Chapter 298 Venom
What a grand chaos, what a dramatic scene.
Joshua Valerian staggered back a few steps in horror, and the wine that he had not yet taken a sip splashed out of the golden cup, flowing freely on the ground, mixing with the owl's blood.
The Silver Helmets Knights had surrounded the King and Queen in the center, and the encirclement of the Royal City Army was getting tighter and tighter. Seeing everyone looking at him with strange eyes, Valerian's face turned pale, and he suddenly realized how dangerous the situation he was in at the moment.
“—Oliver!”
Gibson Wyatt, Vice President of White Tower University, stumbled over. His old friend was lying flat on the ground, the exposed half of his face still maintaining a normal appearance.
Wyatt knelt on the ground, his hands shaking, trying to help the man up. The first time he failed, so he tried a second time - the old man's eyes were wide open with anger, his teeth were clenched, staring blankly at the gray sky, as if he was about to jump up and wave his fist at someone.
If it weren't for the fact that all his flesh and blood were melting at a speed visible to the naked eye, it would have looked like he had just fallen.
"—stay away from him! His blood is poisonous now!"
A group of people hurriedly dragged Wyatt to his feet, forcing him to leave the owl's body on the ground. The Royal City Army surrounded the corpse. Under the horrified gaze of the crowd, the flesh on the corpse melted at a visible speed. Soon, only the white skeleton remained, and it was even more decomposing.
It was undoubtedly extremely poisonous, even extremely vicious, as if the poison had a deep hatred for the victim.
The professor stood there, watching the scene in silence. Countless people hurried past him, screaming, crying, roaring, questioning... but he seemed to hear nothing. He simply watched the pool of blood slowly trickling from the feet of the Royal City Army. The warm blood seemed to flow endlessly until it overflowed his head.
The people of Kite Heart Square were plunged into panic and indignation over the death of this strange old man. Just minutes ago, Silver Iris had gained a new saint. For ordinary people, it was like hope for liberation from the shadow of war; for sorcerers, they seemed to see another possibility to escape the increasingly gloomy and confusing Dharma Ending Age. But mere minutes later, those hopeful illusions of the future were reduced to a rotting skeleton, all hope utterly shattered.
The torrent of bewildered fear surged higher and higher, finally transforming into a tide of irrational anger, trying to find a gap and roaringly pouring out.
—Murderer! Yes, we must find the culprit who destroyed all hope, that sinister murderer, that hissing venomous snake!
No one knew who took the lead, but soon, anger swept across the entire Iris Square like a storm: "It was Valerian! He was the one who handed the wine to Lord Owl!"
"It must be because he couldn't win the debate, so he took the opportunity to poison me!"
"—A sinister traitor! He betrayed the Silver Iris Empire!"
Of course, there were some minor doubts, such as why the Cardinal would poison his opponent in public. But if he could be ruled out, the next suspect was His Majesty the King—and so the crowd surged toward the Cardinal. The Royal City Army held back the furious crowd, but they couldn't stop the spitting curses, the rocks and shoes aimed at the Cardinal's head.
Before this, who would have thought that a distinguished cardinal would be so shameful in public?
Joshua Valerian's face turned livid. He gritted his teeth, dodging awkwardly, forcibly suppressing the urge to retaliate. Even as a cardinal, he couldn't wantonly massacre the king's subjects in front of so many people, let alone many respected scholars and nobles among them.
He was distracted and heard a loud bang. A dirty wooden shoe hit the cardinal on the head, making him stagger.
“—That’s enough!”
A loud roar of anger resounded throughout the entire Kite Heart Square. The white-haired Pope slammed his scepter heavily. Everyone was blinded by the overly bright light and had to stop where they were, covering their painful eyes with their hands.
Azuka frowned, quickly pressing the head of the person beside him into his arms. These priests were just like their god, Zephyr, always taking advantage of the human body's brief period of adaptation to light.
His gaze slowly passed over Mariono Sablic, and the old pope suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. He turned his head sharply to look at the crowd, but saw nothing except people covering their eyes and wailing.
But now wasn't the time to delve into this matter. Seeing everyone forced to calm down, the Royal City soldiers and the Silver Helm Knights holding down their weapons, glaring at him with eager eyes, the old man raised his arms and spoke in a stern, commanding voice, "The Owl Lord's untimely death is extremely unfortunate, but the circumstances surrounding his death are intriguing. How can we jump to such conclusions? Blind anger and suspicion will only allow the true murderer to escape justice!"
