After the Lord of the Abyss Awakens - Chapter 23.2

Inpos glanced at the bedroom, unsure if Vassago was purely sleeping or looking for Agares.

Compared to Inpos, Morax’s thoughts were simpler, but sometimes had sudden inspirations, like now.

Morax put a paw to its chin, raised its cat eyes, and pondered. “By the way, Inpos, I have a question for you.”

Inpos turned its head, “Go on.”

Morax stared at it seriously. “Agares is very wise, right?”

Inpos: “Yes, and then? What do you want to ask?”

Morax: “Do you remember what he said that year, the day we left the abyss and dispersed?”

Inpos recalled. Of course it remembered that day, probably the last time all their siblings were together so neatly.

“Of course I remember,” Inpos nodded. “He told us to love each other and not cause trouble everywhere. And well, none of us listened.”

Inpos said this with strange pride, but suddenly its expression changed.

Because thinking carefully, Agares’s advice was too right.

If they had listened to Agares back then, would they need to hide from their father today?

Agares really should have emphasized it more. They had just come out of the abyss, how could they understand history and culture? Only thousands of years later, after blending into the human world, did they realize that even their casual quarrels had become history.

Honestly, if Aelioge hadn’t mentioned it, They wouldn’t have realized how troublesome these “misdeeds” were.

But Inpos thought for a moment and suddenly said, “But Agares is so wise, he must have known we wouldn’t listen to his advice.”

Morax paused, its fur almost standing on end, “He deliberately didn’t explain clearly, didn’t he!”

Meanwhile, at the Imperial military conference.

All the advisors around the round table stopped their discussion and turned to look at the approaching person.

Historian Lady Helen.

As just a historian, Helen would never be able to attend such a high-level military meeting. The people inside were all new pillars of the empire, and a historian’s status was far below theirs.

But she had another identity – the most trusted teacher of the Imperial Eldest Princess.

Who was the Eldest Princess? The second power in the Imperial military, and the actual controller. Empress Anna had handed over military power to the Eldest Princess three years ago. Three months ago, when the Eldest Princess went on an expedition to subspace, military power was temporarily returned to Empress Anna. Once the Eldest Princess returns, she will naturally be the controller of the Imperial military again.

In this sense, “the most trusted teacher of the Eldest Princess” was no ordinary status. Moreover, the Eldest Princess had given Helen extremely high military authority, allowing her to know most intelligence except for state secrets.

Although Helen usually only used this authority to view real historical events and specific historical details.

Why had Lady Helen suddenly come here?

They pondered in their hearts.

Helen stopped, standing at the intersection of light and shadow, and said, “Sarah is coming back soon.”

Everyone’s expressions immediately changed.

The Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Cheshire, immediately stood up.

The Eldest Princess was returning victorious?!

The Eldest Princess’s real name was Sarah Bellius. Those who could directly call her Sarah could be counted on one hand in the entire empire.

Cheshire asked Helen. “Have you made contact with Her Highness?”

It was very difficult to communicate between subspace and the real world, especially since the location of the Eldest Princess’s expedition was quite far, making contact even harder.

Many exploration teams had gone to that location, almost all never returning. Even 90th-level human experts had died there. It was not excessive to rate it as an S-class risk location.

Before the Eldest Princess left, many opposed, but she overruled all objections and finally formed an elite exploration team to set out.

Everyone understood the Eldest Princess’s determination, but she was too important to the empire. They couldn’t stand by and watch her take such risks, even though this was also necessary training on the path to becoming a ruler.

To become a ruler, one couldn’t stay in a greenhouse all their life. One had to risk their life to carve out the true path of a ruler.

But with no intelligence for three months, how could they not be anxious?

In response to Cheshire’s question, Helen answered. “She told me in a dream.”

As was well known, Eldest Princess Sarah Bellius was a student of the Abyss Lord Agares.

