Chapter 172: The Prince Kidnapped by the Evil Dragon (Two-in-one)
Early autumn, late at night.
The bright moon hung high, illuminating the vast and boundless sea of stars.
The evening breeze of the Moon of Abundance, originating from the Three Sages Snow Mountain in the Far North, swept across the boundless forests of the Golden Plains and over the Grant Sea.
Finally, it arrived in the Imperial Capital of Freysta, theholy city of Camelot.
On the outskirts of the Imperial Capital, a pure white tower.
Theoretically, the main tower of the White Tower was located on the Golden Plains, so the White Tower in the Imperial Capital was merely a branch tower.
However, because Sylvia, the tower’s master, resided here permanently and even used her status to forcibly cut and move the Netherworld, which was originally within the main tower.
Slowly, the branch tower in the Imperial Capital also grew, even showing signs of rivaling the main tower.
Regarding this, Ysvilda, who was nominally the deputy tower master but actually handled all White Tower affairs due to Sylvia being a hands-off manager, could only endure it with a mix of pain and pleasure.
Shaya and Sylvia sat on the high wall built of chalk boulders.
The long wind blew at the hem of Shaya’s clothes, also lifting a few strands of beautiful silver-white long hair.
Shaya reached out and tidied Sylvia’s long hair, which had been messed up by the wind.
“The wind is quite rowdy today.”
Sylvia allowed Shaya to tend to her hair as she gazed at the stars in the distance, blinking her eyes.
For Sylvia, this was a long-lost experience.
Although the two had already met in the Real Timeline, it was only now, after Shaya returned from the Imaginary realm, that Sylvia felt their relationship had returned to what it once was.
She was no longer the aloof master of the White Tower, the Azure Silver Witch—but merely a carefree little girl by Shaya’s side.
In the silent night, without a trace of worry or sorrow, she looked up at the starry sky with the youth in the courtyard, listening to him explain the origins and legends of the stars, listening to the story of the Guanghan Fairy on the moon, and the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meeting on the magpie bridge…
Simple, yet full of contentment.
And now, that precious time had once again descended upon her.
It made her feel as if she were dreaming while being immersed in it, not quite real.
Sylvia held up her small notepad for Shaya to see: “The moonlight is beautiful tonight.”
“Sylvia, you’re really getting better at playing along.”
Looking at the elegant handwriting, Shaya couldn’t help but smile.
He stood up and patted the girl’s head. “I’ve observed the celestial phenomena; tonight is a sign of great auspiciousness, suitable for travel.”
Sylvia was startled and wrote on Shaya’s palm with her cool fingers: “Are you leaving?”
“Yes, my spiritual intuition is quite good today.”
Shaya nodded.
For extraordinary beings above the Legend rank, spiritual intuition was a real thing.
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be existences like the Fate Serpent, or skills like divination and prophecy.
“I plan to enter now. Sylvia, please inform Little Ai for me later.”
“Although based on past experiences entering Historical Echoes, I usually return in a very short time in reality—”
“But this time I’m going to the First Era, which is too distant. No one can say for sure what the situation will be.”
“Mm.”
Seeing the white-haired maiden beside him nod, Shaya no longer hesitated.
His mind stirred.
In the next moment, everything around them.
Whether it was the howling night wind on the high wall or the flowing moonlight, all condensed into nothingness at this moment.
…
This time, entering the Historical Echo was a completely different experience.
With Shaya’s current rank and status, he was already capable of perceiving the flow of time, and even slightly sensing the currents of the river of history.
He felt the surrounding scenes shifting like flowing colors.
The middle of the Fourth Era, the briefly erupting Land of Calamity.
The end of the Third Era, the Golden King who established the Dawn Holy See in Florence and created the Holy Calendar.
Although the main body was hidden in the Astral Realm, it still spread its majesty across the land through its descendants and believers, the Second and Third Eras, when the angel families and divine kingdoms coexisted.
In an instant, it was as if myriad streams of brilliant starlight surged across the night sky.
