Chapter 447: The Princess Is Still Around

The Funeral Agency squad was stunned. Iger asked hesitantly, "You mean that anonymous ranking that comprises only the most miserable people?"

Heliphas looked amused. "Oh? So you didn't know. That makes sense. Since the Purple Moth only ever ran a small agency, it's no surprise you've never heard of this secret."

Annan frowned. "Aside from having no rewards, what other secret could this ranking possibly hold?"

Heliphas wagged her finger. "Wrong, wrong. Having no rewards is only half of it... Don't just stand there, keep moving."

Only after the land-dwellers resumed their exercises did the Sea Witch continue. "You might think those who make it onto the Unattached Ranking are just helpless, destitute children, right? In truth, over the past century, most of those on the list have been the direct descendants of major consortium families, like the Kessriel, Mercury, and Roland families."

She paused. When she spoke again, her voice had turned heavy. "My niece is one of them. It's also one of the few rankings that sea witches actually qualify for."

This time, Annan was genuinely surprised. "Are you saying the Gospel deliberately hides the rewards for the Unattached Rankings, and that's why you all flock to it? Does making the list actually bring that much of a benefit?"

"Rather than concealed rewards, it's more accurate to say they are rewards that cannot be revealed," Heliphas said. "And there truly are no benefits for the ranked individuals themselves. Just as the rumors say. Once they reach adulthood, they simply vanish one day without a trace. However, while it brings no benefit to them, it heavily benefits others."

Harvey muttered, "I smell something foul."

The sea witch explained, "As you already know, the Unattached are those that are not wanted. When they reach adulthood, and it comes time for the Gospel to take them, they are still decades away from meeting their natural deaths. Put simply, they still carry a lifetime of unfulfilled destiny. Consequently, the Gospel transfers that destiny to the people who were once closest to them."

Iger frowned. "What exactly is destiny? Some kind of ice cream brand? Or mayonnaise? You're saying it can just be added to someone like a topping?"

"Put it this way. Take a child who still has thirty years left to live, who is destined to one day master carpentry and earn twenty Gold Coins in their lifetime. Then, snap, all of that is transferred to you.

"You gain an extra thirty years of life. You suddenly have the knack to learn carpentry. You receive an unexpected windfall of twenty Gold Coins. That's how it works."

That was it. Her nonchalant tone did nothing to stop a chill from creeping into the crew's hearts. Ashe was in utter disbelief. "Why would the Gospel create such a ranking in the first pla—"

Iger interrupted calmly, "The original intention was probably noble. The premise for transferring destiny is that you were once the closest person to the Unattached. In other words, the Gospel intended to reward those who cared for the vulnerable.

"But once the consortium families discovered this loophole, they engineered a new use for it."

Annan said coldly, "Those families only need to find a marginal person—"

"No," Heliphas cut her off immediately. "Did you forget? What's transferred is the Unattached's destiny. The richer their destiny, the greater the benefit. Those families wouldn't choose nobodies. Instead, they would choose..."

She paused, carefully choosing a different way to put it. "If you look closely, you'll notice that in most major families, each generation has many siblings. But after they come of age, one to two of them simply never appear again."

For a moment, everyone was too stunned by the revelation to react. After a heavy silence, Iger asked with a hint of mockery, "Did your rise to become the First Sea Witch have something to do with your niece's sacrifice?"

Heliphas replied bluntly, "Yes, which is why my daughter will soon become one of the Unattached as well."

Iger froze. The sea witch continued coldly, "If you want to exploit a loophole in the Gospel, how could you possibly avoid paying a price? It's not just us. It's those consortium families as well. In almost every generation, the heads of those families must sacrifice one or even several of their most beloved children. Only then will the Unattached's destiny be rich enough, and the rewards for others substantial enough... Perhaps it was unintended, but the existence of the Unattached Rankings has undeniably improved the quality of each successive generation."

Ashe felt a sudden urge to curse them. How can you treat your own children like this?

However, in the grand narrative of thousand-year family lineages, such moral outcries felt painfully naïve. Besides, Iger was in control of the conversation now, so he held his tongue.

"What does this ranking have to do with the apocalypse?"

"Don't you think the Unattached Ranking stands out a bit too much among all the normal rankings?" Heliphas said. "And the Gospel secretly redistributing their destinies... it all feels like a kind of... experiment. An experiment in Divine Miracles!

