Volume 6 Chapter 162

Volume 6 + Chapter 162: The “Wise” Atiya

Eve lowered Xia Yi to the ground, resting her against the tree trunk.

She gazed at the silver dragon girl for a while, then reached out and tidied her somewhat disheveled bangs.

“Xia Yi, I truly know so little about you. Your past, I have begun to grow curious.”

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing?”

Suddenly, Eve heard another voice.

She turned to find a blue dragon woman standing not far away, glaring at her with fierce hostility.

It was Atiya.

She had woken at her usual midnight hour and found Xia Yi absent from the room, the window left open. Worried, she had gone outside to search for her princess.

Out there, she detected mana markers left by Xia Yi, likely intentional, and followed them all the way here, only to find an unfamiliar black-haired elf and an unconscious Xia Yi.

“Step away from Her Highness this instant!” Atiya charged forward.

“A dragon? An outsider, Xia Yi’s personal maid, I presume?”

Eve had heard that in the Dragon Kingdom, a formidable corps of royal maids served the dragon imperial family.

The blue dragon before her must be one of them, having accompanied Xia Yi to the Elven Kingdom of Transmutation.

“Take this!”

Atiya swung a punch at Eve, but the moment she met Eve’s gaze, her body froze as if struck by a pause button, her pupils trembling.

“Ordinary people who get too close to me are affected by the Authority of Greed,” Eve warned. “Just like those elves who slaughtered one another over their desires.”

“Ngh… ah… my head!”

Atiya clutched her skull and howled in agony.

Something intangible seemed to worm its way into her body, igniting the mad desires buried deep within her heart, steadily eroding her reason and threatening to turn her into a ravenous beast.

“Greed’s desire will devour your emotions.”

“If that’s the case… Gyaaah!!”

Atiya did something astonishing.

She emptied her mind completely, rendering herself incapable of thought, an idiot devoid of cognition.

Her once intelligent and elegant countenance was now replaced by a vacantly “wise” stare. Her mouth drooped open, tongue lolling out, drool dripping, head tilted in foolish bewilderment as she let out a string of inane giggles.

“Hehe, hehe, hehehehehe~”

“You…?”

Eve was taken aback.

Having become an empty-headed fool, Atiya harbored no desires, and thus could not be corrupted by Greed into a savage beast.

“RUA!!!”

Atiya drew twin blades from beneath her skirt and lunged at Eve once more.

The plant beasts standing by intercepted her, swarming forward to subdue her.

Though her mind was blank, Atiya relied on instinct etched into her very body, she dodged and weaved through their attacks, slicing them down like mowing grass with her dual swords.

“Incredible. To abandon thought and yet still fight so effectively,” Eve marveled. “To think such a peculiar person exists in this world, truly eye-opening.”

“Ooooooooh!!”

Atiya broke through the ring of plant beasts with her blades and finally reached Eve.

But just as her weapons were about to strike, the black-haired elf’s body dispersed into a flock of black birds that took to the skies and flew off into the distance.

“Hehe, hehe, hehehehehehe!!”

The demented Atiya stood there giggling foolishly for a long while, for in her idiotic state, logical thought was impossible, before she finally retrieved her wits, snapped back to her senses, and hurriedly wiped the drool from her chin.

She rushed to Xia Yi’s side, scooped up the silver dragon girl, and dashed toward the military medical tent.

“Princess! Princess! Hold on, please, hold on!”

—

Eve returned from the Maginot Fortress to the World Tree in the north.

“Your Majesty, welcome back.”

The Dragon Envoy, waiting beneath the tree, stepped forward and bowed upon seeing Eve return.

“Dragon Envoy, have you been waiting here for me all this time?”

Eve was surprised, she had assumed the Envoy would have left after she departed from the World Tree.

“Yes. I have been awaiting your return, guarding the Tree so that none with ill intent may approach.”

The Dragon Envoy replied.

With half her face concealed behind a mask, Eve could not tell whether she was lying.

“Now that Your Majesty has returned, I shall take my leave and return to my own domain.”

The Dragon Envoy bade farewell and turned to withdraw.

But as she passed by Eve, one sentence from the elf made her stop in her tracks.

“Dragon Envoy, go and do as you wish,” Eve said to her.

“…”

The Dragon Envoy fell silent.

“The three great Envoys are different from ordinary data-entities. You were all created using the Waters of Life and the Authority of Greed, you are my works, and observing you is part of my experiment.”

Eve spoke softly:

“The Human Envoy believes himself to be the true sovereign of mankind, the Death Envoy cares for nothing but slaughter… And you, Dragon Envoy, what will you become?”

“Your Majesty…” The Dragon Envoy’s emotions were turbulent.

She turned back, and beneath her mask, her silver eyes gazed deeply at the black-haired elf’s silhouette. Then she closed her eyes, unleashed her true dragon form, and departed.

Watching the Dragon Envoy fade into the distance, Eve smiled and walked toward the World Tree.

There were still important matters to attend to.

Within the vast ocean of data held by the World Tree, she needed to find any information pertaining to Xia Yi, to understand her past.

And there was one more crucial point.

Eve knew full well that she was committing an act of world-annihilation. When the world faced its doom, a savior would rise, regardless of the outcome, that savior would fight with all their might to preserve life upon this land.

This was the World Tree’s final warning, triggered when, after corrupting and inverting it, the Tree sensed the coming apocalypse.

Of course, Eve had ignored the warning, believing that no one in this world could oppose the power of a legendary beast. And so she continued her work.

Yet after meeting Xia Yi, she had grown curious, wondering if that savior might be Xia Yi herself.

The Agent of Greed placed her hand upon the trunk of the World Tree and immersed her consciousness into the sea of information, beginning her search.

It was no simple task, it would take considerable time. She needed to comb through every historical detail related to the savior.

—

After many days and nights, Eve opened her black-haired eyes beneath the morning sunlight.

She had obtained vital intelligence.

“I see… so the savior’s identity is…”

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

[https://ko-fi.com/golden_dragon]