Chapter 64: The Black Half-Faced Mask
"Eighteen days ago, the first scene I saw in this world was the ceiling here."
Sylvia, who had already walked up to Adela's side, wanted to raise her head to look at the other person's face, but felt that doing so might ruin the atmosphere. So she took two more steps forward, positioning the two of them back to back.
"You... you are..."
Adela felt as if her heart was about to explode.
What on earth had she gone through in just a few short hours?
"Alright, you have now understood my identity, so you should also recognize your own current status."
"Don't you think so? Follower of the Outer God?"
"Machinery above all, no, Your..."
Adela, who had instinctively wanted to pray, abruptly stopped her foolish action, while Sylvia secretly curled her lips in her heart.
Theoretically speaking, you were praying to the God of Industry and Machinery. If you truly received His attention, perhaps it might even be considered a good thing.
"Alright, as I said, since you cannot resist, then enjoy it peacefully."
Sylvia turned around and patted the other's shoulder.
"Also, remember to keep it secret. After all, I didn't casually add those confidentiality clauses into that 'agreement'."
"Alright."
Adela forced a smile that looked even worse than crying.
Seeing this, Sylvia chuckled softly and continued speaking:
"Besides, don't be too pessimistic. Working for my Lord may not necessarily be a bad thing."
"You can take a look at Isabella — that little girl in the room just now. Her body contains my Lord's divinity."
"Divinity?"
Hearing this term, Adela froze instantly.
"So you know."
Sylvia's smile became meaningful.
"That's even better. It saves me from too much explanation."
"If you do well enough, after repaying your debts and accumulating contributions, the door to the demigod rank will open to you."
"Trust me, in this era, this is the fastest and easiest opportunity for your life to undergo a fundamental transformation."
Adela gradually fell silent. In the end, she nodded heavily, and the fear and anxiety on her face completely subsided.
This almost made the corner of Sylvia's mouth twitch.
Tsk, what a realistic person.
After a sigh of emotion, she turned her gaze to the surroundings.
"When I descended, I was taken in by those Knights of the Tribunal from the Radiance Church due to my lack of adaptation to this body, and thus failed to notice the peculiarity here."
The gray-haired puppet girl looked with interest toward a corner of the hall.
Then she stepped forward, leisurely walking in that direction.
"Uh, what did you find?"
Behind her, Adela asked cautiously.
As she gradually came to better understand the identity of this childhood companion, she grew even more fearful.
"Don't use honorifics. Try to act natural toward me... hmm, at least behave like you did when you first saw me."
"This is an order."
Sylvia didn’t turn around. She simply raised her right hand and waved twice.
Dealing with those people from the Radiance Church and with Lakdevo was exhausting enough; there was no need to let Adela behave so nervously as well.
Hmm... but perhaps her current behavior had something to do with herself?
Earlier, she had indulged a bit too much in her theatrics. Looking at it now, it might have been a bit over the top.
But it didn’t matter.
"...Alright."
Adela paused for a moment before responding.
Hearing her voice, Sylvia nodded with satisfaction, then pointed to the corner and said:
"I found something quite interesting."
"Looks like those Tribunal Knights assigned to clean up didn’t do their job thoroughly."
Saying this, she reached the spot she had pointed to and bent down to pick up an object from the floor—
It was a black half-faced mask.
In the darkness, it was easy to overlook, as similar objects could be found lying near the spots where corpses had previously fallen.
"What... about it?"
Adela tilted her head, showing a confused expression.
"It’s special. Just like your necklace, it’s special."
After carefully examining it for a while, Sylvia reached this conclusion.
At that moment, Adela began to study the half-faced mask closely, and her expression gradually turned somewhat odd.
A few seconds later, she hesitated and said:
"Um, I feel like it looks familiar."
"Familiar?"
Now it was Sylvia’s turn to feel puzzled.
"Yes, I seem to have seen it before, but I forgot when."
Frustrated, Adela ungracefully slapped her forehead with her hand.
"..."
"Perhaps it also came from Ulpus, together with 'Sylvia'."
The gray-haired puppet girl smiled and casually said this before putting the half-faced mask away.
Then, she looked at Adela and continued:
"You don’t seem to be in a good state. You can rest here for a while… hmm, we’ll return to the City of Alova later."
"Alright."
After so many ups and downs, Adela, somewhat exhausted, nodded and walked toward the pile of scattered spiritual materials.
Only these lovely little things could now bring some comfort to her heart.
Seeing this, Sylvia’s lips curved into a smile as she walked toward the seat at the top of the steps.
Just then, Adela’s slightly curious voice sounded:
"Um... well... Your Highness, why did we come here?"
After thinking for a long time without figuring out how she should address her, Adela chose to follow the way that noble girl had used.
Hearing this question, Sylvia turned her head a little strangely:
"The Manifest Realm, while having coordinates that correspond one-to-one with reality, has chaotic distances and directions between those coordinates."
"If you take one step east in the Manifest Realm, when you return to reality, you might find you’ve actually moved a hundred meters west."
"Haven’t you studied related knowledge in mysticism?"
Adela, who had only raised the question out of nervousness and awkwardness, gave an embarrassed laugh and explained:
"I was too nervous and forgot."
Casting a strange glance at her, Sylvia returned to her seat and sat down, waiting for her spirituality to recover.
...
Half an hour later, Sylvia slowly stood up and nodded toward Adela, whose expression had clearly returned to normal.
"Um... Your Highness, how should we go back?"
She voiced her question, while muttering silently in her heart: We’re not going to walk back, right?
"Through the River of the Dead."
Sylvia replied with a smile.
"Eh? Not through the Manifest Realm?"
Compared to the dangerous Manifest Realm, she was even more reluctant to deal with the River of the Dead, which was so closely linked to the concept of death.
"No."
"The positioning of coordinates between the Manifest Realm and reality is extremely difficult, and those coordinates constantly reorganize and change. Except for a few extraordinary individuals with special paths, no one would choose it as a method of rapid movement."
"Moreover, that Outer God is right at the corresponding coordinates there. It doesn’t dare enter reality, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be lying in wait. Do you really want to face it again?"
Sylvia spoke with a smile.
Because locating coordinates in the Manifest Realm was an extremely draining task for spirituality.
Compared to traversing the River of the Dead, which had its consumption significantly reduced after obtaining the Right Eye of the Gloomy Moon, she was not willing to trouble herself with the taxing process of Manifest Realm leaps.
"No."
Adela hurriedly shook her head.
"Then, to save time, we can only choose to travel through the River of the Dead."
"Trust me, I am also an expert in the domain of the God of Death. Nothing will happen."
As she spoke, a strange glow surfaced in her right eye.