Chapter 2805 Poetry Room Changes Hands <TOC>
Translator: SumTLMan
At that time, Aedannis already had several traces of the bearing she has now. Intelligent, elegant, cold, proud, and obsessive.
Moreover, Aedannis had already made a certain degree of achievement in magic formations at that time.
When the Sovereign of Wisdom and Aedannis first met, they talked a great deal about topics related to magic formations. Although, at that time, some of Aedannis’ understandings in magic formations were still very immature, her talent was astonishing. In the Sovereign of Wisdom’s estimation, it would not take long before Aedannis, in her attainments in magic formations, would surpass it and enter another height.
The Sovereign of Wisdom cherished talent and did not envy talent, because it was very open-hearted, and clearly knew that everyone had their own talents and strengths, and that this kind of innately bestowed spirituality was very difficult to obtain through envy.
Precisely because of this, upon their first meeting, the Sovereign of Wisdom’s impression of Aedannis was actually quite good.
It was only that, when they met for the second time, the Sovereign of Wisdom and Aedannis became at daggers drawn.
「It reached the point where you had to confront each other? Did she do something?」 Angel asked curiously.
The Sovereign of Wisdom let out a soft sigh: 「You should know that she called herself the 『Demon God of Mirrors』, then aren’t you curious as to why it wanted to do this?」
Angel thought for a moment: 「To steal the Warden’s treasure?」
According to the records they found in the underground church, what this group of believers who called themselves followers of the Demon God of Mirrors did was precisely for the treasure of the Lightning Warden.
But as for what treasure it specifically was, there was no record of it in the materials they found.
The Sovereign of Wisdom nodded: 「That’s right.」
The Sovereign of Wisdom was not surprised that Angel could guess the answer. Since Angel and the others could find the church of the Demon God of Mirrors’ followers, then finding the related records would not be difficult either.
「It is said that Nightfall City fell in a single night, but that is actually only a kind of exaggerated metaphor. In reality, how could it really have held out for only a single night? Nightfall City still had powerful lords specifically in charge of force, and also had magic formations, as well as various alchemy items. The amount of time it held out was not only one or two days.」
「As for exactly how long it lasted, I have actually forgotten as well. During that period, I was always in the sunless underground dealing with various affairs, and fundamentally had no spare time to calculate time.」
「However, I do remember that the time when the last living district in the underground sewers was breached was in the third year after Nightfall City outwardly fell.」
「From when the drastic upheaval occurred in Nightfall City to its fall, and finally to when all the living districts were breached and became deserted ruins, the time it lasted may have been as long as five years.」
Then several more years passed, before the Sovereign of Wisdom finally had time to go to the Parting Sky Poetry Room, and saw Aedannis for the first time.
At that time, the Sovereign of Wisdom did not know what Aedannis had done, and only felt that this was a very intelligent person.
But later, when the Sovereign of Wisdom was carrying out the follow-up handling work in the underground sewers, it was only then that it discovered that the residence of Warden Franklin had been damaged.
One must know that, even though Nightfall City had fallen, the Hanging Prison Stairs had not had any problems at all! The guards here were also not ordinary guards, and there were also monsters existing in the void, so who would dare lightly break into the Hanging Prison Stairs?
After the Sovereign of Wisdom’s investigation, it was finally discovered that it had been done by a group of people who called themselves followers of the Demon God of Mirrors.
These people had almost no other thoughts, and worshiped the Demon God of Mirrors with madness. In the Sovereign of Wisdom’s words, they were basically all fanatics.
Even if the Sovereign of Wisdom captured them, they would still use death to express loyalty.
In the eyes of transcendents, a person’s death does not actually mean the dissipation of information, and there are still ways to find clues. It was only that what surprised the Sovereign of Wisdom was that, even if this group of fanatics died, their souls were also a blank, without any memories. Their only memory was worship of the Demon God.
「The soul’s memories…… a blank?」 When everyone heard this, they seemed to think of something: 「Hollow People? Sea of Void Mirrors?」
The Sovereign of Wisdom nodded: 「That’s right, it was the Sea of Void Mirrors that caused them to lose their other memories, and only become fanatics of the Demon God of Mirrors.」
「However, at that time, I still did not know of the existence of the Mirror Realm.」
Later, the Sovereign of Wisdom investigated the emblem of the Demon God of Mirrors, and only after comparing did it discover that one of the figures on the emblem seemed to be Ouro, while the other looked very much like Aedannis.
The Sovereign of Wisdom thus came once again to the Parting Sky Poetry Room.
But this time, the Sovereign of Wisdom was turned away, and no one came out to see it. And the Parting Sky Poetry Room was not controlled by magic formations, so the Sovereign of Wisdom also had no way to force its way in.
「I used some methods, and in the end, I still forced Aedannis to show herself.」 The Sovereign of Wisdom did not say what methods those were, and no one asked either, because many things do not necessarily require one to get to the bottom of them.
