Chapter 132: Two Sides of the World

“Continent?”

Edith paused for a moment, surprisingly affirming Vilyric’s statement.

“Eight hundred years ago, when I was adventuring with my companions, I did indeed see something similar in a ruin far to the west of the continent, from a tattered book. However, the writing didn’t belong to any known language, and we could only take note of the information, which we later stored in the royal library.”

Furrowing her brow and thinking for a moment, the Gold-robed Girl spoke hesitantly.

“According to some of the later decoded content, I remember… it mentioned that the world we live in was once called ‘Dream Continent.’ But because the translation was too difficult, and the content was incomplete, it wasn’t valued highly, and we didn’t continue.”

“Dream Continent…?”

As she pondered the oddly familiar name, Vilyric eagerly pressed on.

“What about the transcription book that recorded this information?! Is it still in the royal library?”

If it were, with her relationship with Liliya, the Priestess would definitely need to borrow it. This could be a significant secret!

With the translation glasses on, language barriers wouldn’t be an issue!

However.

“Uh, unfortunately, around three hundred years ago, just shortly before the dungeon was completed, there was a devastating fire in the palace. At that time, many precious texts and collectibles were reduced to ashes, including the original and transcription of the book.”

“Because no one could understand the incoherent content, we didn’t make many backups, and it’s likely been lost forever.”

Edith blinked, a curious expression on her face.

“Miss Vilyric, could it be that what’s on there is very important to you?”

It actually burned down…

The girl, leaning forward slightly in excitement, leaned back, and after a while, opened her mouth.

“To say it’s important… maybe not exactly, but I think that thing might record some special secrets; I’m a bit interested. But since it’s already destroyed, it can’t be helped.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t able to help. If it had been in the royal language, I might have been able to restore part of it from memory.”

“No worries. Just hearing the name ‘Dream Continent’ is already a significant breakthrough.”

At that moment, Vilyric suddenly remembered the green serpent-shaped mark she had been in contact with in various ways since she arrived in this world, and also something she had forgotten to ask about that she received from Ban.

She took out the token engraved with the green serpent and placed it on the table.

“Miss Edith, do you know what this is?”

After waiting a few seconds, the Guardian still had her head down, her gaze firmly fixed on the strange black token, not making a sound.

“Huh?”

Feeling something was off, Vilyric raised her voice a bit.

“Miss Edith?”

“Ah! Sorry, I was lost in thought…”

The Gold-robed Girl lifted her head, and Vilyric couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something slightly defensive about her appearance.

Before the Priestess could speak, Edith looked at her with a rather serious tone.

“Where did you get this?”

Noticing Edith’s unusual demeanor, Vilyric didn’t hide anything and quickly described how she got it from Ban, the information she had tricked out of the Demon cult, and the content Rebecca had mentioned casually.

She just didn’t explicitly say how she had opened the ring with a semi-artifact.

By the way, she also took out the silver key to ask for help identifying it from the royal ancestor.

After hearing this, the Gold-robed Girl’s wariness gradually eased, and she rubbed her head as if in a headache.

“That brat Ban is really too reckless; he just touches anything… sigh, it seems the Rebecca you mentioned is indeed an envoy of the Dusk Council, no wonder she possesses power that even I find challenging.”

After scrutinizing the two items for a while, Edith set them down.

“I’ve never seen anything related to this key before, nor do I know what it is, but based on the tightly arranged patterns and angles around it, it seems it should be used to fit into some larger object.”

“Yeah, I think so too.”

Edith’s viewpoint coincided with what Vilyric had discovered through her skill—“One of the Key of March”—but if even the kingdom’s Guardian, who had lived for eight hundred years, had never seen this, then it seems they would only be able to figure out its function when all three keys were truly gathered.

Despite the fact that Guardian has stayed in the City of Courage for eight hundred years, she must have traveled a great part of the world when she was younger, gaining vast knowledge and undergoing countless life-and-death trials; otherwise, she wouldn’t have reached such transcendence as a human.

Seeing that the Priestess had no further reactions, the Gold-robed Girl paused and brought up the previous topic again.

“As for this token, as Miss Vilyric guessed, it is a symbol used by the envoys of the ‘Dusk Council.’ And the serpent on it is the ‘World-devouring Serpent’ Jörmungandr, a mythological beast that once swallowed the sun, moon, and stars, plunging the world into darkness and destruction.”

“The specific details of the myth are unclear, but the ‘Dusk Council’ indeed uses the ‘World-devouring Serpent’ as a totem and symbol, and this organization has existed for a long time.”

Edith paused again and added,

“At least longer than the United Kingdom has existed.”

“Unlike the ‘Throne of Immortality’ that recently troubled the royal capital, the ‘Dusk Council’ is small in number, with a rather loose structure, consisting only of ‘Envoys’ and ‘Envoy Representatives.'”

“I know about the ‘Throne of Immortality’; the ‘Dusk Council’ is indeed far more powerful than the former, or rather, the two simply cannot be compared.”

“Huh?”

Edith’s comment about ‘completely incomparable’ surprised Vilyric.

After all, the ‘Throne of Immortality’ has no less than 12 legendary members, and the top three have even reached transcendence. Though Vilyric could deal with Rebecca like she was a child, the strength she showed would normally make it quite easy to take down four or five legendary figures.

If the power of the ‘Throne of Immortality’ wasn’t scattered across the world but gathered altogether, it would probably be a threat to the royal authority in any country.

If that was still far inferior to the ‘Dusk Council,’ doesn’t that make all countries and races merely a joke in comparison?

Edith, who easily picked up on the thoughts in the Priestess’s mind, smiled and corrected her.

“I believe Miss Vilyric is wondering why such a powerful organization has remained low-profile and hasn’t interfered in any country’s internal affairs to establish their own power, right?”

“It’s actually quite simple. Do you know why the ‘Dusk Council’ has both ‘Envoys’ and ‘Envoy Representatives’? The ‘Envoy Representatives’ are, in a sense, substitutes for humans, while ‘Envoys’ themselves are not present in this world.”

“They exist outside the world.”

“Perhaps they are sealed off by the gods or simply exist in another space, difficult to cross into, or for some reasons I’m not clear about…”

“But, the ‘Envoys’ cannot easily come here.”

   

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