The two stared at each other in silence across the long table.
After a moment, Isolde unhurriedly raised her hand.
At her cuff, the inconspicuous button glowed faintly.
The 【Secret-Peeking Button】 detached from the black lace trim of her sleeve and fell into her palm.
It looked incredibly ordinary, like a minor ornament sewn haphazardly onto any old piece of clothing.
But only Isolde knew that without it yesterday, she might not have been able to secure any benefits from Ur's contract.
She pinched the button between her fingertips and tossed it.
The button zipped across the long table, and Ur reached out to catch it, his movement as light as catching a gold coin.
Isolde said coldly, “I will leave it in your safekeeping for now. I will retrieve it in the future.”
Ur looked down at the button and rubbed it gently with his finger, looking like a greedy man who had just acquired a treasure.
He slipped the 【Secret-Peeking Button】 into the innermost pocket of his cloak, pressing his fingertips lightly against the opening.
A ring of tiny contract runes surfaced, then quickly vanished.
“Of course,” he whispered. “I look forward to that day.”
Ur pushed the silver box forward, sliding it along the long table to Isolde.
The two teleportation stones lay quietly in the box, gray-blue mist flowing slowly within them.
【Transaction Complete】
【Lost: Secret-Peeking Button】
【Obtained】:
【Teleportation Stone: Grey Dove Monastery Back Mountain Corpse-Transport Path】
【Teleportation Stone: Crow Candle Castle】
【Notification: Teleportation stones are single-use consumables. Please use them with caution.】
Isolde looked at the last line, still feeling a bit of a sting.
But spending money like water and replenishing it through robbery was the basic logic of this world; she would have to slowly get used to it.
Just then, outside the dining room window, a thin line of white light flickered faintly deep within the gray mist.
The white light was far away, yet it was as sharp as a blade, slowly slicing through the outer shadows of the castle.
Ur said slowly, “The monastery has already begun probing for the castle's coordinates. Miss Isolde, you do not have much time.”
Isolde stood up and looked down at the teleportation stone in her palm. Within the gray-blue mist, the mountain path piled high with body bags was becoming clearer and clearer.
“Lia, completely hide the castle from the outside world while I am away.”
She then looked at Ur and instructed, “Also, take good care of Mr. Ur.”
Lia bowed respectfully. “Yes, Milady.”
Lia led Ur away, leaving the two teleportation stones lying quietly on the table.
Isolde stood by the window, gazing at the churning gray mist outside the castle, feeling inexplicably uneasy.
The Grey Dove Monastery was different from Crow Candle Castle.
The castle was a nest of bones she was familiar with, an old chessboard left behind by Valen.
But the Holy Court was different. It was draped in light, and the more a place was draped in light, the harder it was to see the shadows.
Isolde looked down, her fingertips lightly touching her own face.
Her current face and title were far too conspicuous.
Even if she just stood at the monastery's entrance and did nothing, the people of the Holy Court would probably immediately raise their holy emblems and roast her on the judgment stand.
Not to mention, Ur had also said that the Northern Witch Hunters, the Black Tower, and a squad of Descenders might go as well.
Running into any of these three groups would be a massive headache for her.
Isolde closed her eyes and began to use her disguise ability.
【Witch's Mask】
Ever since she absorbed the Castle Authority, this passive ability had changed along with it.
Several outlines even surfaced in her mind for her to choose from, all of them souls she had consumed.
Isolde looked at Zheng Chuan's coarse face and crossed it out without hesitation.
Too stupid. Luo Qi wouldn't do either.
That face looked like it belonged to someone who would be beaten up in a dark alley before being interrogated.
Meng Yinyin, on the other hand, was viable.
A female mage, not particularly eye-catching, with traces of using basic holy light skills.
With a few minor adjustments, she would be perfect for masquerading as a rogue mage to infiltrate the monastery's outskirts.
Isolde's fingertips hovered over Meng Yinyin's shadow.
Just as she was about to make her choice, a ripple suddenly spread through the deepest darkness, and a fourth figure emerged.
The person stood far away, like a child who had done something wrong, shrinking uneasily into a corner.
She had a frail build, her black hair tied back with a common plastic band. Her face was somewhat pale from prolonged hunger and terror.
She wore a tattered novice coat, with old wounds on the back of her hands. Hidden in her eyes was too much cautious, pleasing submissiveness, and... an almost humble desire to survive.
Yu Lingye.
The Yu Lingye of her past life.
Isolde's breath hitched slightly.
She had not expected the 【Witch's Mask】 to be able to extract even the past she wanted to gouge out the most.
She expected even less that her most authentic, intuitive soul profile would still look like this.
