Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 223: Notoriety

Nemo was unexpectedly indifferent.

Facing Jesse’s amazing statement, he didn’t even frown. “I see. Thank you, Dylan.”

Jesse raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Oh, you’re much calmer than I thought. What, you don’t believe me?”

“No, of course I believe you. If I am much stronger than you, then lying about this matter will not bring you any benefit.” Nemo touched the plastered wall. “If there is anything I have learned from being a Black Chapter these days, as long as I am willing to look for it, there are more choices than it seems.”

“You’re so optimistic.”

“If you really think that everything cannot be rewritten and we’re destined to fall into despair, then why hide the answer?” Nemo shrugged, and there was even a smile at the corner of his mouth.

“Because I’m bored,” Jesse replied frankly. “And I have also encountered something that is theoretically impossible to happen, yet it is still going on. Letting such an interesting time last longer, who knows if there will be other surprises?”

The two stood opposite of each other, neither of them really putting on airs, but the weird sense of oppression instantly stirred and scattered. The black horse shrank again, trying to hide its sturdy body behind Oliver, who was limited in size.

Oliver always felt that he should react. After all, he had just won the title of “the strongest killer sheep on the surface”. Seeing Nemo’s peaceful appearance, he couldn’t give a half-hearted acceptance speech.

“Don’t look.” When Oliver stopped turning his head for the third time, Nemo pushed his face back in amusement. “How do you think I will react? Rushing to the center of the crowd, then collapse and cry?”

“If you want, I can join you.” Oliver’s expression was serious, and his tone was sincere.

“Oh, come on.” Nemo pointed to Jesse relatively politely. “This guy just expressed one thing—anyway, one of us is doomed to be unhappy and wants to destroy the surface. Before, we agreed that this unlucky guy was me, but now it seems that it might be you. If I want to cry, you have to cry first. Ollie, will you destroy the surface for me?”

“No.”

“Yeah, me too. After all, Dylan’s conjecture is only based on the facts he knows. He’s not… Well, he’s a God for the time being, but if I read it right, he can do little to Mr. Cross.”

Jesse, who was standing aside, huffed loudly.

“So God knows what threat the surface is under. Betting on a gold coin, I think it is more likely that the destroyer is me.”

“I am willing to bet the rest of my life,” Oliver replied softly.

Nemo was stunned for a few seconds when he heard the words. He stretched out his hand and rubbed Oliver’s hair. “Well, I’ll change the chips. The same goes for me.”

Jesse let out a series of even louder huffs.

“I’m very sorry to disturb you two,” he said with a smirk. “There’s also a relatively less important piece of information.”

“The one Mr. Cross was going to tell us just now?” Nemo aggravated the pronunciation of the phrase “Mr. Cross”.

“Yes, the Pope originally planned to let the four of us escort the reconnaissance team, but now two volunteers have been temporarily added. You two need to be mentally prepared.”

“Other Black Chapters? But the word is getting out. No one would want to…”

“You all happen to know each other.” Jesse didn’t hide the smugness in his tone.

Ten minutes later, Nemo knew very well the reason for Jesse’s smugness.

The people of the Central Church specially vacated a small auditorium to serve as a meeting room for the reconnaissance team and guards. At present, the reconnaissance team from the Laddism Church hadn’t arrived yet, and there were only three people in the small, properly decorated auditorium.

Adrian sat upright on the sofa. The gray parrot was lying on the top of the back of the sofa, a pair of bird eyes cautiously aimed at Jesse. The other person was standing in front of the sunny floor-to-ceiling window and turned his head.

The head of the Horizon Mercenary Group, Godwin Lopez, was still dressed solemnly in upscale attire, but this time he wasn’t wearing the Horizon badge. Mr. Lopez nodded briefly to the three people who were pushing through the door, as if to greet them.

Oliver subconsciously shrank his neck, withdrew his attention from the shock, and turned to look at Nemo…

Nemo was gone.

As soon as Oliver’s scalp exploded, he quickly turned his body to look around, and then couldn’t laugh or cry.

A petite figure slammed into Nemo’s arms mercilessly, directly knocking the unsuspecting great Demon King back a few steps so that he almost exited the room.

“Nemo!” Debby Light looked very excited. The mercenary lady gave her big brother a hug that was strong enough to break his ribs.

“Debby.” If it weren’t for knowing that his physique was different from ordinary people, Nemo was pretty sure his ribs would be broken by now. “How did you—?”

“You’re going to the Abyss with the Laddism team to investigate. How can I let you go to such a dangerous place alone?” Debby puffed up her chest. “Without Old Patrick, you’re my most precious relative.”

“…The inside of the Abyss may be very dangerous,” Nemo prompted cautiously.

“I know, but the commander of the team is going, so I don’t think it’s a big problem.” The girl made a crisp gesture. “I will protect you! …Ah, that seems like a bad way of putting it—I will protect you when Mr. Ramon is powerless to.”

Debby purposefully lowered her voice in the second half of the sentence while Oliver, on the other hand, was staring at the ceiling with tears of laughter.

Excluding other factors, it seemed that Debby Light herself was the number one mage on the surface. They really didn’t have many excuses to push this girl out.

“Having said that, the commander said that you’re in a relationship with Mr. Ramon… Then does he know about your relationship?”

“He knows.” Oliver rubbed his forehead.

“Well, it seems that I don’t need to cover for the two of you.”

Debby looked rather regretful.

“Ah, if it’s convenient, remember to be considerate of the commander’s emotions. I think you should know… Before the Alban coup, Princess Delia cancelled the marriage contract. Now that the situation has stabilized, she has no intention of resuming the marriage contract at all.”

The girl covered her chest melancholically. “Terrible news, right? The whole regiment is very sad—our leader is so lovelorn.”

Oliver glanced at Godwin wordlessly, without feeling the slightest breath of heartbreak from the other party.

“Don’t look at him. You can’t see it. The commander has always controlled his emotions very well, but as his closest partner, I can detect his abnormality! He even started eating sweets to relieve his boredom recently. Praise Zenni, he has never done this before.”

Nemo and Oliver looked at Jesse subconsciously, and then quickly retracted their gaze.

“This time too, the commander had never left Horizon before to participate in such a dangerous activity by himself. Most of the other members thought he wanted to take the opportunity to relax.” Debby lowered her voice even more. “This behavior is so abnormal. Believe me, the commander must be heartbroken.”

Behind Debby, Godwin cast a helpless look, and the two Tumbleweed members shook their heads very firmly.

Although Nemo couldn’t guess the reason for Godwin’s special participation, unlike Debby, the captain of Horizon didn’t seem like the type who would venture into danger solely because of a blood relative. He would rather believe that Godwin wasn’t at ease with Oliver than be “lovelorn”—They had met Delia Alastair, and to be fair, the two weren’t very suitable in terms of character.

Debby sniffled emotionally, and Nemo couldn’t say anything to refute her at the moment, so he could only nod in silence.

“It seems that everyone has met.” Preceptor Felix stepped into the room. His gaze swept over Jesse, causing his facial muscles to twitch uncontrollably a few times.

“Horizon swordsman Godwin Lopez and mage Debby Light, there are no pets or mounts that need to be registered. Tumbleweed swordsman Oliver Ramon, mage Nemo Wright, diviner Jesse Dylan, plus a pet grey parrot, a mount… A fuller goat.”

The Preceptor Bishop put away the parchment roll in his hand, and the muscles in his face twitched even more severely. “Is there anything you need to add?”

“We also have a horse.” Nemo raised his hand honestly.

“The terrain inside the Abyss is steep, so it’s not recommended to bring horses. If you are worried about supplies, we will use special magic carts to transport them, and there are also many supply points along the way. Forget the parrot, in fact, that goat…”

“It is our companion,” Jesse said, emotionally. “We are used to using it to transport luggage, and the goat can move freely on rock walls, and it can be used as emergency rations if necessary.”

When Jessie said the first few words, Debby had a look of approval. Unfortunately, that praise was instantly gone when she heard the last sentence.

“Then this is all the members of the reconnaissance team scheduled to be escorted.” The Preceptor Bishop pretended that he hadn’t heard anything.

“Today the Central Church will provide you with food and accommodation. General supplies that need to be used on the road can be submitted to the clergy here if necessary. Of course, special magic props or weapons need to be purchased by yourself. We will gather at noon tomorrow and set off. You are all experienced soldiers, and you should know very well how to do escort work… Are there any other questions?”

“Any supplies?” Nemo raised his hand again.

“Yes, Mr. Light.”

“I want to borrow an oven from the Central Church.”

“…” The Preceptor took a deep breath, barely showing a stiff smile. “Of course you can, if you really need it.”

“If you have anything you need to buy specifically, Debby and I can do it for you.” After Preceptor Felix left, Godwin Lopez finally spoke in a neutral tone.

“There are four of us, brother.” Oliver raised his eyebrows.

“It’s best not to show your face around here easily.” Godwin instructed in a flat voice.

Nemo frowned and recalled the strange reaction of passersby when they saw them a while ago. “What you mean to say is that the people of the Holy Land hate Black Chapters?”

“They hate Tumbleweed,” Godwin said in a deep voice. “Don’t you know anything?”

Adrian calmly turned a page of the book, and Jesse was gnawing on snacks as he teased the wilted parrot. Oliver and Nemo looked at each other and shook their heads together.

“The saying that you ‘stole the precious gems from the Ruinous Fire Sword’ has spread. An ordinary student at Clementine Academy betted on the Wheel of Calamity and became rich overnight. Subsequently, many people are now researching you.”

“Then what?” Oliver swallowed.

“Now there’s a saying; personally, I think it’s more of a summary—in fact, wherever Tumbleweed goes, they leave destruction in their wake.”

“Your first client’s family was destroyed. Your second client’s hometown was ruined. At the end of your third mission, the headquarters of the Abyssal Church couldn’t escape their doom. The fact that Mr. Ramon is a survivor of the Withered Castle has also been dug up, and they were willing to attribute this account to your ‘bad luck’. Although we all know it was indeed destroyed by you.”

Oliver shrank his neck and looked guiltily at the ground.

“Then at Clementine Academy, you destroyed the Great Isamel Labyrinth before my very eyes. Although I didn’t specify that you did it, many people are willing to guess so. Not long ago, you and your… Mr. Light had just visited the headquarters of the Mercenary Guild for a few days, and their superior demon suddenly disappeared.”

Godwin’s face looked numb. Nemo rubbed his palms nervously, grabbed pen and paper, and decided to use other things to distract himself—Godwin’s face was undoubtedly full of “I know you did it.”

Oliver laughed dryly and scratched his hair. “What an incredible coincidence.”

“Yeah, it’s an incredible coincidence.” Godwin gritted his teeth and squeezed these words out of his teeth. “Dear Mr. Ramon, I hope this joint expedition will go smoothly… Otherwise, the reputation of being a ‘Calamity Team’ will definitely spread outside of Alban and across the continent.”

“Believe me, brother, we will work hard towards that.” Oliver made a gesture of swearing.

“Towards what?!”

“…Where things go smoothly.”

“In short, you need to know. After learning of these rumors, it is estimated that the reconnaissance team this time will not give you any good looks, so please be mentally prepared.” Godwin took a few deep breaths, staring coldly at the blood relative in front of him.

The atmosphere between the two became stiffer.

Nemo took a deep breath upon seeing this and quickly exchanged glances with Debby.

“This is what I want, Mr. Lopez.” Nemo wrote on the parchment, folded it up quickly, and handed it to Godwin Lopez with both hands. “We’ll also include the money for your help too. Thank you for your hard work. Ollie, hey, Ollie—do you have anything you want?”

