My dear witch, please turn evil according to the script!

Chapter 137 A Sudden and Mysterious Background

In the mountains beside the Thorn Forest, the Chaos Brotherhood's Shadow Guard squad is resting.

The commander of the sword guards, or rather the newly appointed bishop Cassius who had not yet received a personal title, was leaning on his sword with a dark expression.

He did not expect things to develop in such an uncontrollable direction.

He also realized something.

The fact that Roland wasn't killed isn't because Slo is useless; it's just that this little bastard's methods are far too outrageous.

My assassination attempt, carried out by a ninth-ring warrior, failed!
It was fine if I didn't succeed, but as soon as I started to circulate my magic, I felt intense pain coming from the source inside my body!

If he hadn't gritted his teeth and held firm to avoid being exposed, hadn't reached an agreement with the prototype of the Demon King's Hand beforehand, and hadn't been wearing this dragon scale armor... he probably would have been captured by that elf back then!
Even now, Cassius's own internal energy source is still unable to function smoothly.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have used a sneak attack to carry out the decapitation strike.

That way, they wouldn't be chased around by those ten paladins.

After all, in his current state, he truly has no chance of winning against a complete squad of paladins.

Although his own Shadow Guard squad was already an elite force within the Chaos Brotherhood.

But it's unlikely that they can stop those paladins.

After all, high-ranking paladins are considered top-tier combatants even within the entire Holy See!
Ultimately, if the Chaos Brotherhood truly had the ability to confront the Holy See head-on, they wouldn't need to hide in the shadows.

They should just come out and do things openly and honestly.

There's no need to hide like this.

The current situation has exceeded Cassius's expectations.

He never imagined that the army of familiars created by those two prototype machines would be completely wiped out in an instant!
The battle even culminated in a small magical storm that completely destroyed Cassius's previously favorable situation!
Even disregarding Kefas, who came from the capital, and Frum, who returned, these two ninth-ring legends.

There are now at least five powerful individuals in the city who have reached the eighth-ring hero rank.

Three paladins of the Papacy, one mage of the Academy, and one commander of the Royal Guard.

If we include the two giant machines they learned to operate, the threat is obviously even greater.

Not to mention the city's garrison has at least doubled in number and countless heavy weapons...

The only saving grace is that storming a city was never his goal, nor was it even the goal of the prototype of the Demon King's Hand.

His goal was to kill Roland, to awaken the divine child, or to take him away.

The other side's goal was to create chaos, buy time for their companions to escape, and incidentally obtain the demonic altar waste from Blackthorn Territory.

The reason those two prototypes agreed to cooperate with Cassius was because Cassius promised to provide them with the materials for casting spells, allowing them to bring the other prototypes out of the spatial turbulence.

However, the enemy now has another target: to reclaim the gauntlet that Roland took away.

This is also why those hollow armors were willing to continue cooperating with Cassius.

After all, each collaboration comes with its own price.

However, at present, the other party does need Cassius's help.

With these prototypes alone, they had no chance of wresting the gauntlet back from Roland.

Although this sounded absurd to Cassius.

After all, he himself dared not say that he could deal with a prototype machine; he could only say that he was confident of escaping unscathed.

However, the other party instructed him to retrieve the gauntlet. They said that once they saw the gauntlet, they would continue to use spatial teleportation to help Cassius move and escape.

But the biggest difference between Cassius and Slo is... he's not stupid.

Ever since he and the prototype planned that train attack and Roland escaped unharmed, he knew that the best chance had passed.

Assassination is all about surprise.

You have the highest chance of success when the other party is completely unprepared.

Not to mention that Cassius's target is Roland.

A mage with numerous methods, even more ways to protect himself, and who is always accompanied by a ninth-ring legendary mage...

The success rate of an assassination attempt is obviously not very high if the target is already aware of it.

The best opportunity to assassinate Roland is when he is not accompanied by any powerful figures.

Cassius was quite confident about this.

He refused to believe that Fram could stay by Roland's side every moment!

He didn't believe that every time Roland was assassinated, he had a ninth-ring expert by his side to buy time and cover for him.

