Broadcasting Live From Inside An Eldritch Horror Game

Chapter 70: The First ’Obelisk’. Part-4.

Hearing Layla’s words, Xinran pouted a bit and replied in a dissatisfied tone.

"Tch, as expected of a cunning old witch, there are so many shady tricks up your sleeve..."

Layla only smiled at those words and replied calmly,

"Anyone who can survive in this land of death and calamity without being corrupted would have at least a few trump cards in their possession..."

"Aren’t you the same? You have almost the entirety of the royal treasury in your possession... nearly all of the artifacts of the royal family of the Jauregia Empire are now in your possession..."

"I believe there’s no one in this world who has more trump cards than you..."

At Layla’s words, Xinran became even more dissatisfied and couldn’t help but speak up in annoyance.

"Oi! Did you have to reveal this in front of little Zephy!? I was planning on using those artifacts to do a surprise ambush on him, you know!"

With how casually and jokingly Xinran revealed the fact that she was planning an ambush against him, Zephyr couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine.

’Such confidence... It seems she has at least one or two artifacts in her possession that can pose a fatal threat to my existence...’

For someone to openly reveal their plans right in front of the enemy, there can only be two scenarios in play.

Either the planner is a fool who likes to act high and mighty by revealing their plans to the opponent,

Or the planner is extremely confident about their own success and doesn’t even care whether the plan gets leaked or not, as it has a guaranteed success rate.

Xinran revealing her plans to him was a subtle warning from her to Zephyr; she was telling him that even if he has gained the blessing of the ’Obelisk’ and has awakened mana, he must not underestimate her.

She was trying to declare that she could still go toe-to-toe with him even after he had become stronger and had a certain chance of even killing him under particular conditions.

’As expected of someone who has lived for over a century... Both of them are cunning foxes, with each being more dangerous than the other...’

Zephyr had fought Xinran before, and the only reason he had survived was because of an accident.

’Thankfully my bad luck is highly contagious and has helped me avoid disaster...’

Having bad luck was also a kind of protection for the current him in a sense, but it was also a hindrance in his ’Path’ of enhancement, so Zephyr wasn’t willing to rely on it.

"Talking about artifacts, what can this obelisk be used for once summoned?"

"All the abilities you told me about seem to be passive abilities that will work even when the obelisk isn’t in a summoned state... There must be a reason why the obelisk can be summoned in the physical form, right?"

Hearing Zephyr’s question, Layla’s eyes brightened, and she nodded in acknowledgement as if she were happy that Zephyr asked such a question.

"As expected of someone who managed to complete the ’Trial,’ you are smart and have a good intuition, unlike a certain someone..."

While praising Zephyr, Layla didn’t forget to jab at Xinran and show a teasing smile on her beautiful face while glancing at Xinran briefly.

Xinran was obviously not stupid, and she immediately noticed the underlying mockery in Layla’s tone, causing her to grit her teeth.

"OKAY, you are really asking for it now. I was planning on keeping the conversation more easygoing, but you not only revealed my secret stash of artifacts; you are even mocking me now!?"

"I wasn’t going to say it, but now that you have decided to bring out the cards, I won’t hold back either!"

Xinran glared at Layla fiercely, but due to her beautiful face, her glare only appeared cute even when she tried her best to appear angry and intimidating.

"Little Zephy! You might not know, but this old witch is not as pure and innocent as she looks!"

"Let me tell you the real truth! This old hag has a taste for young boys, and she’s a top-level pervert!"

"When the Jauregia empire still existed, she had dozens of men in her harem of varying ages! She even almost ruined her ’heroic’ image in front of the entire capital at one point!"

"If not for the fact that my brother stepped out to clear her name, she would have been known as the ’Perverted Hero,’ not the ’Defeated Hero’!!"

Hearing Xinran’s words, Zephyr’s jaw almost fell on the floor from shock as he felt as if his worldview had been shattered!

The good image of Layla that had formed in his mind was torn to shreds by Xinran’s words extremely violently!

"Th-this!?"

To Zephyr’s surprise, Layla didn’t even appear angry or the slightest bit shaken after Xinran revealed her deepest secrets out loud in the public; instead, she calmly sipped her tea and replied in a calm voice,

"Back then I was too young and immature... Also, I was fighting on the frontlines every single day; to relieve stress, I ended up going the wrong way..."

"But after being saved by the general, I immediately realized my shortcomings and swore my absolute loyalty to him and the royal family."

"I swear on my pride as a knight that after that day I have never done anything disgraceful."

Xinran sneered at those words and spoke loudly.

"Hah! Bullsh*t! A carnivore can’t just suddenly turn into a vegetarian just because it had a change of heart!"

"I have no idea how you seduced my brother and coaxed him into getting engaged to you, but I have never recognized your moral integrity in my heart!"

"The only reason I even considered you a friend was because you had helped the nation deal with many dangers and difficulties in the past!"

"How can a person who has had a harem of dozens of people be satisfied with being loyal to just one person! That’s just bullsh*t of the highest level!"

At Xinran’s words, Layla narrowed her eyes for a moment, but then her expression returned to normal right away as she shook her head while saying,

"A person like you who has never fallen in love with anyone in her entire life and hasn’t even been in a relationship before can never understand the power of love..."

"Love and protection are some of the strongest ’laws’ of the ’World’... they are powerful enough to even overpower corruption in terms of raw force and influence on the very existence of the ’World’..."

"You have never even held a man’s hand; you know nothing of the change that ’Love’ can bring to a person..."

Layla glanced at the ring on her ring finger, and a faint smile appeared on her face as the sweet memories of a long-gone past flashed back in her mind.

"Although I had sullied my existence with degradation and lust, the love I had for him... was beyond mortal desires... Our bond was more than just physical attraction..."

Zephyr didn’t know whether he was right or not, but his intuition was telling him that the feeling of care and love that Layla showed on her face when caressing the ring on her finger was definitely one hundred percent real.

She might really be a perverted beast under the skin of a ’hero,’ but even she had once loved someone from the very bottom of her heart and soul.

’To think that the pure and innocent-looking Layla had a completely opposite personality to what she looks like... as they say, never judge a book by its cover...’

In fact, what surprised Zephyr the most was the fact that the insanely seductive and flirtatious Xinran was actually more reserved and inexperienced when it came to relationships compared to Layla, who was supposed to be a pure hero.

’Sigh, as expected of a twisted and unpredictable world like this... you never know what kind of situation you might encounter in this place...’

’There are countless incomprehensible horrors roaming around everywhere in this world, so it’s not strange that the people living here are also weird and unpredictable to some extent...’

Seeing that the situation was getting out of hand, Zephyr coughed loudly to bring the two ladies’ attention to himself and asked,

"Calm down, you two; let’s not point fingers at each other and get back to the main topic. Pointing fingers at each other and engaging in a verbal conflict is not beneficial to any of us right now..."

Zephyr pushed the plate of sweets on the tea table towards Xinran lightly in an attempt to calm the other party down, but unfortunately Xinran ignored the sweets and kept pouting while glaring at Layla.

"Ahem... Sir Zephyr is right; we seem to have digressed to a rather unimportant topic. Let’s get back to the main topic of this meeting..."

Ignoring Xinran’s intense glares, Layla maintained her usual calm smile on her face as she looked into Zephyr’s eyes before speaking.

"As far as I am aware, there’s only one way to use the ’Obelisk’ in its physical form..."