Reincarnated Hero System

Chapter 1293: The Whaijan Sacrifice

[Wasn’t that too harsh, Master? Your words would hurt their pride.]

That was the first question Kayla asked Evan the moment they left the Holt estate, referring to the message he had Idrilla pass on to King Taher when she was eventually questioned about the contents of her conversation with Evan.

"It would. But I’ve got no choice," Evan replied. "I can’t tell anyone who isn’t involved with this plan about it since it’s something I want kept under wraps until the last possible moment.

One wrong person finds out about it, and Ferrid might catch onto what I’m planning with that Fate’s Disciple skill of his."

[Is that so? Well, hopefully they don’t do anything foolish because of how they interpret your words.]

"If they do, then I really would leave them to their fates. Leaving a few souls out of the System Image wouldn’t be hard."

Evan said that casual but terrifying statement as he stepped into his estate in southern Eblor to speak with Triffid and inform him about Idrilla joining their plan.

He then used the World Tree branch to head over to Lios and speak with him, and upon arriving in Lustea, he sensed the presence of the Elven Emperor he had been looking for the previous day.

"Oh, good."

Evan exited the World Tree after speaking with Lios and was about to head straight toward the man’s palace within the Elverston Citadel when Abigail suddenly appeared from the shadow of a statue he was passing by and called out to him.

"Evan! What did you do—? No, just—You need to come with me now."

Evan stopped and turned toward her with a raised eyebrow at her words, which came out in broken fragments, and Abigail took a deep breath to calm herself before speaking again.

"You need to come with me now. It’s important."

"I was just about to go speak with your dad about the Demonic Hand’s next target. I’m pretty damn sure it can’t be more important than that."

He was completely certain that was true; however, Abigail’s next words challenged that belief.

"It is because it concerns your life. The Demonic Hand is trying to kill you."

Evan wasn’t even slightly surprised by what she said, crossing his arms over his chest as he replied, "They’ve been trying to do that for years now. Haven’t had any success there."

"No, damnit. That’s not what I mean!" Abigail snapped back. Clicking her tongue, she glanced around to confirm nobody was nearby before lowering her voice.

"Agnes said they’re planning something BIG and you’re the target!"

Evan’s eyes narrowed at that, and after a soft sigh, he raised his right hand and spoke.

"Kayla. Can you do me a favour?"

[You’ve been sending me away a lot lately. I don’t like it.]

Kayla’s displeasure was obvious in her tone as she materialised in her cat form and looked at Evan with a deadpan expression.

"Sorry about that," Evan said with a smile. "I’ll make it up to you, alright?"

She rolled her eyes silently, and Evan chuckled before continuing. "Please go inform Zaos about what Leoniel and I are planning. Let me hear what Agnes has to say."

[...fine.]

Kayla jumped down from his arm and, in a flash of golden lightning, disappeared toward Zaos’ palace. Evan then turned toward Abigail before saying, "Alright. Let’s go."

He followed her to her house in Jine-Alora, where Agnes was staying, and the moment they arrived, Agnes immediately threw a question at him.

"Evan, what the hell did you do to piss Ferrid off?"

"You’ve gotta be more specific," Evan replied with a shrug. "My mere existence pisses him off."

"I’m talking about recently. Did you do anything during the past few weeks?"

Evan paused for a moment, going over his recent anti-Demonic Hand activities in his mind before arriving at a very obvious conclusion.

"So, destroying the Third Division’s base in Tharvoria pissed him off more than I expected, huh?"

"Third Division? Tharvoria?" Agnes’s expression filled with surprise at the words she heard from Evan.

"When did you do that?"

"About two weeks ago. Leoniel and I fought Kranul in Kudatha."

After hearing Evan’s answer, both Agnes and Abigail stared at him in stunned silence.

"So you two were really responsible for the destruction of the Kudatha mountain range?"

"Yep," Evan admitted, confirming that the suspicions of the Tharvorian Barbarian Chiefs had been correct.