"To the Omniscient Weaver, the Unattached are nothing more than lab rats. What it's studying is how to perfectly extract destiny from a living soul. Our gains are merely insignificant byproducts!"

The sea witch's eyes gleamed with a fanatic light. "Ordinary sorcerers have no ability to seize another person's destiny. We can barely even touch the Fate Class! But if the Omniscient Weaver conducts experiments through rankings like this, then that's when our opportunity arises!

"The historical records of the Isa Dynasty have grown fragmented, but after years of reconstruction, we've found that in eras of chaos, the Gospel introduces many of these experimental rankings. Through them, ordinary sorcerers can indirectly wield Divine Miracles to accumulate power!

"More importantly, these experimental rankings have no entry threshold. Sea witches like us, who are blacklisted from normal rankings for exploiting loopholes, can finally qualify to become the Omniscient Weaver's lab rats!"

Heliphas's voice rose with fervor. "This is the opportunity our race needs! While you land-dwellers are caught off guard by the apocalypse, we can retreat into the seas and lakes, use these experimental rankings to grow rapidly, and after the apocalypse clears, establish a mermaid dynasty, turning the Gospel itself into a land of abundant water!"

Right! Sea witches can hide in the ocean to take refuge!

Heliphas seemed to realize she had said too much. She took a slow sip of her blue liqueur and smiled. "My apologies, Rusty Crow. To think I'd make a fool of myself in front of you."

Iger spoke leisurely, "It's fine. I'm actually quite pleased that the Witch of Chaos has spoken so candidly. It means we share common interests. Honesty really is the most effective skill in a negotiation. In that case, you can provide the information about the princess now—"

Heliphas raised a hand. "Wait. This is a transaction. What do you intend to offer in return?"

Annan's lips curved slightly. "Money? I don't mind the price. After this job is done, I won't be needing money anyway."

Heliphas said, "We don't need money either. We'll take our payment directly from you. We want to perform two divinations on your group."

The companions exchanged glances. Iger said, "State your terms."

Heliphas shifted her gaze to Harvey. "First, the Ghost King. We want to know how you, a mere mortal, come to wield a Divine Spirit."

Harvey replied, "I don't know. Isn't that something that happens in the future?"

Heliphas murmured, "Time flows like liquid gold, and it always leaves a paper trail. The future is merely the present's delayed reflection. We don't need you to answer. Just lie down on the table. We'll extract the information ourselves."

Harvey calmly walked over and lay down on the long table between the sea witches, looking like a prop prepared for a necromancer's ritual. The others gathered around curiously to watch, but the sea witches sank into the pool, leaving nothing but streams of bubbling water rising to the surface.

Before long, the ten sea witches resurfaced. "The divination is complete."

Harvey sat up. "Can you tell me what you found?"

"Of course. It concerns you, after all," Heliphas said. "Put simply, you will encounter a series of opportunities on the Continent of Time and eventually obtain a conceptual incarnation related to the Necromancy Class. That will be the key to your ability to wield a Divine Spirit."

"What is a conceptual incarnation?" Harvey asked, intrigued.

Ashe froze for a split second. Before he could stop her, Heliphas answered, "According to the divination, a conceptual incarnation is a special entity that exists somewhere between an ordinary spirit and a Divine Spirit."

Huh? That's... one way to put it, I guess. Wait...

Ashe suddenly recalled that conceptual incarnations were essentially abstract concepts from the Virtual World. But weren't spirits also conceptual in nature? The difference was that spirits were created by sorcerers themselves, while conceptual incarnations were born directly from the Virtual World!

Heliphas explained, "The reason mortals can't wield Divine Spirits isn't because they're too vast, but because their very nature is different. Think of our souls as wooden barrels. Normal spirits are just water, but Divine Spirits are strong acids. They would completely corrode the barrel.

"A conceptual incarnation is neither water nor acid. It won't harm the barrel, and it even forms a buffer when it hits a strong acid. Well... that might still be hard to grasp. Think of it as using a beast's cub to tame a wild beast, or bringing your girlfriend along to ask your father-in-law for money."