“No, but I have to go out to run some… Ahem, comfort my horse.” Oliver hesitated for a while, holding on to the ring order that had been in his pocket.

“Go ahead.” Nemo nodded blankly, knowing the horse’s bad temper. “I’ll go to the Central Church hall for a couple of minutes, and think of anything else we would need to bring with us.”

“Yes, commander. We have a lot of things to buy.” Debby patted Godwin on the arm. “Time waits for no one. It’s always good to get things done early.”

“As I just said, Mr. Ramon, it’s not suitable to show your face around, even in the church.” Godwin stared at Oliver persistently.

“It’s okay. I’ll change my clothes. Even if they recognize me, they’ll just think I’m you.”

“……”

Half an hour later, outside the Central Church.

“Commander,” Debby gently jabbed Godwin with her elbow, “You’re really concerned about them. Perhaps a softer tone would work better.”

The leader of Horizon snorted lightly as Godwin hugged the supplies in his arms. He handed the parchment roll given by Nemo to Debby, who had relatively few things in her hands. “Ramon is too lazy, and it’s irritating to watch, but he should understand. I don’t need to make a special effort to coax them.”

Okay. Debby thought deeply as she took the parchment roll. After all, their commander was heartbroken, and she couldn’t ask much.

“There are a lot of things here. Let’s rent a cart later. Nemo didn’t write much. We can buy it for him first,” Debby said, unfolding the parchment roll, and then fell silent.

“What does Light want?”

“Fresh carrots, fresh apples, half a pocket of oatmeal, two large bottles of syrup. It is specially noted that the cheapest one must be selected.”

“…What does he want these things for?”

“I think he wants to make some kind of snack.”

“At this time?”

“……Er.”

Looking at Debby, who was lost for word, Godwin tilted his head and let out a long, restrained breath.

He never really let go of his vigilance against Nemo Light, but in just a few seconds, he felt like a fool for coming specifically here because of it.

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The author has something to say:

The next chapter is going to the Abyss—!!! XD

The horse Pope… stayed behind, and the fuller goat won a point!

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 222: God’s Position

All his attention was on “he was not pulled down by the Abyss”, and only then did Nemo notice the cool air squirming on his skin and the cold touch of Ollie’s armor under him.

Even Nemo, except for the time he fought Witherspoon in an abnormal state, had never succeeded in connecting directly to the depths of the Abyss from the surface. In order to successfully dive into the Abyss to investigate, Nemo made countless calculations—now he had succeeded. With the help of the superior demon stuck in the crevices of space, he barely got a chance to face the depths of the Abyss.

Everything went smoothly beyond imagination, except for this…

The hem of Telaranea’s old-style research robe was too long, and it was instantly ignited by the flames bursting from the tearing of space.

A few scraps of cloth hung down his arms and chest, and the majority of his loose trousers had burned away the majority of their length, leaving the remaining scorched black crumbling fabric.

The black shadow instantly rose into the air and quickly wrapped Nemo’s body, making the scene less ambiguous.

Considering that he might have to concentrate on using the dark shadow to defend against the enemy for a while, Nemo coughed a little embarrassedly, and tapped the tip of Oliver’s nose, who was still being used as a meat cushion, with his fingers. “Lend me the cloak.”

Oliver removed his cloak in a muffled voice, but the redness on his face had not dissipated.

With materials, things were much more convenient. The black shadow quickly entangled it, transforming the fabric with a slight black mist on the bottom edge into a simple robe. Unfortunately, the fabric couldn’t replace shoes, so Nemo had to stand barefoot on the floor temporarily. Fortunately, in misfortune, the staff that was placed on the horse in advance escaped the catastrophe.

“Still blushing?” After holding the staff firmly, Nemo raised his eyebrows magnanimously.

After successfully liberating Pandorater, he found that he could accompany Oliver to investigate the Abyss. At that moment, the great Demon King was in a good mood. He stared at his lover, with a bit of teasing in his tone. “Mr. Ramon, I sincerely suggest that you should blush when the time is due, such as the other night…”

“I’m going to remove the shield.” Oliver scratched his nose and interrupted Nemo’s words, and the blush that had diminished substantially returned suspiciously.

“Go ahead.” Nemo smiled and shook his head, patting Oliver’s skeleton helmet.

“What do you think of their encirclement?”

“As long as they don’t see our faces, we won’t have a problem… They can’t find anything except the burnt research suit fragments. Ah, speaking of this, wait a moment.”

Nemo turned around, and countless dark shadows shot out of the void behind him. The destroyed hall was quickly restored, and even the black cube cage was closed again and restored to its original state—except the spell lines on it no longer glowed; it had completely lost its original power.

The dark shadow even cleaned up the burnt clothing on the ground.

The entire underground hall was soaked in light, clean and tidy, as if nothing had happened.

“This is enough to disturb them. Ollie, have you negotiated with your Pope?”

“It wants fifty horse treats, the kind with apple puree and syrup.”

“Deal.”

What happened next became an unsolved mystery that had been circulating in the Mercenary Guild for a long time. An ancient phantom in the middle of the night passed through the wall, the superior demon evaporated out of thin air, and a huge monster finally rushed out of the encirclement…

A dark sphere rushed towards the encirclement, with four horse legs stretched out under it, running as fast as it could. This comical thing appeared in front of the nervous defenders in a dignified manner, and the serious soldiers were stunned for a few seconds.

Spells, bows and arrows, and even flesh and blood; nothing could stop that weird, spherical horse. It passed through the layers of encirclement like a phantom, quickly blending into the night.

Oliver’s black-furred Pope galloped away from a certain distance, directly through the pre-calculated space crack, and jumped into the woods in the distance.

Seeing the rift behind him close, he lifted the spherical shadow shield wrapped in black shadows. The two people on horseback finally stopped holding their breath and laughed happily.

The next day, the two culprits of Tumbleweed arrived at Hatfield, which was close by, and the subtle smiles on their faces had not yet dissipated.

Hatfield, the holy land of the Laddism Church, was as big as two large cities, and it was close to the small country of Praedo, where the headquarters of the Mercenary Guild were located. The magnificent Central Church was at the very center of this land, and it was here that the Pope of the Laddism Church lived all year round.

Oliver took the reins of the dark horse and carried the skeleton helmet behind him. The wilted gray parrot slumped on Nemo’s shoulders, looking as if it was about to lose its breath in the next second.

“Tell me who Jesse Dylan is.” It screamed in a low voice.

“I’m about to see Dylan soon. Ask yourself.” Nemo poked its feathers and continued to avoid this question.

The gray parrot groaned aggrievedly.

Out of some kind of wonderful psychology, although he bought a few spare robes, Nemo still preferred to wear the black robe that he changed from his lover’s cloak. Oliver didn’t get a new cloak either, which made the black armor even more inconspicuous.

Seeing the two approaching, passersby spontaneously avoided and whispered to each other.

Nemo was a little surprised by this. Although he knew very well—he was a black-robed mage, with a black-armored knight, and they had two shiny black badges; they both didn’t look like they were something good. However, at any rate, this was the holy land of the Laddism Church where the Knights of Judgement were abundant, so the pedestrians didn’t avoid them like they were snakes and scorpions.

This weird atmosphere continued until they officially arrived at the Central Church.

“A change of clothes?” Jesse Dylan mumbled as he was busy chewing on a dried cake that didn’t look very fresh.

The blond young man was still wearing his exaggerated outfit while Adrian Cross was standing next to him, looking down at his hand. The gray parrot hummed a few times, stretched out its neck and glanced at Jesse, then spread its wings and stopped on Adrian’s shoulder. The Chief Justice raised his eyebrows quite unexpectedly but didn’t intend to drive it away.

Bagelmaurus stood on Adrian’s monk uniform like that, with a bird’s face full of humiliation.

He didn’t know if it was his own hallucination, but Nemo’s gaze stayed on the knight commander for a few seconds longer—Mr. Cross’ breath seemed… a little less heavy than before.

“Well, it’s a long story,” Nemo replied succinctly. “Dylan, are you free for a while? Ollie and I want to talk to you alone.”

“I knew there would be such a day.” Jesse sighed exaggeratedly. He ate all the dried cake in his hand and licked his fingers.

Oliver was a little nervous. He clenched the reins of the black horse in his hand, held his breath, and stared at Jesse Dylan’s mouth tightly…

“Mr. Ramon is very inexperienced at first glance. He absolutely needs a reliable technical guide like me.”

The leader of Tumbleweed took a deep breath, and finally resisted the urge to kick out a member right at this moment.

“The incident of the superior demon going missing, it has to do with the two of you, right?” The focus of the former knight commander of the Knight of Judgement was extremely clear. Adrian snapped the book in his hand and lowered his voice.

“I sent her home.” Nemo glanced around vigilantly and muttered in a low voice.

“Okay.” Adrian nodded, and he calmly stared at Nemo, who lowered his head for a while. “I will remember to remind Lord Quinn to be careful of demon warlocks after that, but looking at past cases, it will be fine for the next three hundred years.”

“I will keep an eye on her.” Nemo quickly promised. “When I sent her back, I marked her magic fluctuation.”

“Just promise to yourself. What I actually want to tell you is another thing.” Adrian turned his gaze to Oliver.

“I’ll tell them. I’ll do it, I’ll do it! Adri, go to the church and inform those groups of people that our leader has arrived.” Jesse seemed to have caught something incredible. He hooked Nemo’s neck amicably and dragged Nemo into the alley next to the Central Church.

It’s giving off the vibe of “we have something to say, please go away”.

Adrian shook his head without delving into it. He originally wanted to take the reins in Oliver’s hand, but the black horse glanced at him sternly, and then tried to hide himself behind Oliver.

Oliver scratched his head embarrassedly. “No need, Mr. Cross. It just follows me.”

The knight commander pinched his eyebrows helplessly, turned and walked to the entrance of the church behind him.

The gray parrot on his shoulder twisted its neck like an owl and looked at Jesse and his party. In the end, it still didn’t have the courage to ask, so it had to shrink itself into a gray feather ball.

“Come on.” Jesse in the alley tugged at his collar. “Ramon, where the hell is he—”

“Dylan!”

“Sorry, okay, let’s talk about business.”

Nemo breathed and withdrew his fist. He leaned back against the wall behind him, and Oliver also squeezed into the alley. The black horse behind him walked at the end, blocking the entrance of the narrow alley tightly.

“A few days ago, Ollie and I went to investigate ruins in the Border Forest. Ten years ago, a three-story wooden house, Gatekeeper, multi-eye transplant observation. Does that ring any bells to you?”

“Oh—” Jesse nodded his forehead, lengthening his tone. “That kid, I remember. I gave him the benefit of the doubt.”

This was the first time Oliver clearly felt the other side of Jesse Dylan. The corpse undoubtedly belonged to an elderly man, but Mr. Dylan naturally addressed him as a junior, and his tone was full of justification.

Nemo’s expression was equally serious.

“…I’m just joking! Strictly speaking, he didn’t peek at me.” Jesse touched his chin. “At most, you can see a little bit, like the size is no bigger than a fingernail. I’m not an exhibitionist who takes the initiative to go out naked. Adri must understand—”

“No one asked you about that.” Nemo’s voice is a bit weak.

“Then what do you want to ask? Yes, I did glare at him and did nothing else. If it weren’t for me at that time… Forget it, he was lucky anyways.”

“Your ontology and our transactions.” Nemo rubbed his temples.

“Why, are you suddenly interested in what I really look like? I admire you very much, dear Mr. Light. But this is a bit… Oh, I’m embarrassed.”