Abyss Lord Agares was active in the realm of dreams and was the most skilled in dream magic in this world. As Agares’s student, Sarah naturally knew dream magic as well.

So with this explanation, everyone present understood.

Abyss Lord Agares had many students in different eras, almost all of whom were great figures who influenced human history.

He was fundamentally different from other Abyss Lords, being a symbol of wisdom and virtue, not at all like a demon. It was said that when he first appeared before humans, He took the form of an old man. For a long time, humans didn’t know his identity, until one day he suddenly revealed himself, and humans learned that this greatest scholar of all time was not human.

The shock of the people at that time must have been unimaginable.

However, Abyss Lord Agares had been missing for a long time. Eldest Princess Sarah Bellius was said to be his only student in the past few hundred years.

Cheshire continued to ask. “How was the expedition?”

Helen frowned and said, “Not smooth.”

Everyone’s faces paled, all tense.

The main purpose of the Eldest Princess’s expedition this time was “knowledge”, to obtain knowledge to completely leave behind the steam era and enter a new era.

Not just the Aust Empire, but all human countries were currently striving for this, all wanting to be the first to light up the next science and technology tree. Therefore, they had been frequently venturing into subspace in recent years.

Cheshire continued to ask. “Not smooth…meaning?”

Helen was silent for a moment, recalling as she spoke, “Sarah said that the monsters in subspace have become stronger, and are eyeing the real world covetously. She told us to be extra careful.”

Everyone’s expressions were grave. The Aust Empire had been increasingly attracting subspace monsters recently, and they all knew the reason behind this.

It was because of the “legacy” of the previous generation’s king.

Due to the previous king’s madness, not only was the country ravaged, but even the royal bloodline was permanently “cursed”.

If being a king were an occupation, it would probably be the easiest profession in the world to go mad, whether it was their Aust Empire’s king, or kings of other human countries, or even kings of other races.

To deal with the “legacy” of the previous generation’s king, they had done so much, and still had to continue dealing with it. Otherwise, this country would never know peace.

This was something all citizens knew. Even so, the citizens hadn’t left the Aust Empire, perhaps because living conditions in other countries weren’t necessarily much better.

Helen: “I came only to inform you of this. I don’t know anything else. I’m busy with historiography, so I’ll leave if there’s nothing else.”

Cheshire wanted to ask more, but Helen had finished speaking.

“Oh, right.” Helen suddenly turned back, asking curiously. “Is it true that we’re re-establishing friendly relations with the Continental Human Alliance?”

Cheshire paused, “I don’t know. Foreign affairs are outside our jurisdiction.”

“I see.”

Helen turned away, thinking that whether to renew friendly relations would depend on the Empress’s decision. But the current Continental Human Alliance…

Helen left the General Staff Department, looking up at the distant sky, feeling vaguely uneasy.

The empire had found out that Ji Xinsen was the main reason the Divine Kingdom of Light targeted the Aust Empire, but further reasoning led to the question: what made Ji Xinsen focus on the Aust Empire rather than other countries?

This matter probably wouldn’t be so simple to resolve.

Several people in the empire shared this view.

One of them was Hero Luo Jie.

At this moment, he was fishing by the lake at the Hero Memorial Hall, watching the ripples spread across the water surface, lost in thought.

Meanwhile, in subspace.

Aelioge’s expression grew increasingly grim as he listened to Beelzebub’s words.

“So you suspect it was the gods’ doing, that Father’s fall into the spatial rift wasn’t an accident?”

Aelioge stared at Beelzebub, as if asking if this was really true.

Beelzebub frankly said, “It’s not a fresh line of suspicion, is it? You must have thought of it too, because you have the power of [War], you’re one of the few siblings with a strategic mind.”

Aelioge paused, not expecting this gloomy fellow to compliment him.

“I did think of it. At that time, the abyss was full of uncivilized monsters, humans and heroes were in a community of interests, it was almost impossible for them to go against heroes. So eliminating all possibilities, what’s left must be the only possibility.”