Valerian clutched his still-bleeding forehead and, grimly swearing, gritted his teeth and said, "I swear on the Ockensele River that I absolutely did not poison the wine!"
"Perhaps you poisoned the wine glass?" a noble, eager to watch the fun, scoffed, "Can you swear that you have never, under any circumstances, harbored any murderous intent towards Lord Owl?"
"Let's go."
Azuka was startled for a moment, then lowered his gaze to the man he'd held in his arms, his head pinned to the ground. He wriggled free, rubbing his brow wearily. "We've already finished what he wanted us to see. If we keep watching, the Royal City Army will probably search everyone present."
The savior said nothing, but used his warm palms to gently gather his enemy's messy black hair behind his head, again and again, as if it were some kind of silent comfort.
"Sir, do you want to take this away?" he asked softly, and then, like a magic trick, he took out from behind his back an owl mask that had been forgotten by everyone on the podium.
Nova was stunned for a moment, then took it subconsciously.
The furry hood stayed quietly in his hand, looking at him. Its yellow gemstone eyes were bright and cold, as if it were still alive. There was even a little sticky raspberry jam stuck on the feathers on its chin, which smelled very fresh. It was probably accidentally stuck on it during breakfast today.
"...No." The professor was silent for a moment, then slowly declined, "Someone will definitely remember to look for this later. If it disappears, it will only cause more trouble for us."
Seeing those blue eyes looking at him tenderly and compassionately, the black-haired young man pursed his lips and added, "Besides, he left me other relics."
"Okay, I'll put it back where it belongs," Azuka replied softly, rubbing the back of the other man's neck.
…
Jophiel Yialos, who was far away in Port Morris, was still unaware of the chaos in the royal city, but the Silver Helmet Knight Commander was still caught in a very complicated situation.
He received a secret order from the Queen, Her Majesty told him that the time had come. Now that the New God and the Ghost were not in Port Morris, he had to take advantage of the opportunity to deal a major blow to Port Morris, the lair of the People's Party. All the spies left in Port Morris would cooperate with him.
Yialos didn't understand why he was hesitating. His mistress was intelligent, decisive, and cold, completely different from the men and women in the royal city whose brains and bones had been softened by wine and honey. So much so that when he first laid eyes on the suspect suspected of being connected to the Shadow Chaser, he had, in a trance, caught a faint glimpse of something strangely familiar in the depths of her smoky gray eyes—the arrogance and confidence that came from believing she could control everything, coupled with a coldness and indifference that saw through everything.
The Knight Commander's fingers subconsciously fumbled with the wax seal on the secret letter. Her Majesty's orders could not be disobeyed, and this was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Even if he had no fear of death, he still lacked the confidence to successfully sabotage it under the eyes of those two.
No, perhaps this was a flaw the ghost had deliberately left for him, or some kind of trap to force him into? Given his intelligence, it was unlikely that he would leave a dangerous person like him alone in Port Morris without any precautions. There had to be some trick going on… No, no, he had to explain to Her Majesty the Queen, he—
——Yialos, your old problem has come back again, always thinking too much.
The Knight Commander's arms drooped as if weakened, and he stood there silently, like a lifeless statue.
"Yialos? Yialos!"
A child's voice chirped in his ear, and the Knight Commander's eyes fluttered. He saw a freckled boy approaching, shaking his arm without fear. It was the boy he had "bribed" with candy before, the farmer's son, now an "apprentice dragon rider."
"Why are you standing here alone in a daze?" The boy named George looked at him nervously, with a group of sneaky-looking children following behind him.
"...What are you going to do in groups instead of attending classes?" The Knight Commander's brows slowly furrowed. It should be school time now.
"Teacher Seth is busy, so today's class is cancelled, so we plan to secretly go to the dungeon to see the dragon!" A little child said excitedly, and then was hugged by his nervous companion and his mouth was covered tightly.
"Okay, now you know." The leader George rolled his eyes at his companion's unreliability.
His eyes rolled, and he suddenly approached the Knight Commander slyly, lowering his voice to discuss, "Hey, Yialos, why don't you come with us? You like dragons too. Don't you want to see what the Doom Lord looks like?"
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