strictlysupreme Chapter 275 : We Are Accomplices
Chapter 275 : We Are Accomplices
"Is that so," Ariel looked at her quietly, her golden pupils filled with faint sadness. "Have you acknowledged your relationship with your father and mother? Does Sophia... know about this?""It was His Majesty Gorman who recognized me first. I've already acknowledged them."
Celitia answered in a low voice. "But I made a request to them—not to publicly reveal my identity, and not to tell Sophia about this matter."
"I thought so. I guessed Sophia didn't know." Ariel sighed softly. "Otherwise, she wouldn't still look so carefree."
Celitia suddenly grabbed Ariel's hand and pleaded: "Please, don't tell Sophia about this, okay?"
"But do you really think hiding this will be a good thing?" Ariel still looked at her sadly. "This is the identity she should accept and the reality she should face."
"But I never intended to compete with her." Celitia shook her head, tightly gripping Ariel's hand. "Just maintaining the status quo is fine. Nothing will change, and everything will continue on its original trajectory."
Ariel didn't think so, but seeing Celitia's stubborn appearance, she couldn't help but hesitate to speak.
"Please, Ariel, this time just consider it me begging you..."
Hearing her plea, like cries of blood, Ariel's heart also began to ache faintly.
The scales wavering in her heart unconsciously tilted toward her.
Finally, Ariel nodded and helplessly gave up her insistence:
"Alright, this is a matter between you all. I have no place to interfere anyway." She hesitated for a moment. "I'll help you keep this secret together."
"Really?" Celitia was overjoyed. "Thank you, Ariel."
Hearing that "thank you," a trace of extremely subtle sweetness arose in Ariel's heart.
She wanted to be relied upon, wanted to become her support.
"So in hiding this from Sophia, we're accomplices now." Celitia continued, "You won't have second thoughts halfway through, will you?"
She was almost frantically trying to pull another person onto the same side.
Ariel was slightly stunned.
Accomplices?
That was quite a novel word.
However, it didn't sound bad.
Gradually, she smiled: "Alright, then we're accomplices from now on. Don't worry, I won't have second thoughts."
Getting Ariel's definitive answer, Celitia finally completely relaxed.
She looked up toward the twinkling stars in the distance.
"Do you think we actually succeeded in that illusion just now?
"If that illusion was some possibility of fate, then in that possibility, could she and I... both obtain the happiness we want?"
Ariel frowned in distress:
"Hmm, I don't know... After all, we didn't see the result before the illusion abruptly ended. But I think, since we cleared it, that means we should have succeeded, right?"
On the distant other side, a man was sitting by a desk, supporting his chin with one hand and dozing with his eyes closed.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes, a thoughtful gleam floating in his gaze.
Casually taking down a notebook from the bookshelf and putting on the gold-framed glasses beside the desk, the man opened the yellowed pages.
Gradually, a faint smile rippled across his lips.
"I knew it. Back then, what should have been a foolproof operation somehow inexplicably failed. Hmm... it can't really be called a failure, just that it didn't completely succeed, not quite as planned.
The record says the transfer formation produced strange disturbances, causing unpredictable randomness, so that in the end, even I don't know whether it succeeded or not—all muddled.
Anyway, Benita wasn't successfully exchanged, causing me to receive a round of criticism and nearly breaking our cooperation.
I see, I see... disturbances of fate. This can't be blamed on me."
The man casually adjusted his glasses, his lips bearing a strange smile as he looked up toward the sky outside the window.
"Could this be... the goddess's will? Interesting, interesting. I love novel things the most. Let there be even more unexpected changes beyond the plan!"
The stars continued to twinkle.
Scattered white light condensed again in the air, forming a new card that floated before Celitia.
They got the completion reward—it seemed this illusion was truly over.
One for Ariel, one for herself.
Perhaps Shanie and Benita would each encounter one as well.
There probably wouldn't be another one, right?
Thinking this, Celitia completely relaxed.
The last trace of power retreated to her chest and disappeared without a trace. The burning mark on her wrist also vanished.