「She admitted what she had done, but her reason was that she wanted to help the Noah family retrieve what belonged to Augustine. At the same time, she also wanted to retrieve Margaret’s things, and place them in the Parting Sky Poetry Room for better preservation.」
The Sovereign of Wisdom naturally did not believe her, because the Warden’s room had a magic formation, and it had never been destroyed by anyone. Even the Sovereign of Wisdom did not know the situation inside.
And Aedannis had directed those Demon God followers to destroy the magic formation. Who knew exactly what things she had taken, and what intentions she harbored?
The main reason the Sovereign of Wisdom did not believe Aedannis still lay in the fact that it was only their second meeting. The Sovereign of Wisdom had not yet figured out Aedannis’ background, so how could it believe her words?
The Sovereign of Wisdom wanted to see Ouro.
But no matter what the Sovereign of Wisdom said, Ouro did not appear. The Sovereign of Wisdom could only think of first taking Aedannis away, and then speaking of other matters.
Thus, there came to be the scene of the Sovereign of Wisdom and Aedannis being at daggers drawn.
However, they were only at daggers drawn, and there was no further result.
Because Aedannis fundamentally did not reveal her form. She spoke with the Sovereign of Wisdom from inside the mirror surface. Although, at that time, the Sovereign of Wisdom already knew about the Mirror Realm, it did not understand the Mirror Realm much. It forcibly shattered the mirror, yet still did not catch Aedannis.
In the time that followed, the Sovereign of Wisdom confronted Aedannis many times, but never succeeded in capturing Aedannis.
Moreover, as the years flowed by, Aedannis’ strength became stronger and stronger. The Sovereign of Wisdom did not want to see her continue growing, so it painfully hardened its resolve, and was determined to resolve Aedannis as soon as possible.
As for how the Sovereign of Wisdom planned to act this time, and how the process went, it did not explain in detail, and only spoke of the result.
The result was that it signed a contract with Aedannis, reached a balance, and this contract has remained in use until now.
Judging from the result, the Sovereign of Wisdom seemed to have suffered a loss, and in fact it indeed did suffer a loss…… but it was not without gains either. It was at that time that Younus was assigned to it by Aedannis in order to help the Sovereign of Wisdom clean the filth of the underground sewers and avoid accidents occurring in the magic formations. And not long after Younus came to the Sovereign of Wisdom’s side, there came to be the One-Eyed family.
Aedannis perhaps took into consideration Younus’ love for the children, or perhaps out of consideration for balance, and did not forcibly summon the One-Eyed family back. Thus, she allowed the One-Eyed family to be educated by the Sovereign of Wisdom, and in the end there came to be the present Big Treasure, Second Treasure, and Little Treasure.
Aside from Younus and the One-Eyed family, the Sovereign of Wisdom had one more gain, and that was Laplace’s friendship.
On this point, the Sovereign of Wisdom also did not explain in detail, and only touched upon it slightly.
However, since the Sovereign of Wisdom mentioned Laplace, everyone could not help but speculate that, when the Sovereign of Wisdom fought Aedannis back then, perhaps in the end it even entered the Mirror Realm?
In reality, the Sovereign of Wisdom perhaps could have easily defeated the Aedannis of that time, but in the Mirror Realm, that would be hard to say.
No wonder the Sovereign of Wisdom never mentioned what happened back then, and only spoke of the result.
By the time the Sovereign of Wisdom spoke to here, it could be considered to have simply sorted out the relationships between the Ruin Site, the Demon God of Mirrors, Aedannis, and itself. It did not continue any further, because it had already noticed that the confusion in everyone’s expressions was almost about to overflow.
「I can guarantee that everything I said above is true. If you have any doubts, you can ask now.」
After the words ended, the Black Count immediately took the lead：「What exactly did she take away? Why did she say it was helping the Noah family retrieve it?」
The Sovereign of Wisdom shrugged: 「Up to now, I also do not know. Perhaps Augustine’s notes? Or perhaps some other thing.」
「As for why Augustine’s things would be in the Warden’s room…… I seem to have said that Margaret was the Warden’s daughter, and they all lived on the topmost floor of the Hanging Prison Stairs. It is very normal for Augustine to have left things with Margaret.」
「However, Aedannis once said that she would hand these things to the descendants of the Noah family.」
When the Sovereign of Wisdom spoke to this point, it deeply looked at the Black Count and Vai, and then said: 「But you also know that, over these ten thousand years, Aedannis’ thoughts have also been changing. Her tests for Noah’s descendants became stricter each time, and in the end these Noah descendants basically all fell into the Sea of Void Mirrors.」
「This is also why the records your ancestors had concerning the Parting Sky Poetry Room became fewer and fewer, because the Noah descendants who knew these things were all washed by the Sea of Void Mirrors into Hollow People.」
「So, even if you go to the Parting Sky Poetry Room, whether she will ultimately hand Augustine’s things to you, this I cannot guarantee.」
As the Sovereign of Wisdom spoke, it also wrote all of its words into the True Word Book, showing that it had not lied.
