Chapter 579: The Affair
Early the next morning, when the sky was still dim, Fisher got up from the warm embrace beside him. Looking at the foggy weather outside, he pondered for a moment before silently picking up the clothes he had thrown aside and putting them on one by one.
Rafael was sleeping lightly beside him, but since she returned early the previous day, even considering the time, her sleep was much longer than during her working hours.
This also meant that the preparations on the front lines of the Dragon Court were basically complete, just waiting for her to mount her horse and head to the battlefield.
At this moment, sensing Fisher changing his clothes silently, Rafael gently extended a paw from the bedding, quietly grabbing the clothes he had just changed into, pulling them into irregular wrinkles.
When Fisher turned to look, he saw her already opened aquamarine eyes.
She didn’t say anything, just maintained that action, but Fisher felt the thoughts she was harboring: she didn’t want him to leave.
It seemed that after last night, this red dragon race who had grown into the queen of the Dragon Court over the years was still filled with attachment towards him. As Fisher’s heart softened with reluctance, his determination to protect her became even firmer.
“I’ll be back soon.”
“…”
He also reached out to hold Rafael’s warm palm lightly, saying softly, but she remained silent, burying half her head into the soft pillow, rubbing the fabric with her cheek, intertwining her rose-colored long hair against it.
Fisher smiled slightly, reached out to touch the smooth scales on her bare back, and then spoke softly again,
“I’m setting off.”
“…Let Jasmine go with you; she’s already waiting for you.”
This time, Rafael finally spoke up with a hint of sleepiness, but her words surprised Fisher.
“You met her yesterday; I thought you’d wait until today to talk to her in person.”
“You know I don’t procrastinate; if I said I would see her in the morning, then I will go to see her.”
Fisher gave a bitter smile and didn’t dare to ask about their meeting, but judging by the current state, even though this conflict hadn’t been resolved temporarily, it hadn’t escalated to the point of another argument.
One could only wonder if they should be grateful that those two demons had provided Fisher with sufficient external pressure, allowing the internal conflict to be partially diverted.
But since Rafael had mentioned this, Fisher had no reason not to bring Jasmine along. From the perspective of assistance alone, he was even preparing to take along the Death Lord, who hadn’t read the Death Completion Manual much and was uncertain whether he even had a Fifth Rank. With someone like Jasmine, who possessed a full Fourteenth Rank, in terms of assistance, she would obviously be more useful than the Death Lord.
When Fisher got up again, Rafael’s paw, which had gently clutched his clothes, finally released, allowing him to stand smoothly.
Turning around, she still showed no signs of getting up, simply watching Fischer silently, seeing him off.
Unable to hold back any longer, Fischer turned back and kissed her lips, deeply imprinting her taste in memory as a keepsake of their temporary parting.
Hmm, afterward, she still fiercely sucked a mouthful at the corner of Fischer’s lips, trying to leave a noticeable mark, yet it was still in vain, causing her to puff her cheeks ever so slightly.
The mysterious kiss mark from yesterday had already faded during last night’s rest, and in reality, if it hadn’t suddenly appeared in front of Rafael, Fischer could have easily used the power of the Life Completion Manual to make it disappear instantly.
But since she had discovered it, Fischer didn’t want to scare her with that chaotic power; after all, using it would make his entire body squirm. He could only wait an entire night to gradually eliminate it, making the process feel more natural.
After receiving Rafael’s farewell kiss, Fischer left the room alone, preparing to set off for the entrance of the Demon Dynasty, recorded in the scroll, “Competitive Gate.”
First, he returned Emhart, who was lying in another room waiting for him. Having been chased out by Rafael multiple times, Emhart had gradually gotten used to it, even feeling too lazy to complain when returning.
Emhart was also a bit intimidated by Rafael’s mother dragon state, and whenever Fischer tried to coax the dragon race queen, he would inevitably enter “youth mode.” Even having him stay beside her would be quite uncomfortable, so he simply went outside to find a quiet place.