But her physical discomfort didn't lessen at all; instead, it became increasingly intense as that abundant power disappeared.
Celitia felt a fishy sweetness surging in her throat. She could no longer endure it and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
"Cough... cough cough..."
Celitia covered her mouth forcefully, unable to stop her violent coughing, almost as if she would cough up her lungs.
Her legs went weak, her body completely lost strength, and she swayed weakly before falling forward helplessly.
"Lily? What's wrong??"
Seeing Celitia suddenly cough up blood, Ariel was terrified and caught her in one motion, tightly embracing her.
The girl in her arms was cold as ice, trembling slightly without stopping.
"I'm... I'm fine."
Celitia tightly covered her mouth, her head weakly resting in the crook of Ariel's neck as she forced herself to answer.
The blood she coughed up flowed through her fingers, dripping onto Ariel's clothes and staining them with shocking bloodstains.
Ariel was almost furious: "You call this fine?"
Too concerned to scold Celitia, Ariel hurriedly began using healing arts on her.
In this mysterious space with twinkling stars, the healing arts seemed enhanced, the light becoming more dazzling as it enveloped Celitia's entire body.
Gradually, Celitia felt the pain lessen somewhat, and her body regained a little strength.
"It's better now." She said softly.
Ariel asked reproachfully: "What did you do? How did you get hurt like this?"
Celitia smiled bitterly and blamed Dorothy: "It might be from trying to stop Dorothy just now—she probably injured me."
Ariel fell silent, her golden pupils scrutinizing Celitia.
What she didn't say aloud was that earlier, she had distinctly sensed some peculiar and eerie aura from Celitia.
Very similar to the "curse" she carried, but much more intense than a curse.
Was it related to the curse? But why was she unwilling to speak of it?
Was she afraid of being declared a heretic and sent to the stake?
Even though they were already accomplices, she still wasn't willing to completely trust her?
Ariel felt somewhat uncomfortable.
Celitia finally recovered slightly, and supporting herself on Ariel's shoulder, she struggled to reach up and grab the card floating in the air.
"The card... what is it this time?"
Taking hold of the palm-sized card, Celitia carefully examined the text and image on it.
It showed a person hanging upside down by one foot from a cross, hands bound behind them, expression serene, as if contemplating something.
At the very top of the image was the number "XII."
Celitia read the name below: "The Hanged Man."
Like "The High Priestess" card, this was the 12th card of the tarot deck—"The Hanged Man."
Ariel also saw it and frowned tightly: "'The Hanged Man'? This card's meaning doesn't seem very good."
"Perhaps." Celitia didn't mind.
"The Hanged Man" signified "reflection" and "sacrifice."
Hanging upside down, viewing the world from a completely new angle, reflecting on one's actions—this was exactly her current situation.
As for the so-called sacrifice...
When the time came that it was needed, Celitia would not hesitate.
She didn't consider this a bad thing.
"Alright, 'The High Priestess' and 'The Hanged Man', we each got one card. The illusion's trial should be over, and the rune should light up too, right?"
Following Celitia's words, starlight twinkled in the distance, gradually forming into a rune.
In another direction, the previously formed rune hadn't disappeared and was also faintly glowing.
The two runes complemented each other, responding to one another.
White light gradually brightened, covering everything before them.
Their bodies suddenly felt heavy, as if no longer floating in mid-air but falling back to solid ground.
Their feet touched stone bricks, giving them a particularly reassuring feeling.
Celitia opened her eyes and looked around, seeing moss-covered ancient walls, eternal lamps glowing dimly, and collapsed rubble and debris.
After the illusion ended, they had returned to the original hall.
The four people basically maintained their original positions.
Except for Ariel, who rushed over to embrace Celitia, Shanie and Benita still stood on her left and right sides.
Right, there was also Annie.
She had somehow come down from Celitia's shoulder and was lying dizzy in front of them.
Several people's bodies shuddered simultaneously as clarity returned to their eyes.
