Warren had become the king.
Lin Gui, hiding in the shadows, silently absorbed the words of the vagrant children.
In the end, the one who had ascended to the throne was not Charles, nor Diana, nor even Elvia, who had been quietly developing and preparing to strike at any moment.
Instead, it was Warren, who had shown no interest in the throne from the very beginning?
And he had even launched a purge against the nobles of the other princes' and the Eldest Princess's factions?
Charles and Diana were dead?
In Lin Gui's mind, those images flashed by at high speed.
The corpses he had encountered all along the road.
The Great War that had occurred in the First Ring.
The knights fallen at street corners, the bodies clad in the standard armor of the Carter Royal Capital...
So, those were the results of Warren's purge of the other heirs to the throne?
And was that also why Caleb was hunting down the nobles who had fled?
Lin Gui felt a sense of oddity in his heart.
In any other time, it would not have surprised him even if a bastard child suddenly appeared, surpassed all the popular candidates for the throne, and seized power.
However, this was occurring during the Dark Tide.
Since the birth of the Dark Tide, not a single city-state in its path had ever survived.
Was there any point in fighting over the throne of a kingdom destined for destruction?
The more Lin Gui thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.
It wasn't that the act of Warren ascending to the throne was inherently wrong.
Rather, it was the timing of his ascension.
At the very moment the Dark Tide was about to consume everything.
At the moment when everyone thought this city was doomed.
It was precisely at this time that he launched the purge.
It was precisely at this time that he seized the throne.
It was precisely at this time that his army successfully defended the city.
Suddenly, the voice of Shadow Blade Lynn resonated in his mind.
“How much longer are you going to waste time here?”
There was an obvious tone of impatience in her voice.
“We have no time to delay.”
As a former Peak Epic, Shadow Blade Lynn had ventured deep into the Dark Tide several times; she understood the terrors of the third phase better than Lin Gui.
Once the third phase of the Dark Tide began, millions of demons would lose all reason and transform into machines that knew only slaughter.
At that point, let alone saving someone, it would even be an unknown whether they could make it out alive themselves.
Lin Gui nodded.
No longer delaying, he began to search for Elvia's whereabouts within the Carter Royal Capital with all his might.
He went to every place Elvia might have gone.
The headquarters of the 7-Copper Post Office was empty, with only scattered papers tumbling across the floor.
The hotel where they had stayed together had its doors wide open, and the rooms had been ransacked, clearly looted.
He even visited the secret basement he and Elvia had prepared to dispose of their spoils.
The wealth was still there, but she was not.
Lin Gui even went out of the city to the previous mine.
That was the hideout where they had once avoided pursuit.
It remained completely empty.
During his search for Elvia, Lin Gui was also gathering information.
He asked the refugees hiding in the shacks of the refugee district.
He asked the low-level adventurers in the Adventurer's Guild who had not yet left.
Quite a few people recognized him.
The “Black-Feathered Raven” whose reputation had spread among the refugees.
The kind mage from the 7-Copper Post Office who helped people deliver letters.
They were more than happy to tell him everything they knew.
Based on the information they provided, Lin Gui gradually pieced together what had happened in the Carter Royal Capital after he had left.
The King of Carter had passed away unexpectedly.
Charles and Diana had ignited a bloody struggle for the throne to claim power.
Immediately after, demon riots had broken out, and news of the approaching Dark Tide had arrived.
When the news of Twilight Fortress falling reached the Royal Capital, the order of the city-state completely collapsed.
Just when everyone thought the Carter Royal Capital was finished.
A troop of knights wearing blood-red armor suddenly appeared.
Using extremely forceful methods, they suppressed all the chaos.
Then, Prince Warren made his entrance.
The first thing he did was bloodily slaughter Charles and Diana, along with all the nobles associated with them.
It was a true massacre.
From Stellar Mountain, where the palace was located, to the First Ring, where the nobles gathered, rivers of blood flowed.
And those who had assisted him in completing the purge were precisely those blood-red knights.
Following that, the first phase of the Dark Tide—the full-scale demon riot—had erupted.
Just when everyone thought the Carter Royal Capital was doomed.
Those blood-red knights and a suddenly activated barrier had actually managed to withstand the demons' assault.
The city was held.
It had held on until the second phase.
The Golden Period for the escape from the Dark Tide.
Reasonably speaking, at this time, everyone should have been fleeing for their lives.
But Prince Warren chose this moment to ascend the throne as the King of Carter.
Then he issued an order.
No one was permitted to escape from the Carter Royal Capital.
Regardless of who they were.
The neutral faction, led by Guardian Knight Duke Lister, naturally could not agree to such an absurd command.
