novelraw Chapter 644: Palace
Chapter 644: Palace
The golden Slime Value light receding like a tide rapidly changed the sight before Valentina's eyes. The formerly bright sky and grass of Naris in the early morning also changed into the scenery inside some extremely broad cave.
In front of the Wutong Tree statue cast in steel, Valentina continuously moved forward due to the inertia of her previous escape, but soon fell down along with her gradually heavier body, finally crashing hard onto the ground.
"Thud!"
"Miss Valentina!"
"Valentina!"
Around her, several anxious and concerned voices arrived simultaneously. The nimble Snow Fox-kin patriarch, Dar, took the lead to run over and carefully inspected Valentina's current condition.
He instead saw that at this moment, many of the feathers on Valentina's body had bizarrely turned into inorganic stones. It was precisely these feathers turning into stones that caused the sharp increase in her weight and thus caused her to crash onto the ground.
Looking at the bizarre situation on her body, Dar also appeared somewhat at a loss, and hurriedly turned his head to tell the Giant Troll-kin elder Darivuvu, who was proficient in medical arts, to come over and inspect. Along the way, he asked Valentina.
"Are you okay, Miss Valentina?"
Valentina's head felt a bit dizzy, whether because of anger or the feathers turned into stones on her body. She hammered the ground fiercely with her fist and said while gnashing her teeth."That damn Elizabeth!"
Dar and the inspecting Darivuvu looked at each other. Then, Darivuvu, who was inspecting these things, sighed and said very seriously to Valentina.
"You went to Naris, Miss Valentina. You already know the ambiguous relationship Naris currently has with the Sardin Woman's Country and the Turan Family, and of course you should also know their stance, not to mention you previously corresponded with their queen. Under this kind of situation, you still hid it from us and privately went to Naris. Forgive me for speaking bluntly, you are not only ignoring your own safety, but even ignoring the safety of the entire Wutong Tree."
Darivuvu's hands lightly stroked over Valentina's petrified feathers. Under the smudge infused with the scent of some herbal medicine on her body, those petrified feathers fell off from Valentina's skin one by one just like this.
The kind of pain akin to directly plucking feathers caused Valentina to gasp in pain, but doing this also roughly confirmed that the petrification had not yet penetrated below the skin and there was no major harm.
Seeing that the injury was not serious, Dar then breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help but also start persuading and advising Valentina, only his tone was much gentler compared to Darivuvu's.
"Yes, Miss Valentina, nowadays you are the only phoenix in this world. Your safety is the Wutong Tree's safety. If Patriarch Barion hadn't discovered it in time and informed us, I'm afraid we would still be kept in the dark... Even for the sake of your husband, you really should have thought twice before taking action."
Feeling the petrified feathers on her body being shed bit by bit, the annoyance and anger in Valentina's heart did not disappear, but instead grew increasingly vigorous amid the two patriarchs' seemingly persuading and seemingly reprimanding words.
She raised her eyes indignantly. Just before the True Ice divine light became increasingly rich, behind the two patriarchs, Barion's tender and ethereal voice suddenly rang out.
"You two, don't forget, Valentina is only eighteen years old this year... When you were at her age, in my eyes, what you did was thousands of times more bastardly and unreasonable than what she did. Darivuvu, when you were eighty years old, you even sneaked out of the tribe with Kokolia for a secret tryst, and ended up crouching in the wrong place. Not only did you not see Kokolia, but you also almost froze to death outside at night. Dar, when you were young, you even set your parents' house on fire and ended up being hung up and beaten by the previous patriarch for a whole night. You were about twenty-five years old at that time, right?"
The two patriarchs were slightly stunned, and then simultaneously blushed with their old faces.
When they considered themselves in the capacity of elders, they forgot that right behind them was a super slime who had lived much longer and whose seniority was who-knew-how-much higher than theirs.
Valentina couldn't help but also raise her head, looking at the Slime King hidden in the shadows, smacking his Pacifier "smack smack."
And after saying this, Barion also patted his round belly with his fat hand, took out the wooden pacifier, and switched to sucking his finger instead, saying to them.
"She is still young, whether looking at it from the perspective of humans or phoenixes. She grew up under the control of the Turan Family for the first eighteen years. The moment she broke free from the Turan Family, she experienced another four and a half years of deep sleep, and upon waking up she had to become the leader of our Wutong Tree. Over the past few months, she has done a good job being self-taught. Honestly, if she had held back from going to see her husband today, I would instead suspect whether her body had been taken over by some old fellow...
