Chapter 175: Beyond Expectation, Within Reason (Part 3)

  The elastic muscles, the fat, and the strength; the feel of delicate skin that could be sensed even through the clothes. The first feeling Saye had when suddenly embraced by this person was a soul-stirring tremor, and only then did he feel fear from the chill on his neck.

  He reflexively turned his head and saw a pitch-black face on a body clad in black. Its originally delicate and beautiful features were slightly twisted by the bloodthirsty impulse of the hunt. A tongue extended from its mouth, pressing fiercely against its lips. In its pitch-black eyes burned a flame that was both cold and scorching hot. The Mana Divine Eye could even see that the muscles and secretions within its body were twitching in a spasm similar to an orgasm, stirred up by this successful assassination.

  A blue short sword stabbed into his neck from the side, accurately severing the carotid artery in two. The poison on the sword, with an impulse and passion similar to its master's, quickly dissolved into his blood, eroding and destroying every cell and every part of his body. Saye could clearly watch how his own body gradually died under the erosion of this poison. Every step was so clear under the Mana Divine Eye. He was so terrified he wanted to scream, but no sound came out. Soon, he could no longer even feel fear.

  The two of them fell from mid-air together. The woman in black withdrew her short sword and landed lightly. A small, blue arrow of blood sprayed from the archmage's neck. He fell to the ground like a torn sack filled with rotten meat. The huge Mana Divine Eye immediately collapsed. The blue magical light disappeared, and that eyeball became a puddle of water that scattered in the rain and vanished without a trace.

  Ethan stared at Drow, who had dropped the archmage's corpse, his face full of astonishment: "It's you? Why are you back?"

  "I came back to see if you were dead. It seems your luck was good, but mine was better." Jessica suddenly gave a light smile, an expression she hadn't shown in a long time. "It looks like I saved you this time. I finally don't owe you anything anymore."

  Ethan let out a long sigh. That was true. If Archmage Saye had really used his flight magic to rise to a height where he couldn't be attacked, then he could be said to be on a path to certain death. He had never expected that a helper would suddenly appear at just the right moment to kill Saye, and even less did he expect that this helper would be Jessica, who had long since returned to Oufu. But after thinking for a moment, he understood. Given Sedros's cautious nature, it was perfectly reasonable for him to store a few teleportation scrolls for Erathia.

  Jessica tossed a teleportation scroll to Ethan and said, "Let's go now, while we have the chance."

  "No. There's still one more thing for now." Ethan, however, was not in a hurry to use it. In the current situation, with this item in hand, escaping was only a matter of time. After spending so much thought and energy to save the Temple Knight's life, he had to at least ensure that this sharp weapon against Erathia and the Church could be brought to bear intact at the final moment.

  The sound of horse hooves and light traveled through the pouring rain. Knights and church warriors from other areas were gathering towards this place. The explosion just now was enough to be detected by people a hundred li away. Ethan pulled Jessica up and ran towards the place where the fight had started, asking, "Where are the others?"

  Jessica shook her head and replied, "There are no others. I came back by myself."

  "Just you?" Ethan was stunned again. With Jessica's strength alone, she was hardly qualified to be called reinforcement against experts like Orrin and Saye. That she was able to kill Archmage Saye this time could only be attributed to luck. Appearing suddenly at just the right place and at just the right time, she delivered a fatal blow to the court mage, whose attention was completely focused on Ethan.

  "Because there were only two teleportation scrolls. That dwarf, what's-his-name, said only one could be used, so only one person could come."

  "Lord Bolgan said that? Sigh, truly worthy of being Sedros's good assistant, saving my life while also helping Oufu save money." Ethan shook his head with a bitter smile. He knew that teleportation scrolls were hard to come by anywhere, but when his own life was hanging by a thread, for this friend to still be calculating the gain or loss of one scroll made him feel uncomfortable, no matter what.