Ashe blinked. So in the Family Ranking, the scene of Harvey subduing a Divine Spirit was actually him getting a conceptual-incarnation girlfriend and then digging up someone else's 'father' to mooch off of?

"But you no longer have the chance," the Sea Witch added.

"Huh? Why?"

Heliphas sounded genuinely puzzled. "Because you missed your initial opportunity. By all logic, you should have already encountered your first opportunity in the Virtual World, but for some reason, it was lost. Naturally, the subsequent opportunities disappeared as well."

Harvey froze, instinctively exchanging a glance with Iger. The Last Stand Arena!

If there was any missed opportunity recently, it had to be that. If those two female sorcerers hadn't interfered at the last moment, they would have killed the Hero Commander and claimed her mysterious spoils!

"Well, that's a pity."

Despite his words, Harvey didn't seem bothered at all. His tone made it sound as if he had merely dropped a plate of Lala Fat.

Once the necromancer returned to his original spot, Iger asked, "And the second request?"

"Simple," Heliphas said. "I only need the Demon Lord to answer one question."

Ashe gestured for Lys to climb down from his back, finally ending his push-ups. He stood up straight. "What question?"

The sea witch blinked, momentarily taken aback. She had assumed the shorter, silent, masked figure was the Demon Lord. She hadn't expected the one quietly taking care of a child to be him.

Gentle and attentive to a child, yet cold and merciless to the world... asking Annan to paint his doomsday portrait, then entangling himself with her mother and aunt, turning them into undead to stay with him forever... Yes, only someone that twisted could be the source of calamity.

"Did you have anything to do with Rogue Deyor's death?"

"No," Ashe answered without hesitation.

The sea witches exchanged glances, their communication flowing silently through the water. He isn't lying.

That was expected. If he had been involved, Heliphas wouldn't have dared to meet them in the first place.

"Nabistin Imperial Palace. The small island at the center of Lake Yalan," the sea witch answered cleanly. "The princess lives in the tower on that island."

Annan asked, "Can you guarantee the accuracy of this information? I believe it isn't false, but it may no longer be up to date."

"You may not know this, but about thirty days ago, a disturbance broke out in Nabistin's surface district. The news was quickly suppressed, but people still noticed, and countless citizens came to us asking if something had happened to the princess. That was when we discovered a slight flaw in the palace's Miracle barrier, which granted us limited access to her information. The Isa Imperial Family likely left this loophole intentionally to reassure the public.

"These past days, we've performed daily divinations on the princess's status. She's been in the tower the entire time."

***

Once the meeting room doors closed, the Sea Witches let out a collective sigh of relief. "Heliphas, do you think they'll succeed?"

"I don't think they'll succeed, nor do I think they'll fail. I simply find it interesting. A princess favored by the Gospel, and a Demon Lord cherished by fate... I wonder what will happen when they meet. Unfortunately, that is beyond our divination. That aside, what concerns me more is that Rogue truly wasn't killed by the Demon Lord."

Another sea witch asked, "Didn't we already know that? Even if the truth is hidden from our sight, it's obvious the Isa Imperial Family staged a copycat crime just to maintain the Gospel's credibility."

Heliphas murmured, "I just feel it's a bit... excessive. Rather than protecting the Gospel's credibility, it feels more like they're building up the Demon Lord's prestige.

"It's not just now, either. I've had a vague suspicion from the very beginning. If the Art Ranking could be dismissed as a coincidence, then starting from the Family Ranking, the Gospel has been consistently elevating the Demon Lord. The Family Ranking is essentially no different from the Heretical Arts Rankings, just less extreme. It's as if... something, or someone, can't wait any longer."

Heliphas fell into deep thought. "Between the Art Rankings and the Family Rankings, Ashe must have done something that caused the Gospel to focus on him so intensely...

A sea witch noted, "According to our investigation, he was just idling away in the Senheisers during that time. Based on our divinations, it seems he was even flirting with Quinna and Annan in a dream."

Another sea witch scoffed. "I think you're worrying too much, Chief. Even if the Isa Imperial Family is staging copycat crimes to save face, we're not Rogue. Even if they sent their secret Guards, there's no way they could assassinate you inside the Mermaid Palace!"

***

The next morning, a withered sea witch was found dead in the plaza fountain. Just as foretold in the Heretical Arts Rankings, second entry.