“The creatures of the Abyss and the creatures of the surface are homologous, and the Gatekeeper put forward such a conjecture.” Nemo was not led away by Jesse. “The strange story you told me in the center of the Great Isamel Labyrinth hinted at this.”

“Well, that’s true.” Jesse admitted neatly.

Despite his early preparations, Oliver couldn’t help but hold on to the wall. His heart was beating frantically.

Nemo was silent for a while. “Is this related to our deal?”

“Of course! I’m not the freeloading type. You see, you gave me a part of the species, and now I manage them well and give you what you want. Although I really never thought that you would come in person and pick a lover from them.”

“Never thought about it? You call yourself a diviner.”

“I did when Miss Savage and Mr. Ramon were in the team. However, now that Miss Savage is not here, Mr. Ramon is… Oh, to be honest, I really don’t like to be smeared.”

“You have been emphasizing ‘What I want’. Now you might as well make it clear. What did I ask for in the first place?” Seeing that the topic was about to be deflected by Jesse Dylan again, Nemo pulled it back neatly.

Jesse was silent, his eyes burned into Nemo. “Before I tell you, I think you should ask me other questions.”

“That’s it.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because my answer will not change. As I told you before, people often say, ‘It’s a good thing to keep hope.’ Look at you now, with a smile on your face and a lover who trusts you with all your heart. From the bottom of my heart, I hope you will maintain your current state.”

“Ollie is destined to be the Hero, and I probably wanted to destroy the surface before. There is no worse possibility than this.”

“Yes,” Jesse said softly, the smile on his face fading a little.

“Let’s put it this way, Mr. Light. If it was the ‘you before’ here, I am very sure… The first thing you would do is turn around and kill Oliver Ramon standing there.”

“…I will never hurt Ollie.”

“To put it bluntly, your life or death will not really affect my fate. If you really know the speculation of that human, then you should be aware that all beings in this world have the same power limit, and that was set by your own hands. No, I can’t say that—rather I should say it was set by your ‘instinct’.”

“Do you need me to recuse myself?” Oliver closed his eyes.

“No, you stay here and listen too, Ollie.” Nemo’s voice trembled a little. “Go on, Dylan.”

“This is not such a big deal. To make an inappropriate analogy-when people raise fuller goats, they must first domesticate them to remove the possibility of them hurting others. All possible injuries must be within manageable limits. This isn’t difficult to understand, right?”

“But this has nothing to do with…”

“Now there’s a sheep, which is powerful, intelligent, and possesses a natural wildness. It can gain power more efficiently from its kind, and much more efficiently than people. There are countless sheep raised by humans, all of which can become the source of its power… If left unchecked, it may become too powerful one day and kill its owner. Let me tell you what ordinary people will do. They will kill that lamb in an abnormal state the moment they discover this.”

“People are not sheep after all, Mr. Light. Everything in this world is the same kind as Mr. Ramon, and it should have nothing to do with you and me.”

“Ollie is the most upright person I have ever met. The world we envision is very close… at least for now. If he thinks it’s necessary to kill me, then I am willing—”

Jesse Dylan suddenly laughed out loud.

“You’re so cute.” He shook his head, his blond hair rippling in the shadows with an obscure glow. “As I said, the metaphor of man and sheep isn’t appropriate. If it really comes to that moment, maybe your choice will not be simply ‘Mr. Ramon’ or ‘yourself’.”

“Be direct, Dylan. I don’t want to go in circles with you.” Nemo’s throat was a little itchy, and the foreboding made the soles of his feet cold.

“I stand by my thoughts. Whether it’s my essence or your truth, you will know the answer soon enough. Until then, it will do you good to leave more hopeful memories.” Jesse shrugged. “I’m on your side. Don’t doubt that.”

Nemo took a few deep breaths, trying to stabilize his heartbeat.

“Then I’ll change the question. Dylan, it stands to reason that my strength should be stronger than yours, but I feel that we are similar.”

“I can tell you this, because this is the limit of the power held by ‘this size of flesh and blood’. Two nearly similar wine glasses have similar capacity, but one follows a wine barrel, and one follows the ocean. Believe me, Mr. Light, you’re much stronger than me. Don’t be misled by the wine glass in front of you.”

“Very well,” Nemo said. He raised his head and looked at the narrow blue sky above the alley.

“It seems that for all intents and purposes, I can’t pry your mouth open. Then I have only one last question left, and I hope you’re willing to answer it, Mr. Dylan.”

“Give it a try?”

“You said that what I am facing will not be a choice between ‘Ollie’s life’ and ‘mine’, so what will it be?”

“Well, let me think about it…”

The smile on Jesse Dylan’s face became thinner.

“‘Mr. Ramon’ or ‘the rest of the life in the world, including your own’, this may be closer.”

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The author has something to say:

Jesse is really not a bad person; I know he looks a lot like one. (…)

——

Jesse: Mr. Ramon or the rest of the world, choose one.

Nemo: ? Children only do multiple-choice questions.

Ollie: …No, did you just compare me to a sheep right in my face…

——

Knight commander: (Continue to look through the book for clues)…

Grey Parrot: (Sobbing)—

Ann: (Got the eyewitness information about the spherical horse)… This is so stupid. I better retire from the team.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 221: Ghost Rider

Time goes back before the sun was about to set.

Oliver took the black horse out of the inn where he was staying. Seeing the boredom on its face, the black-furred Pope probably didn’t cause any trouble worth paying attention to.

The black horse snorted a few times, rubbing Oliver’s head desperately with its long face. It snuggled into Oliver’s brown hair, creating a bird’s nest with it. After rubbing a few times, it then looked up vigilantly at Nemo, who was politely keeping his distance from it and decided to work in the direction of “looking friendlier”.

“According to the Pope—ahem, I mean the Pope of the Laddism Church—Lord Quinn, Dylan, and Mr. Cross should be heading directly to the Central Church. Hatfield is not far from here. We can meet them there.”

As he spoke, Nemo picked up a fresh carrot and carefully handed it to the horse, trying to save Oliver from the sticky horse. The great Demon King even used a cleansing spell to remove the mud from it.

The black horse glanced at the tempting carrot critically and stretched its ears forward. After a while, it finally decided to temporarily abandon Oliver’s head and started chewing on it.

“Well, I don’t think Mr. Dylan will slip away at this critical point in time.” Oliver combed his messy hair with his fingers.

“The Abyss…” Nemo picked up another carrot and smacked his mouth. “This time we may have to stay in it for quite a while. According to those biographies, even a simple shallow exploration will take at least half a month. The premise is that the equipment and arrays function normally in the Abyss.”

No one knew how big the Abyss was. People didn’t know much more about it than the bottom of the deep sea. There was only one thing that they knew. The underground space called the “Abyss” was much wider than the ocean on the surface.

For thousands of years, or even earlier, the various races on the surface had gradually explored downward, carefully accumulating and maintaining a relatively safe passage. Every hundred years, regardless of whether the expedition occurred or not, the surface races would carefully check the situation of this passage.

The Abyss was weird and dangerous. If those large teleportation arrays couldn’t be stabilized—let alone the crusade against the Demon King—most warriors wouldn’t even survive at the bottom of the Abyss.

In principle, large teleportation arrays were only allowed to be used by expeditionary forces on the surface. However, due to the stable surrounding environment of the large teleportation array and proper protection measures making them safer to use, many adventurers would build teleportation arrays for their own use nearby, and even develop supply points close to small villages and towns.

The races on the surface carefully took care of this road leading directly to the underground, but now it had a problem.

The tension between the various races on the surface wasn’t without reason. Except for the special Abyssal Church, even if the races, countries, and religions weren’t amicable with each other during normal times, the interests of the expedition into the Abyss were still highly consistent.

At the moment, the vitality of the Abyssal Church was greatly injured, so it was impossible for them to have the means to make such a big move. This only meant one thing—there was a force in the Abyss acting in an organized manner, trying to obstruct the expedition.

This was an unprecedented event.

Of course, the expeditionary forces of the past would be attacked by demons in the Abyss, but most of the time it was out of hunger, curiosity, or boredom by the demons. The demons were free to move freely, except for the ethnic groups that were accustomed to collective action, they didn’t have cooperative behavior.

No superior demon had ever expressed resentment at the death of the Demon King, let alone deliberately obstructed the expedition as a result.

The Demon King who climbed to the surface and lost his memory, the “other Demon King” at the bottom of the abyss, the man-made teleportation array—This time the reconnaissance team was sent to nominally investigate and repair the teleportation array, but in fact, everyone understood that this was more like an attempt to remove the dust from the outer layer of the mystery.

It was extremely dangerous and full of unknowns.

But this danger wouldn’t scare the Demon King and the Hero. Nemo was more worried about another thing.

Just like he told Oliver—Now he knew that he was the Demon King, and he didn’t want to be dragged to the bottom of the Abyss by the so-called “law”. As soon as he stepped into the Abyss, he may never come out again.

They need to figure this out as soon as possible. Fortunately, they had a way to test it.

“When I ‘visited’ Telaranea, I wrote down the spatial coordinates that could be used.” Nemo tore off the rope tied to the short ponytail and re-tied his hair again. “But it’s all in a public area. Pandorater is deeper underground. I can feel it—Ollie?!”

The great Demon King, who had been immersed in thought, instantly raised his voice.

After chewing the carrot, the horse began to chew Oliver’s hair deeply again. This time the leader of Tumbleweed was determined to resist. He pushed the horse’s face away with his right hand and supported the wall with his left hand.

Then his left hand went straight through the wall.

Oliver was so shocked that he let go of the horse’s face, causing his left hand to stick into the wall. As soon as Nemo tied the messy hair on the back of his head, he saw Oliver carefully pulling his left hand.

Oliver tugged on it for a while and realized that adding a large hole to the wall of a nearby house was going to be a problem, so he stretched his arms and tried to pinch the horse’s ears.

His left hand was instantly free.

“…Its magic can affect you.” Nemo was stunned in place for a few seconds, and then firmly pointed it out.

“It’s not fair. I can’t walk through the wall myself,” Oliver murmured, rubbing the horse’s ears in shock, trying to communicate with the black horse.

“It’s okay. It won’t spit like a spider dog. Fair balance… But speaking of this, Ollie, I have an idea.”

“Hmm?”

Five hours later.

Oliver only thought they were stupid for sneaking in like this, but on the other hand, they may become horror legends of the Mercenary Guild.

As night fell, a black-armored knight who wore a helmet made of the skull of an earth dragon that covered his face, was riding on a black horse. The ink-colored cloak swayed with the movements of the horse, causing black mist to tumble from the hem of the worn-out fabric.

The horse moved forward in the empty corridor. The black knight was like a ghost as the man and his horse passed through the solid and thick walls covered by magic arrays. The wall that could resist both abyssal and surface magic remained quiet without any response.

A poor man wearing a research uniform of the headquarters of the Mercenary Guild was being dragged by the knight, who was also advancing through the wall.

His face was extremely pale, as if he was shouting something, but everything was silent—There was no sound of horse hoof beating, no screams, and no sound of clothing rubbing or objects colliding.

The two researchers who saw the scene dropped their jaws as the cream pancakes they were holding in their hands fell to the floor.

“Then… What is that? Should we inform the floor—”

“But the arrays didn’t respond! It’s an illusion, it’s definitely an illusion… Have you seen it? The outfit on the dragged person was an old uniform, which had been no longer used since 30 years ago. This may be some kind of, yes, some kind of flashback from the past…”

“I’d better inform the above.”

“What are you going to say? There was a knight that suddenly appeared underground, then disappeared directly through the wall full of defensive arrays and dragged a person who couldn’t possibly exist in the present time? My friend, the place where they disappeared to isn’t easy to access. If this is all nothing, if we open it, this month’s research funding will be… you know.”