Then they converged and collided.
Until all the starlight merged into the origin—
Everything returned to the true eternal night.
…
[You have stepped into the vortex of history]
[Due to the interference of your seventh Soul Pact, “Quicksilver Snake,” the original mission objective has been canceled]
[The Sands of Time reward will be distributed in real-time based on the fate line you alter in the First Era]
[Current time coordinate is—The First Era]
[This is the earliest history of humanity on the Western Continent, the origin of magic, wizards, and civilization]
[It is also the time when the Stars opened]
…
Unlike the clear mission objectives of the past.
This time, the text appearing in the illusory blue screen in Shaya’s mind was rather profound.
“Finally, they’re not forcing me to be the villain anymore?”
Shaya couldn’t help but grumble in his heart.
Of course, this time he had made up his mind that even if the system tried to tempt him into doing anything unconventional, Shaya would absolutely not do it again.
He didn’t want to repeat the blunder with Isadorella.
In any case, with Shaya’s ten years of accumulation in Eden, ordinary rewards no longer held much significance for him.
The reason he decided to continue exploring the First Era was to find a way to reunite with his Shī Jiang.
Besides that, Shaya had no intention of causing any more trouble.
His consciousness gradually awakened.
What met his eyes was a dome forged from black iron.
“Judging by the style, this should be the royal palace?”
“It’s a pity, this is probably the most rudimentary royal palace I’ve ever seen.”
Shaya slowly opened his eyes.
He was no longer the student who was so poor he barely had any Rhine gold coins in his pocket and had to live in the Saint Roland Academy dormitories to save rent.
The Empress’s husband, the lover of the White Tower master.
No matter how magnificent or grand the architecture, he had personally experienced it all.
And the scene before him gave him only one impression: simplicity.
There were no bright magic circles for illumination.
The entire black iron palace appeared dim, gloomy, and oppressive.
Only the faint candlelight in the four corners and some faintly glowing ore on the walls served as the only light sources in this dim palace.
Of course, the simplicity of the environment was secondary…
Shaya raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
If this were reality, with a snap of his fingers, a wisp of “Amaterasu” darkflame would rise before Shaya’s eyes.
However, at this very moment, nothing happened in the silent air.
“Unrestrained divine authority… has even directly rewritten the laws of the world.”
“Not only that, even the use of mental power is restricted.”
Shaya tried a few more times before nodding.
This was a situation he had anticipated, and it had now been confirmed.
Unlike the Fourth Era, where gods were hidden, even Saints and Angels were extremely rare, and only exerted influence on the mortal world through their followers.
According to the ancient texts Shaya had collected and the information provided by Snake Snake…
The First Era was an era when mythical creatures truly walked the earth.
Countless divinities and the authority of mythical creatures manifested on the Prime Material Plane, intertwining, influencing, and interfering with each other, even disrupting the original world laws.
Of course, as a true god who had personally experienced the First Era, the Quicksilver Snake should have had more information to provide.
However, when Shaya questioned him carefully, he discovered that the fellow seemed to have truly relied on being the darling of fate and chose to slack off.
He spent more than half of the era in deep sleep.
He still had a general understanding of the overall events, but when it came to the detailed information Shaya cared about, he knew absolutely nothing.
Shaya’s mind stirred as he tried the skills of his familiars one by one.
“Elemental skills are the most affected… it should be because the controllers of the corresponding elemental authorities walk the earth.”
“Spatial skills are next, likely because the existence of mythical creatures itself disrupts the stability of space.”
“I knew these mythical creatures were all bad news; they should all be executed.”
Shaya tapped the table rhythmically with his slender index finger.
“In other words, the skill effects of Silver and Crimson, Sparkle, are greatly restricted.”
“Of course, Crimson’s physical skills, like Slash, are not restricted, as this ability comes from the physical body’s accumulated training and experience, unrelated to elemental laws.”
“Yui is not significantly affected, as her本体 is a mechanical lifeform.”
