Cheng Shi led the group to where Da Yi had originally found the historian. His timing was perfect — the emaciated old man lay rigid on the ground, nearly frozen to death.
Old Gallon desperately needed healing, but no priest was present. Under an Envoy's watchful eye, however, anyone could beco a "priest."
Qu Yan especially. A task this trivial couldn't possibly require Lord Yu Xi's personal attention. The mont he saw Gallon's vitality fading, he produced a healing potion from his storage space and poured it down the old man's throat.
The potion worked fast. Before long, Old Gallon regained consciousness. He took one look at the strangers before him and opened his mouth to rebuke them — then spotted, behind the group, the First Prince who'd been cast out of the court long ago.
This prince — who'd sworn to conscript every soldier in the city and fight the World Destroyers to the death — was currently trussed up like a dumpling, misery written across his face as he t Old Gallon's eyes.
Gallon looked at the prince. Looked at the strangers. And felt his world crumbling.
He'd mistaken Cheng Shi's group for World Destroyers again.
This ti, Cheng Shi didn't bother correcting him. With absolute control over the situation, identity hardly mattered. If Gallon wanted to see them as World Destroyers, then World Destroyers they'd be.
In truth, the scene told itself to anyone with eyes. The First Prince was clearly a kidnapping victim. These three "World Destroyers" had found their way here and had obviously extracted everything from the prince's mouth already. In Gallon's mind, they were surely hunting down the Rosna royals and nobility — though what role the famously stubborn First Prince was playing in this "hunt" remained unclear.
He didn't believe a man like the First Prince would bow to an enemy. But the evidence before him bred fear. So Gallon's lips trembled as he quavered:
"Your Highness... how did you..."
Hearing this, Cheng Shi scoffed and turned to the First Prince and his family.
The prince's expression crumbled — a terror-struck face turned away. Beyond the embarrassnt of his heroic image being shattered in real-ti, what dominated his features was... guilt toward the historian before him.
Cheng Shi couldn't directly sense emotions, but he read the undercurrents within that twisted expression. When he connected it to everything he'd previously learned, a bold guess leapt into his mind.
'Had the First Prince lost the dagger... on purpose!?'
Cheng Shi nearly laughed. He fixed the pair with an amused look and smiled:
"What's this — two people who see each other daily, suddenly acting like strangers?
"Nothing to be ashad of?
"A prince who'd do anything to sever ties with the entire royal family for self-preservation. And a historian who was exploited by the entire royal house without even realizing it.
"I went through considerable effort to arrange this reunion. Not so you two could perform a silent drama for .
"Talk. Where did that dagger go?"
The First Prince trembled violently but didn't speak. Old Gallon's eyes swam with confusion as he mumbled: "Dagger? What dagger?"
Cheng Shi scoffed: "Allow
to jog your mory. Your child was playing with the First Prince's child when they accidentally stumbled into a sealed room and discovered a dagger the prince had once used. Yes — that dagger. Ring any bells?"
Old Gallon rembered. But he imdiately shook his head hard:
"It was taken! That dagger must have been taken! When His Highness was expelled from the court, he wasn't allowed to keep a single possession. And when His Majesty fled, the palace guards swept up every last piece of wealth. If the dagger was in the prince's quarters, it's long gone—"
"Oh? Is that so?
"Even now, after everything, this prince's image in your heart remains so righteous and unblemished.
"But I'm curious: how exactly did two children, roughhousing, happen to wander into a sealed room containing a 'relic of faith' that the First Prince himself feared and avoided at all costs?
"Hmm, you probably don't know those details, Gallon. So let's have the prince answer instead.
"Your Highness — a dagger you regarded as a divine gift of [Decay], sothing you feared. Why would you store it in such an insecure 'sealed room'?"
Cheng Shi smiled. He even stressed the words "sealed room" with pointed emphasis.
"..."
"..."
The First Prince fell silent. And as his silence stretched, Old Gallon seed to guess sothing. His eyes widened further and further.
Both players observed the NPCs with fascination — marveling at their lord's omniscience on one hand, and greedily speculating about the story of this place on the other.
Old Gallon's expression shifted to utter disbelief. Whether it was the phrase "divine gift of [Decay]" that frightened him, or the sudden connection of many small details — he raised a trembling finger at the prince. He didn't even call him "Your Highness" anymore. Eyes burning with grief and fury, he spat:
"You... you... what did you do to Ai Lian?"
