Chapter 176-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
On November 20th, the Pope's Palace suddenly announced a state of martial law. Bishops from various districts returned to the Imperial Capital and gathered at the Sei Curia. Meetings were held continuously for three days, causing a huge uproar throughout the empire.
Ye Fanjing had been thrown into prison for various crimes such as bribery and fraud that were exposed during the public opinion war. Pope Wen Jian, who was accused of murder, remained behind closed doors. Protests against Pope Wen Jian in the lower district were ceaseless, and there were even voices suggesting that the Saintess, Ye Zheng, was the one who should be sitting in that position.
The Pope's Palace would only enter martial law during special periods, such as when the empire faced a strong threat, or during the sensitive time of a papal transition.
Rumors spread that Pope Wen Jian had angered the gods due to his misconduct and was on the verge of death, and that the next Pope would soon take office.
This theory gained widespread acceptance. Everyone was guessing: who would be the next Pope?
Would it be someone from those few great noble families, or... was it possible that the empire would welcome its first female Pope?
Inside the base, Ye Zheng, who carried high hopes, was currently practicing swordsmanship.
Before the descent of the Demonic Domain, practicing swordsmanship was a knight's daily routine, and they took pride in exquisite swordsmanship. Although current knights were all ability users with various attack methods, the tradition of swordsmanship was preserved as a symbol of the knight's spirit.
Ye Zheng glanced at her right hand, which was gloved in black. She rotated her wrist nimbly, and the sword tip stabbed quickly towards the hanging wooden block. The blade, fast enough to leave only an afterimage, swept past the wooden block, barely grazing it each time without raising a single woodchip.
"Have you heard? The Pope's Palace is under martial law!"
"I heard, everyone on the forum is discussing it. Is the Pope really going to change?"
"It should be true. Even the bishops from the other districts have rushed back."
Two knights passed by the training ground, whispering to each other. Seeing Ye Zheng, they immediately stopped and bowed respectfully, "Greetings, Your Highness the Saintess."
Ye Zheng withdrew her sword and stood up straight, nodding slightly at them. "Go on with your work."
"Yes!"
The two knights left quickly with excitement on their faces. It was obvious that they were also supporters of Ye Zheng.
Ye Zheng watched their retreating figures, her eyes slightly darkened. The situation was developing faster than she had imagined. Wen Jian couldn't sit still anymore; he was anxious to hold the inheritance ceremony.
"Is Wen Xin's hype going too far..." Ye Zheng muttered to herself.
She took the towel handed over by the attendant, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and turned back to the room.
Sitting at the desk, Ye Zheng spread out a piece of paper. On it were the clues she had sorted out about the Colonna family and Riley over the past few days.
Riley Colonna, the illegitimate son of the Colonna family. His mother was a lowly maid who died of illness early on. He was brought back to the Colonna family but was not valued. He awakened an ability at the age of eighteen, but the rank was not high, only C-rank.
However, Ye Zheng intuitively felt that this person was not simple.
She recalled the scene she saw that day on Sunrise Street. That "White Letter General Store" that appeared out of nowhere.
She had sent someone to investigate afterwards. There was indeed a shop at that location, but it was a "White Letter Tool Shop", selling some daily hardware tools, not a general store.
But that day, she clearly saw a general store.
"Cognition..." Ye Zheng wrote down this word.
She suspected that Riley's ability was related to cognition or illusion.
She recalled the details of that day again. She was looking for the White Letter Tool Shop at the time, so [Fantasy Land] became the tool shop in her imagination.
When she thought of "White Letter General Store" and went to look for it the second time, her perception of shops in the upper district and lower district mixed together, so she saw a strange general store.
Ye Zheng held the pen and wrote on the paper:
Rule #1 of [Fantasy Land]: What you think is what you see.
However, the knight she sent went with the intention of finding a tool shop but couldn't see any tool shop, and the vast majority of ordinary people were unaware of that shop. This indicated that there were trigger conditions to enter [Fantasy Land].
She successfully saw it when she was looking for the White Letter Tool Shop and the White Letter General Store. After she mentioned "White Letter General Store" to a passerby, that passerby also saw it.
The common point was "White Letter". Perhaps the words "White Letter" were the key point.
But Ye Zheng couldn't be sure yet whether one must have the cognition of the words "White Letter" in their mind, or if anything related to "White Letter" could lead her to find [Fantasy Land]. For example, the white carrier pigeon statue Riley gave to Percy. Ye Zheng didn't think it was just a simple gesture of winning him over.
Ye Zheng thought for a moment and wrote down Rule #2 of [Fantasy Land]: "White Letter" is the key to entering [Fantasy Land].
Finally, there was the point Ye Zheng considered most terrifying about this ability—it would cause long-term confusion in people's cognition.
Judging from the property certificates investigated from the Colonna family, the White Letter General Store did indeed exist in that place originally. But after Riley turned it into [Fantasy Land], the White Letter General Store actually disappeared from everyone's cognition.
Not only that, Ye Zheng looked down at the black glove on her right hand. This was...
Comments
Post a Comment