Chapter 607
I Am the Answer, What Is the Question?
In the early morning, sunlight streamed in. Isabel suddenly let out a gasp, as if startled awake, and slowly came to from a dream.
Her cheeks were flushed. She rubbed her face vigorously, trying to use her own palms to chase away the lingering warmth.
“Mmmph… ugh…”
She let out a soft whimper, like a small animal, murmuring something.
But soon, Isabel quieted down again.
She spread her arms and lay on the expansive bed, gazing blankly at the silvery-white ceiling of her bedchamber, adorned with red fabric and silver chandeliers, constructed from silver and tin.
Isabel unconsciously grasped at the air beside her.
She had prepared a pillow for Eivass long ago. Yet, Eivass had only slept here once to this day.
Sometimes, Isabel wished that when she woke up, the familiar person would be lying beside her. Not someone she could only meet in dreams.
But from another perspective… being able to reunite in dreams was at least better than failing to meet after parting.
At the very least, every night before she fell asleep now, she could look forward to being held by Eivass in another world.
“…But I still miss you.”
She turned slightly, gazing at the empty, unheated space beside her, and murmured softly, “I want to see you.”
Next, Eivass was preparing to perform a dangerous ritual.
To conserve energy and regulate his condition, Isabel wouldn’t be able to see him for at least several nights.
Isabel missed Eivass dearly, but she didn’t want to ask him to spare some time in the evenings to see her – even though she could control her desires and simply sleep more peacefully by just holding each other. Yet, she hadn’t even made such a request.
Because more than the loneliness of wanting to see him, she was more worried about Eivass’s safety.
A ritual that even Eivass considered “very dangerous” made Isabel feel uneasy just hearing about it. In her perception, Eivass was almost omnipotent – he had rescued her from such a desperate situation and tamed the chaotic Avalon like a hound. Even when facing true demons, he had only treated them with solemnity, never with fear or despair.
Yet, even such an Eivass believed that this operation would be extremely dangerous. He hadn’t even disclosed the specific details of the ritual to Isabel.
Isabel understood Eivass very well.
This was because Eivass believed that if Isabel knew the specific details of this ritual, she would worry about him. To prevent Isabel from experiencing that anxious feeling, akin to a loved one being rushed into surgery, all by herself, he had said nothing.
…But conversely, if Eivass said nothing, it meant he thought it would worry Isabel. Therefore, Isabel was even more worried.
However, there was nothing Isabel could do.
Setting aside what she could do – she wasn’t even by Eivass’s side.
“…I can only pray.”
Isabel said softly. She took a deep breath, tensed her waist, and sat up from the bed.
She clasped her fingers together respectfully and devoutly, kneeling thus in the blankets. As she lowered her head, her slightly disheveled light blonde hair cascaded down naturally.
“I implore the Silver Crown Dragon, the God of Sacred Number Seven. The God of Unquestionable Authority, the Crowned and Sword-Wielding God…
“Please, protect Eivass, as you protect your own kingdom…”
To alleviate her inner unease, Isabel repeatedly prayed softly for Eivass.
The sun was high in the sky by now. Isabel had finished dressing and was sitting upright in the Queen’s study, engrossed in reading a gift Eivass had sent her through the Church.
“Mask of Secrets Grimoire.”
Eivass had told Isabel that if she could master this grimoire, perhaps she could find a way to transcend the limits of space and appear in both Avalon and the Church simultaneously.
Although, to avoid pre-conceived notions that might affect her learning of the grimoire, Eivass hadn’t revealed its true power to Isabel. Still, Isabel had been diligently studying it every day for the past few days.
It wasn’t entirely for the sake of finding Eivass “offline” for fun… it was also to break free from the constraints of her title, ‘Queen’.
Beside Isabel lay another thin booklet titled “Hellish Transfiguration: Puppetry.” This served as a reference book for the “Mask of Secrets Grimoire,” or rather, a deciphering key.
As a grimoire of the Path of Beauty, reading the “Mask of Secrets Grimoire” naturally required innate talent and adaptability in the Path of Beauty. When Isabel flipped through it, the text didn’t form coherent words that could be read normally.
This book didn’t tell a story. It was a diary.
Isabel had always enjoyed keeping a diary, so she immediately immersed herself in it.
Moreover, the first owner of this diary seemed to be a Queen… She was known as the “Queen of All Kings.” She was not human, but a Snake Person. The diary contained cryptic words written in poetic and profound language.
However, overlaid on her sentences were other languages. The second owner of this diary called herself “Little Green,” an “archaeology university student from the Empire.” She seemed to be investigating Snake People history and found a replica of this diary. She then added numerous annotations to this diary and complained about her daily life.
And its third owner, named “John,” was a literature teacher at that university, who was also researching that period of Snake People history. He discovered Little Green’s diary but didn’t report her. Instead, he chatted with her within it. They expressed different views on the Snake People Queen’s diary, exchanged conversations, shared feelings, and confided secrets.
However, this Elven Language grimoire had mixed these three texts together.
Isabel initially thought the translator had made a mistake, as she couldn’t understand the book even after reading it for two days.
It wasn’t until she developed a headache from it that she picked up “Hellish Transfiguration: Puppetry” to flip through it this morning… After a while, a sudden inspiration struck her.
Isabel suddenly understood – it wasn’t that the translator had made a mistake; rather, they had done an excellent job.
The initial version of this grimoire must have had words from three different scripts mixed within the same book, and the translator had unified them into the same font.
She looked at the thin picture book, searching for each object. Then, using that individual object, she found the corresponding word in the original text and read backward from that word. As a result, it transformed into completely different sentences with entirely different meanings.
Each sentence was a question, each line a riddle.
Although she couldn’t fully comprehend the meaning of these riddles, Isabel felt an enthralling, mysterious appeal.
As Isabel became engrossed, she suddenly understood the cryptic words of the “Queen of All Kings.”
Those incomprehensible words were precisely the answers to the riddles posed by the “reference book.”
“The riddle’s face, which initially formed the riddle, was precisely the answer to the riddle itself!”
Isabel realized with sudden enlightenment.
The moment Isabel fully understood the mystery of this book, she suddenly felt a distortion.
As if breaking free from an illusion – the surrounding world shattered like a broken glass window.
Her consciousness was pulled into the grimoire.
Inside, she saw the alluring Snake People Queen, the innocent and romantic university student Little Green, the serious yet gentle teacher John, and many more people…
They gathered around this storybook about the “Snake People Queen,” and countless stories unfolded.
Then they became the stories, followed by new stories unfolding around this storybook, repeating in a cycle.
Finally, the scene shifted—
—From the very beginning, there was no one!
They were merely masks with various expressions, dancing together on a stage. As their dance contracted inward, it transformed into the content of another book, with more masks appearing on the outside; then the scene contracted again…
Within this cycle of books nested within books, all the masks were connected by transparent threads, their ends extending into the infinite darkness above.
“I ask you, my successor.
“If I am the answer.”
A layered voice echoed in Isabel’s ears: “Then, what is the question?”
(End of Chapter)