"I see," Agnes muttered. "If it’s that dwarf’s base, then I understand why Ferrid’s trying something now."

"Trying what?" Evan asked, making himself comfortable on a couch at the corner of the room, and Agnes, rising from the bed she had been sitting on, answered after getting to her feet.

"He wants me to use Abby to lure you to a specific location where he has something prepared to deal with you."

"What’s this something?" Evan asked.

Agnes shook her head at the question.

"I’ve got no idea. He didn’t tell me."

She shrugged lightly after speaking, crouching down to put on her sandals and fasten the straps.

"I haven’t bothered hiding how fond of you I am, so he probably considered the possibility that I’d reveal the entire plan to you if he told me about it, which would allow you to prepare countermeasures."

After saying that, she moved her hands to fasten the straps on the other sandal before continuing, "What I do know is that he’s planning to sacrifice a major Fourth Division base in Whaijan to get Abigail to lead you into a trap there."

Evan remained silent after Agnes finished speaking, thinking over her words before releasing a sigh.

"Why the hell would I walk into an obvious trap?—is what I’d like to say, but if I don’t make any moves, Ferrid might become suspicious of you. He has these rare moments of paranoia.

That would be bad since I still need you to feed me insider information."

He leaned back into his seat after speaking, and Abigail then asked, "So you’re saying you want to walk into this trap? One they prepared specifically for you? Your life would genuinely be at risk, you know."

"Wouldn’t be the first time," Evan replied. "And besides, did you forget how strong I am now? I’ve intentionally been hiding my strength so Ferrid miscalculates, so even if he overestimates me, he’d think I’m Level 800 at most.

Whatever can kill a Level 800 probably wouldn’t even scratch me, so I’m not too worried."

"It’s still risky," Agnes said, raising her hands to tie up her hair.

"I know. So I won’t go alone," Evan replied before turning toward Abigail. "I’ll take your dad along. I’ll call Leoniel too, since his presence would make the Demonic Hand hold back."

"Huh? Marquis Franco? Why would his presence make them hold back?" Abigail asked, naturally confused since she knew nothing about Leoniel’s identity as the Great Basilisk of Isolonian Legend.

Agnes, on the other hand, already knew this, having seen the man’s soul and its true appearance, as well as hearing about the ’Basilisk’s Stone Festival’ from Cellica.

"I see what you’re trying to do. He’s a valuable target to them, so they’d be worried about injuring him and making him incapable of fulfilling his role in their plans."

She reached the conclusion behind Evan’s intentions and took a step forward, only to stumble lightly. Abigail immediately rushed over and caught her before she could fall backwards, and after noticing how weak she seemed, Evan appraised her.

"Spiritual damage and anaemia? What the hell did you do?"

Agnes lightly scratched her hair with a somewhat embarrassed expression as she muttered, "I had an idea to make my remote homunculi control more efficient, but the practical application didn’t go well."

Abigail sighed in exasperation after hearing Agnes’ explanation, her expression making it very clear just how tired she was of Agnes pulling stunts like this.

"Experimenting with your soul? You’re pretty bold," Evan said, lightly shaking his head.

"Oh well, you’ve got Anima, so you’ll be fine."

The Soul-Empowerment skill Evan possessed, Anima, was something he had mimicked from Agnes, and even when setting aside the 100% Mimicked Skill effectiveness granted by his Mystic Eye Stage 6, the skill was still more than powerful enough for him to be certain she would recover by the time the month passed.

"Anyway, back to the Demonic Hand’s trap," he said, bringing the topic back on track. "I’ll go get Zaos to join me in dismantling it. Is there anything else I need to know?"

He directed the question at Agnes, who shook her head before replying, "I’ll try speaking with Cellica and see if I can get any information on the place they’re trying to lure you to, but Evan..."

Agnes trailed off there, pressing her lips together lightly before exhaling and continuing.

"Be careful. Whatever Ferrid is planning, I fear Rosaline might be involved."

"..."

