"Hmm?"
What does that mean?
Faust frowned in confusion:
"The 【Brave One】 has already appeared?"
Helen nodded, her voice flowing like the quiet night, carrying a solemnity akin to a proclamation, completely devoid of the whimpering from just a moment ago:
"Just as the dragon disaster witnessed by the Sanctuary in the past, the spindle of fate has not ceased. The empire's evil dragon has descended upon the mortal world for quite some time, and it is only natural for the 【Brave One】 to appear at this moment. The Sanctuary has already obtained intelligence on him; it is only because the 【Brave One】 still needs to grow that they have not made it public to provide cover."
"Is it really alright to tell me such confidential information?"
Faust had only intended to listen to some internal secrets of the 【Sacred Alliance】, such as the relationships between factions or the military deployment of the coalition, but he never expected to hear news of the 【Brave One】 from Helen's lips.
No, wait, I just probed a little, and you directly revealed your trump card?
"It is fine, because Brother Faust is surely the purest descendant of the holy kings and will eventually be one of our own. How could I hide such news from you?"
Helen shook her head. She no longer wore her eye patch, and her pair of holy, brilliant golden eyes sparkled. According to her, any so-called "blindness cultivation" was inferior to a single step from His Highness the Prince.
It seems the credit still goes to that previous foot-stepping; the nun had been completely won over and would tell Faust everything she knew.
Faust did not stand on ceremony and held his head high, saying: "Then tell me more."
I shall directly issue a master's order.
"Umm..."
Upon seeing Faust's "haughty" demeanor, Helen couldn't help but clutch her lower abdomen, her silver teeth biting her red lips as she said:
"Regarding intelligence on the brave one... actually, I only learned this from my elders; I have not seen any of them in person."
Faust frowned: "What do you mean by 'any of them'?"
Helen: "Because according to the Sanctuary's deductions, to cope with this 【dragon disaster】, the brave ones born are not just one, but many."
Hoh, this is interesting.
Faust had indeed heard Mephistopheles mention that the 【Brave One】, as a tool ordained by the wheel of destiny, was not necessarily unique.
Sometimes, only one brave one is needed to resolve a crisis, but at other times, the wheel of destiny gathers an entire party of brave ones, and dragon-slaying is no exception.
It should be said that for at least half of all dragon disasters, the dragonslayer heroes are plural.
It is just that the most recent dragon-slaying record is too deeply ingrained in people's hearts: the founding emperor of the Radiant Dynasty slew a dragon alone, establishing the continent's power structure for the following centuries.
Therefore, in people's cognition, only the one who truly cuts off the giant dragon's head is acknowledged as a true brave one. As for the others, even if they possess the fate-star and power of a 【Brave One】, they remain merely "quasi-brave ones."
The Prince of Qingxi lowered his eyelids, signaling for Helen to continue with a look.
"Currently, the earliest brave one candidate known to the Sanctuary is the son of an ordinary tenant farmer. Before the age of sixteen, his life was no different from any other village youth: plowing, herding, serving the lord, and dancing with village girls at the harvest festival. That was until the autumn three years ago."
She paused for a moment, as if recalling or organizing the information she had acquired:
"Magical beasts or monstrous beasts would occasionally appear in the forest near his village, harassing the peripheral settlements. In previous years, these were handled by mercenaries hired by the local lord or the kingdom's border guards. But three years ago, an unusually powerful aura of blight spread from deep within the forest. Wherever it passed, vegetation withered, livestock died suddenly, and even a few small villages fell into deathly silence overnight."
"The scouts sent by the lord never returned, and the messengers seeking help from the kingdom failed to return as the roads were blocked by eerie mist. Panic spread along the border. It was then that... the quasi-brave one stood up."
"He didn't even have decent weapons. According to the accounts of surviving villagers and Sanctuary observers who arrived later, he walked alone into the forest shrouded in the blight aura, holding only an old logging axe left behind by his father."
"He went missing in the forest for seven days."
Helen paused and nodded:
"Just when everyone thought he had been buried in the forest, on the morning of the eighth day, the aura of blight that had permeated the border for weeks dissipated suddenly, as if scattered by sunlight. The villagers entered the forest trembling to investigate and found the unconscious quasi-brave one in a completely purified clearing deep within the woods."
"Beside him lay the completely charred remains of what could barely be identified as some kind of giant, decaying tree spirit. And what the quasi-brave one clutched tightly in his hand was no longer that old axe, but a primitive longsword flowing with a faint golden halo. According to preliminary assessments by Sanctuary scholars, the runes on the hilt share similarities with certain relics from the early Age of Gods."
"Relics from the Age of Gods?"
Faust raised an eyebrow, quite interested.
There are distinctions in quality among mystery traits. Any mystery trait can be counted as a treasure, and among them, the relics of the Age of Gods are undoubtedly of the highest tier.
This is because that was the flourishing era after humanity's Golden Age, where the incarnations of gods could even walk among mortals for long periods, bestowing miracles and blessings like wildflowers; one could pick up a divine artifact just by taking a few steps.
And any relic capable of surviving the Great Cataclysm of the Age of Gods is undoubtedly a top-tier specimen; even in the Age of Gods, they were considered supreme treasures.
"Exactly so."
Helen nodded and said:
"After the brave one woke up, his memory of the seven days in the forest was blurred. He only vaguely remembered countless whispers, illusions, and battles, finally pulling this sword from the stone at an altar in an ancient ruin at the core of the forest."
"And this Age of Gods relic, having bound itself to him, displayed incomparable power, causing the wielder's constitution to undergo metamorphosis, his senses to sharpen, and autonomously engraving many Age of Gods spells upon him. Such a powerful Age of Gods relic, even for a farm boy, makes it very, very..."
The nun had some difficulty describing it, so Faust helped her finish:
Purely wheelchair-bound; once you have the style, you can play it.
This is completely the standard equipment for a 【Brave One】; it is truly too classic, possessing a sense of a cheaply written plot.
"After the news spread, the Sanctuary intervened immediately. After a series of tests and inquiries, they confirmed he was a brave one candidate, and subsequently placed the relevant information under strict lockdown to prevent the brave one from encountering mishaps on his path of growth."
After Helen finished speaking, she looked at Faust quietly, seemingly observing his reaction.
His Highness the Prince said flatly: "Is this the only one you know of?"
The nun heard the coldness in the man's words and hurriedly said:
"Besides him, there is also an imperial princess who has been listed as a brave one candidate by the Sanctuary. As for other candidates, I am not quite sure."
Faust nodded, remaining silent for a long time before suddenly asking:
"How does the Sanctuary confirm the identity of a brave one?"
His Highness the Prince had to admit that he was somewhat tempted. Although his "white moonlight" in his heart had always been the 【Overlord】 fate-star, the 【Overlord】 was simply too difficult, so he had to use other fate-stars to pad the way.
The deeds of the empire's founder were an excellent example.
The brave one is hardly such an inconvenient thing?!
Rate on N.U.