"Don't forget, that is her husband, and also her closest person. To some extent, although we serve Valentina, in terms of closeness, I'm afraid none of us present can be called her 'family.' Every one of you has a happy and content family; do you demand her to abandon the opportunity to see her husband whom she hasn't met for a long time by herself? Of course, we are all doing this for her sake and for the safety of the Wutong Tree, but you must never overcorrect."
At this point in his words, the remaining unsaid admonitions of the two patriarchs were hard to bring up again. They looked at each other and could only apologize to Valentina, making clear they meant no harm.
Valentina merely glanced at the mountain-like Barion sitting not far away. The flame of anger of being humiliated by Elizabeth in her heart finally no longer rushed to her head, and receded bit by bit.
"No, it's I who should be apologizing instead... It's I who acted on my own before completely grasping the situation in Naris. I originally thought that by secretly entering, based on Elizabeth alone as a human, under no circumstances would she..."
Quickly, Valentina roughly told the several patriarchs present the entire course of events. That included the reason she went, using some "Phoenix secret method" to disguise her appearance (actually Tao Gong's Life Chaos power, but Valentina didn't reveal the specifics), and everything that happened midway.
"So in the end he chose not to come back with you... Hmm, so aside from that, it sounds like there must be some secret on Queen Elizabeth; even a phoenix possessing the Phoenix King Sword is not her match."
Barion rubbed his chin, wisely bypassing the private emotional matters between them as a married couple, and just picked out the crucial content to analyze like this.
Well, although even though Valentina didn't mention the specific process of Elizabeth doing such a thing in front of her at that time, the several patriarchs present still vaguely sensed a bit of the green color worn on their own Lord Phoenix's head. That made it no wonder she looked so angry when she just returned...
And hearing Barion's words, Valentina frowned, carefully recalling the scene from that time.
Aside from that lingering, repeatedly replaying scene in her mind of Elizabeth kissing Fisher, she quickly realized that every time Elizabeth's bizarre ability activated, her eyes would undergo changes.
She blinked, and said thoughtfully.
"It's her eyes... Elizabeth's eyes are not right. Most of the bizarre feeling she produced came from her eyes, and also that golden longsword. The power of her eyes is very strong, but her physical body should be far inferior to mine, only stronger than an average person. Otherwise Fisher, whose physical fitness was only that of an average person at the time, couldn't have pushed her away. Also, when I took Fisher away, she obviously couldn't catch up to us."
"Could it be just relying on a pair of eyes? A pair of Relics can contend with the bloodline of a phoenix? Is this..."
Patriarch Dar muttered this in disbelief, his words full of disbelief inside and out. But Barion chuckled and said.
"Looking at it this way, Valentina's trip was not completely without harvest. For all these years, my clansmen have been completely unable to infiltrate Naris to obtain intelligence, but Valentina going this once directly obtained crucial intelligence regarding the central Empress of the Golden Palace. It seems the intelligence gathering ability of our entire clan is inferior to yours... Only, this price is slightly a bit high, leaving the husband behind in Naris."
Whenever this was mentioned, Valentina would be full of anger, especially since Fisher proactively stayed behind in Naris in the end!!
What did this mean?
Why at that kind of time, after she even did that kind of thing to you, you still didn't choose your wife but chose that old woman ex?
Could he really think that old woman was better than herself?
No, no, no, this was impossible. It must be as he said, it was to save his teacher's granddaughter and Eimhart, so he...
In short, it was absolutely impossible for Fisher to stay in Naris because of that Elizabeth, absolutely!
"..."
Speaking to the end, Valentina finally took a deep breath, trying her best to calm herself down. She slowly stood up and solemnly said to the several patriarchs.
"Everyone, this time it was my fault, I was impulsive. It was indeed because I missed my husband too much, which is why I did this, because I know everyone wouldn't agree to clash with Naris right now, directly bypassing the Sardin Woman's Country and the Turan Family of the Northern Border to interfere in matters within Naris's borders... But after this, I will immediately begin to proceed with handling the matters of the Sardin Woman's Country and the Turan Family."
"Mm, it's good that Miss Valentina can understand. But I also have to correct the two patriarchs about a matter. Previously you probably still held fantasies about Naris. Even if they had already interfered step ahead in our Northern Border's affairs, you were still thinking about maintaining mutual respect with them and the West Continent. Now, not only are they interfering more and more in the issue of the Northern Border, but even the Phoenix's husband was left there. This is truly a kind of insult to the Wutong Tree. I still hope you two can carefully reconsider the future relationship with Naris. Especially you two don't forget, we still have an orthodox bloodline of their Golden Palace in our hands."
Barion's words were already obvious enough. And as the patriarch of the Slimes, the most powerful among the six clans, on the issue of taking sides, he had always firmly and unshakeably stood together with Valentina, instead having a completely different feeling from the descendants of the other six clans.