  "Given the situation you left behind, no one would have thought you had a chance to escape from the encirclement of the Temple Knight and so many guards and priests. I also thought you were dead for sure and was planning to have that kid who used white magic and his sister buried with you. But that dwarf officer you know stopped me. He wanted me to come back to scout the situation. He said that even if you were captured by the church, they would definitely be reluctant to kill you. So you weren't necessarily dead for sure."

  Ethan said with a bitter smile, "He was probably right. But he probably didn't expect that I would run out of the great cathedral, and almost be killed by someone else."

  "The dwarf said that too. He said although the possibility of that was small, it wasn't impossible. He also said he didn't have many friends, but you counted as one. So even though an Erathia teleportation scroll was already a priceless strategic treasure for that beastman city-state, he still gave me one and had me come back to see if you were dead or not. If you weren't dead, maybe I could help. If you were captured by the church, I could bring the news back."

  "That's really his style." Ethan sighed. "Fortunately, your luck was good, and my luck was good too. To think we would run into each other at just this moment. Otherwise, it wouldn't just be me; even you would have died together."

  Jessica frowned, glanced at him, and retorted in a strange tone, "Why would I have? If I weren't confident, I wouldn't have come out to expose my whereabouts. Although I also hope you don't die, I'm not interested in dying with you."

  "Is that so?" Ethan gave a bitter smile. "A bit surprising, but that's really your style."

  The speed of the two was as swift as galloping horses. Leaping between the buildings without needing to take detours, they reached the scene of the earlier battle faster than the knights and guards who were catching up from behind. Orrin didn't seem to have returned here yet.

  Ethan pushed aside a pile of bricks and rubble and saw the female knight he had deliberately buried underneath. When he went to hunt down the court mage, he had to quickly stuff the Temple Knight under a wall overturned by the airwave. This way, even if Orrin had returned here before him, without Saye's Mana Divine Eye, it would be impossible to discover her in such a dark, heavy rain.

  "You came back specifically for this stupid Temple Knight?" Jessica asked, frowning at him.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Ethan pulled the female knight out, carefully examined her body, and used the last of the elf's healing magic stored in his bracer, answering, "Her returning to Celeste alive should be more useful to Oufu."

  Drow snorted coldly and said, "I have no interest in that dirty, stinking beastman castle. In comparison, I'd rather strip this little sister naked and hang her at the gates of The Radiant Citadel."

  A green magical light flashed. The female knight let out a low moan and slowly regained consciousness. In terms of healing ability, nature magic was not the least bit weaker than white magic, but its restorative effects were far superior. The powerful healing spell automatically activated by the Radiant Battleplate had healed the wound on Talise's neck, but it could not regenerate the large amount of blood she had lost. His own magic, however, with its vibrant life force, could.

  Talise opened her eyes. With the faint light from the Radiant Battleplate, she saw the two people before her. She stared at Ethan, dumbfounded. From her expression, one could see that her mind had not yet been able to connect the situation before she lost consciousness with the current one.

  Ethan spoke first, "Do you still remember what happened just now? Orrin was going to kill you. I saved you from his hands."

  "Nonsense, you saved me?" Talise struggled to her feet, but the full effect of one healing spell was only enough to let her stand with effort. She could not, for the life of her, understand why she would have been saved by this person, but if no one had helped her, she was even more baffled as to why she was still alive. She knew that the divine healing spell attached to her Radiant Battleplate could heal wounds that, while fatal, did not have extensive physical damage. But a man like Orrin, having already made his move, would absolutely not be so careless as to not cut off her head to ensure she was dead.

  "Killing you now would be no more trouble than killing a chicken. The fact that I haven't made a move to kill you, isn't that saving you?" Ethan knew that wasting words on someone like Talise was futile, and the current situation absolutely did not allow for more nonsense. He had rushed over to wake her for a purpose. "I don't want to waste my breath on nonsense. I'm sure you don't understand why that kid Yabin became my accomplice to kill Eschol. Perhaps you find it hard to believe, but I'll tell you anyway. In fact, that mysterious white mage who killed that merchant caravan on the Barbarian Highlands was Eschol. He was going to silence Yabin with mind magic. I intervened to assassinate him, but we were both severely wounded in the fight. It was Yabin who delivered the final blow. Do you understand now?"