With patience and waiting, opportunities will always arise.

He's not a madman like Sloan; he knows how to wait for the right moment to act.

only……

This matter must not be known to the high priest.

At least until I've completed any of my tasks, I can't let that person know.

Since the plan to kill Roland has fallen through for the time being, he should focus on another task.

"A sacred relic... This quest is quite troublesome."

The thought of the sacred relic he had to retrieve gave Cassius a headache.

Although Cassius, who was also a veteran of the Brotherhood, had seen that relic before.

But the sacred object disappeared without a trace after that divine descent ceremony thirty years ago.

From then on, they lost their way of communicating with the gods.

The will of the gods can only be known through vague and random divine revelations and ramblings.

For thirty years, the Brotherhood has been striving to recover the sacred artifacts.

However, due to the aftermath of the divine descent ritual, all information related to the sacred object was erased.

Including the memories of these fraternity members.

Even Cassius himself only remembered the existence of the relic, but did not know its true function or appearance.

He only knew that such a thing had once existed.

Even the clues to that shipwreck were only discovered by chance by the Brotherhood sixteen years ago.

They investigated that shipwreck for over a decade, collecting every possible clue, but still came up empty-handed.

Sloe retrieved the more detailed official investigation report from the governor's mansion in Riskan, but found no further clues.

Cassius idly flipped through the files, and unsurprisingly found no clues.

But he was not giving up, so he carefully read through it again.

There was no other way; this was the only useful clue he had.

However, after reviewing it again, he still found nothing.

But he did find a familiar surname in the file.

"Lancelot... Kaul Lancelot?"

"Accident investigators? Report writers?"

"Lancelot... Lancelot... Isn't that Roland's surname?"

Cassius felt like his head was about to explode.

How did I end up being associated with that troublesome brat again?

Cassius turned to the former Sloan members he had taken over: "Give me the investigation report on that brat named Roland."

"Yes, my lord."

His subordinates respectfully handed Cassius the information about Roland.

Cassius took the documents, glanced at them, and then tossed them aside.

"It really is his father..."

"How come we've come full circle back to this kid?"

Cassius had a headache.

The pain in Xiao Yuan's body told him that it was best not to cause trouble for Roland until he was absolutely certain of success.

Otherwise, he might end up like Sloan.

But the clues to the whereabouts of the sacred artifact led back to this kid, which left him speechless.

"Never mind... it's better to play it safe."

"Withdraw from Blackthorn Territory and let that damned cooperation agreement go to hell."

"Next stop, Switzerland."

“Let’s look into Caul’s past.”

……

"Roland, is this diary yours?"

Inside Roland's room in the treehouse, Kalia was curiously examining Roland's desk. The magic train's tracks had become damaged, and the teleportation array within Blackthorn Lord's city was overheating.

Adding to the uncertainty of whether the prototype attack will happen a second time, and other various other reasons.

Fram decided to stay in Blackthorn Territory with Roland for a while longer.

Since Roland is staying here, Kalia and Cellina naturally won't leave either.

So Roland will be staying here for a while.

Since that's the case, some things don't need to be kept in the storage ring all the time.

He placed some odds and ends and the books Roland usually read on the table.

Roland looked at Kalia, who seemed to have recovered quite a bit of energy now, having carried her all the way.

Of course, it's possible that she just ate a bowl of stir-fried noodles that I made for her, which is why she seemed more energetic.

This was one of only two traditional dishes Roland knew besides fried rice before he transmigrated.

The ingredients are simple, the method is not complicated, and the taste is pretty good.

Kalia was very popular with him.

This guy ate the whole pot of noodles in one go.

Looking at the diary in Kalia's hand, Roland explained, "It's my father's."

"I don't have the habit of keeping a diary."

"He stopped writing after he got married; the stories in the book are all from his time as an adventurer."

Roland stood up from his chair, took the diary from Kalia's hand, and laughed: "He wouldn't let me see this before he passed away."

"But it doesn't actually contain anything strange."

"I wonder who he's guarding against."

"But if we're going to keep it a secret, isn't it safest not to write it in the diary?"