Valentina was very grateful for this, so she also deeply knew her next actions must be patient and rational.
She had already failed in her previous confrontation with Elizabeth, failing due to carelessness and impulse. Next, she would have to avoid making the same mistake.
From the perspective of the Wutong Tree, Naris had already become the biggest stumbling block on their road to restoring the status of the Northern Border; and from a personal level, Valentina had to snatch Fisher back from Elizabeth's hands no matter what.
'...Have you calmed down, small fry?'
Just as the two patriarchs and Barion were discussing the next direction the Wutong Tree would take, tao Gong's voice chimed again in the momentarily quieted Valentina's mind.
Valentina heard the reprimand Tao Gong hid in the carelessness and casualness, so she first took the lead to apologize from the bottom of her heart.
'Sorry, Tao Gong, I was impulsive earlier.'
'...To know one's mistakes and correct them is the greatest good. But I still can't understand the brain circuits of you small fries. You were so angry that the blood rushed to your head, and that human with Pandora's power was also timid and hesitant because of your husband, otherwise I think it was really possible we'd have planted ourselves there that time.'
'...Sorry.'
'Well, whatever. Things like love always bring me bad luck, and the same goes for you and your husband. Compared to this, about the power of Pandora on that human empress, I seem to have a bit of a clue...'
'Really?'
'Yes, back then, Pandora died in the Chaos outbreak in the Ideal State. But now, Pandora's power is appearing again on that human empress. Furthermore, I felt a very familiar scent there earlier. I didn't distinguish it at the time, but recalling it now, I feel that thing is very much like a Relic of my mother... the World Tree Teardrop. But that Relic should have later flowed to the Sanctuary to be forged into an intelligent book by that fellow Gabriel.'
'An intelligent book? You mean Sir Book Artifact Eimhart?'
'...Bearing the same name as Gabriel's dead child, that should be it. But there should originally only have been one Tear of the World Tree, I really don't know why a second Teardrop Relic would appear. But this isn't important anymore. You just need to know that Angel Holy Artifacts forged from Teardrops will birth a self-consciousness. And unlike that useless ugly monster Gabriel forged, the Holy Artifact that human empress has is extremely powerful...'
'Which means...'
'Heh heh, which means that now, living in the head of that human empress is a top-tier Holy Artifact that might possess the complete power of Pandora, has a self-consciousness, and whose reason for helping her is still unknown. And it looks like that human empress's understanding of this isn't profound enough... Ah, meanwhile, it is also helping that human snatch your dead husband.'
"..."
Valentina stayed silent for a moment, and then her expression also turned icy. She subsequently spoke internally while gnashing her teeth.
'I won't let her succeed.'
'Mm, moreover, Pandora and Remiel should have died in the Ideal State's Chaos outbreak ten thousand years ago, and now they bizarrely appeared. I have to suspect this is related to Chaos... So, even though I don't care if she snatched your man or not, I will still help you fight against that small fry Holy Artifact.'
But after hearing Tao Gong say this, Valentina instead blinked her eyes, saying somewhat innocently.
'...I originally thought even if that Holy Artifact had nothing to do with Chaos, Tao Gong would have helped me.'
'Wake up. If that's the case, why would I help you pull hair with that human empress? If it has nothing to do with Chaos and you yourself can't pull hair with her, doesn't that just mean you are pure trash? Since you're trash, practice more, understand, small fry?'
"..."
So spoke Tao Gong, hurting the phoenix's feelings.
Fisher was entirely ignorant of the conversation inside the Borderland and the brewing storm of a new round of struggle right now.
When his consciousness woke up, he opened his eyes but felt pitch blackness before him. It wasn't because it was night or because he was locked in some sunless place, but simply because something akin to a blindfold covered his eyes, blocking his line of sight.
He struggled slightly, and soon found once again that his four limbs seemed to have all been tied up. And as for himself, he lay on a soft bed stained with an extremely pleasant-smelling body scent.
"..."
In the darkness, the surrounding sensations of bedding, ropes, and intimate muscle contacts were all reminding him that right now, it seemed he wasn't wearing any clothing on his body.
At this moment, Fisher also couldn't help but feel some regret.
Of course, he wasn't regretting being caught by Elizabeth, or rather, from the moment he let go of Valentina's hand, he knew that being caught by Elizabeth and taken back to the Golden Palace was an inevitability.
And he also wasn't regretting that he had turned on the Blessing, leading to an inability to use Transcendent power and being unable to resist in front of Elizabeth.
Alicia's body had the gaze of a Life Chaos deity. When coming into contact with her, if he didn't adopt the method of eating her, once the source of the Life Chaos on her body discovered Fisher's arrival, turning her into a Base and deepening the erosion of Alicia would all be possible. He obviously couldn't regret not eating Alicia either.
