Chapter 580.1: The Missing Girl (1)
Inside the cavern, Nora hesitantly looked at Roel several times before making up her mind. Roel’s expression turned grim upon seeing the look on her face, knowing that something must have happened over the past year.
This was also something he had been concerned about when Nora told him a year had passed the previous night.
The Ascart Fiefdom had been attacked by the Fallens when he entered the Witness State, and he was concerned about the war with the deviants too. His father, Carter, had returned to the frontlines, and the united army was planning to go on the offensive that spring.
He wanted to know how the fight had gone and whether the people he cared for had fared well over the past year. It was just that he didn’t have the time to ask Nora about that as they were in a rush to escape last night. But now, he was starting to get an ominous feeling.
“Roel, you don’t have to worry about the Ascart Fiefdom. Our Theocracy has listed the Ascart Fiefdom as one of our protection priorities after that assault, and it has remained safe over the past year. However… the Ascart House is not doing as well. You need to be mentally prepared,” Nora said.
“Ah?”
Roel’s expression stiffened up. It was hard to tell whether he hadn’t heard Nora’s words clearly, or he refused to comprehend her words.
Worry and fear started to breed inside his heart as he struggled to figure out how he should respond to this situation. Nora sensed his emotional fluctuation and gently held his cheeks.
“Calm down and listen to me, Roel. In the last battle with one of the enemies’ Race Sovereigns, Uncle Carter sustained severe injuries. He is in the midst of recuperation.”
“Severe injuries? Why is he even fighting a Race Sovereign in the first place?!”
Carter might have been one of the stronger humans in the world, being both an Origin Level 2 transcendent and a war veteran, but he still wouldn’t stand a chance against an Origin Level 1. The area he was stationed at, Tark Stronghold, shouldn’t have required any offensive deployments, either. There shouldn’t have been any circumstance where he had to confront an Origin Level 1 transcendent.
Nora could see through the doubts Roel harbored.
“In the year you have been away, the deviants grew at an unprecedented level, presumably influenced by the Savior’s awakening. The most direct result of that is the significant increase in the number of deviant priests.”
“!”
Roel widened his eyes in realization as he recalled the deviants’ army spell last night. Nora also nodded in affirmation.
“The deviant priests you encountered last night aren’t an exception. They have become a common sight in the deviants’ military lineup. That has made it much harder for us to continue waging a defensive war. Thus, in the latter half of the previous year, the united army changed its military strategy into one that combined both offense and defense. Uncle Carter participated in the biggest Battle of Stanlos together with my grandfather…”
“!”
Nora suddenly paused at this point as her composed voice choked up somewhat. Roel was startled.
“Nora?”
“…It’s nothing.”
She lowered her head and closed her eyes as she attempted to push down the emotions rising from her chest. After composing herself, she raised her head and continued the report.
“Uncle Carter worked with my grandfather to bring down an Origin Level 1 giant deviant, but the two of them sustained severe injuries as a result. The Theocracy suffered heavy losses, and m-many people… Wu!”
“…”
It was becoming increasingly hard for Nora to conceal her sorrow as she recalled the battlefield where many of her kin and close friends died. Roel quietly pulled her into his arms, and she clenched her jaw and silently sobbed.
As her childhood friend, Roel had always known that there were two sides to Nora.
The Theocracy’s princess had to be strong and dignified before her people and her enemies. Weakness was a cardinal sin. But humans were all made of flesh and blood. How could she be unaffected when faced with the suffering of her loved ones?
The psychological pain she kept shoving down and suppressing all this while was finally let loose before Roel’s comforting. It was a good thing, as suppressed emotions could manifest as emotional trauma if left to be.
Roel would have preferred Nora to vent more of her emotions, but she only sobbed for a short while before lifting her head. There seemed to be more things that she had to tell Roel about.
“But that’s not all I want to tell you. Roel, you have to stay calm at what I’m going to say next. Make sure to listen to everything I have to say first,” Nora said hoarsely.
.
“Nora?”
Roel was startled. Nora’s deeply worried expression conveyed the severity of the situation, and it left him with a lurching sensation in his heart. Nora took a while to muster her courage before revealing the news that he would struggle to come to terms with.
“Alicia has gone missing.”
“What?”
Roel froze up in an instant. His mind suddenly ground to a halt as it struggled to process the significance of what had just been relayed to him. It was only when Nora turned her head away with a pained look that he snapped out of it a little.
“Alicia went missing? How can that be?!” Roel grabbed Nora’s shoulder in agitation. “She has already reached Origin Level 3! She is even strong enough to defeat Origin Level 2 transcendents under the moonlight! How did she go missing? It was just last year that she reached adulthood; how could you all let her step onto the battlefield?!”
“You have misunderstood, Roel! We didn’t send her to the battlefield!”
“It… isn’t that?”
“Alicia became the only successor of the Ascart House following your disappearance. There’s no way we would allow her to join the battlefield.”
“T-then…”
“She went missing on her own.”
“…”
Roel fell speechless. Nora heaved a sigh. She took a brief moment to organize her thoughts before carrying on.
“Your disappearance affected us in more ways than you could have imagined, especially for Alicia and Charlotte. We did everything we could to find you, but when Wilhelmina told us that you had entered the Witness State and days flew by, those of us who once entered the Witness State with you began to despair.
“However, Alicia refused to give up. She wanted to leave the Ascart Fiefdom to look for you, but Uncle Carter forbade her from doing so. Half a year ago, while visiting the area you vanished at, she suddenly disappeared into thin air, leaving no clues behind. We tried looking for her, but there was no news at all…”
“…”
Roel clutched his forehead and retreated two steps. He took deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself, but his mind was completely blank. Alicia was the younger sister whom he cared for and doted on the most from a young age, and they had spent the longest time with each other too. Their relationship had already transcended that between kin or lovers.
Often, when he suffered grievous injuries from fighting against all kinds of threats the cruel world threw at him, his greatest salvation was seeing her smile when he returned home. What was he supposed to do now that she was no longer at the place he called home?
He couldn’t accept this. How could he accept this? He had to bring her back, but there were no clues for him to work with.
One thing he was certain about was that something must have happened to Alicia, or else she would have definitely stepped forward upon learning that Carter had gotten injured.
The Battle of Stanlos from half a year ago, in which Carter and Holy Eminence John sustained severe injuries to take down one of the deviants’ Race Sovereigns, had been widely propagated by the united army as a feat of valor. All humans should have heard about it by now.
Alicia would have surely returned home if she heard about it. After all, Carter’s position was only second to Roel’s to her.
“Are her movements being restricted? Or is she not in the human world? Or is it possible that…”
… she’s unable to return anymore?
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