  "Impossible, nonsense. Why would Archbishop Eschol do such a thing?" Talise's expression trembled because she could sense the breath of truth in these seemingly unbelievable words. She was not stupid; in fact, she was quite a smart person. It was just that excessive faith usually clouded a person's reason. She vaguely judged that these words were the true explanation for that scene.

  Ethan had already anticipated the female knight's reaction. He continued blandly, "You find these words hard to believe. If I told you that this Cardinal of Erathia is actually also a member of Diya Valley, a Necromancer, I imagine you would find it even harder to believe."

  Hearing these words, Talise instead calmed down, her stern gaze fixed tightly on Ethan.

  Ethan continued speaking, his faint, cold voice just like the pouring rain that drenched a person to the bone. "You can go back and search for Archbishop Eschol's personal belongings. Whether on his corpse or somewhere else, I think you'll probably find some things that don't quite match his status as a Cardinal. Let me also tell you, Celeste has at least one or two other Necromancers. That pretty-boy Cardinal from Tulalion last time was probably one too."

  "What's the point of telling these lies?" Talise interrupted Ethan coldly. If she weren't so weak and completely at their mercy, she would definitely not be standing there motionless. To her ears, these words were like a mouse reciting the Bible to persuade people while swallowing a cockroach—filthy, disgusting, and unbelievable. "I know I'm in your hands. You can just kill me. There's no need to play these boring, malicious games with me."

  "Kill you? You're thinking too lightly." Drow snorted coldly, then said to Ethan, "That's why I suggest we take this little girl away, find a place, and the two of us can have some fun with her. When we've had enough, we can strip her naked, break her limbs, and send her back to Celeste."

  Talise's face changed instantly. It had been pale from blood loss, but now it turned a greenish hue. No one is fearless. Even if one is not afraid of death, there is always something to be afraid of.

  Ethan sighed and said, "Don't worry, I don't have the time to spend on you, whether it's playing with you or tormenting you. I'm just telling you these things. Whether you believe them or what you do is up to you."

  The sound of horse hooves and the light of the priests' illumination spells came towards them through the layers of rain. Ethan confirmed that the people approaching were indeed guards from the church. Only then did he and Drow unfurl their teleportation scrolls together. He glanced at Talise, who seemed to want to rush forward, and said, "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I waited until your reinforcements arrived before leaving. That was to prevent Orrin from coming back and killing you. By that count, I've saved you again. Plus, the fact that you were saved by Yabin was actually because I intentionally let you go. That makes three times in total."

  "The Lord says, 'I will surely repay the one who shows me kindness.' You should know that, right? Help me keep my dagger safe. Maybe I'll come back for it when I have the chance." With these words, Ethan vanished in a blue light, leaving the Temple Knight staring blankly at the empty, rainy ground.

  The sound of hooves and light quickly became a large contingent of church guards. The one leading them was an elderly Templar. He first saw the Temple Knight and immediately spurred his horse forward, shouting, "Lady Talise, are you alright? Where is the murderer?"

  The Temple Knight did not answer. Her body swayed a few times before she powerlessly collapsed onto the rainy ground.

  The priests immediately dismounted and surrounded her. After a baptism of white magic, the female knight finally recovered some of her spirit. She did not say anything about her pursuit of the murderer or what had happened here. She only asked, "How is Archbishop Eschol's remains? Is it still there?"

  The old Templar answered grimly, "It's gone... Destroyed by the assassin's magic..."

  "Nothing is left? Not even any relics?"

  "Only the murder weapon on top. I suppose His Grace the Archbishop had some other magic items that weren't damaged."

