VIP Chapter 431: “The One Gazed Upon by the Goddess”
“Hey— you… you went too far! Why did you push Will out—!”
Iaar directly raised her shield and charged towards Al, ready to smash it down on her head.
“Oh, that’s right. Why would I push out the person who holds the most information about me and specifically brought me here?”
She waved her hand.
Will, standing in his original spot, seemed to have oil under his feet as he was instantly pulled towards her palm. He was then obediently held by his collar by her small hand.
On the other side, Iaar’s shield paused as if it had hit a protective barrier.
“Let me see… yes, you are the one who reminded me of so many things, so I should thank you a little~”
Ya’er said very casually.
Her way of speaking was slightly different from Al’s before. For example, she still used “吾” (wú), a somewhat archaic self-referential pronoun, but when speaking to others, she seemed less “noble.”
This address, which came from Al’s mouth to emphasize her high and mighty “Dragonkin” status, had now become a special self-appellation purely representing the seniority of the person before her.
“This place… hmm, let me see… wait, could it be… could this be The Witch’s Corridor?!”
Ya’er’s red eyes lit up.
Her eyes were still the same as before, more like “Dragonkin” eyes. She retained Dragonkin characteristics, especially her tail and the horns on her head.
As she spoke this, her dragon tail also swept across the ground.
“Uh… yes, it is. As expected, you recognized this place with just a glance.”
Will adjusted his clothes.
“Liya, your ancestor… seems a bit moody?”
“Liya doesn’t know.” Liya, asked this, spread her hands. “It’s my first time too… to truly see what the Ya’er from our legends is like.”
“Angry! Angry! Angry! How dare that tattered little fire dragon treat Will like that!”
Iaar, who also “had organs on her head that could be touched” and “a tail that changed with her mood,” was angry due to a sense of her ecological niche being threatened.
“Alright, alright, don’t worry. I think her horns probably feel terrible to touch; you should touch your ears instead…”
Will seized the opportunity to reach out and nuzzle Iaar’s fluffy ears again.
“O-Okay.”
“Speaking of which, little wolf who figured out Ice Array (Attack), are you interested in becoming my disciple?”
She very clearly stated Iaar’s “biological classification.”
“No!”
Iaar refused resolutely.
“Hmph… originally, I thought if you became my disciple, I could give you some special items to help deepen your relationship with the person next to you. Since that’s the case, forget it.”
“Eh… wh-what… items?”
Iaar tilted her head. For her, this topic seemed a bit too early.
“Please, do elaborate on the items.”
Will’s eyes showed extreme interest. After all, she was the boss of the witches. One could imagine that anything she gave would be extraordinary.
After speaking, Al sighed and began to scan the row upon row of photographs hanging in the corridor.
She seemed to be looking for something, or perhaps contemplating her position.
“Um, forgive my directness… Senior Al…”
“For now, call me Ya’er. Al can be considered the name of that dragon.”
Her posture was more like that of a mature woman—perhaps she felt her floor-length, grey-white robe wasn’t feminine enough, so she specifically rolled it up, revealing her calves.
“I’m your descendant! I’m a Witch—a Witch! If you’re going to give something, give it to me first—! Give it to me! Okay?”
“Huh? Who are you? How can witches have descendants?”
“?”
“?”
Liya’s crimson eyes, which she had always proudly called her “demon eyes,” met Ya’er’s beautiful red dragonkin eyes.
Ya’er’s eyes held no pretense, truly clear and honest.
And…
Liya’s eyes were filled only with “doubt.”
“Never mind that. Walk about two hundred meters forward, and there should be a portrait I left behind in my lifetime. You can take a good look.”
“What about me, what about me? Look, Auntie Ya’er, I didn’t specifically bring you here and restore your memories for nothing. Aren’t you considering giving me a reward?”
Will shamelessly leaned in.
For some reason, he felt that this “Ya’er” possessed the typical characteristic of all witches: sharp-tongued on the surface, but actually very easy to talk to.
Especially when your interests aligned with hers, she became even more amenable.
“Oh, I’ve already thought about it. Don’t you want information the most? I’ll tell you everything I know, you can ask whatever you want.”
“Just that? That’s not fair, Senior Ya’er.”
“You’re a bit greedy. Information is the most valuable thing.”
Ya’er suddenly stopped, turned around, and her eyes rolled to the side. Her strange dragon eyes with slitted pupils fixed on him.
Reflected in those eyes was Will’s image.
The accommodating smile on his face receded, and he waved his hand.
“You’re slick. You know best, the only valuable things I possess, besides my life, are the things in my head.”
“Yes, yes, yes. So, this is… Ya’er’s portrait?”
Will stopped and raised his head.
Ya’er’s portrait should have been here. After all, she was one of the personalities absorbed by the Dungeon system for “monsters.”
But…
Before this, he had never been brought by Lis to see Ya’er’s portrait, nor had he ever tried to find her portrait among the vast number of them.
He raised his head…
To his shock, on the portrait…
“Yes. It’s Ya’er’s… or rather, my portrait. Since the time I discovered this place, I’ve been telling myself that my portrait must be placed here because this is the midpoint of the entire corridor, and it’s very beautiful.”
—It was an elderly woman smiling kindly.
Her face was deeply lined, and with her thinness, her sagging skin couldn’t support itself. Yet, even so, she displayed a smile that made the crow’s feet at the corners of her eyes bloom.
Furthermore, beneath this portrait, the name written was…
Mary Smith.
Even a name that, if you threw a stone into a crowd, at least ten people would share.
“How… how is this possible…”
Liya stopped before the portrait, saying incredulously.
“Witch Ya’er, how… how could she be an ordinary old lady with such a common name, and who… who actually ages!”
“Hmm? Do you have an opinion about my ‘past life’ outside the Dungeon?”
Ya’er asked, somewhat jokingly, in a “parental” tone.
“And, if I recall correctly, the portrait… depicts the time of death for these figures in the Dungeon. This means… Senior Ya’er, you are not an ‘immortal’ Witch. Even…”
“That’s right. The martyred Witch Ya’er was, from beginning to end, just an ordinary ‘human,’ not a Witch like you. However…”
Ya’er took two steps forward and stood on her tiptoes.
Then…
Something that no one had ever done happened in her hands.
She reached out and lifted the hem of the old woman’s clothes in the painting. As if she could directly touch the image, she pulled up her sleeve, revealing half of her arm.
At this point, Will realized how far apart his and Ya’er’s information was. None of them knew that one could directly manipulate things in a portrait to obtain “more information” from within.
Thereby, what could be seen…
Was her arm, wrinkled with aging skin, but so clearly visible despite the wrinkles…
A double helix, like a Mobius strip, but hollow in the center, filled with intricate patterns and incomprehensible ancient text.
This was the symbol of Goddess Reviers, found on a God-Attuned.
“For now, you could say, you are one of the more ‘fortunate’ ones, the one gazed upon by the Goddess.”
