Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“What’s so strange about it?” Valkries said coldly, “Do you think anyone can just casually stroll into the Realm of the Mind? Or… are you actually just proud of yourself for capturing a grand lord?”
Clearly, she hadn’t abandoned her pride even if she was in a sticky situation. Roland even had a feeling that if he pushed her too much she would directly lunge at the witches and into her death.
But her title really did surprise him—he had only asked for her title out of procedure; after all, most high-ranking demons had their unique title, and a demon who could conduct a upgrading ceremony couldn’t be just some no-name entity. He just didn’t expect this demon’s identity to be far more complex than he had imagined.
Roland originally thought that Valkries was a consciousness that coincidentally escaped from the memory fragment, but now another possibility had risen to the surface—she could have come from the real world!
The name, “Nightmare Lord,” first appeared in Ursrook’s documents, and it was followed by a greeting, proving that the “Nightmare Lord” was not a historical figure, and was still active in the higher-ranks of demons. Additionally, Roland had repeatedly watched the memory fragment numerous times, he hadn’t heard any referral of her as a grand lord. If the demon language he learned from Kabradhabi was correct, this meant that the figure presiding over the rest at the time wasn’t a grand lord yet.
Combining Vakries’ statement that she “voluntarily entered the Realm of Mind” and the Pearl of the Northern Region’s analysis of the situation at the frontline, Roland was becoming increasingly certain that his latter theory was right!
In other words, the Valkries sitting in front of him had waded through at least eight hundred years of history. Her strength and knowledge had to be extremely rare among the demon race. If one counted her aberrant reaction to Lan, things went back even further. This type of discussion far exceeded the spirit that was copied from a memory fragment; even if they had not exchanged words at all, it was still equal to ruling out a grand lord ranked demon from the front line. Just this point alone had huge significance!
“I need to correct your words. First, I haven’t captured you—at least at the moment, you are free.” Roland pretended to be calm as he spoke. “Second, intruding the Dream World is your subjective behavior, I don’t think I have done anything wrong.”
“…” Valkries was speechless for a moment. Only after a long time did she stiffly release a sigh. “You call this place the Dream World?”
Pride made her find any humiliation intolerable, but at the same time, made her unable to make any illogical protest—her speechlessness from before confirmed the Nightmare Lord’s origin; she indeed came here voluntarily through the Realm of Mind.
“That’s because I find myself in here every time I fall asleep. So in a certain sense, it is no different from dreaming.”
“Absurdity!” Valkries growled. Opening up a territory in the Realm of Mind not only required talent, but it needed a high focus of spiritual energy and a will of steel in order not to lose oneself in the sea of magic power. In the end this magically-disabled male could do this just by taking a nap? That’s too unfair!
“Hello, this is your order, please enjoy.” At this moment, the waiter served their meals. The table was filled with various types of deserts and drinks, all of which looked mouth-watering.
“This is the truth.” After the waiter left, Rolant spread out his hands and said, “Just as I said before, honesty benefits the both of us. I would not go as far as to lie to you about something like this. Moreover, what I just said wasn’t the important point, the important point is the truth about the Battle of Divine Will… and the future of all races. He picked up his chopsticks and made a gesture for her to help herself. “We can talk about this while we eat.”
Valkries confirmed another point. This male was different to all the humans she had met before. Who talks about matters regarding the future of their entire race while eating? If it was another normal person, they would have most likely be extremely grave, as if they were facing a formidable enemy. But he didn’t seem like he was intentionally messing with her, as if to him, his behavior was completely normal.
She raised that cup of murky Peninsula coffee and took a sip.
In an instant, thick aromatic liquid slid down her throat.
It was actually… not bad.
For some reason, she suddenly had a feeling that she had just lost.
No, she must take control of the flow! Valkries forced herself to set down her cup and said in a low voice, “Where did you hear that the Battle of Divine Will was not the Final Battle?”
Roland dug out Lan’s photo from his wallet and put it on the table. “You’ve seen her before, right?”
As the picture of Lan which appeared in the video data left behind by the Reflection Church was likely one that happened before the establishment of the Union in terms of age, he intentionally got Ling to make herself look like Lan with makeup and see if the demon from the memory fragment made any reaction. Even though reality was a little different to what they expected, Valkries’ shock at the time proved that she had indeed seen Lan.
After a while the Nightmare Lord nodded. “Who exactly is she?”
“A traitorous Oracle.” Roland slowly described the secret discussion in the Rose Café to her.
After hearing those unbelievable words, even Valkries couldn’t help but widen her eyes and stutter, “Could it be that… the Oracle that my mentor mentioned was her?”
“Mentor?”
“‘Transformer’ Heathtalese, she taught me many things…” After hesitating for a few moments, Valkries revealed Cloud School’s past. “Her failure to upgrade caused the unstable School to lose their last measure of protection.”
“So it was… due to this…” Realization dawned on Roland. The intel of the two races was combined into one for the first time in history. He finally pieced everything together with the missing puzzle piece in his mind to reveal the full picture.
“Your Majesty, did you think of something?” Phyllis asked.
“Do you remember the portrait hanging on the wall at the meeting where the vow of the three queens took place in the Union?” Roland took a deep breath, ” I’m afraid the person in the portrait was the high-level demon called Heathtalese.”
“What did… you say?”
“The Union would enshrine the portrait of that demon?”
“How… could this be possible?” The Taquila witches all revealed expressions of disbelief.
“If we thought about it according to the influence the Cloud School had in the first Battle of Divine Will, something like this happening isn’t actually very strange. Since the demon in the school can become a grand lord, then it would have been normal for witches or normal people from the higher-ups to come from the school. I’m guessing that before Heathtalese died, she always had suspicions about the Battle of Divine Will, right?”
In certain people’s eyes, such behavior was equivalent to standing on the humans’ side.
“…I cannot deny that.” Valkries closed her eyes, “She and the current king have had conflict, but the tides of war isn’t something that one or two people can resist.”
“It is the same for humans,” Roland said calmly. “The disbanded Cloud School is at most a cherished memory to people now, and when the outbreak of the second Battle of Divine Will comes, even this memory will cease to exist. That period of their history is not recorded in any scripts. It is highly likely that that the Three Chiefs destroyed all records—a past where they coexisted with demons would make people hopeful, especially when the situation is bad, it would only eat away at humans’ determination to resist, so the Cloud School must be forgotten as an undesired blemish!”