“But we obviously detected traces of abyssal magic in the hall…”

“There is no trace left. It’s indescribable. You also know that it is the hall, but you don’t know how many people from the three religions have been here during the day. If something really happened, it’s on the outside guards and spell managers for not doing their job properly. Let’s just watch. If the phantom appears again, we’ll notify the above.”

The two “phantoms” behind the wall breathed a sigh of relief.

“I tripped over the wall just now and almost let go. Telaranea’s old uniform is too long.” Nemo patted his chest to make sure the thin rope of horsehair on his wrist was still there.

“I got stuck in the wall three times.” Oliver is still riding on a horse, sounding a little dazed. “It really doesn’t like you, Nemo. It is still upset about its mane.”

“…Tell it, when we return, I’ll bake it some horse snacks. The craftsmanship is guaranteed. I have sold it to adventurers in Roadside Town before, and the sales were very good.”

The black horse stared at him solemnly for a while, then turned its head.

“Let’s continue. That wall has two security measures, and all the mute arrays have failed.” Oliver pulled the reins and jumped off the horse. “It may take some trouble to escape.”

In front of them was their destination. Without any information or explanation, two people could feel the power that was quite substantial.

The lights in the underground hall were empty, and no researchers were active, but the magic lights around them weren’t extinguished, but were slightly dimmed. A huge black cube was placed in the center of the hall. It was painted with magic arrays and runes, and bright red lights flowed along the lines, a bit like the blood array used by Telaranea before.

It was extremely quiet all around. Only the dull sound of overlapping voices came from the black cube.

Pandorater’s heartbeat.

The two recognized this aura as once upon a time, this aura meant pure death to them, but now they could tell more things from it—despair, pain, and desperation.

“She’s very weak. At the time of the Black Chapter test… She should have been forcibly brought back here, and she hasn’t fully recovered yet.” Nemo walked forward and put one hand on the rough outer wall of the black cube. He couldn’t determine the material; he just felt that it was smooth and cold to the touch.

Oliver was silent. The dark horse seemed to feel that the atmosphere was off, and it stopped making noise and stood quietly to the side.

The superior demon who was weaponized was completely bound like the nightmare leopard in the Church of Silence. People had drilled holes with many arrays and fixed them into the gap between the Abyss and the surface.

Through this, neither could something descend to the surface nor return to the Abyss.

Like a person who has been swallowed by a swamp but has been unable to die for a long time.

The situation of Pandorater was even worse—At least the Nightmare Leopard Colestoro didn’t need to be worried all the time, worrying about which part of his body was split by spatial magic and then roughly cut back.

To make matters worse, she would be killed once she reached adulthood, as people couldn’t control an adult superior demon. She was still alive now, which meant that Pandorater’s long childhood wasn’t over yet.

A lonely cub.

A child was crying loudly in the darkness and loneliness.

Somewhat ironically, Nemo twitched the corners of his mouth. People always thought that a child’s cry could change everything, but in the underground hall where people came and went, no one bothered to listen to her.

“Are you ready, Ollie?” Nemo asked in a low voice.

“Yeah.”

Oliver didn’t say much. He made a gesture, causing the gray mist to turn into the shape of a chain that directly wrapped around Nemo’s waist. Another part of the gray mist rose into the air, temporarily isolating the entire underground hall.

Nemo attached a huge black cage to his other hand and closed his eyes.

The glimmer of light flowing on the surface of the black cube suddenly went out, and the thick and sturdy material instantly turned into ash that scattered everywhere. The imprisoned demon showed her appearance—she no longer looked like a scarlet mist tornado, but a dense and thick liquid in the cage. Nemo couldn’t imagine if all these liquids would disperse into mist…

Pandorater floated into the air.

The liquid that originally maintained the shape of a cube began to stretch, and a hazy mist rose on the surface. The demon’s body flowed like mercury, and countless liquid limbs spread out, dancing non-stop, like a dark red blossom blooming in the bright light.

It was an inorganic, creepy dance.

[Beauty of the Abyss, the demon dancer.]

Nemo stared at the scene in front of him intently and suddenly understood the meaning of the gray parrot’s descriptions during the Black Chapter test.

It was a pity that the good times wouldn’t last long.

Finally realizing that she had regained part of her freedom, the young Pandorater fell into madness. The scarlet tornado steamed up from the liquid’s surface, sweeping through the hall’s solemn and luxurious decoration, and it was about to—

“Silence!” Nemo shouted loudly.

The Demon King’s aura was very effective. The moment she noticed Nemo’s aura, Pandorater quickly shrank herself into a ball and lay back on the ground obediently, but the scarlet mist on the surface of her body was still floating dishonestly.

“Next I will send you back to the abyss.” Nemo removed the shadow shield in front of him and glanced at the ruined hall.

Pandorater’s reaction was very intense.

She spread out all her limbs and instantly grabbed every protruding part of the hall, with a fierce posture that said she didn’t want to leave. The liquid limbs were straight and taut, like an oversized sea urchin.

Nemo didn’t think she was nostalgic for this place.

“Listen, little girl.” Nemo stretched out a hand to the alien demon that filled the space. “If you choose to take revenge now, you may be able to destroy this place, but your strength will run out, and they will eventually catch you.”

Pandorater didn’t mean to move.

“I have no desire to hinder your revenge,” Nemo sighed fiercely. “Yes, I have not experienced your nightmares, and I have no right to decide for you whether to forgive those people, but… please listen to me.”

“I will send you back to the abyss. You can find your family and recover. This time, you can rest as long as you want, and you can go wherever you want. If after that, you still want revenge—”

Nemo paused for a moment.

“You may find a way to make a contract with humans and return to the surface. And by then, depending on your way of revenge… I may be your friend, a spectator, or your enemy. At least for now, I ask you, let me take you home.”

Pandora slowly retracted her limbs and shrank into a ball again. She seemed to be thinking.

[You promise? Promise I still have a chance?]

The demon’s mood was still a bit confused. She seemed to have not been able to recover from the discovery of “regaining freedom”.

[I promise.]

Finally receiving a ray of thought, Nemo breathed a sigh of relief.

Having handled the Church of Silence and Colestoro, he was a lot more proficient this time. He quickly drew the magic array he learned from the Abyssal Church, plus some improvements…

The ground cracked, and the entrance to the Abyss appeared.

Pandorater stayed for a few seconds. Even though she had no eyes, Nemo always felt that she was looking at the hall for the last time.

Then she rushed towards the crack firmly, pouncing on her remnant body on the other side of the Abyss.

“Now!” Nemo shouted, and then slid down the cracks in the Abyss. After the superior demon returned to her position, the crack slowly began to close.

At the moment of passing through the crack, Nemo’s vision turned into complete darkness. He desperately meditated “I am the Demon King” in his mind and mixed the memory fragments of Ulysses, but there was no accident—a sense of pulling, heaviness, then nothing.

Nemo sighed in relief and looked up at the crack that was about to close completely. He pulled the gray mist chain that was tied around his waist.

Oliver, who got the signal, quickly retracted the chain, probably because he was afraid that his lover would be left in the Abyss. His speed was frighteningly fast. Nemo was pulled back like a fish by him and directly slammed into Oliver’s chest. The impact caused the two of them to fall to the ground together, sliding on the floor for nearly ten meters.

“There is no problem.” Nemo propped up his body and patted Oliver’s cheek under him. “We can prepare with peace of mind.”

Oliver lay on his back on his black cloak, and his face under the skeleton helmet began to redden suspiciously.

“Nemo, I have two things to tell you.”

“Hm?”

“First, the impact just now… my protective cover fluctuated, and it is estimated that the alarm outside has gone off now. Second, your clothes were burned by the Abyss and there is nothing left. Can you still restore it? …Uh, do you want me to lend you my cloak?”

“……”

---

The author has something to say:

The alarm has sounded.

Ollie: Uh, in a little while, when we run away, it’ll cause a terrible misunderstanding…

Nemo: (Wrap Ollie’s cloak tightly. Don’t want to talk about it at all)

Horse: *Whine* *Whine* *Whine* *Whine* *Whine*

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 220: Unexpected Applicant

Telaranea didn’t seem to have any plans to leave. After warning the two of them, he returned to the small window and continued to gaze at the bright, fresh, and green forest outside.

There was nothing in sight as far as the eyes could see.

“I want to stay here for a few days,” the Sage of the Abyss said softly. “If you two want to leave, don’t worry about me.”

Oliver thought Nemo would ask, but his lover just frowned. After thinking quietly for a moment, Nemo nodded to him gently, then he walked through the room to the door that had already lost its panel.

The great Demon King was obviously still thinking about something as he almost tripped over the animal corpses scattered all over the place. Before Nemo had time to regain his balance, a faint wave of magic came from the bones that were kicked away.

Buried in the bones was a delicate metal disc full of magic arrays. Its material should be pure gold. Even though it was once covered with wet animal carcasses, there was no rust on the golden metal.

Nemo should have just kicked it, causing the metal disc to eject from the fur and broken bones. It lay crooked on the top layer of the animal carcass. The gold beads embedded in the phalanx weakly floated up in accordance with their predetermined trajectory. An exquisite illusion opened in the air in front of them.

It blackened the clear and warm air in the early morning as bright stars floated and rotated in the dark. They had seen this thing before—in a window in Hailem City, the capital of Garland, a few months ago.

An astrological instrument made of gold.

At that time, they thought it was extremely beautiful, but right now, the brilliant artificial light reflected off the hollow eye sockets of the animal skulls, and the machinery lying on the thick corpses made the two uncomfortable.

Telaranea, who was by the window, didn’t look back.

The astrological instrument operated on its own for a while, and soon, the delicate machinery that had been forgotten for many years exhausted its last strength and fell silent again. Nemo picked it up from the corpse pile, threw a cleansing spell on it, and gently put it back on the dusty table.

This time, nothing hindered their footsteps.

In this way, the two left the decaying wooden house. Until the three-story hut was gradually swallowed up by green leaves and tree trunks, they could still see the demon stationed in front of the window.

The gray parrot, who had been shrinking on the branch outside the window, returned to Nemo’s shoulders tremblingly, staring hard at Nemo’s expression with its bird eyes, as if it wanted to ask but didn’t dare.

According to the coordinates set in advance by Telaranea, as long as they walked to the relatively sparsely wooded lawn, they could set up a temporary teleportation array and teleport themselves back to the vicinity of the headquarters of the Mercenary Guild.

The distance between the wooden house and the nearest open space was short. The two walked around the moss-covered roots and moved forward in silence.

Oliver always felt that he should take the initiative to say something.

From a personal point of view, Oliver didn’t have a good impression of Telaranea, but objectively speaking, the demon had no reason to deceive them about the Demon King.

He thought this was a short journey back to the past, an exploration of the dark side of history. Whether it was themselves or Nemo, the problems they bore had long been set—the identities of the Demon King and the Hero wouldn’t hinder the time they have now. Everything had obviously just been stabilized.

But a new problem had reappeared.

If Nemo was the Demon King, then what was the thing that Telaranea saw at the bottom of the Abyss?

The open space used for teleportation was right in front of him. Oliver looked at Nemo again—Unlike before, this time Nemo didn’t have much of a negative decadence. Despite the fact that his Demon King seemed to be in a bad mood, there was no hint of panic. Nemo was staring intently at his feet, obviously still lost in thought.

“Oh.” The great Demon King suddenly spoke up. Oliver’s spirits lifted as he decided to take on whatever the topic the other party threw at him.

