Chapter 1204: Chapter 304: Maelstrom VIII_2
"Don’t forget you’re also a young girl!" Brand glared at the merchant lady, then nodded, "I hope you won’t disclose this matter. Princess Magdalene actually hasn’t suffered a fatal wound because she’s not human."
"Not human? Is she a half-elf like Princess Griffith?" Frey asked in confusion, unable to resist looking at the princess’s ears lying on the bed—yet they were just like any ordinary person’s.
"No, to be precise, she doesn’t even count as a living being." Brand answered deliberately.
"What!?"
Everyone was startled.
Brand was silent for a moment. In fact, he found it hard to accept this truth initially. But while examining the other’s injuries, he immediately realized something was off. First, when he opened her ’status’ window, her name and other statuses were clear as day.
Magdalene’s full name was ’Magdal Armanglidor de Antobro,’ Armanglodur being her maternal family name, and Antobro the name of her fief. This naming convention completely matched local customs in Antobro.
It also matched Brand’s memory.
Details like this name, and gender, were things Brand knew, which is why they appeared in the status. But one detail caught his attention—Magdalene’s race was: ???.
This was very unusual. Theoretically, Magdalene was human. And not just humans, even some common races are simple to distinguish, as this is common sense, so theoretically there shouldn’t be a situation he couldn’t discern.
When he first saw Magdalene’s body, Brand’s mind was a mess, and he didn’t notice this detail. But looking back, he immediately sensed something was amiss.
Upon further examination of the corpse, he immediately discovered another issue. The battlefield emergency told him Princess Magdalene’s time of death was at least two hours prior. However, a few minutes post-mortem, muscles begin to relax, skin changes color, and stiffens. This change appears quite distinct in the first hour, yet at that time, Her Royal Highness showed no such signs.
The key was that her skin, although cold, maintained a certain elasticity, as if she were in a healthy state. In Vaun, most pain and ailments are cured through herbalism and magic, so most people lack this biological common knowledge. Yet to Brand, these details were extraordinary.
So he quietly checked her pupils and was immediately shocked. In the state of death, Magdalene’s pupils were dull, like a once bright fire now extinguished. They appeared like a dead person’s gaze, but the pupils weren’t dilated, and crucially, in the depths of the eyes was a hint of light like the ember of an extinguished flame.
In Brand’s memory, only one kind of existence would show such a sign after ’death.’
That was the ember glow of a soul core, and only one kind of ’life’ needed it—a doll.
He was almost so frightened that he screamed at the time, thinking this Princess might be a substitute. But he quickly realized that was impossible because he immediately found that ’Wind Elf Clan silver ornament’ on this deceased princess, the same one he gifted her at the auction that afternoon.
If this doll were a substitute for Princess Magdalene, she would have had no reason to keep this item, avoiding any implication of having met Brand before.
Moreover, this Princess of Antobro, as a doll, was far too exquisite. Apart from the sole evidence in the pupils, nothing on her entire body showed signs of non-life. With flesh and blood, she was just like any ordinary person. Whether it’s wisdom, personality, or emotions, all were no different from a normal person.
Brand found it hard to believe that the girl who once discussed helping his close friend with him, and who possessed a resolute faith and pure heart, was a doll. But after Otarais, through him, examined carefully, they finally concluded that the other party was indeed a special existence very different from ordinary life.
To be precise, she was a very special doll. At least from Brand’s perspective, he had never seen such a marvelous life form; this Princess was obviously not the soulless, rigid Constructed Creatures.
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