The shadow stood in the darkness, as if it had been forcefully dragged back to the living world from the very second before she was devoured by the tide of serpents in her past life.
She did not speak. She simply stared quietly at the current Witch with those desperate, confused, yet fragile eyes that clung to survival.
Isolde's outstretched hand froze in midair.
She thought she had already forgotten this face, but seeing it again, her chest still felt as if it had been lightly struck by something.
An extremely complex sensory revulsion surged in her heart like a tide.
She instinctively wanted to turn her head away because she hated this shadow.
She utterly detested the Yu Lingye of her past life—the one who had been cowardly, submissive, and had ground her own dignity into the mud just to beg others not to abandon her.
That useless fool, whose head was filled with modern kindness and politeness, who had ended up being toyed with in the palm of others' hands in this cruel world, and who had only learned to identify crystal ores by the time she died, was the greatest disgrace of her life.
Yet, the moment she wanted to avert her gaze, her heart suddenly throbbed with pain.
That was her, after all.
It was the child who had once gone to school step-by-step in a modern society and had harbored hopes for the future.
It was herself, who, even when pushed into the deepest part of the mud, had gritted her teeth, shed tears, and desperately wanted to live.
Though she was weak and foolish, she had never truly yielded to the darkness.
Without that Yu Lingye, who had struggled in the mud until the very last moment and refused to close her eyes, how could there be the Isolde of today, who had crawled back from hell to play the board?
They were inseparable.
That was her root, the most painful yet cleanest piece of flesh and blood in her soul.
Outside the window, the gray mist beat against the glass, and a faint creak of wooden beams echoed from deep within the castle.
Isolde let out a self-deprecating laugh.
She could have actually chosen Meng Yinyin.
That would be safer, more logical, and more fitting for a mage appearing near the Holy Court.
But if even she despised her own weak self, then in this cold world, the girl who died in the tide of serpents would truly rot forever in the mud, known to no one.
In her past life, Yu Lingye had not obtained life-saving skills, had not received dignity, and had not finished her journey. Why couldn't she start over?
At this moment, her hesitation dissolved.
The Witch's coldness and Yu Lingye's obsession perfectly fused in the darkness. Flickering in the depths of her eyes was still that soul spark that had never changed, refusing to yield to fate.
“I choose you.”
Isolde raised her hand, gently yet firmly touching that frail shadow.
In the darkness, the shadow belonging to Yu Lingye looked up.
In the next instant, gray misty light rose from beneath Isolde's feet, creeping inch by inch over her skirt, waist, shoulders, and neck.
Her elaborate black dress faded away, and her skin, pale to the point of being nearly translucent, gradually took on the healthy flush of an ordinary person. Her excessively long black hair shortened, draping over her shoulders, and her features slowly turned average and delicate.
Appearing in the mirror was a young woman around twenty years old.
She was not beautiful enough, nor was she eye-catching enough.
But she was alive.
Isolde raised her hand and touched the mirror.
As her fingertips pressed against the cold cracks, she suddenly smiled.
“Not bad. Looks much cleaner and more pleasing than in my past life.”
But appearance alone was not enough.
She closed her eyes and slowly drew out the traces of the mage class analyzed from Meng Yinyin's soul.
A faint thread of white light rose from her ordinary, slightly calloused palm.
She kept the light-attribute spell very shallow. It was not as pure as that of a true Holy Court priest, nor did it carry the chilling cold of the castle's dark arts. It was closer to a spell a low-tier wandering mage would use—limited in purity and limited in lethality.
Everything was just right.
She precisely controlled her power, overlaying the Witch's mana circuits with the holy nature of the unicorn.
At this moment, even if a high-ranking inquisitor of the Holy Court stood before her and inspected her closely, they would only perceive her as an ordinary human mage with a bit of foundation. They would never associate her with the terrifying Witch who toyed with souls in the castle.
Everything was ready.
Isolde changed into a short gray cloak, wearing a lightweight, slightly faded mage robe underneath. Hanging from her waist were two ordinary low-grade potion bottles and an inconspicuous dagger.
Finally, she picked up the teleportation stones from the long table.
As the cold stones pressed against her palm, the gray-blue mist inside trembled slightly, reflecting her current appearance.
The Yu Lingye in the mirror was looking at her, and she was looking at the Yu Lingye in the mirror.
“Let's go,” she said to herself.
In the next second, her fingers suddenly tightened, violently crushing the teleportation stone.
The instant the gray-blue light erupted like a storm, all the candle flames in the room bent inward in a bizarre fashion.
Isolde heard the howling of the wind, and then she was entirely swept into the violent spatial turbulence.
Rate on N.U.