Aelioge’s tone was extremely cold, “I just never knew which god did it.”

Logically, Father at that time shouldn’t have been a threat to the gods, and they weren’t nearly powerful enough to attract the gods’ attention.

To his question, Beelzebub unusually continued, “There are a few possibilities, one is the God of Darkness, one is the God of the Abyss at that time, and one is the God of War.”

These were all quite troublesome gods at the time, and their powers all extended to the abyss. Dealing with beings in the abyss would have been a mere thought for them.

Beelzebub: “We killed and ate the God of the Abyss together, his memories are in our minds. He can be ruled out.”

Aelioge: “The God of Darkness is unlikely. Neither he nor the God of Light were gods who would pay attention to humans.”

Most gods at that time didn’t care about humans at all, just as humans wouldn’t care about ants.

The God of War was honestly unlikely as well. That old god could barely speak, hanging high in the universe, already petrified and ceased thinking.

Aelioge pondered for a moment but couldn’t think of anything else.

Seeing his expression, Beelzebub finally couldn’t help saying, “I’ve told you everything, can you let me see Father now?”

Aelioge paused, turning his gaze to Beelzebub.

Beelzebub: “What? I’ve told you everything, are you going back on your word?”

Before he finished speaking, he involuntarily released magic power. His already pale face grew even paler, veins pulsing on his forehead, visibly at his limit of restraint.

If Aelioge dared to trick him, he might really fight this sibling to the death.

But Aelioge stared at him for a moment, then turned away and said something that stunned him.

“That day wasn’t your fault.”

Beelzebub’s pupils trembled.

How could he not understand which day “that day” referred to?

Aelioge continued. “You wouldn’t harm Father, we all know that. That day, you did your best, but the hidden trouble was beyond your capabilities. Even Baal couldn’t handle it, let alone you who had just been born not long ago.”

“Now there’s no need to be afraid, because we’ve all grown stronger. Nothing can take our Father away from us again.”

“Who would dare? Death.” (TL: or “who would dare, they’re seeking death”?)

This was probably the first time Aelioge had “comforted” a sibling. It came out a bit awkwardly, unclear what change of heart had caused him to act so uncharacteristically.

Beelzebub stared at Him silently, not saying much. “Enough of this, take me to see Father.”

Aelioge looked him up and down, saying, “Before that…”

At this time, it was 5 PM in the afternoon.

Xiu Si continued his magic practice, leaving the antique shop to the two cats to watch, telling them to find him if anyone came.

Xiu Si was pondering the relationship between “imagination” and “worldview” that Ms. Xili had mentioned.

According to Ms. Xili – magic requires powerful imagination, and imagination requires a powerful worldview.

What level was his own worldview? Xiu Si had never thought about this question before. Thinking about it now, he realized this seemingly simple question was actually not simple at all.

Thinking further, he also discovered that each god-created civilization seemed to have its own independent and self-consistent worldview. For example, in the worldview of the Divine Kingdom of Light, everything was based on light; light was the basic element composing the world.

As for human worldviews, different human civilizations had different worldviews.

Even individual worldviews might differ from others within the same civilization.

Xiu Si was thinking about these separately in his mind. It’s said that learning to “separate” is the first step to learning efficient thinking, and the simplest method can lead to the quickest path.

He was unconsciously thinking this way, which was indeed the right path. His magic power and life force almost synchronized, causing a miraculous resonance that made the two cats outside both worried and amazed.

A few minutes later, the resonance state subsided. Xiu Si was exhausted, but his mind was clearer than ever before.

He walked out of the bedroom in an exceptionally good mood, about to announce the good news to his children, but suddenly stopped, looking towards the door.

The door was opened.

A black cat walked in first, followed by a silver tabby bicolor cat.

Xiu Si froze, thinking–what beautiful fur.

Is it…?!!!