He just hadn't expected Valentina to suddenly appear here. Or rather, he should have expected it early on. He came here through Keken, who had relationships with the Slimes; there was no way Valentina in the Wutong Tree wouldn't know his whereabouts.
He just didn't expect that silly girl would really run to Naris just like that to meet him and take him away, and because of this he felt somewhat regretful for not preparing a ring for her, and also for giving up on leaving with her at the last moment.
This was a dilemma choice, wasn't it?
If he had chosen to leave with Valentina at that time, then the him in the Wutong Tree would definitely have regretted not making Elizabeth's heart-wrenching crying stop.
And now, he had chosen to resolve the problem with Elizabeth, yet regretted not preparing a ring for Valentina in advance.
But since he was here, he should make the best of it. Alicia and Eimhart still being here was one aspect; he still needed to decipher the problem of the Treasure. Going to the Northern Border would lose him this opportunity.
On another aspect, he indeed didn't want to disappoint Elizabeth anymore and once again escape facing issues regarding her.
In the very beginning, he avoided the issue of her bullying a junior schoolmate; later on, he escaped her issue of slaughtering her relatives and usurping power.
Now, this issue had gradually grown so serious that Pandora's power began to appear on her. If he ran away again, what would this problem have to become before it was let go of?
At this thought, even though Fisher was tied up, his heart gradually calmed down.
He calmly felt the sturdiness of the lasso on his body, while trying to struggle, he was also considering where exactly he was right now.
Was he still in Chitel City?
Or...
"Dong! Dong! Dong!"
Precisely at this moment, several continuous bell tolls suddenly chimed from outside.
This bell tolling awakened Fisher's memories all at once, making him recall this seemed to be the morning Time-Telling Bell of the Golden Palace of Saint-Nazareth. This was a bell used to announce the time of the Golden Palace, acting as a symbol declaring the life inside the Golden Palace to the outside world by way of time.
Normally speaking, this bell would chime four times a day. The first was at seven in the morning, which was also the start of a day in the Golden Palace. The Empress should have awakened, started enjoying breakfast, and prepared to start handling government affairs and various matters.
The second time was at ten o'clock. Morning work was about over, meetings with ministers had concluded. After a brief pause, one could enter lunchtime and noon rest periods.
The third time was at two in the afternoon, which was the beginning of other matters and work in the afternoon.
The fourth time was at five in the afternoon. Afternoon work ended, it was time to enter the period of dinner and evening rest.
Then what time should it be right now?
Just as Fisher was thinking, he suddenly sharply heard a burst of hasty footsteps coming from outside the room. Afterwards, it was the sound of a door suddenly opening, with a gust of breeze blowing from the outside.
He gulped down a mouthful of saliva. Then, before he could react, he felt a soft body throwing herself onto him, tightly hugging him and embracing him.
On his body, Elizabeth's scorching breaths and sweet kisses continuously fell, making his entire body feel numb and crisp.
"Are you awake, Fisher... I went to work this morning, you must have missed me very much right... It's okay, I'm already back, mm..."
Elizabeth seemed to have just finished the morning's government affairs processing and rushed back from the front court without stopping. Look, the bells marking the end of morning government affairs hadn't even finished ringing, yet she had jogged all the way back to the back court where she lived, immediately throwing herself onto Fisher's body, kissing him non-stop like absorbing energy.
At this moment, how Fisher wished he was a corpse without any feeling, this way he could still pretend he hadn't woken up...
However, probably when he previously hadn't regained consciousness, he might have already been treated by Elizabeth who knew how many times?
"Elizabeth, have we already arrived at the Golden Palace?"
But after enduring for a moment, he still couldn't help but proactively open his mouth, making clear he was still awake and she should restrain herself a bit.
Who knew upon hearing Fisher's voice, not only did she not restrain herself, but instead excitedly moved her face closer to where his heart was. Between light sucks and breaths, her excited, unrestrainable voice also chimed.
"Ah... You indeed didn't lie. Aside from me, nobody can discover you, ah... Great. This way, you belong forever down to just myself, never able to leave again. Just stay here, stay in the Golden Palace, okay?"
"..."
Fisher opened his mouth, but right at the instant he opened his mouth to remain silent, he was almost immediately kissed and demanded upon by the thirsty Elizabeth, without any gap to speak of...
Perhaps letting a fleeting four and a half years slip by still caused him to overlook some things. Yet at this very moment, these overlooked facts were finally reminded...
Right now, he had already been caught by the extremely thirsty Elizabeth and locked up in her Golden Palace.