Cheng Shi snorted and turned to the prince: "Answer. The historian is asking you a question."
The First Prince, seeing no escape, clenched both fists, stepped sideways to shield his wife and child, raised his head — expression equal parts anguished and wretched — and burst out:
"I didn't want to do this! But I had to protect my wife, my child! I was forced! I had no choice!
"That dagger — it kept threatening , demanding I feed it massive quantities of blood and vitality. I'm not the emperor! I'm just a prince! I didn't have enough to offer! To satisfy its demands, my family was on the brink of collapse!
"And the divine punishnts it described — they were too horrifying! I couldn't withstand a god's wrath! I just wanted to be rid of it!
"But its voice echoed in my ears night after night, robbing
of sleep. So I had no choice but to find a way to pass it on!
"Gallon, I didn't want to hurt Ai Lian. I tried other ways, many tis. But she was the only one — the only one who showed interest in that antique dagger. Under your influence, Ai Lian loved studying old things.
"Gallon, you must believe
— I wasn't targeting her specifically. I just couldn't hand the dagger to an adult. Only a child! Only a child's innocence would be dismissed. Even if soone saw or heard, they'd chalk it up to Ai Lian's wild imagination.
"Gallon, I didn't—
"Gallon, what are you doing! Gallon, how dare you— AHHH! My lord, save !! My lord, I struck the spark! My lord, save !!"
"AHHH!!"
A blood-curdling scream tore through the tomb-silent court. The twisted shriek overpowered even the howling blizzard, sending shivers through everyone present.
Accompanying the scream was a rhythmic, steady pounding — the sound of stone eting bone.
Gallon had snapped. He'd snatched a cobblestone from the ground, eyes crimson, and thrown himself onto the First Prince. Blow after blow he hamred the prince into the earth, until flesh, sinew, and bone lded with the snow beneath — forming a murky, crimson stream. Only then did Old Gallon stop, gasping for air, body convulsing as he collapsed sideways. He seed to have spent every last ounce of strength in his life.
He was lost. Helpless.
This historian of Rosna hadn't understood what the dagger was for. He'd only understood that the First Prince had sched against his child to escape disaster — and that was enough to drive him mad.
anwhile, the First Prince's family — his wife and child, who'd watched him be beaten to death — appeared calr than Gallon himself.
The princess, face white as parchnt, clutched her child against her body. Fighting through terror, she begged the "lords" for rcy. "Innocent! I didn't know anything!" she kept repeating. But she never once looked at Gallon.
Perhaps she understood that whether she and her child survived had nothing to do with this historian who'd killed her husband — and everything to do with the three standing figures.
Cheng Shi watched it all in silence. He rely glanced at Qu Yan beside him. Qu Yan understood imdiately, producing another potion to revive the near-dead Gallon.
Gallon jolted awake from his frenzy, dropped to his knees, and wailed at Cheng Shi: "My lord, save my child! My lord, save my child!"
And in that mont, Cheng Shi suddenly realized: Old Gallon hadn't been chosen as the "lucky survivor" simply because he knew about the ancient Teleportation Array from history. The larger reason was almost certainly that his child was being held hostage by the Rosna emperor.
But who could have guessed that this emperor had used such ans to reclaim the very calamity his own prince had desperately tried to shed...
So round and round it went — and it all circled back to the Teleportation Array the Rosna royals had used to flee.
aning that even if the players had never uncovered this absurd truth, as long as they'd bulldozed straight ahead following the Teleportation Array, they'd have eventually found clues.
'Heh. Fate... truly was sothing magical.'
Cheng Shi smiled and helped Old Gallon to his feet.
"The one who can save your child isn't . It's you.
"How badly damaged is the Teleportation Array you sabotaged? Whether it can be repaired — that's not for
to decide."
Old Gallon froze. But quickly, his eyes hardened with resolve, and he nodded firmly.
"I can restore it, my lord! I will restore it!"
Outwardly, Cheng Shi said "I believe you." But the mont he turned away, he "summoned" the First Prince back up. Addressing the green-glowing corpse, he repeated the sa questions. Only after receiving identical answers did his smile grow truly radiant.
"Let's go. Pick up the pace."
Then he turned to the prince's widow with a grin:
"Thank [Fate] for His rcy. Though the one who saved you was [Ti]."
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