Chapter 134: The Nation-Wrecker, Cain (Two-in-one)
It was as if Shaya was waking up from a deep dream.
Everything in the dream slowly faded and then returned to reality.
Shaya felt his consciousness being pulled away from the roaring, surging river of time and space, gradually merging back into the tangible world.
Just a moment ago, he felt that he was just a step away from getting lost in the temporal turbulence.
Fortunately, at the last moment, some force seemed to have helped him return to the true node of the current timeline.
“Little Ai!”
“My Little Ai!”
“Do you know how scared I was just now? I almost couldn’t come back.”
Shaya reached out to embrace her, only to feel a sense of fullness and softness in his hands.
Knowing Little Ai as well as he did, Shaya was well aware of his childhood sweetheart’s personality.
Normally, if he wanted to be intimate, even if Little Ai was also deeply moved, she would rarely take the initiative due to her tsundere and awkward nature.
But if he played the victim a little, showing his vulnerable side, and ignited Little Ai’s protective instincts, then benefits would come knocking on his door.
Kissing was a given, and perhaps he could even have a soft and fragrant girl pillow when sleeping.
This was a technique Shaya had personally tested. After he had fainted in the washroom for three days, Little Ai had stayed by his bedside for half a month, feeding him medicine in indescribable ways and meticulously caring for him until he recovered.
It was an exhilarating experience.
If it weren’t for the subsequent incident with the Crimson Rose Borgia Family, Shaya felt he could have been doted on by Little Ai for an entire year from his sickbed.
However—
This time, why did the feel of the embrace seem a little off?
It wasn’t like his little wife’s flat chest at all; it felt more like his elder wife, who he had experienced in the Spirit World.
Shaya paused and finally opened his eyes to look around.
The next moment, he heard a familiar, ethereal, and melodious voice, like that of wind chimes, resonating in the ocean of his mind.
“It’s okay, Brother Shaya.”
“It’s alright even if you mistook me… Don’t be scared, I’ve always been by your side.”
“Even if you get lost at the end of time, I will bring you back to this real world, just like I did just now.”
In the room.
At first, Sylvia, who noticed Shaya had mistaken her for someone else, was a little bewildered and at a loss.
However, soon, she lowered her gaze slightly, couldn’t help but reach out, and gently touched Shaya’s face.
Then, Sylvia opened her arms and pulled the young man into her embrace.
She had been forced to be a cat-like third wheel for so long, was it wrong for her to have a little bit of sweetness?
“In the past, it was you, Brother Shaya, who saved me from that dark and lightless quagmire.”
As she spoke, Sylvia gently cupped Shaya’s face.
The breathing, the heartbeat, and the sound of blood flowing were all so captivating to Sylvia, just as she remembered.
During her 500 years of self-imposed sealing in the white tower, through more than a hundred thousand days and nights, she had relied on this memory to keep her soul from decaying, drying up, or becoming corrupted.
And at this very moment, the figure from her memory appeared before her, alive and well.
Thus, Sylvia, yielding to the surging emotions within her heart, pressed the young man before her into the tenderness that existed before her chest.
“And now, it’s my turn to protect you, Brother Shaya.”
“Don’t worry… With me here, no one can harm you.”
“Whether it’s a Legend, a demigod, a Throne, or… a true God.”
Shaya: …
Shaya: I can’t breathe.
*Crack.*
*Crack.*
Aerora’s small fists clenched tightly, emitting the sound of knuckles cracking.
A sharp aura cut through all the surrounding furniture, leaving small nicks on the tables and chairs.
After a long while, Sylvia finally loosened her arms, freeing Shaya’s face.
Shaya regained his freedom and slumped onto the bedding.
The faint scent of milk… no, of the Azure Silver Witch still lingered in his nostrils.
Damn it. Legend.
Damn it. Throne.
“However, before that—”
A faint smile suddenly appeared on Sylvia’s exquisite and flawless cute face.