The information they got was so unbelievable that they had to support him…

“I understand,” Nemo said solemnly. “Since that gentleman had observed ‘God’, there was a relative explanation for the inexplicable rejection of animals from that house. Dylan must have noticed someone staring at him, so he used his aura to scare him away—there was another person involved back then! We can ask Jesse what’s going on with his body. Geez, I can’t believe I keep forgetting this when clearly you and Ann were both standard surface creatures before.”

“…” This topic was jumping too wildly. Oliver didn’t know how to react to the term “standard surface creatures”.

It seemed that Nemo’s focus wasn’t on the creature suspected of being the “Demon King” at the bottom of the Abyss.

“You didn’t like Jesse very much at first, did you?”

Nemo looked unexpectedly calm. He stopped and leaned against a tree.

“Of course, I understand, he’s quite annoying, but on the other hand, Ollie, you’re definitely the best-tempered person I have ever met. You’re starting to get a little bit… disgusted with him to the point that it’s abnormal. Ann too, while Mr. Cross is relatively better.”

“Well,” Oliver tried to keep up with his lover’s thoughts, “It’s true when you put it that way… But I don’t hate him so much now. It might have been because of the aura or something.”

“No. If Jesse Dylan wants to act, he can be anyone. If he wanted to approach us more safely, it should be easier to pretend to be a gentle person at first, but he didn’t hide his annoyance. That’s probably why.”

Nemo rubbed the staff in his hand. “If his performance is blameless, but you instinctively hate him, everyone will definitely notice how unnatural that is. It wasn’t disgust, Ollie. It’s subconscious fear.”

Oliver tried to recall for a while and was discouraged to find that he couldn’t accurately describe the feelings in his memories, but he found another question. “You said Mr. Cross is okay with him?”

“Mr. Cross and the fuller goat are both in a state of ‘unable to use magic by themselves’, so they are relatively insensitive.” Nemo made a simple gesture, “And you and Ann are different. You two are very powerful, and powerful people are always sensitive. Bagelmaurus lost too much power before, and then directly obtained my blood, so it had no special reaction to Dylan.

“If this is the case… The reason I don’t particularly hate him now is because I was stripped of the magic system and became a similar, uh, creature to you?”

“You can say that.” Nemo looked relieved. “So it seems that if I didn’t always take care to hide my aura to the extreme, I certainly wouldn’t be pleasing to the higher level demons either. And it’s understandable that no creature would want to come near if I was consciously trying to deter… them for more than ten years.”

“So you plan to ask him about it directly.”

“Yes, I plan to ask Dylan directly if he was seen. If so, he might be willing to tell me the specific situation.”

Nemo sighed fiercely.

“It’s time to have a good talk with that guy. I can’t think of any worse possibility than ‘I could destroy the world’.”

“The underground… that was mentioned by Telaranea…”

“If it is the Demon King, then I can naturally be relieved. If it’s not, things will not change in any way.” Nemo’s voice was calm. “I figured it out, Ollie. There’s no point in thinking in vain. What we have to determine now is very simple—can I go back to the Abyss now and guarantee that I can still come out.”

He pressed the back of Oliver’s head a little roughly and bit his lover’s lips lightly.

“This is my only concern, and the plan is as usual.”

“What are you talking about?” Seeing the two people gnawing on each other, the gray parrot finally couldn’t hold it back, and it asked with trepidation. “What the hell is Jesse Dylan?”

“…” The two looked at Bagelmaurus at the same time. After a series of strange facts, they completely forgot about it.

“Ollie, you explain.” Nemo couldn’t bear to look directly at the shivering gray parrot.

“Uh, I…”

A golden eagle saved the scene that was on the verge of losing control. The raptor with golden feathers on its tail stopped in front of them, raised its head arrogantly, and dropped a gorgeous envelope with its claws.

The two of them wanted to find a chance to change the subject. After a few boring compliments on the delicacy of the envelope, Nemo neatly tore it open. “…Ollie, it seems that we don’t have to worry about it for 30 years.”

“What?”

“The Pope’s summoning order.”

“But the expedition was just 20 years ago—”

“Yes, this is not an expedition summoning order. Something happened in the Abyss, and we need to guard the Laddism reconnaissance team.” Nemo shook the letter paper. “It seems that we have to act quickly. You know, I will definitely not let you go into the Abyss alone.”

Oliver raised his eyebrows. “Something happened in the Abyss?”

“Well, all the larger teleportation arrays that are used to facilitate the operations of the expedition force… Regardless of whether they were deep or shallow, they were all deliberately destroyed. This is only part of the situation, and more changes are continuing. It’s obvious that someone is trying to obstruct the next expedition.”

‘Amazing,’ Oliver thought to himself. This should reasonably be a shocking and frightening message, but he watched Nemo calmly shaking the envelope, only feeling at ease.

Anyway, they have reached the bottom of their destination.

“I hope the Mercenary Guild can record this as a monthly task. After all, we will be very busy.” Oliver unconsciously smiled.

“Yeah.” Nemo stuffed the envelope and letter into Oliver’s hand, and then he stretched out his hand to his mighty Hero.

“Are you ready to do something bad, Ollie? For example, sneaking into the headquarters of the Mercenary Guild to see what the weaponized demons are and the likes?”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Oliver took the hand, smiled, and kissed his lover’s finger. “Let’s go.”

“What about my question?” The gray parrot on Nemo’s shoulder squawked. “Let’s not talk about the headquarters of the Mercenary Guild… What about my question? Jesse Dylan, what the hell is he—”

“……”

The holy land of the Laddism Church, in the Central Church of Hatfield.

Pope Dawn Quinn was enjoying his supper. He squinted at the young man across the table while adding granulated sugar to the teacup.

“Now is not the time, son.” The old pope scratched his shiny scalp, looking a little helpless. “Yes, this is a very formal and dangerous reconnaissance operation. That’s why we need the Black Chapter, not the hero praised by the world.”

He shook his head and pushed over a small plate of butter shortbread.

“Most of the expedition facilities at the bottom of the Abyss were largely destroyed by someone. If it weren’t for a team of reckless adventurers who accidently discovered the abnormality, we probably wouldn’t have realized the seriousness of the problem until at least another decade. No matter who moved their hand, our opponent is undoubtedly an extremely dangerous and powerful person. If…”

“I am not a hero,” the guest sitting opposite the Pope said softly.

“Well, compared with the last meeting, you have really changed a lot, but even if you really think so, I won’t agree. I have found a very suitable escort team—”

“Four people is not enough, Lord Quinn.”

“It should be enough for the Laddism Church. After all, the other sects have their own escorts. Even if we add more people, at most two more—”

“Then add two more.”

“Oh, child, why are you struggling…”

“There’s one last thing that I need to be sure of.” The young man opposite the Pope stood up. His expression was soft and firm in the bright firelight.

“I applied for membership as an individual, and at the same time, I’ll bring another helper. Is this okay?”

“If you insist.”

“Thank you, Lord Quinn.”

“It’s me who should say thank you, Godwin.”

As soon as the Pope’s voice fell, the communication crystal ball in the center of the table slowly floated up. The old Pope sighed and waved his hand to Godwin Lopez, who was about to leave to avoid suspicion.

“Demon alert,” he said. “Don’t mind. Just listen together. What’s the matter, Felix? Speak.”

“The weaponized superior demon underneath the Mercenary Guild headquarters, Pandorater. It… just disappeared.”

---

The author has something to say:

Cousin has his own ideas√

Laddism Church Abyssal Escort Team Personnel 2 (?)

——

The seeker of knowledge observed God, fell into a state of ecstasy, and the clues were interrupted.

Ollie: I have to comfort Nemo. He may not feel well.

Nemo: (Calmly) Let’s ask God himself.

Ollie: …I’m not used to this.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 219: Convening Order

After isolating Telaranea’s mind network, Nemo and Oliver retreated to the corner together.

This time it wasn’t because of their aversion to the Sage of the Abyss himself, but the scene in front of them was too weird. Aging, death from starvation, and a long-dried up corpse; any of these factors would make it significantly more difficult to obtain the memories of the dead. After all, no one could make the dead speak. The complexity and tedium of the matter was comparable to recovering the contents of a book from a pile of burnt-out paper that had been reduced to ashes.

Telaranea was very careful.

In front of them, he took a little flesh from the demon’s eye inside his body and used it as material for the magic array. After disposing of the purple flesh, the demon took out a dragon breath stone dagger and inserted it into his arm without hesitation.

In order to prevent the wound from healing too quickly, Telaranea didn’t even pull it out. Black blood with a faint redness kept gushing out from the wound and dripping to the ground.

The Sage of the Abyss ignored it.

He carefully smeared the magic array with his own flesh and blood. The decayed floors, furniture, and walls quickly became bloodstained and was painted with weird symbols. The headless mummified body was placed in the corridor, while the decayed head full of eyes was placed in the center of the array.

The superior demon worked tirelessly, and the massive blood loss made his skin turn lime gray. In contrast, as the array became complete, the smile on Telaranea’s face became more satisfied.

The entire scene was extremely morbid. If they added a few candles, this would have been a perfect setting for a cult festival.

Nemo squeezed himself into the corner again. The sacrifice of the Abyssal Church didn’t make him as uncomfortable as this. Oliver simply closed his eyes and decided to save his mental health before his nerves completely collapsed.

The sun had not yet risen, and the sky in the early hours of the morning was getting brighter.

The birdsong gradually became clear as Telaranea finally completed his preparations. The demon bowed his head deeply into the formation very politely, and then the array began to light up from all around, giving off a dim red light that appeared on the blood-smeared lines.

The hazy brilliance gathered towards the deformed head and then wrapped around it. In the uncomfortable halo, the head began to deform and melt like hot wax. The weird liquid melted into the lines of the magic array, as if it would dissipate in the next second.

However, in the second that the head completely melted, the array suddenly contracted. The lines and symbols composed of flesh and blood seemed to come to life and quickly gathered in the center of the room. They shrank into a ball, emitting black and red smoke, and slowly formed a thin old man, though they couldn’t see his face clearly.

The blurred figure formed by the blood mist floated to the side of Telaranea, and the demon opened his arms tenderly, as if welcoming a friend whom he had not seen for many years.

The figure of blood mist passed through the body of the Sage of the Abyss, and really disappeared this time.

The faint light of the early morning reflected off the moldy window frame. The room was empty and lonely, with no traces of blood left. Telaranea stood motionless in the shadow on the other side of the room. His head hung very low, and Nemo couldn’t see the expression on his face clearly.

The quietness was completely out of line with Telaranea’s style.

He stretched out his hands vigilantly; the dark shadow gained momentum between his fingers. Oliver had already opened his eyes. The leader of Tumbleweed grabbed the hilt of the Rest in Peace and put on a serious expression.

The sun was about to rise, and the scene of the house became clearer.

The Sage of the Abyss finally raised his head. In the first few seconds, he looked pale, pained, and confused. On top of that, the handsome young face carried some weird emotion that Nemo couldn’t make out.

Telaranea moved. He stepped over the pile of corpses in a bumbling manner and stopped in front of the storage cabinet close to the window. The demon opened the cabinet door and took out the contents with both hands…

Nemo held his breath. The movement of the dark shadow suddenly increased.

However, it was just a woman’s black veil.

Nemo remembered this style. He once saw a very similar one on Hagen Ingram’s head, but the one in Telaranea’s hand was more exquisite and outdated.

The slightly yellowed and faded, dusty gauze veil was adorned with a dark red rose that had been finely air-dried and magically fixed in form.

“Hagen, unlike me, you must still be so young,” Telaranea said in a weird accent, as he stroked the old veil. “I saw the truth. Have you seen your God?”