“But the problem is, Yui’s本体 itself does not possess much combat power—while constructs like the Black Knight rely on magic arrays and Alchemy Matrices for power.”
“The operation of magic arrays is also somewhat affected, but it should be resolved once adjusted.”
“Fortunately, in terms of overall combat power, the impact on me is not too great.”
Shaya’s mind moved.
In the next moment, a silver-white gun formed in Shaya’s hand.
This was the benefit of his well-rounded development.
Ordinary Beast Tamers, especially those specialized in a certain aspect, such as cultivating only fire-elemental familiars.
Arriving in this First Era where elemental laws were out of control, they would likely be severely weakened, perhaps only able to exert Fourth Ring strength with their original Sixth Ring power.
But each of Shaya’s familiars had different focuses, emphasizing balanced development.
Even if one aspect was restricted, another could compensate.
After all, no matter how chaotic the elemental laws were, they couldn’t affect a Mechanist, could they?
…
After trying everything, Shaya was about to get up and walk out of the palace.
But then, his gaze involuntarily sharpened.
Hurried footsteps came from outside the palace.
The footsteps were heavy, accompanied by the clanking sound of armor.
“Your Highness the Prince.”
“Your Highness the Prince.”
Ancient languages came from outside the palace.
This was the ancient Alan language, widely spoken in the First Era, different from the common language that circulated in later generations.
Fortunately, Shaya had made thorough preparations to enter this Historical Echo of the First Era, having specifically studied and prepared for numerous ancient languages.
Even without relying on Yui’s big data translation function, Shaya could already use these languages fluently.
It seemed his luck was quite good this time.
His first Historical Echo identity was an orphan adopted by a ducal family, and his second was an orphan adopted by the Dawn Holy See.
This time, he had finally escaped the starting point orphanage and was directly a prince of a kingdom from the beginning.
Shaya’s thoughts raced, but he showed no outward reaction.
He calmly looked towards the outside of the palace, at the middle-aged knight in heavy armor who rushed in.
He did not detect any aura of mental power or magic from the knight.
However, corresponding to this was the physical strength contained beneath the knight’s armor.
According to the descriptions from his previous Historical Echo experiences, the First Era was before the birth of wizards and magical civilization.
Indeed, in different world laws and eras, there would be corresponding power systems.
Shaya looked at him and calmly asked, “Don’t rush, what happened?”
“Yes.”
The knight in heavy armor replied respectfully.
He knelt on one knee, his heavy armor clanking.
“His Majesty the King has passed away.”
Good heavens.
Not only did he become a prince from the start, but he also happened to be present when the King passed away.
What a fantastic start.
Shaya looked at the knight before him and suddenly felt much more favorably towards him.
So, you’re here to help me ascend the throne?
For two consecutive Historical Echoes, he had been working for others.
This time, could he finally overthrow the oppressors and sing his own song?
He heard the armored knight hesitate for a moment, then speak again.
“Also, according to the agreement with that Evil Dragon totem.”
“It’s time to offer the tribute again.”
Tribute?
Shaya frowned slightly.
He could indeed imagine that in the First Era, before the birth of wizards and magic, when true gods walked the earth.
Humanity’s status was bound to be less secure than in later eras.
After all, even in the Fourth Era—
In the Lost Domain outside of human civilization, there were still lost kingdoms where the Lost Beast Kings were revered, and humans held a secondary status.
However, when he personally heard of the existence of tribute, it still evoked a sense of disgust and rejection in Shaya.
However, before Shaya could speak.
In the next moment.
He heard the armored knight lower his voice and say:
“Moreover, this time the tribute demanded by that Evil Dragon totem—”
“Is Your Highness, the only prince of the kingdom.”
Shaya:?
He had heard many stories from various bards about evil dragons kidnapping princesses.
But how could there be a demand to kidnap a prince?
…
PS: The April monthly ticket lottery will close and the draw will be held at 24:00 tonight.
Brothers who want to participate can cast their monthly votes. There are many prizes.