Evan was silent at this warning of hers, which was filled with genuine concern for his well-being. The mention of ’Rosaline Keasatra’, the Second Finger of the Demonic Hand, raised the scale of whatever Ferrid was planning, and he took a moment to consider the possibility of Ferrid saying ’fuck it all’ and using a Command Mark to send Rosaline after him.

’It’s low... but it’s definitely not zero.’

"Okay. Thanks for the information," he said, rising from his seat and summoning the World Tree Branch Lios had given him.

He used it to teleport to Lustea and make his way to Zaos’ palace, where Kayla was, arriving to find the Great Spirit in her adult humanoid form sitting with her legs crossed, looking down at another woman kneeling at her feet, while Zaos and another high-elven woman watched in visible shock and confusion.

"Um, Kayla, can you explain what’s going on here?" Evan asked, and at that, Kayla lifted her gaze from the kneeling woman on the floor before turning toward him.

[I told her to bring her spirits to join your plan for this Isolon country, and she refused, saying she has something important to do.]

Evan glanced back at the woman kneeling on the floor, who was clearly a spirit, and after appraising her, his suspicions were more or less confirmed.

He looked toward the other elf in the room, the Elven Empress Siora, before returning his attention to the spirit on the floor, the Great Wind Spirit Sylph.

"If you want to bring in any spirits, try Undine or Gnome. Sylph is actually busy with an important task given to her by Artemisia, so she can’t help you even if she wanted to."

The moment Evan said that, Sylph’s eyes widened and she snapped her gaze upward, staring at him in shock as she muttered, [How do you...?]

Clearly, she wanted to know how Evan knew about the assignment Artemisia had given her, and Evan replied without hesitation.

"Because I’m the Hero Artemisia chose. That’s why I know. So please..." He reached out, took her by the shoulder, helped her to her feet, and then continued, "Head back north and make sure absolutely everyone stays away from that forest, especially the Demonic Hand."

"Wait, wait, just what is going on here?" Siora asked in confusion.

At that, Evan turned toward her and greeted her politely. "Good afternoon, Your Majesty. I certainly wouldn’t have liked our first meeting to be this dramatic, but circumstances aren’t exactly within my control."

"What forest are you talking about her guarding and keeping people away from?" Zaos spoke right after Evan, far more concerned about that particular piece of information.

Hearing the question, Evan took a deep breath and began to speak.

"y̴̮͕̩̞̻̻͜͜͠k̷̻͇̖͉̞̭̖̍̄̄͜͝c̸̛̼̜̰͛̓͗̀̓̿͂ọ̵̱̥̍̓̈́̚͘͝w̶̡̢͎͌̏̈́̉̒̊̚͜ŕ̵̟̪͍̜̰͙̠̒͠͠e̶̢͚̤̤̻̝̠̒͋ͅḅ̷̥̭͔̼̰̮̝͒̓̾̏̃̽̚͝b̵̨̦̮̰̽̆̌̈́̈́͐̿̀ǎ̶̮̜̼̙̂͒̓̌̕J̴̧͇͙̝̺̆̑͝ ̵̢͎̤̝̽̓̑̉̕g̸̡͕͓̠͗̑͒̍̏̌̆͝ṅ̷̡͉̩̥̘̚͘͝͝ì̷̱̲͉̭̺͙̜͔̆K̴̛̲͖̲͔̠̥̲͆̐͠͝͠ ̴̧̠̳̈́͐͒͛̿ñ̶̛̼͆͋̾̔o̵̻̩̙͆m̵̭̳̺͌̊̄̑̆̅͌̕é̸̪̟̲͔͔̣̟͑D̸̞̣̄."

What reached the ears of the two elves, however, was only distorted static that made them both frown.

Kayla, on the other hand, who had clearly heard what Evan had said, blinked in faint surprise. [Oh, so that’s where she put him. I see.]

She immediately understood everything from that alone.

Seeing this, Zaos’s brows furrowed lightly before he muttered, "The Law of Causality... just what the hell is in that forest?"