A dying memory. In the moment before death, there would be an outburst of regret, pain, and relief, as well as nostalgia.

Nemo didn’t let down his guard. The old man didn’t come back to life with the body of Telaranea. In front of them were the last thoughts and feelings of the dead; a sad echo.

If the Sage of the Abyss was just an ordinary person with a normal mind, his spirit would definitely be overwhelmed at this moment, and he would most likely fall into chaos. As the only demon who could control multiple bodies at the same time, Telaranea should still have some hope of quickly regaining rationality.

But all of this was premised on the discovery of the old man being mediocre. Those eyes that have witnessed “God”; if there was anything left behind…

A pale flame suddenly rose on the black gauze veil. The tongue of fire rolled over the carefully processed bright roses and worn-out fabric. The gauze veil was quickly burned until nothing was left. Telaranea patted the dust off his hands and breathed a long sigh of relief. He didn’t look at Nemo or Oliver; his expression was blank.

The Sage of the Abyss walked back to the narrow window and looked out the window again.

“Telaranea…” Nemo didn’t understand if this was considered unusual, so he had to ask out loud.

“Shh.” The demon made a quiet gesture.

Nemo closed his mouth abruptly and waited quietly for another ten minutes, but the superior demon remained motionless in front of the window, allowing the early morning sun to cover his face.

“Telaranea.” This time it was Oliver who spoke.

“I understand very well. In theory, even if I can live for a long time, I won’t be able to learn everything in this world.” The demon finally turned his head, with a horrifically calm face. “…But this is the first time I have realized this so vividly.”

“You know?” Nemo sighed. “I mean, was there something in his last memories that he saw…”

“Yes.” Telaranea looked out the window again. “Although it was only for a moment, it was enough for me to understand.”

“Can you tell me…”

“Can’t.” After the creepy calm, the smile finally slowly returned to the demon’s face, but Nemo could feel the subtle difference. The Sage of the Abyss was still enthusiastic, but there was a little heavier emotion in that enthusiasm.

Half despondent, half despair.

“I can guess the reason why this gentleman doesn’t want it to spread out. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t plan to be as considerate as he is, worrying about the consequences of the world’s scholars knowing the truth—I… Well, I can only pay tribute to him in this way. This is the only thing I can do now.”

Although he admired Telaranea’s decision a bit, Nemo was more anxious at this moment. This meant that after going a big circle, the two of them found almost nothing.

As if seeing his anxiety, the Sage of the Abyss finally left the window. He walked up to the two of them with very serious expressions.

“I must admit, I got a research topic that was enough to amaze me, and this was thanks to you. To be honest, Mr. Ramon, Mr. Light, a few days ago, I was indeed very interested in the power of the two of you… but now, they are no longer my priority.”

Telaranea put his right hand on his chest and saluted the two members of Tumbleweed solemnly.

“In exchange, to be fair, I don’t want to let the two leave empty-handed. I will give you a piece of information. A piece that will be very useful.”

The red-haired young man raised his head. His face had changed back to the demon’s signature smile, but the thorn behind the smile was put away, and it no longer looked so offensive.

It was impossible to hold down Telaranea and force him to speak through torture. Nemo wiped his face hard and looked at Oliver. The latter was squeezing his hand and nodded slightly.

“Please go ahead.”

“Don’t try to peer into the Abyss.” The tone of the Sage of the Abyss became solemn.

“The Demon King of this generation is extremely dangerous, and he’s not to be confused with the previous ones.”

Nemo almost didn’t tense his expression, and he tried his best to steady his emotions so that his reaction wouldn’t look too abnormal. The great Demon King’s lover didn’t look much better, but Oliver’s resilience was obviously much stronger, and he even had time to squeeze out a question…

“Why do you say that?”

However, the answer from the Sage of the Abyss turned the somewhat awkward atmosphere into an ice cave in an instant.

“Not long ago, near the bottom of the Abyss, my companion and I saw the Demon King with our own eyes.”

In the distant capital of Alban, Ms. Savage’s mental state was also not very good.

“Deli, tell me, do I still look human?” Ann pointed to her face solemnly. She rejected the nightgown with excessive lace and an uncomfortable neckline, and instead wore simple linen pajamas, and even crossed her legs high.

The little princess in a simple long dress nodded equally solemnly.

“Do I look stupid?”

This time Delia shook her head firmly and vigorously, almost getting rid of Cat Whiskers, who was in her hair accessories.

“Yeah, you see, I’m still a normal human being—Why are those bastards so anxious to think about a lover for me? I thought I’d been assigned to a breeding farm.” Ann looked like she wanted to spit, but her eyes slid around the gorgeous soft carpet, and she held back resentfully.

“It’s killing me. I can poke down those guys with a single finger. If I really like a type… Even the stupid boys in Tumbleweed are much more pleasing to the eye. Speaking of this, Deli, I know your marriage contract with Godwin Lopez has been terminated. Do you like that guy?”

“We don’t have much interaction.” Delia thought for a moment, then replied politely and cautiously. “I don’t think we are interested in each other.”

“Well, it can be regarded as one of my prejudices. In a sense, the men of the Lopez family are a bit dangerous.” Ann picked up another envelope. The strong smell of perfume made her face wrinkle, and she sneezed a few times. She then threw it into the trashcan without even looking at it.

“Bullshit love. I guess they don’t know how many noses I have and dare to let the juniors in their family write love poems.” The female warrior roared. “Just remembering those boring rules and regulations is bad enough. Can those slimy old things save me some trouble? The normal letters these days are from Mr. Mad Dog’s war report. It’s the only normal one!”

“The marshal beautifully defeated the invading army on Willard’s side,” Delia said carefully. “Maybe you can reward him appropriately.”

“Uh-huh, it’s estimated that it has also left a psychological shadow on the enemy.” Ann shrugged. “Obviously the process of defeating the prince went smoothly, but I don’t know why he is dissatisfied. The war report, tsk, sounded like he was mentally abused in some way.”

Delia looked at the prospective queen who was sitting on the table in pajamas, gnawing on a chicken leg while throwing a love letter with her oily hand, and decided to remain silent wisely.

Ann had just filled a trash can. However, another letter burrowed its way out of the golden letter box on the table.

The female warrior took a deep, angry breath and planned to continue throwing—

“Huh?”

She stopped moving and wrinkled her nose.

This time there was no expensive and pungent perfume smell on the envelope. Instead, there was an elegant and soft scent of incense that was also mixed with the sweetness of boiled milk. Ann raised her eyebrows, turned the letter over, and then almost fell to the floor with half of the chicken drumsticks in her hand.

Delia glanced at the envelope pattern, also holding her breath. Then she lowered her head in a regular manner and gently rubbed Cat Whiskers crawling on her hand with her fingers, no longer looking up at the envelope.

“Don’t worry. You can read it if you want.” Ann’s voice sank. “It’s the Pope of the Laddism Church, Mr. Quinn. He just wrote to send his greetings.”

“Greetings?”

“‘I have to borrow your companions for the time being, dear Miss Savage.”

The “greetings” received by soon-to-be-loaned ones weren’t so polite.

“Unlike last time, this time it’s a real surprise.” Jesse Dylan patted his chest and blocked the knight commander at the door of the inn room.

Adrian’s gaze swept over Jesse’s outfit, and his expression twitched a little. The blond young man was wearing an exaggerated apron, and he had tied his blond hair neatly behind his head. His face was full of a confident smile, and the corners of his mouth were still stained with a little cream.

“Hmm,” the knight commander responded helplessly.

“I made a cake. Although there’s no oven here, I am confident in my magic control.” Jesse gestured. “Believe me, I may be the best cook in the world. You seemed to like it last time, and this time at least we won’t have to eat it in pieces—”

Before his voice fell, there was a loud bang in the small kitchen attached to the guest room, followed by the sound of kitchen utensils falling to the ground.

“…” After rushing to the kitchen, Adrian raised his eyebrows slightly. “And what a surprise.”

Jesse’s face was livid.

“Under normal circumstances, people usually don’t want to predict the fate of a cake.”

He muttered under his breath while pulling out a solemnly looking, creamy golden eagle out of the smashed cake. The golden eagle shook its wings and dropped an envelope.

“I think it’s necessary for me to change this habit. Sometimes it’s good to have a bit of victimization paranoia.”

“The envelope style is that of the Laddism Church.” Adrian calmly pointed out. “It’s a summoning order.”

“Thank you for reminding me. I’ve written down the account for the cake.” Jesse slapped the envelope on top of the table with a cold face.

The former Knight of Judgment subconsciously went to get the letter, but his hand reached halfway before it turned in a different direction. Adrian reached out and wiped off the cream stuck to the corner of Jesse’s mouth, then frowned before he tasted it.

“I’ll pour some tea.” He nodded calmly. “Maybe we can eat while reading it.”

“Oh.” Jesse touched the corner of his mouth and raised his eyebrows. He glanced at the cream-covered golden eagle flying out the window and slapped the letter on the table again.

“Well done, dear Mr. Quinn. Sure enough, let’s settle the account.”

---

The author has something to say:

Tela: I saw the Demon King.

Ollie: Actually, I saw him too. (Whisper)

Nemo: ……

——

After Adri learned how to play with the cat (…) he calmly teased it.

Jesse: Praise Mr. Pope.

Pope: ?

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 218: Knowledge Seeker

The only three people left in the house remained silent. Even if they knew that even if they waited longer, no answer would jump out of the extinguished phonetic crystal.

Nemo subconsciously spread out his palms and peeked at his hands. Pale skin, clear palm lines, like a human. He then closed his five fingers and clenched his fists.

For a rare moment, Telaranea fell into contemplation. He stared at the corpse thoughtfully for a moment, then walked to the window and looked out through the moldy window frame. “Interesting.”

Stay calm.

Nemo tried to organize the thoughts in his mind. Telaranea was on the scene, and he couldn’t sort out his thoughts by talking to Oliver as he used to. The failure to catch the mystery made him a little frustrated, but after these months of experience, he began to get used to the emotion of “frustration”, just like having bread for breakfast.

Stripping himself away, he analyzed the puzzle from a cold perspective.

Ulysses rescued Flint Lopez, who was lost at the bottom of the Abyss, and got the golden pendant as a token. It provided Flint with a “special hint on killing the Demon King”, but it didn’t show mercy to the expeditionary forces that followed.

It was impossible for Flint to know the Demon King’s thoughts. No matter what the erased information was, it was unlikely to be related to this, so he could put this question aside for now.

They were all very clear about what happened next. The most powerful Demon King in history killed the first four expedition forces and finally fell at the hands of the fifth expedition force, where Flint Lopez was. Flint Lopez carried the Demon King’s head and returned to the surface with another survivor, bringing back the bone jade.

As a result, Alban survived the most arduous war.

But Alban’s hero had no intention of fighting anymore, and the discovery of the bottom of the Abyss undoubtedly left a huge mental impact on the number one powerhouse on the surface. He lied to the outside world that it was Prince Abbas Alastair who beheaded the Demon King and pushed away the glorious title of “Hero”. He only wanted to live in seclusion with his lover.

The ruler of Alban at the time, the first emperor Sampson, ruined Flint’s last wish. In order to retrieve the former “Hero” and further revitalize Alban, he devised a conspiracy to kill Sonia, whom Flint deeply loved, which directly caused Flint to cut off his right arm and disappear from the public’s eye…

The timeline should be like this.

It was perfectly possible to connect to the newly discovered information.

Flint Lopez came into contact with the Demon King and got special information as a result. Before hiding Oliver, who luckily survived, he shared this information with the Butcher Shop in exchange for a spell that would help save Oliver, in addition to seven pounds of demon flesh to repair his arm.