"Squeak—!!"
The rabbit suddenly let out a miserable cry, jumped up on the spot, and leaped into Celitia's arms.
Celitia instinctively reached out and caught her firmly.
Smoothing Annie's fur, Celitia discovered that Annie also had a card in her mouth.
Celitia took the card and looked at it, finding it was the 1st card "The Magician."
Even Annie got a card—could she have also experienced an illusion?
Really tough on the rabbit...
Celitia handed "The Magician" card back to Annie.
Annie's cry startled the still somewhat confused people awake.
Shanie was the first to speak: "Goddess! I'm finally back!!"
"Yes," Benita nodded with lingering fear. "Did you all encounter strange illusions too?"
"It seems everyone did," Celitia pondered and asked. "Did you clear them?"
"I guess I cleared it." Shanie was super dejected. "I actually encountered an exam illusion. I desperately took test after test after test, and finally finished them all before successfully escaping!"
Celitia found it amusing: "What did you take exams on? Did you pass?"
"Everything—farm work learned at home, techniques taught by teachers, knowledge learned at school… As for whether I passed, probably most of them I failed, otherwise why would I get such a card?"
Shanie showed her card, which was clearly the 8th card "Strength."
"The goddess probably thinks I'm too stupid and can't do anything except fight, so she gave me a 'Strength' card."
Celitia smiled gently: "That's a good card."
Shanie looked around curiously: "Did you all get these mysterious cards too? What cards are they?"
Benita said: "Mine is the 14th card, 'Temperance.'"
Celitia and Ariel didn't hide anything and told Shanie about their cards as well.
"But what use are these cards exactly?" Shanie pondered hard.
"Let's put them away for now." Celitia casually tucked her card away.
The so-called gift of fate.
Perhaps it indicated their future, perhaps someday it would play its proper role.
Celitia wasn't in a hurry about this.
As she put the card in her pocket, Shanie finally noticed that both Celitia's and Ariel's clothes had spots of blood on them.
"Lily, Lady Ariel? What happened to you? Are you injured? Why is there blood on your clothes??" Shanie asked urgently in a string of questions.
"It's nothing serious." Celitia answered casually.
"What do you mean 'nothing serious'?"
Ariel hadn't spoken before, but now with a dark expression, she really couldn't hold back anymore.
"Forehead injury, arm fracture, and who knows what internal injury causing non-stop bleeding, and now you tell me it's nothing serious?"
Celitia was silenced by her scolding and after a long while weakly said: "But you treated me, I really don't have—"
"Shut up, go rest now!"
Seeing she was about to say something contradictory again, Ariel shouted back loudly.
"I said I don't want to hear anymore words like 'enduring it won't kill me'!!"
Celitia sheepishly fell silent, having no choice but to close her mouth and pitifully lower her head.
Really, the Saintess was so fierce... shouldn't she be gentler with patients?
Her gaze inadvertently fell on the stone platform ahead, and Celitia was suddenly stunned.
She remembered when the whirlpool sucked them away, Ariel had casually thrown the golden cup, and Celitia had thought it had rolled off somewhere.
But now, the golden cup was properly embedded in the groove of the stone platform, as if nothing had happened.
Only the deep red wine that had originally been inside was nowhere to be seen.
On the platform's surface, centered on the golden cup, five white runes flickered faintly in a circle around it.
Celitia recognized two of them - the runes she and Ariel had lit up.
Surpass the illusion, light the runes, golden cup ceremony, open the door to the depths...
As if something was attracting her, Celitia unconsciously walked toward the golden cup.
"What are you doing?" Ariel was quick to react and grabbed her hand.
Celitia struggled but couldn't break free, so she turned back to explain to Ariel:
"I suddenly have an idea and want to try it."
Ariel raised her eyebrows, wanting to scold her—she had just agreed to rest, so why was she trying to take risks again?
Considering they were still trapped in this ancient hall, Ariel suppressed her anger and said with a stern face:
"Tell me what idea you have, and I'll execute it."