She silently gazed at Shaya’s face with a hint of intoxication and longing, as light-golden text slowly appeared in the void.
“I want to know…”
“What kind of great sin did Brother Shaya commit.”
“To have caused the current history to flow… and be so disruptively altered.”
…
At the end of the sky, the night sky was slightly whitened.
The long night had passed, revealing a faint dawn light in the distant sky, the first light of breaking day.
“Later, Vortigern’s army dissolved like ice and snow under the radiance of the Holy Spear’s liberation.”
“Yes, that’s pretty much how it went.”
“In short, it was out of sympathy for the displaced refugees in that land of disaster that I made those decisions from the heart.”
“Although I did act like a trans-dimensional scumbag once before, this time I really didn’t get to do anything.”
Shaya sat by the table, speaking to Sylvia with a face full of sincerity and seriousness.
Completely hiding the truth was impossible.
His “Little Detective Ai’s” method of solving cases, which relied on intuition rather than logic, could probably only be restrained by Solun.
She was a human lie detector and infidelity catcher.
Moreover, the pretense he put on at the Valley of Termination was only achieved through Little Ai’s Holy Spear liberation.
Heaven knew if that thing would report back to its current master across time.
As for Sylvia, even less needed to be said.
She herself was a firsthand witness to Historical Echoes and the first victim of Shaya’s trans-dimensional playboy behavior. She knew all his tricks like the back of her hand.
As a Throne, she already possessed the ability to interfere with history to some extent.
Shaya’s actions, if not completely visible, could at least be guessed at by fifty to sixty percent.
Therefore, Shaya chose to confess part of the truth.
Of course, it was with a touch of embellishment.
Information about his Undying Body and system was omitted…
Instead, he briefly mentioned how, as Cain, he had saved the world together with the Dawn Organization at the end of the old era a thousand years ago.
Speaking of which, there was nothing to hide. It was quite pleasant to brag about his past achievements a thousand years ago to his elder and younger wives.
Listening to Shaya’s account, the light in Sylvia’s Azure Silver beautiful eyes flickered slightly.
Beside her, the blonde maiden, hugging a pillow, also pricked up her ears and listened silently.
Regarding Historical Echoes, normally if Shaya didn’t mention them, Aerora wouldn’t ask; it was their unspoken understanding.
But this didn’t mean she was indifferent to what Shaya had experienced in another time and space.
With the previous incident involving the White Tower’s master, she was truly worried that Shaya might attract another unknown woman from who knows where next time.
The rule that childhood sweethearts couldn’t compete with newcomers had left a deep impression on her during this period.
Originally, Aerora had intended to throw a small tantrum about Shaya mistaking her for someone else.
However, when she saw Shaya’s pale and bloodless face, her willfulness turned into heartache.
Thus, although the process was a little bumpy, Shaya still successfully enjoyed Little Ai’s long leg pillow.
…
“If it were just this… it’s unlikely to cause such a significant disturbance in the river of history.”
Sylvia’s exquisite brows furrowed slightly.
Following that, the light-golden text slowly appeared in the void.
“The corrective force of historical inertia in the river of time is extremely strong.”
“Even if ordinary Thrones and demigods have the ability to backtrack to past time nodes to a certain extent… under the constraints of the general trend of history, what they can achieve is very limited, only affecting minor matters unrelated to the major historical trends.”
“Moreover, even so, after they withdraw from the river of time, the impact will gradually weaken under the scouring of historical correction forces, eventually diminishing the interference to a negligible level.”
“But… this time it’s different.”
“The general trend of past history has been forcefully reversed.”
Shaya nodded, indeed noticing the unusual nature of this foray into Historical Echoes.
He knew that his previous incursion into the historical echo of the Ancient Azure Court had been smooth when entering and exiting, and he had never encountered such terrifying spatial turbulence as this time.
