Chapter 51: The Final Trap

As Silisa suddenly ambushed the rebellion, killing or severely wounding Alec and the merman guards under Anies’s command, the situation changed subtly yet again.

The alliance that was originally cooperating to suppress Willipol had inadvertently collapsed, morphing into Hong Yan and Miss Le Qiao Qiao, Willipol and Silisa, the isolated Your Majesty, and the unknown intentions of a certain Pirate King.

With events reaching this extent, rescuing Princess Nitira as originally planned was certainly impossible. Unable to grasp the situation, Hong Yan could only take precautions with Miss Le Qiao Qiao and observe Your Majesty’s next moves.

After all, even though Willipol’s earlier words were merely conjecture without evidence, upon further reflection, they seemed quite reasonable. Even if they were not the truth, it was likely that Nitira’s abduction had something to do with Anies.

The crucial point was that Your Majesty appeared to have already suspected that Silisa was problematic, yet still brought her along for this operation. The previous warning had clearly come too late, resulting in Alec and those guards being severely injured or even killed. What does this signify?

Just as the other party said, was the purpose of this rescue mission truly that simple?

Hong Yan couldn’t judge, but since she could treat her own kin with such disregard, what position did they outsiders hold at that moment?

Having figured this out, while they weren’t to the point of becoming enemies with Your Majesty, the two girls didn’t dare expose their backs to Anies’s gaze like before. Even if this was precisely the outcome Willipol wanted to guide them toward, there was nothing they could do.

However, it seemed like Your Majesty was unfazed by their subtle vigilance and didn’t bother to summon other forces for support. Clearly, the process of rescuing Nitira had been interrupted by changing circumstances, yet she remained composed and steady, not displaying any impatience or panic.

She merely turned her gaze to the Sea Priest who was holding Rashid hostage and had joined forces with Willipol to occupy a spot beside Nitira, calmly stating,

“Therefore, you are the mole who secretly brought out Willipol’s Book of Truth and handed it to Nitira, guiding her here, right?”

Seeming a bit surprised by Your Majesty’s demeanor, Silisa, still standing behind the previous merman king, slightly nodded.

“Indeed, Her Highness possesses an exceptionally high purity of royal blood. She stands out even among the past royal courts. As long as I find an excuse to hand over the book in advance, once she has some leisure time, her bloodline will naturally lead her to open the Book of Truth and come to this side of reality.”

“With my relationship with Her Highness, accomplishing this task was not difficult. After the incident, no one would suspect me. Isn’t it a brilliant plan?”

Glancing at the Merman Girl undergoing the sacrifice rite, which had been rapidly changing with the influx of blood from the previous merman guards, Anies frowned slightly.

“But you have betrayed Nitira’s trust; she has always regarded you as her sister.”

Hearing this, Silisa was momentarily stunned but then elegantly chuckled, as if unable to restrain herself.

“Your Majesty, you might be the last person qualified to say that in the entire Emerald Sea Region. My sacrifices alongside King Willipol were made for faith, to combat the evil god. What about you? As Her Highness’s mother, you personally pushed her into hell, just to destroy the most crucial sacrificial offering in the plan?”

“Do you know how surprised I was to hear about this? To be honest, before that, I had always thought of you as a gentler ruler than King Willipol and even considered assisting his plan. Yet, your actions made me finalize my decision.”

At this point, Silisa no longer concealed her disdain and disgust, directly mocking in an exaggerated manner.

“Sacrifice one to save millions of lives in the Emerald Sea? Oh, how noble it sounds! But when you aim to preserve those poor citizens, are you thinking of them or the crown that trembles under the shadow of the evil god?”

“Ha… seems I had some misunderstandings about you, but sadly our paths have crossed…”

Anies smiled yet didn’t argue back. Instead, she suddenly changed the subject.

“Do you know, Silisa, that I’ve actually suspected you were Willipol’s mole in the East Sea Pearl for a long time? Remember when I mentioned that after Nitira’s disappearance, I thoroughly investigated everyone who had close contact with her during those two days? You were among them…”

“However, at that time, I still couldn’t fully confirm you were a traitor, which is why I deliberately sent you and Alec to invite the most suspect Miss Vilyric under the surface and instructed Chief Longbei to prepare that sacrificial rite, pretending to search for Nitira’s whereabouts.”

“In truth, I was very aware of Willipol’s plans. Even when Nitira went missing, I had already inferred the general situation without needing to resort to such methods to find her.”

“The reason for this decision was twofold: one, to show goodwill to Miss Vilyric and establish a cooperative relationship; two, to finally confirm your identity.”

“I knew that the ceremony you were preparing required a large amount of Mingjiao blood, along with some corrupted item as a sacrifice. One person alone, namely your daughter, was insufficient. Hence, it required borrowing the hand of ‘the Ghost’ to plunder through war and killing.”

“Miss Vilyric’s appearance forced you to initiate the ritual early, so the Mingjiao blood and sacrifices were undoubtedly still lacking. You had to somehow lure more Mingjiao to come here to get them killed.”

“Just as I expected, you immediately sacrificed over ten heavily corrupted clansmen during that ceremony to fill the final gap, while also feigning to reveal Nitira’s location, guiding us to attempt a rescue.”

“Do you know, after that, I secretly inquired with Alec about the process of your invitation to Miss Vilyric?”

“He told me that you hinted along the way through seemingly casual remarks that those outsiders were likely the culprits behind the princess’s disappearance. That’s why he got so angry when he met them, nearly causing a violent conflict.”

“Although you later pretended to stop Alec, this action indeed deepened the underlying conflict between both parties. The simplicity of your goal was just to minimize their cooperation with my clan and especially the possibility of coming to rescue Nitira without exposing yourself.”

“From that moment on, I completely confirmed that you were the traitor planted by Willipol among our ranks.”

“…?”

In the astonished exchange between Silisa and Willipol, Your Majesty continued calmly.

“Did you think I hadn’t held any so-called sacrificial rites before to not see what was summoned back then as ‘the god’?”

“That obscure and shady entity couldn’t possibly be the real Sea Goddess. And as a priest, you could only summon what you clearly believed in. Therefore, the so-called god in your mouth originated from the same source as the ‘ghost’ troubling us; it could never be something good!”

“Afterward, I contacted Rashid and personally led the clansmen to rescue Nitira, while secretly being honest with Miss Vilyric during the process, thus gaining as much assistance from her as possible, forcing you to see her come with us and compelling you to gamble everything and immediately begin the sacrificial rite.”

Your Majesty cast a disdainful glance at the progressively awkward expressions on the faces of the two, like a wise strategist observing two unknowing pawns on the chessboard.

“Sure enough, everything went just as I and Miss Vilyric predicted. You initiated an irreversible sacrificial rite, connecting to that so-called god of belief.”

“Do you know what I felt when I sensed that dreadful aura coming from this place? It wasn’t shock, but relief. You had no way out and had fallen into the real trap!”

“Now that the vessel is in place and all the sacrificial offerings are prepared, your bizarre faith, which was once formless, will finally, under guidance, turn into something tangible, won’t it?”

Anies’s regal eyes abruptly turned serious and solemn as she slammed her staff heavily on the ground!

“You thought you were paying such a great price and sacrifice for what, exactly?”

“This brutal war that has plagued the Emerald Sea for years, your obsessive and insane belief, Willipol, will today be definitively concluded!”

   

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