Roland chuckled softly, then placed the diary on the table.

However, Kalia quickly picked up the diary again and read it with great interest.

"What are you looking at so intently?"

Roland didn't stop Kalia from reading; he just asked her out of curiosity.

"I'm looking at the part about shipwrecks."

"shipwreck?"

Roland looked puzzled: "There shouldn't be any part about the shipwreck in the diary."

"Look, isn't it right here?"

Kalia was also puzzled and handed the notebook to Roland to look at.

Roland saw nothing.

He could only see Kalia unfold the last page of her diary for him to see.

There was nothing on it; he could only see the cover of the notebook.

Kalia noticed Roland's unusual expression: "You can't see it, can you?"

"No wonder these pages look so unreal... Could it be that these pages don't even exist?"

Roland calmed himself, knowing he might be about to touch upon a secret his father had never told him: "Kalia, can you read it to me?"

"Sure." Kalia didn't seem to care too much, but instead complained, "Why are these few pages of the diary being guarded like this?"

"As if they were afraid of being seen."

"There's nothing to hide."

Kalia then looked at Roland and said, "Get ready, I'm about to begin."

"Ah."

Seeing Roland nod, Kalia also cleared her mouth and then began to recite the date.

"In the name of the Goddess of Abundance, in the name of the God of Truth, in the name of the God of War, your devout followers pray for your protection."

"May your devout believers be protected from external forces."

"May your devout followers be protected from the corruption of curses."

"May your devout believers be protected from evil spirits and demons."

"Great are the gods."

Kalia scratched her head, a little puzzled, as she read aloud: "Why do I have to write a prayer at the beginning of the diary..."

"Continue reading Kalia's name." Roland's expression turned serious.

He knew that his father was not a devout believer at all.

Old Lancelot's attitude towards gods was always that of a general believer: "Since it's free, I might as well believe a little."

But conversely... if even he offered such a prayer, then something extremely terrifying must have happened.

"oh oh."

Urged on by Roland, Kalia continued reading from her diary.

"April 999, 7."

"Today I received a request from the Adventurers' Guild and the Continental History Society to investigate a maritime accident that occurred yesterday."

"A ship named Iris sank in the open sea with no survivors."

"Reading the mission briefing should be a simple task, but I have a bad feeling about it."

"April 999, 7."

"We set off overnight and finally arrived at the crash site around noon today, but the flow of magic here seems a bit strange..."

"April 999, 7."

"Upon returning to port, we completed our investigation into the maritime disaster."

"And it has been compiled into a complete archive."

"The complete facts and reasons have been written down above."

"But strangely... no one knows who wrote this file."

"To be precise, none of the people involved in the investigation had any memory of what happened after they arrived at the sea area."

"It was as if everyone had returned to shore as soon as they came to their senses."

"However... the mission can perhaps be considered complete."

"Everyone tacitly agreed not to mention what happened on the ship to outsiders."

"June 999, 7"

“They’re all dead… Everyone who was involved in the investigation with me that day is dead!”

"No...it's not just that they're dead...it seems like their very existence has vanished!"

"Nobody remembers them. Even the original investigation files, which were supposed to be submitted, only have my signature left..."

"No one remembers that they ever existed, not even their families."

Will I be next?

"June 999, 8"

"My wife suddenly got pregnant, but I couldn't be happy. I felt like... something was wrong."

"June 1000, 5"

"The child was born, and I named him Roland..."

Kalia suddenly stopped reading.

She was a little scared, and looked at Roland, who was also stunned, with slightly panicked eyes.

"October 28, 1000?"

Roland murmured, his heart churning like a raging sea.

In his memory, he should have been born on November 28, 1013.

Even my sixteenth birthday this year couldn't be faked.

Although his father had passed away when he was fifteen, many of his father's friends and neighbors came to wish him a happy birthday on his birthday.

Not to mention that during the first fifteen years of her life when her father was with her, he never showed much abnormality.

Its own growth curve is completely in line with the pattern of a normal child.

But why... in old Lancelot's notes, he was born on May 28, 1000?

Or, am I really the Roland in the diary?

(End of this chapter)