The Butcher Shop introducer, a Gatekeeper under the Gatekeepers Organization, thought this information was too dangerous, so he erased it, but then he made an appalling move by transforming his body.

There was something wrong with this.

Nemo loosened Oliver’s wrist, trying to make himself think more coldly, but the warm palm grabbed his left backhand and pulled it back into his hands.

…This wasn’t so bad.

Nemo breathed a sigh of relief; his tight nerves relaxed a little. He smiled softly at Oliver, his eyes sweeping through the increasingly bright morning sky outside the window.

In a flash, he suddenly realized how unnatural this whole thing was.

Since Flint Lopez gave information about the bottom of the Abyss, why did this Gatekeeper try to observe on the surface… and succeeded?

Taking a step back, even if you were already on the surface at that time, Nemo didn’t think that just “feeling” his own power through some way would let people feel the emotion of “supreme honor”. What’s more, the Gatekeeper’s last words clearly said “see”.

What the deceased saw was something else, and it was related to the bottom of the Abyss… and the Demon King.

“Telaranea,” Nemo said decisively.

“Mm-hmm?” The demon responded with a smile, but the smile on his face was gradually thickening and looking a little twisted.

“You have been looking at this gentleman’s research materials just now. I assume you have found something. Are you willing to trade? Intelligence for intelligence.”

“Gladly. Even if you don’t mention it, I need to find someone to share it with. Ah, I feel sorry for the Gatekeepers from the bottom of my heart. The Void Castle has lost a great theorist.”

“Please.” Nemo didn’t move.

“I think we all know that the destroyed data cannot be restored. I’m very sad about this, but what’s broken is broken. At present, we can’t know what Mr. Lopez saw, but he provided a very interesting piece of evidence—the ‘corpse’ of the Demon King didn’t decay. It was communicating a message to something, and our Flint just accidently intervened in this process. This would make sense.”

Telaranea tapped the decayed window frame with his fingertips, and his gaze returned to the scene outside the window.

“Mr. Lopez is likely to find that the ‘Demon King’ wasn’t the ‘Demon King’ itself as they suspected. The ‘Demon King’ that the surface crusade against is most likely a decoy for some… collection of information. I was very curious about why the evolutionary direction of each Demon King was, well, strange. Unfortunately, there has been no evidence, but now I have it.”

He had nailed it. The name “The Sage of the Abyss” was worth its weight in gold. Nemo didn’t want to throw out information that couldn’t explain the source of intelligence, like “in fact, all the Demon Kings were really just one”.

“But I don’t think it will be a big blow to him.” Nemo took a breath and brushed aside the subject.

The Demon King was obtaining intelligence and information from the expedition force and was evolving using that data. He himself had experienced this cruel discovery, but from a certain point of view, he was living quite a positive life now. Flint Lopez wasn’t an arrogant person who had eyes on the top of his head, and he wouldn’t be devastated by this discovery.

“Yes, I don’t think so either, but as I said just now, there’s nothing we can do about the records that have been erased. This Gatekeeper can beautifully transform himself into this, so he won’t do such a thing as be sloppy when clearing data. Now let’s continue. If I didn’t interpret it wrong, this gentleman has a pretty… wonderful guess. I have to say that I’m quite moved.”

Oliver’s grip on his lover’s hand became a bit tight, but Nemo didn’t say a word.

“Inspired by Flint’s intelligence, he put forward a hypothesis.”

Telaranea twisted a piece of parchment.

“Surface creatures and abyssal creatures are homologous.”

“……”

“Yes, I know this sounds ridiculous, but there is no doubt that after contact with Flint, his first calculation was about the ‘upper limit of strength’ of all life. Oh, even if I don’t remember clearly, I think Mr. Ramon has experienced it firsthand in the Withered Castle.”

Oliver’s breathing became a little short, and he stared at Telaranea unhappily.

After looking up and down at the reactions of the two of them, the Sage of the Abyss continued calmly, “As we all know, the individual abilities of creatures under the abyssal magic system are generally stronger than those under the surface magic system. This is a fact. I will not be biased in my opinion because of my origin. If those lives are really fundamentally opposed to those spread by various religions, why do they have consistent ‘upper limits’?”

“Powerful demons and fragile humans have the same power ceiling. As long as humans obtain a little demon flesh or a contract as a guide, they can use abyssal magic. The demons have to get a complete human body to use surface magic…. How interesting.”

Nemo didn’t find it interesting at all. His throat was dry because of tension.

“This gentleman put so many pairs of eyes on himself and was able to make them work properly. In the past thirteen years, he has really dug deep into the problem of the magic circuit among various contradictions. Although I clearly know that there is an incomplete abyssal magic circuit in surface organisms, it is the first time I have seen such accurate and detailed research data that can be analyzed—”

“This gentleman guessed that a long time ago, there was no such thing as ‘surface magic’ in this world. Whether in the vast underground abyss or the bright and scorching surface, there should be only one source of magic. Its existence restricts the upper limits of the ability of all life.”

“The so-called ‘surface magic’ was a later ‘guest’. This guest wasn’t as powerful as the host and couldn’t influence too much. He could only break a little abyssal circuit and add another different magic circuit to some species.”

“It’s not opposition, it’s just different?” Oliver muttered in a low voice and rubbed his temples.

“I didn’t mean to target you, but you have to know that it has always been a bad habit of mankind to oppose different things,” Telaranea replied lightly.

“But both the dragon breath stones and the erosion spells can hurt the demons more effectively,” Nemo added, “Especially the erosion spells studied on the surface.”

“I suppose the Abyssal Origin has its reasons since it allows a relatively weak ‘guest’ to stay, Mr. Light.”

[Finding that he couldn’t beat the master, the weak bard had an idea. He proposed a deal to the host—”I’ll provide you with what you want. In exchange, you can give me some food. The ones that are farthest from the table, just the ones that you like the least”. How smart, right?]

In the center of The Great Isamel’s Labyrinth, the source of surface magic—The long-winded Mr. Dylan once said this.

“In short, not only is this Mr. Gatekeeper not crazy, but he was extremely clear-headed. Since the power of the later guests was relatively weak, depending on the distribution of surface species, the source of magic on the surface should be above the surface. It should be easier to observe and prove—­­In human terms, what he is trying to observe is ‘God’ itself.”

Unaware of Nemo’s contemplation, Telaranea continued with joy.

“Then he succeeded. What an amazing warrior.”

Wrong.

The Gatekeeper has been dead for about ten years, but the records of Jesse Dylan’s activities as a human could be traced back ten years ago. And purely from the point of view of strength, his and Jesse’s were at similar levels.

And according to the inference of the dead, their power should be very different…

“This is what I found, Mr. Light. What about your information?” Telaranea interrupted Nemo’s thoughts with a question.

“In human terms, the Great Isamel Labyrinth is a miracle. You should know it­. The strange maze near Clementine Academy. The creatures inside are relatively… special, and it is difficult to tell whether they belong to the Abyss or the surface.”

“Of course.”

“It is indeed a ‘miracle’.” Nemo didn’t intend to hide any of this information. Besides, the core of the Isamel Labyrinth collapsed in front of them, and no one had understood that thing before. He was perfectly capable of pushing the source of information to it.

Telaranea was silent for a long time.

After a few minutes, he burst into a series of extremely happy laughs. It was as if the happiness of the entire world was flooding in at the same time and couldn’t be dissipated.

“Very funny.” The superior demon turned around and left the window. He stayed in front of the mummified corpse and imprinted a light kiss on the corpse’s wrinkled forehead.

“Mr. Light, I have something to ask you.”

“…Speak.”

“Restrain me and trap my mind network.” There was a red light of joy on Telaranea’s face. “Just like you did at the Withered Castle.”

The dark shadow suddenly rose between Nemo’s fingers while Oliver drew his Rest in Peace at the same time.

“I was thinking before. Could it be you… It seems so.” Telaranea smiled and shook his head. “What? You thought I would come after you to settle accounts?”

“Don’t tell me you won’t.” Nemo’s voice was full of distrust.

“I went hunting for prey and the prey bit me back. These are all unexpected risks. What position do I have to hate you and Mr. Ramon? As unpleasant as it is, I understand the basics of cause and effect.”

“…What do you want?”

“I want the brain remnants of this corpse.” Telaranea eagerly pressed the head of the corpse. “I just pray and hope that the decay and dryness haven’t damaged the dying memory too much.”

“You’re crazy. Even if you can withstand the dying memories of this human—” You may become like this dead man because the answer you gain will make you fall in the end.

It was very dangerous to directly receive the dying memories of strangers. Emotions and memories before death will flood in instantly. Even if he knew he was powerful, Nemo wouldn’t dare try it willingly… What’s more, this memory was likely to be mixed with some crazed knowledge.

Just like the weakened version of Ulysses’ dying memories that didn’t have consciousness and emotion, was enough to make him suffer from the bottom of his heart.

“That’s why I want to ask you to cut off my mind network to prevent this ‘me’ from passing on the truth uncontrollably after I lose my mind. If I behave abnormally anywhere, please don’t hesitate to execute me. As long as I keep my head, it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world is like.”

Telaranea said briskly, sounding like he was teaching them how to peel apples.

“The other ‘me’s’ will take it away, cut it open, and study it more slowly and carefully. You know that if you leave it alone, the final clue will slowly decay with this corpse. Didn’t the two of you approach me just to get more clues?”

Nemo took a step back. The tone of the other party made him a little uncomfortable.

His own life and emotions seemed to be completely out of scope with this demon’s thinking. Telaranea wasn’t the same as those researchers of the Withered Castle. The latter didn’t just take the suffering of the weak seriously; the Sage of the Abyss didn’t even take his own suffering seriously.

“Come on,” Telaranea urged.

“…Then I will ask one last question.”

Nemo closed his eyes.

“What do you know about the phrase, ‘It’s a great honor to be born in this world’?”

“That’s part of the Gatekeepers’ oath.” Telaranea stroked the skull of the corpse, then snapped its neck bone and removed the head of the dead. “It’s not a big deal.”

“The Gatekeepers’ Oath? …Isn’t their creed ‘Beyond the truth’?”

“Most people only remember this because they understand it better. After all, their complete vows were written in ancient lingua franca, so many people didn’t bother to remember the complete meaning.”

The Sage of the Abyss let out a sneer, but when he spoke again, there was no contempt in his voice.

“‘You must respect first, and then surpass. The truth must be ruthless, and we keep it in mind. It’s a great honor to be born in this world.’”

---

The author has something to say:

Part of the truth of Jesse’s story (?

---

Kinky Thoughts:

Things are coming together. I think I know now but… I’ll propose my theory in the Discord channel to avoid spoilers.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 217: Human Hand

“Maybe he’s crazy.” Oliver pinched the thick piece of parchment, his voice dry.

The leader of Tumbleweed was so shocked that he almost accidentally dropped the phonetic crystal in his hand.

Nemo opened his mouth and was just about to answer but found that there was a subtle difference in his surroundings. He got the answer in the next second—Telaranea’s pleasant humming stopped at some point, and the air was a bit scary.

Even though the brilliance of the spell illuminated the entire attic brightly, the chill of early autumn was still surging slowly on the floor and tended to grow colder more consistently.

“That’s not necessarily true,” the Sage of the Abyss, who had not joined the conversation, suddenly spoke and interjected Oliver’s conjecture smoothly.

Unlike the relaxed tone full of joy just now, Telaranea’s voice tightened. It sounded like he had entered another state of full concentration, like a beast lying down in the grass, staring unblinkingly at a target that was grazing.

