Chapter 18: Respect the Elder and Love the Young!

This place…

Miss Vilyric raised an eyebrow with keen interest, observing the surroundings. Her vision was far superior to that of ordinary beings, so even in the dim light of night, she could see her vicinity clearly.

Towering trees and plants grew thick on both sides, and the stone steps beneath her feet were quite old and uneven, as if giant stones had simply been smoothed and moved here to be embedded in the ground.

There were no buildings in sight, but the rough stone steps forming a path proved that humans, or at least intelligent beings, had indeed set foot here.

At that moment, Edwina’s astonished gasp sounded beside her.

“This is it! Miss Vilyric, I suddenly found myself here yesterday! Although the scenery looks different at night, I can still recognize a few landmarks, so I can’t be mistaken!”

“Mm.”

As soon as she noticed the rising smoke and that sudden spatial shift, Vilyric recalled what Edwina had said before. The force of this transfer was quite considerable, even surpassing the mirror reflections in the Forgotten Land, feeling more like they were covered by an independent space—specifically, the space within the smoke—directly completing the environmental transition.

Honestly, it felt a bit like the descent of a divine kingdom, but a divine kingdom couldn’t possibly be this limited in scope, and some details differed, so Vilyric didn’t shatter it with her divine power immediately. Instead, she planned to see what the other party really intended to do.

This change… was somewhat beyond her expectations.

Originally, Vilyric had only taken an interest in the girl named Lan Tuls, intending to gather some intel from this clearly high-status individual…

As for the insistence to engage in a fight, well, let them fight; there would always be a chance to chat afterward.

Since there was a certain lady queen backing her, it didn’t matter if things got a bit chaotic.

At least, Liliya was definitely unaware that incorporating poachers into the regular army was something that couldn’t be tolerated or allowed, as the higher-ups in Demon Town had concealed many things from the royal capital.

Back to this place.

There was no doubt this was a special dimensional space independent of the current world. As soon as Vilyric entered, she had already scanned it with her Spiritual Points (sp); it looked surrounded by mountains, but in reality, it was all an illusion. The only real entity was the mountain beneath their feet.

Or rather, conceptually speaking, all the mountains were essentially the same.

That’s why Edwina couldn’t get out no matter which way she went.

Moreover, this place gave Vilyric a strange feeling; just using sp to cover it didn’t seem to fully grasp the entirety of the mountain. A peculiar force lingered in the space, somewhat interfering with the Priestess’s probing.

That force seemed akin to a mental intent; simply put, it was sp or the power resembling the divine soul mentioned by Xi Fu Lin, repelling Vilyric’s similar type of exploration spontaneously.

While it wasn’t impossible to forcefully break through, those thoughts seemed intertwined with this place. Messing around could likely cause the entire independent space to collapse directly.

Given the unclear situation, it was best to avoid acting recklessly.

“By the way, aren’t we missing two people?”

Vilyric scanned the surroundings. Aside from herself, Xiao Guang, Leila, Renée, Edwina, and Tilysha were there, but the bangs girl and Uncle Lester, who had previously stood with them, were nowhere to be found.

This discovery made the black-haired girl frown slightly. They had been in a tense situation outside, always on the brink of conflict. It was fine for them to be there, but now…

Leila awkwardly raised her arm. For some reason, since coming here, her and her sister’s wings had naturally appeared.

“Miss Vilyric, they may not have been transmitted here, and this place…”

Just then, a clear, silver-bell-like voice suddenly rang through the forest.

“Hehe, humans are not allowed to enter the sacred refuge, so don’t worry, they’re safe and not fighting those human armies~”

“Wah! There’s a ghost!”

The weakest, green-haired, blue-eyed girl trembled and darted behind the Holy Knight, daring to peek out with just her little head, nervously searching for the source of the voice.

It wasn’t entirely her fault. In a pitch-dark night in the mountains, suddenly hearing an unknown girl’s voice, coupled with the earlier bizarre change in scenery, was indeed quite eerie.

“What kind of ghost is this? How awful! If they hadn’t stepped in before, you would have been caught by those humans! You should thank Lady Tiyelu!”

“Lady Tiyelu…?”

Vilyric turned her gaze and quickly focused on a silver butterfly no bigger than her palm, perched on the edge of the path.

Although the voice seemed to come from all directions, that was merely an illusion. The Priestess recognized the trick right away, stepping forward to easily catch the little butterfly, which had just started to flap its wings in panic.

“Did you bring us here?”

“Wh-why can you… how dare you! Let go of Lady Tiyelu, you disrespectful little girl! My precious phosphor dust! Ah, you’ve scraped it all off!!”

“?”

The black-haired girl curiously looked at the little butterfly, struggling futilely with its wings held tightly, while she rubbed her finger across the powder and observed it closely.

Indeed, this was the silver powder residue they had found last night at the Holy Knight’s place when an unexpected event occurred.

“Edwina, were all the butterflies you saw in the mountains yesterday like this?”

Staring at the pinched-wing butterfly for a while, Edwina hesitated and shook her head.

“No, when I came here last time, it was daytime, and while those butterflies were colorful, I’ve never seen wings like this silver one… Strange, where did the other butterflies go?”

“Of course! It’s late at night; don’t butterflies need to sleep? And you, you annoying little girl, don’t think you can do whatever you want just because you avoided suppression! If you don’t let go of Lady Tiyelu, we’ll kick you out of the sacred land!”

Wow, this person has quite the temper…

By the way, what does suppression mean?

It seemed the little butterfly was reaching its limit of patience, even the silver-bell-like, clear voice carried a hint of frustration. Vilyric felt it polite to stop bullying such a small butterfly.

Since Lester and the others were fine, she decided to trust this creature just this once; after all, even if something went wrong, the Priestess could fully make up for it.

With that thought, the black-haired girl finally loosened her grip.

“Hmph…”

Once back on the low tree branch, the silver butterfly flapped its wings for a while, seeming to feel a bit better. Although it had no expression, Vilyric could sense its seemingly aggrieved state.

“Uh… um, Lady Tiyelu?”

The Priestess tentatively greeted.

“What? I told you it’s Lady Tiyelu! You younglings, have you no basic respect for the manager of the sacred land?”

The manager of the sacred land… A frail little butterfly?

Holding back the urge to scoff, realizing that squabbling with this creature was a complete waste of energy, Vilyric could only squat down helplessly, looking level with the tiny butterfly.

“Alright, alright~ Lady Tiyelu, how did you know we were in danger here and at the critical moment brought us into this… um, sacred land? Have you been secretly following Edwina since yesterday?”

“Edwina? Who’s that? Oh… you mean that light-element little girl? Lady Tiyelu didn’t have the time to fixate on some youngling, I just happened to see her stumbling toward the human encirclement. Not wanting such a promising seedling to perish just like that, I pulled her in casually; the manager is very busy!”

   

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