Only upon his return this time, the chaotic temporal ripples had almost made him believe he wouldn’t make it back.
To truly get lost in temporal and spatial turbulence would be tantamount to being banished to the abyss of dimensions. His Undying Body would be useless; it would only add to Shaya’s suffering in the lonely darkness.
“So, did something unusual happen when I entered this Historical Echo?”
“But if what Sylvia says is true, even demigods have very limited interference capabilities with space-time…”
“Then, even if my methods as a mere five-ringed mage were a bit extraordinary, I shouldn’t have caused such a huge commotion solely on my own.”
Shaya pondered and muttered to himself.
“Could it be that my actions caused some butterfly effect?”
“A butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the ocean, the resulting airflow is disturbed and amplified, capable of causing a storm on the other side of the ocean.”
“So… the key now is to first figure out what happened a thousand years ago that led to this butterfly effect.”
Almost as soon as Shaya spoke, the blonde maiden quickly got up.
Then, she disappeared out the door of the hotel room.
This was their unspoken understanding; without words, Aerora knew what Shaya wanted and would complete it.
As for Shaya’s safety, although the maiden was reluctant to admit it, with Sylvia present, it was undoubtedly guaranteed.
Ten minutes later.
*Crack.*
The door opened.
Aerora re-entered, holding an ordinary book. She looked at Shaya with a distant and profound gaze, filled with deep meaning.
She placed the book on the wooden table: “Take a look yourself, student Shaya.”
That meaningful look and the sudden address of “student Shaya” gave Shaya a bad premonition.
He picked up the book. The title was “A Brief History of the Human Nations of the Western Continent.”
Could such an elementary historical popular science book truly contain any significant historical secrets?
Shaya was puzzled.
He considered himself at least half an archaeologist. In the past, uncovering various hidden secrets buried in the dust of history required him to search in the secret grand libraries of various factions, or even personally get down and dirty.
Gaining knowledge from such an introductory historical book aimed at the general public was a novel experience.
However, out of trust for Little Ai, Shaya opened “A Brief History of the Human Nations of the Western Continent” and quickly turned to the page marked with Aerora’s crease.
“The Crimson Empire – Freista Chapter”
The Crimson Empire?
When did the Freista Empire get such a nickname?
A hint of doubt arose in Shaya’s heart, and he quickly read the following content.
But the next moment.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
“The Crimson Empire, Freista, was founded by the King of Knights in the second year of the Holy Calendar.”
There was nothing wrong with this part.
However, the next line.
“King of Knights – Full Name Isadorella von Freysburg, formerly known as Artorius.”
“At the end of the old era, she purged the entire Escarnia, defeated the vile king Vortigern, founded the Crimson Empire, and ascended to immortality as a human, ruling the Crimson Empire to this day.”
“In the year 302 of the Holy Calendar, the Holy Court of the Holy See declared that the King of Knights, in pursuit of eternal life, had dealings with the ancient abyss god Zhu Zhi Yue, and even plotted to desecrate the souls of the dead with forbidden arts…”
“The Crimson Empire thus broke out in a holy war with the Holy Divine Kingdom, causing great chaos within the Order Faction, and immense suffering to all living beings, known as the [Hundred Years’ Blood War].”
“Professor Adams, Head of the History Department of Floren Academy and an authority in the field of lost history, spent more than ten years deeply investigating the crimson empire, tracing its origins, and exploring the ancient past.”
“Finally, after arduous and life-threatening investigations, he proposed a startling hypothesis.”
“The King of Knights’ actions, and consequently the birth of the Crimson Empire… were all due to an old acquaintance of hers in Escarnia at the end of the old era.”
“Based on this discovery, Professor Adams was awarded the title of ‘Sage’ by the Arcane City.”
“And that ancient individual from the old era who decided the fate of a nation is now widely referred to in academic circles as:”
“The Nation-Wrecker – Cain.”
…
PS: I will try to update another chapter at midnight.