He carefully put away the strangely shaped metal tools, acting solemnly as if he was performing some ritual.

“He died of starvation.” Putting away the tools carefully, the red-haired superior demon added in a very soft voice, as if worried about disturbing the body’s sleep.

But the explanation of the superior demon failed to relax the atmosphere. The unexpected cause of death caused the two members of Tumbleweed to take a step back away from the body.

“Starvation?” Nemo stared at Telaranea’s face, trying to find traces of teasing on it.

“You can say that.” Telaranea approached very naturally and looked through the parchment that the two had just discovered. “Well, let me see… This date would make sense.”

Nemo tried to stare at the corpse again, but after scanning the withered large and small eyes on the chest of the mummified corpse, the great Demon King swallowed loudly and gave up the idea decisively.

“Our introducer, this gentleman, died within three days of writing this thing. According to this date, it’s inferred that this body has been here for a full ten years. From the transaction with Flint Lopez 23 years ago, it seems that he has been studying this matter for the past thirteen years.”

Telaranea looked through the thick parchment, and the frivolity in his voice disappeared without a trace.

“I take back my evaluation just now, he’s not considered mediocre.”

“Why?” Nemo tried his best to reduce the number of words he exchanged with Telaranea.

“Those eyes were not transplanted on all at once, Mr. Light. They are both new and old. The earliest ones are more than 20 years old. The freshest ones were buried even shortly before his death, and the wounds didn’t heal. He connected all of them into his brain, and his technique was… superb.” Telaranea was talking, but his eyes didn’t move away from the parchment.

“On the other hand, when the two of you were rolling in a pile of papers, I checked the situation around the body.”

The Sage of the Abyss obviously didn’t bother to explain it to them in detail. With a wave of his hand, a translucent humanoid white shadow appeared in the middle of the room. The white shadow was barely regarded as the shape of an adult man, with no facial features. The light passed through its body without producing anything resembling a shadow on the floor.

Telaranea snapped his fingers.

The white shadow first made a sorting motion by the information box and then assumed a sitting posture in front of the window. Even the backrest of the chair was facing it at this moment.

It sat quietly, motionless.

After about half a minute, it struggled to stand up and slammed to the floor. Without any intention of getting back up, the white shadow crawled to the window and struggled to close it.

Then it sat back in its chair, looking like it was trying to catch its breath.

After taking a break, the figure twisted its body, as if it was reversing some heavy object. Nemo stared at the translucent white figure solemnly—unsurprisingly, the object was the lightweight armchair.

After moving in the direction of the chair, the figure left the chair again and made a gesture of reaching out to the decayed corpses piled on the floor.

But it didn’t succeed. The white shadow fell back into the chair, lowered its head, and completely overlapped with the posture of the corpse.

Then it dispersed.

Looking at that action, the introducer should have been planning to sit back in his chair and rest for a while, accumulate some strength, and take some of the scattered animal carcasses on the ground to eat. Unfortunately, he obviously didn’t get what he wanted.

“I accelerated the speed. According to the traces, this is everything that happened before this gentleman died.”

“Death by starvation is a slow process.” Oliver hesitated for a moment, but still took the initiative to speak to the annoying superior demon.

“In the case of great physical exertion, death comes much faster. Believe me, I’ve tried.” Telaranea quickly flipped through the incomprehensible formulas. “These eyes were quickly absorbing his power, and he failed to realize this in time for some reason.”

“For how long?” Nemo asked.

“For how long what?”

“From the time this gentleman left the paper record to the time he turned his chair and turned his back to the window.”

“Three days,” Telaranea replied, very confidently.

He took out a quill pen casually and didn’t even bother to find a chair for himself. The demon bent down directly, padded the wooden frame, and quickly wrote down line after line of formulas on the parchment.

Nemo took in a breath and walked quickly to the armchair. He gently pressed the back of the chair with his hand, and the next moment, the black shadow condensed into an identical armchair, but was facing the window.

The two chairs were back-to-back, the size and shape were the same. The one formed by the black shadow was like cutting off a piece of the bright room, revealing an unpleasant emptiness.

Nemo sat down in the shadowy chair and looked up at the window in front of him…

The window wasn’t big, and it was open wide by Telaranea. The evening breeze with the smell of forest kept pouring inside the house, and the fishy smell of the mummified body behind it rushed straight to his nose. He couldn’t help but stop breathing and stared at the scene outside the window seriously.

Three days.

There was no need for Telaranea to deceive them with this kind of thing. This gentleman should have really sat quietly here for three days without sleep.

It was late at night, but the starry sky was bright. The forest near the wooden house wasn’t dense, and the night sky with irregular edges was exposed above the dark tree shadows outside the window. The branches and leaves rustled softly, and occasionally, shadows of insects would cross the sky. A peaceful and normal night scene.

What was this introducer looking at?

Through hundreds of marauding eyes, what exactly was he looking at through this tiny window?

“Nemo… Do you have any clues about who this ‘she‘ is?” Nemo’s slightly tranced thoughts were interrupted by Oliver’s voice. “You look a little off, like you thought of something.”

“What’s the matter?” Nemo shook his head hard and came back to his senses.

“The phonetic crystal. Now that we have determined the time period, I’ll try it with the previous records.” Oliver patted the powdered crystal in his hand. “Its activation array was encrypted. Incorrectly filling it would make the crystal self-destruct. Looking at that gentleman’s records, he doesn’t seem to care much. I wonder—”

Nemo glanced vigilantly at the Sage of the Abyss, who was still writing hard. He leaned over to Oliver and carefully sketched the name in the palm of Oliver’s hand.

[Hagen Ingram]

Oliver also glanced at Telaranea, holding back his doubts knowingly, and took the lead in trying. After blowing up a few crystals, the word “Hagen” finally helped them open the encrypted crystal.

Telaranea was immersed in calculations, and he didn’t bother to lift his head.

“Regarding the habits of abyssal nightmare leopards, we can draw a conclusion from their hibernation cycle…” The array of light spots rotated slowly above the crystal, and a slightly murmured human voice came from the muddy crystals.

A clear phonetic record that was well preserved.

“It worked,” Oliver whispered. “I’ll ask you about the ‘password’ when we get back.”

“Nn.” Nemo buried his head and selected the crystal.

Fortunately, having heard Flint’s voice when he was young from the necromancer Medes, it didn’t take too long for their screening.

Around four in the morning, the two finally found the crystal that recorded Flint’s voice. This time, Telaranea, who was buried in a pile of parchment, heard Oliver shout “This is it!”, causing him to raise his head.

“Let’s clarify the content of the transaction. Mr. Flint Lopez, there are two items in your transaction records… The way to build the blood cradle, and seven pounds of processed demon flesh.” This voice should belong to the old man.

“Yes.”

“The current transaction situation… Let me see, the blood cradle you placed in the coffin has successfully stabilized the baby’s physical condition, and the demon’s flesh has also been forged into your right arm.”

“Yes.”

“The blood cradle requires a large daily blood supply, and this part of the record may be kept in the Butcher Shop. You need to assure me that you are sober at this moment, and please swear that everything you say next is the truth and will not be mixed with a single lie.”

“I swear.” Oliver’s father sounded haggard and weak in the face of the Butcher Shop introducer.

“The knowledge you want to trade is the ‘discovery at the bottom of the Abyss’. If your knowledge is judged to be of insufficient value, I will abandon it and take back the blood cradle given to you by the Butcher Shop, as well as your right arm. After all, I need to provide valuable research results or information to those above on a regular basis. Please understand.” The old man’s voice was calm and even. “Of course, if your knowledge is judged to be valuable, I can give you a few more abyssal spells.”

“Okay.” Flint didn’t sound enthusiastic.

Nemo grasped Oliver’s wrist. He could feel his palms getting cold and full of sweat.

“I don’t think you are interested in my insights and adventures. Let me make a long story short. For various reasons, I was separated from my team at the bottom of the Abyss and wandered alone. When I thought I was going to die there, a wanderer saved me.”

“You mean those weird creatures at the bottom of the Abyss that cannot be classified?”

“I used to think so.” Flint chuckled a few times. “It must have the ability to mimic. Even if the field of vision was pitch black, I could feel its huge size just by listening to the sound, but what held me was a human hand, very similar to mine.”

“It sounds like mimicry.”

“It just pulled me along, talked to me, and sent me back to the team. Now that I think about it, we have been walking together for about five or six days. During that period, I was supported by the condensation spell and dry food, so I was fine.”

“You’re very lucky.”

“It saved my life, so I left it as my keepsake. I originally thought, If it’s summoned to the surface one day, it can come to me, and I can work hard to adapt it to the rules of the surface and even become friends with it.”

“What I need is Abyss-related knowledge and intelligence, not stories, Mr. Lopez.”

“I know. You told me this conversation is confidential, right?”

“It is only owned by the Butcher Shop, and we will not disclose the personal privacy of our guests. Let me emphasize it again, Mr. Lopez. I am only interested in Abyss-related knowledge and intelligence.”

“Okay, okay. Then the next thing, please be sure to keep it secret. When everyone was almost… all sacrificed, I successfully beheaded Ulysses.”

Flint’s voice began to tremble.

“Following the suggestion of the wanderer, I cut off the demon’s head. It let out a wailing sound, which sounded extremely painful. At that time, I didn’t think too much about it. Although I always… About the expedition, my companions died tragically in front of me. I…”

“Please calm down, Mr. Lopez.”

“Sorry, I lost control of my emotions. That’s what happened—I killed it with hatred. Even if we were the ones who went to the bottom of the Abyss and woke it up, I hoped from the bottom of my heart that it was really the bloodless and tearless horror monsters rumored, but the moment I successfully cut off the Demon King’s head, I saw it by the fire of my weapon.”

“What did you see?”

“Among those horribly twisted limbs, a human hand.”

“……”

“And I recognized what it was holding in that hand. It was the pendant that I kept as a keepsake. Why do you think this is? I can’t figure it out. If it wanted to live, why did it save me specifically? If it wanted to die, why… kill everyone?”

Nemo clenched his lower lip unconsciously, his limbs became numb from tension, but he could still perceive the trembling of Oliver’s wrist. With inexplicable fear, he increased his strength a bit and held tightly to his lover.

He didn’t know these details.

The memories he retrieved from Ulysses were more like observing everything from Ulysses’ perspective. He could see what was happening, but he didn’t know what the Demon King Ulysses—or himself—thought in his heart.

Of course, he would not know what happened after Ulysses died.

As far as the facts were concerned, Flint Lopez didn’t lie, but the growing despair in his voice sent shivers down Nemo’s spine.

“…Please continue, Mr. Lopez.”

“I didn’t understand it at the time. I stood there, carrying the head of the Demon King that was still dripping blood. Its body was melting and turning into a black liquid. I know that we should leave immediately at that time, looking for and taking away the bone jade that was about to appear. The miasma next to the corpse would become stronger.”

“But you didn’t leave immediately.” The old man guessed.

“I was looking at that hand, the hand that used to hold me.”

“What did you do?”

“I… at the end, I couldn’t help but touch it.”

“Then what?”

“Sporadic fragments got into my mind. It was just illogical, sporadic fragments, but it allowed me to perceive everything through the Demon King Ulysses in that moment. I shouldn’t have touched it; it was the last decision I regretted in my life. Sir, what I’m going to say next may sound crazy, but… I saw it.”

The voice stopped abruptly.

After that, there was only a blankness left.

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The author has something to say:

Recycling the flag in Chapter 28√

——

Flint probably never thought that this conversation would be heard by the person in question years later.

And that his own son had chased after the person in question (……)

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