  "Good, I'm going back to the great cathedral first." The female knight weakly climbed onto a horse. Her face was pale under the magical light, and the blood from her bitten lip, seeping through, was piercingly red in contrast. As if she had just remembered something, she said to the others, "You don't need to hunt for the murderer anymore. He has already escaped. Go immediately to Queen Katherine and request the arrest of Orrin of the Kingdom's Knight Brigade, accusing him of the crime of attempting to murder a member of the clergy. If the Queen does not agree, come back and inform me immediately." As soon as the words left her mouth, she immediately spurred her horse and galloped in the direction of the great cathedral, leaving the priests and Templars looking at each other in bewilderment.

  The rain began to subside unnoticed.

  In the palace, in Her Majesty the Queen's bedchamber, a middle-aged man stood by the window, looking thoughtfully out at the rainy night. His upper body was bare. His smooth skin and elastic muscles were as flawless as an eighteen-year-old's. Queen Katherine, on the bed behind him, watched his back, also lost in thought.

  Just now, when the bells of the great cathedral reached the bedchamber, they had been completely drowned out by the sound of the rain, but this man had immediately sprung to the window with the agility and reaction of a leopard.

  He had been about to jump out the window and into the curtain of rain, but he turned to look at Her Majesty the Queen on the bed, sighed, and did not move. After looking at the dark, rainy night outside and thinking for a moment, he sighed again and said faintly, "Eschol is probably dead..."

  "What?" Queen Katherine was shocked for a moment, then slowly calmed down, revealing a strange expression as she murmured, "A bit unexpected..."

  "I'm a bit surprised too..." The man's voice was not loud, but it could not hide the anger within. "Such audacity..."

  "I'm actually a little scared," Queen Katherine said softly. "If even Archbishop Eschol could not escape, then I..."

  The man seemed to have fallen into deep thought and did not notice Katherine's fear. After a long while, he sighed and asked, "What are you planning to do?"

  "Hmm?" Queen Katherine seemed a bit surprised by his attitude and question.

  The man did not turn his head, still looking at the dark, rainy night outside, and asked, "Are you planning to use this opportunity to suppress the Church's influence, or to cooperate with Celeste and dispatch troops?"

  Katherine's expression calmed down. Although she was still in her nightgown, her perfect curves, figure, and exposed skin all strongly radiated everything the word "woman" could represent, the look in her eyes and their radiance had returned to the majesty, rationality, and wisdom of the Queen of Erathia. She thought for a moment, looked at the man, and asked, "What do you think?"

  The man did not answer directly, but said, "Oufu certainly hopes you will choose the former. Their assassination of Eschol is a gift to you. Whether you accept it or not is up to you."

  Katherine sighed softly and replied, "Let me think about it a bit more."

  The man said no more, and the Queen fell silent as well. The bedroom, which had been so amorous just moments before, fell into a strange calm. The two of them looked in different directions, each contemplating their own matters.

  When the huge white light, the explosion, and the great wind of steam swept past the bedchamber, the man took a deep breath of the hot wind that blew by and let out a soft sound of surprise. "...This wind seems to be produced by the evaporation of water elements. It seems your two guards went to join in the fun... and it wasn't just any ordinary excitement."

  Not long after, panicked footsteps came from outside the bedchamber. The voice of one of the Queen's personal maids sounded anxiously from outside, "Your Majesty, Archbishop Eschol has been assassinated... The people from the Church say General Orrin attempted to murder a member of the clergy and are demanding his arrest. Also... Archmage Saye was also killed while pursuing the assassin..."

  "What?" For the first time, Her Majesty the Queen's expression lost control.

  "It seems you don't have time to think it over slowly." The man turned his head, his face full of worry.

  In the great cathedral, Temple Knight stood in a daze beside the Cardinal's deformed, charred corpse. Her gaze was hollow and chaotic, her face pale and tinged with a greenish hue.