The True Word Book had no reaction, and this also proved that the Sovereign of Wisdom truly did not know what Aedannis had taken away.
The Black Count looked at each word and each sentence on the True Word Book, and sank into deep thought.
At this time, Angel opened his mouth and said: 「When exactly was Aedannis born, is she a Mirror Realm creature, or does she belong to the category of spirit creatures?」
The Sovereign of Wisdom: 「When I first met Aedannis, she already had very high intelligence, and also had her own style of handling matters. She should have been born for a period of time already, or rather, before being born, she had already absorbed and learned a great deal of knowledge through constant exposure.」
「I do not know the exact time of her birth, but what can be confirmed is that she had never seen Margaret and Augustine’s true bodies. So, she should have only been born after Margaret and Augustine left Nightfall City.」
「As for what she is…… this I can confirm, she is not a creature native to the Mirror Realm. In reality, she has a true body. But what exactly that true body is, I do not know either, perhaps it is also a kind of mirror.」
Angel asked again: 「Then what about Ouro? What is Ouro?」
The Sovereign of Wisdom: 「Ouro is a spirit. What can be confirmed is that it is a spirit produced by some alchemy item. As for exactly what alchemy item’s spirit it is, I once asked Augustine before Nightfall fell, but Augustine’s answer was very vague, and only said that it was a mirror.」
「So, there is no mistake that Ouro is a mirror spirit. However, according to the information I have drawn out over so many years from Aedannis, as well as from Younus and the One-Eyed family, one matter can be roughly determined.」
「Ouro lost its true body.」
「This belongs to my speculation, so I will not write it in the True Word Book, but it is eight or nine out of ten.」
「Think about it, why Ouro basically never leaves the Parting Sky Poetry Room, and later did not even show its face anymore. I guess that most of the time it was in slumber, because after losing its true body, it could only use other methods to maintain its body unchanged.」
「Also, why Aedannis’ strength easily surpassed Ouro’s, because she has a true body, while Ouro has no true body.」
「As for why Ouro would lose its original body, my guess is…… that it was taken away by Augustine or Margaret. They thought they would return very soon, so they took away the alchemy item, but what they did not expect was that they never returned for so many years, causing Ouro to have no body, and become weaker and weaker.」
「The master of the Parting Sky Poetry Room has now also become Aedannis.」
These words were all the Sovereign of Wisdom’s guesses, so it did not write any of them in the True Word Book. But everyone did not care about this, because, from the Sovereign of Wisdom’s point of view, after the Nightfall incident, it had seen Ouro once, and after that, for ten thousand years, had never seen it again. It truly was very difficult for it to know these things, and the only thing it could do was speculate.
At this time, Daus also raised a question: 「Then, what exactly is the relationship between Ouro and Aedannis?」
This question was asked in a way very much in Daus’ style.
However, this also happened to be the question everyone was concerned with.
As for this question, after pondering for a moment, the Sovereign of Wisdom only then said: 「The last time I saw Ouro, he introduced Aedannis to me.」
「The words he used when introducing Aedannis were these」
「Her name is Aedannis, I am her guide.」
「And Aedannis’ reaction was also very interesting. She said 『I do not like this name.』 Ouro then said 『But this is the name the master gave.』」
「Aedannis then continued to retort 『But I have never seen the master, my name should be decided by me myself.』」
The Sovereign of Wisdom paused: 「This was the situation of the only time they ever spoke of the other.」
Here, the master Ouro spoke of referred to Augustine. Augustine was also an alchemy prodigy, and Ouro was the spirit produced by one of the works he refined.
According to this kind of inference, Aedannis may also have been some item refined by Augustine that eventually gave birth to a spirit, it was only that, at that time, Augustine had already left. However, before leaving, Augustine had already given a name to the spirit that might be born, namely Aedannis.
And when Ouro said that he was Aedannis’ guide, in other words, it was like the relationship between a guide and a talent, he was teaching Aedannis the meaning of existing in this world.
That is to say, for Aedannis, this newborn blank sheet, he was instilling a worldview, values, and moral values.
Of course, Ouro was not too qualified in serving as this guide, because Aedannis was clearly not someone who simply obeyed and submitted. She had an extremely strong selfhood, and did not even like the name Augustine gave her.
Moreover, as time passed, the Sovereign of Wisdom also saw the change in Aedannis’ attitude toward Noah’s descendants. She even dared to launch attacks on Noah’s descendants, and no longer held herself out as a 「guardian」.
This was also the reason why the Sovereign of Wisdom felt that Ouro, as this guide, was not competent.