Taking with them the nobles and armies willing to follow, they had, just a moment ago, broken through the city gates and rushed out.
Lin Gui thought back to the convoys that had raced past him.
The people being hunted by Caleb.
The corpses fallen on the road.
Everything aligned.
When Lin Gui asked about Elvia, most people shook their heads.
No one had seen any sign of her.
The last time someone had seen her was on the eve of the Dark Tide's arrival.
She had sold all her wealth for grain and clothing, distributing everything among the refugees and commoners.
No one knew why she had done it.
But those who had received her help thanked her from the bottom of their hearts.
At least, before dying, they had been able to eat a full meal.
Following the guidance of the refugees, Lin Gui arrived at the shack area in the lowest depths of the Royal Capital.
It was also the place where Elvia had distributed the food.
This had originally been the filthiest and most desperate corner of the entire city-state.
But now, it exuded an eerie sense of ease.
A few men, so thin they were skin and bones, were squatting at the entrance of a shack.
They held white buns in their hands, chewing on them in large mouthfuls.
Nearby, a woman with hair as disheveled as a straw nest was putting on a silk dress.
The dress clearly did not fit; it looked like a piece of rag on her.
Yet she was smiling very happily, spinning around to show the children nearby.
The children paid her no mind at all; they were clutching entire roast chickens, gnawing on them until their faces were slick with grease.
Walking further in, there were elderly people sitting on broken wooden crates.
They held bowls of thick meat soup, sipping slowly.
There were young people gathered together, passing around a wine skin.
That wine skin was even embroidered with an exquisite noble crest.
Someone was burning a fire, and upon an iron pot set over the flames...
Bacon and sausages obtained from some unknown source were boiling, their aroma drifting far and wide.
Some were distributing clothes, carrying piles of silk and fur into their own shacks.
Everywhere, there were people laughing.
Lin Gui was very familiar with that kind of laugh.
It was the laugh of someone who had been starving and was finally full.
It was the laugh of someone who had been frozen and was finally warm.
It was the relaxed laugh of those who did not have to worry about whether they could open their eyes tomorrow.
But beneath this ease, Lin Gui saw more.
Those who squatted in corners silently gnawing on buns would occasionally let their gazes drift toward the distance.
Those who clutched new clothes held the fabric tightly, as if afraid it would vanish in the next second.
Those who drank soup, wine, or ate meat laughed loudly.
But deep within their eyes, there was a hidden, imperceptible emptiness.
They all knew.
This might be the final meal.
When the Dark Tide truly arrived...
These things given for free, these brief moments of fullness and warmth...
All of it would vanish along with this city.
But at least for now.
In this moment.
They were full, and they were warm.
That was enough.
Lin Gui walked into the depths of the shack district and was quickly recognized.
“The Black-Feathered Raven!”
A young man shouted, and the people around immediately swarmed over.
They were not like those outside who were filled with awe toward Lin Gui.
Instead, it was as if they had met an old acquaintance, each crowding forward to ask a barrage of questions.
“Mage Lord, are you still delivering letters?”
“Do you have anything to eat? I have some here! I'll share with you!”
“Don't push, don't push! Let the Mage Lord have some air!”
Someone stuffed a steaming hot bun into Lin Gui's hand.
Someone handed over a bowl of meat soup.
Lin Gui looked at the things in his hands.
The flour of the bun was very coarse, clearly mixed with bran.
But in the eyes of the refugees, this was already a rare delicacy.
A layer of fat floated atop the meat soup, and the chunks of meat were large and stewed until soft.
He did not refuse.
He sat down on a broken wooden crate, drank a mouthful of soup, and took a bite of the bun.
The people around all smiled.
That kind of smile was not one of sycophancy or awe.
It was simply the plain intimacy of someone being willing to sit with them and eat the same food.
Lin Gui finished silently and returned the bowl to the person nearby.
Then he looked up at the crowd.
“Has anyone seen Princess Elvia?”
“I'm looking for her.”
“I heard she once distributed food here.”
The crowd fell silent for a moment.
A white-haired elder stepped out from the crowd.
The clothes on his body were covered in patch upon patch, washed until they were pale.
But amidst this ground covered in silks and brocades, he seemed somewhat out of place.
He walked in front of Lin Gui and stood still.
“Mage Lord.”
His voice was very hoarse, but steady.
“Princess Elvia has helped us.”
“During those days when the Dark Tide was about to arrive, she exchanged all her money for grain and clothing and distributed them to us.”
“She came personally.”
“She stood right there on that dirt mound, watching us receive the goods, saying nothing.”
The elder pointed to a weed-covered dirt mound not far away.
Lin Gui followed his finger.
There was nothing there.
Only a few clusters of withered grass swaying in the wind.
