About three minutes later, the door was pushed open again, and Ivina, who had not been seen for a long ti, walked in with a man missing an arm.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker!" Ivina bowed slightly, her gesture full of respect.
Compared to the restraint and unease of their last eting, the young woman seed much more at ease now, and most importantly, her eyes no longer held the previous look of confusion.
The man with the missing arm also bowed his head in fear and respect. He initially wanted to kneel, as sitting in front of him was the Speaker who governed the entire Magic Kingdom, a position roughly equivalent to His Majesty or the Holy Pope himself. However, seeing that Ivina did not do so, he just stood there stiffly, unsure of what to do next.
"Good afternoon, Ivina!" Lynn said with a smile. "It seems you've figured it out."
"You're right, Mr. Speaker, the lies of the Church, no matter how perfectly woven, will eventually be torn apart..." Ivina's face was dusty, but her voice was clear.
During her ti in the kingdom, she had not been treated particularly well, but rather had been undergoing reformation with the captured clergy of the Church and the legions of the Empire—repairing roads in the city under supervision during the day and constructing houses for the poor, and catching up on basic knowledge at night to break away from feudal superstitions.
Although many of the nobles brought here constantly complained and cursed the Council in secret, Ivina did not consider this treatnt cruel.
Despite being tired, they had enough food to eat, and so of the Empire's soldiers even felt that being prisoners was much better than serving a lord.
Most crucially, after the wizards had defeated the Empire and the Church, they did not conduct the massacres or offer sacrifices to evil gods as the bishops had propagated.
On the contrary, from what she could see, the city was being renovated, and the territories were developing. Everything she could see was improving.
If this was what the apocalypse looked like, then everyone would probably be looking forward to its arrival.
Listening to Ivina's narrative, Lynn smiled. Although the developnt of the Magic Kingdom still had many flaws, any discerning person could see that the new kingdom was more vibrant than Eira's Divine Empire, which was why he was confident in using non-coercive thods to cleanse the Church's faith.
Of course, the related propaganda also needed to keep up, and Lynn was never averse to using so thods for the right things.
"Who might this be...?" Lynn's gaze quickly turned to the one-ard man, as Ivina's special visit was clearly related to him.
"Reporting to Mr. Speaker, my na is Bard, I was... I was once a deputy in the Divine Punishnt Army..." The one-ard man said nervously, aware that his forr status had once brought him endless glory but now could be deadly.
"Do you have so important matter to report?" Lynn asked.
"It concerns the Outer Realms," Ivina said gravely.
"Outer Realms?" Lynn was montarily startled, looking curiously at the brown-haired girl, his expression becoming more serious. "You an the world beyond the portal?"
Ivina turned to look at Bard, who nodded without any hesitation, hurriedly sharing everything he knew.
The Outer Realms was the term used by the Church for the world on the other side, where Bard had heard Lord Gustav of the Divine Punishnt Army say it was the origin of all sins, with powerful monsters regularly coming through these space-ti nodes to attack nearby cities and people.
Therefore, the Church had selected an elite force from the Divine Punishnt Army to form an expeditionary force, entering it to clear out the monsters gathering around the space-ti portals.
Hearing this, Lynn's eyes lit up; he had been struggling with how to gather information about the Outer Realms, but now it seed the information had co to him.
"What exactly is that world like?" Lynn asked, very curious.
"The Outer Realms are dark and cold; the last ti we were there, we couldn't see the sun, moon, or stars..." Bard replied hesitantly.
The expeditionary force had to be enchanted with divine magic before entering, otherwise, they would easily freeze to death.
Despite their preparations, the place was still extrely dangerous, and every cleaning operation resulted in heavy casualties.
"No sun?" Lynn was surprised, imdiately thinking of what Raven had ntioned before—that the Moon Goddess Diana had taken her realm away from the main world.
Could it be that it had moved out of its original orbit, taking the moon of the main world with it? This could very well be why the Outer Realms lacked the sun and stars.
A world without stars would be dark and silent without sources of light and heat, and the temperature would likely drop drastically,
possibly reaching as low as minus two hundred degrees Celsius, making it nearly impossible for life to survive in such harsh conditions.
However, the Outer Realms were obviously not that bad, or Bard and his companions would have been frozen the mont they entered, even with divine magic.
It seed that before leaving the main world, the Moon Goddess must have done sothing to delay the drop in temperature.
While Lynn was pondering this, Bard continued to speak. He knew this was his only chance to distance himself from his past as part of the Church, so he racked his brains to think of any useful information,
like the fact that long-open portals would accumulate magical energy, attracting many powerful monsters to linger, and that there was a creature in the Outer Realms called the "Sandworm," which buried its body in the earth to attack any living beings that entered its territory.
"Does the Church have outposts in that world?" Lynn asked, his eyes locked on Bard.
Despite facing a more dangerous enemy in the Necromancer Lord, Lynn had not forgotten their old foe Eira. In a sense, their capability to bring threats was not inferior to that of the Necromancer Lord.
"I think probably not," Bard replied cautiously. "The Outer Realms are too barren and dangerous, not worth much. The expeditionary forces usually return with their prey and achievents after cleaning the nearby monsters."
Lynn nodded. Ruling has its costs, and establishing stable outposts in such a world is not cost-effective.
He guessed that the Church sending multiple expeditions there was not just about preemptively eliminating threats. The bodies and blood of those powerful monsters were invaluable resources.
Church baptism rituals and the mass production of [Divine Grace Potions] likely ca from these resources.
