Chapter 361: Legend: Boy Who Survived the Great Calamity
Chapter 361: Chapter 361: Legend: Boy Who Survived the Great Calamity
But she honestly had no idea how to win this war for "love."
’When facing a difficult situation, do your best to rally whatever forces you can. Once you’ve joined together to defeat the primary enemy, you can turn back and, one by one, settle the score with your former allies.’
Sister Wang’s cunning advice once again popped into her head at just the right moment.
At that moment, the story from *Midnight Rose* suddenly came to Elvira’s mind.
’In that story, the one with Lance was the Snow Lady, wasn’t it?’
She was suddenly inspired.
"It’s getting late, and we have to attend the funeral tomorrow. We should get some rest."
Elvira stood up and straightened her skirt.
Everything that had happened tonight... it was too much to process.
She needed to be alone for a while, to go back and sort through her jumbled thoughts and draw up a new "plan of attack."
She walked to the wooden door of the reception room.
Elvira placed her hand lightly on the handle, but didn’t immediately push it open.
She still felt a little uneasy.
’Her actions tonight were basically a declaration of war on Cecilia, weren’t they?’
’Would Cecilia... still see her as a friend, like she used to?’
For Elvira, who had grown up in the Royal Family,
love, friendship, and family,
were all things she cherished deep in her heart and could never bear to lose.
’Silly little sister, your big sister will take good care of you~’
’It feels like my sister is mocking me. Or is that just my imagination?’
"When you go to sleep tonight, remember to close the window and cover up with a blanket."
"The night air in White River City can be quite cold."
"See you tomorrow~"
Cecilia’s voice came from behind her.
Elvira froze. A small smile crept onto her lips.
She turned back one last time and looked at Cecilia sitting on the sofa.
When she saw her smiling and nodding, just like she always had,
Elvira’s heart finally felt a little better.
"Yes, see you tomorrow."
She pushed open the door and walked out quickly.
As the door closed behind her, the VIP room became quiet once more.
After Elvira left,
the smile on Cecilia’s face slowly faded.
She lowered her head and stared quietly at the teacup on the table, the one Elvira had just used.
She stared at it for a long time.
Finally, she reached out, picked up the cup, and held it in front of her.
In Cecilia’s red pupils, the tea stains remaining on the cup’s surface were clearly reflected.
"It’s still... a little hard to accept."
A pang of jealousy spread through her heart.
From Elvira’s reaction, it was clear she had no intention of giving up on Lance. And her own moment of soft-heartedness at the end was as good as giving her rival permission to compete.
"This is all Lance’s fault!"
Cecilia mentally held a certain someone accountable.
’After we get married, I’ll have to teach Lance a good lesson.’
After all, she knew better than anyone the philandering charm of a Pendragon.
As Cecilia was lost in this whirlwind of insecurity and possessiveness,
her emotions began to spiral slightly out of control.
Fueled by the recent rapid growth of her Magic Tree,
a Spell was unleashed from her hands, completely unbidden.
The teacup in her hand,
bathed in a faint magical light,
instantly began to disintegrate from the rim!
The white porcelain turned into tiny specks of Ether light, slipping through her fingertips like quicksand before dissipating into thin air without a trace.
One Ring Spell: Matter Dissociation.
Like Arcane Dissociation, this was another Secret Technique of the Rosenthal Clan.
What made both spells so terrifying was that their Power scaled with the Caster’s Class.
And this very display
was witnessed in its entirety by Professor Gideon, who had just pushed open the door.
"Th-this is Matter Dissociation?"
If he remembered correctly,
even the exceptionally talented Duke Rosenthal didn’t learn this until after his formal investiture, did he?
"Mm, I got angry and... suddenly I just could."
’Angry? But judging by the light spring in Princess Elvira’s step as she left, they couldn’t have had a fight, could they?’
"Ahem..."
Gideon cleared his throat.
"Cecilia, once the funeral is over, I will immediately begin arranging your formal investiture ceremony."
"At your current pace, we can complete your investiture ahead of schedule."
"That way, you can make it to the festival being held at the Elf Royal Court at the end of the year."
"Mm-hmm, I understand, Professor."
Cecilia collected her thoughts and nodded obediently.
...
The next morning.
Uncharacteristically, White River City was not shrouded in its usual morning fog.
This was because in the middle of the night, the High Tier Casters of the Mage Association
had jointly activated a massive, city-wide Meteorological Technique.
They had forcibly dispersed every cloud above White River City, leaving only a clear, azure sky for the day’s funeral.
On Dawn Square,
the crowd was arranged in a peculiar way.