As Rafael said, Jasmine had already been waiting in the Dragon Court for quite a while.
When Fischer took Emhart in his arms to find her, she had already prepared a large amount of things in her room the previous night.
Just as Fischer was worried that carrying so many things would be troublesome, she slightly adjusted the golden crown on her head and stored everything inside, leaving both Fischer and Emhart amazed.
“What’s this?”
Jasmine shyly touched the golden crown on her head and said to Fischer,
“This is a relic made by my mother; it has the function of storing items.”
He had forgotten; even Muxi could create holy objects, so how could her half-god mother not be able to?
Moreover, Fischer had learned about the conditions for creating sacred objects in the Holy Realm, which required a powerful energy source and a suitable medium. From any perspective, the underwater realm was an incredibly suitable forging point.
Not only were there various active volcanoes underwater, but there was also an abundance of water energy as a medium. Perhaps this was why, after the Holy Realm’s demise, whale folk like Muxi and Xu continued to produce relics under such natural conditions.
With Jasmine, who was ready to set off at any time, Fischer took out the whistle that the Death Lord had given him earlier.
As he stepped out of the Blessing Tower, he gently raised the whistle to his mouth and began to blow, producing an extremely strange and unpleasant sound.
Upon hearing that sound, Emhart, nestled in his arms, flew out uncomfortably to avoid it, but unfortunately, he had no hands and couldn’t cover his ears like the nearby Jasmine.
“Wooh~ wooh~ wooh~”
As the harsh whistle sound resonated from Fischer’s fingers, a familiar feeling quickly surrounded him.
That aura of…
Death?
“Tweet tweet~ coo coo~”
At that moment, a somewhat unpleasant bird call came from an unknown direction in the Dragon Court.
Fischer’s ears twitched slightly, and he looked up at the sky, just in time to see a swaying gray Southern Continent sparrow flying towards him. However, keen-eyed Fischer quickly noticed the strange aspect of the sparrow.
The sparrow in the sky had a deflated body, its once round belly completely caved in. From the outside, it was clear that it had a large hole in it, exposing its withered organs.
The sparrow’s feathers were disheveled, and its head had become deformed due to some external factor, yet it stubbornly continued to fly.
As if manipulated by some magical force, it displayed an eerie persistence, gazing down at Fischer and Jasmine’s group with pale, lifeless yet flickering eyes.
“Coo coo.”
“Holland?”
“…”
The corpse-like sparrow wobbled onto the eaves of a nearby building, tilting its head to look down at Fischer. After a moment of silence, a garbled voice mimicking Cardu language erupted from its empty abdomen,
“I have arrived at the gate waiting for you. Come over.”
“Here. It’s not right; hurry up.”
As the sparrow struggled to articulate its words, spitting out several small, white maggots along with its message, it then drooped its little head and fell from the eaves, lying motionless.
At this moment, crossing the northern tip of the Southern Branch Mountain was the previous frontline of the Red Dragon Court and the pseudo-court’s conflict, the area where Fischer had seen the scars of war left behind.
Further north from this battlefield, dozens of kilometers away, army tents had already been set up densely, with soldiers back and forth carrying fortifications and transporting logistical supplies—this was the camp of the Human Allied Forces.
“General Barbatos, all the fortifications have been completed and are ready for orders.”
Inside the main tent, a messenger, responsible for transmitting orders, carefully entered while bowing, informing the tall man sitting at the end of the tent about the preparations outside.
Although it was the main tent of an army, its layout was remarkably simple, lacking chess boards, maps, or strategists discussing plans.
Among Nali’s other forces, such main tent arrangements might seem a little odd, but the soldiers of this Human Allied Forces had long since grown accustomed to it.
Rather, this was the secret to General Barbatos’s undefeated record; he was simply too powerful, with never a misstep in his decisions—this made his subordinates accustomed to obeying his commands rather than questioning him.
