Volume 6 Chapter 158

Volume 6 + Chapter 158: The Black Bird

“How are you feeling, Princess?”

“Ugh… Atiya, you, you… ah!”

“Should I increase the pressure?”

“Eep… ugh…”

“Since you have no objections, I won’t hold back then!”

Atiya’s tail coiled around Xia Yi’s tail and began to exert force, pinning the silver tail against the table and declaring the winner of the contest.

“Damn it, I lost again!!”

Exhausted, Xia Yi slumped across the table, utterly discontent.

In the tail-wrestling matches, she still could not beat Atiya.

Despite training her tail diligently every day during this period, she remained a fair distance behind Atiya.

“Princess, you’ve done remarkably well. Compared to when you started, you can now hold out for much longer,” Atiya praised. “Back then, you would topple over at the slightest push!”

“Really?”

“The improvement is obvious, you can now last three full minutes against me.”

“Of course! Give me a little more time, and I’ll surpass you, Atiya!” Xia Yi declared with brimming confidence.

“I look forward to that day, Princess,” Atiya replied.

Several days had passed since Xia Yi’s promotion.

In a remarkably short span, she had risen from a mere frontline grunt to a central figure in the Maginot military, a speed that left everyone astounded.

Many suspected she had pulled some strings…

However, the leader of the Maginot Fortress, Yuren, personally intervened, using his authority to silence all the gossip and publicly endorse Xia Yi.

With that, no one dared to say much more.

Atiya had also been promoted alongside her and was now serving as Xia Yi’s personal guard.

“I can’t go on, my whole body aches… let’s stop here for today.”

“Princess, allow me to massage your shoulders.”

Atiya hurried to Xia Yi’s side, crouched down, and began her maid service.

“Atiya, your fingers are so nimble~”

Xia Yi wore a look of utter contentment, savoring the release of tension.

“Princess, what shall we do next?” Atiya asked. “Do we have any more missions to carry out?”

“According to Yuren, we don’t need to do anything now but wait,” Xia Yi explained. “Once the underground city’s renovations are complete and it’s linked to the entire Maginot Fortress, and once the energy is replenished, we can activate it. I will use the miniature core processor to coordinate the magical circuits, allowing the flying mobile fortress to cross the Yadan Plain and head for the World Tree to the north.”

“The World Tree is under the control of the Elf Princess Eve, right?”

“Yes. Eve is most likely the master of this aberrant Elven Kingdom. I will try to communicate with her and obtain the Life Water.”

“Princess, just hypothetically, what if the Elf Princess refuses to give you the Life Water? Or what if…” Atiya paused, “what if she is determined to destroy the world?”

“…”

Xia Yi fell silent.

In truth, she had not deeply considered these possibilities.

From what she knew of Eve, the elf had few personal desires, and there seemed no compelling reason for her to destroy the world.

She believed that Eve must have encountered some difficulty or been corrupted by something, much like Miu Miu had once been, which explained the drastic contrast in her behavior.

“If that truly happens, I will find a way, Atiya,” Xia Yi said. “Eve once helped me. If she is in trouble, I will try to help her too.”

“Good, then I believe in you, Princess!” Atiya smiled. “I’m sure you’ll do what you always do, win over all the other princesses and queens from other nations!”

“Huh? Win over?”

Xia Yi was momentarily puzzled by Atiya’s phrasing.

“Come to think of it, Princess, I haven’t seen that succubus around these past few days. Did she run off?” Atiya asked curiously. “It seems no one else has seen her either.”

“Right, Ella really has been missing lately.”

Xia Yi turned her head and looked at Ella’s bunk.

When exactly had that succubus, who was always scheming mischief, disappeared?

She thought carefully, it seemed that from the day after she had force-fed Ella all that cream, Miss Succubus had not appeared at all.

“Did Ella run away?” Xia Yi wondered. “Did she really just vanish without a word?”

“Princess, if the succubus wanted to escape, she would have to get past the Maginot Fortress guards. With her ability to put guards to sleep, no one could stop her,” Atiya added. “However, during this time, there have been no reports of any guards neglecting their duties in the Maginot Fortress.”

“So Ella is hiding somewhere…”

Xia Yi turned it over in her mind but could not reach any conclusion.

Forget it, she would not dwell on it.

After all, Ella was a strange demon. She might just pop up again on her own at some point; they would deal with it then.

“Princess, it’s getting late. Shall we rest?”

Atiya had finished the massage and released Xia Yi’s shoulders.

Xia Yi glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and nodded. “Yes, let’s rest.”

…

…

Late at night.

Xia Yi lay in bed, staring at the pitch-black ceiling, still unable to fall asleep.

She was suffering from insomnia tonight, her mind replaying the conversation with Atiya, about Eve…

She recalled a prophecy once circulated in the Elven Kingdom, about the black-haired elf who would bring destruction.

Could this have any connection to Eve?

Creak… 

Suddenly, Xia Yi heard the sound of a window opening.

She quickly sat up and saw an unexpected sight on the windowsill.

A black bird stood there, silently watching Xia Yi.

The jet-black bird did not resemble an ordinary creature, its entire body was pure black, so dark that even the light of the bright moon could not illuminate its form.

Instantly, a nearly instinctive sense of repulsion welled up in Xia Yi’s heart.

This feeling was familiar.

It reminded her of the black butterflies she had seen before, creatures of a very similar kind.

“What… is this?”

Xia Yi climbed out of bed and walked step by step toward the black bird.

Suddenly, the black bird flapped its wings, took flight, and headed out into the night.

“Wait, don’t go!”

Without even changing out of her pajamas, Xia Yi grabbed a jacket, threw it over her shoulders, and leaped out of the window in her slippers, chasing after the black bird.

Through the nocturnal city, the black bird flew across the night sky, leading her to a quiet garden.

There, she saw a black-haired elven girl sitting in a tree, as if she had been waiting for her for a long time.

“Eh? Is that… Eve?”

[Translator’s Note: Please join the Gravity Tales’ Discord Server, if you want to hang out.]

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