Chapter 88: The Hidden Arrow in the Night

It was as if Pandora’s box had been opened; once this line of thought began, it quickly spiraled out of control.

If this were truly not Ban’s intent, but rather someone deliberately placing this item in the ring, that person must meet two fundamental conditions.

First: They had to have recently interacted with this item, allowing them to rightfully remain beside Ban without raising his suspicions.

Second: They needed the capability to obtain this letter and secretly place it into the bound and sealed pseudo-holy artifact, the “God’s Guardian Ring.”

Generally speaking, putting something into a storage space is simpler than taking it out. As long as the cover is sufficient, it is possible to not be discovered by Ban in a short period, after all, who would check their personal ring repeatedly every day?

But that is something only a strong individual could achieve.

However, the only person who could be closely associated with Ban, obtain this letter, and possess the strength and devious means—the only one that came to Vilyric’s mind was the “Throne.”

Is the “Throne of Immortality” secretly trying to sabotage Ban? Are they having an internal conflict?

Moreover… how did they know that Ban’s ring would be stolen by Plakaka, and at just the right moment, prepare everything for this frame-up?

Calling it a frame-up may not be entirely reasonable; after all, this is indeed what Ban has done and should rather be called an exposure or revelation.

Regardless, she still needed to give this to Liliya…

No.

Doing so would make her feel as though she was being led by the nose; there was something about it that made her uncomfortable.

Maybe she should just hold onto it for now and observe the situation.

With her mind made up, Vilyric stuffed all those items, along with the “God’s Guardian Ring,” into her inventory and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

It was nearing 11 PM.

After the discussions wrapped up, Liliya had been in her palace, deliberating with her confidants and trustworthy subordinates about the upcoming action plans and the concluding ceremony for quite a while.

Seeing the worried expression on the princess’s face, Vilyric decided to linger a bit longer.

By the time she returned to the inn, it was already close to 10 PM.

Although the Divine Race didn’t require much sleep, the human habit made Vilyric usually sleep a few hours at night.

Besides, the City of Courage was under curfew during this period at night, and without sleep, there wasn’t much else to do.

She couldn’t possibly spend all night just playing with her pet, could she?

“Alright, Xiao Guang, let’s prepare for lights out now. No rolling around in bed tonight; I woke up this morning with a whole dragon on top of me! Otherwise, next time, you’ll just have to go back to your pet space to sleep.”

“Wha—?!”

Upon hearing the first half of her sentence, the Little Dragon Daughter wiggled her huge tail excitedly, but the following warning completely flattened her, and she looked up at the Priestess with pleading, watery golden eyes.

“Master, I fell asleep! How could I keep track of such things? It was all unconscious actions in my dreams, waaa…”

“Unconsciously using your tail to tie someone up like a rice dumpling?”

Vilyric shook her head helplessly. In the end, she could not bring herself to be harsh. No matter what, she was quite fond of her little pet, to the point of spoiling her.

After all, Xiao Guang was her only true companion on this journey through worlds.

“Just at least don’t lick my face with your tongue. Even though you’re a dragon, hygiene matters… huh?”

Whoosh!

Before she could finish speaking, a shadow suddenly flashed through the inn’s window, heading straight for Vilyric’s face!

The Priestess remained calm, instinctively turning her head, but before the shadow could reach her, Xiao Guang struck first, firmly gripping the object in her hand.

It was an ordinary crossbow bolt.

“Which bastard dares to cause trouble?!”

The Little Dragon Daughter was instantly furious!

This level of weaponry didn’t even compare to the first warning shot she had seen, just an ordinary human archer’s level—likely could be easily intercepted with mithril or adamantine-grade armor.

Even for Xiao Guang, who valued her master’s dignity greatly, it would be hard to see this as an attack.

It felt like the Giant Dragon was angry over something else…

However, Xiao Guang knew how to control herself and didn’t crush the arrow in fury.

For hanging on it was a small leather pouch clearly meant for carrying something.

“That way, Xiao Guang!”

Vilyric signaled with her eyes, and the Little Dragon Daughter immediately understood, leaping from her bed to crash through the small hole made in the window and disappearing into the night in an instant.

Glancing at the ordinary arrow left haphazardly on her bed, Vilyric first removed the small pouch from it before jumping out of the window herself, extending her white wings in pursuit.

When she caught up with Xiao Guang at the building’s rooftop directly across from the inn—approximately a few hundred meters away—the golden-haired dragon stood in the cold wind of the night, frowning at a crossbow perched on the railing.

“Did you find anyone?”

Vilyric folded her wings and landed, but found that on the rooftop, there were only the two of them and no sign of anyone else—the heavy iron door leading downstairs was tightly shut, and there was nowhere to hide.

“No, Master. By the time I arrived, this was all that was left.”

Following Xiao Guang’s gaze, Vilyric approached the crossbow and kneeled down to examine it for a moment.

The orientation of this thing was undoubtedly aimed at the room where she and Xiao Guang stayed; the previous shadowy arrow had likely been shot from here.

If there was someone operating this thing shooting into their room in the night and then swiftly escaping… frankly, Vilyric thought it was quite improbable.

When that arrow pierced the window and was intercepted by Xiao Guang, the Priestess had already reacted and deduced where the attacker might have been hiding.

At that moment, she didn’t sense any significant life energy; after all, this was during the curfew, and apart from patrolling soldiers on the streets, there were no civilians mixed in, so blending in was not an option.

Given Xiao Guang’s speed, if someone could easily escape the tracking of her sacred crystal dragon in such a short time, they would either have to be at least a level 100 expert or possess some peculiar artifact.

In comparison to such a situation, Vilyric found a more plausible explanation: that there had been no one there from the start.

When she had arrived, Vilyric remembered it seemed to be a private villa of a noble, but for some reason it had been abandoned, so there were no occupants.

Next to the crossbow, there was a long, curling mark on the ground, resembling a scent trail after incense sticks had burned.

The remnants of the burning material had already been swept away by the strong wind atop the rooftop, but its end was undoubtedly attached to something.

“Xiao Guang, go nearby and see if there are any burned objects, but be careful not to alert the patrolling soldiers.”

“Okay, I understand, Master.”

Seeming still a bit reluctant, the Little Dragon Daughter shot an angry glare at the crossbow leaning against the wall before directly leaping off the five-story villa rooftop.

Taking this chance, Vilyric conducted a brief search around and found no footprints or traces of magic; it seemed that whoever set up this crossbow was extremely cautious and had left no clues behind.

Who could it be…

   

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