Upon hearing the messenger’s words, both individuals in the tent appeared disinterested; apart from General Barbatos, there was also Chief of Staff Ag.
Barbatos made no reply, but the petite girl in white military attire wearing glasses waved her hand at him, saying,
“I see, you can go out now.”
“Yes!”
After the messenger left the tent, restoring quiet to them, Barbatos glanced at Ag beside him and spoke,
“Baemon said that the fellow hasn’t fully sunk into chaos yet, so the time isn’t right to seize the blessing of Fei from that dragon race. Let’s apply some pressure; it would be best if that dragon suffered an injury so that he would hurry up.”
Ag remained silent, looking at the tent entrance as her fingers glided over her chin, a hint of inscrutable meaning flashing in her eyes behind her glasses.
After thinking for a long time, she finally murmured,
“Barbatos, do you think… Baemon can be trusted?”
Barbatos looked at her expressionlessly, questioning,
“What do you mean?”
“Our whole clan has been imprisoned under that pseudo-god’s judgment for over a thousand years, and she has been free outside all this time.”
“Isn’t she already one of us…”
“I know she has been honest with us; she has mentioned her relationship with those angels, and Bal and the others are also not unaware of Baemon’s true origins, but that’s not what I’m saying.”
A hint of crimson bloodlight flickered beneath Ag’s glasses as she looked at Barbatos,
“I mean, does someone like her really care about us, those who have been locked away for over a thousand years?”
“…She may be using us to accomplish some goal.”
Ag nodded, her expression not looking good,
“Releasing us is just her giving us a taste of sweetness; I even suspect that the method she gave me to free Eil was to pave the way for the current situation. Our freedom is merely a bait she offered, meant to use us as pawns to fulfill her unknown secrets.”
“…”
Barbatos frowned, his handsome face tightened. A faint breeze shimmered in his hand, accompanied by the sound of tortured wails, as if he was querying a certain piece of information.
After remaining silent for a while, he finally said,
“What could her purpose be?”
“Ha, how would I know? After all, that fellow is the ‘Queen,’ containing secrets beyond our imagination. Besides, she has seen to it that we certainly won’t abandon the other imprisoned compatriots; your partner, my friend is still trapped within.”
Barbatos closed his eyes, exhaling deeply, and said softly,
“Yes, he’s still in there.”
“But, even as clever as she is, she has still revealed a slight flaw.”
Barbatos opened his eyes, seemingly intrigued by what she had said,
“Flaw?”
“If you think about what she wants us to accomplish, assuming her true purpose is not genuinely to help us and our compatriots escape, then her goal must be closely related to what she intends to use us for.”
Barbatos was too lazy to ponder, propping his cheek and waiting for Ag to figure out the answer.
After several seconds, Ag’s eyes suddenly lit up, seemingly struck by a flash of inspiration, and she murmured,
“That human empress’s husband.”
“Husband? The one who has entangled with that dragon race?”
“Hmm.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Ag let out a cold snicker, but the clues she had found in her mind seemed to multiply, causing her lips to curl up higher,
“I can’t be certain, but don’t you think that a person like Baemon would have such an understanding of a human?”
She counted off on her fingers, the sound of cracking like parts echoed, before continuing,
“If it were some mysterious knowledge, it would be normal for her to understand it, but if it’s about a person? She seems quite certain that that man would plunge into chaotic knowledge to protect that dragon race. Such certainty regarding a person’s character popping up in Baemon doesn’t seem strange to you?”
Barbatos narrowed his eyes, quietly murmuring,
“Fisher Benavides, what is his relationship with Baemon?”
“Regardless of the relationship, even if we assume the worst malice to slander her by saying that man is her lover, it could also be that that man possesses something Baemon desires. What if we could obtain him first?”
“…”
Ag then broke off one of her fingers, throwing it to the ground, watching as it wriggled like a living worm and burrowed into the ground, disappearing into unknown places.
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