After looking for a moment, Lin Gui turned back to the elder and asked:
“Then do you know where she went afterward?”
“I've searched the entire Royal Capital, and I haven't been able to find her.”
The elder shook his head.
Lin Gui looked at the other refugees.
The others also looked at him with somewhat apologetic expressions.
“We didn't see.”
“She left that day after giving out the items, and we haven't seen her since.”
Seeing the anxious look in Lin Gui's eyes, the refugees took the initiative to volunteer:
“Mage Lord, don't worry.”
“We'll ask around for you.”
“There are tens of thousands of people living in this refugee district. As long as Princess Elvia is still in the Carter Royal Capital, someone will have seen her.”
A young refugee approached and said:
“Furthermore, Princess Elvia is different from the other princesses and princes.”
“She's come here to us and done good things for us.”
“Most refugees don't know what Charles or Diana look like, but we still recognize that beautiful Princess Elvia.”
Lin Gui looked at them, a complex emotion welling up in his heart.
Once, he had also been one of them.
Squatting at street corners, dizzy with hunger.
Hiding in sewers, stealing the slops thrown out by noble restaurants.
In order to survive, he had crawled into all sorts of places and done all sorts of things.
He was very clear on how this group survived.
They were like rats, hiding in every crack of this city.
Sewers, ruins, abandoned cellars, even gaps in the city walls.
As long as they could hide inside and survive, they would crawl in like cockroaches.
If Elvia truly had hidden herself...
she might be able to evade the search of the knights.
Those high-and-mighty nobles simply did not understand how those at the bottom lived.
But she could not hide from these refugees.
Because, in order to seek survival in the city-state, they were everywhere.
Lin Gui stood up and spoke solemnly to those around him:
“I'm counting on you all.”
“If you find her, or have any news regarding her, please tell me.”
“I'll be nearby; I won't go far.”
The refugees nodded one after another.
“Don't worry, Mage Lord, we'll go and ask right now.”
“You've helped us so many times; this little task is nothing.”
“Everyone, move out! Go and ask every household if they've seen Princess Elvia!”
The crowd dispersed, surging toward the depths of the shack district.
Lin Gui stood in place, watching their figures.
Those thin figures wearing tattered clothes ducked into narrow alleys.
They vanished into corners that normal people would never even notice.
Lin Gui sighed.
If he couldn't find Elvia today, then he would have to leave.
Even though the distance was great, he could still hear the sound of a massive number of demons migrating in the distance.
Since the start of the second phase, three days had already passed.
From now on, for every day that went by, the risk would continuously increase.
Traveling from the Carter Royal Capital until he escaped the Dark Tide's impact zone would also take a significant amount of time.
Lin Gui simply couldn't afford to delay.
His previous efforts in searching had ultimately come up empty.
Lin Gui thought that this time, even with the power of the refugees mobilized, it would take quite a bit of time.
It might even be that there would ultimately be no result.
But what Lin Gui did not expect was that not long after he had left the shacks...
News that Elvia had been found was brought to him.
“Mage Lord! We found her! We found Princess Elvia!”
Lin Gui was stunned.
He knew the area covered by the refugees was vast, but wasn't this a bit too fast?
Was the efficiency really this high?
A few vagrant children, panting heavily with excitement in their eyes, spoke all at once:
“She's over there! I'll take you there!”
“It was Uncle Aman who said he saw Princess Elvia in the West District!”
“Yes, Aunt Luman said so too!”
Lin Gui did not delay, following them immediately.
Led by the vagrant children, he passed through one cluster after another of low, dilapidated shacks.
He passed through narrow alleys piled high with trash.
He passed through ditches that emitted foul odors.
Finally, they arrived at a place that Lin Gui was very familiar with.
When he saw the destination, Lin Gui's first reaction was that this was a trap.
The refugees had deceived him.
Because the place where the refugees said they had seen Elvia was Caleb's antique shop.
That old shop, hidden deep within the refugee district, looked dilapidated and had very few visitors.
How could Elvia possibly be hiding here?
Outside, Warren was purging his blood relatives, and Caleb was the one supporting Warren from behind.
How could she have walked right into the trap and hidden here?
However, the feedback from his magic perception told him something else.
Within the shop, there was a single presence.
A High-tier High Rank presence.
The frequency of the battle force fluctuations was something Lin Gui was all too familiar with.
It was Elvia.
But besides her, there was another person.
Existing silently in the depths of the shop, without emitting any hostility, yet also without any intention of concealment.
They just existed there, like a silent monolith.
Suddenly, the voice of Shadow Blade Lynn resonated in his mind.
Rarely, it carried a solemn tone.
“Be careful.”
“The fellow inside...”
“...possesses strength at least equal to my own.”
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