
“Haa.” Salaar shook his head melancholically. “I suddenly realized my personality is unbelievably good.”
Myss: “…”
Myss’s entire face wrinkled up like a dried plum.
“…………”
Salaar could not help laughing again.
…Half an hour later, he was no longer laughing. And Salaar wasn’t the only one. Myss was in the same boat. The reason was simple: They had just sent away one group of human-shaped problems and immediately welcomed an entirely new one.
A young man with lapis-lazuli eyes and light knight armor stood before them, his gaze sharp as an unsheathed dagger.
Nicholas Karns, an elite knight of the Knights of Cadence, famous for his hatred of evil. He was twenty-four years old, only a few months older than Payton.
Of course, all of that came from Salaar’s memories.
Myss sulked for a good ten seconds before recovering.
“Isn’t this that Mud Knight who wanted to kill you?”
Salaar: “Yes.”
Myss bared sharp teeth. “Didn’t Kendrick say he was going to cancel the kill order? Did he die halfway there? He can’t even handle something this simple?”
Salaar glanced at him. “You remember his name pretty well.”
“You used that name before.” Myss spoke impatiently. “That’s not the point. Why is the Mud Knight standing outside our door? Are people from the Karns family cockroaches?”
The next second, his question was answered.
“Last night, the Nebula family received a message. Earl Nebula mentioned the two of you.” Nicholas spoke gravely. “This is a serious matter. I had to come see what was going on.”
Salaar answered with complete sincerity. “Now you’ve seen. Get lost.”
Nicholas narrowed his eyes. For a moment, it was difficult to tell whether he or Salaar had the gloomier presence. A few seconds later, he sneered.
“Payton is still too softhearted. I don’t know how you bewitched him. I’ve already requested permission from Grandfather to come ‘visit’ you. Until I expose your true nature.”
“Let me make one thing clear in advance. I will never acknowledge you. Only Payton is my true brother.”
Only Payton was the real Kendrick. Myss almost wanted to spit in this bastard’s face.
Salaar’s head began to hurt. “Oh. We’re planning to explore an especially remote village. You still want to come?”
“That is a necessary price.” Nicholas crossed his arms.
Salaar and Myss: “…”
Might as well hit this brat with mental magic and get it over with. Once again, the two reached the same conclusion.
However…
“But you’re not as important as you imagine,” Nicholas said coldly. “I have my own work. I need to investigate the development of the Church of Candance in Atla. No matter where you go, I expect there will be Church of Cadence influence nearby.”
All right. That meant Nicholas would remain in contact with the Church of Candance throughout the entire journey.
Looks like they would have to hold off for now. Salaar and Myss exchanged a look and sighed directly into each other’s faces.
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