The innermost circle, the very core of the square, was reserved for the commoners who had fled from the surrounding disaster-stricken towns.
They were the most direct victims of that catastrophe, and among them were people who had been saved by "Lance" at the cost of his own life.
In the outer circle of the square, and on the balconies and rooftops of the surrounding streets,
a dense crowd of local onlookers from White River City had gathered.
As far as the eye could see, the entire square was a sea of people.
And at this moment,
Lance, cloaked and hidden in the crowd, was so mortified he felt like he could have dug a new Underground City with his toes.
"So..."
Lance lowered his voice, asking the tall man beside him through gritted teeth,
"Bazzer is behind all of this?"
Beside him, Felix, also wearing an inconspicuous hat, nodded helplessly.
The other core members of the Silver Hand Guild had gone to the front row as VIPs to meet the Princess.
Viters had been urgently recalled to his military headquarters due to his official duties.
Only Felix, captain of the Golden Lion Cross, was free to wander about.
So, the moment Lance discovered they were actually holding a funeral for him, he sought Felix out.
Only then did he find out the culprit.
It was Bazzer!
"Well, you can’t blame him entirely,"
Felix explained in a low voice.
"During the disaster, he thought you were dead. So, to commemorate you, he stayed up all night writing a brilliant personal biography."
"That biography was picked up by the Campfire Traveler periodical and was widely published throughout the Province."
"Meanwhile, the General Administration Office was dealing with daily riots from refugees due to the severity of the disaster."
"They desperately needed a hero’s story to divert the public’s attention and suppress the negative public opinion."
Felix spread his hands.
"And that’s how this funeral came to be."
As he said this, Felix suddenly felt a sense of relief.
"Luckily, I reacted quickly and made preparations before the official investigation. I insisted to the higher-ups that you relied on a Treasure left behind by the Valentine Clan to barely take the Heroic Spirit Species down with you."
"Otherwise..."
Felix paused here, swallowing the rest of his sentence.
He had wanted to say that without the Treasure as a cover, Lance’s identity as a Red Dragon Descendant would have been completely exposed to all the major powers.
Then, he would have surely been dragged into the storm brewing in the Royal Capital.
But thinking about how Lance, even now, had never actively admitted to possessing the Red Dragon Bloodline,
Felix, being a smart man,
decided to preserve that unspoken understanding between them. Some things are better left unsaid.
"Sigh..."
Lance looked at the sea of people and let out a long sigh.
"I’ll go find him after the funeral."
He would need Bazzer’s help with future Legends, so it wasn’t worth holding a grudge over this.
Besides, Bazzer owed him a huge cut of the profits, and he needed to get that back.
He could also go see Little Lilia, so she wouldn’t keep thinking her big brother was really dead and secretly crying at home.
Moreover, this whole situation could actually be a good thing for him. He was already in enough trouble as it was, and if he were to be exposed now,
it could lead to even bigger problems.
Whether it was his connection to the Faceless Divine Son or the fact that his fate was being manipulated, none of it was suitable for the public eye.
Operating from the shadows was much better.
As Lance was silently contemplating,
perhaps because the funeral was about to begin,
the three Legends that had been converging towards his "Title"
—two of them, in particular—
suddenly began to boil violently, like water thrown into molten magma!
Above each of these two Legends, a gradually sharpening phantom image appeared.
In the phantom image on the left, one could vaguely see a little boy who survived all sorts of misfortunes.
The phantom image on the right, however, was even grander.
In a sea of fire, countless golden sparks circled a roaring phantom of a Giant Dragon.
’Are the Legends finally coalescing?’
The previous night, he had already connected the absurd stories of the little boy he’d been hearing with himself.
Originally, the Underground City incident, with tens of thousands of people spreading the story, should have been just enough to form a single Legend.
But now, with two official giants—the Holy Relics Compilation Institute and the White River City General Administration Office—fanning the flames from behind,
they had compiled so many ridiculous childhood stories for him that it was like he had gotten a Legend born from public opinion for free!
DONG~ DONG~ DONG~
At that very moment,
the Ancient Bronze Bell of the Divine Hall of Terence was struck.
The solemn toll of the bell echoed under the azure sky, announcing the official start of the funeral.
With this chime,
one of the phantom images on his panel, as if stimulated by the grand tolling of the bell, instantly became incredibly solid.
[Legend: Boy Who Survived the Great Calamity]
[Core Concepts: Good Fortune, Nobility]
[Quality: Excellence Level]
[Current Propagation: Level 2 (Scale: Hundreds of thousands)]