At that mont, Bard seed to suddenly rember sothing, his face showing a conflicted expression.
"What is it? Did you think of sothing else?" Lynn prompted tily. "Even if it's just speculations and rumors, you can speak them out. It's my job to judge their truth."
Under Lynn's encouragent, Bard spoke hesitantly. "Mr. Speaker, it might be my illusion, but ti seems to pass very differently there... no, it should be slower, actually."
Because there was no sun or stars in the Outer Realms, those who entered had no way of telling how much ti had passed, but the difference in perception was too strong.
Bard felt like he had only been there for a few days, but when he ca out, more than a month had passed.
Not just him, but so of his fellow expeditionary soldiers felt the sa. Lord Gustav of the Divine Punishnt Army seed to know the reason but had never explained it to them.
As Bard spoke, he cautiously glanced at the young Speaker, fearing the latter would suddenly scold him for talking nonsense, as it sounded unbelievable.
"Ti flows differently?" Lynn pondered for a mont. He wasn't surprised by such a 'minor' issue. Ti, like space, can be 'manipulated' and 'distorted'.
The ti dilation effect from the theory of relativity is a real-world example.
Unfortunately, Gustav had died following the battle at the Holy City, his divine powers revoked, otherwise more information could have likely been extracted from him.
Lynn regretted this and turned his gaze towards the cage. Besides Gustav, the most likely to know all about this was the Star ssenger caged here.
The black crow was clearly still angry, turning its back on him, only showing its rear...
"Great Star ssenger, to think that even you are unaware?" Lynn said regretfully, shaking his head and then confidently adding.
"But that's to be expected. Mysteries involving ti and dinsions are not accessible to everyone. Perhaps even the gods of life and creation are not fully aware, given our world's unique situation, which has resulted in such an unusual phenonon of inconsistent ti flows."
The black crow imdiately bristled, and its indignant cawing soon filled the room. "Nonsense, foolish mortal, the differing ti flows between dinsions are normal, only stabilizing once fully captured by the primary dinsion..."
"What is this capture based on? Magic coverage?" Lynn continued to inquire.
The Moon Goddess Diana opening so many portals on this continent must have a reason, possibly aiming to capture these dinsions to transform them into her own divine realm.
However, this ti the crow remained silent, its black eyes rolling about, showing no intention of responding.
At this mont, Bard was amazed at Lynn's previous address, looking at the cage's black crow, not understanding why a talking crow would be referred to by the Speaker as the "Great Star ssenger."
Ivina also appeared startled, then realized from Lynn's words that although he spoke respectfully, there was no real reverence in his tone.
And indeed, a great entity would hardly be confined within a cage...
Seeing that the crow did not reply, Lynn simply smiled and did not mind; the information he had just received was enough for him to piece together quite a bit.
"Thank you for the information provided this ti; it is very important for the Council's upcoming actions," Lynn expressed his gratitude generously, standing up and placing his hand on the nervous Bard's shoulder.
[Shape—Reconstruction of the Shell]
A strong glow of magic appeared in the room.
Bard imdiately felt a piercing pain that made him think the seemingly amiable Speaker might suddenly decide to kill him.
Fortunately, the intense pain lasted only a few seconds, replaced by a tingling, comfortable sensation.
As the white light completely dissipated, Bard was astonished to find his left arm, lost in the war, had regrown. He was overjoyed, imdiately kneeling down and weeping with gratitude.
After consoling Bard with a few words, Lynn let him leave first, then turned to the brown-haired girl. "You also did well, Ivina. From now on, you are free!"
The word 'free' undoubtedly ant everything—it signified the end of their forced labor, the redemption of their sins, and their status as free citizens of the kingdom!
Even though there was still implicit discrimination in high-profile positions like civil service exams, industries like papermaking, iron slting, and glass workshops didn't care about one's past as long as one was willing to work hard. Being well-fed was no issue, and one might even afford a house and enjoy a life with at every day.
For the empire's poor, not being hungry, cold, or lacking clothes was already a heavenly life.
Ivina had indeed perford a ritorious deed by defecting at the last mont during the attack by Eira's avatar, buying ti for his breakthrough. However, having been a Church spy and a mber of the Divine Punishnt Army, according to the Council's laws, she had to undergo a long-term reformation.
Lynn would not use his authority to exempt her from this due to their acquaintance, strictly following the Council's laws by sending her to a re-education camp.
He also assigned Ivina a task—to find out which of the imprisoned were genuinely accepting reformation and which were still harboring ill intentions, planning riots in secret. This could be considered a kind of undercover assignnt.
Ivina had agreed without hesitation at the ti because she needed a chance to truly see how the kingdom treated prisoners and the lower classes of the empire.
"Take this letter of recomndation," Lynn said, picking up a sheet of paper from his desk, brushing his hand over it, and causing a string of glowing magical letters to appear on the paper.
The girl had previously perford well in the civil service exam, impressing many examiners, but was ultimately not approved due to her status.
Now that she had spent months in the re-education camp
and had voluntarily brought significant information about the Outer Realms, her demonstration of loyalty was sufficient. Blocking her future opportunities due to her status would show that the high-level officials of the Magic Kingdom lacked magnanimity.
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This would also serve as a reward for her tily report on this significant discovery.
Faced with this precious letter of recomndation, Ivina hesitated, biting her lip before speaking. "Mr. Speaker, may I exchange it for another request?"
"That depends on the request..." Lynn set aside the letter, interestedly inquiring.
"I want to find soone," Ivina looked at Lynn very seriously. "My brother—Lott!"
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