Chapter 146 Tutoring_1

Chapter 146: Chapter 146 Tutoring_1

"You’re so stubborn... are you doing this to avenge Presia, or are you trying to provoke the heretics’ Inquisition of the Autonomous State and force Abigail to integrate the witch gathering?" Qiqimora looked into Vila’s eyes and asked.

"Think what you will, Abigail could have made our situation better, but she didn’t. Since she’s unwilling, I’ll fight for it myself!" Vila insisted. "You should help me, too."

"I don’t like doing things that aren’t profitable, and killing Aiden Galahad doesn’t benefit me." Qiqimora flatly refused.

"I don’t need you to kill anyone, you just have to help me scout out that prison, that should be easy for you, right?" Vila tried to persuade her. "He’s now holed up in that prison and won’t come out, and the barriers there are tricky, I want a map of that place."

"Holed up in the prison and not coming out? No wonder you’re so frantic..." Qiqimora laughed out. "Alright then, I’ll go take a look, if I have the chance, I might even scout it out for you."

"Don’t stir up the grass and startle the snake," Vila reminded her.

"Don’t worry about that, but..." Qiqimora raised her hand and pointed at the iron bucket in the corner, "are you sure you want to use that thing?"

"I should have used it a long time ago, had I done so from the start, Aiden Galahad would have been dead already." Vila said through clenched teeth.

"But that’s not yours." Qiqimora reminded her.

"I made that thing..." Vila tried to retort.

"But Abigail is the one who gave it life," Qiqimora interrupted her, "what if something goes wrong, how will you explain it?"

"I’ll take responsibility," Vila said impatiently, waving her hand away.

"You really are like a cornered dog jumping over the wall," Qiqimora shook her head. "Besides, it’s not just the Inquisition that’s after you now, the city’s mounted police are patrolling everywhere looking for you... I say, you’d better leave this city as soon as possible."

"Shut up!" Vila replied coldly.

"To be honest, starting a war with both ’Black Sheep’ and the Autonomous State at the same time is not a wise move. According to my investigation, ’Black Sheep’ have also started to act in the Autonomous State. If we can get the local heretics’ Inquisition to fight among themselves, that would be the best situation for us, but the way you’re going about it now..."

Qiqimora wanted to say something more, but Vila interrupted her, "Enough, the ’Black Sheep’ is Abigail’s own problem to begin with, I don’t need to consider her perspective in everything!"

"It seems I can’t persuade you," Qiqimora sighed and gave up.

"Don’t forget what you just promised me!"

"Shall I get going now?" Qiqimora resignedly turned and walked towards the basement entrance. "Just don’t get caught by the Inquisition before I get back."

"I won’t use those useless puppets anymore, they won’t find me if I stay here. But you, make sure you aren’t seen when you go out."

"Relax, no one in this city can see me," Qiqimora chuckled, stepping up the stairs.

The entrance to the basement had a heavily locked cover plate, which was still securely locked now. But Qiqimora just passed straight through the cover plate and out, like a ghost without a physical form.

At that moment, an ancient sound emerged from the iron cauldron, akin to a low growl, yet the timbre was crisp like the clashing of metals.

Vila bent down to pick up the cast iron crucible from the ground and casually tossed it toward the iron cauldron.

A shadow flashed by, akin to a toad’s tongue snatching a flying insect, grabbing the crucible mid-air and then yanking it into the cauldron, where the sound of chewing suddenly rose.

...

Another deep night at the Rose Iron Prison, in the underground cell, Aiden was playing Flying Chess with Melifilia.

"The frequency of your visits has been increasing lately, which I find comforting," Melifilia controlled the dice with her thoughts, rolling a six.

"You’re not even trying to hide your manipulation of the dice anymore..." Aiden watched as she moved all her pieces out of the starting zone.

"I used to try to influence the outcomes too, just not as earnestly as now. There’s no real enjoyment in holding back when playing," Melifilia pondered, "If you insist on random chance for both sides, you can roll the dice for me."

After a brief moment of thought, Aiden shook his head, "No, then it would just be like playing chess with myself, wouldn’t it?"

That Melifilia could control the outcome of a dice roll was considered a skill and did not violate any rules. He lost to Melifilia simply because he was not good enough; to have her go easy on him would strip the game of its meaning.

"So, what do you want to ask about today?" Melifilia inquired, bringing up the main topic.

"I want to know if there’s a way to make the Divine Words work without causing mental contamination for those who hear them," Aiden went straight to the point as well.

In the past few days, he had been holed up in the cell, intermittently studying the effects of the "Return" Divine Decree, during which he realized something crucial: that using Divine Words in the presence of others posed a risk.

Ordinary people, upon hearing Divine Words, would experience acute mental contamination, which severely disrupted their rationality. If their spirits were not intervened with in time, or if they didn’t adapt to the Divine Words using their own expression, the consequences could be dire—either suicide or complete loss of sanity, like the "madman Halo."

When he first used the Divine Words on Presia, there happened to be an investigator from the Heresy Tribunal present. Fortunately, due to Presia’s strategy at the time, he had launched a "Demonic Roar" at that sister, which knocked her unconscious.

Such luck was not always guaranteed.

But Melifilia chuckled upon hearing his question, "Are you actually worried about this? Don’t worry, normally, using the Decrees won’t oppress mortals mentally. The reason it happens when you use Divine Words is simply because you haven’t fully adapted to them and can’t differentiate between ’teaching’ and ’using’ them."

"Teaching?" Aiden was momentarily taken aback.

"Divine Decrees only forcefully enter a mortal’s consciousness and suppress their minds during ’teaching.’ Divine Words are unlike human language; they cannot be recorded with text directly. They can only be disseminated through ’teaching’ and ’inheritance,’" Melifilia explained to him.

"Cannot be recorded with text? That doesn’t make sense," Aiden challenged, "Although normal people can’t produce such sounds, their ears can discern them. Can’t you just use specific symbols to correlate with each phoneme?"

"Sounds recorded that way are meaningless; they are just noise. Have you forgotten what I’ve told you before? Like divinity, Decrees need a vessel," Melifilia sighed, seemingly pitying her obtuse student, "It’s time for your lesson once again."